ringing of cell phones and pagers and similar devices are prohibited. the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of anyone using a phone or similar device. for remote participants, note the ringing of cell phones, pagers and similar devices can happen virtually and is still prohibited. please turn your devices off. due to the covid-19 health emergency and to protect commissioners, department staff, and members of the public, commissioners and department staff may participate in the meeting remotely. the exception is taken to the stay-at-home order and proceeding and preceding local state and federal orders, declarations and directive. commissioners may attend the meeting through video conference or telephone if the video fails and participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present. public comment will be available on each item in agenda. comments on matters not in the agenda, there will be an opportunity for general public comment. participates who wish to comment in person will be asked to come forward and three minute to speak each. members of the public participating remotely may comment by calling into the meeting. opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available via phone by calling 415-655-0001 and entering access code 24947091641. when connected, dial star three to be added to the queue. sf gov is streaming the number at the top of the screen. best practices are to call from a quiet location and speak clearly and slowly and silence any other devices. alternatively, members of the public may submit public comment by e-mail to environment at sf gov dot org. comments submitted via e-mail will be forwarded to the commissioners and will be included as part of the official file. i will now call the roll. president ting >> here. stephenson is excused. commissioner bermejo is excused and commissioner hunter is excused, commissioner sullivan? >> here. >> commissioner walled. >> here. >> commissioner wan >> here. commissioner, we have a quorum. >> thank you. next item. >> the next item is the president's welcome and this item is for discussion. >> good evening, everyone. the commission on the environment technologies that we occupy the unseated and homeland of the ramatish people who are the inhabitants peninsula. they understand the interconnectedness of all things and maintained harmony with nature for what linea. we honor them for their enduring commitment to mother earth as the indigenous protecters of this land and in accordance with their traditions, they have not seeded or loss or forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place and all people who reside in their traditional territory. we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland as guests, we affirm that sovereign rights as first peoples and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders and relatives of the ramashi community. as environmentalist, we recognize we must embrace indigenous nature of how we care for all their people. thank you for this important acknowledgement. very briefly for the president's welcome, i want to welcome everybody to seeing to the brief commission on the environment committee. we had another meeting two weeks ago about general matters before the commission and our public review. today our queue substantive item will be on a presentation on the commissions role in selecting a new department director by down kate howard, the managing director deputy at the department of human resources and if you have observed this process at other departments, other commissions, it is a very long process. it will take at least six months, if not longer. and during that time, i'll grateful for act being director tyron jue's leadership and bringing us through a critical phase for the department as we continue to figure out our expanding budget in the next two months as well as our climate action plan as well, which of course, director jue will take about in his director's report but until then, stay tuned and we hope to have a robust discussion today on the future selection process for our new permanent director as well. so, with that, is there any discussion, commissioners on this item? seeing none, kyle, let's open it up for public comment on the item, then. >> we will begin with public comment in the room. once in-person comment has conclude, we'll go to virtual public comment and anyone in the room who wish to speak, come forward and speak into the microphone. seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members of the public who wish to make a public comment on this item should press star three to be added to the queue. for those already on hold in the queue, wait until it's your turn to speak. we do have one caller in the queue. >> hello caller, you're unmuted. your three minutes begins now. >> david, i'm just testing to be sure i can be heard. >> we can hear you. >> charles, good, thank you. >> thank you. >> any further callers in the queue? seeing no further callers in the queue, public comment on this item has closed. >> thank you, kyle. next item, please. >> the next item in the agenda is item 3, approval of minutes of the may 10, 2022, commission on the environment special meeting and explanatory document, may 10th and 2022, draft minutes and discussion and action. >> i'll move approve -- approval of minutes. >> motion by commissioner sullivan and any other discussion on this. if not, let's open it up for public comment. >> we will begin with public comment in the room. once in-person comment have concludes, we'll proceed to remote public comment. anyone in person that would like to speak for public comment. seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members public who wish to make a public comment should press star three to be added to the queue. for those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until it is your turn to speak. we do have one caller in the queue. >> hello caller, you're unmuted. your three minutes begins now. >> david again much i have no objection to the draft minutes, to the substance, i have reviewed them briefly. once again, i suggest that it be cut in the middle of page 5. i think the additional boil plate for (indiscernible) is appropriate for the agenda but not to the minutes and other boards and commissions have recently indicated those board and commission member that's are participating remotely as to those participating physically in person, i think it's up to the body if you want to satisfy that in the minutes or the record. i believe, commissioner, president on and commission walled participates