VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMISSION

City and County of San Francisco

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

 

APPROVED MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday, November 12, 2019 – 1800

San Francisco City Hall, Room 416

 

DAVID CHASTEEN, PRESIDENT

VICTOR OLIVIERI, VICE PRESIDENT (EXCUSED)

GEORGE ISHIKATA, SECRETARY

WILLIAM BARNICKEL, CHRISTINE BORGOGNONI, MATTHEW BRAUER (EXCUSED), HANLEY CHAN, GEORGE CHEWNING (ABSENT), DEBORAH DACUMOS, MARGO ELLIS, JEFF MARSHALL, STEPHEN MARTIN-PINTO, IKRAM MANSOURI (EXCUSED), CHRISTOPHER McDONALD, MYLES TUCKER, RAYMOND WONG

 

 

CALL TO ORDER

 

Meeting called to order at 1813 by President Chasteen.

 

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND ROLL CALL

 

 

COMMUNICATIONS

 

            Bilateral Assignments

                        Commissioner Ellis reported she hosted the President of the US for a forum held at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina.  She hosted Democratic party individuals running for congress as well.

 

                        District 1 – Commissioner Chan indicated he met with Supervisor Fewer’s aide regarding funding for the VAC.

 

            Officer’s Reports

                        President – Reported the flag raising ceremony earlier today went well.  He asked all commissioners to “Like” the Facebook post about the ceremony.

 

                        Secretary – Reported on the requirement for commissioners to complete DHR training on Implicit Bias by 31 Dec.  He indicated we are trying to identify a sponsor to create a Person Of Interest account for our commissioners so they can access and take the training.

 

            Veterans Related Legislation – Nothing to report.

 

 

APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES

President Chasteen made a motion to table action on the October meeting minutes.  The motion was seconded concurrently by Commissioners Chan and Dacumos.  Motion passed unanimously.

 

 

AGENDA CHANGES

            President Chasteen asked we correct the date on the official copy.  No other changes raised.

 

 

REGULAR AGENDA

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

            President Chasteen indicated he would send out the draft annual report as a shared document.  Since sfgov.org accounts will only allow you to share documents to other sfgov.org users, and since half of the commission is having problems accessing their official e-mail accounts, President Chasteen indicated he may send out the draft from his personal account.  Commissioner Ellis indicated she would also share the draft summary of the Veterans Summit.  President Chasteen asked all commissioners to review the drafts, make any edits desired, and be prepared to discuss the documents next month.

 

            Elections.  President Chasteen opened the floor for nominations for VAC officers for next year.  The results of the nominations are listed below:

 

President	Vice President	Secretary
Victor Olivieri	Margo Ellis	Myles Tucker
Bill Barnickel (who declined)	George Ishikata	Hanley Chan (who declined)
Margo Ellis		Jeff Marshall

 

Nominations will be open again in Dec.  Individuals who accepted nominations will receive consideration for the position noted.

 

            Veterans Month proclamation effort.  President Chasteen expressed thanks to VP Olivieri for his efforts to get the legislation sponsored and passed.  Commissioner Martin-Pinto expressed similar thanks, noted this should have occurred long ago, and expressed surprise at how unanimously the resolution passed.

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

            President Chasteen directed the addition of Commissioner Tucker to the Legislative Committee as its Chairman, and the removal of VP Olivieri to work other issues.

 

            Committee Reports.  All committees indicated they had nothing to report.

 

            Announcements

 

                        Commissioner Barnickel invited commissioners to participate in the next veterans job fair at City College of San Francisco, tomorrow from 1600-1800.

 

                        Commissioner Barnickel noted the presentation at the Police Officers Association went well, and garnered approximately 25 veterans with questions.  This SFPD presentation included SFFD personnel as well.  The next presentation will be for all Departments in SF government, and include a briefing to Department Heads.

 

                        Commissioner Chan reported he attended the San Mateo Veterans Affairs Commission luncheon and reported it was a very impressive event.  He suggested we should do something similar.  Secretary Ishikata suggested the Events Committee should review this recommendation and make a recommendation to the commission as a whole.

