budget. they're hud funded. and i will look into what they pros as layoffs. they're not part of the city budget but they are certainly a commission that reports to us and we will look into the details of how they're balancing that budget. we certainly will pay attention to it because if i've been working very closely with mr. alvarez, i'm making sure there is a level of quality services that are provided to the tenants of public housing and we have -- we've been improving, improving. as you know, when mr. alvarez came aboard and i was assigned to help them through the previous mayor, we had tremendous deficits and we're just getting around that corner to balance that budget with hud finally clearing some of those records and some of the really bad lawsuits that cost millions of dollars are no longer affecting us, they're behind us. so i think the housing authority is recovering and mr. alvarez is

working much closer with departments of the city to provide those services and we're keeping very, very close in touch with the way they're operating and how they're operating. so i'm not aware of all of the layoffs but i will definitely look into it. >> hi, i'm lena the executive director of san francisco adult services network. you're familiar with adult day health care. the board of supervisors a month or so ago approved a resolution to stop the elimination of adult day health care but as you may know in the news, the state has approved elimination of the adult day health care with redesigning it into a new program that will still qualify under federal labor and so forth but they also slashed the budget 50%. our coalition, we have nine

centers and two here in the richmond district and we are concerned because we don't know what this conversion process is going to look like. they're still gathering information for that. part of the concern is we anticipate that 50% of the participants that are enroll made not qualify and they're going to need continuity of care of services in the city. so there potentially could be a surge of extra costs coming our way to the city. what we have if appropriate for you mayor and your staff, we have a letter that summarizes our concerns, some of our proactive meetings and we would like to ask a direct meeting with you and staff to talk about some of the things we would like to do to protect what's going to be coming down. >> we only have ten minutes to go. please come forward and be succinct for our department heads, please be succinct in answering as well.

>> thank you very much, supervisor. mayor and members of the department. four blocks from here is the jackie chan senior center. 4,500 are dedicated for those who come for nutrition, case management, community service and ookt tiveties and about 175 seniors are what lanai mentioned. we're one of nine adult day care centers. i appreciate mayor and supervisors and department heads as we followed you around from district to district, we really come to appreciate how much love and commitment you have from san francisco. knowing you working closely with the supervisors, we are confident you will do the right thing but have i to say that for five years, senior services have

been cut and cut. pulled from the federal, the state and the local government. and today i want to plead with you, while we're not asking to make new promises but an old promise that must be kept and that is san francisco will not send our elderly to nursing homes or long-term institution prematurely. so when you close the adult day health care centers, many, many of the seniors will be almost go right back to acute hospital or zeend into a nursing home. we do not want you to do that. we cannot afford to do that. we have to keep that promise. so supervisor, mayor, please help us not to give the word to the seniors, they are already living with uncertainties and

anxieties about coaching up the centers. on top of it, please do not send them to nursing homes. >> thank you. i'm with the richmond community association and san francisco neighborhoods and i'm concerned about the housing development 2009 certification of the environmental. because that was approved without a hearing on some of the changes and some of the changes, most important ones, was that it would allow increased density, increased heights, reduced parking, along the major bus routes. what was approved previously,

increased parking along bart and light rail. another change is that because it is changed with the bus routes, people in richmond should be aware that that would allow -- one thing is in-field housing, meaning a homeowner could start renting out their house, their rooms to different people without requiring parking. and this is something that's going to impact all of us in the in richmond throughout the city. >> we only have a couple more minutes. >> and the next question is for p.u.c. i understand that -- >> why don't we stop there so that becan have a response s there anyone that would like to respond? >> i know the housing element is coming before the land use committee very soon. and every five years we have to revise it an affordable housing and better streets planning and strong planning process is critical. neighborhood group that's have raised concerns will be heard in the land use committee so i think that's a real good question and that will be coming

up in the next couple weeks in the land use committee. anyone else that would like to respond to the question? thank you for the question. >> one last thing -- >> no, we're going to go to other audience member to ask questions. thank you. >> good evening. my name is rose hilson, and i'm actually a resident of jordan park, not specifically the richmond. but i'm covered by the richmond police station. i see captain korea here. i'm glad to see him because we had some discussions in the past and worked on some projects. i would like some additional budget consideration for traffic officers considering that in the richmond district, it's very quiet, hardly anything happens. but what i learned from captain korea is, a lot of the criminal elements, like to drive through. they don't exactly take muni to commit crimes or walk. and so if we have additional traffic enforcement and education out here t. would really help things. if you would consider that in

