can be safe, a city that can be solvent, and a city that can be successful. if i may invite zack parker to please set up to the podium. he is 8 years old. he is going into the fourth grade at sherman elementary school. he likes playing basketball and drawing. he will be visiting yosemite and his family in oregon over the summer and attending summer camps. thank you for coming today. he is joined by his mother. go ahead,. >> hello. [inaudible] mayor lee said he wants the city to be safe, the word means more than one thing. will walk to school, play outside, or go shopping with our parents, but it also means that we should also help people who need food, the doctor, or a place to sleep. the whole city is stronger when we make sure we can all feel safe. today, we are hearing about how we can grow a stronger, healthier, safer san francisco for all our city's families and children. [applause] >> thanks, zack. next, to talk about a solvent city, i would like to invite and 11-year-old just graduated from harvey milk civil rights academy. she will be going into the s

to manage the city. as you know, i've tried to create a foundation in which we have a budget, we have a pension and we have relationships with all of our different parts of the city to be able to look further forward. this is the first time i've introduced a five-year budget planning for the city, and that meant a completely different dialogue with people. some people said, you mean i don't have to struggle with you this year just whether or not we're going to survive, whether it's a community-based agency helping us with aids or another agency helping us with our environment? they didn't have to ask that, because we invited them in to say, let's talk about this year and let's talk about the next four years and how we can collaborate with each ofments that's another different tone. but it also says we want you here. it also says we can evolve with you and we can help build and build capacity where there isn't. and if you've got a great purpose and a good program and you can implement it well, then we sho

one the cities. for those that aren't that familiar, it was the last -- when i took office it was the 68th largest of 15 or 20,000 cities in america. it's a big enough that it can provide some lessons. but it's frankly a small enough where it might be easier to get your arms around some of the challenges if you start to apply some ideas to make it work. so the second part of the city is the life of the mayor a little bit. because there's challenges that you have and there's opportunities that you have and a lot of people don't quite see the day to day life of a mayor. mayor goldsmith can testify how does it affect your family. i talk about that in my book. i've received some criticism for that. i think faith is a big part of all of us and i think that's important to see how it plays out. to we talk about those things. and it comes from the perspective of, of course, my experience which is in st. petersburg. but also from the perspective of a mayor. because the mayor is a leader of the city. the mayor

the city needs to recommit ourselves to the values that our city was named after. st. francis believed in compassion for those who have less -- had less than others. those of us with opportunities have to give back. part of that entails taking care of the most important among us, the folks who have need, including our homeless. >> let's talk about the transportation situation in your district. you mentioned that transit could be better. how is parking and traffic? is there enough muni service now? >> you are talking to the one member of the board that does not only car. i get around my district by muni, bicycle, or hailing a cab. our transit system is truly challenge. our bosses are late one out of four times. -- our buses are late one out of a quarter times. they're still not as clean and safe as we'd like. we can do better and investing in our muni system. we need more taxicabs on the streets. is difficult to obtain a cab. i support the concept of centralized taxi dispatch systems so you know who you can call to get a cab. i am a big believer in pedestrian bicycling

in any city, mobility is important. in a city like san francisco where we have a lot of space, mobility is important. to the extent that our public rights of way, streets and sidewalks are not in good condition, not save, not accessible, then we are not as mobile as a society as we need to be. therefore, we are not as strong as a society and have a strong enough economy. mobility really relies on infrastructure that is in good condition and i think we all recognize we have a long way to go in terms of realizing a city with infrastructure in the shape we need to enable that kind of mobility. it is also important because, here in the city, we have a transit first policy, a better streets policy. in order to get people out of their cars on to transit, on their bicycles, on their feet, we need public rights of way to be safe and accessible. all of that brings us to the point where we are today. the good news is, we have a plan. and that plan is called the 10- year capital plan. it is a plan that came together under the lead

