Commission briefed on role in selecting Environment Department director; some public commenters oppose using outside firm

The San Francisco Commission on the Environment on May 24 heard a presentation from the city’s Department of Human Resources describing the commission’s responsibility in recruiting and recommending candidates for a new Department of the Environment director.

Kate Howard, managing deputy director at the Department of Human Resources, told commissioners that the City Charter requires the mayor to select a department head from “three or more candidates that are nominated by the Commission on the Environment.” She outlined a typical executive search: selecting a recruitment firm from a pool of prequalified vendors, defining the candidate profile, conducting outreach and vetting, interviewing selected applicants and transmitting recommended finalists to the mayor for her consideration. Howard said the process typically takes four months to a year, with six months a reasonable planning assumption.

Howard said recruiter selection and discussions about the job profile are public, but candidate presentations and interview material are typically handled in closed session to protect applicant confidentiality; she added that the decision to convene closed session is agendized for public meetings. Commissioners asked whether subcommittees can perform screening and whether interviews may be conducted remotely; Howard said commissions may appoint subcommittees to do screening work and that remote closed-session interviews have been used by other commissions when technically feasible.

A remote public commenter, identified as David Popel, urged the commission not to retain an outside recruitment firm, calling it “a waste of funds” and arguing that qualified candidates exist across city agencies, nonprofits and the Bay Area private sector. Popel urged the commission to track and disclose process counts — for example, how many applications were received and how many candidates advanced at each stage — and to finalize desired job qualities and a timeline early in the process.

Commissioners agreed to ask DHR to return a list of prequalified firms at the commission’s July 26 meeting and to decide then whether to select a firm and whether to appoint a subcommittee to handle screening.

The commission did not take formal action at the meeting on the recruitment process; next procedural steps were set for the July meeting.