the press secretary and other commissioners, i want to thank matthew for all his hard work getting the commissioners to give up their resumes and in some circumstances, give up their tax returns so we can find out more about you -- not literally. i am grateful to be swearing in a dozen or so of you. the arts commission, the asian art museum commission. i will have some editorial comments in a moment. the finance corp., the golden gate bridge district, golden gate park concourse authority, graffiti advisory board -- and there is a story attached to that -- housing authority commission. small business commission, and the south east community facility's commission. briefly, i see p.j. johnson is the president of the arts commission who is here, and i'm pleased that kimberly striker is

more publicly going to be sworn in, and my old friend who is going to move over from the department on the status of women and has long had an artistic bent and passion and history and background, and it seemed appropriate that we took this opportunity to appoint dorca to the arts commission. i happen to think that our public arts scene in this community has improved dramatically. i was pleased to see something highlighting one of those pieces, but i'm very proud of the work that has been done over there, and i certainly hope and expect that we will be doing all those wonderful things for this neighborhood, but never forget the quality and imagination we strike when we probably right and opportunity to access in any meaningful way that challenges, ignites, and excites them, and that is why having these big,

bold pieces of public art i think is so important to our city and provides a framework at least symbolically, not just substantively, people can appreciate the great history of the arts in our city. the asian art museum, at work and victoria both be reappointed -- i joked about that. we have work to do over there. great things are happening. when we say world class, it tends to be a widely overstated phrase, but you talk about collection. there is simply not a collection in the western world as broad and deep as the asian art museum collection. it is truly an extraordinary collection. the challenge is it is in a beautiful building, and as great as that building is and as beautiful as the civic center is, it sometimes gets lost to those other cultural icons

throughout the city that are in areas that are more accessible to people, at least they believe them to be more accessible. the challenge for the asian art museum is to build its foundation and to provide some new -- i see jay who is here, the director -- the opportunity to take more risks in terms of how we rediscover the museum and get people to appreciate the extraordinary work that has been known over there in its leadership, so i'm excited about what you have been done. that is why you are being appointed back. we hope to have some announcements very soon about the asian art museum and its stated future. a lot of work to be done behind the scenes, as you know. finance corp. -- this is interesting. i'm pleased they are both going to take the mantle to serve on this corporation. this is a big deal.

thank you for being here. [applause] the finance corp. was conceived as sort of a watchdog group of folks that could make sure -- that is why not yet as to say you wonder why these people are year. there's a connection. to make sure that we are being good fiduciaries to the work that is being done in this city that is being sponsored by the people and their support of our municipal bonds. there have been questions in the past -- distant past -- that we have not always been doing what we could be doing, and that is why this was conceived. so it does not get as much attention as it deserves, but it is incredibly important. that is why i called ken and arnold up and asked if they would be willing to serve on this body, because it is an important body. so i'm very grateful. i have known arnold for many

years, and i have admired and appreciated his commitment to this city. he knows more about their brown and jordan and feinstein am i ever will, as he has been a friend and served in different capacities formally and informally for previous mayors. i'm very grateful for the role you will be serving. can cleveland -- you are always saying we need to be they of fiduciaries, so why not put the watchdog group, and i know all the members of the group, and i appreciate your willingness to serve. john, how many years have you been on this board? a long time.

he was laid off a few times, but he keeps coming back. i guess that is the real story. but i told john his only job -- i'm going to leverage you publicly -- i said i'm going to be a poignant, i want one thing -- i want to walk up the table of the golden gate bridge -- if i'm going to be a point you. i conditioned his entire reappointment on that, i expect publicly there is going to be some announcements. spend the day with us, so i said i'm happy to do that, so i'm happy to walk up with those men and women. i still want to do that.

there is two more directors. i know. i'm very pleased as well. stephen, an old friend of mine -- not a very old friend. we got to know each other just a few years ago, but he works with the giants and has been very involved in community work and doing other things before that, and is just a passionate enthusiast of our recreation and parks system, and it was one of those things are you said, "my gosh, what about steven to serve on the golden gate park's authority?" and he kiley said yes, and i'm very pleased you are willing to do this, so thank you. you are going to be outstanding. there was a column in the "chronicle" which i thought was interesting, about someone, and i will not get into the particulars. you can read the column if you are interested -- who went out

there -- i do not want to belittle what the column said. what do you call those fancy shoes? manolo or something. i purposely did not remember that, so i do not have to at home. some fancy shoes and fancy outfits, and she was out there cleaning up graffiti, and she sort of made an art of it because she does some serious work in the real estate world, some fancy work, and she drives a fancy car and gets out there with big cans of paint. they are in the back of a car, and she just stops everywhere, middle of the street, double parks, whatever, and jobs out there and will clean out your graffiti. i thought maybe there was something right about her. maybe there was something wrong. so i had to check. i realized it was hollow. i had known her over the years and did not connect the dots.

-- i realized it was paula. kurd of like you are going to sit there telling us we can do a better job -- how about this? we have this position somehow that was vacant on the graffiti advisory board, so we said how about that? she said yes and went on to tell me more about the -- anyway, she was already on the job. i thank you for your hard work on this appointment. kind of, i don't know, interesting circuitous way onto this board. but good luck. but now, you are part of the problem. not just books at city hall. housing authority commission, dorothy smith. this was interesting -- we had a public process for this commission. there is always a public process, so we decided to dig deeper into public housing, and we had a very specific slot for

a certain type of commissioner, and we interviewed a bunch of folks, and we found the perfect person to serve on our housing authority. you all know how exciting housing authority is, right? they are going through a complete reinvention, out there, starting at hunters point and moving out to sunnyvale, and eventually alice griffith. completely real imagining public housing. -- completely real magic in public housing. we keep putting band-aids, and is just failing more efficiently. we put up $95 million of city money. people do not fully appreciate -- $95 million in bonds the city put up to build this public- private partnership. we're finding that will dollars, state dollars that we otherwise would not have discovered had we not have the courage to put that

deals together. so it is an exciting time in public housing. and no, public housing is not what it should be, and, yes, a lot of us should be ashamed that we allowed it to go this long and thus far, but that is a national issue as much as it is a state and local issue, but the state is stepping in where the federal government walk away, and dorothy is going to be a big part of that. i'm grateful you said yes and your name into this mix. so thank you. small business -- steve adams. a small-business advocate. he has friends here. he is just a great guy. i think all the supervisors know steve well, really committed to the mission district and stepped up in some creative ways to create a little miniature community benefits district there and has always been out front supporting our small business week and our small business commission, our small business this, our small business that period has been an informal adviser on this

position. a number of months came up, and we called in -- call him, and he said yes on the spot. it has just taken months to get here, and swearing in, but i'm grateful for your service. finally, the southeast community facilities commission. we have known bridgette for years. this is it, because i know you guys are hungry. almost lunch. it is a wonderful facility, but it is underutilized and needs to be completely be imagined. and we need to really gauge the community -- we need to reengage the community to reimagine this facility. as the she could do that in an appropriate manner. so that is the lineup. now, for the swearing in.

this is rather easy. all you have to do is raise your right hand. you appropriately if you would like, to stand just because it seems more formal. what i will do is i will say "i" and then you will state your name, and then entering such time as you hold the position of, and you will say, "small business commission, blah blah blah." got it? this is not as hard as it appears. please raise your right hand. please state your name. >> [inaudible] >> do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the

constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i'm about to enter, and during such time as i hold the position as a member -- >> [inaudible]

for the city and it -- >> for the city and county of san francisco. it is official. congratulations. [applause] >> i am this assistance superintendent for special indication at san francisco unified.

we have with us the supervisor from district 8. we have a supervisor from district 9. we have many parents, many staff, and some children. i would like to introduce one of the san francisco unified parents that have worked so hard all week long.

[applause] >> i am very happy to be here and celebrating it inclusive school week and i hope that we came momentum and do this every year better and that this blossoms to the state level. children of all abilities are welcome everywhere. [applause] >> now it is mine pleasure to introduce rachel norton from the san francisco unified school board. >> thank you, everyone. it is exciting to be here today. we have been building up a bigger celebration of inclusive schools in san francisco. i really want to thank katherine

for all the work that she did, the support for families, all of our administration, richard, carlos. we could not do this without this. >> our superintendent cannot be with us this afternoon but i am really pleased to introduce the deputy superintendent richard caranza. [applause] >> what a wonderful day and what a wonderful event. i say that with a heavy heart because our ultimate goal is when we don't have to celebrate

inclusive schools week, when we celebrate every day where every child is fully included in a meaningful and positive way in every aspect of education. when our school board took the monumental step in saying that we believe that every child can learn, we believe that every child will learn in our community, special education is not a place or program, this is what we do every single day.

this is the beginning of many many more celebrations about including every one of our children in the full array of educational programs. with that, we cannot do it alone. we need your help. what we need is your help and your creativity and your support in making this a reality in every single one of our schools. thank you for being part of our school system. next year, bigger and better. [applause] >> one of our elementary schools did and excel of -- an excellent job of celebrating inclusive

schools week and many are here this afternoon. [applause] >> we have decided to use this as a kickoff for really improving our inclusive educational practices in the district. with that, i just wanted to tell you that i am excited to introduce commissioner mendoza who is the mayor is educational adviser and who is here to share a proclamation on behalf of the mayor. the mayor understands the stresses that we have had a san francisco unified.

i am really proud to be here to read this proclamation from the city and county of san francisco to honor inclusive schools. since 2001, this has been celebrated during the first full week of december to honor the full diversity of our school and youth. today, the san francisco school district is establishing the first annual san francisco inclusive schools week to join the tens of thousands of students and educators around the country celebrating inclusive schools week each year. whereas the san francisco

unified school district is dedicated to the students with disabilities in education's needs. in keeping with the tenants of the students with disabilities act and the san francisco unified school district is dedicated to transforming the schools for striving for inclusiveness at all levels of our programs. whereas today's students are the future leaders of our communities, each and every student is given every opportunity to train, learn, the curious, achieve, xl, inspire our future generations. geffen -- gavin newsom

declares december 6th-12 as san francisco inclusive schools week in san francisco. congratulations and great job. [applause] >> thank you so much, everyone who is here. there are many people that i failed to mention. i see many parents and staff. i just want to ek you -- echo the deputies words that this will be something that is every day and not just one time of year. thank you very much. [applause]