CALL TO ORDER

3:02 p.m.

ROLL CALL

President Douglas S. Chan

Present

Vice President Gina M. Roccanova

Present

Commissioner Kate Favetti

Present

Commissioner Scott R. Heldfond

Present

President Douglas S. Chan presided.

REQUEST TO SPEAK ON ANY MATTER WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION BUT NOT APPEARING ON TODAY’S AGENDA

None.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES – (Item No. 3)

Regular Meeting of December 21, 2015

Action:

Adopted the minutes as amended.  (Vote of 4 to 0)

ANNOUNCEMENTS  (Item No. 4)

Commissioner Heldfond announced that he will need to leave around 5:50 p.m. and President Chan around 6:30p.m.

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR’S REPORT  (Item No. 5)

None.

EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S REPORT

0433-15-1

Fiscal Years 2016-17 and 2017-18 Mayor’s Budget Instructions and Department Budget Preparation Schedule.  (Item No. 6)

December 21, 2015:

Direct Commission staff to prepare Fiscal Years 2016-17 and
2017-18 Budget Request to maintain adequate staffing levels to meet current service needs; continue to negotiate amounts; present Budget Request at the Commission meeting of January 4, 2016; incorporate changes made by the Commission up to the Budget Request submission deadline; and approve to submit the Fiscal Years 2016-17 and 2017-18 Budget Request to the Controller and the Office of the Mayor by February 22, 2016.

Speakers:

Sandra Eng, Civil Service Commission

Action:

Directed the Executive Officer to: continue to negotiate with the Office of the Mayor and the Controller to ensure that the Commission’s budget sufficiently supports anticipated service and staff to continue its Charter mandated functions; finalize the Fiscal Years 2016-18 Budget Request; incorporate changes made by the Commission and submit the Fiscal Years 2016-18 Budget Request to the Controller and the Mayor by February 22, 2016.
(Vote of 4 to 0)

Michael Brown responded to a request by Commissioner Roccanova from the November 16, 2015 meeting, to look into the allegation of being “black listed” for leaving the Cal Works program.  The Inspection Service conducted on the hiring of the 9703 Employment Training Specialist III at Human Services Agency (HSA) revealed no indication that the Department intentionally “Black Listed” individuals.  Interviews were conducted on June 4^th.  All offers of employment were made on June 9^th or 10^th, except for one.  The last offer of employment was made on July 15^th, approximately one and a half months later.  TEX individuals were chosen because they were reachable on the list, already trained as Employment Specialist and had satisfactory performance appraisals.  Additional discussion will be included with item #17.

0441-15-8

Review of Request for Approval of Proposed Personal Services Contracts.

(Item No. 7)

PSC#

Department

Amount

Type of Service

Type of Approval

Duration

48959-15/16

City Planning

$300,000

This analysis will support programs in the Mission and other neighborhoods where zoning controls were modified through the Eastern Neighborhoods and other recent re-zonings.  In these areas other controls including height, bulk, open space, rear yard, and bedroom mix requirements determine the number of units that can be built on a site.  The Planning department is seeking digital modeling, market study, and financial feasibility analysis work to identify opportunities for San Francisco’s local guidelines to encourage greater levels of affordable housing in all residential development projects in these areas.

Regular

12/31/2017

41409-15/16

Municipal Transportation Agency

$9,500,000

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) recently established new standards for conducting public outreach and engagement on its capital projects and programs.  The contractor must develop plans that improve the level of engagement and quality of public participation on SFMTA projects with the goal of improving both project delivery and stakeholder satisfaction.  The contractor will provide specialized services to engage the public on transportation projects on an as-needed basis.  This will include services such as, designing strategies and approaches that enable diverse, culturally competent public participation, arranging public events and meetings, facilitating focus groups, and compiling notes and records for follow-up and documentation.

Regular

1/31/2020

42155-15/16

Public Utilities Commission

$30,000,000

The proposed work consist of designing and building the Warnerville Substation Rehabilitation project entailing replacement of the transformers, circuit breakers, disconnect switches, relays, fencing and grounding.  In the Design-Build (DB) method, the Contractor will be responsible for design and construction.

