Good morning, everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the september 9th, 2019, meeting of the rules committee. Im hillary ronen, chair of the committee, seated to my right is and seated to my left is rules committee men, supervisor gordon mar. Our clerk is victor young. Id like to thank charles and jim smith from sfgov tv for recording this meeting. Please make sure to silence all cell phone and electronic devices. Copies of any documents to be included the committee should be submitted to the clerk. Items will appear on the september 17th board of supervisors agenda, unless otherwise stated. Thank you. Please read item number one. Appointing supervisor Rafael Mandelman for a twoyear term to be to the bay area executive government regional committee. Great. Im going to make a motion to continue this item one week to september 16th rules committee meeting, per the request the from supervisor mandelman. Before i take a vote on the motion, i want to open up this item for Public Comment. Is there any member of the public who would like to speak . Please come right on up. I recommend he be appointed. By the same response, i want to guarantee that redevelopment rules pertain to 15 of all Apartment Building complexes, that comes out of the Mayors Office on housing. Its suppose to be to very low and lowincome bracket people. Youve been violating this rule for well over several sets of administrations. Thats one of the reasons why you got over 8,000 Homeless People out on the street. We have budget hearings. You want to incorporate rules and regulations pertaining to redevelopment and use those sections of the rules that apply to people in highincome brackets. Its a violation of the constitutional rights, per taping to due process and equal protection under the law, pertaining to the 14th amendment of the most vulnerable people. And by the same response, over 98 of them and us have a combination of both mental and physical disabilities, amputees, and people in wheelchairs and are veterans as well. Its disgusting that you want to use that part of the rehabilitation rules and regulations pertaining to redevelopment for people in highincome brackets, but not the people in the very low and lowincome brackets. And you campaigned that you want to help those people, but the most you want to do is build a shelter bed and Navigation Centers, which is not Supportive Housing. And i object to the words Supportive Housing being used in a Navigation Center. Thats not Supportive Housing. [bell ringing] thats the type of Living Conditions that you have when youre in custody, when youre in jail. Its disgusting. And another good example of that for you, your grandmother. You brag about your grandmother taking care of you and your brother. How would you like it if youre in the Navigation Center and 60 days is up and told your grandmother that you and your brothers got to be kicked out of the Navigation Center and go to the other side of the city and reapply to get in. [bell ringing] thank you so much. Is there any other member of the public who would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel] i would like to make a motion to continue this item to the september 16th meeting. Can i take that without objection . Without objection, that motion passes. Clerk item number 2, is a hearing appointing team members to the Animal Commission on animal control and welfare. Please note that seats number 1, 2, 3 and 7 are currently occupied and not open for consideration today. The only seats open for consideration are seats 4, 5 and 6. My apologies for the mislisting. Wonderful. Thank you so much. So today we have five applicants for three positions. And were going to hear one by one from the applicants, if theyre here. First, can i call up michaelangelo torres. Good morning, mr. Torres. If you can let us know why youre applying to the position and your relevant experience. Can i ask a question before i start . Of course. This is my first time applying for something of this sort. Is there a time i was a little confused as far as two to three minutes just listing qualifications or is it basically just as a whole . I believe chair usually sets a general time limit for applicants at about five minutes. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Supervisor ronen, supervisor walton and supervisor mar, i really appreciate it. My name is michaelangelo torres. I have lived in San Francisco for about 33 years. I was born in los angeles, grew up mostly in orange county. But have lived in San Francisco since that time. I have been living in union square for the last ten years. I worked follow the local university, ive been there for over 25 years, various positions. But during the last 15 years, ive been the operations manager. As operations manager, i assist in all of the administrative areas, to include security, overseeing Health Security staff, as well as manage our contracted security and also help with purchasing programs and all kinds of just different administrative things. Because its such a small university, you kind of have your hands in all the different areas. I wanted to talk about my community tcommunity involvement and what ive been involved with, before i go into animalspecific stuff. Originally i was very active with the two unions i belong to, when i first moved up to the city. I was part of union two. When i first joined golden gate university, i was part of union three, to include will be a shop steward. I was one of the people who was asked to assist with Needle Exchange when it was brought into the mission. I was asked basically at the time there was it they wanted to bring in more people from the community, because there was a little bit of misunderstanding on both sides. They wanted a more Diverse Group of people to assist in this group. I spoke out to the police sweeps that