the budget. the last sthing please consider the i.f. spending in the city because i think there are redundant systems. i can get into details at some other points. thank you. >> i think i already read a question from you. dwaupt to elaborate on that question? >> i want to make a short comment. vera hail from the advisory council to the department of aging. one of the things we notice now is that the inequity among classes in san francisco is growing greater. and robert wright describes that saying that when you have businesses that have money and they don't pay enough taxes, and you have people whose income gets less every year and that applies to seniors, 45,000 s.s.i. recipients in san francisco have not had cost of living increases for three years

and they've had a $20 a month reduction on top of that and all of us on social security now have had not a cost-of-living increase in two years. so our income is getting less. i knew it would be fixed. i didn't know it would be shrinking when i retired. i believe in taxes for those who can't afford them but don't think we should keep widening the gap. >> thank you, miss hill. i'm going to read several cards and ask if there's anyone from the panel who would like to respond or give closing remarks. first one is the city can balance the budget by saving more. why can't we turn off lights and heethers at nights and weekends? why one building, for example, m.t.a. has so many cubicles, empty spaces? consolidating department space would save a great deal.

also, laura asks where do you stand regarding mental health funding? this is not a state issue as misconstrued by some. it is a san francisco city wide issue. lastly from easton dujali, what steps have been taken, if any, to address the visible deferred maintenance for our parks? those are three questions. is there anyone that would like to respond? >> i would be happy to talk about the deferred maintenance needs in our park. our park has over a billion dollars of deferred maintenance needs. we're very happy for voter support in 2000 and 2008 for two park bond measures where you made a dent in our needs and started to see beautiful buildings and pools.

we have another bond hopefully slated for 2012. we also used open space funds and money set aside each yore for deferred maintenance projects. with that said this gos to a fundamental resource challenge in our parks. but i think we're making the most of the opportunities we have and i would ask folks for your support of the next bond measure in 2012. >> thank you. ed harrington, general manager from the public utility commission. >> thank you, supervisor. this is a question why don't we turn off lights at nighttime, more energy efficient in our buildings? we are spending money every single year in san francisco. we've been going through all of the major buildings in the city. we have most of the lights where if no one's in the room more than a half hour, lights turn off by themselves. water efficiency measures. put about $5 million a year into reducing the electricity of water in the city buildings. it's just faking us a while to get through them all.

building by building, we are going to make those buildings more sfoisht we don't just waste power and water. >> thank you. did you want to address a mental health issue? >> a couple things. compleerly i think it stopped being a state issue when ronald reagan closed state hospitals a long time ago. it's never been a medical issue in terms of mental health. clearly it is a city issue and the city of san francisco spends more money on mental health and substance abuse than any other county in california by a multiple, six, seven times as much as the next closest county in san francisco upon a per capita basis. so we have a long commitment to that. many of you may know dr. rich katz recently left the city of san francisco to go to los angeles. barbara ga garcia, our new

health director, those of you who know barbara know her area of expertise is in community programs, behavioral health, substance abuse, primary care. she was responsible for all of fleems. as deputy director before she took the position. there's no one who knows more than this than barbara. i don't think there's anyone more respected than barbara on this topic. she and many of us in the department have been working closely with the mayor and our community partners around, trying to find the least harmful way to -- if we ultimately have to make cuts, try to do it in the least harmful way possible. still, i think the -- the total of $10 million of cuts in our budget that fall into community programs is something in the neighborhood of 2% of the total money we spend in that area. so we're spending in terms of

the funding that go to community programs over $200 million a year and so -- we're looking at about a $10 million cut overall. so we really are trying to minimize that to the extent we request. >> is there anyone else that would like to respond to any other questions? let me start to wrap this up to let mayor lee raise marks but thank you for raising the questions and keep raising them to our office and mayor's office as well and keep speaking out for the richmond district to make it more liveable and beautiful place to live. let me introduce -- reintroduce mayor lee. >> thank you, supervisor. again, thank the city departments here. most importantly, thank you all for coming out. i'm listening very carefully. you have not only mind open but hearts as well. you can't but continue listening. it's important to me and everybody else here. most importantly, i want to

thank all of you. only thingly probably close my ear to, i don't want to be muni director, ok? thank you very much. >> one quick announcement is there's a health fair our office and senator leland lee and other community-based organizations have been working on. it will be on may 18th at the richmond rec center and there's a lot of information here. thanks to kirsten mccauley, les from my office for organizing. this we will be around for a few more minutes but thank you for coming out, everyone. the biggest issue

in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one...