Regular

5/1/2018

45629-15/16

Public Utilities Commission

$229,447

In 2010, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) launched its Automated Water Meter System by procuring the STAR Fixed Network Automatic Meter Reading System for which SFPUC expended more than $60,000,000 and which SFPUC intends to retain through at least 2015.  A critical component of the STAR software and the 6 Tb data that it collects.  Since 2010, both the software and the date collected by it have been housed on SFPUC servers and storage.  For financial and practical reasons, it is in the interest of the SFPUC to move from hosting the STAR software and date on its own servers to those of Aclara by utilizing Aclara’s Software as a Service Services (“SaaS Services”), aka cloud-based/hosted solution).  Those reasons include 23% cost savings over ten years; free software upgrades; 99% system uptime, and ability to more easily comply with disaster recovery requirements.  In order to migrate the STAR software and the date it collects from SFPUC’s servers to those of Aclara’s cloud-based/hosted solution, Aclara must first perform certain technical services which will be completed over five phases over a period of less than 12 months, including, discovery and requirements gathering; infrastructure deployment and test preparation; testing and, finally, cutover from the existing system to the new one.  (See attached statement of work for complete details).  Although this will be a new, ten year contract with a not-to-exceed amount of $1,940,374, only $229,447 of the contract amount relates to actual professional services for which Civil Service Commission review is being requested.  The remaining $1,710, 927 portion of the contract pertains to the cost of storing SFPUC’s STAR software and data on Aclara’s cloud servers (instead of those of SFPUC as is the case now) for which SFPUC will be charged an annual fee.

Regular

12/31/2016

PSC#

Department

Amount

Type of Service

Type of Approval

Duration

44722-15/16

Municipal Transportation Agency

$1,000,000

The contractor(s) will provide the necessary foreign language translation and interpretation services, American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreters, oral interpretation, relay interpretation, and deaf/blind (tactile) interpretation services for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).  The contractor(s) shall also provide court reporting services and furnish the appropriate equipment for meetings that require verbatim note taking.  These services are required in order to meet the requirements of and comply with San Francisco’s Language Access Ordinance and the Title VI requirements of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).  The SFMTA is also expanding its efforts so as to be able to communicate with the city’s diverse population.

Regular

12/21/2018

41837-14/15

Public Health

$5,500,000

Contractor will provide fiscal intermediary services for the Black Infant Health program, an evidence-based intervention program designed to improve African American infant and maternal health.  The contractor will assist the program with fiscal administration and reporting.  Program services include prenatal and postpartum courses, classes on parenting, infant and maternal health and stress reduction, referrals to community resources for education, health care, mental health care, childcare, and housing, and community outreach to African American women of child-bearing age.  The target population includes African American infants, pregnant women and lactating and new mothers.

Regular

6/30/2020

44383-15/16

Public Health

$5,000,000

The contractors will pick up and dispose of pharmaceutical and medical waste generated by Department of Public Health facilities (hospitals, clinics, satellite locations)

Regular

6/30/2020

46840-13/14

Airport Commission

Current Approved Amount

$1,500,000

Increase Amount Requested

$7,000,000

New Total Amount Requested

$8,500,000

As-needed environmental consulting services are required for verification of compliance with environmental laws, regulations, and standards.  The as-needed consulting services will assist the Airport to maintain compliance with environmental regulations in support of operations and maintenance functions and Capital Improvement Program (CIP) projects.  Services will include: site investigation for contaminant characterization, planning and design of asbestos/lead abatement and demolition of Airport buildings, construction management and technical oversight of environmental remediation, air quality control permitting and monitoring services, and environmental database support services.

Modification

12/31/2021

33469-14/15

Department of Human Resources

Current Approved Amount

$250,000

Increase Amount Requested

$271,000

New Total Amount Requested

$521,000

The City is seeking approval to enter into a contract with Year Up, a national nonprofit organization that provides urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support necessary to build professional careers in Information Technology (IT).  The Year Up model includes an education component followed by a paid work internship for its participants.  The City intends to offer the paid internships at the Department of Public Health (DPH) as a program pilot.

