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The New Generation Papua Besena-part of the Papua Besena Movement initiated by Dame Josephine Abaija, yesterday held a press conference to air their views on the recent police related killings in central province.
In light of the recent police related killings and alleged ill treatment by police in central province, a new generation Papua Besena Movement has emerged…and they are disgusted and outraged by the acts of law enforcement officers and have called for action.
The Papuan Community social action advocacy group says the objective of their movement remains since its birth 50 years ago.
NGPB Chairman, Peter Sam.
GuineaCentral-provinceCentralPapua-new-guineaHanuabadaNational-capitalBorokoKeith-cookDame-josephinePeter-samDame-josephine-abaijahEmmanuel-ivangai to budgetary concerns. i want to put those back in place. and hopefully with the full board as soon as possible. i'm looking forward to working with cheryl. believe me we will get the job done. we have to be independent in our thinking. we have to be looking out for the citizens of san francisco. mainly i want to say this, we want to make sure that each and every one of us is making sure that everybody who pays their $2 to ride muni is getting $2 worth of rides. because right now i don't believe they are. the disabled -- i agree with the speaker that said we are not paying attention enough to youth because the youth are the lifeblood of this city. we have to make sure that their voices are heard. i'm sure that miss brinkman and i will take heed. we have to lower costs for use. i don't think the players are right in those three categories. i will fight and i'll keep fighting until we can get that right. i'm hoping that this committee will report miss brinkman's confirmation out of committee. supervisor campos: thank you very much, commissioner. thank you for being here and thank you for your words. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? if so, please come forward. >> my name is nick, i have been a resident of the commission for 30 years. i have some serious concerns about sunday streets. i'm an automobile owner. i park my automobile on the street. in june, for example, after sunday streets, i took some photographs which i would be glad to share with you, around 11:00 on the sunday of the sunday streets. the streets there were more employees of the city of san francisco there than there were public, nonemployees. i think at some point you are going to have to re-examine the impact of this program. i'm very concerned that it's part of mayor newsom's plan to privatize public spaces, namely the public streets. and i see no virtue on a completely blind-sided anti-automobile mentality. there are thousands of automobile owners in san francisco. probably most of whom don't have a place to park but on the street. that's my situation. i would tend to agree with steve that if this nomination is headed in that direction, that it's better that you vote it down than approve it. thank you. >> thank you. any other member of the public who would like to seek? seeing none, public comment is known. commissioner sugaya: commissioner sugaya: -- supervisor alioto-pier. we have a motion by supervisor alioto-pier. any comments? supervisor mar? supervisor mar: before we support ms. brinkman, let me say i'm strongly supportive of her nomination an think she would be a tremendous progressive visionary on the m.t.a. board and i think it's one of mayor newsom's best appointments and i hope to see many more like it with tremendous background in improving our neighborhoods and city. to the points, and i know ray from years from rap high school and working with low-income kids, and really turning their lives around, and mr. steve also from labor video project that informs so many of us of labor struggles not just here around the world. i totally agree that m.t.a. board needs to be restructured and governance needs to be changed. that's why supervisor campos and i work with many community social justice groups to put a valid measure on the ballot but didn't get there. i think split appointments and other reforms of governments are needed. hopefully if we move that forward with a movement of transit advocates and neighborhood groups, we could see more of a diverse m.t.a. board with youth and with immigrants and riders and t.w.u. having a voice as well. i'll just say i'm strongly supportive of ms. brinkman's candidacy and know she will be a tremendous m.t.a. board member. supervisor campos: thank you super size visor mar. i agree. i think this is a very solid appointment. i do think that the experience that she brings is one that will be very youthful -- useful and i do hope that we, as a board, work closely with ms. brinkman and all the other commissioners to figure out how we can move this agency forward. i will be supporting the nomination but let me say that the problem that i have is not with the nomination itself. i think the nomination is a solid, as solid a nomination as we can have. the problem i have is with the structure that we currently have at the board of the m.t.a. i do believe that the current structure, notwithstanding some exceptions, i point to commissioner oka as one of those exceptions, the current structure does not, in my view, provide for the level of accountability and independence that is needed. i think that until that structure changes, that we are going to continue to have some of the same problems. we are going to continue to have a lack of representation in certain communities. we are going to continue to have a lack of transparency on some issues. i think that's the reason why those of us who submitted a charter amendment for the ballot felt very strongly that that charter amendment neated to go forward because we do need comprehensive muni reform and reform that only includes the communities that we talked about, but along the lines that were discussed by members of the public, youth, seniors, disabled, and so many diverse communities in san francisco. i think that given the current structure we are not going to do better than this nomination. so i'm very happy to be supportive of that. we can take that without objection. we can take that as a committee report. woid. -- without objection. thank you. madam clerk, please call item four. >> item number four, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending january 31, 2012, to the veterans affairs commission. supervisor campos: thank you very much. we have one seat and until recently we had two applicants. i have been informed that one of the applicants, matthew shea, has withdrawn his application. so if we can please call, and i apologize if i mispronounce the last name. anthony alfidi. >> good morning. supervisor campos: welcome to the rules committee. thank you for being here. >> good morning. i would like to thank the rules committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak. my name is tony alfidi. i have been a resident of san francisco since 2004 and i'm applying for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the county veterans affairs commission. my experience in this regard is i'm a veteran myself. i'm currently serving as a major in the u.s. army reserve. i have a total time in service of about a years. eight have been active duty. the remainder in reserve. i'm currently assigned as the intelligence officer for fifth brigade, 75th division. at camp parks, california. short park ride away. i spent last year in combat. i was deployed to iraq to join base balad from march to december of 2009. i did not experience direct combat because i had a staff position there. but we did experience a significant number of mortar and rocket attacks on two occasions i felt the blast wave and saw the explosion, about 300 to 500 meters away of several attacks that we suffered at joint base balad. i feel fortunate in the fact i do not have any psychological or physical ailments as a result of my service. i don't have a purple heart. but i do know a significant number of veterans who experienced it worse than i have. specifically in my unit right now there is one person who is an outpatient at the v.a. center in palo aalto for traumatic brain injury he received while he was in iraq. another officer who suffered partial hearing loss as a result of an ambushes he experienced in iraq. people like this need our help. they have problems. and part of the mandate of the veterans' affairs commission is to advise the mayor of the conditions affecting veterans in san francisco. i hope to fulfill that mandate as an active member of the commission. furthermore, i have attended several meetings of the commission as a member of the general public since february. i have been attempting and providing public comment when necessary and asked by other commission members and several of those commission members are present today. i believe they can speak on my behalf as to whether or not my input has been material to their discussions. and i'd like to entertain any requests that supervisors have for me at this time. supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? supervisor mar? supervisor mar: thank you for your willingness to serve. my father is an army vet. he passed away a few years ago but he was always very proud of his service and i appreciate yours. i just had a question. one of my constituents who grew up in the richmond district is now an author. he wrote a book, called "the work" washington's battle against america's veterans. one of the issues he deals with is many vets coming back from iraq like yourself come back with serious posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and yet the system is very hard to prove to the federal government that a vet has those symptoms. many of them lead to homelessness and other issues if they are not treated. i'm wondering do you have any thoughts about how we can break down the bureaucratic barriers to that? many people that need mental health and other services get it not just at fort miley but other services within the city and the federal system? >> i think one way to help solve that is to have -- is to help the governor implement his operation welcome home project. he initiated that to co-locate veteran service support centers with other government programs that can help solve veterans problems. i think an excellent way to apply that is right in the veterans building in the memorial complex right across the street from city hall. the american legion war memorial commission is currently working a project business plan to propose full utilization of that building by organizations such as u.s.o., v.a., veterans job training resources to bring it into the underutilized sources of that building and have a one stop shopping center where any veteran can go there and fully utilize its intended role to serve veterans. that would help and i believe the commission with its resources, member of the commission who are members of veterans organizations can marshal the support of those organizations to get publicity, get atngs from the mayor's office, and other agencies that can send traffic there. >> i look forward to working with you on that. that sounds great. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. open it up to public comment. we have a number of speaker cards. commissioner wallace levin, john caldera, steven, and if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak, please come up. thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm wallace levin. immediate past president of the commission. long time member of the commission. i have had the honor during the history of the commission to hold seat number 3 and originally that seat was for korean war veterans. and i left that seat and it's interesting this is the 60th anniversary of the start of the korean war, and i didn't leave the seat in honor of that, but i'm very happy that tony is going to, obviously, be appointed to this seat. this will be the first time anyone else has ever held this seat in the history of the commission, and i cannot think of a more qualified veteran to come on to the commission than tony. the reason that it's sort of ironic and important, as ulls old veterans move on, it's important to bring in new young veterans. he will be one of the, if not the youngest veteran on the commission. he will be the only iraq-afghanistan veteran on the commission. he will be the only member of the commission that is actively still involved with the military. so his ability to give needed input is extremely important. and i wanted to also say there was one other point that -- about him. i was going to say he's going to be -- i know what it was. he has attended this year more meetings of the veterans' affairs commission than 1/ of the commissioners. which i think is -- 1/3 of the commissioners. which i think is interesting. he's attended more meetings of the commission as a noncommissioner than anyone i can ever remember. he is really going to be an a set. he's the future of the commission -- an asset. he's the future of the commission. i wanted to also say there is that expression about one person's freedom fighter is someone else's terrorist. well, one person's leadership may be looked upon as domineering and overbearing, but other people it may be just good leadership. i wanted to point out that no commission in san francisco is made up with more diversity than the veterans' affairs commission. and it's always been made up with complete diversity a effects the total makeup of san francisco. and i want to also point out decades before don't-ask, don't-tell was enacted, i wrote and introduced and this commission passed this resolution decades ago, supporting the right of all americans to serve in the armed forces and that that service should be free of any discrimination and prejudice. so i'm proud of what the commission does. we are very limited. we only can advise. but it's a very, very important commission. i wanted to also -- thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker. good morning. >> good morning, supervisor mar, and chairman campos. i'm a san francisco commissioner as well-appointed by the board to the veterans affairs commission. for the record i have a 100% attendance since my appointment to this commission. i'm very pleased to stand here in favor of this appointment. right now i believe this is about as important an appointment as you will be able to make. right now the returning afghanistan and iraq veterans have a suicide rate of five to one of their counterparts right now in our society. right now depending on which organization you speak to, 25% to 35% of the homeless on our streets are veterans. and we need veterans that are going to address these issues. within less than two years, all veterans that use, the veterans building, will be homeless. as in building goes through a seismic retrofit, every organization that uses the veterans building, 401 van ness, will have to do whatever it does in a different location. and currently there is no set plan for where these veterans are going to go. so with the support of the board of supervisors and this commission and this appointment, i think that we can do positive things for our veterans of san francisco. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you commissioner. thank you for your great work. next speaker, please. >> good morning. supervisors of the rules committee. i'm steve, i was appointed to this commission about eight months ago. i have attended all eight meetings of the commission since that time and i believe six out of those eight meetings we have had a wonderful guest who has spoken out when first of all when asked to, but other times when it's been important. and that's major alfidi. i met him only during these meetings. i didn't know him before that. but i have been fortunate to have numerous conversations with him outside the conference room of the v.a.c. and i have learned quite a bit about major alfidi and i support his appointment completely to this commission. he'll be a great asset. i think the commission is on its way to dealing with relevant issues of importance to the veterans of this city. some of which have been mentioned before. one of which is employment of course, and the high unemployment rate amongst returning veterans. major alfidi probably won't be thrilled that i'm bringing this up, but in our private conversations he told me that he, too, faced some discrimination when he returned from iraq to look for a job, which he was well qualified in in the field of finance and investment opportunity. and he was turned down by a number of corporations in the city of san francisco and in the bay area and with all his qualifications and all we talk about support the veteran and thank you for your service and all that, and yet even in this high collar -- white collar, high level job he was discriminated against basically on the fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome. and this happens over and over again. it's an area that the veterans affairs commission should start to look into about why it is on one side of the issue we already know that people with ptsd have to be helped and deserve all the help they can get. on the other side of the coin there are employers all over this city who are fearful of hiring veterans from iraq, afghanistan. especially ones that have had numerous tours there because of their unfounded for the most part and uneducated fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome and someone may quote-unquote go postal in their office or whatever. this is an important thing. i'm glad to report that major alfidi didn't take this as a defeat and started his own corporation and is doing his own investment counseling and financial advising and doing very well in doing so. great asset to the commission. i appreciate it. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is ray, i'm a veteran from the vietnam war, 1962 to 1966. probably served my con-- proudly served my country. from then until now i have been working in the community. there are many veterans came out of the vietnam war came directly to the community because regular jobs they could not hold down. and ptsd in my opinion, i'm being treated for ptsd. it has to be part of the orientation in the army, in combat troops even before they are deployed because you will get ptsd in combat because it's trauma. and trauma is happening when you are deployed. it's not like a big, big question. there's no question about it. you are going to be traumatized. start it at orientation, through deployment, through combat, and back as one seamless task. instead of you have to come and figure out five years later when you don't have no wife, no kids, you destroyed your job, that there might be something wrong. see what i'm trying to say? half the stuff in the beginning, middle, and bring the troops ready to go into treatment. not after. there's that whole big gap afterwards. we have to do outreach. we know this. no. you start as soon as you walk into the thing and raise your hand, you know you are going to be traumatized on the battlefield. right then and there guarantee you right there, service from the day you raise your hand and say i do to the day you come back and get married. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, i have to say that i'm very supportive of this appointment. and i want to thank the major for coming forward. and i also appreciate all the comments from the commissioners and i think that we are very lucky to have people of the caliber of these commissioners serving in this capacity. and whatever we can do as a board to assist in that endeavor look forward to doing that. if we can take a motion to come forward. >> so moved. supervisor campos: as a committee report f we can take that without objection. supervisor alioto-pier: i don't believe this is going as a committee report. supervisor campos: just as a regular. take a motion then without objection. thank you very much. congratulations. madam clerk, please call item number 5. >> item number 5, ordnance amending the building cold to require an agenda of and packet of materials for each matter to be decided by the access appeals commission shall be sent to the mayor's office of disability at the same time and in the same manner as they are sent to the commission members. supervisor campos: for a brief description of what the item does the order ordnance would simply provide -- ordinance would simply provide the appeals which among other things reviews accessibility issues in building projects that those materials be referred to the mayor's office of disability. supervisor alioto-pier indicates that she introduced this item because most people interested in issues relating to disability access rely on the mayor's office of disability to get information rather than relying on the department of building inspection. of course this does not change the fact that the appeals commission would still have the final say on building appeals. this is something to me makes sense. why don't we open it up to public comment. if there is any member of the public who would like to speak on this item? seeing none. public comment is closed. madam clerk, do we have to accepted this to committee report? if we have a motion. motion by supervisor mar. take that without objection. thank you very much. next we have a number of items that would require us to go into closed session. before we do that i would like to provide an opportunity to members of the public to speak on any of the items that are listed for the closed session and that would be items 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 and 14. i have to you speaker cards. i have several speaker cards of individuals here to speak on item 8. if i may, let me read the names. if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak on any of these items, please come forward. steven lead, peter, sam gold, sunny francis, ken lead, sorry if i mispronounce the name, steve, general -- jen, nick, howard, ken, joshua, ray, and then any other member of the public who would like to speak simply come forward. if you can please come up. >> hello. my name is john rhodes, and i have run an overnight poetry show on public access tv for almost three years now and through public access i have been able to syndicate my tv show on about 20 different channels across the u.s.. it shows regularly in cambridge, and philadelphia, and i have had a lot of good luck in working with the people at public access. i have had 2340 problems -- no problems. i think they deserve respect for taking on the new people. taking on the new public access, and providing money to run public access. if i understand correctly, they haven't actually received the money. they have actually started running it with their own money. i could be wrong, but from what i understand they are running it with their own money in hopes that they will get the money from comcast. through litigation with you people. i recommend they get the money. i hope i'm understanding this correctly. and i think there are some people who complain about public access, but they are only allowed two workers and one part-time person to run the whole public access because the rule said, i think comcast has laid down. and there's lots of things that needs fixing with what's been written and i think the bottom line is we have to be practical about this and work with what we have. and if we have a system working, we shouldn't just throw it out and say we don't like this. destroy all the steps we have taken to fix the problem that we have. and i guess that's about it. thank you very much supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. >> i would like to thank you for allowing me to speak. my name is sam gold. public access producer. for decades public access programming on cable tv was provided a virtual free forum for community activists, aspiring entertainers, star wannabes, as well as serious minded political activists. it was paid for out of money provided by the cable companies in exchange for wiring up our cities and towns. money well spent. a few years ago at&t and verizon and some other phone companies wanted to get into the lucrative cable market but they didn't want to have to support what they felt were certain money want to have to support what they felt were certain money