so safe city, a solvent city, a successful city is the instructions i've given to the departments. they're doing their very, very best, whether it's the recreation department, the budget department working hard with me, or our social services, all of the other departments represented here, they're doing their very, very best. having said that, many of you have been to other of our town hall budget meetings. and i want to let you know tonight, we have been hearing from you. we want you to know that we are listening. we are already making decisions before we even go to the board of supervisors to reflect how important some of the things you've indicated are. i want you to know tonight that for many of you who are seniors -- i mentioned this when we talked about a safe city -- you have represented your interests, and the community's interests very, very well in almost every one of our town hall meetings. we've heard you, the budget office, all the departments, have h.s.a. to the department of aging have heard as well, have talked already, and we're beginning to move on those recommend

that is what being a neighbor of the great city is all about. that is what i love about the city. my neighborhood is doing the same thing with our street. we want to pay attention to it. we want to get a little help. they get it. we bring the bureaucrats out to the neighborhoods. we make everybody that much more appreciative of what kind of city they are a part of. i want to emphasize the strength of our city relies on the strength of people likfrom the community. you build it here, in glen park, the mission, chinatown. it builds up the strength of the city. it comes back to our department's opening up their resources, not protecting it like other bureaucratic agencies have historically done. we've said we can do it and be challenged with a grant program completely open to everybody. these things are worth the $1 million it looks like today. it is worth 10 times more in building camaraderie and companionship with our neighbors. i want to emphasize that. i want to represent that by giving what i can do to reflect our appreciation for the leadership. it is a certificate of honor to

hurwitz: currently, city tunnel 1 and city tunnel number 2 would be feeding each half of the city. so you'd lose half the city if you didn't have a replacement. narrator: without half of its water supply, the city would shut down. for nearly 40 years, new york has been in the process of constructing a solution. man: this project is water tunnel number 3. we started on this project in 1969. i'm a sandhog. i've been a sandhog for 37 years. narrator: sandhogs are the men of local 147, who work deep below the city. they began building the infrastructure of new york in 1872. from the subways to the sewers, the water tunnels to the highway tunnels, new york city thrives because of their work. ryan: you got one little hole in the ground, and nobody knows we're here. see the empire state building, right. that's 1,000 feet. so you figure, you go down 1,000. how high that is -- that's how far we go down. narrator: stretching more than 60 miles under the city, tunnel 3 is taking generations of workers to complete. ryan: i don't even want to imagine what my father had to go through. when we fi

that, along with the perverse -- diverse corridors of the city, that is part of being a successful city. i want to continue that. to continue to have us face -- a safe, soldan, and successful city. and i can do that in a non- political way. i think the unprecedented dialogue with the board of supervisors, that we can get agreements, not yell at each other, not take some much political positions that are for san francisco. i think you for this time and i would be very willing to answer questions tonight. [applause] >> thank you. before we talk policy and the city stuff, i want to talk a little bit more about growing up in seattle. the fourth of six kids. tell us about the way you grew up, hal is shaped who you are now? mayor lee: i do not talk much about it because it was a hard life. we grew up in housing projects in seattle. we struggled. we were a large family. my dad was a cook. my mom was a seamstress. so, kind of typical for a lot of asian immigrant families. i had the unfortunate episode of my dad dying when i was in high school. so we literally had to be on our own. six kids, one

city. i was with them last week. they had all these volunteers out helping us repair homes in our mission and excelsior for seniors, so it is a wonderful cooperation we have with wells fargo. how was the right coming in today? >> when a great way to start the morning. i wish i could start every morning like this. we have more than 9000 team members at work, so coming from marin county in the east bay from the south bay, so we are actively working with them and helping reduce greenhouse emissions. one of that is by the commute, so we are actively encouraging bike riding to work appear almost every one of our administrative offices has bike racks outside of it to help support our team members, so thank you, and thank you, mayor. >> joel. travel sf. our tourists and visitors are noticing this experience. what are you saying? >> travel and tourism in -- is san francisco's number one industry. 80 million people come here every year, and more than 1/3 are from international countries that are use