Modification

7/31/2016

4124-11/12

Department of Human Resources

Current Approved Amount

$1,874,999

Increase Amount Requested

$950,000

New Total Amount Requested

$2,824,999

Contractor will provide services for software upgrades, ongoing software maintenance and support services and software hosting of the Workers’ Compensation Division’s (WCD) claims management web-based platform.

Modification

8/30/2017

PSC#

Department

Amount

Type of Service

Type of Approval

Duration

2006-08/09

Human Services – DSS

Current Approved Amount

$25,415,000

Increase Amount Requested

$1,016,600

New Total Amount Requested

$26,431,600

Services in support of the Agency include the following legal services such as process service, arbitration, Fair Hearing Officer services, and other specialized legal services not provided by the City Attorney, courier service, fiscal intermediary, credit checks, equipment maintenance and repairs, property management services, on- demand and supplemental translation and interpretation services, media and communications services including outreach to targeted populations served by the Agency, grant writing, program planning and evaluation, technical writing, environmental and industrial assessment services including ergonomics, mediation and dispute resolutions services, substance abuse compliance monitoring testing and paternity testing, criminal background checks, security services, population surveys, management information services, time study information system, business process mapping, one time document imaging conversion projects for archiving and transition to paperless system technology solutions for agency operations, off hours transportation services and specialized transportation including health and safety transportation and shuttle service.

Modification

Continuous

Speakers:

Deanna Desedas, spoke on PSC #41409-15/16

Jacquie Hale, spoke on PSC #41837-14/15

Brent Lewis, spoke on PSC #33469-14/15

Note:

Commissioner Heldfond disclosed that there is no conflict with his current employer on PSC #4124-11/12 therefore, no need to recuse himself.

Action:

Adopted the report.  Approved the request for proposed Personal Services Contracts; Notify the Office of the Controller and the Office of Contract Administration.  (Vote of 4 to 0)

0442-15-1

Report on Continuous Testing Pilot Rules 211 and 311.  (Item No. 8)

Speakers:

Dave Johnson, Department of Human Resources

Action:

Adopted the report.  (Vote of 4 to 0)

CLOSED SESSION AGENDA

Public comment on all matters pertaining to Items #11, 13 and 15 (which involve one closed session matter).  (Item No. 9)

None.

Public comment on all matters pertaining to Items #12, 14 and 16 (which involve a second closed session matter).  (Item No. 10)

None.

Vote on whether to hold Item #13 in Closed Session—Action Item. 

Basis for Closed Session:  Personnel Matter – Evaluation of Employee (Cal. Gov. Code § 54957(b)(1); S.F. Admin. Code § 67.10(b); S.F. Charter § 10.101); Peace Officer Personnel Record Confidentiality (Cal. Penal Code §§  832.5, 832.7, 832.8)  (Item No. 11)

Action:

The Commission voted to conduct item #13 in Closed Session.  (Vote of 4 to 0)

Vote on whether to hold Item #14 in Closed Session—Action Item.

Basis for Closed Session:  Personnel Matter – Public Employment Appointment/Hiring –  Positions in City Government (Cal. Gov. Code § 54957(b)(1); S.F. Admin. Code § 67.10(b); S.F. Charter §§ 10.100, 10.101)  (Item No. 12)

Action:

The Commission voted to conduct item #14 in Closed Session.  (Vote of 4 to 0)

The Closed Session started at 3:53 p.m. in City Hall Room 400.

