Board of Supervisors : November 28, 2000

SUNSHINE ORDINANCE TASK FORCE

Tuesday, November 28, 2000
4:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 408

MINUTES

Task Force Members

Seat 1 Judith Appel Seat 8 Robert Planthold

Seat 2 Bruce Brugmann Seat 9 Daniel Guillory

Seat 3 Vince Courtney Seat 10 Paul Hogan, Vice Chair

Seat 4 Marie-Lorraine Mallare Seat 11 Sue Cauthen

Seat 5 Tuesday Ray Ex-officio Gloria Young

Seat 6 Hilda Bernstein, Chair Ex-officio Vacant

Seat 7 Ted Kowalczuk

Roll Call

Present: All present except Judith Appel, Tuesday Ray, Ted Kowalczuk, Gloria Young. (Robert Planthold entered the meeting after Item 2)

Chair Hilda Bernstein introduced new member Marie-Lorraine Mallare. Chair stated Marie-Lorraine Mallare has been appointed to the Public Education & Information Committee.

1. Approval of Minutes of October 24, 2000

Motion adopted approving minutes. (Guillory/Hogan) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk, Planthold absent)

2. Report from Chair

Chair Hilda Bernstein read report.

Chair submitted a letter, received today, addressed to the Chair from Louise Renne, City Attorney. Bruce Brugmann requested the substance of this letter be placed on the next regular meeting of the Task Force. Bruce Brugmann to provide copy to the Task Force of the Bay Guardian article of November 8, 2000 regarding conflict of interest.

Chair stated she would request a representative from the City Attorney’s Office to be present at the next meeting, either Louise Renne, or someone empowered to speak for her, regarding the conflict of interest letter.

Chair stated she was still attempting to coordinate a meeting with the Planning Department. Regarding the November 10, 2000 letter received Gerald Green, Director of Planning and Anita Theoharis, President of the Planning Commission, Vince Courtney stated the Planning Department needed to be aware he Task Force was serious about meeting with them and discussing noticing procedures.

Under public comment portion of the Chair Report, Gloria Tulanowski stated she did not receive copies of the November 10, 2000 letter addressed to the Task Force from Gerald Green, Director of Planning and Anita Theoharis, President of the Planning Commission until today. Gloria Tulanowski stated she did not agree with portions of the letter. Gloria Tulanowski stated she also did not receive copies of the letters to Mr. Green and Ms. Theoharis requesting a meeting; requested copies of letters should go to her and the Haight-Divisadero Neighbors & Merchants Association; requested her complaint be verified in writing. Chair Bernstein suggested Gloria Tulanowski send a copy of the November 10 letter to the President of the Haight-Divisadero Neighbors & Merchants Association.

Sue Cauthen suggested Gloria Tulanowski confirm with the Planning Department that the Haight-Divisadero Neighbors & Merchants Association is listed with the Planning Department to receive notices. Gloria Tulanowski stated the Planning Department is very aware of their organization. Vince Courtney suggested a copy of the registration with the Planning Department be sent to the Task Force.

Bruce Brugmann stated since the letter was aimed at her group, the group take the letter and respond with it point by point; suggested the Complaint Committee consider a policy of sending all communications regarding complaints to the complainants. Vince Courtney stated if the complainant had had this November 10, 2000 correspondence, they would have been familiar with the issue.

Bob Planthold entered the meeting at this time.

3. Report from Ad Hoc Committee regarding City E-mail Policy

Chair Paul Hogan stated a response had been received from the LAN Manager for the Mayor’s Office stating they were unable to locate the e-mail in question dated November 1, 1999.

Motion adopted approving the draft letters to be sent to Bevan Dufty of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services and to Hillary Gitelman, Planning Department regarding the e-mail that was the subject of Mr. Nick Pasquariello’s complaint. (Hogan/Planthold) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk absent)

Motion adopted approving Order of Determination regarding the July 7, 2000 Complaint of Nick Pasquariello requesting a copy of an email sent to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services by the San Francisco Planning Department: (Hogan/Planthold) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk absent)

Order of Determination: The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force is unable to make a determination that the subject e-mail requested in this petition was in fact a public document because that e-mail no longer existed at the time of the complaint. At the same time, while insufficient evidence existed to indicate that destruction of this e-mail was improper, this complaint showed the need for a citywide policy on e-mail public record retention. The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force will therefore take the following actions in response to this petition:

(1) To send a letter to Mr. Bevan Dufty of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, and a letter to Ms. Hilary Gitelman, Planning Department, stating that they should be cognizant of the fact that, until further clarification is communicated regarding e-mail policy, an e-mail message may hold the same significance as a written document, and that significance should be considered carefully before the e-mail is deleted.