VietnamRepublic-ofUnited-statesIraqRichmond-districtCaliforniaAfghanistanPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaBaladSala-ad-dinCambridge right. i'm hoping that this committee will report miss brinkman's confirmation out of committee. supervisor campos: thank you very much, commissioner. thank you for being here and thank you for your words. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? if so, please come forward. >> my name is nick, i have been a resident of the commission for 30 years. i have some serious concerns about sunday streets. i'm an automobile owner. i park my automobile on the street. in june, for example, after sunday streets, i took some photographs which i would be glad to share with you, around 11:00 on the sunday of the sunday streets. the streets there were more employees of the city of san francisco there than there were public, nonemployees. i think at some point you are going to have to re-examine the impact of this program. i'm very concerned that it's part of mayor newsom's plan to privatize public spaces, namely the public streets. and i see no virtue on a completely blind-sided anti-automobile mentality. there are thousands of automobile owners in san francisco. probably most of whom don't have a place to park but on the street. that's my situation. i would tend to agree with steve that if this nomination is headed in that direction, that it's better that you vote it down than approve it. thank you. >> thank you. any other member of the public who would like to seek? seeing none, public comment is known. commissioner sugaya: commissioner sugaya: -- supervisor alioto-pier. we have a motion by supervisor alioto-pier. any comments? supervisor mar? supervisor mar: before we support ms. brinkman, let me say i'm strongly supportive of her nomination an think she would be a tremendous progressive visionary on the m.t.a. board and i think it's one of mayor newsom's best appointments and i hope to see many more like it with tremendous background in improving our neighborhoods and city. to the points, and i know ray from years from rap high school and working with low-income kids, and really turning their lives around, and mr. steve also from labor video project that informs so many of us of labor struggles not just here around the world. i totally agree that m.t.a. board needs to be restructured and governance needs to be changed. that's why supervisor campos and i work with many community social justice groups to put a valid measure on the ballot but didn't get there. i think split appointments and other reforms of governments are needed. hopefully if we move that forward with a movement of transit advocates and neighborhood groups, we could see more of a diverse m.t.a. board with youth and with immigrants and riders and t.w.u. having a voice as well. i'll just say i'm strongly supportive of ms. brinkman's candidacy and know she will be a tremendous m.t.a. board member. supervisor campos: thank you super size visor mar. i agree. i think this is a very solid appointment. i do think that the experience that she brings is one that will be very youthful -- useful and i do hope that we, as a board, work closely with ms. brinkman and all the other commissioners to figure out how we can move this agency forward. i will be supporting the nomination but let me say that the problem that i have is not with the nomination itself. i think the nomination is a solid, as solid a nomination as we can have. the problem i have is with the structure that we currently have at the board of the m.t.a. i do believe that the current structure, notwithstanding some exceptions, i point to commissioner oka as one of those exceptions, the current structure does not, in my view, provide for the level of accountability and independence that is needed. i think that until that structure changes, that we are going to continue to have some of the same problems. we are going to continue to have a lack of representation in certain communities. we are going to continue to have a lack of transparency on some issues. i think that's the reason why those of us who submitted a charter amendment for the ballot felt very strongly that that charter amendment neated to go forward because we do need comprehensive muni reform and reform that only includes the communities that we talked about, but along the lines that were discussed by members of the public, youth, seniors, disabled, and so many diverse communities in san francisco. i think that given the current structure we are not going to do better than this nomination. so i'm very happy to be supportive of that. we can take that without objection. we can take that as a committee report. woid. -- without objection. thank you. madam clerk, please call item four. >> item number four, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending january 31, 2012, to the veterans affairs commission. supervisor campos: thank you very much. we have one seat and until recently we had two applicants. i have been informed that one of the applicants, matthew shea, has withdrawn his application. so if we can please call, and i apologize if i mispronounce the last name. anthony alfidi. >> good morning. supervisor campos: welcome to the rules committee. thank you for being here. >> good morning. i would like to thank the rules committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak. my name is tony alfidi. i have been a resident of san francisco since 2004 and i'm applying for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the county veterans affairs commission. my experience in this regard is i'm a veteran myself. i'm currently serving as a major in the u.s. army reserve. i have a total time in service of about a years. eight have been active duty. the remainder in reserve. i'm currently assigned as the intelligence officer for fifth brigade, 75th division. at camp parks, california. short park ride away. i spent last year in combat. i was deployed to iraq to join base balad from march to december of 2009. i did not experience direct combat because i had a staff position there. but we did experience a significant number of mortar and rocket attacks on two occasions i felt the blast wave and saw the explosion, about 300 to 500 meters away of several attacks that we suffered at joint base balad. i feel fortunate in the fact i do not have any psychological or physical ailments as a result of my service. i don't have a purple heart. but i do know a significant number of veterans who experienced it worse than i have. specifically in my unit right now there is one person who is an outpatient at the v.a. center in palo aalto for traumatic brain injury he received while he was in iraq. another officer who suffered partial hearing loss as a result of an ambushes he experienced in iraq. people like this need our help. they have problems. and part of the mandate of the veterans' affairs commission is to advise the mayor of the conditions affecting veterans in san francisco. i hope to fulfill that mandate as an active member of the commission. furthermore, i have attended several meetings of the commission as a member of the general public since february. i have been attempting and providing public comment when necessary and asked by other commission members and several of those commission members are present today. i believe they can speak on my behalf as to whether or not my input has been material to their discussions. and i'd like to entertain any requests that supervisors have for me at this time. supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? supervisor mar? supervisor mar: thank you for your willingness to serve. my father is an army vet. he passed away a few years ago but he was always very proud of his service and i appreciate yours. i just had a question. one of my constituents who grew up in the richmond district is now an author. he wrote a book, called "the work" washington's battle against america's veterans. one of the issues he deals with is many vets coming back from iraq like yourself come back with serious posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and yet the system is very hard to prove to the federal government that a vet has those symptoms. many of them lead to homelessness and other issues if they are not treated. i'm wondering do you have any thoughts about how we can break down the bureaucratic barriers to that? many people that need mental health and other services get it not just at fort miley but other services within the city and the federal system? >> i think one way to help solve that is to have -- is to help the governor implement his operation welcome home project. he initiated that to co-locate veteran service support centers with other government programs that can help solve veterans problems. i think an excellent way to apply that is right in the veterans building in the memorial complex right across the street from city hall. the american legion war memorial commission is currently working a project business plan to propose full utilization of that building by organizations such as u.s.o., v.a., veterans job training resources to bring it into the underutilized sources of that building and have a one stop shopping center where any veteran can go there and fully utilize its intended role to serve veterans. that would help and i believe the commission with its resources, member of the commission who are members of veterans organizations can marshal the support of those organizations to get publicity, get atngs from the mayor's office, and other agencies that can send traffic there. >> i look forward to working with you on that. that sounds great. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. open it up to public comment. we have a number of speaker cards. commissioner wallace levin, john caldera, steven, and if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak, please come up. thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm wallace levin. immediate past president of the commission. long time member of the commission. i have had the honor during the history of the commission to hold seat number 3 and originally that seat was for korean war veterans. and i left that seat and it's interesting this is the 60th anniversary of the start of the korean war, and i didn't leave the seat in honor of that, but i'm very happy that tony is going to, obviously, be appointed to this seat. this will be the first time anyone else has ever held this seat in the history of the commission, and i cannot think of a more qualified veteran to come on to the commission than tony. the reason that it's sort of ironic and important, as ulls old veterans move on, it's important to bring in new young veterans. he will be one of the, if not the youngest veteran on the commission. he will be the only iraq-afghanistan veteran on the commission. he will be the only member of the commission that is actively still involved with the military. so his ability to give needed input is extremely important. and i wanted to also say there was one other point that -- about him. i was going to say he's going to be -- i know what it was. he has attended this year more meetings of the veterans' affairs commission than 1/ of the commissioners. which i think is -- 1/3 of the commissioners. which i think is interesting. he's attended more meetings of the commission as a noncommissioner than anyone i can ever remember. he is really going to be an a set. he's the future of the commission -- an asset. he's the future of the commission. i wanted to also say there is that expression about one person's freedom fighter is someone else's terrorist. well, one person's leadership may be looked upon as domineering and overbearing, but other people it may be just good leadership. i wanted to point out that no commission in san francisco is made up with more diversity than the veterans' affairs commission. and it's always been made up with complete diversity a effects the total makeup of san francisco. and i want to also point out decades before don't-ask, don't-tell was enacted, i wrote and introduced and this commission passed this resolution decades ago, supporting the right of all americans to serve in the armed forces and that that service should be free of any discrimination and prejudice. so i'm proud of what the commission does. we are very limited. we only can advise. but it's a very, very important commission. i wanted to also -- thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker. good morning. >> good morning, supervisor mar, and chairman campos. i'm a san francisco commissioner as well-appointed by the board to the veterans affairs commission. for the record i have a 100% attendance since my appointment to this commission. i'm very pleased to stand here in favor of this appointment. right now i believe this is about as important an appointment as you will be able to make. right now the returning afghanistan and iraq veterans have a suicide rate of five to one of their counterparts right now in our society. right now depending on which organization you speak to, 25% to 35% of the homeless on our streets are veterans. and we need veterans that are going to address these issues. within less than two years, all veterans that use, the veterans building, will be homeless. as in building goes through a seismic retrofit, every organization that uses the veterans building, 401 van ness, will have to do whatever it does in a different location. and currently there is no set plan for where these veterans are going to go. so with the support of the board of supervisors and this commission and this appointment, i think that we can do positive things for our veterans of san francisco. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you commissioner. thank you for your great work. next speaker, please. >> good morning. supervisors of the rules committee. i'm steve, i was appointed to this commission about eight months ago. i have attended all eight meetings of the commission since that time and i believe six out of those eight meetings we have had a wonderful guest who has spoken out when first of all when asked to, but other times when it's been important. and that's major alfidi. i met him only during these meetings. i didn't know him before that. but i have been fortunate to have numerous conversations with him outside the conference room of the v.a.c. and i have learned quite a bit about major alfidi and i support his appointment completely to this commission. he'll be a great asset. i think the commission is on its way to dealing with relevant issues of importance to the veterans of this city. some of which have been mentioned before. one of which is employment of course, and the high unemployment rate amongst returning veterans. major alfidi probably won't be thrilled that i'm bringing this up, but in our private conversations he told me that he, too, faced some discrimination when he returned from iraq to look for a job, which he was well qualified in in the field of finance and investment opportunity. and he was turned down by a number of corporations in the city of san francisco and in the bay area and with all his qualifications and all we talk about support the veteran and thank you for your service and all that, and yet even in this high collar -- white collar, high level job he was discriminated against basically on the fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome. and this happens over and over again. it's an area that the veterans affairs commission should start to look into about why it is on one side of the issue we already know that people with ptsd have to be helped and deserve all the help they can get. on the other side of the coin there are employers all over this city who are fearful of hiring veterans from iraq, afghanistan. especially ones that have had numerous tours there because of their unfounded for the most part and uneducated fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome and someone may quote-unquote go postal in their office or whatever. this is an important thing. i'm glad to report that major alfidi didn't take this as a defeat and started his own corporation and is doing his own investment counseling and financial advising and doing very well in doing so. great asset to the commission. i appreciate it. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is ray, i'm a veteran from the vietnam war, 1962 to 1966. probably served my con-- proudly served my country. from then until now i have been working in the community. there are many veterans came out of the vietnam war came directly to the community because regular jobs they could not hold down. and ptsd in my opinion, i'm being treated for ptsd. it has to be part of the orientation in the army, in combat troops even before they are deployed because you will get ptsd in combat because it's trauma. and trauma is happening when you are deployed. it's not like a big, big question. there's no question about it. you are going to be traumatized. start it at orientation, through deployment, through combat, and back as one seamless task. instead of you have to come and figure out five years later when you don't have no wife, no kids, you destroyed your job, that there might be something wrong. see what i'm trying to say? half the stuff in the beginning, middle, and bring the troops ready to go into treatment. not after. there's that whole big gap afterwards. we have to do outreach. we know this. no. you start as soon as you walk into the thing and raise your hand, you know you are going to be traumatized on the battlefield. right then and there guarantee you right there, service from the day you raise your hand and say i do to the day you come back and get married. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, i have to say that i'm very supportive of this appointment. and i want to thank the major for coming forward. and i also appreciate all the comments from the commissioners and i think that we are very lucky to have people of the caliber of these commissioners serving in this capacity. and whatever we can do as a board to assist in that endeavor look forward to doing that. if we can take a motion to come forward. >> so moved. supervisor campos: as a committee report f we can take that without objection. supervisor alioto-pier: i don't believe this is going as a committee report. supervisor campos: just as a regular. take a motion then without objection. thank you very much. congratulations. madam clerk, please call item number 5. >> item number 5, ordnance amending the building cold to require an agenda of and packet of materials for each matter to be decided by the access appeals commission shall be sent to the mayor's office of disability at the same time and in the same manner as they are sent to the commission members. supervisor campos: for a brief description of what the item does the order ordnance would simply provide -- ordinance would simply provide the appeals which among other things reviews accessibility issues in building projects that those materials be referred to the mayor's office of disability. supervisor alioto-pier indicates that she introduced this item because most people interested in issues relating to disability access rely on the mayor's office of disability to get information rather than relying on the department of building inspection. of course this does not change the fact that the appeals commission would still have the final say on building appeals. this is something to me makes sense. why don't we open it up to public comment. if there is any member of the public who would like to speak on this item? seeing none. public comment is closed. madam clerk, do we have to accepted this to committee report? if we have a motion. motion by supervisor mar. take that without objection. thank you very much. next we have a number of items that would require us to go into closed session. before we do that i would like to provide an opportunity to members of the public to speak on any of the items that are listed for the closed session and that would be items 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 and 14. i have to you speaker cards. i have several speaker cards of individuals here to speak on item 8. if i may, let me read the names. if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak on any of these items, please come forward. steven lead, peter, sam gold, sunny francis, ken lead, sorry if i mispronounce the name, steve, general -- jen, nick, howard, ken, joshua, ray, and then any other member of the public who would like to speak simply come forward. if you can please come up. >> hello. my name is john rhodes, and i have run an overnight poetry show on public access tv for almost three years now and through public access i have been able to syndicate my tv show on about 20 different channels across the u.s.. it shows regularly in cambridge, and philadelphia, and i have had a lot of good luck in working with the people at public access. i have had 2340 problems -- no problems. i think they deserve respect for taking on the new people. taking on the new public access, and providing money to run public access. if i understand correctly, they haven't actually received the money. they have actually started running it with their own money. i could be wrong, but from what i understand they are running it with their own money in hopes that they will get the money from comcast. through litigation with you people. i recommend they get the money. i hope i'm understanding this correctly. and i think there are some people who complain about public access, but they are only allowed two workers and one part-time person to run the whole public access because the rule said, i think comcast has laid down. and there's lots of things that needs fixing with what's been written and i think the bottom line is we have to be practical about this and work with what we have. and if we have a system working, we shouldn't just throw it out and say we don't like this. destroy all the steps we have taken to fix the problem that we have. and i guess that's about it. thank you very much supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. >> i would like to thank you for allowing me to speak. my name is sam gold. public access producer. for decades public access programming on cable tv was provided a virtual free forum for community activists, aspiring entertainers, star wannabes, as well as serious minded political activists. it was paid for out of money provided by the cable companies in exchange for wiring up our cities and towns. money well spent. a few years ago at&t and verizon and some other phone companies wanted to get into the lucrative cable market but they didn't want to have to support what they felt were certain money draining contractual obligations. public access television was one of these. they pumped millions of dollars into a complain to negotiate cable franchises on the state level rather than the sit by -- city by city basis. the money talked and the legislators in 20 other states were hoodwinked into passing similar laws despite the importance of this very sacred first amendment right. the right of free speech by our citizens. the mantra of the phone companies was cheaper rate. the digital infrastructure and video competition act passes and once again our legislators were grossly misinformed and suckered into passing this legislation whose true goal was only saving the phone companies money, period. let's fast forward to today. we are here because the act was promised additional funds from the cable company to support san francisco comments. our new public access provider. the money is necessary simply to keep the doors opened. no one can rub a -- run a public access channel on $170,000 a year. it barely pays the rent on market street for access san francisco. our communities have a very diverse makeup with people from many different countries settling down and putting down roots. sacramento, a bed of high technology companies, for example, has a large hindu, punjabi, and arab speaking population. access sacramento, their access channel, make sure there are plenty of programs to serve their community in native languages. san francisco proudly has one of the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the nation. public access television serves them well. no one else will. it's not cost-effective for channels, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7 to serve as a niche market. if i made add, several public access television programs have had the highest honor in the industry bestowed upon them by
