I left mine in the car. Thanks. Madam chair. We are ready to begin. Okay i like it. Are we still planning. Okay okay. Good morning and welcome to the august 18th, 2023, regular meeting of the San FranciscoEthics Commission. Todays meeting is being live cable cast on of gov tv and streamed live online at esp gov tv. Org ethics live for Public Comment. Members of the public may attend in person or may participate by phone or the web platform as explained in our agenda document. Mr. Clerk, can you please explain how the remote Public Comment will be handled today . Thank you, madam chair. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak. For those attending in person, opportunities to speak during the Public Comment period will be made available here in room 400 city hall. For those attending remotely Public Comment period can also be provided via phone call by calling. 14156550001. Again, the phone number. Is 14156550001. Access code. Is 26620724697. Again an access code. Is 266200724697. Followed by the pound sign, then press pound again to join as an attendee when your item of interest comes up, press star three to raise your hand to be added to the Public Comment line. Public comment is also available via the webex client application. Use the webex link on the agenda to connect and press the raise hand button to be added to the Public Comment line for detailed instructions about how to interact with the telephone system or webex client. Please refer to the Public Comment section of this agenda document for this meeting. Public comment may also be submitted in writing and will be shared with the commission after this meeting has concluded and will be included as part of the official meeting file. Written comments should be sent to Ethics Commission at sf gov. Org. Once again, written comments should be sent to Ethics Commission at sf. Gov org. Members of the public who who attend are members of the public who attend Commission Meetings, including remote attendance are also expected to behave responsibly and respectfully during Public Comment. Please address your comments to the commission as a whole and not to individual members as persons who engage in namecalling. Shouting interruption or other distracting behavior may be excluded from participation. The following behaviors or activities are strictly prohibited during remote participation. Applause or vocal expression of support or opposition signs regardless of content or message, provide manatee threats of physical aggression. The prohibition on signs does not apply to clothing , which includes signage pinned to clothing messages displayed on clothing pins, hats or buttons. This provision supplements rules and policies adopted by city hall, the sheriffs office, or the board of supervisors, related to decorum, prohibited conduct or activities. Noise etcetera and is not meant to be exhausted. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. I call the meeting to order. Lets go to agenda item number one, which is roll call please. Commissioner flores, thing. Hi, commissioner finland. Hi, chair lee. Present commissioner salahi. Present madam chair. With four members present and accounted for. You have a quorum. Thank you. Lets go to agenda item number two, which is general Public Comment. Would anyone in the audience wish to speak. Commissioners my name is francisco dacosta. I have been involved with the Ethics Commission since its beginning. This commission is operation is now corrupt and fails to meet the charter requirement on the waters. Direct action. You may think you can hoodwink the public, but the time has come. Now. To take this matter to a higher level. I will just state one thing. The secretary, for example, of this commission should be in the pendant. It is not what this commission has done or come to you in recent years is be a lackey of certain very evil and corrupt entities in city hall. We know this. I participated in the Sunshine Task force that has been destroy fraud. As i stated, i participated in the Ethics Commission this is San Francisco. We uplift one another. We do not take people into a cesspool. What has been created today by commissioners is that yall are being anointed by very corrupt people to do very corrupt actions, much like what is happening with donald trump. My much like what is happening with donald trump. This is San Francisco. And if the Sunshine Task force and the Ethics Commission doesnt do right, then we will fail. Oftentimes i call from home. Today im here. To pay my respects. To charlie mack. Stella who often came here and spoke truth to power recently. He passed away in an sro. His body was found many days after his death. This is the plight of our advocates. We fight has expired, but nobody respects us. Thank you. Anyone else in the room who wish to address the commission . If not, lets go to the remote queue, please. Madam chair, we have no callers in the queue. Okay. Public comment is closed. Now lets go to agenda item number. Three consent calendar. There will be no separate discussion on the consent calendar item unless a request is made by a Commission Member or a member of the public. In which event the matter will be removed from the consent calendar with any member of the commission wish to any items. I see none. I see none from the audience. So let us go to Public Comment on