were happening in the 90s, especially after the police were acquitted in the rodney king beating case. I was picked up a at that time and i spoke at a hear. I have also helped volunteer with Community United against violence, Domestic Violence and assistance for those who are survived it. I was a crisis hotline person for two years. That was every tuesday night from 7 00 p. M. Until 7 00 a. M. As you can imagine, you get all kinds of different phone calls. Even now i sometimes shudder when the phone rings, in the middle night, even though im not part of it. It was rewarding. I have helped with political campaigns, including work for Kamala Harris when he was running for district attorney. I was pretty active younger and i guess that kind of was gradually going into my older age, if you will. But then i wanted to be involved again. I think right now as a pretty interesting time, where i think a need to be involved in a lot of different things. And also, too, for someone who is getting odor, see a lot of older people also getting involved. So i think thats very encouraging and very inspiring for me. I read about Commission Seats coming and cakecies. I went to the list and reminded there was an Animal Welfare and care one as well. Im sorry. Animal control and welfare one. And it excited me. I thought this is maybe something where i have a current passion about, that i could get involved with. I spoke to a couple people involved in various commissions, as well as one that was a previous member of the commission and they encouraged it very much. That i thought i would be a very good fit for it. As far as like my experience with animals, i wasnt always in a position to actually care for animals, although i have always loved animals. I was a renter for years. For the last ten years, i have, though, been able to adopt and care for animals. I have adopted a number of animals, particularly dogs, many of them seniors, special needs, some of them hospice. In addition, i have also fostered as well. I wrote about this as well on a facebook page. I have devoted to my dogs, we have about 8,000 followers. In addition im also in the process of creating a website, which i would go over the issues involving animal, raising animals in the city and senior animals and what happens. I have also volunteered for various rescues and shelters within the city. I helped specifically with i have done everything from, you know, from sweep to do laundry, to help with dogs, pick up dogs from hospitals. What ive been doing mostly right now is ive been helping to write bios for dogs. I have written hundreds of bios for the dogs in the city. These are what come up and are displayed along with the pictures on the adoption website. In addition to helping with those throughout the state, not just in the city, i have also been asked recently, for example, by someone who was coming into a shelter in tennessee, who showed me a dog who showed me a picture of a pet, who had not been who had not shown a lot of towards her adoption. I was able to offer some suggestion and photography. And hopefully help them. She was very grateful for me doing this. [bell ringing] the open houses and animal rescues such as the doris day animal foundation. My partner and i created a doris day bingo night, which was held at her hotel in carmel. We were able to create cards and we brought in a lot of money and we also had some of our costars as well assist with the actual program. It was really fun and very rewarding. So thats a little bit of my background. You know, im not really im not, you know, associated with the shelter or rescue. I dont work with one. I come more i come more from a perspective of just someone who loves animals and wants to do something concerning it. I have attended some of the commission meetings. I have enjoyed them very much. I have a lot of respect for those who are on the commission, including those who are also in the hearing room right now. Id like to be involved with them. Id like to work on that. Theres a lot of interesting and very important issues coming up right now, concerning things such as feral cats, licensing of animals. Someone is talking about tethering and the issues involving that. And theres other issues as well. Id like to work with that as well. I have given Public Comment upon some of these and how i think also stumbling blocks, for example, to licensing. I would also like to bring into that the number of dogs on leash off of leash, im sorry. Id like to bring into the discussion as well. In addition to this, id also like to assist with the commission, working with other commissioners, especially like the environmental one or the pedestrian and safety. Because so much of this is just so interrelated. And it would be nice to do that. And i guess thats pretty much it. Again i really appreciate you giving me this chance to speak. And thank you so much. Supervisor ronen thank you so much for applying. You have incredible experience and quall physicians for qualifications for this . Thank you. Thank you. Next, if we could hear from cindy arnold. Yeah. Sorry, after cindy were going to hear from russell pinofski. You are my supervisor. Anyway, thank you for considering my application. My name is cindy arnold. Ive been a san franciscan since 1976. I currently live in the Mission District on 22nd street, near harrison, just seven blocks from the animal shelter. And ive been a volunteer at sfacc since 2004. And ive had two dogs, you know, personal personally. And i currently now only have a cat. But ive had multiple cats in the past. Ive been volunteering at a. C. C. Since 2004. And ive become increasingly interested in our public policy, as it relates to how we coexist with our animals. I have taken many of the free courses offered through the shelter about dog behavior. I have mentored other volunteers and