Transcripts For SFGTV Ethics Commission 20240712

Anytime that im looking at the labor request for the commission is that the commission exercises the power sparingly, and useds a balancing approach where you balance the need for the labor on the one hand with any danger of unfair advantage or undue influence on the other hand. And in cases where you find that the need for the labor outweighs the danger of impropriety, thats when the waiver is proper. Otherwise, the balance of equities is not there and the waiver is probably inappropriate. So in this particular instance, i do recommend a waiver to be granted along the lines of what was requested and what is requested is that mr. Eske be allowed as he sits on the Arts Commission to continue to engage in compensated advocacy, limited to a specific list of city commissions but not all city commissions and City Employees, but the set of commissions that he interacts with now. And to that i would add that he only be allowed to engage in compensated advocacy for clients of his architecture firm. That was part of the need expressed and i think that would shrink any risk that hed use this as an opportunity to engage in any improper compensated advocacy. So with that in mind i think that the harm is pretty minimal, if the waiver is limited in that way. And i think in terms of the need for the waiver, it would be best if mr. Eske himself and or mr. Heckle speak to that. I think at this point ill turn it back to you, chair ambrose, to recognize them and im not sure which one wants to speak first. I can speak first. Can you hear me . I do, thank you very much, and welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Im the principal and finder of the y studio, a firm based here in San Francisco. I was born in st. Lukes and raised in exselcisor community. And i want to give my strengths to the community. And at the studio we work on project types, including custom homes and office and multifamily development. However, much of our work is dedicated to serving the underserved and the underhoused in our communities, focusing on permanently Affordable Housing for seniors and family and the formerly homeless. I have been fortunate to serve on the Bond Oversight Committee which oversees the bond expenditures by the Unified School District and a board member of the high school where i chair the campus stewardship committee. And a member of the usff Art Department advisory board. I have never been before the Arts Commission but was introduced by a previous member who vacated the position. She suggested that i might be a good fit to lend my personal and professional perspective. After educating to the role of the commission, its responsibility and its time commitments, i agreed to be considered. Earlier this year i was humbled and honored to be selected by mayor london breed. However, unfortunately, the unique experience and professional skills that i bring are in indiscernible and thats the reason thus, the reason that were before you today. As a Small Business owner im occasionally required to interact with the city agencies to discuss the proposed projects for both prftd and nonprofit clients. Additionally, i am sometimes required to present before the city commissions or boards, and with the projects. On occasion i could have another City Employee present the project but most cases it would not be possible or appropriate. Thus, without a waiver i would need to forego offering my professional skills to this Public Service opportunity. I respect the intent of the campaign and the governmental conduct code with serving on this commission and as a licensed california architect and a member of the American Institute of architects and the organization minority architects i have a code of ethics obligations to define my obligations to the public and to inform my conduct with public agencies and public officials. Thank you for your consideration of the request before you today and i am available to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, i appreciate your presentation and standing by. Was the individual from the Mayors Office, did you want to always speak or wait to see if the commissioners have any questions . Im happy to speak now, chair, and also follow up with any questions. All right, their something that you thank we need to hear . Please proceed. Good afternoon, chair ambrose, and members of the commission, im here to present our request for a waiver for mr. Asku. The basic facts were set fort by mr. Askew and the council was that set out the standards here. We believe that mr. Askew is the best candidate for the open architect seat on the Arts Commission, based on his extensive experience and deep local roots and commitment to the public good. As well as his perspective as the leader of a vibrant, upandcoming San Francisco art council. We believe that the waiver is warranted due to his unique suitability, because, frankly, as he explained in the absence of a waiver he would be forced to choose between service to the city and his livelihood. Further, touching on one of the factors, mr. Ford mentioned a waiver is warranted here because without one the citys ability to fill this seat becomes very difficult. And it becomes impaired. The standard as mr. Ford set out also is for both the ability of the city to put forward a qualified nominee, as well as any hardship on the applicants ability to practice his profession. I think that all of the factors here supports the waiver. To be clear, mr. Askew is not a lobbyist, hes not a permit consultant, and we certainly recognize the importance of this particular rule, as well as all of the related ethics laws in the city code. And theres been a lot of discussion today about the citys ongoing efforts to reform and improve those laws and define those laws and we in the Mayors Office strongly support those efforts and we will continue to do everything that we can to cooperate with those efforts. However, we dont think that those concerns are implicated here, but just to go through the factors briefly, in terms of the ability to recruit qualified individuals to this seat, the seat is required under the city charter to be filled by an architect. Its one of two designated architect seats on the Arts Commission. As a result, this is precisely the type of situation that the waiver is designed to entrust. The waiver is built into the code to allow for professionals who are sometimes called upon to interact with other city bodies on behalf of a client, and it gives them that ability within a limited scope to practice their profession while also serving on a different city body. And the issue here is that without a waiver, the pool of available applicants here really narrows greatly. The effect would be to kind of skew the field very much in favor of retired architects or architects from larger practices and theres a tradition among the two seats that one seat may be filled by someone with a larger firm and then someone from a smaller firm. And mr. Askews case, because its an upandcoming type of practice he has a limited staff and hes not going to be able to delegate all of the matters that may come up on behalf of his clients to his staff. And so we think that if the compensated advocacy rule here is overapplied, this will greatly skew the field away from practitioners from such small upandcoming firms. And youll be steered towards retirees, and nonpracticing architects and teachers and so on, and thats not only that also has the effect of skewing the field away from younger and minority appointees, thats not only a bad policy outcome but it also thwarts the requirement that theres a diversity of the San Francisco community. Thats charter section 4. 