about to enter. [applause] >> the very next day, january 11, the new board of supervisors met for the first time, with the historic first decision of their new term. >> item 3 is a motion to ratify the appointment of a successor mayor due to the occurrence of a vacancy in the offense of a mayor expiring january 8, 2012. >> i am hoping for is, as we look forward to the confirmation of mr. lee, that we will also, leaving behind the kind of tactics that were used last week, that i thought really made the process feel more clumsy than it should have been. >> this is ed lee's day. i have said a lot about my perspective of this man who comes from the community, who is rooted in our community, who has a tremendous breath and

death of city experience. colleagues, at this time, i hope and ask that we unanimously vote for ed lee to be our next mayor. >> supervisor campos? president to? supervisor chu? supervisor colon? supervisor elsbernd? there are 11 ayes. the motion is approved a [applause] . >> colleagues, i am going to move that we recessed the meeting and we conduct the swearing in ceremony of the new mayor in the rotunda of city hall. [applause] >> so ended one of the greatest challenges the board of supervisors has ever faced, resulting in the first interim mayor in san francisco in 32 years. >> we had a real sense of

belief when the full board made the final appointment to successor mayor. we thought there were some and gaps in our knowledge about how to appoint a successor mayor. by the time it was actually done, it seemed almost easy, but it was not, to be honest. we had planned for different types of variables to occur, and none of that actually happened. no conflict of interest laws came into play, no inquiry issues. >> i thought they did a good job, actually, trying to figure out something that had very little precedent in our city's history, something that was very important. >> angela and her staff did an extremely professional job. she was on the hot seat, under a tremendous amount of pressure. i did not see a lot of the back room arm-twisting, hair pulling, chest pounding that was going on, the pressure she was under,

but when she walked out into the board chamber, when she walked into the hallway and the reporters were chasing after her, she was precise and professional. >> in the end, there were some questions about the charter of san francisco. >> our charter spells out a formal process, but lee is pretty silent on that application process. >> this has happened in 32 years, but i think we need some better certainty on how we deal with this decision of succession. >> the charter has worked several times during times of vacancies like this. it certainly worked during aftermath of mayor mosconi and harvey milk. >> so we may be seeing more of these successor issues coming up, certainly something we do not want to legislate. i hope that we can trust people to be grown up about it, but if that is not the case, we can spell that out. >> going through the first time

with little knowledge and information was difficult. now that we have got our record of how to do this, i think the next clerk and the city will be much informed with having our process and having our archives to look too. >> and that is how san francisco government worked out the kinks, twists and turns, bombs in the road, to select its new interim mayor, ed lee. san francisco's first asian- american mayor. >> this has been an unprecedented and historic transition of power here in san francisco. i am so happy the board of supervisors came together to select an outstanding choice along many outstanding candidates to lead us over the next several years. >> over the past several months when this issue has come up, it had been agonizing. the board has been put into a difficult situation. there are a lot of differences of opinion on how to run the city, how to mass make a

decision, who should be in place, 11 people to agree on that is a challenging thing. i think we have done the best we can do in the process, considering the difference of opinions. >> the people of san francisco can now choose their mayor, the direction they want to go. that is why this decision was so appropriate. >> the other big shock is that the moderates seem to have won this round. people thought, progressives have themselves on the board. there is no reason that they will not get together and take a noted leader who is a progressive to be interim mayor, and then stayed there for another term. the great thing about being in term mayor is to get to run as an incumbent. the fact that the progressives could not get together to get somebody into office as interim mayor in their own self-interest was very surprising for a lot of us. >> what happened in the last month in city hall was an incredible show of democracy that was part policy, part

politics, and it all came together, and more than anything -- not just from a reporter's perspective, often was this? but there was a public interest as well on what was going on in san francisco government. we take it for granted a law that there is a city government here. this was something that brought people together. you heard people talking about it at the cafes, park playground, people who do not always pay attention. in that $0.10, it was the best thing we could have done for city government, even though it was a little bit messy. it was a lot of fun and an eye opener. it got people interested again.

>> very proud of -- 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, and suffrage means

more than just the right to vote. it includes the right for a woman to run for political office. think about the contributions we have had for women such as senators feinstein and boxer, or democratic leader nancy pelosi. what we would like to do today is bring your attention back to the local level. the women being honored here today are leaders in their own right. they have made significant contributions to their communities and to their neighborhoods. i, for one, feel privileged to stand here today to help celebrate their accomplishments. i would like to take just a moment to tell you about our organization. the friends is a membership- based non-profit, and we actively support the initiatives and the work of the commission and the department of the status of women. some of my board members are

here. our president of the board will be speaking later. she is up against the wall. diana is also a friend of mine from the board. we would like to encourage the men and women who are here today to join the friends. if you join today, you will receive a generous $10 gas card from chevron -- $20 gas card from chevron -- she upped the ante bill. and a cutback from the friends. another generous kenbei -- gas card from chevron, and at this point, i'd like to introduce the executive director of the department of the status of women.

>> thank you so much, patricia. we are so lucky to have a front organization theory department parking and traffic does not have a friend's organization, so we feel privileged to partner with them. we are also very fortunate to have a mayor who really understands the value of women's power. mayor lee when he was the director of the department of public works. it was one of the first departments to undergo our gender analysis, per our 1998 ordinance reflecting the principles of the united nations women's rights treaty. to be honest, our first meeting with dpw was not very promising. we told them we wanted them to think about gender in their operations, and they gave us a blank stare. "what do you mean, gender?

we provide services for the public." then, we started to talk about the impact that public works has on women, so one of the examples that we talked about was street lighting, when street lighting is very poor, who are the victims of attack? they tend to be women. we talked about the number of bathroom stalls. whether there are equal numbers of bathroom stalls, that is not really equitable because the line is out the door for women and not for men. but to his credit, the mayor, when he was head of public works, took this seriously. when women complained that they were cut out of information loops about job openings, he introduced the career center at the yard where all employees could have access to formally posted job openings. when we discussed the lack of women in middle and upper management, he scrutinized the

promotion practices and committed to advancing more women. when women expressed a desire to network throughout the department, mayor lee sent a personal letter to the home addresses of women who worked in the department, inviting them to join a new women's employee group that continues today. please join me in welcoming our mayor, edwin lee. [applause] mayor lee: thank you for that very kind introduction, family. hello, everyone. welcome to this lovely part of our city hall. this was always made for this kind of attention because with in this room today, we probably have some of the most powerful women on the plant. so we have to pay our respects. but i want to thank family and the commission on the status of

women. i know we have experienced a recent loss, and kaelin was such a great leader among the rest of the commission on the status of women, as well as her husband, who had actually started the state commission on the status of women. i wanted to just acknowledge that history. also, i did not see them here -- maybe they are still meeting, but i know the members of our board of supervisors just announced their honorees for this month when in history month honorees. i wanted to make sure i give a shout out to all of the honorees because the whole city i think cherishes the contributions of women in everything that we do, whether it is a department head, commission, consultants, contractors, vendors. there are women throughout the whole works of the way the city is run, and i wanted to let you know that years before it did

not work that way. when i first started, there were very few women that were in major decision making bodies, and now, we have a fire chief. i have had the privilege of working with the police chief. so many great department heads that have been my colleagues. and certainly within my current office, a lot of women are working in the mayor's office. where i came from, we have an acting city administrator. all of my top three city administrators are female, so i just recognize that. i just wanted to share that. so we have had a great history in this city. and we still are -- emily, i think we still are the single city in the nation that has taken upon itself to pass an ordinance embracing the conference on the end of discrimination, and to make that

a real ordinance that guides us. that still is, i think, something to celebrate because we still continue to be unique in terms of women's leadership, in terms of their purchase of patient in our government, the way we run it, and that has been such a recognize point because ending discrimination has been what it has been all about. the promotions and the recognition are fine, but we have got to make sure that discrimination has ended completely. we do that 5 putting women in responsible positions as they are talented and recognized for, and that is why i wanted to announce tonight my choice for this year's history month as being my selection, somebody who i have had the privilege of working with so many years. i used to work for her when i was in the community of attorneys because she would send me all of the clients the were

living in our sro's and struggling with immigration reform and all of the blockage is there. she had such a big heart, but i could not take on as many clients as i possibly could, whether they were single clients or whole groups of them. i selected annie chung this year that she continues her great work. you can see her senior centers all over the city servicing clientele. you can see that she has gone well beyond just senior centers, that she is in meals programs. that she has also served on various committees that help us way beyond the traditional senior programs. for example, i served with her

way back when it was pacbell. then it became sbc. then back to at&t. she is advising verizon and others because she knows as well as i do that communication and the way we communicate has been evolving. and if we do not keep our seniors involved in that, they will be left behind. as many other groups are left behind when it comes to technology, says she has gone ahead of them. that is a woman who has been for seeing what will occur in future generations of the city. that is the kind of leadership i wanted to recognize tonight. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco and also to join the other honorees that the board of supervisors has mentioned, i wanted to give this proclamation to my good friend and to also declare it to be annie chung day in san

francisco. [applause] >> thank you very much, mayor. thank you very much for this honor. i think that's you take me because of the work that i had done for the past 35 years. i think the mayor was right. we have been struggling to build senior housing and bring health care and nutritious meals and employment and training to a very -- a part of the population that has always been left out. immigrants, low-income, non- english speaking, but because of

the work of our city, a lot of city departments -- we are seeing more access for our seniors now, and i hope that under your leadership, that we will continue to see our seniors being able to walk into every department and receive the services that they need. i was in washington, d.c., last week when i was preparing for today's reception, and i thought since the mayor was bestowing on me such a great honor, i had better read up on all of the work of many distinguished american women in the 19th century, during my trip, i started to read up a lot of these lives of great win, like eleanor roosevelt, margaret mead. every name that is so familiar to us, but yet, we never had time to just sit and read their stories. these women just inspire us and motivate us to do even more.