two weeks ago. i'm basing it on if and when. as to the substance, have i no objection, thanks for listening. >> thank you for your comment. >> seeing no additional callers in the queue, public comment has closed. >> call roll, kyle. >> president oahn. >> aye. >> vice-president stephenson is excused. commissioner bermejo is excused. commissioner hunter is excused. commissioner sullivan? >> aye. >> commissioner warld. >> aye >> commissioner wan? >> aye. >> the item passes. next agenda item. >> next agenda item is number four. general public comment. members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda. we'll go to public comment in the room and then go to remote public comment. if there's anyone in the room who would like to speak for public comment and please come forward one-by-one and speak into the mic and seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members of the public who wish to make a public comment on this item should press star three to be aed to the queue. for those on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until it is your turn to speak. and seeing no callers in the queue, public comment on this item has closed. >> all right. thanks, kyle. seeing no further callers, maybe we should move on to the next item. >> the next item is agenda item no. five, presentation on commission role in selecting new department director. and speaker is kate and director at the department of human resources and this item is for discussion. >> do we have you on the line? >> good afternoon, president ahn and members of the commission. i'm kate howard and i'm the managing deputy director in the city of human resources department. i appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today to review the commissions role in selecting a new director for the department of the environment. and i have a brief presentation for you. kyle, can we have the slide today, thank you. can we do the next slide? so, i'm happy to answer questions as we go and i'm happy to answer them at the end. as is noted here, the charter authorizes the mayor to select a new department head from among three or more candidates that are no, ma'am kneed by the commission on the environment. through your role is really an essential role in this process in that your responsibility as a commission is to conducts a recruitment process which will identify candidates for the director position and interview and evaluate those candidates and then recommend the best candidate to the mayor for her consideration. next slide, please. i have a high level slide here that provides an overview of the steps to get recruitment, d hr's role in the process is to support the commission in that recruitment. so the first step, we have a full five executive recruitment firms and we're pleased to conduct a request for proposals from those prequalified firms. once we request those on your behalf, the commission will review those proposals or review a summary of those proposals and make a selection. the third step is to begin the recruitment process. that process really begins once you've selected the firm and they'll basically work with you to articulate the job description and define the candidate that you're looking for, the ideal candidate. they'll also work with you to gather input from a have right of sources as you would like -- variety of sources as you would like. the fourth step is to, once you have approved that candidate profile to begin the recruitment and outreach and so they'll begin to go, really, identify candidates for the job, proactively recruit them into the pool and then start to assess them, evaluate them and see what they can bring back to the commission in step five, a presentation of all of the individuals who applied. once you -- the commission typically reviews that, all the candidates in step five and then, make the determination about which candidates you wish to interview. selected candidates would be invited to participate in one or more interviews with the commission and at that point, you would collectively make a decision about which candidates you wished to advance to the mayor. prior to advancing those candidates, the firm would conduct the candidates on your behalf and the candidates would be presented potentially transmitted from the commission to the mayor for her consideration. so what's the summary of the -- that's a summary of the process. let's go to the next slide, kyle. this process typically, as president ahn mentioned, the shortest that i have seen it take is four months and i have seen it take up to a year, so it really varies, depending on a number of different factors. but a six-month timeline is a good standard to plan for. so, as i've mention, we have pre qualified executive recruitment firms that's available to support departments and commissions to the executive recruitment. our role in terms of next steps would be to work with you to, we would go ahead and request proposals for a recruitment firm that wanted to support the commission in your recruitment for a new department head. we could evaluate those proposals based on things like costs, timeline, their experience with recruiting and diverse candidate pool and their experience recruiting for similar positions. and then we would bring back to you a recommendation of one or more firms for your consideration. at that point, you would let, you may know which one or ones you wanted to move forward with, select -- and then we would, we hold aup the contracts so we would issue a purchase order off that pro and the process could start. that's all of my slides. i'm happy to answer any questions you have. you can take down the slide. >> questions? thank you, commissioner sullivan. >> thank you for your presentation. one question i had, is any part of this process private or is it all done at noticed meetings to which the public attends? >> thank you for the question, commissioner. so, the, let's see. so, the process related to selecting an executive recruitment firm and discussing the qualities that the commission is seeking in a perspective department head, those would be on your agenda and those would happen within the public meeting. at the point when candidates are being presented to the commission, those conversations and that information about those candidates is in provided in closed session. the same thing would hold true for the interview process. and as you know, the decision to go into a closed session is agendized on a commission meeting and there's deliberation and public comment on those matters. >> got it. that makes sense. there are