01a1 dictates that the composition reflects the diversity of the city. The difficulty in filling this position has been borne out in our experience in our Selection Process. We received recommendations from the commissioners for this seat. Its been vacant for nearly a year now. Most of the recommendations we received were, in fact, of retired architects. And we interviewed five people but only mr. Askew had the experience of being a younger architect of color from a smaller dynamic firm. In the essence of a waiver there will be an adverse impact on the Arts Commission. As i said, theyve had one of these architect seats vacant for a long time. They werent able to proceed and then it slows the Selection Process further and they may have difficulty in quorum requirements and will continue to lack that unique perspective of an architect from a smaller firm. Sorry. I think that we have heard from both you and from the candidate. Welcome to the city family. And what i would like to know, because it does take a while to queue up Public Commentary. Mr. Moderate oor, could you look and see moderator, could you see if theres Public Comment on this item because well have to wait whatever, 30 to 90 seconds for those people to appear. So if you can i want to invite Public Comment and im assuming that mr. Heckle you would be able to wrap up your remarks in the next minute so that we dont have a delay. Certainly. Im nearing the end. Thats what i thought. Okay, thank you. Clerk there are currently three people queued up in line for Public Comment on this agenda item. Okay, if you want to complete your remarks and then well take Public Comment. And then to the commissioners. Thank you. Sure. So the other factor to consider in the Ethics Commission regulation says for the commissioner to engage in the absence of a waiver. We have already established that mr. Askew would likely have to step down in the absence of a waiver because he cant delegate readily these matters to other staff. And the other factors that was mentioned, this is a balancing test. And the purpose is to guard against undue influence and favoritism and preferential treatment by a commissioner being able to personally gain through their positions and before other bodies. We dont think that is a danger here regarding the Arts Commission itself, mr. Askew has never had one of his professional matters come before that commission. He would recuse himself as required if one of his clients projects came before the Arts Commission. And the work that he does occasionally appear before other commissions for such as planning, ocii, the board of appeals. Theres really no appreciatabl appreciatableover lap between that and what the Arts Commission does. So we think that the staff has struck the right balance in recommending that the waiver be adopted. And we strongly urge the commission to grant this limited waiver. Thank you very much, thanks to both of you for appearing and presenting and, mr. Moderator, if you could invite the first Public Commenter. Clerk welcome, caller. Caller good afternoon, commissioners. I am ali alba and i want to give feed diagnose back, if you dont mind, please, regarding what i have just heard. The party line by the attorney that works for the Mayors Office. I have heard things in my life and this is one of the funniest that i have ever heard in my life to be honest with you. Hes talking about diversity and talking about vacancy and that we cant find anybody but one person. And let me qualify one item and to be on the record. The gentleman recommended to the appointment i never met in my life. His line of business is completely different than mine. But i remind you on one thing every time that i hear about a waiver it reminds me of joliette at the San Francisco p. U. C. And how they gave her the same treatment because shes the only qualified person. San francisco is a very diverse city. San francisco has a lot of minorities just like this canada, and San Francisco have a lot of other professionals that are not engaged in doing business with the city. I can tell you again from my experience and as i have proven to you earlier today, anytime that there is a commissioner, there is always and if that commissioner has worked with an agency, with the School Districts, i cannot tell you how many commissioners that i know that are in the business of doing construction in School Districts and are actually are commissioners on the same school district. So i urge you, i urge you again in light of everything that we have been hearing about all of the corruption in San Francisco, specifically the School Districts in San Francisco, that do not give waivers to anything. If theres a conflict, that is a conflict. If there is no conflict, let it go. But in this particular case, and, again, i beg the gentleman because im not taking this personal step with him and i have never met him in my life please, do not make any waivers. A conflict is a conflict. Theres no gray. Its either white or black. Thank you. Thank you. I want to be clear though for the record this is not a request for a waiver of a conflict of interest. Which would per se this is a waiver of a rule that we have about the ability of someone who is on a commission to appear on behalf of a client in front of another commission or board or permit. So its not this is not a waiver of, you know, state or local conflict of interest law per se. This is an additional layer of protection that is in the government conduct code visavis the role and responsibility of commissioners. So i do hear the speakers comment but i want to say for the record that is not what the commission is being asked to do, were not waiving a conflict of interest per se. So i do want to ask the next public speaker to comment, please. Clerk welcome, caller. Caller good afternoon, commissioners. My name is ron henry and im here to speak in support of the askews request for a limited waiver. My script actually said good morning, but i know that its been a very long day for you all. I have known yakuh for 11 years, we met through the National Organization of minority architects, noma, which were both active. Im the director of design at hkit architect and our two offices