the city. if it is as smooth as tonight, i do not mind going to seven more of these things. thank you very much for being patient with us and sharing your ideas and passion about how you love to be in this city and to be part of it. thank you very much. [applause] >> again, just want to reiterate, thank you so much for being here. i want to thank our department heads, our budget director for being here. we asked him to come and just listen. you often get to hear us, and we do not always get the same opportunity to hear you, so they all came knowing that they would not get an opportunity to speak or respond, but they came to get feedback from you as they develop their budget, so we thank you for giving of that tonight. also, this would not have been possible if not for the many community residents and organizers that brought people out, that organized folks and educated people about the budget and budget process, so i really want to thank all the organizers and the volunteers. also, the greeters

all that has to happen is the three people the city designated, the city-appointed seats, the management seats will refuse to speak. so you have a 3 and 3 split on the board and the 30 days goes by, according to what i have read, and then no actions -- there is no actions. the comptroller -- controller's nominee becomes the representative on the board. i do believe this is an egregious thing. and also notice that the legislative language specifically talks about reduced numbers, reduced numbers of medical providers. that means we will have fewer people we can go to. supposing we're going to someone on the city plan, a heart specialist, and they are not on the list. just think of that. i put this to you because that is going to be very unfair for a number of people who are elderly and particularly el. -- particularly ill. that particular asset -- it is not fair on the health care thing. and think you should review this. i think it is basically very unfair. thank you. supervisor elsbernd: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm here on behalf of the executive benefits. i would like

we need to look at what we do as a city and was services we offer. we have 26,000 city employees. our payroll and fringe benefits for city employees accounts for over 60% of our budget. if we are not willing to look at that issue, i do not think we are going to solve -- i know we will not solve our long-term financial issues. that, to me, is the biggest deal. second, it is about job creation. jobs are not just putting people back to work, which i think is the highest priority, but it is all the ancillary benefits we received, whether it be payroll taxes, an increase in property taxes. people who live and work in san francisco also shop at local restaurants, so shop at the local retail stores. it is a huge economic impact in san francisco. in my opinion, it is getting our costs under control but also promoting economic development so we have a financial engine that will continue to promote us year after year. >> what are your ideas on dealing with the issue of homelessness in san francisco? >> i am one that thinks mayor newsom did a great job thinking proactively about what we need

i love dressing up and coming to city hall knowing where part of the city just as we are apart of city hall. this is a great crowd today. i have seen great improvements. the flag this year is new and crisp. the crowd is beautiful. everybody is organized. some of you dressed up and some of you did not. [laughter] that is okay. you are all welcome at city hall. before we do the formal program, i want to acknowledge that this is the same suit i wore years ago when nancy pelosi walked into the room and have the same suit on -- had the same suit on. i do not think she is wearing the same suit, but i am. [laughter] sandra, thank you for being here to represent her. [applause] this is a treacherous thing to do at city hall. it is full of protocol and eggshells. it is not easy to walk on egg shells with these issues. [laughter] i will try. if i make a mistake, forgive me. the most important thing is to wreck a bias -- recognize that we are represented by people who want to celebrate pride. to kick things off, i give you the mayor of san francisco, mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you very muc

as i have said many times with this of the city, we can make city services increase and be maintained as well as proper investments to keep families in our city. is a halt what i want to reemphasize a consensus proposal levels in the city leaders, business, community in the nonprofit [unintelligible] no matter what level of work you have in the city, we will contribute to the solution. we're seeking long-term reform in this proposal in the form of new and lower benefits that we have yet to hire and immediately relief in the form of current employees for the existing level benefits that we apply. it is important to show in this consensus plan that its comprehensiveness will be reflected in its ability to provide pensions biking, caps pension benefits, it raises the retirement age, it requires existing in the new employees to share health care costs. and it uses a sliding scale to protect lower wage earners of our employee group. if it does probably the most important thing that other pension plans you've been reading about the not do. a requires a greater contribution to the health tru

