SUNSHINE ORDINANCE TASK FORCE
MINUTES*
TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2002
4:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 408
Task Force Members
Seat 1 Joshua Koltun
Seat 2 Bruce Brugmann
Seat 3 Richard Knee
Seat 4 Marie Harrison
Seat 5 Heather Sterner
Seat 6 Doug Comstock
Seat 7 Sue Cauthen
Seat 8 Garrett Jenkins
Seat 9 David Parker
Seat 10 Alexandra Nickliss
Seat 11 Marjorie Ann Williams
Ex-officio Hala Hijazi
Ex-officio Donna Hall
Note: First name indicates initiator of motion; second name indicates seconder of motion. All motions unanimous except as noted.
The meeting convened at 4:05 p.m.
Roll Call: Present: Koltun, Brugmann, Knee, Harrison, Sterner, Comstock, Cauthen, Jenkins, Parker, Nickliss, Williams, Hijazi. Absent: Hall
1. Approval of minutes of June 25, 2002. Motion adopted approving minutes. (Cauthen/Nickliss)
2. Chair report.
No report.
3. Report from the City Attorney’s Office regarding constituent correspondence. (Edward Olsen)
Edward Olsen, Deputy City Attorney, explained the analysis of the Board’s policy contained in a letter to the Clerk of the Board from the City Attorney’s Office dated July 21, 2000 with regard to the Clerk of the Board’s obligation in regards to constituent correspondence.
4. Report from Public Education & Information Committee meeting of July 11, 2002.
Committee Chair Bruce Brugmann reported on:
· Task Force Member Brugmann and Task Force Member Cauthen made a presentation at the West of Twin Peaks Council and San Francisco Tomorrow.
· A formal motion was adopted at the Public Education and Information Committee to request from current and former Task Force Members their interest in the position of Volunteer Community Liaison; also to contact Hastings Law School and possibly other college institutions for volunteers to work with the Volunteer Community Liaison.
· The committee decided to meet regularly at 4:00 p.m. the second Thursday of each month.
· Task Force Member Cauthen stated the Committee discussed preparing a model form for public records requests and a model procedures for public records requests; the Committee discussed the Procedures for Public Records Request from the San Francisco Library.
5. Report from Complaint Committee meeting of July 16, 2002.
Committee Chair Cauthen reported the Complaint Committee recommended:
· Approval of recommendation of Complaint Committee for jurisdiction of complaint of Marilyn Amini against the Planning Department and Planning Commission.
· Approval of recommendation of Complaint Committee for jurisdiction of complaint of Jason Grant Garza against the Department of Public Health.
Public comment from Michael Stoll stating he would submit a complaint to the Task Force regarding denial of a request to get copies of phone bills.
Public comment from male community person regarding Sunshine Ordinance versus the Brown Act.
6. Public hearing, complaint of Marilyn Amini against the Planning Department and Planning Commission for failure to include submitted material for Planning Commission public hearing; Brown Act violation; alteration of public records; failure to include submitted material.
Mr. Llorente stated that his jurisdictional letter did not specifically address the Board of Appeals or Citywatch, but mainly addressed his jurisdictional issues to Planning. After the jurisdictional hearing, the Task Force Administrator did contact the Board of Appeals custodian of records, Mr. Feldman, as well as a representative of Citywatch, and they will give them all the materials regarding the complaint. Citywatch and Planning are here to testify, but not the Board of Appeals. Citywatch and the Board of Appeals are on notice that there is a complaint and they have responded. He could do an addendum to his letter indicating that he finds jurisdiction with regard to the Board of Appeals and Citywatch for purpose of jurisdiction only and then have a full hearing as far as the merits.
Ms. Amini requested a continuance until Mr. Llorente names all respondents in the jurisdiction and until everyone receives a copy of her complaint packet in order to respond to the complaint.
Task Force Member Koltun requested a continuance to September 24, 2002.
Priscilla Watts, General Manager of Citywatch, requested a copy of the videotape that Ms. Amini has that indicates that the information was deleted.
Ms. Avery requested a copy of the audiotape in which Ms. Amini says sections have been deleted.
7. Public hearing, complaint of Jason Grant Garza against Department of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, City Attorney, for failure to produce records in a timely fashion, and for failure to produce all of the complainant’s medical records.
Mr. Garza presented his testimony.
Mr. Jim Gilday, Community Mental Health Services Quality Management, Department of Public Health stated that Mr. Garza submitted a written request to his office dated May 9 that was received by his office on May 14 and by May 24, two large packets totaling 367 pages including his entire medical records, the transcript of all of his grievance materials and the volumes of material that he himself submitted was made available to him. That is ten calendar days after his request was received. He picked up these records. A fee of ten cents per page was requested to cover the expenses of reproducing this material which is still outstanding. They are unaware of anything they have failed to give him at this point.
Mr. Garza stated that the letter he sent was delivered on May 10 as he has a return receipt. Mr. Gilday stating that it was received on May 14 is a misrepresentation. He did not pick up the material until May 28, so the timeframe is 18 days. He did not receive a phone call on May 24 to pick up the material as stated by Mr. Gilday.
Task Force Member Koltun stated that the complainant’s medical records are not public records and that’s why this issue would not fall under the jurisdiction of the Sunshine Ordinance.
Motion that the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force finds without prejudice to the complaint that the complaint does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Sunshine Ordinance (Knee/Parker). Ayes: Koltun, Knee, Sterner, Parker. Noes: Brugmann, Harrison, Comstock, Cauthen, Jenkins, Nickliss, Williams. Motion failed.
Order of Determination adopted that Mr. Gilday of the Community Mental Health Services Quality Management Section of the Department of Public Health did not respond to Mr. Garza in a timely manner in order for him to have his State Fair hearing with all the required information; a letter be drafted to Mr. Gilday’s higher-ups that this Task Force found in favor of the complainant; the letter to state that the Department did not respond and act in a timely manner, and than email or fax requests are an acceptable form of communication. (Comstock/Cauthen) Ayes: Brugmann, Knee, Harrison, Sterner, Comstock, Cauthen, Jenkins, Nickliss, Williams. Noes: Koltun, Parker
Mr. Garza stated that he did not receive the record of the conversation between his doctor and the Department of Public Health’s attorney; therefore, there may have been other records he was not given and his medical records are incomplete.
Motion adopted to accept the finding that the records were incompletely delivered to Mr. Garza by the Department of Public Health (Comstock/Harrison) Ayes: Brugmann, Harrison, Comstock, Jenkins, Nickliss, Williams. Noes: Koltun, Knee, Sterner, Cauthen, Parker
Public comment from male community person regarding keeping of logs of all conversations for billing purposes.
8. Discussion of role of Ad Hoc Committee on Proposed Amendments to Sunshine Ordinance
Continued to the next meeting of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force meeting to discuss (1) whether a separate Compliance Committee should be created; and (2) disbanding or keeping the Ad Hoc Committee.
9. Report from Administrator.
Written report submitted by Administrator Donna Hall.
10. Public Comment
Public comment from Peter Warfield encouraging the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to follow-up on compliance.
11. Future Agenda Items
Task Force Member Comstock requested a discussion of the six-page letter in the packet from City College of San Francisco regarding the fact that they do not comply with the Sunshine Ordinance.
Task Force Member Koltun asked to recuse himself from this item and have all communication directed to Task Force Member Jenkins.
The meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.
Submitted by Monica Fish, Clerk
*The 7/23/02 Sunshine Ordinance Task Force meeting has been recorded and is on file in the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force Office.
Last updated: 8/18/2009 1:57:04 PM