(2) Request the assistance of the City Attorney in clarifying the City’s policy regarding retention of e-mail records, and sending a memorandum to city personnel regarding this policy.

Regarding the e-mail policy reminder memo, Bruce Brugmann asked if there was any way to find out if someone has a model e-mail retention policy. Paul Hogan stated he would look into this matter.

Vince Courtney asked about the memo having a blank space as to whom the memo is addressed. Jackie Minor stated the Complaint Committee had discussed possibly sending to all employees. The City Attorney’s Office does not have capability to do that; the Task Force can address that issue of distribution. Marie-Lorraine Mallare suggested the memo be distributed through paychecks.

Bruce Brugmann suggested a line be added to the letters that this is not a closed issue and the Task Force would appreciate suggestions. Paul Hogan stated we most likely cannot add to these two letters; however would keep the suggestion open to future letters.

Vince Courtney would like to see a finalized version of the memo.

Motion adopted approving the draft language of the memo and to send it to all city employees in whatever means is most efficient determined by the Administrator as soon as possible. Motion withdrew.

Vince Courtney stated he would like to amend the motion to send the memo to the Public Education & Information Committee to publish. Paul Hogan stated the Public Education & Information Committee is already empowered to get information out to the public.

Marie-Lorraine suggested we add City and County of San Francisco rather than City of San Francisco. Paul Hogan suggested we send as widely as possible, possibly through e-mail.

Daniel Guillory suggested the item of distribution be discussed at the next Public Education & Information Committee.

Motion adopted approving the Retention of E-mails Memorandum draft and send to all City employees; Administrator to find way to distribute as widely as possible; change City of San Francisco to City and County of San Francisco. (Hogan/Planthold) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk absent)

Gloria Tulanowski spoke during public comment regarding not having received copies of letters to and from the Planning Department.

Adrian Varnedoe spoke during public comment regarding Tenderloin Task Force meeting at Police Station and asked about posting. Administrator to follow up with Mr. Varnedoe.

4. Report from Rules Committee

Draft Annual Report

Motion adopted approving the Draft Annual Report as prepared by the Rules Committee. (Planthold/Hogan) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk absent)

Sheriff Department Civil Grand Jury Recommendations

Motion adopted approving the Rules Committee recommendations in response to the Sheriff Department Civil Grand Jury Recommendations. (Planthold/Cauthen) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk absent)

5. Report of Public Education and Information Committee

Oral report given by Paul Hogan, Chair of the Public Education & Information Committee; public information will be distributed to the community; are meeting with Department of Information & Technology regarding placing information on the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force website.

6. Report of Complaint Committee

Judy Appel, Chair of the Complaint Committee, stated the Committee was working on an update to the Public Complaint Procedure.

Gloria Tulanowski spoke during public comment offering comments regarding the Complaint Committee of the Task Force.

Complaint of James Corrigan regarding comment from Supervisor and inconsistency of time limits for public comment.

Motion adopted approving Order of Determination of James Corrigan as recommended by the Complaint Committee. (Guillory/Hogan) (Appel, Ray, Kowalczuk absent)

Order of Determination: The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force determined the Task Force did not have jurisdiction over the comment made to Mr. Corrigan by Supervisor Bierman at a Board of Supervisor’s Finance and Labor Committee meeting.

The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force determined the Task Force did have jurisdiction over the time-limit issue. This item has been scheduled to be addressed in conjunction with another petition. The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force will set a meeting with a representative from Supervisor Newsom’s office (Supervisor Newsom has offered to look into this matter) and the Clerk of the Board to discuss the policy of the Board of Supervisors’ time limits for public comment.

A hearing on Mr. Corrigan’s complaint will not be held at this time. Mr. Corrigan will be kept advised of the progress of the time-limit issue.

7. Report from Sunshine Ordinance Task Force Administrator

Vince Courtney expressed opinion minutes reflect more detail. If a person on the Task Force wants something specifically included in the minutes, the minutes would reflect that.

Bruce Brugmann expressed opinion that whenever complaints are received, the complaints be in the Task Force agenda packets as they come in; every complaint should go to the Task Force; this is a policy point, should come in the packet to the Task Force. Would like this on the agenda for next time. When complaints come in to the Task Force the Task Force should see them.

Chair stated this item would go to the Rules Committee for recommendation to the Task Force.