the capacity of our city and a strong evidence of all of our abilities -- the capacity of our city and its ability to thrive depends on all of our abilities -- excuse me. thank you very much. supervisor chu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i am the director of the filipino community center. i'm here today to express appreciation for the funding we did receive through the block grant program, particularly our work in the excelsior neighborhood, serving over 15,000 filipinos, documented and undocumented. in the last year, we have seen a huge increase in the number of people who need our services. being able to come to a place that is centrally located in the community with a lit where we have been able to put people to work, help people find housing, address their needs around immigration and domestic violence, and this is because of our ability to provide culturally competent and neighborhood-based services. we know this is a difficult time and have had to readjust our programs and focus on the core strategies that are most in need in our community. while we have in the past incre

departments, city college. i actually would be more interested in seeing us do work force development and energy efficiency in our buildings, particularly with our ratepayers but a it would help our ratepayers reduce their cost, it would help our general fund and p.u.c.'s budget as well. i get that solar may not be the most efficient use of our dollars in terms of creating jobs in green-collar work force. i'm wondering, since this upcoming year in essence the program will be somewhat whole. if we could work on developing programs that would actually route folks into energy efficiency and working with our ratepayers -- >> we'd love to do that. that's such a good use of money and that's a long-term training opportunity also. supervisor kim: great. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you, supervisor kim. supervisor chiu. supervisor chiu: a couple questions to follow-up on involving city college. at the southeast campus you obviously have a lot of activities there related to your department's work. how did you come up

across the city. he is someone that rolls up his sleeves and gets things done. i want to thank you for being here tonight. [applause] i want to hand over the microphone to you -- actually, to greg widener first. the mayor's budget director has to leave early. he will be replaced by another member of the mayor's budget office, rick, who will be here to listen. greg, if you want to share some of your insight. i have worked with him on the budget committee and has made some tough choices. >> thank you, very much. thank you all for being here. i am sorry i have to leave. i have a sick kid at home. i wanted to be here until i have to get back for child care. i just wanted to give you an overview of where things stand with the state budget. i think you are probably familiar with the challenges we are facing in the city and county of san francisco. for next year, we are projecting a general fund budget deficit of $306 million. over the next three months, we will have to close that deficit. the mayor's budget

they were only voting in favor of the city in the city costs. what has to happen, and having sat on that board for quite awhile does this. that we are the beneficiaries. the city is not the beneficiary. we are. and the reason the city is having to come up with big numbers under the retirement system is because for years the board of supervisors just did their own pet projects and did not contribute to the retirement system. they were in dereliction of duty. they should have put in every year, a minimum amount to cover. the we had a half hour special projects. and did not really think i would stand up here and talk about this today. if you do not understand fiduciary responsibilities, you have no business being on that board. that is the reason that we change it. and the voters approved it. we have voter approval all along. we did the three charter amendments. they put together their money a little bit at a time and we passed those charter amendments. and the proposition was the major one that we passed because we wanted an independent health ser

city. hamas avenue say a few things. this is the only stand-alone major museum in the united states devoted only to the arts. this is a great gateway to asia. we help to sustain that the jobs, and the quality of life in san francisco, to provide greater cultural and educational value, where we offer so many opportunities as well as challenges. we also enjoyed a tremendous international reputation for being one of the best museums in promoting the u.s. and asian culture. so, let me -- let me talk about what has happened in the last fiscal year. we have restructured the debt, i would like to thank you for your support for the asian art museum. without your support we would not have success, and we solve the major obstacle for this wonderful institution. with the city of san francisco as well. and the goals were said very clearly. we needed to do this to achieve financial stability. what is happening now, is immediately after the crisis was solved, we restructured the museum so that we could b

many people in the city right now. we'll be presenting to the behind from the mayor's office a proposal in the next two weeks. yes, we're going to end up having new hires pay a lot more into the pension system, part of the proposal, but every way that we looked we could not figure out how to balance that pension system without having current employees pay more into the system. so it cannot be just the full burden than on new hires. new hires will end up having to pay a lot more, and they will not have the same system as we have today. that's for sure. we have to have additional contributions from the employees of the city. we'll be forwarding that pension proposal to the board and hopefully in the next few weeks proposing it in public, and introducing it as a ballot measure for november. >> i look forward to supporting that. this is work the mayor and many representatives, both from labor and the city department, have been working on very hard in recent months. we have all been at the table. we look forward to giving t

