building leadership in our communities, to have our voices heard in city hall, and making sure that the budget is sliced in a way to serve what we need here in district 11. we also have in this district the most senior citizens and elders than any other part of san francisco. we have many seniors living there be isolated, alone in their homes. perhaps the family has moved away. sometimes it takes a lot of hard work to see them. we need to make sure they are hooked up to services they might need, so they can live independently at home. we have also multi generational households. we have many seniors living with grandchildren and great- grandchildren in their homes. that is a unique feature in district 11. many of us are struggling.

we are also working to make sure our voices are heard. this town hall is a big part of making sure that our voices are heard, so thank you for being here. in the last two years -- not this year, but years before, i served as the chair of the budget committee. this year, we have supervisor carmen chu, who has been very difficult and on enviable job, but will be doing a fabulous as the chair of the budget committee. i know supervisor carmen chu will have some words to say. when you are going through, what you have to do bring the budget to balance with the mayor's office, i want to thank you for your services and effort. [applause] district 11, we have many

children, families. a lot of folks who have got more organized and have taken part in the civic life in san francisco, political life in san francisco. last year, working with my colleagues on the board of supervisors, we put on two ballot measures to raise taxes on the high end. we had a 2% temporary increase to the hotel tax. we also had a permanent increase to the real estate transfer tax. every year, that raises $35 million in revenue on average. in some years, it will be greater. it taxes, not every day home owners, but homeowners if you with property worth more than $5 million. does anyone here have property worth more than $5 million? i didn't think so.

we are middle-class and are working people. since we have a lot of folks in this neighborhood who were actively phone calling, knocking on doors, registering people to vote, getting people involved in the passage of prop n, we really feel like this district needs to be well considered in the budget. we have such great demand in our population. we know we have some revenue that we have to fight for that can give us some flexibility in balancing the budget this year. that is the end of my part. i wanted to make sure we talk about the great assets we have in the district, community leaders working hard to create change in the neighborhood, our needs, and what we can offer in terms of the solution -- a solution to the budget. so i want to thank everyone for their hard work.

i want to introduce supervisor carmen chu who is here, the chair of the budget committee. she chairs that commission appointed with five other members. she will be bringing the budget into balance in the next coming months. we have to do that by july 30. next to her is ann hinton. let me first say, we have mayor edwin lee here. thank you for coming out. [applause] i wanted to talk about the great work he has done already in district 11. mayor lee came out to balboa park station twice with me. i brought him out on a monday to see what the station is like for every day transit users.

they come into the station and see a station that is in rapid deterioration, and safe, difficult to navigate as a pedestrian, unclean, news racks that were in terrible shape. i brought him here on an monday -- on monday. then we brought him back on thursday after the department's worked to make things more presentable. that commitment to come out and share in the experience of everyday san franciscans was really important to see. it is also about his work in city hall and in the city, that expands several districts and their hooves 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 is due to the board of supervisors on june 1. then it will go through the committee process through chair chu's budget committee. so we will be working closely with supervisors chu and avalos to make some decisions on the budget. just to put the $306 million budget in a bid of context -- as you know, san francisco, like cities around the state and country, havs been having some

real financial trouble over the last few years. that is connected to the economy. city revenues are driven by the economy. things are looking a little bit better. it looks like we are cautiously optimistic that some of the worst economic news may be behind us. we are may be seeing some glimmers of hope. revenues after several years of decline has begun to stabilize, as we are starting to see a bit of an economic recovery. so that is the good news. the bad news is, we still have a significant way to go until our budget is back to the point where we are not dealing deficits year after year. there are a couple of reasons for that. we have lost a lot of our state and federal revenues. you know the state and federal

governments are dealing with their own budget challenges and a lot of what happens is, those challenges to passed on to local governments, who are the backstops in a lot of budget decisions. secondly, even though our revenues are slowly recovering, we have growth in the costs of running the city. things are getting more expensive. we are tackling some big issues, including the cost of our city employee benefits, pension and benefits. i am sure mayor li will talk about that effort. we are trying to work with our labor organizations to come to a solution. we do very hard on to enough so that we can control the long- term growth and cost in our cities so that we do not have to do this year after year and come back to you and talk about our budget deficits every year for the foreseeable future.