have collaborated on four Affordable Housing projects in San Francisco, including three that replaced dangerous decrepit housing with new highquality homes. Hes a talented architect, and a social justice advocate and a lifelong San Francisco resident who understands and supports his community. I am convinced that hell be an excellent fine Arts Commissioner as he has an astute visual eye, understands well the issues of art and design in the public realm. Hes a wellspoken and thoughtful critic and embodies community concerns. His heritage will enrich the commission and allow it to be more representative of a broader crosssection of San Francisco. As a small firm owner, his personal involvement in the architectural work and public process is critical. He takes a lead role in presentations such as those made to the planning commission. He is a key voice in the office and im sure that you can understand how he is not granted this waiver and serving on the commission would impose a very difficult constraint on him and his office. Finally, i support the waiver because yakuh is yakuh. I know that he would not allow his involvement in the commission to ever benefit his business or personal interest. Hes one of the most honorable persons that i have known, upfront, straightforward and honest. To grant him this waiver allows him to serve on the Arts Commission and to enrich the city and its residents with his expertise. I respectfully ask you to grant this request. Thank you. Mr. Moderator, i believe that you said that theres a third caller on the line . Clerk yes, welcome, calle caller. Hello, caller . Hello, caller, are you still there . Caller . The caller seems to be unresponsive. Hello, caller, youre on the line. Caller, are you still there . Chair ambrose, the caller is unresponsive. All right, i assume that theres no way that you can ping somebody so that they wake up and know that its their turn after six hours of maybe waiting for us to come to them. So go ahead and keep the Public Comment line active to give that person a chance to get back to the phone while i ask the commissioners if they have any questions or comments about this proposal. I need to close Public Comment before i take a motion. Any movement on the Public Comment line . Mr. Moderator, do you see any clerk there is another caller that just joined us. Let me put that caller through. Caller if you would, please. Thank you. If you would, please, thank yo. Clerk hello, caller . Caller hi, commissioners, mark stalman again. I just heard about the Housing Authority which raised some concerns. Were looking at d. B. I. And planning as well and there are edit problems here because having the commission appointment, it is conveyed before a decisionmaking body on entitlement and it conveys the problem when they do this job they have a special guard gold star on their shoulders, that would make their work more salient with the decisionmaking body and that turns into money. Has the nominee or the commissioner had any experience with Rodriguez Santos and done about work with his organization . I will listen on the line. Thank you very much. I want to lets see have we clerk let me try back with that caller that was previously unresponsive. Before we proceed with the Commission Discussion i want to make sure that weve exhausted all of the comments. Clerk welcome, caller. Are you there . Hello, caller, are you there . The caller is still unresponsive, chair. All right, then, im going to actually close Public Comment. And proceed with Commission Discussion. I dont see any hands yet. I do want to im going to give mr. Askew an opportunity for any followon comment that he has. I mean, in my long career in City Government i did have an opportunity to work with the Arts Commission on their various public art projects. I understand their role in reviewing civic building structures, whether its the pump house or the Water Department or, you know, something along the port. I recognize the importance of having somebody who brings a unique and an informed perspective to that discussion. And i hear the report from the Mayors Office and the concern about how we would exclude small architects, people who have hands on on the projects in the community addressing, you know, the myriad of issues that come up in terms of Historic Preservation and neighborhood preservation and context, etc. And i really like the idea of having somebody on the Art Commission who has that integral exposure as opposed to just somebody who works for those who design high rises in hong kong. Not to say that perspective is not also important on our Arts Commission, but i also recognize that you cant meet the charter requirement and be an architect and also be in business and not have to show up at the planning commissioner or the d. B. I. Or a Fire Commission to get a permit. Because if we have problem with somebody on the Art Commission also doing business in the realm of architecture, then we should change the requirement and take amend the charter and not say that somebody in the Art Commission needs to know anything about architecture because those two things, i would argue, are exactly what the waiver is designed to address. This unique circumstance where we want the expertise, we want the insight, and we want to put limits on it. I mean, clearly, youre not going to be able to represent one of your clients who are before the Art Commission or on a matter where the a decision or one of those other bodies is going to affect your personal remuneration on a project. But with all of that said, i would be prepared to move for a granting the waiver in this item. And i would entertain a second. Second. Thank you very much, commissioner smith. And with that, mr. Askew, ill give you a moment if you have anything that you want to add here. If not, im going to call the moderator to call the roll. I dont, i just want to say thank you. Youre welcome, and thank you for agreeing to serve. I wish you well. Those meetings can be pretty intense sometimes. So mr. Flores, if you would please call the roll on the motion which is before the commission moved by chair ambrose and seconded by commissioner smith to approve the waiver request for regarding compensated advocacy restriction for yakuh askew as stated in the in the Commission Meeting. I dont want to recite whatever limitations are. Im assuming theyre memorialized, correct, mr. Ford . Yep, that is correct. Yes, the memo is attached to the agenda item 10 explains exactly which departments and which city staff mr. Askew would be able to engage in compensated advocacy with. Okay, very well then. Mr. Moderator, please call the roll. Clerk thank you, madam chair. I will now call the roll [roll call] commissioner chu, your microphone, please. I was muted. There we go. Okay. My vote is yes, but i wanted to note for the record that at this moment in time and the evolution and development of our city and country, with the black lives matter