i guess we are calling it developing an aging-friendly city. we are also looking at how to support senior services and unique neighborhood by neighborhood programs called aging in place or village models that allow people who are older or seniors getting older to be able to support each other and to stay in their homes and communities longer so they can be contributed to the community as long as possible as opposed to institutionalizing them, which costs quite a bit more. so i'm looking with senior group's ideas of how to create more aging in place programs neighborhood by neighborhood as well, but i think those are the key issues. i am also, kind of as the father of a 10-year-old -- i have anxiety like other parents right now as we apply for a middle schools for my daughter. as a member of the school board for eight years, i know that a strong school system and strong schools in the richmond is key. but also, i serve on the first five commission. each county has a commission that oversees money that supports children, and toddlers, and infants

and shape of our city looks like. one thing i am proud about in this project, which i cannot take credit for, is the immense community outreach and input and process them and through this development, and to talk to folks who were formerly homeless who felt like their input was heard and taken into account into with this new neighborhood would look like. up to 2400 units of affordable housing for the city of san francisco, something that our city definitely needs. something to be clapped for. [applause] an unprecedented number of units going to formerly homeless communities as well. sherri williams and many of the community-based organizations will continue to not only provide affordable housing but actually support the community as well. we are looking at a mixed income neighborhood in treasure island. treasure island will have an impact on the city. i want to think ross mirkarimi and david chiu for introducing some changes to the development agreements, which will help to mitigate some of these impacts. of course, t

and that's what new york city did. they first went to the hudson highlands, but 150 years later, it went to the delaware highlands. and really diverted the water that normally went to philadelphia to new york city. i don't think they anticipated that. narrator: the majority of new york city's drinking water comes from watersheds in upstate new york. a watershed is the area of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water. mountains act as a funnel to feed rivers and lakes. and in this case, reservoirs. in the new york city system, water is collected and stored in 19 reservoirs, which can hold more than a year's supply -- over 580 billion gallons of water. almost all of the system is fed by gravity, without the use of energy-consuming pumps. valves open to regulate the flow into the 85-mile-long delaware aqueduct -- the longest tunnel in the world. at hillview reservoir... the water is partitioned into another giant tunnel system. where it travels deep below manhattan. the pressure built u

in the city officials. i want to make sure that we don't shortchange your opportunity to speak. so we will expand our meeting to 11:45 to allow for the full half-hour that we had intended. i will ask supervisor elsbernd

do you think the city should spend money to keep the 49ers? supervisor chu: america's cup has the potential to serve as an economic engine for us. we knew that going in, and that is why it was such an important effort on the city's part, to bring that activity to san francisco. not only would it result in improvements on the pier that we were not able to afford any other way, but it helps to bring about jobs, people coming to visit, helping with our tourism industry, everything else associated with having a major event in the city. that is something that helps bring up the economic opportunities of a community, and that is very important. if you think about the role of sports in san francisco, we have to think about the giants and how amazing that whole experience was for us in terms of the world series. we had people in my district as we were coming in for the parade on muni. everybody was dressed in giants colors. everybody was in such an elated mood. everybody was brought together, no matter what ethnicity, what community, what neighborhood

but according to the budget on the city's website the city is prepared to handle water emergencies. city council is expected to issue their review of the incident at tonight's meeting. >>> new this morning, pretrial motions are set to begin today in the case of a suspected gang member accused of killing a father and his two sons nearly three years ago. edwin ram os is accused of killing tony and two of his sons in excelsior district in june of 2008. he appears to have mistaken them for rival gang members. the 24-year-old murder suspect claims another person was the shooter. >>> the unanimous vote kamala # late last night. the palo alto city council has approved what is believed to be the largest development plan in the city's history. the $5 billion project includes building a new stanford hospital. this is an animation of what the new hospital would look like. the plans also call for expanding the children's hospital and remodeling the stanford school of medicine building. >>> well, it took 13 innings and four and a half hours to do it, but the giants finished their comeback agains