our $306 million deficit, to put it in context of what it is a challenge. we have a $6.5 billion city budget. within that budget, there are a lot of restrictions on what we can use for what types of services. so of the $6.5 billion budget, less than half is in the general fund, which pays for the services provided by a lot of the departments here tonight. about $3 million. -- $3 billion. within that $3 billion, we have requirements on what to pay for, commitments to retirement and pension costs, matching for federal programs, voter-approved spending programs. when you add that up, we have about $1.3 billion of our budget which is flexible, discretionary money that we have left to make choices about on how to balance the budget.

so the $300 million deficit is approaching about a quarter of our general fund money. so it really is a challenge facing the city. like i said, we have had this challenge will last couple of years, so it is nothing new. but we have some serious decisions to make over the next three months, so we are thankful for you coming out tonight. i am looking forward to hearing from you your thoughts on how we approach it. we are going to listen closely as we head into our decision making process about the budget. so thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> thank you. before mayor ed lee speaks, i want to introduce everyone who is here. we have supervisor carmen chu, chair of the budget committee. ann hinton is the director of

aging services. greg sas, chief financial officer of the department of public health. mayor edwin lee. john haley is the director of the municipal transportation agency. rhonda simmons, with the office of economic work force and development. chief jeff godown, the chief of the san francisco police department. phil ginsburg, general manager of the rec and park department. ed riskin, director for the department of public works is also here. thank you for your presence here. mayor edwin lee, without

further -- adult probation is here, too. mayor kelllee, thank you for yor patience. the microphone is yours. [applause] >> thank you. as you all know, i am not going to have been long speeches. and i'm here to listen to you tonight. but i want to say a couple of things. it is my pleasure to be here with supervisor avalos, supervisor carmen chu, the other department heads, to make sure that i fulfill a promise. while i am occupied this great office of mayor, i will listen to everybody in the city. the matter where you live. that is what i have been doing this whole year. i am three months on the job and it is wonderful to have a new

relationship with the board of supervisors. thank you for working closely with me, john. it is no wonder that i am coming out here more than others, but i will say this. john asked the question about how many of you have an $5 million. i noticed on many hands. -- not many hands. but i will say this. if families are as strong as they are here, it does not matter how much wealth you have. if you do not have community or family, you are poorer than those rich people. those rich people, all they have is bills and divorce. you have community and family. i am out here and i know that. i used to not make that much money either. i would look at myself in the mirror. what do i have? community and family. that is important.

we are going to reinforce that at city hall. i have instructed our departments with three basic principles as we look at this budget deficit. i want a city to be safe. this city has to be safe. safe in two respects. safe, in that we have a public safety system that is led by our police departments, and also by community policing. so that all of us can grow up in a safe community. also, safe in the sense that we have a core level of social services that we depend on, that seniors can depend on, that families and youths can depend on. that core level of services has to be there. i want a city that is solvent. that we can have programs that we can afford to pay for.

and guess what? we are becoming insolvent if we allow our pension system to run away from us. that is why i am working so hard with labor union leaders to make sure that we have a pension system that is dignified, that we can afford, and we will get there. every day that we work with our labor and union leaders, department heads, we want to make sure that we have a balanced, solvent pension system that does not run away from us. the new know why we are in such a deficit today? over $125 million of that is cost for our employees. i would not be here tonight if we solve that pension issue two years ago. i would not be here tonight. there would be no reason why our growing economy could not take care of the budget that we need. that is where i am working on

the pension. we want to solve the budget. third thing is, i want the city to be successful. what brought you all here to san francisco? diversity, strong neighborhoods, the events that we sponsor every day, the neighborhood small businesses that we have. that is what has made us a successful city. i want the city to continue to be successful, to continue to attract the thousands of visitors that come every day to see us, be at our local shops. i want the city to be safe, solvent, and successful. that is the principle upon which i shared with the department heads, with commission directors, as we approach this daunting task as we fill in this gap. but there will be some hard decisions in front of us. there will be some programs that we are reviewing today with you that have to change the way they

practice. there will be departments experiencing less in how they do their jobs, but will still be held accountable for doing the best job possible. i want to thank my colleagues from all the different departments because they are all working very hard. i have worked shoulder to shoulder with all of them. these are some of the best apartments that you can have for a city. they could be making more money in the private sector, but they have chosen a public service. i want to thank them from our dpw hence, rec and parks, children and family, aging, human services, they are all here spending their personal time with you to make sure you understand how the city works. i am here with an open heart and open ears tonight. the voices here are important to me. i will never neglect the 11.