movement, i think that it is absolutely critical to have people of color in the room, at the table, making decisions about public art in the city of San Francisco. And i just wholeheartedly support this waiver and i want to thank mr. Askew for being willing to serve. Thank you. Clerk well continue the roll call. Vicechair lee. Yes. Commissioner smith. Yes. Chair ambrose. Yes. The five votes in the affirmative and no votes opposed. The motion has been unanimously approved. All right. Thank you very much. And congratulations. As i had mentioned previously, before we take up agenda item 11 which is the staff policy report, were going to take a fiveminute recess. I need to grab some crackers or something so i dont faint. And, anyway, well be back in five minutes for i assume this is you, mr. Ford, who are going to give the staff report. Correct. All right, very good. Look forward to it. See you in five. Clerk we okay, were back in live session now. Chair ambrose, please begin. All right, thank you very much, moderator, were resuming the Ethics Commission meeting and were going to call agenda item which is the discussion of the monthly staff policy report and i guess that we should say the multimonthly staff staff policy report. If any members of the public and if they can offer Public Comment, they should dial in now and enter star, 3, to be added to the Public Comment queue. Mr. Ford, we look forward to your presentation. Thank you. Thank you, chair ambrose. Yes, this report does cover indiscernible you havent heard from us since february. So this i guess comprises four or so months of work, although i will note that as director mentioned i was out for a month and i was doing procurement of p. P. E. Along with john kemp from our office and we were both doing that and tommy mclean from our office was our supervisor, actually, so we had a ethics cohort there. His Operations Division of the e. O. C. So although i didnt put that in the policy report i could talk to you offline about that if you are interested. But as to the report itself, i think that what id like to do is to take it in reverse order here. The report as always is divided into two parts, the first part talks about the policy projects that are ongoing that have been identified in the policy prioritization plan. And the second part talks about all of the other stuff that policy division works on. And since this month i have included the policy prioritization plan for your review, and i think that is probably what youll be more interested in actually talking about, ill talk about that second because it would be a segue into your discussion. And so ill actually start on page 5 of the policy report, under the heading miscellaneous administrative projects. And ill briefly recap those and ill go into the policy projects proper. So a number of items came up over the first half of the year. And put some of the more notable ones here so the first that i discussed is the postelection Public Financing report. So this report is one that the code delivers that they deliver to the board of supervisors and the mayor after each election in which at least one candidate receivinreceives public financi. And its a program that we administer whereby the mayoral candidate can receive public funds to help to run their campaigns. And after one of one or more candidates has made use of this program we deliver basic statistics about the operation of the program to the board and the mayor, that they can understand things like how many candidates got Public Financing, how many received Public Financing, what was the total amount of Public Financing they received. How were the spending limits suggested and the raises. So they can get an overview of the program. This report is separate from the Public Financing review project which was the 18month or so long project that changed many aspects of the program. And this report is also separate from what staff hopes to do some time in the near future which is to go back and to review how those changes actually played out. And to try to assess if we can what effects the review project has on the program. So this report is not that important. This is a fairly by comparison, a narrow report that just seeks to deliver on our statutory obligation to inform the board and the mayor of whats going on with the program year to year. As to the more comprehensive analytical report about the Public Financing review project, you know, obviously weve got a big election this year, but also election that is taking place under some pretty unique circumstances. So well definitely be looking at how the Public Financing program performs in the 2020 elections. But it may require some Additional Data from subsequent elections to get a better idea of how the Program Reforms in a normal election. So youll hear from me in the future for that one and we look forward to doing more of that analytical review down the road. And another item that i have been devoting some attention to is the public advocate ballot measure. This is about a measure that potentially could create if approved by the voters, new elected office called the public advocate that is that has a fairly broad duties and powers, but essentially is designed to root out corruption, fraudulent use of taxpayer money, abuse of public trust, etc. And anyone can make a point to the public advocate, the public advocate would have some investigatory powers in that it would have the ability to make recommendations to the board. There are some crossover elements in the legislation that touches on the Ethics Commission. Which is why ive been looking at it and why i put it here. And in particular i highlighted some language in my report that is contained in this legislation that essentially says that the public advocate can receive complaints arising under the campaign and the governmental conduct code, the code that this department administers and if they do receive such complaints, they have to refer it to our office and to the City Attorney and the district attorney. However, if the public advocate does not approve of how the Ethics Commission handles the complaint, the public advocate could recommend a different resolution of the complaint. Also if the complaint isnt handled in what the public advocate considers to be a reasonable time, the public advocate could intervene. And ultimately the public advocate would have the ability to conduct an independent investigation of the complaint, and to recommend to the board of supervisors and the mayor that the Ethics Commission should handle the complaint differently and can recommend the legislation, the administrative or legislative or budgetary action to the board about that. So i give that to you so that you know about it. I did engage can we interrupt you on that point. I was just looking and just so you know too because we have your written report and the public has your written report, you dont have to read things that you have, you