so i know that you are rushing, but i want to present you this little book that i read and finished. i know that you have lots of things to read, but i hope you will find time on your bookshelf for this one. i just wanted to give you this introductory remarks written for this little book. i think this was written by vincent wilson jr.. i think continually of those are truly great, the names of those who in their lives fought for lives, who were in their heart, the fire center. born of the sun, they traveled toward the sun. thank you so much for spending time with all of the honorees today and especially for this great honor. thank you. [applause]

>> hello, i'm the president of the commission on the status of women, and i'm here to thank the friends of the status for women. without their efforts, we would not be able to give you cookies or coffee, which we want to get too quickly. and we are fortunate to have them. i think the only of the department that has friends to accompany them is maybe the friends of the library, so i think we need to give a big round of applause for the friends on the status of women. [applause] i would also like to thank the mayor. he may not recall, but three years ago, we used to have this event in a crowded little room upstairs, hot, and i contacted the been city administrator, and he's procured this room for us.

so thank you, mr. mayer -- mr. mayor. i would also like to recognize some great, powerful women with us today who are the city family. first of all, i see supervisors got wiener present. the director of the board of appeals. the ex-director of the children, youth, and their families. the fire chief. j. morrison, and there is a history behind her name. i could not even begin to make it worthwhile. the president on the commission of aging. the acting city administrator. mickey callahan, director of the department of human resources. and the director of the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs. without further ado, i'm going to turn this over to commissioner su.

>> thank you. it is such an honor to be in the company of such accomplished women. as you know, in a society, if we take care of our most vulnerable, if we work towards a policy for everyone, that is when our entire communities really succeed and drive. i'm so pleased to present the first one to annie chung. we have our certificates hear it from assemblyman tom ammiano. for all of our honorees, we also have a back from the friends of the commission on the status of women, so you can all continue the heavy lifting that you do. i would also like to invite my fellow commissioners of here with me.

if you want to come back up again. a former president of the commission. and right next to me assisting me is a member of the friends of the commission, and i cannot reiterate enough that we cannot do all the work without the friends, so any, thank you. -- annie, thank you. i'm going to just read off this order. this is the order that i have the certificates. supervisor mar's nominee. thank you for all of your work. [applause] and we have a crystal brown, a supervisor farrell's honoree.

thank you. and geri crowley. at every meeting, i see her. i do not know whether -- where she finds the energy. i hope i can grow up to be just like you. [applause] and kimberly ellis, a fellow member of the california bar, and honoree barmalia cohe -- on area of -- an honoree of malia cohen. next. carlina hanson, honoree of supervisor mirkarimi. next, we have eileen hanson. i would see her on every street corner. she is amazing. thank you.

next, we have anella manuel, supervisor kim's nominee. are you still here? might have been distracted by all of the relatives. next, we have dobrynin, supervisor -- deborah niemen, supervisor wiener's nominee. >> [inaudible] and a woman near and dear to my heart because my grandmother was an immigrant from china, although i'm fourth generation

on my grandfather side. an honorary from district 7. [applause] congratulations. and supervisor chi's -- supervisor chu's honoree. congratulations. she just announced that there are civil service discounts. does that extend to state employees as well? great. finally, we have the jacqu line zapata chavez, supervisor avalos' nominee. >> [inaudible]

i hope you all join and carried that bag proudly. thank you very much. [applause] now, we have our president of the friends of the commission on the status of women. >> thank you, commissioner. i want to thank the mayor and board of supervisors for all the work and dedication on behalf of women and girls in san francisco. i also would like to give a special thanks to the city administrator's office for continued support of this event. that is the reason why we are all here. this reception at this event would not happen without the help of our board members. and i do want to acknowledge our board members again. and we have a special guest, the consul general of the

canadian consulate. she was just newly appointed. so we welcome you to city hall and to this event, and, of course, our sponsors. we do have refreshments for all of you. we want to thank chevron for the gas cards. congresswoman nancy pelosi, a democratic leader in the u.s. house of representatives. the filipina women's network. marion chap phil taylor from the friends of the san francisco public library. one of our board members who is our even a share. thank you for putting all of this together. annie chung. she still donated to the reception so all of us could get fed. and srt productions for the photography. they are outre