Welcome to the regular meeting of the San FranciscoEthics Commission for december. Ill call the roll. Vice mayor well, it could happen. You could be elevated right now. [roll call] so everybodys present. Well now have Public Comment on matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda. Im bob planthold. I want to say that during the time off that you have over this Holiday Season and in the next few weeks, it is time to congratulate yourself but also to take stock and see what else is ahead of you. Not just in the work plan, but what youve done so far. Is it adequate . Appropriate . Responsive . Specifically on the accountability act. I think you passed something that was too pharaoh in its application by only applicable to a commissioner for groups, agencies, people with business before that commission. The very fact that there havent been problems reported is because there was no such prohibitions before. I can see scenarios where somebody from such as lets say the Fire Commission could go to contractors who may be having business before Building Inspection Commission or human rights certifications and seek some donations. And a commissioner from one of those other two going to people appearing before the Fire Commission. I can see a back and forth cross channeling of efforts to raise money. So, i think its still too narrow and there is going to be a lot of you scratch my back and ill scratch yours fls you revisit this and considering that the suits will have their bite at the apple, whenever it comes back, whatever changes they suggest, maybe you reopen the narrowness of this commission prohibition on these. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, chair and members. 14 year ago, voters passed propc requiring board of supes to enact a whistleblower act to protect those. And in 2015, the civil grand jury issued its report saying that the whistleblower protection ordinance is in need of change because board of supes had failed to carry out their mandate to pass a genuine to pass amendments that would genuinely protect City Employees. Nearly three years after the grand jury issued its report, theres still been no action. This Commission Approved your wplo amendments on march 28, 2016 and you submitted them to the board of supes. The jurys recommendation, 1. 3, clearly stated that if the board failed to act, this commission should submit wplo amendments directly to the voters. The board has failed to act for over two years. So, you should act quickly and place wplo ae. S as you had submitted them to the board on to the june 2018 ballot before the february submission deadline. Amendments ethics submitted had recommended providing antiretaliation protections to complainants who make disclosures to county, state and federal agencies. The supervisors removed that provision and you should act to reinstate it. Along with other protections you have included in the amendments that the supervisors have further deleted. As judge Claudia Wilkin noted during the wrongful termination lawsuit, its long past time that the language in sunshine Ordinance Section 67. 22d, and 67. 22e, that provide First Amendment protections to City Employees should be and must be replicated into the whistleblower protection Ordinance Section 4. 115a. This commission should ensure those First Amendment protections are added to the wplo. City employees have First Amendment rights and it needs to be expressley stated in the wplo. Thank you. Thank you. Public comment . No one else . [inaudible]. Good evening, everyone. And as i stated in the Police Commission in the same room last week, i wanted to give my condolence to mr. Ed lee. Ive been knowing mr. Ed lee longer than anybody thats been talking about him. I knew him years before he got into politics. I knew him when he was came Jesse Jackson flew into town. He and maple tang was with the rainbow coalition. At that time i was the executive director of the way pac area project committee, which is the most powerful black organization in the united states. It was the first p. A. C. That fought against the urban renewal and justice herman. And ironically im reading in the paper today, there is some real estate guy and talk about having fake news, al term tiff news, talk about a real estate guy that wants to try to rename Justin Herman after ed lee. Now i respect ed lee. But o to the hell to the no because the stories havent come out about ed lee yet. Not one black official except for london b who i call queen b and willie brown had anything to say good or bad about ed lee. But i am giving respect until they bury the man because i know his kids to talk about the real ed lee that knows me, a. C. E. Im here basically to this agency, i very much respect yall and make sure we gonna roll together. Because the correction is still here in the city by the where everybody thinks everythings ok. And now we have queen b. At the top of the heap . We still think theyre going to hear from me simply because she happened to look like me . I dont give a damn, whoever sits in room 200 is going to have to hear of what the exmayor, the next governor newsome said about the outmigration, which the black not the African American migration, its the black outgration. I aint african america. Never been to africa. We have to differentiate when we get to the 2020 census to talk about African Americans and black. If you eliminate our race, our population is damn down like this. So, my name is ace and im on the case and im on the case. I respect. Rest in peace, ed lee. But dammit, what happened to the [inaudible] street. Now im here to speak with yall because i very much support yall. Yall the only agency that i have to bid some corruption, bring it back to where its supposed to be. Pay to play. Yall need to turn in the pay the other way. A lot of them, including my black people, are turning the other way and they know corruption is going on. Anyway, got five seconds. Glad to be here. Rest in peace, ed lee. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im larry bush from friends of ethics. I would just start by noting that ive known ed lee for over 30 years. We starteding to working in mayor agnuoss office where he was the first whistleblower, ironically. And he headed up the human rightses commission where he stood firm against rigging contracts. He was not a person who believed in corruption. He was a someone who did not have so much of a vision for the city as he was good at implementing visions that others have. Which may explain how he ends up being in the news stories for a pay to play episode back in the 2015 election. And i brought copies of tease articles because this is not about ed lee. This is about a political infrastructure at city hall that operates for the benefit of political insiders. And it does so by threatening peoples contracts and threatening their approvals. And they are spelled out pretty clearly with the mayors own staff being quoted in the stories saying that there has to be a penalty for disloyalty to the mayor. If you contribute money to the person whos the mayor opposes or if you dont support the person the mayor does support. If the list an extensive list of lobbyists, city contractors, city unions and others who were called to this meeting and told that they had to get money with ron conway saying that he could not write the checks he had in the last election because it wouldnt look good. But if he had money, he would give money to their personal causes, to compensate them for having given in a political cause. So, im asking you, in this meeting today, to set a hearing at your next Ethics Commission meeting to find out exactly what people will tell you on the record, under oath, because at this point, my conversations with the City Attorney, Dennis Herrera that when he went to find out the facts he was unable to get people to testify about it. Which is odd because it is on the front pages of every newspaper. People would talk to the reporters and not to the enforcement officers. And they said they didnt want to talk to the City Attorney because they didnt want to get caught up if an investigation. I think the Ethics Commission has an Important Role to play. Because this is not about someone soliciting, but about people who have business before the city of all kinds and i think that its appropriate that this now be put on the agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. I support mr. Bushs statement whole heartedly. I, too, have heard that story and its something that you may have heard about. But i think you need to be briefed on. In case you have not been informed about it or, as a unit, informed about it. I brought my christmas presents today and distributed them to the members of f. O. E. Since they were bitcoins, i decided not to give you your copy of it. And i just wanted to let you know i dont want any conflicts of interest between us, especially starting in the new year. I do also want to tell you that i attended the represent us meeting last week. They had a bit of a get together with new members and we discussed the fact that you were changing your calendar and they were all very disappointed because all of them clearly were working individuals who would not be able to easily attend meetings at 1 00. Not that that should stop you at all from doing so because i understand the constraints that youre under. But i do want to say that really speaks to the need for your educator outreach representative to figure out a mechanism to involve people like r. U. Members who are not able to regularly attend your meetings and my thought is that that is the way that r. U. Trains or introduces their membership, new members. To ethics about corruption in San Francisco and they bring their new members to these meetings for that purpose, expressley for that purpose. And the new group of attendees the other night were looking forward to attending these meetings until i told them that they were switching the calendar. Theres a mechanism that you can regularly meet with the newcomers to groups like r. U. , the younger people that are working because we do need desperately to cultivate younger individuals in this process of watchdoging ethics in the city. All of us are getting old and, as you can see from the canes, were getting disabled and not that our enthusiasm has waned, its our body tas are giving out. So, that is the comment i wanted to make was that its very important for us to nonetheless reach out to the younger members of the city, particularly the working professionals or even individuals. Any individual whos interested if participating in this process and keeping an eye out on the government and a the city because obviously we desperately need it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any further Public Comment . If not, then well move on to agenda item number three. Discussion and possible action on the draft minutes for the commissions november 27, 2017 regular meeting. The minutes are attached to the notice. Commissioners, any chairman, i note occasion of a comma on page or item three, which i marked a misspelled word under item four and with those changes, i would move for adoption of the draft minutes. Commissioner . I just wanted to thank whoever it was at the staff level that prepared these minutes because they were very responsive to the comments that i had made about the lack of information. I felt they were i was very pleased that i think these are very the minutes really captured what went on. And i look forward to your continuing in that process. And ill second the motion. All right. And i would associate myself with the commissioners remarks in regard to the minutes. They are excellent. All those in favour of adoption of the minutes . Aye. Opposed . Motion passes