know, quoted and copied into the document. But what i would like to know is where this proposed ballot measure is. It doesnt say whether or not its already qualified for the ballot or if its on in november. And i was just trying to look at the board, it looks like it might still be in rules committee for consideration . Yeah, i believe that is the status of it right now. Okay. So this passed the deadline to qualify for the November Ballot or is it teed up in order to qualify for the November Ballot . I believe that theyre still on track if you have it on the November Ballot. I dont think that has passed yet. Okay. And then, i mean, my understanding is that the commission certainly would be precluded from taking a position on the ballot measure should it be on the ballot. I dont know what the rules are in terms of if were expected to provide comment about measures that affect the Ethics Commission as theyre being considered at the board. Can you enlighten me on that . Have you ever made a presentation that rules about a pending ballot measure on behalf of the Ethics Commission . Yeah, i mean, you highlight a definite concern which is that the Ethics Commission regulates the ballot measure campaign. So, you know, we cannot take a position on a ballot measure. This one is not a ballot measure yet. It is still, you know, in preballot measure form. But, nonetheless, i do avoid taking a position on i would say the supplemental merits of a ballot measure. I dont engage with sponsors of ballot measure legislation as to whether or not its a good idea to have a public advocate. I consider that to be too fundamental to the measure where it would then appear that the Ethics Commission had closed the or posed the measure. However, i will engage and i do engage with the sponsors on what i would call procedural or administrative aspects of it. So, for example, jeff pierson, i did provide feedback to the sponsors about some changes that we thought they should make which was to incorporate the Whistleblower Program into this. So that if an individual participated in a public advocate investigation, that that would be activity that then they could not be retaliated against for engaging in. I dont want to go too far into the substance of the feedback and i wanted to the frame around this particular topic so that we knew where it was in the citys public process. Anyway, ill let you go back to your staff report, thank you for answering my questions. And i do see a hand from commissioner chu because she waved and flagged at me again. Im sorry if you wanted to interject here, please do. Yes, thank you, chair ambrose. I had a question for about the process. And so i understand that it is practice not to take a position on the advisability or the desirability of a ballot measure or potential ballot measure. But the provisions that you just highlighted in terms of investigation, it creates i think some confusion about which entity to go to, if there is a complaint and who investigates and that theres as the commission doesnt engage in a timely fashion, and what is timely. Is it appropriate to engage with the sponsors to provide a little more clarity and clear lines of the responsibility and authority and accountability on these measures Going Forward before it goes to the voters . And if it gets passed and it would become that much more difficult to wed have to go back to the voters to change any of the provisions. This is a not perfect law, they get passed and we all have to live with it after the fact. And we could identify some of the issues and present any kind of indiscernible or difficulties down the road that would be worth doing. So i can tell you that for the feedback that i did provide them, which pertains to the Whistleblower Program, that their response was that they were not interested in amending the legislation. That they would prefer to have any amendments at this point be done through followon legislation. So even if i were to raise this issue, you know, of trying to more clearly describe the nature of the Public Advocates oversight role over the Ethics Commission, i suspect that i would get the same answer from them at this point. Especially since as chair ambrose had highlighted, its getting late in the year here, so theyre probably eager to try to get this thing on the ballot. I think that is why theyre not receptive to recommendations for amendments at this point. Just as a followup to that, can you clarify, pat, for my benefit and fellow commissioners and those listening online, if theres a ballot measure and there are subsequent changes that one wants to be made legislatively afterwards, is the requirement to go back to the voters to do that . Or could the could the board and the Ethics Commission enact legislation by twothirds majority with changes . So correct me if im wrong, Deputy Attorney chen, but i believe that it depends on whether or not the legislation itself has amendment language. So i think that the issue, you know, here is whether or not this ballot measure contains that. Id have to look, although i think that it is able to be amended through regular legislative process since the sponsors are already talking about followon legislation. So unless they misunderstand the nature of this, i think that they will be able to do followon legislation and we do intend at this point to engage with them to get this whistleblower language in. So at that point we could try to also to have them create some more clarity over what is this dynamic between the two offices on investigations. Yes, thank you. And i would actually its the power to amend the legislation is not included in the ballot measure, i would ask and recommend that that be brought to their attention so they could include that Going Forward. Otherwise, their ability to address additional issues will be hamstrung as and it would also encourage them to the more time that you spend thinking through some of the potential issues on the frontend, you can save a lot of headache on the backend. Yes, noted, thank you. I will definitely explore that. Okay, thank you, then. And youre correct, that is exactly it has to be written in there. So if you want to move on and you were going to tell us about the reviews and im just looking at your report and process litigation. I dont know how much detail you were going to go into those before you take us back to the main item but the floor back to you to do that. I think that minimal detail would be fine here. So, yeah, the final items here, the ffpc is engaging in some kind of policy review, there would be rules for the exact scope of that project, it is still getting sorted out. Theyre supposed to have a meeting on monday of their law and policy committee. I believe that has been cancelled at this point. So its still evolving. But they did reach out to our office to seek some information from us about what our experience has been with our local rules. So we provided that feedback to them and