really two decisions that i see here. one is for the commission. one is the selection of the firm to assist and the second is the selection of the candidates to present to the mayor. i assume both of those would be done in public? >> um, so typically, when the commission ask dhr to move forward with a particular recruiter on your behalf, that would happen in the public. typically, the commission, when they are advancing names to the mayor, that would be done in a closed session. >> i see. >> however, the commission, upon the selection of the mayor, the commission is required to disclose their vote on the selected candidate. >> thank you. >> other questions? yes, commissioner wald. >> i should back up and say i have participated in two processes for choosing the executive director in the past, but it might have been three. and in those instances, the commission operated through a sub committee. is that still possible? times have changed but we operated through a subcommittee and the subcommittee met, in one case i was in the subcommittee and we met at 8:00 in the morning in? city basement where we reviewed the files and interviewed the candidates in order to protect their identity. is that kind of process still permitted and is it -- if it is permitted, then other commissions have relied on with good results? because it might be kind of hard for all of us to get together. it's very labor intention -- time inten, to go through all of the candidates submissions and to sort of prioritize them. >> thank you for the question, commissioner. yes, it is still permissible for commissions to identify members of subcommittee to conduct parts of the process on behalf of the full commission. the mta commission used this process, just the most recent one i recall, they had a subcommittee. the department of public health had a sub, maybe had a subcommittee. and other commissions have chosen to retain the matter in front of the full commission for the whole process. it really is at the commission's discretion. >> can i ask a follow-up question? >> yes. >> thank you. can you suggest guidelines or criteria we should use in trying to decide whether to go in one direction or another? >> i think the, so the point that you raised regarding the amount of time that the process can take and the ability of commission members to dedicate that time to the process, i think is an important factor to consider. in particular, so, i guess there's two -- there's one more thing, i guess i would say, when commissions meet weekly, it's easier to schedule the various topics and the discussion items in front of the commission. when the commission meets less frequently, it's challenging to keep the process moving along and so i think that's a factor, potentially, to consider but i think on the -- it's also -- it is an important decision and your recruiter will bring you -- will make an effort to help you narrow down the candidates that applied based on your criteria. >> thank you. that was helpful. >> any other questions? >> sorry. >> one follow up which is, can closed session be done remotely? >> that may be a technology or, i think that might be a technology question, but i will -- i can advise you that most recently, the puc conducted their recruitment and that process was able to occur, closed session meetings were able to occur remotely. but i think it may be -- there may be technical issues that you want to work through with kyle and the department of technology and sfgov tv. >> that should mean the interviews can be conducted remotely which would be, make it easier than it has been in the past? in materials -- in terms -- >> that's executive credit. the dbi commission conducted all of their interviews remotely. >> that's where i was going with my leading question. >> okay. and maybe this is the final question, but you know, the next point, decision point in this process, it sounds like we'll have a list of recruiting firms to choose from at our next commission meeting, do you think that's about right, director howard? >> thank you for the question. when is your next commission meeting? >> i believe july 26th, is it -- july 26th. >> i feel confident we can bring firms ready and prepared to work with the commission by the july meeting, yes. >> all right. >> do we select the firm or -- >> yes. >> we do. >> just to clarify, director how war, do you want then -- low weissman-ward, do you want the entire commission to vote on -- to vote on the commission or is it given to a subcommittee? how would you prefer it? >> it really is the -- at your discretion, so i can, i've done this in different ways with different commission. some have asked me to work directly with the commission president to review the applications and then the commission president would either direct me to move forward or would work with the commission to move forward. it happened with a subcommittee and also with the full commission so it really is at your, it's really what the commission prefers, it's not what i prefer. >> with commissioner hunter and bermejo, maybe we should kick this discussion to the next meeting but i'm open to it be a collaborative discussion. >> july, we'll have the list of the firms? right? >> yes. >> we can decide who will be in the committee or subcommittee? >> i think so. >> and if i could just suggest one potential resource for information on just how it has been done in past but the issues that came up and the reasons why things were done a certain way, is the former deputy of the department which is -- he oversaw all of the or almost all of the selection processes for the previous directors. he lives here in san francisco and i have his e-mail address if the department doesn't and he could be a resource for zoom and for you in terms of how to think about this, how to frame the process, the pros and cons, so that you know, you could potentially have a series of recommendations for us at the next meeting to, so we can vote on it in terms of the process and how it should go forward. >> and do you happen to know if director or do you happen to know if this person would be applying for the rfp as well? >> oh, no. >> okay. it would be informal. >> he loves retirement. >> if that's the case, it sounds like useful advice. >> no, no, no conflict there. >> that's good. any other words of wisdom for us, director howard? i think if there are no other -- >> do any department staff involved in this process at all? >> that's a good question. did you hear that, director howard? >> yes. thank you, commissioner wan. no, the only department staff that would be involved in t