VietnamRepublic-ofUnited-statesIraqRichmond-districtCaliforniaAfghanistanPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaBaladSala-ad-dinSacramento needed. hopefully if we move that forward with a movement of transit advocates and neighborhood groups, we could see more of a diverse m.t.a. board with youth and with immigrants and riders and t.w.u. having a voice as well. i'll just say i'm strongly supportive of ms. brinkman's candidacy and know she will be a tremendous m.t.a. board member. supervisor campos: thank you super size visor mar. i agree. i think this is a very solid appointment. i do think that the experience that she brings is one that will be very youthful -- useful and i do hope that we, as a board, work closely with ms. brinkman and all the other commissioners to figure out how we can move this agency forward. i will be supporting the nomination but let me say that the problem that i have is not with the nomination itself. i think the nomination is a solid, as solid a nomination as we can have. the problem i have is with the structure that we currently have at the board of the m.t.a. i do believe that the current structure, notwithstanding some exceptions, i point to commissioner oka as one of those exceptions, the current structure does not, in my view, provide for the level of accountability and independence that is needed. i think that until that structure changes, that we are going to continue to have some of the same problems. we are going to continue to have a lack of representation in certain communities. we are going to continue to have a lack of transparency on some issues. i think that's the reason why those of us who submitted a charter amendment for the ballot felt very strongly that that charter amendment neated to go forward because we do need comprehensive muni reform and reform that only includes the communities that we talked about, but along the lines that were discussed by members of the public, youth, seniors, disabled, and so many diverse communities in san francisco. i think that given the current structure we are not going to do better than this nomination. so i'm very happy to be supportive of that. we can take that without objection. we can take that as a committee report. woid. -- without objection. thank you. madam clerk, please call item four. >> item number four, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending january 31, 2012, to the veterans affairs commission. supervisor campos: thank you very much. we have one seat and until recently we had two applicants. i have been informed that one of the applicants, matthew shea, has withdrawn his application. so if we can please call, and i apologize if i mispronounce the last name. anthony alfidi. >> good morning. supervisor campos: welcome to the rules committee. thank you for being here. >> good morning. i would like to thank the rules committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak. my name is tony alfidi. i have been a resident of san francisco since 2004 and i'm applying for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the county veterans affairs commission. my experience in this regard is i'm a veteran myself. i'm currently serving as a major in the u.s. army reserve. i have a total time in service of about a years. eight have been active duty. the remainder in reserve. i'm currently assigned as the intelligence officer for fifth brigade, 75th division. at camp parks, california. short park ride away. i spent last year in combat. i was deployed to iraq to join base balad from march to december of 2009. i did not experience direct combat because i had a staff position there. but we did experience a significant number of mortar and rocket attacks on two occasions i felt the blast wave and saw the explosion, about 300 to 500 meters away of several attacks that we suffered at joint base balad. i feel fortunate in the fact i do not have any psychological or physical ailments as a result of my service. i don't have a purple heart. but i do know a significant number of veterans who experienced it worse than i have. specifically in my unit right now there is one person who is an outpatient at the v.a. center in palo aalto for traumatic brain injury he received while he was in iraq. another officer who suffered partial hearing loss as a result of an ambushes he experienced in iraq. people like this need our help. they have problems. and part of the mandate of the veterans' affairs commission is to advise the mayor of the conditions affecting veterans in san francisco. i hope to fulfill that mandate as an active member of the commission. furthermore, i have attended several meetings of the commission as a member of the general public since february. i have been attempting and providing public comment when necessary and asked by other commission members and several of those commission members are present today. i believe they can speak on my behalf as to whether or not my input has been material to their discussions. and i'd like to entertain any requests that supervisors have for me at this time. supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? supervisor mar? supervisor mar: thank you for your willingness to serve. my father is an army vet. he passed away a few years ago but he was always very proud of his service and i appreciate yours. i just had a question. one of my constituents who grew up in the richmond district is now an author. he wrote a book, called "the work" washington's battle against america's veterans. one of the issues he deals with is many vets coming back from iraq like yourself come back with serious posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and yet the system is very hard to prove to the federal government that a vet has those symptoms. many of them lead to homelessness and other issues if they are not treated. i'm wondering do you have any thoughts about how we can break down the bureaucratic barriers to that? many people that need mental health and other services get it not just at fort miley but other services within the city and the federal system? >> i think one way to help solve that is to have -- is to help the governor implement his operation welcome home project. he initiated that to co-locate veteran service support centers with other government programs that can help solve veterans problems. i think an excellent way to apply that is right in the veterans building in the memorial complex right across the street from city hall. the american legion war memorial commission is currently working a project business plan to propose full utilization of that building by organizations such as u.s.o., v.a., veterans job training resources to bring it into the underutilized sources of that building and have a one stop shopping center where any veteran can go there and fully utilize its intended role to serve veterans. that would help and i believe the commission with its resources, member of the commission who are members of veterans organizations can marshal the support of those organizations to get publicity, get atngs from the mayor's office, and other agencies that can send traffic there. >> i look forward to working with you on that. that sounds great. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. open it up to public comment. we have a number of speaker cards. commissioner wallace levin, john caldera, steven, and if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak, please come up. thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm wallace levin. immediate past president of the commission. long time member of the commission. i have had the honor during the history of the commission to hold seat number 3 and originally that seat was for korean war veterans. and i left that seat and it's interesting this is the 60th anniversary of the start of the korean war, and i didn't leave the seat in honor of that, but i'm very happy that tony is going to, obviously, be appointed to this seat. this will be the first time anyone else has ever held this seat in the history of the commission, and i cannot think of a more qualified veteran to come on to the commission than tony. the reason that it's sort of ironic and important, as ulls old veterans move on, it's important to bring in new young veterans. he will be one of the, if not the youngest veteran on the commission. he will be the only iraq-afghanistan veteran on the commission. he will be the only member of the commission that is actively still involved with the military. so his ability to give needed input is extremely important. and i wanted to also say there was one other point that -- about him. i was going to say he's going to be -- i know what it was. he has attended this year more meetings of the veterans' affairs commission than 1/ of the commissioners. which i think is -- 1/3 of the commissioners. which i think is interesting. he's attended more meetings of the commission as a noncommissioner than anyone i can ever remember. he is really going to be an a set. he's the future of the commission -- an asset. he's the future of the commission. i wanted to also say there is that expression about one person's freedom fighter is someone else's terrorist. well, one person's leadership may be looked upon as domineering and overbearing, but other people it may be just good leadership. i wanted to point out that no commission in san francisco is made up with more diversity than the veterans' affairs commission. and it's always been made up with complete diversity a effects the total makeup of san francisco. and i want to also point out decades before don't-ask, don't-tell was enacted, i wrote and introduced and this commission passed this resolution decades ago, supporting the right of all americans to serve in the armed forces and that that service should be free of any discrimination and prejudice. so i'm proud of what the commission does. we are very limited. we only can advise. but it's a very, very important commission. i wanted to also -- thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker. good morning. >> good morning, supervisor mar, and chairman campos. i'm a san francisco commissioner as well-appointed by the board to the veterans affairs commission. for the record i have a 100% attendance since my appointment to this commission. i'm very pleased to stand here in favor of this appointment. right now i believe this is about as important an appointment as you will be able to make. right now the returning afghanistan and iraq veterans have a suicide rate of five to one of their counterparts right now in our society. right now depending on which organization you speak to, 25% to 35% of the homeless on our streets are veterans. and we need veterans that are going to address these issues. within less than two years, all veterans that use, the veterans building, will be homeless. as in building goes through a seismic retrofit, every organization that uses the veterans building, 401 van ness, will have to do whatever it does in a different location. and currently there is no set plan for where these veterans are going to go. so with the support of the board of supervisors and this commission and this appointment, i think that we can do positive things for our veterans of san francisco. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you commissioner. thank you for your great work. next speaker, please. >> good morning. supervisors of the rules committee. i'm steve, i was appointed to this commission about eight months ago. i have attended all eight meetings of the commission since that time and i believe six out of those eight meetings we have had a wonderful guest who has spoken out when first of all when asked to, but other times when it's been important. and that's major alfidi. i met him only during these meetings. i didn't know him before that. but i have been fortunate to have numerous conversations with him outside the conference room of the v.a.c. and i have learned quite a bit about major alfidi and i support his appointment completely to this commission. he'll be a great asset. i think the commission is on its way to dealing with relevant issues of importance to the veterans of this city. some of which have been mentioned before. one of which is employment of course, and the high unemployment rate amongst returning veterans. major alfidi probably won't be thrilled that i'm bringing this up, but in our private conversations he told me that he, too, faced some discrimination when he returned from iraq to look for a job, which he was well qualified in in the field of finance and investment opportunity. and he was turned down by a number of corporations in the city of san francisco and in the bay area and with all his qualifications and all we talk about support the veteran and thank you for your service and all that, and yet even in this high collar -- white collar, high level job he was discriminated against basically on the fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome. and this happens over and over again. it's an area that the veterans affairs commission should start to look into about why it is on one side of the issue we already know that people with ptsd have to be helped and deserve all the help they can get. on the other side of the coin there are employers all over this city who are fearful of hiring veterans from iraq, afghanistan. especially ones that have had numerous tours there because of their unfounded for the most part and uneducated fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome and someone may quote-unquote go postal in their office or whatever. this is an important thing. i'm glad to report that major alfidi didn't take this as a defeat and started his own corporation and is doing his own investment counseling and financial advising and doing very well in doing so. great asset to the commission. i appreciate it. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is ray, i'm a veteran from the vietnam war, 1962 to 1966. probably served my con-- proudly served my country. from then until now i have been working in the community. there are many veterans came out of the vietnam war came directly to the community because regular jobs they could not hold down. and ptsd in my opinion, i'm being treated for ptsd. it has to be part of the orientation in the army, in combat troops even before they are deployed because you will get ptsd in combat because it's trauma. and trauma is happening when you are deployed. it's not like a big, big question. there's no question about it. you are going to be traumatized. start it at orientation, through deployment, through combat, and back as one seamless task. instead of you have to come and figure out five years later when you don't have no wife, no kids, you destroyed your job, that there might be something wrong. see what i'm trying to say? half the stuff in the beginning, middle, and bring the troops ready to go into treatment. not after. there's that whole big gap afterwards. we have to do outreach. we know this. no. you start as soon as you walk into the thing and raise your hand, you know you are going to be traumatized on the battlefield. right then and there guarantee you right there, service from the day you raise your hand and say i do to the day you come back and get married. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, i have to say that i'm very supportive of this appointment. and i want to thank the major for coming forward. and i also appreciate all the comments from the commissioners and i think that we are very lucky to have people of the caliber of these commissioners serving in this capacity. and whatever we can do as a board to assist in that endeavor look forward to doing that. if we can take a motion to come forward. >> so moved. supervisor campos: as a committee report f we can take that without objection. supervisor alioto-pier: i don't believe this is going as a committee report. supervisor campos: just as a regular. take a motion then without objection. thank you very much. congratulations. madam clerk, please call item number 5. >> item number 5, ordnance amending the building cold to require an agenda of and packet of materials for each matter to be decided by the access appeals commission shall be sent to the mayor's office of disability at the same time and in the same manner as they are sent to the commission members. supervisor campos: for a brief description of what the item does the order ordnance would simply provide -- ordinance would simply provide the appeals which among other things reviews accessibility issues in building projects that those materials be referred to the mayor's office of disability. supervisor alioto-pier indicates that she introduced this item because most people interested in issues relating to disability access rely on the mayor's office of disability to get information rather than relying on the department of building inspection. of course this does not change the fact that the appeals commission would still have the final say on building appeals. this is something to me makes sense. why don't we open it up to public comment. if there is any member of the public who would like to speak on this item? seeing none. public comment is closed. madam clerk, do we have to accepted this to committee report? if we have a motion. motion by supervisor mar. take that without objection. thank you very much. next we have a number of items that would require us to go into closed session. before we do that i would like to provide an opportunity to members of the public to speak on any of the items that are listed for the closed session and that would be items 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 and 14. i have to you speaker cards. i have several speaker cards of individuals here to speak on item 8. if i may, let me read the names. if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak on any of these items, please come forward. steven lead, peter, sam gold, sunny francis, ken lead, sorry if i mispronounce the name, steve, general -- jen, nick, howard, ken, joshua, ray, and then any other member of the public who would like to speak simply come forward. if you can please come up. >> hello. my name is john rhodes, and i have run an overnight poetry show on public access tv for almost three years now and through public access i have been able to syndicate my tv show on about 20 different channels across the u.s.. it shows regularly in cambridge, and philadelphia, and i have had a lot of good luck in working with the people at public access. i have had 2340 problems -- no problems. i think they deserve respect for taking on the new people. taking on the new public access, and providing money to run public access. if i understand correctly, they haven't actually received the money. they have actually started running it with their own money. i could be wrong, but from what i understand they are running it with their own money in hopes that they will get the money from comcast. through litigation with you people. i recommend they get the money. i hope i'm understanding this correctly. and i think there are some people who complain about public access, but they are only allowed two workers and one part-time person to run the whole public access because the rule said, i think comcast has laid down. and there's lots of things that needs fixing with what's been written and i think the bottom line is we have to be practical about this and work with what we have. and if we have a system working, we shouldn't just throw it out and say we don't like this. destroy all the steps we have taken to fix the problem that we have. and i guess that's about it. thank you very much supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. >> i would like to thank you for allowing me to speak. my name is sam gold. public access producer. for decades public access programming on cable tv was provided a virtual free forum for community activists, aspiring entertainers, star wannabes, as well as serious minded political activists. it was paid for out of money provided by the cable companies in exchange for wiring up our cities and towns. money well spent. a few years ago at&t and verizon and some other phone companies wanted to get into the lucrative cable market but they didn't want to have to support what they felt were certain money draining contractual obligations. public access television was one of these. they pumped millions of dollars into a complain to negotiate cable franchises on the state level rather than the sit by -- city by city basis. the money talked and the legislators in 20 other states were hoodwinked into passing similar laws despite the importance of this very sacred first amendment right. the right of free speech by our citizens. the mantra of the phone companies was cheaper rate. the digital infrastructure and video competition act passes and once again our legislators were grossly misinformed and suckered into passing this legislation whose true goal was only saving the phone companies money, period. let's fast forward to today. we are here because the act was promised additional funds from the cable company to support san francisco comments. our new public access provider. the money is necessary simply to keep the doors opened. no one can rub a -- run a public access channel on $170,000 a year. it barely pays the rent on market street for access san francisco. our communities have a very diverse makeup with people from many different countries settling down and putting down roots. sacramento, a bed of high technology companies, for example, has a large hindu, punjabi, and arab speaking population. access sacramento, their access channel, make sure there are plenty of programs to serve their community in native languages. san francisco proudly has one of the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the nation. public access television serves them well. no one else will. it's not cost-effective for channels, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7 to serve as a niche market. if i made add, several public access television programs have had the highest honor in the industry bestowed upon them by being awarded emmy awards for their outstanding programs. our own access newsroom was nominated for one years ago. full disclosure network from marina dell ray was awarded one for their outstanding investigative reporting. mainstream media won't touch the story about superior court judges who violate the laws with impunity. it's up to those brave public access reporters to make us aware of the real news that we need to know about. because of this, los angeles lost 12 public access channels and many more are struggling. just a few days ago -- reason know, nevada lost theirs. supervisor campos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> my name is peter. i'm a producer at san francisco public access station. i run a show twice a month. supervisor campos: speak into the mike, please. >> i run a show twice a month. 22-minute show in the flash studio live. i came down just to speak about my experiences. i would like to see the public access station receive the funds in question so that they can continue to develop the service that is they provide. i have heard different matters of controversy come up and i'm not an administrator or in position to comment on the overall rating of the services. i think i certainly am in favor of accountability and if people feel that more effort is needed to check the accountability of the organization, i'm all in favor of that. but my personal experience is that i came to the public access station a year ago when it was suffering from lack ever funds and was told that most of the service has been shut down. the added suites had been shut down. -- edit suites had been shut down. the production studio had been shut down. the classes had been shut down because of the lack of funding. it was taken over and was able to keep the station going. i made the transition from the old studio to the new one. i'm a low-income person. i' taking classes at city college. i applied for the low-income membership and i am a member at a cost of $10 a year which i think is very reasonable. i have been able to produce my show twice a week without interruption from the time i began under the old public access tv administration through the transition and now for almost a year. there is certainly a loss of personnel with the new budget and the new structure and that sometimes causes some disappointment i think in terms of the ability to respond quickly to all the people who are involved. but overall i think it's been very helpful to see the public access station continue and to see it develop. we have the larger studio than before. they are trying to integrate the public access station into different kinds of web services. i feel that it offers me a great