0326-15-6

Closed Session – Appeal of the Human Resources Director’s Determination of Insufficient Evidence to Sustain a Peace Officer’s Allegations of Harassment/Hostile Work Environment Due to Race, EEO File No. 1846.  (Item No. 13)

The following individuals were present for Item #13:

Michael Brown, Civil Service Commission

Douglas S. Chan, President, CSC

Gina M. Roccanova, Vice President, CSC

Kate Favetti, Commissioner

Scott R. Heldfond, Commissioner

Sandra Eng, CSC

Linda Simon, Department of Human Resources

Gina N. Altomare, Department of Human Resources

Paul Zarefsky, City Attorney’s Office

Luz Morganti, CSC

Lizzette Henríquez, CSC

Department Representative

Department Representative

Appellant

Attorney for Appellant

Respondent

Attorney for Respondent

0326-15-6

Cont.

December 21, 2015:

Postponed to the meeting of January 4, 2016. 

0308-15-7

Closed Session – Request for Hearing by Former City Employee on the Former Employee’s Future Employment Restrictions with the City and County of San Francisco.  (Item No. 14)

The following individuals were present for Item #14:

Michael Brown, Civil Service Commission

Douglas S. Chan, President, CSC

Gina M. Roccanova, Vice President, CSC

Kate Favetti, Commissioner

Scott R. Heldfond, Commissioner

Sandra Eng, CSC

Paul Zarefsky, City Attorney’s Office

Luz Morganti, CSC

Lizzette Henríquez, CSC

Susan Gard, Department of Human Resources

Department Representative

Appellant

Attorney for Appellant

Closed Session ended and reconvened in Open Session at 5:27 p.m.

Vote on whether to elect to disclose any or all discussions held on Item #13 in Closed Session (S.F. Admin. Code § 67.12(a)) – (Item No. 15)

Disclosure of action taken in closed session (Cal. Gov. Code §54957.1(a)(5); S.F. Admin. Code § 67.12(b)(4))

Action:

The Commission voted not to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session.  (Vote of 4 to 0)

Vote on whether to elect to disclose any or all discussions held on Item #14 in Closed Session (S.F. Admin. Code § 67.12(a)) – (Item No. 16)

Disclosure of action taken in closed session (Cal. Gov. Code §54957.1(a)(5); S.F. Admin. Code §67.12(b)(4)).

Action:

The Commission voted not to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session.
(Vote of 4 to 0)

SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS – 5:00 p.m.

0443-15-1

Review of Public Comments from the November 16, 2015 Meeting with Additional Input from Sin Yee Poon, SEIU Local 1021 Representative for Possible Civil Service Commission Action.  (Item No. 17)

Speakers:

Michael Brown, Civil Service Commission

Sandra Eng, Civil Service Commission

Luz Morganti, Civil Service Commission

Sin Yee Poon, SEIU Local 1021, added to the issue of blacklisting; Rosalie Pera who was present at the November 16, 2015 meeting, was formerly a 9703, laid off and no longer on the holder over roster, had almost four (4) years of experience and was not called for an interview.  She was one of the fifty-four (54) applicants who meet the department’s criteria for this position; it is an issue about not being hired through merit but through favoritism because managers are bringing people who look and speak like them.

Patrick Monette-Shaw, disputed the accuracy of the excerpt of his comments included in the minutes from November 16^th CSC meeting and included information about the directives he received last summer when he proctored for a 911 exam.  He was instructed to provide information regarding the appeal process only if asked and that they can only do it at the time they are finished with the exam and not within the five (5) days as stated in the CSC Rules.

Sylvia Alvarez-Lynch, said that the Civil Service Commission has been parcel in the creation exclusionary instead of inclusionary and the creation of a workforce that of temporary and permanent exempt positions.  This has led to the creation of futile workplace full of ageism favoritism, nepotism, corruption, mobbing and bullying.  DHR and the Civil Service Commission do not adhere to following its own rules.  Instead it is commonly known as a kangaroo court system whereby you have to go to court and sue the civil service system to regain your job or a settlement against the City and County of San Francisco.

Lucia Granger, suggested the Commission to have like a separate entity conduct investigations that doesn’t have any ties with HR or with the Commission.  We should look at how other counties operate in terms of their hiring practices because other counties are doing well in policy and the developmental policy, whereas our county just started to do a policy manual.  It is unbelievable to have a department that doesn’t have policies.  So perhaps the Commission needs to look at having that investigation done by someone that doesn’t have any ties to you. Someone that would give you the correct information.