well be watching what their process is and participating in any way they would find helpful. Oh, and another development we did not put in this report, but another development from the fppc, is a new regulation that requires that when a Committee Reports a contribution from an l. L. C. That the Committee List the name of the l. L. C. And the name of the individual who is responsible for directing the political contributions from the l. L. C. So thats a rule that we will now be enforcing for our committees. Ive already worked with the engagement and Compliance Division so theyll work that rule into the website. And into the reporting guide next time that comes out. Another legislative update. And then the prof f litigation, its in the ninth circuit. The Attorneys Office is handling this. And we support them in whatever way we can and well, you know, be eager to see what the outcome is and to hear their guidance to us how this is with the rules of the administration of them. Great. Thank you. And thanks to commissioner bush who had, at least to my attention, called the new f. F. C. Rules on l. L. C. Disclosure. Im glad that you were able to quickly reflect that in our local law. So thats thats good to hear. Yes, the p. P. C. Theyre very good about sending updates so i had an email about that regulation update a couple weeks ago and i was able to forward that to our engagement and compliance team. So they do a good job, the f. F. C. Does a good job of notifying us of that. Great. I understand that our rules, not automatically, because obviously someone has to pick it up and move it forward but in our conduct code we recognize the political practices act and we for the most part incorporate that sort of interpretation or application in our rules, although we have additional rules in San Francisco. Is that also your understanding . So this is a situation where state law is applying directly. So the fundamentals of Committee Registration and reporting are created by state law. So the political reform act creates all of the rules that we are administering for when a committee files a 410 to set themselves up, when they file a 460 to report their financial activity and what goes on it. Those are all state laws and were administering the state laws and regulation, and so this is a regulation that applies directly to the local committee that we reghts. Thats good. Thank you for my education requires constant filling in of these. And so i appreciate that. And i will let you go back to your presentation. Thank you. So at this point ill go back to the top and talk about the policy projects on the policy prioritization plan. So at this point, both of the plans that or both of the projects that remain on the plan are complete. So those two projects were first the policy side of the universal Electronic Filing of the form 7007000. So the two policy were to have the meet and confer process with the bargaining units which took a number of months over mostly 2019. And then once that was complete, to write regulations which the Commission Approved in january. And those regulations sat at the board for two months. In march, march 17th, became effective. So those regulations will begin to require efiling january 1st. But as director pell diagnosehas discussed with you, the implementation side of that project is in limbo right now. And so pending some further developments on the budgetary side of things, you know, its not clear when e filing will begin. But for the purposes of the policy division, my participation in the regulatory part is done. So i consider this project to be completed, but obviously, ill be able to support other folks in the office as they work on this. The other project, one that is already mentioned the Public Financing review project. In january, the lead auditor rod hoj and i gave a presentation that thumbs up for all of the staff work done over that 18month project to implement all of the different administrative procedures and all of the materials and the new things on the website to help people with the project and hope that were seeing good effects of that now. But, again, this project is essentially done. So with both of those being finished and this is an appropriate time to bring the prioritization plan before you again. With again kind of an unfortunate caveat which is that with the weird budgetary situation that were in right now, its difficult to commit to a fullfledged project or give you a really clear indication of exactly what we want to do, only because if we really are going to undergo the kind of budget cuts that the Mayors Office is telling us that we need to undergo right now, that theres probably going to be some changes in what were doing right now. Projects will be moved around, and the work that the different staff are doing will probably be shuffled to some extent. So thats why the language in the policy prioritization plan here is somewhat tentative. I try and sketch out what i want to do, what i think that we should do. What i think that is important to do right now. But i do stop short of saying that its what we can do. Because im not 100 sure. So i want to be upfront and transparent that is kind of where i am right now. And actually, on that point, to the executive director, as policy prioritization plan is not an action item, its a priority. And the theory is that were going to wait to see how persuasive we are at the board in august. And then with we and back in september, were going to revisit this with you, with the executive director mr. Ford, and actually have a discussion and an action item to go forward with the new slate of policy prioritization in a pragmatic way when we know actually what resources we have and what challenges are before us. So i want to hear your your suggestions and hopeful thoughts that you have, presuming that we have the resources. And i particularly agree that the first one that you lay out here is of critical importance, but i just wanted to give the commissioner some perspective. Were not going to vote on what pat should be doing today. Were going to wait to see where were at right after the budget and then bring it to the commission in the beginning of september. And to come up with an action plan. Okay . All right. I dont know, im sorry, commissioner bush, you wanted to comment . I know that youre going to be reworking the policy prioritization plan. But my concern is that we only have three Commission Meetings left before the november election. And there are some things that i believe that would be valuable to do in advance of the november election. And which i dont see on the list. For example, i do think that policy change is needed to require permits expediters to be prohibited from making contributions or giving gifts. You know, the issue that weve got now before the before the enforcement agencies. I also think that now im trying to deal with too many screens at one time. I think that election day filing, the