 

                        Commissioner Martin-Pinto reported that the SF Firefighters Veterans Association escorted a wounded combat Navy Special Operation veteran on a bike ride to raise funds and awareness of veterans’ needs.  The event went well, and Commissioners Barnickel and Martin-Pinto attended.

 

                        Secretary Ishikata invited all commissioners to attend the SF Unified School District JROTC Annual Fall Championships on Sat, 16 Nov at Balboa High School, starting at 1000.

 

                        Commissioner Wong invited all commissioners to attend the annual holiday party of VFW Post 4618 on 7 Dec.  Meal cost will be $40.

 

            Mr. Edgar DeLeon made a presentation regarding Wreaths Across America.  He outlined the event is slated to occur Sat, 14 Dec from 1100-1200 at San Francisco Presidio National Cemetery.  Wreath laying will follow the program.  This event will not interfere with the Wreaths Across America effort at San Bruno’s Golden Gate National Cemetery; their event will start at 0845.  The goal in San Francisco is to increase their presence.  The cemetery has 25K graves, but the best they’ve done is 1,500 wreath sponsorships.  The hope is to increase this and eventually achieve 25K, so every veteran has a wreath laid at their gravesite.  The VAC was invited to participate in the ceremony, to help with wreath laying if desired, and to sponsor wreaths as well.

 

 

PUBLIC COMMENT

An opportunity for members of the public to directly address the Commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Commission, including items being considered today which have not been considered by a Commission committee and excluding items which have been considered by a Commission committee. Members of the public may address the Commission for up to three minutes. Each member of the public will be allotted the same number of minutes to speak, except that public speakers using translation assistance will be allowed to testify for twice the amount of the public testimony time limit. If simultaneous translation services are used, speakers will be governed by the public testimony time limit applied to speakers not requesting translation assistance. The President or the Commission may limit the total testimony to 30 minutes.

 

Members of the public who want a document placed on the overhead for display should clearly state such and subsequently remove the document when they want the screen to return to live coverage of the meeting.

 

            No public comment.

 

 

HONORS REPORT AND MOMENT OF SILENCE

In memory of American service members in all wars and conflicts who made the ultimate sacrifice.  We also remember the passing of homeless veterans, veterans who died while awaiting approval of benefits, and suicides within the veteran and armed service communities.

 

 

ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 1854.

 

 

This document is Official Business of the Veterans Affairs Commission, City and County of San Francisco.  It is part of the official Public Record of the City and County of San Francisco.

 

Public Access:

Public Records are covered under the State of California Brown Act, as well as the Sunshine Ordinance of the City and County of San Francisco. These acts ensure that deliberations of City Business are conducted “before the People,” and that City and County operations are open to the People’s review.

 

For information on your rights under the Sunshine Ordinance (Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code), or to report a violation of the ordinance, please contact:  Mr. Chris Ruston, Administrator, Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, at (415) 554-7724.

 

Veterans Affairs Commission Meetings:

General meetings of the SFVAC are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month, with the exception for the month of July, when there is no scheduled SF VAC meeting, and are held in Room 416 in City Hall.

 

Meeting confirmation, and specific announcement of general meetings are made via public posting of the Meeting Agenda as required by law, at least 72 hours prior to scheduled meetings. Agendas for SFVAC meetings (and archived meeting minutes) are available on the SFVAC Pages of the City of San Francisco website, and are also available for public view and inspection at the 5th Floor Government Information Center at the San Francisco Public Library, at 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.  The documents librarian telephone number is (415) 554-4472.

 

Disability Access:

City Hall of San Francisco is wheelchair accessible via all entrances.  There is wheelchair accessible public parking nearby, including the underground garage at the north side of City Hall.  The nearby BART/MUNI station (Civic Center) is wheelchair accessible as are nearby city bus lines and stops.  For more public transit information services, call (415) 923-6142 or dial 311.