participated in special events, like pet pride day, the sfacc earthquake drill. We used to have a regular contingent in the pride parade. We havent had that for several years. But i used to participate in that and other outreach events as well. Along with three other volunteers, im sure all of you have been to the shelter. And youve seen those beautiful tiles, the tile project. Myself and two other volunteers, we actually created that project. We came up with that idea. The animal shelters doggy play yard used to be just grass. And during the winter time, it would muck up, you know, the dogs would run around and dig up the grass. And so we started the now and forever tile project as a fundraiser to get funds for the artificial turf, that is actually in the yard now. So, you know, that was a major event. Also as well as being field trip certified, i participated in doggy play groups. And i currently stepped up my participation by going into the fetch program, which these are the dogs that come into the shelter, some of them are from the safe pets program. We have custody dogs, that are up for hearings. We have dogs that weve taken in from folks who have passed away and their dog hasnt been the disposition of their animal hasnt been adjudicated yet. So the fetch program is extremely important in giving simulation and affection to those dogs. So lets see. With regard to me personally, i have an easygoing temperament and the ability to look at all sides of an issue. Im a thoughtful and rational person, having volunteered at sfacc for 15 years. I understand the complexities of managing a shelter. I can see how law and regulations affect how we interact with our pets and the extent to which we can help them. The peaceful coexistence between us and our pets help make the city, a kinder, gentler place to live. Thats why im interested in this position. I didnt get a letter, but deb campbell, who is a volunteer coordinator at a. C. C. Knows me quite well, since riff been going in there for years. And i actually gave her a copy of this, which i submitted to you folks. And she read it and said the essence is all there. I also am an avid believer in civic participation. And as my predecessor mentioned, i, too, have been volunteering for Community United against violence. I was part of their Speakers Bureau contingent. We would go into Public Schools and talk about the lives of lgbt people. I also was a member of the golden gate business association, which is like the gay chamber of commerce here in the city. And i also volunteered with project open hand for about four years in the mid80s. And delivered meals to some of the really rough cases. My turf was 5th and 6th streets, between mission and brannen. All of those s. R. O. Hotels. So that was also quite eyeopening. I am retired. [bell ringing] i was a Small Business owner. And i care deeply about a. C. C. And i care deeply about animals. This is a certificate. I took a course from the Humane Society of silicon valley. Im getting i gave some of these to victor. I also wrote lets see. I used to write articles. This is an article from 2006 the woofer times. Its about auxiliary group raises funds for a. C. C. Dog park. And i also wrote oh, mood my goodness. Let me just get this one more thing and ill get out of your way. I also wrote an article for abatement woof and this is from 2007. March of 2007, walking shelter dogs is a labor of love. So its about to encourage volunteerism. So thats yeah, pretty much it. You know, i really i still volunteer at the shelter. I go in on thursday mornings. You can find me there between 8 30 and noon. And i volunteer on sundays as well, between around 9 00 and 1 00. Supervisor ronen wonderful. Thank you. Thats my presentation. And thank you so much for your consideration. Row thank you to you. And thank you so much for applying. I can already tell we have an impossible decision in front of us. I just wanted to say that its so interesting that two of the applicants volunteered for cua one of my favorite organizations in my district. And has nothing to do with Animal Welfare. Its amazing. Oh, yeah. Supervisor ronen theres something an incredible coincidence that i think that type of heart to care and to volunteer in these extraordinary organizations. Yeah. Well, thats one of the unique things about San Francisco. Is everybody has their thing. I can remember, you know, act up and this and that. And every were all encouraged to vote and be smart voters. And encouraged to participate. Because we make the city a better place. Supervisor ronen without a doubt. Is there any questions . Thank you so much. Great, thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you. Russell pinofski. Hi, thanks very much. Yes, you did pronounce my name correctly. Thanks. Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity. I am russell pinofski, a 14year resident of district 5, a proud old fifth guardian. For the past four years, i have served on the commissions vice chairperson. As a commission member, i have proposed six action items, all of which have passed unanimously through the commission. Two of which were picked up by the full board of supervisors and both of those passed through the full board unanimously. One of which is actually since becoming california state law. In addition to my Current Commission experience, the combination of my education, work and volunteer experience makes me precisely the type of san franciscan one wants on the Animal Welfare commission. I have a masters degree in applied ethics with an emphasis on Animal Rights and welfare. I was the director of communications and the Program Coordinator for the Guardian Campaign at indefensive animals. My responsibilities included attending countless animal control and welfare meetings in San Francisco and berkeley, which gave me great insight as to how the commissio