consent. Item number three, which is eths commission. July 14th, 2023 regular meeting. Number four acting executive directors report number five proposed tabulation decision and order in the matter of frank fung, six proposed the stipulation decision and order in the matter of San FranciscoBicycle Coalition. San francisco Bicycle Coalition education fund, Brian Whitmire and janice lee. Lets go to the Public Comment. Anyone in room . I see none. Lets go to the queue, please. Madam chair, we have one caller in the queue. Please stand by. Welcome. Caller your three minutes begins now. Can you hear me okay . Yes. Okay david, good morning. On the draft minutes. There was a. I believe somewhere i im having trouble finding it right now. Referred to someone. Maybe it was at the end, someone stated and i think the word that was listed was stated. Yes yeah. Page nine. Chair lee asked, and perhaps it should refer to deputy City Attorney brad rossi as or something if he had anything to add. He stated no, i think that should be stated and i think there was some other there was simply on clarity about a couple of the votes. Perhaps if someone on on staff or elsewhere could just do another read through the minutes. I think there may be some clarifying edits that would be helpful. Nothing substantive, but i think to the extent that the minutes reflect the actions taken in the record of those actions, they should be as as accurate as possible. I think those are my comments at this time. Thanks very much for listening. Capture that. Madam chair. Theres no further callers in the queue. You able to capture the comments . I was having some. The minutes could be amended to reflect that stunning correction if thats. Thank you. Any other callers . No, theres no further callers in the queue. Madam chair. Okay. Public comment is close. Colleagues to entertain a motion. To approve the consent consent calendar subject to whatever spelling fixes staff makes in the draft minutes. Second. Second. Roll call please. A motion has been made. I will now take roll commissioner flores vang. Hi, commissioner. Finland. Hi. Chair lee. Hi, commissioner. Hi, madam chair. With four votes in the affirmative and zero votes opposed the motion is approved unanimously. Okay now let us go to item number seven, which is election of Commission Vice chair for Ethics Commission bylaws. Article four, section. One. I wish to ask our acting Deputy Director, mr. Massey, to provide an overview of the process for nominating and electing the vice chair for the for the coming year. That ends in february. Okay. Thank you, madam chair. The commissions bylaws do not provide for a specific method for the election of its officers. The commission is customarily employed the following procedure for the election of its officers. Any commissioner who wishes to nominate a candidate for vice chair will state the name of that person that person agrees to run that person is nominated. Commissioners may also self nominate for vice chair when there are no further nominations in after Public Comment, the chair will close the nominations and take a roll call vote in which each commissioner shall state the name of the nominee for whom he or she is voting. If a nominee receives three or more votes, that person is elected vice chair. If no nominee receives three votes, the commission may have further discussion and proceed to another vote. This process shall repeat until one nominee has received three or more votes. Okay. Let us open the floor for any nominations for vice chair. Id like to nominate tyce commissioner. Jones if none nomination is close, lets take Public Comment. Place i see none here. Do you have a second . Do we need a second. A deputy City Attorney, brad. Commissioners, i dont think you need a second for the nomination of an officer in this situation. Thanks so let us go to Public Comment. Commissioners. If you read roberts rules. Youll understand the statement that i made. Having said that, let me state because i know that a lot of people listening to me at home, i stated that this commission. Needs to have standards and i see. And ive been here for a long time, many years. And i see that on our commission today. We need a. Candidates that reflect the wishes and the standards, the morals and the ethics of san franciscans and i do not say that and i say that in watching yall from before, even though some of yall have represented on the fair political practices commission, some of yall purport to be attorneys, yall still do not do Due Diligence. And you could see that in your budget. So whoever is appointed, you know, we need you have a budget now, but you need to do Due Diligence as so. Ill be following yall. Im not going to be calling in, but ill be watching yall and ill be addressing the issues on my blog. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other callers. Madam chair, we have one caller in the queue. Please stand by. Welcome. Caller your three minutes begins now. Commissioner is. Thank you , commissioners. My name is carol harvey. Ive been an investigator, reporter and a citizen of San Francisco for 30 years. Im here to honor Charles Marsteller. And bob plante holds true warriors in the fight for honesty and integrity in San Francisco politics. I learned about the kauffman charter when connie chan ran for supervisor for a majority of San Francisco citizens is an agreement that the city and county of San Francisco and San FranciscoCity Government are more deeply corrupt than ever before. Correcting this appalling and dysfunctional situation mandates many sweeping, bold and honest changes. First, we need a Charter Amendment to replace the kauffman charters adverse effects so that ethics can be elected with a protected budget to do truly independent investigations. Second, we must conduct a recall of all the Ethics Commissioners, followed by an intensive effort to make certain that their replacements are highly ethical people. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to remind members of the public that the opportunity for our Public Comment to the specific agenda items is for the special agenda items and there will be ample opportunity for you to comment on other items. Thats not included in todays agenda items later on. Any other members of the public waiting in the queue . No, maam. If not, oh, my apologies. Good morning, commissioner. My name is lois scott and ive been voting in San Francisco for over 40 years, and worked for the city for over three decades as a senior, ive been participating in an Informal Group of citizens who recognize and want to reduce corruption and we call ourselves the anti corrupt action coalition. Ive come today to talk about Charlie Marsteller, who died several weeks ago. He was a mentor to us and a leader in the creation of the Ethics Commission by amendment to the city charter in 1993. He was a proponent of Campaign Finance and the lobbying disclosure legislation and a keen critic of dereliction in, except for his association with sf common cause and the San Francisco league of women voters. He stood above the fray, analytical and abhorrent of any self interest in any issue. But he knew who the miscreants were. Your commission is, is or should be an important asset to those wanting integrity and government. Charlie always hoped you would have some success, as most Public Employees and citizens hope so too, and have been disappointed and id like to recount just a few of my unhappy experiences as whistleblower. And im just going to summarize here, because i know this may not completely fit what your agenda item is and so called random audits of small Political Action groups. One group that i was a part of came up for several audits and almost broke the group with all the costs except that we won a lawsuit that corrupt contracts at puc. As an active City Employee and newly minted Union President in 2007, i brought concerns of some ethical engineers to the board of supervisors and almost got excuse indicated was is the city family a racketeering, influential, corrupt organization then now corrupt contracts remain and it is doubtful that statements of economic interests are very effective. We watch, we wait, we care. We vote. We remember the inspiring work of Charles Marsteller and bob plant hold. So thank you. Thank you. Okay Public Comment to agenda. Item number seven is closed and neglected. To ask commissioner finley whether he would accept the nomination before we take a vote, i assume yes, madam chair, i accept. Okay so, commissioners , as i call you a name. Oh you would be calling me. Okay, lets take the roll, please. Commissioners, as i call your name, please vote by stating the name of the individual for whom you cast your vote to serve as vice chair of the Ethics Commission for the coming year, beginning august 18th, 2023 through february 29th, 2024. Commissioner flores fang. Commissioner mr. Live. Chair Lee Commission commissioners leahy. Commissioner finley. Madam chair, by a vote of 4 to 0, the commission is elected commissioner finley to serve as vice chair, beginning august 18th, 2023, through february 29th, 2024. Congratulations vice chair phillip. Congratulate. Okay its going to be a wonderful, happy term. Now lets go to agenda item number eight, which is discussion and possible action on executive director recruitment process, which may include consideration and action to rectify selection of executive search firm to assist Ethics Commission in recruiting and screening candidate. I ask our acting Deputy Director to introduce the item and give us a brief. Summary of how we can recall. We are recessing the executive search process. This also requires that we find a new executive search firm, the department of Human Resources has conducted a mini solicitation of approved firms and that solicitation is closed. We have one firm that has applied so that firms berkeley search is the firms proposal that is in your packet. And so today you can consider that firm and you today we would ask that you ratify selection of that firm so we can proceed with the hiring process. Thank you. I also want to mention that mr. Paul green from hr is here to answer any questions or if you want to add any information on. I think he summed it up pretty well. If you vote to approve this contract and then i will reach out to the firm and coordinate a meeting with you. Chair lee, to begin the next steps. Okay thank you. Let us go to Public Comment. Any comment from my colleagues . None. Lets go to Public Comment, please. I see none in the room. Anyone waiting in the queue . Madam chair, we have no callers in the queue. Commissioners. For those of us chronologically speaking, for those of us atten