commission took this up once before and didnt follow through. A lot of money is spent on election day with get out the vote stuff. And that makes a big difference. It will turn an election. And yet our system as it exists now is that we only report sending until the day before the election. And not on election day. So i think that is something that needs to be taken a look at. And a third thing is the whole question of incompatible activities. You talked about some of the loopholes. But if you look at the departmental and incompatible activities, youll see that there are some built in loopholes like, for example, commissioners in some commissions are allowed to do fundraising for nonprofits that receive funds from their own commission. Well, what does that sound like . Anything that we have just seen . Yes, it does. And so i would like to suggest that when you come back before us, that you slate some of the things in that are very timely before the november election. And those are the permit consultants, disclosure and prohibitions and the Campaign Consultants and the Strategic Advisors and the mailers and electionelection efiling and incompatible activities. Thats my comment. Great. Yeah, i mean, im always glad, you know, to work with any commissioner on, you know, potential projects to put on the plan. I do want to be upfront and manage the expectations right now which is that having any legislation in place and operative before the november election is probably not realistic. Ive never seen legislation go from, you know, conception to operative date in four months which is how far we are out from the election right now. So i dont see that as being feasible, but, yeah, more than happy to work with you and to incorporate those ideas into it sounds like some could be incorporated into the project which im hoping that we will begin shortly, which is a conflict of interest review. It sounded like it was in that realm. I think they would be, but my 20 years of working in the city tells me when the moment is hot to move that it is indeed hot. And you can certainly get something through the board and signed within two months. Things like permits expediters able to make contributions and give gifts is not something that would take a whole lot of debate at the board of supervisors. The chair here, and lets just take that as an example. Certainly, it is something that im assuming that would require action by the commission, action by the board, and then referral back to the commission. Isnt that the way that it works . I mean, that would be an amendment of the of the campaign finance. Right. Well, the for the gift rules. I mean, its not Just Campaign finance, youre talking about gifts to city officials. Its a city code requirement that relates i think to my understanding correctly that if we initiate that, it goes to the board. If the board makes any changes, they send it back. If they dont make any changes then they could put it up for, you know, for the Committee Hearing in two readings. Is that not thats my understanding as well. And theres also yet another option and that is that things get to be too bogged down and the commission with four votes could put that on the ballot themselves. Right. Although, obviously, were going to save that for thing things we think that theres whatever resistance or a need for public engagement. I dont think that were going to get any pushback on this particular frankly, or any of the three things that you brought up. I think that the election day filing is a different question just because of the timing of, you know, the flow im not sure how you solve that technically. But in terms of taking the gift rule, i guess, on a separate note maybe we could work with the City Attorneys office. Because a permanent expediter is an agent of a person who has a matter pending before the city. So im not sure what the Disclosure Requirements are already for an agent of someone that has that pending before the city. If theres not something that we can already tag on to. They have to disclose who their clients are and how much theyre being paid and what offices theyre reaching out to. And they have to report any contributions above 100. But theres nothing about people accepting theyre not i mean, theyre Still Limited to the 50 theres a disclosure after 50, and nothing more than, what is it, 400 now . So they are limited by that basic rule but my question im assuming what you want to do is to make them a restricted source. Just like lobbyists or or campaign donors. So that they cant contribute, they cant bundle, and they cant make gifts. Thats what it comes down to. Okay. So what ive seen in the past is the easiest thing to do, which is to simply copy what exists as accepted law and apply it to a situation that is directly relevant. And i think that permit expediters are probably most relevant to expenditure lobbyists, as opposed to contact lobbyists, though it could be either one. Because what theyre doing is seeking approval for a client and theyre doing it for pay. Its relevant now because of what the controllers report comes out with. Why arent they just an expenditure lobbyist by def definition . Expenditure lobbyist is someone who reaches out to the general public but does not make contact directly with public officials. Those are called contact lobbyists. Im sorry, i missed the term. I realize that were getting into the substance of an actual amendment without having it on the calendar and im sure that there might be a few people wanting to present on that. Youre right. Im sure. Yeah, that might be a good topic for a meeting if it is something that you are planning on having a session with the interested persons on. Im going to let you go back, mr. Ford, to your agenda because i realize that were getting away from what we still have with mr. Pierces enforcement report. And we want to hear matters for the commissioner to put on the agenda and i want to get us out of here before we lose commissioner smith. So im going to hand the microphone back to you, pat and ask you to go back to talking about what you hope to do should you have the resources to do it. Sure, so essentially, a review of gift rules would be the core of this project. And theres a lot of discussion of improper gifts right now. I think that adding to the list of people who cant give gifts is, you know, within the purview of that, and so lobbyists, etc. , i think that is nicely with this. But it could go broader. It could include other kinds of conflict of interest rules too. It could touch the payments. Theres a lot of discussion on payments right now and that potentially could dovetail with the payments with what the f. C. C. Is doing right now and it might be a good time to look at that as well. And i expect as mr. Delosriosa talked about earlier that well see more information come out from the Controllers Office and the City Attorneys office that will help this project to be rooted in good information. He