it also increases the burden on the city to relocate them. so i'm asking the city government to provide more childcare and more places for our children to play and more fire prevention for our chinatown buildings. thank you. >> i want to address that for a moment, specifically with regards to fires. in my time in office, i have probably taken part, along with my aide in responding to half a dozen major fires in the district. this has been a very serious situation. i do want to thank many of the departments that are here, particularly our human services agency, rec and park, the police department, the fire department for their response in helping us deal with the aftermath of these fires. all that being said, we as a city need to do more to invest to make sure our buildings are safe, that these fires don't happen in the first place, the neighborhoods that are in the northeast part of the city are the densest neighborhoods in san francisco. with that density we need to do everything we can to make sure our buildings are not susceptible to fire.

we asked around the room, were there any other cities, and there was not. this is a special city. we have a community that actually use the children of the community as their children, like the mayor said. and it makes such a big difference, having them step up and be there for the children. it has been fabulous. and to have these advocates, it is great to have a relationship with them. my hat is always of to them. they pushed us. they pushed the school district. they pushed us to do great things for our children. a couple of years ago, we had a conversation to talk about the a-g program for all students. we started with ninth graders. everyone takes required glasses. and as a result, yeah, we have a few kids who do not make it. and so, this summer, we were trying to figure out -- we had some money. think about it -- in california 70% of all the money for summer school has been wiped out. we no longer get the funding. how are we going to do that. we decided to prioritize and give summer school to our seniors, because if they cannot pass, they will not graduate. every year, we have

the city. and finally, i was thrust upon with the obligation to make sure that i selected a police chief, not a temporary police chief. a chief that will carry forth what i consider to be one of the most important things in this city, to secure the public safety of the great city of san francisco. i think i have done that, with the selection and now the appointment of the chief. so many people have come up to me and clearly you expected a chief who had spent 30 years in his life, but i did not realize how many people he has really known in every part of this community. they come up and they thank us for making that wonderful decision. you will see right off the that, if he will be a great partner to make sure our police force and all the public agency facilities work together and we produce a higher level of public safety in the new year. i set out for a number of these objectives to perform those things in the most non-political way and to give it my full, 150% attention. that means to not be

there's a population of young adults were the city and city services is just missing them altogether. there's an overemphasis of youth in this area. what can we do to expand our particular reach? beat officers, and talking about that population of people who are not getting the attention they should be reaching mr. mayor, you want to start? >> i have -- we have been here all day in district 5. first of all, i don't think that we can over emphasize the need to make sure we support our youth. there's never enough to do enough of that. are we neglecting adults? we are paying attention to them. i want to make sure you saw ron the simmons here. she is the head of our workforce and development. she is in charge of a program called city built, where we are trying to make sure that people who want jobs get into programs that get the job ready, and then as city funded projects get started, whether it is for public utilities commission, the public works department, or parts of iraq, even muni, we are able to hire -- or park and rec, even muni, we're able to hire folks. i embrace local hires. th

for those of you who are not sure if the city is in bad -- city streets are in bad shape, you can head out to grove street. we will be having a media event there. we will all be available here for questions afterwards. thank you all for coming. >> as you all know, the mayor is here to hear a little bit from the climate action panel that have been meeting. five of them will be presenting their findings today and then we will hear brief remarks from the mayor. so i did first want to welcome mayor lee and explain a little bit about the panels and how we'll be presenting the findings. [applause] >> welcome, mayor lee. today we are pleased to present you with the recommendations of five community panels that have been working with me and the department of environment on the city's climate action plan. and these panels consist of businesses, community organizations, advocates and nonprofits. so they're going to come up and each one of them is going to introduce themselves, read you their short recommendations and hand it to you so that you can keep it in perpetuity. or keep it for reference

i know it's not your cities. but what is the role of earmarks and do you agree with this ban, federal ban on earmarks right now? >> i think it really depends on what's going on. le one, whatever the federal government or state government or city government does should be open, transparent and you should be able to explain it. so as i often say back in phily, you know, every one of our bridges goes somewhere. if you put dollars into a project, it has to go through a public process, you know what it is, you can see the end result and we have more paperwork to fill out for federal funding than, you know, one of the reasons we're planting a lot of trees so deal with all the paperwork. when this bridge project, a bridge that was literally falling apart, that was paid for 80% by the federal government, 15% by the state, 5% by the city. so $68 million project, we could have never done that as a city government by ourselves. and so i know that these -- that the ear mark, the word is a bad word and the program comes under

it is a priority for us and a priority for the city. the reductions we are proposing constitute about 2% of our total spending for mental health and substance abuse. we are not making deep cuts as a percentage of our total investment. however, these cuts will impact outpatient substance abuse, residential substance abuse services, and mental health services. we have been meeting weekly with our community providers who provide most of those services. we have been meeting with the mayor's office and with members of the board of supervisors. we have been completely transparent about all of the proposals we were making and we are working hard with our community partners to find the most effective solutions, to find a way to meet our target with the least harm to the public. saying that, we realize that the problems that we are trying to solve with our services don't go away just because we pull funding away. the problems are still there and they manifest themselves in different ways. all we can do is work with our budget within the health d

we have a model at city college -- we have a model at city college -- students first. any of you who want to see me and talk to me, what we have recognized in the city is that unless we can double the number of students actually going through and getting college degrees, we are in trouble. san francisco in connection with all of our partners, city college of san francisco, san francisco state university -- we are dedicated to doubling the number of used that get through college. welcome to all of you who are for dissipating in this, especially to microsoft who has given us $500,000 for you. this is the kind of support that we need to make sure that all of our young people can get what you deserve. [applause] let me introduce the man that has been in the forefront to make this happen. i think you already know him since he is one of your own. carlos garcia. [applause] he is the one that says the achievement gap can be eradicated for all of us. he was the visionary that talked about this five or six years ago. he is the guy that kicked this thing off, so we are happy to b

our city is reflected in being a safe city, and that challenge has been formidable. despite the financial concerns, this budget reflects no layoffs for police officers or firefighters. yet, we will still face the challenge of a public safety realignment when they state makes these actions. i want to thank the chief because from the start, he has worked with me to make sure that our police department was acting accordingly and making sure that it would bring its financial house in order. so from the beginning, he has already cut off more than $1 million in their financing with actions made at the management level. i'm sure that with his leadership and the leadership that it represents to our fire department and our nurses, that we are optimistic and appreciative that the additional task of more than $20 million is anticipated, and we want to thank them for that great sacrifice -- the police, fire, and nurses -- for considering our proposal in helping to balance the budget and keep our city safe. [applause] while our public safety departments consider the request, we a

i have a safe city i want to have, and a solvent city, and finally, we want to have a successful city. the reason that success is there is because i wanted to ask yourself, what brought you to send francisco? what made you make the investment that you made, that got you into a neighborhood? what brought me here was the excitement of being in a city that was culturally diverse. a city that respected all different cultures and ways of life. a city where you could talk to people without being offended by what people brought up. the city understanding diversity, celebrating everything that we were doing in this city. if this is going down the street in a dedicated, green lane, with huge conventions going into town, with people who can speak german and japanese, to find their way into your neighborhood with japan town -- and these great restaurants. a city with great nightclubs, the bring over a million people here on a daily basis, to find their way for jobs and all the other things. this is a successful city. the diversity and the strong neighborhoods in the different languages, things t

i worked at city hall for a few years. then lightning struck and was appointed as a member of the board of supervisors in august of 2004. i have been here ever since. the choice to live in san francisco was made for my family about five generations ago. we have been here a very long time. i could never imagine leaving. this is home. this is where i am raising my son and hope that he raises his children. >> what motivated you to get into politics? >> i attribute a lot of it to the jesuit credo to be men and women for others. there is the idea that the best way to service through the political process. i have a love for the law. i found a way to combine that with service through the political process. i have always been intrigued by it and the opportunity to present themselves well. >> where do you place yourself on the local political spectrum? >> i do not like labels like left or right. most people would call me in moderate. >> what did you learn campaigning for supervisor? was there anything that surprised you? >> in my f