Brenda Barros, employed by the City for over thirty-five (35) years, suggested the Commission needs to survey every single classification broken down in every single work sight and see who is in those classifications.  It will become very apparent as it did in public health where your problems are.  That’s a start where you can address this kind of issues. You need to see what the landscape is and it will be very apparent where you have a problem.  The workforce is not diverse and you need to deal with why it’s coming out that way and deal with the managers who are doing that.

0443-15-1

Cont.

John Wadsworth, has been with the City for about ten (10) years with the Pharmacy department.  He said that the City needs to create a hiring system that addresses delays in hiring and hiring trends; where they only look into hiring young, unmarried with no children individuals, just coming into the workforce in their field with no experience and overlooking qualified persons that often have committed seven (7) years to public service.  Having hired many lesser experienced than those most qualified has not served the City well.

Andrea Grimes, a Librarian at the SF Public Library and an SEIU member believes that the Library is now trying to upgrade librarian classifications to 0922 classifications.  It is very dishearten at the Library in which city hall fellows, 9910’s and 9920’s, seem to be replacing Civil Service employees who have made great effort to go through the Civil Service Merit System.

Kei Chan, spoke about the hiring of friends and family members done at the Library; it was really obvious especially when you work the system for a while and know exactly the relationship of one person and the management who’s working in the department.

Cecilia Jaroslawsky, spoke about the need of an independent outside third party agency to investigate Micki Callahan and all the department heads, especially Human Resources.

Daisy McCarthy, she would call for an outside independent third party agency outside of the City system to investigate Human Resources.

Michael Bynum, works for the Department of Human Services believes he too was black listed since before 1995 but was able to get a promotion when an independent panel of people did the interviews for the 2913s.

Edlyn Kloefkorn, believes there are findings of nepotism.  How can HSA pass up 500 social workers and eligibility workers and hire a clerk to a position to help disadvantage clients?  There was barely any sort of announcement.  There was this slight announcement.  People did apply, but these people were just called up to take these jobs.  One of them was the sister of somebody that sat on the panel.  We found out that her sister did not interview her, but her sister sat on the panel.  And this person, she qualified because she was a babysitter for Bright Horizons.  How do you feel that the hiring was fair in this regard when you are in a building with 100 social workers that are qualified but a clerk is hired?

Ann Ling, believes she was black listed and retaliated against by given a bad performance appraisal just for speaking up about the abnormalities in the department.  Complaining is not easy.

Annie Sin, talked about her experienced with bullying.  The Program Director is building her empire by getting her partner on the executive floor; also siblings Gabriella and Cynthia Martinez  have been put in special projects; and a retired section manager came back as “Prop. F” which should have ended 6 months ago.  She is still double dipping the city with a pension.  An analyst consultant, brought in her son, who worked in retail but so call “met the requirements”, so he didn’t have to go through the interview process.

0443-15-1

Cont.

Sarah Larson, has work for the city for over twenty (20) years and said that when she was first hired she went through a very stringent process to get hired.  She had to take exams and had to be qualified.  The city has gone downhill, because every time a manager leaves or is forced out, the directorship is handed to an old nurse who wants to bump up their retirement.  Human Resources, at Public Health, has no idea what they are doing.  I called and they cannot make themselves understood in English.  How does a non-English speaker get a job in Human Resources?

Pauline Levinson, 9910 Public Service Trainee through the jobs Now Program CalWorks did not have steady employment for six (6) years but two months into working at HSA her supervisor left so she became the executive admin assistant doing her job.

Paul Camarillo, stated it is very sad that the City and County of San Francisco has become nothing more than exploitation of cheap labor, cronyism and favoritism.

Action:

Continued this item to a future meeting.  (Vote of 3 to 0; Commissioner Heldfond left at 6:10 p.m.)

COMMISSIONERS’ ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS  (Item No. 18)

None.

ADJOURNMENT  (Item No. 19)

7:21 p.m.