talked about how theyll look at friends of groups, which i think that well probably learn a little bit, yes, payments and potentially gifts when that information comes out. So that would be a bit part of this project is building on the information that were learning from these offices that are issuing subpoenas and doing wiretaps and doing really impressive information gathering projects. And what that told us about the state of things in the city and where we need to improve our laws. That would be the you know, the foundational idea of this project. And the review of the list that is a list of City Employees who have to file the form 700 and every two years the departments have to review it. This is something that i have been working on and its kind of running in the background all the time and its not a huge project, it is something that i do need to continue to work on, so this would be a second kind of subordinant project with the conflict of interest project being the main one. And as you mentioned, chair ambrose, this would be something where wed want to have interested persons meetings and talk to them about their ideas and draft legislation and the engaging list with members of the board and with the community groups. And all of the people that we want to work with when we look at legislation. Its why these projects want to work right and we want to engage with people and have a good process and that is definitely what we endeavor to do here. So thats all for me. I know that theres a lot of other things to do. Yeah, and, commissioner bush, i see that your hand is up, and i dont know if that is from before or a new its from before, im sorry. Ill take it down. No, no problem. And, obviously, this is a continuing conversation so im going to leave it at that if i might and if i dont hear anything specific questions right now for you from commissioners, i do want to ask our moderator to find out if we have Public Comment waiting so that we can start to engage those speakers. Clerk we have currently one caller in queue. All right, please call that person to the microphone. Caller the commissioners clerk hello, caller. Caller i think so that if the Ethics Commission doesnt strengthen itself, youll float away. I know this pandemic is going to go on for a couple years, two years for sure, and these type of meetings that skips the community out. For example, right now you have this 408 number and if anyone calls this 408 money they have to pay more money, you know. If its 415 number, it is rather its not too expensive. But if its a 408 number and you have no clue about it. But now you all do. The other thing about having this advocate, people are fed up because they see nothing coming out from the Sunshine Task force. And they see too many commissioners from the Ethics Commission jumping ship for whatever reason. And so what are the people going to do . In the 1960s, people fought for the Sunshine Task force and for the Ethics Commission so we could have accountability and transparency. Now one of the longtimers is mark shalaman and he spoke today twice or three times. For me to come to Pay Attention to this and how long it takes, i have a lot of work to do, you know. And nobody is funding me, and one case of the Controllers Office is taking about two years. I did all of the heavy lifting. So as much as the controller talks about what he talks clerk would you like me to go incamera . Who is going to walk the walk . Im glad that we have mr. Bush because of his experience. To bring some enlightenment. And while mr. Bush is saying that you can do something in a month or two if you have the clout. But if you want to go to legalese, and make all of these laws and spend time in writing and discussing and beating around the bush well be right there. So we need to have the ability to have clout so that this these crooks who are hood winking in broad daylight can be brought to it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Moderator, are there any further commenters in the queue . Clerk no, there are no more callers in queue. All right, then im going to close Public Comment on this item. And there is no action required for the commission and were not adopting the plan of action as i said that were going to focus on getting the resources that we need so that we can do everything that mr. Ford identified and more. And with that i would like to go ahead and call agenda item 12 which would be the discussion of the monthly staff enforcement report. please stand by we broke ground in december of last year. We broke ground the day after sandy hook connecticut and had a moment of silence here. Its really great to see the silence that we experienced then and weve experienced over the years in this playground is now filled with these voices. 321, okay. [ applause ] the park was kind of bleak. It was scary and over grown. We started to help maclaren park when we found there wasnt any money in the bond for this park maclaren. We spent time for funding. It was expensive to raise money for this and there were a lot of delays. A lot of it was just the mural, the sprinklers and we didnt have any grass. It was that bad. We worked on sprinkler heads and grass and we fixed everything. We worked hard collecting everything. We had about 400 group members. Every a little bit helped and now the park is busy all week. There is people with kids using the park and using strollers and now its safer by utilizing it. Maclaren park being the largest second park one of the best kept secrets. Whats exciting about this activation in particular is that its the first of many. Its also representation of our city coming together but not only on the bureaucratic side of things. But also our neighbors, neighbors helped this happen. We are thrilled that today we are seeing the fruition of all that work in this citys open space. When we got involved with this park there was a broken swing set and half of for me, one thing i really like to point out to other groups is that when you are competing for funding in a hole on the ground, you need to articulate what you need for your park. I always point as this sight as a model for other communities. I hope we continue to work on the other empty pits that are here. There are still a lot of areas that need help at maclaren park. We hope grants and money will be available to continue to improve this park to make it shine. Its a really hidden jewel. A lot of people dont know its here. We have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. this Commission Meeting iso provisions of the brown act and recent executive orders to facilitate tele conferences. Ordinarily the brown act has strict rules foretell a conferencing. The governors order has suspended those rules sm the department has met all of the applicable notice requirements. As noted on the agenda members of the public may observe this meeting via sfgovtv. They may offer Public Comment by calling the Public Comment phone