VietnamRepublic-ofUnited-statesNevadaIraqRichmond-districtCaliforniaAfghanistanCity-collegePhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaBalad and all the other commissioners to figure out how we can move this agency forward. i will be supporting the nomination but let me say that the problem that i have is not with the nomination itself. i think the nomination is a solid, as solid a nomination as we can have. the problem i have is with the structure that we currently have at the board of the m.t.a. i do believe that the current structure, notwithstanding some exceptions, i point to commissioner oka as one of those exceptions, the current structure does not, in my view, provide for the level of accountability and independence that is needed. i think that until that structure changes, that we are going to continue to have some of the same problems. we are going to continue to have a lack of representation in certain communities. we are going to continue to have a lack of transparency on some issues. i think that's the reason why those of us who submitted a charter amendment for the ballot felt very strongly that that charter amendment neated to go forward because we do need comprehensive muni reform and reform that only includes the communities that we talked about, but along the lines that were discussed by members of the public, youth, seniors, disabled, and so many diverse communities in san francisco. i think that given the current structure we are not going to do better than this nomination. so i'm very happy to be supportive of that. we can take that without objection. we can take that as a committee report. woid. -- without objection. thank you. madam clerk, please call item four. >> item number four, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending january 31, 2012, to the veterans affairs commission. supervisor campos: thank you very much. we have one seat and until recently we had two applicants. i have been informed that one of the applicants, matthew shea, has withdrawn his application. so if we can please call, and i apologize if i mispronounce the last name. anthony alfidi. >> good morning. supervisor campos: welcome to the rules committee. thank you for being here. >> good morning. i would like to thank the rules committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak. my name is tony alfidi. i have been a resident of san francisco since 2004 and i'm applying for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the county veterans affairs commission. my experience in this regard is i'm a veteran myself. i'm currently serving as a major in the u.s. army reserve. i have a total time in service of about a years. eight have been active duty. the remainder in reserve. i'm currently assigned as the intelligence officer for fifth brigade, 75th division. at camp parks, california. short park ride away. i spent last year in combat. i was deployed to iraq to join base balad from march to december of 2009. i did not experience direct combat because i had a staff position there. but we did experience a significant number of mortar and rocket attacks on two occasions i felt the blast wave and saw the explosion, about 300 to 500 meters away of several attacks that we suffered at joint base balad. i feel fortunate in the fact i do not have any psychological or physical ailments as a result of my service. i don't have a purple heart. but i do know a significant number of veterans who experienced it worse than i have. specifically in my unit right now there is one person who is an outpatient at the v.a. center in palo aalto for traumatic brain injury he received while he was in iraq. another officer who suffered partial hearing loss as a result of an ambushes he experienced in iraq. people like this need our help. they have problems. and part of the mandate of the veterans' affairs commission is to advise the mayor of the conditions affecting veterans in san francisco. i hope to fulfill that mandate as an active member of the commission. furthermore, i have attended several meetings of the commission as a member of the general public since february. i have been attempting and providing public comment when necessary and asked by other commission members and several of those commission members are present today. i believe they can speak on my behalf as to whether or not my input has been material to their discussions. and i'd like to entertain any requests that supervisors have for me at this time. supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? supervisor mar? supervisor mar: thank you for your willingness to serve. my father is an army vet. he passed away a few years ago but he was always very proud of his service and i appreciate yours. i just had a question. one of my constituents who grew up in the richmond district is now an author. he wrote a book, called "the work" washington's battle against america's veterans. one of the issues he deals with is many vets coming back from iraq like yourself come back with serious posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and yet the system is very hard to prove to the federal government that a vet has those symptoms. many of them lead to homelessness and other issues if they are not treated. i'm wondering do you have any thoughts about how we can break down the bureaucratic barriers to that? many people that need mental health and other services get it not just at fort miley but other services within the city and the federal system? >> i think one way to help solve that is to have -- is to help the governor implement his operation welcome home project. he initiated that to co-locate veteran service support centers with other government programs that can help solve veterans problems. i think an excellent way to apply that is right in the veterans building in the memorial complex right across the street from city hall. the american legion war memorial commission is currently working a project business plan to propose full utilization of that building by organizations such as u.s.o., v.a., veterans job training resources to bring it into the underutilized sources of that building and have a one stop shopping center where any veteran can go there and fully utilize its intended role to serve veterans. that would help and i believe the commission with its resources, member of the commission who are members of veterans organizations can marshal the support of those organizations to get publicity, get atngs from the mayor's office, and other agencies that can send traffic there. >> i look forward to working with you on that. that sounds great. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. open it up to public comment. we have a number of speaker cards. commissioner wallace levin, john caldera, steven, and if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak, please come up. thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm wallace levin. immediate past president of the commission. long time member of the commission. i have had the honor during the history of the commission to hold seat number 3 and originally that seat was for korean war veterans. and i left that seat and it's interesting this is the 60th anniversary of the start of the korean war, and i didn't leave the seat in honor of that, but i'm very happy that tony is going to, obviously, be appointed to this seat. this will be the first time anyone else has ever held this seat in the history of the commission, and i cannot think of a more qualified veteran to come on to the commission than tony. the reason that it's sort of ironic and important, as ulls old veterans move on, it's important to bring in new young veterans. he will be one of the, if not the youngest veteran on the commission. he will be the only iraq-afghanistan veteran on the commission. he will be the only member of the commission that is actively still involved with the military. so his ability to give needed input is extremely important. and i wanted to also say there was one other point that -- about him. i was going to say he's going to be -- i know what it was. he has attended this year more meetings of the veterans' affairs commission than 1/ of the commissioners. which i think is -- 1/3 of the commissioners. which i think is interesting. he's attended more meetings of the commission as a noncommissioner than anyone i can ever remember. he is really going to be an a set. he's the future of the commission -- an asset. he's the future of the commission. i wanted to also say there is that expression about one person's freedom fighter is someone else's terrorist. well, one person's leadership may be looked upon as domineering and overbearing, but other people it may be just good leadership. i wanted to point out that no commission in san francisco is made up with more diversity than the veterans' affairs commission. and it's always been made up with complete diversity a effects the total makeup of san francisco. and i want to also point out decades before don't-ask, don't-tell was enacted, i wrote and introduced and this commission passed this resolution decades ago, supporting the right of all americans to serve in the armed forces and that that service should be free of any discrimination and prejudice. so i'm proud of what the commission does. we are very limited. we only can advise. but it's a very, very important commission. i wanted to also -- thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker. good morning. >> good morning, supervisor mar, and chairman campos. i'm a san francisco commissioner as well-appointed by the board to the veterans affairs commission. for the record i have a 100% attendance since my appointment to this commission. i'm very pleased to stand here in favor of this appointment. right now i believe this is about as important an appointment as you will be able to make. right now the returning afghanistan and iraq veterans have a suicide rate of five to one of their counterparts right now in our society. right now depending on which organization you speak to, 25% to 35% of the homeless on our streets are veterans. and we need veterans that are going to address these issues. within less than two years, all veterans that use, the veterans building, will be homeless. as in building goes through a seismic retrofit, every organization that uses the veterans building, 401 van ness, will have to do whatever it does in a different location. and currently there is no set plan for where these veterans are going to go. so with the support of the board of supervisors and this commission and this appointment, i think that we can do positive things for our veterans of san francisco. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you commissioner. thank you for your great work. next speaker, please. >> good morning. supervisors of the rules committee. i'm steve, i was appointed to this commission about eight months ago. i have attended all eight meetings of the commission since that time and i believe six out of those eight meetings we have had a wonderful guest who has spoken out when first of all when asked to, but other times when it's been important. and that's major alfidi. i met him only during these meetings. i didn't know him before that. but i have been fortunate to have numerous conversations with him outside the conference room of the v.a.c. and i have learned quite a bit about major alfidi and i support his appointment completely to this commission. he'll be a great asset. i think the commission is on its way to dealing with relevant issues of importance to the veterans of this city. some of which have been mentioned before. one of which is employment of course, and the high unemployment rate amongst returning veterans. major alfidi probably won't be thrilled that i'm bringing this up, but in our private conversations he told me that he, too, faced some discrimination when he returned from iraq to look for a job, which he was well qualified in in the field of finance and investment opportunity. and he was turned down by a number of corporations in the city of san francisco and in the bay area and with all his qualifications and all we talk about support the veteran and thank you for your service and all that, and yet even in this high collar -- white collar, high level job he was discriminated against basically on the fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome. and this happens over and over again. it's an area that the veterans affairs commission should start to look into about why it is on one side of the issue we already know that people with ptsd have to be helped and deserve all the help they can get. on the other side of the coin there are employers all over this city who are fearful of hiring veterans from iraq, afghanistan. especially ones that have had numerous tours there because of their unfounded for the most part and uneducated fear of this posttraumatic stress syndrome and someone may quote-unquote go postal in their office or whatever. this is an important thing. i'm glad to report that major alfidi didn't take this as a defeat and started his own corporation and is doing his own investment counseling and financial advising and doing very well in doing so. great asset to the commission. i appreciate it. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is ray, i'm a veteran from the vietnam war, 1962 to 1966. probably served my con-- proudly served my country. from then until now i have been working in the community. there are many veterans came out of the vietnam war came directly to the community because regular jobs they could not hold down. and ptsd in my opinion, i'm being treated for ptsd. it has to be part of the orientation in the army, in combat troops even before they are deployed because you will get ptsd in combat because it's trauma. and trauma is happening when you are deployed. it's not like a big, big question. there's no question about it. you are going to be traumatized. start it at orientation, through deployment, through combat, and back as one seamless task. instead of you have to come and figure out five years later when you don't have no wife, no kids, you destroyed your job, that there might be something wrong. see what i'm trying to say? half the stuff in the beginning, middle, and bring the troops ready to go into treatment. not after. there's that whole big gap afterwards. we have to do outreach. we know this. no. you start as soon as you walk into the thing and raise your hand, you know you are going to be traumatized on the battlefield. right then and there guarantee you right there, service from the day you raise your hand and say i do to the day you come back and get married. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, i have to say that i'm very supportive of this appointment. and i want to thank the major for coming forward. and i also appreciate all the comments from the commissioners and i think that we are very lucky to have people of the caliber of these commissioners serving in this capacity. and whatever we can do as a board to assist in that endeavor look forward to doing that. if we can take a motion to come forward. >> so moved. supervisor campos: as a committee report f we can take that without objection. supervisor alioto-pier: i don't believe this is going as a committee report. supervisor campos: just as a regular. take a motion then without objection. thank you very much. congratulations. madam clerk, please call item number 5. >> item number 5, ordnance amending the building cold to require an agenda of and packet of materials for each matter to be decided by the access appeals commission shall be sent to the mayor's office of disability at the same time and in the same manner as they are sent to the commission members. supervisor campos: for a brief description of what the item does the order ordnance would simply provide -- ordinance would simply provide the appeals which among other things reviews accessibility issues in building projects that those materials be referred to the mayor's office of disability. supervisor alioto-pier indicates that she introduced this item because most people interested in issues relating to disability access rely on the mayor's office of disability to get information rather than relying on the department of building inspection. of course this does not change the fact that the appeals commission would still have the final say on building appeals. this is something to me makes sense. why don't we open it up to public comment. if there is any member of the public who would like to speak on this item? seeing none. public comment is closed. madam clerk, do we have to accepted this to committee report? if we have a motion. motion by supervisor mar. take that without objection. thank you very much. next we have a number of items that would require us to go into closed session. before we do that i would like to provide an opportunity to members of the public to speak on any of the items that are listed for the closed session and that would be items 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 and 14. i have to you speaker cards. i have several speaker cards of individuals here to speak on item 8. if i may, let me read the names. if there is any other member of the public who would like to speak on any of these items, please come forward. steven lead, peter, sam gold, sunny francis, ken lead, sorry if i mispronounce the name, steve, general -- jen, nick, howard, ken, joshua, ray, and then any other member of the public who would like to speak simply come forward. if you can please come up. >> hello. my name is john rhodes, and i have run an overnight poetry show on public access tv for almost three years now and through public access i have been able to syndicate my tv show on about 20 different channels across the u.s.. it shows regularly in cambridge, and philadelphia, and i have had a lot of good luck in working with the people at public access. i have had 2340 problems -- no problems. i think they deserve respect for taking on the new people. taking on the new public access, and providing money to run public access. if i understand correctly, they haven't actually received the money. they have actually started running it with their own money. i could be wrong, but from what i understand they are running it with their own money in hopes that they will get the money from comcast. through litigation with you people. i recommend they get the money. i hope i'm understanding this correctly. and i think there are some people who complain about public access, but they are only allowed two workers and one part-time person to run the whole public access because the rule said, i think comcast has laid down. and there's lots of things that needs fixing with what's been written and i think the bottom line is we have to be practical about this and work with what we have. and if we have a system working, we shouldn't just throw it out and say we don't like this. destroy all the steps we have taken to fix the problem that we have. and i guess that's about it. thank you very much supervisor campos: great. thank you very much. >> i would like to thank you for allowing me to speak. my name is sam gold. public access producer. for decades public access programming on cable tv was provided a virtual free forum for community activists, aspiring entertainers, star wannabes, as well as serious minded political activists. it was paid for out of money provided by the cable companies in exchange for wiring up our cities and towns. money well spent. a few years ago at&t and verizon and some other phone companies wanted to get into the lucrative cable market but they didn't want to have to support what they felt were certain money draining contractual obligations. public access television was one of these. they pumped millions of dollars into a complain to negotiate cable franchises on the state level rather than the sit by -- city by city basis. the money talked and the legislators in 20 other states were hoodwinked into passing similar laws despite the importance of this very sacred first amendment right. the right of free speech by our citizens. the mantra of the phone companies was cheaper rate. the digital infrastructure and video competition act passes and once again our legislators were grossly misinformed and suckered into passing this legislation whose true goal was only saving the phone companies money, period. let's fast forward to today. we are here because the act was promised additional funds from the cable company to support san francisco comments. our new public access provider. the money is necessary simply to keep the doors opened. no one can rub a -- run a public access channel on $170,000 a year. it barely pays the rent on market street for access san francisco. our communities have a very diverse makeup with people from many different countries settling down and putting down roots. sacramento, a bed of high technology companies, for example, has a large hindu, punjabi, and arab speaking population. access sacramento, their access channel, make sure there are plenty of programs to serve their community in native languages. san francisco proudly has one of the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the nation. public access television serves them well. no one else will. it's not cost-effective for channels, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7 to serve as a niche market. if i made add, several public access television programs have had the highest honor in the industry bestowed upon them by being awarded emmy awards for their outstanding programs. our own access newsroom was nominated for one years ago. full disclosure network from marina dell ray was awarded one for their outstanding investigative reporting. mainstream media won't touch the story about superior court judges who violate the laws with impunity. it's up to those brave public access reporters to make us aware of the real news that we need to know about. because of this, los angeles lost 12 public access channels and many more are struggling. just a few days ago -- reason know, nevada lost theirs. supervisor campos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> my name is peter. i'm a producer at san francisco public access station. i run a show twice a month. supervisor campos: speak into the mike, please. >> i run a show twice a month. 22-minute show in the flash studio live. i came down just to speak about my experiences. i would like to see the public access station receive the funds in question so that they can continue to develop the service that is they provide. i have heard different matters of controversy come up and i'm not an administrator or in position to comment on the overall rating of the services. i think i certainly am in favor of accountability and if people feel that more effort is needed to check the accountability of the organization, i'm all in favor of that. but my personal experience is that i came to the public access station a year ago when it was suffering from lack ever funds and was told that most of the service has been shut down. the added suites had been shut down. -- edit suites had been shut down. the production studio had been shut down. the classes had been shut down because of the lack of funding. it was taken over and was able to keep the station going. i made the transition from the old studio to the new one. i'm a low-income person. i' taking classes at city college. i applied for the low-income membership and i am a member at a cost of $10 a year which i think is very reasonable. i have been able to produce my show twice a week without interruption from the time i began under the old public access tv administration through the transition and now for almost a year. there is certainly a loss of personnel with the new budget and the new structure and that sometimes causes some disappointment i think in terms of the ability to respond quickly to all the people who are involved. but overall i think it's been very helpful to see the public access station continue and to see it develop. we have the larger studio than before. they are trying to integrate the public access station into different kinds of web services. i feel that it offers me a great opportunity to learn more about entering the broadcast field and presenting programming to a wider audience. programming that wouldn't be available on any kind of commercial or regular cable channel. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> steve. i would like to use the internet if i could. is that possible? >> i don't believe you can access the internet from here. >> ok. well, i'll refer to it, then. supervisors, the project has had a program on san francisco community access since 1994. we have fought for transparency
VietnamRepublic-ofUnited-statesNevadaIraqRichmond-districtCaliforniaAfghanistanCity-collegePhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaBalad