>> it is a safe place we go to daily. we can kind of take a break from all of the things going on around us every day, all of the struggles every day. it is a refuge from the. >> [speaking spanish] >> it is really important for us that we are able to feel good in this place and that this place is a safe place. >> [speaking spanish]

>> i come here today not only representing the 150 workers in the program, but also representing all day laborers that stand out on caesar chavez looking for work. >> [speaking spanish] gracias. [applause] >> i come here to petition you today. we're talking about kids and education and children and youth activities. also think about the parents of those youth to make sure they also have services provided for them. thank you very much.

supervisor campos: thank you. >> i am bob weisblat. i represent myself. i have a question about process. i have been listening to all of these people with a need for lots of services for the social safety net. this city is spending $50 million on bicycle paths. there is $30 million for changing cesar chavez. i am wondering if the money comes from a place where we can move that to a later date and spend the money so that older people can get meals. kids can stay off the streets. maybe when things get better economically, we can change the way cesar chavez works. [applause] supervisor campos: i do not know

if anyone wants to respond to that. >> the project the speaker was referring to is the streetscape renovation project for cesar chavez. this project came out of the neighborhood planning process. it was many years of planning. this is something that came from the community as a priority to make cesar travis -- chavez safer and more attractive. there are a lot of people that use it. it was built more for cars. it acts like a freeway. it is not very inviting or safe. this is the result of a community effort that has gone for many years. the funding source for the st. improvement comes from a program of the federal government. it is transportation dollars

available specifically for this kind of purpose. they are not dollars that we could take and move to social services. it is a project that i think will have a great impact on knitting back together the city that is cleaved by the freeway. it will be safer for the schoolchildren. it will help the economic development of the area by making it in more viable and attractive place. we have seen that on valencia. it seems difficult to invest as much in infrastructure as we have these other needs. these dollars cannot be used for those other needs. they do have a benefit and merit on their own. i think it will be a good project. it is a result of great community planning efforts. [applause] supervisor campos: we have one more. robert lopez.

>> thank you, mayor and everyone on the panel. i represent mission hiring hall. it has been in the mission district since 1971. we're known as the place to be in the mission. people come to our offices looking for jobs. we get them jobs. we have organizations in spanish and english. of the last two years, our budget has been cut by 50%. we're working with less manpower to do the same job. we're always thinking outside of the box about how to do that. we are asking you to think about that and have consideration for that. we talk about safety. i believe that jobs keep people off the street.

[applause] my father always said that. with that being said, we have to continue to provide that avenue for people to come through our doors. today alone, i placed three people myself and got them off the street. we have a great program through city college with the construction admin training program that is very vibrant right now. the last thing i want you to consider is the limited english that come through our doors. a lot of services are geared more for the americanized, american-born people. there are people who come through our doors that do not come from that. we're trying to get them jobs, too. it is a difficult task with less

manpower and money to do it. we aske you to consider our plae and what we do on a daily basis. thank you. [applause] supervisor campos: thank you very much. i do have one question. on the way here, i ran into someone who pleaded with me to ask this question. we have a very diverse community in the mission and throughout the city. the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transistor -- transgender committee has specific services. some of those will be cut. i am wondering if there is some thought to that. what is the message to the lgbt community about the protection of those services?

it may be hiv prevention or other related services. >> the executive director's have come together as a group. i will be meeting with them shortly about that as to how we will maintain services for this community. i think it is an important process. we're also working with the trans injured -- transgendered community for a program that will be happening next year. it is important to start working with executives. i know we have some people here to save services at the martin clinic for march and the next few years. it is an important process. we're working with the executive directors. it goes back to community-based organizations and how we will

support them and have them manage their programs. supervisor campos: thank you very much. i will speak as an openly gay, latino man. lion martin is very important. there are a lot of other organizations. all of these organizations provide amazing services. before we wrap it up, i do want to turn it over to anna perez to talk about where we go from here. i will have some final words after she makes a brief presentation. >> [speaking spanish]

gracias. [speaking spanish] >> we have behaved very well. we have not made much noise. the mission is known to make a lot of noise. that is why we did little noise together. we want to remind you that as you are making the tough choices, it is about the kids that were on stage. it is about the mothers and the hearts of the people you saw

here today. it is not just about cutting services. it is looking at how we generate new revenues to support our city. we cannot follow the trend of the country looking at cutting social services in favor of the wealthy. we have to look at how we can all put together for these services and city that we want to have. thank you so much for being here. [speaking spanish] what is next is that there are a number of meetings. we're hopeful that the new mayor has opened the doors to the community. he has been having a lot of meetings up and down the city. three more are coming up on april 13, 14, and 21. those will be district 10, 8,

and 11. someone will be passing out the form with all of the different dates and times that you can come and tell people in those districts to come out. [speaking spanish] the last thing i want to say is that april 6 at 1:00, the board of supervisors will hold a hearing about the budget for dcyf. that is a really important one for people to show up if you are concerned about after-school programs and family support issues.

the mayor's office has been quite open to hearing feedback. supervisor campos: i wanted to give mayor lee an opportunity to say something. thank you again for being here in district 9. [applause] mayor lee: thank you for coming here tonight. this will not be our last meeting. i have listened carefully to the translated commons and what people mean to say here. i do think that we will have to spend quality time defining the word "progressive" when we start thinking of ways to raise revenue. i suggest we all start forming the partnerships that we need to form to get the best ideas possible. thank you very much. you have been a wonderful crowd.

[applause] supervisor campos: mr. mayor, i want to say on behalf of district 9 and the mission, and thank you for being here. thank you to all of the department heads. you have a commitment from this community that we want to see a city that works for all of us. we want to see a city that will be viable in every way. this community once their safety net protected. they want basic services protected. we want to work with you. they want to thank you for all the progress made already. we are committed to working with you and been there every step of the way. i would ask you to make sure that when it comes to the budget, your involvement does not in here tonight. you have to continue to come out. we need you to come out to the committee meetings and city hall to make sure that your voices are heard. it is not just for you.

it is for your neighbor and everyone who lives in our district. we need to make sure that city government hears. the fact that we're here as the board of supervisors and the mayor is telling you the importance of hearing you out. keep at it. thank you for your time. thank you to everyone who made this possible. [applause]

>> he has looked at the quality. he believes in people and human rights. he's one of the greatest guys i know and i'm so happy that he is our major. i bring to you mayor edwin lee. [applause] >> good afternoon. welcome. thank you very much for that wonderful introduction. i have a lot to be happy about. this is the 100th anniversary celebrating international women's day and to tell you we have quite a bit to celebrate.

we probably have the highest number of women commissioners ever in the history of the city today. isn't that wonderful we have clearly a good and growing balance of women on the board of supervisors, commissions, agency appointments, and department heads. i'm proud to be heading up this very complicated city. [laughter] one that does not let me sleep very much. certainly -- i said this in many occasions. these last eight weeks, i've fallen in love with the city evening the for the eight weeks ago because it's such a wonderful place to be. every community that i visite, t fascinates me how so many other people who work here, but even

those who do not just love the city and they do what they can to make sure it is running well. it is very natural that as i am thrust with the responsibility of being mayor that i look for talent. i think a lot of the talent is with the women in san francisco. [applause] it has been my pleasure to have been an employee of this wonderful government for some 22 years now. to take you back, i had the pleasure of serving another majoyor some years ago, one that taught me a lot of things. one of the things that i recall back in the late 1990's, the early 2000's, was when i was the director of public works. there was this report that came

out. it had been a conference at the united nations and this report was being taken very seriously by the commission on the status of women, but one of the things it had not been able to do was penetrate key departments of the city that had been male- dominated for many years. would you think dpw fit that description? it certainly did. this report was handed to me through the mayor's office. of course, the mayor then was mayer brown. and said, "what are you going to do with this?" of course, the first thing you do is read it with the understanding that there's probably a lot of information there that's going to be very hard and goals and programs that