unanimously. With item number four, discussion and possible action on revised regular meetings scheduled, proposed for the Commission Bylaws change. There iss a detachment from the december 8, 2017 staff report and other attachments. I regret that it is deja vu all over again. This is an item that, as you know, the commission took up last month and unfortunately following that Commission Meeting we realised that we did not have complete information and we made an error. This is back on your agenda for a possible bylaws change again, to clarify the following. Mission meetings as proposed in this bylaw change would supersede last months change and based on room availability in city hall, as well as on the ability to cable cast live, fully the commissions meetings, we needed to make a room change and time change. The room and the time that we the Commission Approved last month would have provided for televised broadcast, but not for the duration of the meeting. That is something that we overlooked. Apologies. When we triple checked and quadruple checked the calendar. The bylaws rules proposed in this memo would provide for a regular meeting date on the third friday of each month starting at 1 00 p. M. In room 416 unless otherwise noticed. Based on that calendar, all heatings follow that schedule with the exception of the may meeting which would be on a monday, may 7 at 1 00 in city hall room 408. We apologize for having to reconsider this issue. There are extremely tight constraints on city hall meeting rooms and the availability to telecast live which is what our bylaw also require. With that, we presented this. We noticed it 10 days if advance of the meeting so that the public also has a chance to weigh in and we provide this to you for your consideration today. Thank you. Commissioner kopp . We could make that 2 00. I would have no objection because i have a conflict fridays between 12 00 and 1 30 or so. Ms. Pelham . I think that is up to the commissions discretion. But that would work out in terms of the schedule of the tv and all that stuff . Yes. The rooms on fridays are open after 12 00. Ill make such a motion. Commissioner kopp has moved to amend it so that meetings begin at 2 00 rather than 1 00. Commissioner lee . I just have a question. Obviously there would be there should be no more meetings on friday night. Is there any other meeting scheduled on the friday afternoon after hours . No, not continue not that im aware of. We checked that. In unthat are currently scheduled. Do we have a second . Ill second it. Potion motion has been made and seconded. Further comment by the axisingers . Commissioners . My only comment would be, and it is directed to the staff and the comment that was made about sort of trying to bring in those people who are otherwise employed at in an afternoon and, as i understand it, there is a telephone type of connection that can be worked out, is that right . Well, i think that is . Ing were still trying to explore. Im not familiar with how the room is set up to accommodate multiple phone lines or callin and so i im hesitant to convey a confirmation that thats doable at this point. I would urge you to check and, if at all possible, make it so that there is a number they could call in to and mute their cell phones or whatever it is until they want to address the commission. Ok . Further comment by commissioners . Well take Public Comment. Im bob planthold. Im glad you considered the change initially. Im glad you are looking again. It is a going to be widely, consistently available on tv. I support this. And i want to pointed out that sfrat attending in person, people can monitor these meetings, ao eltser through the cable tv station or because these are cablecast simultaneously. So, people at work, on a, muni bus, up in their attic, wherever they are, they can keep track of this. In terms of the callin phone number, before i wrote my comments to you, i check with the acting director on disability about the longterm practice about having a callin phone line and she verified that it is free. It is not prescribed to any part of a domestics budget. So, it is a zero cost item and the staff there can help ethics staff with getting whatever equipment. There is typically one extra phone. I think youll find a way to plug in an extra phone here in this room or in 408 as need be. Because the i. T. Folks downstairs are pretty adept at managing Public Communications of public meetings. So, i think there need not be a problem with not having at night anymore. People can, as they sometimes do at work, do their work were buds and the ear buds may connect to some other audio information other tan their work and so suddenly when they get to item x that theyre interested in, they could pause their work, dial in and speak their peace. Free to them, free to you folks and thereby increase participation more widely by multiple media. Thank you. Thank you. This is so wonderful to see that city hall has a Government Agency like this to keep track of all the construction and of all the happenings at these commissioners meetings. I just want to bring to your attention in which i have a list of complaints that i have on a number of departments and i will submit it to you before i leave. But i want to bring to your attention one agency which is i fought hard to bring them from where they used to have their commissioners meeting, which is the San FranciscoHousing Authority commissioners. Right after the mayor had announced what they call a reenvisioning. They started the p. P. P. And they were instructed to move to city hall and to have their meetings video taped. But they had not done that until they havent even done it yet and they done been through what they call the rad. And most of the Housing Authority tenants dont have a clue right now that there is no more Housing Authority left to manage over their agencieses. They have th