will be difficult to implement at the department of public works, which have historically been a very male-dominated agency. we made a commitment to the mayor that we would study that report and implement every single one of those as it applied to every level. i was willing to do that. surrounding the were a lot of other powerful women who said it would not be that hard. all you had to do was pay attention. all you had to do was not take no for an answer. all you had to do was look forward, not backwards. with those very little pieces of advice, we took on that task and we found mid-level managers. we found that many women that were trying to get even to the blue-collar work, the work on the streets, had to be treated more equally. they had to the processes that were fair. as we went up the ladder, we

found it to be easier and easier because we simply paid attention to it in a short time, i was able to report back to our mayor that this program of implementing the principles and making sure that it happened in the very blue-collar department of public works was going on in a very good case. i was able to identify midlevel managers who were women. they were all there for many years, but they just were not invited to become part of management in an open way. i'm here to say to you that a lot of fire successes -- a lot of our successes reflect efforts made in the past. i do not think they were too difficult to make one to focus on them. a lot of that also had to do

with the enthusiasm that the city has brought to making those goals are real. a lot of that enthusiasm came from the women's summits in san francisco. the one that i remember i did not even get a ticket to because it was so crowded. it's the one mayer brown introduced to the city when he revived the mayor's some -- when he revived the women's summit. i knew there would be a lot of things that came out of that. those of you in those days, you were fighting for those tickets. i just gave up and said what do i have to do. as we looked at the videotapes and the press events that followed, we were blessed with a lot of great insights. the encouragement from women of international stature coming from all over the world attending this summit.

that makes it easy for me to say to you that the things that i'm doing now and the things that i have done are a lot credited to the predecessors that opened the doors for me and opened the doors for many women. it's very easy to introduce to you someone who has earned this title. this year's man of the year award goes to willie brown, jr. [applause] come on up.

mr. mayor, thank you very much. i'm just delighted that you are in a position to be able to present this to me. i'm going to work and see if i can win it next year and i'm going to ask you to stick around. [laughter] [applause] and present it to me next year in your capacity as mayor of san francisco. [applause] mayor lee, you have got to know that the women of san francisco that you giave an opportunity to in your capacity as the chief administrative officer of the city -- even to the state, the person you designated to replace you, a woman.

you elevated women to positions of importance inside of the mayor's office. i saw naomi little out there. one of your deputies -- i do not think they called them deputies anymore. every man has his impression on what happened in this city. i am delighted. i'm going to tell you. many of you on the women's summit when we did those -- when i look around and i see jackie and i think about susan and all the other women who headed the mayor's summit -- i hope that as your term unfolds, may yor,

you will find athink distinguisn more ways than one. we clearly became the first city to champion what was supposed to be the process being led by the un. we were the very first city to do that with reference to women. [applause] i do not think there is any other municipality anywhere in this country that ever matched what we did in terms of trying to inspire women to become full participants in the pursuit of justice and equality. i'm just delighted, mr. may or, for you to present this award. to all of you will have been responsible, shelly, and others, i'm delighted.

it's going to go on my wall. i'm going to prove to my daughter susan and to sonia that somebody thinks i'm a man of the year. [applause] [laughter] >> we have one more quick presentation before we do a couple of things. a couple of people mentioned the past womens' summit. jackie is one of them. there are others here. if we could just ask you to stand up. we want to recognize you for the work you did and the history you created. thank you. [applause] >> we have something else for mayor brown. i'm having to present him the jet by night -- jdei knight

award for all the years he's been working in the death star. you know all the things he has done to support us. we especially want to give him this award for being the first state legislator in the country to find family planning for low- income women. in the 1970's, when he was on the national board of planned parenthood. i do not know if you know that, but i was there. we want to give him a weapon today to help us as a fundamentalists tried to take those rights away from us. mayer browor brown -- [laughter] [applause] >> may the force be with u.