you know that, john. it will never be left alone. [applause] let's get on to listening to what you have to say, respond best way that we can, and this will not be the last time that you see me out here. thank you for your time. [applause] >> thank you. we know that we will have you here again. no problem. thank you. next we are going to have charlie, who is going to introduce the presentation from the community. >> thank you, supervisor avalos, for your leadership in our district and city. thank you to mayor lee for coming out tonight. real want to give you all in one neighborhood welcome. we have the excelsior, our mission, like mile, all the neighborhoods in between. it is exciting to see all the

neighborhoods here this evening. tonight, we want to take you on a tour of our district. our tour guides include some of our neighborhood leaders, including young people, parents, from my staff, community organizations. we are all represented by many of the collaboration's in our district, including the omi community collaborative, communities united for help and justice. a first thought on our tore his desperation. -- stop on our tour is desperation. we know that low income communities are hit first and worse when economic problems it. our families are experiencing troubles from the immigration and customs enforcement, and are having trouble finding jobs. but we are resilient spirit and that leads us to the next up on

our tour. the people in our district are doing amazing things every day, working hard, raising families, helping neighbors, a volunteer at school, celebrating culture, and there are doing it and develop, spanish, chinese, and over 70 other languages in the district. we are coming together to organize for solutions. we have a strong tradition for neighborhood-based problem solving and we are building collaborative efforts to do neighborhood-based planning. we have to grit assets not just for those of us who live here today, but for the generation that will come. which leads us to the next up on our tour, which is hope. we're here this evening because we want lath -- long-lasting solutions, we want to sharpen the work force. we want to develop an equitable economy, create affordable housing, up for the infrastructure. the city's investment in our

district is important now more than ever. we look to your leadership, mr. mayor, to level the playing field for low-income immigrant communities, working class communities. these solutions require your support. we know the city has many tools. as a landowner, in turn we can develop our communities on publicly-owned land to meet our neighbors. and also insurance agencies stepped up as strong partners to to support the communities. we have five more stops that will be led by an all-star cast of district 11 heroes. these include community development, parks and neighborhood cleanliness, youth and students, and we will end with our community analysis of the city's budget. so we're on the verge of something incredible. let's hear from the community. [applause]

i would like to introduce terry valen, director of the filipino community center. >> can you hear me? i am the director of the filipino community center. i want to thank the mayor for coming to district 11 and supervisor john avalos and his staff for coordinating this event. a few of our organizations came together to talk about community development, needs and strategies in district 11. we are excited to share with you what you came up with. in the face of a struggling economy, as you can see in our own backyard, home foreclosures and business closures next door.

we wanted to the knowledge first that despite these challenges, we continued to rebuild ourselves, families, organizations. as a vibrant community, working families with deep roots in district 11, an immense pride in the excelsior and entire community. there is a need to protect the critical services. we also want to make sure city officials recognize the importance of not only continuing but expanding city investing in our neighborhoods so that we can continue to build and strengthen the neighborhood based strategies and implementation of community plans to build a sense of community. we want to talk about two aspects of community development, and i want to bring

up stephanie. she will be presenting on affordable housing issues. i just wanted to point out two things. in district 11, the average household size is between three and four. in the filipino community, it is closer to five, so we have the larger family. there has been a lot of new units being built, but those are at market rate. stephanie will mention more about that. [applause] >> [speaking in spanish]

>> my name is stephanie garcia. i am 19 years old. i belong to an agency in the community and with all of our immigrant families so that we can we have better living conditions. >> [speaking in spanish] >> the topic i am talking about is an important issue for our community. our community needs affordable housing for other families who are low income or have jobs that are of low wage.

>> [speaking in spanish] >> this issue specifically affects my family because we are not able to live independently. we have to share with other families, who like us, do not have enough resources to have our own apartment for house -- or house. >> [speaking in spanish] >> this issue, as you can imagine, affects our whole community. for the same reasons we do not

have steady employment, and in london we have is not stable, and a lot of the families in my community, as i mentioned, cannot afford the housing that is available. we are not able to live in dignified conditions. >> [speaking in spanish] >> our community is working on this issue. the most important thing is all of the communities, all of us are here. all these people in the same

district come together to create better conditions for our families and for all of us who are working hard to make a living every day. >> [speaking in spanish] >> the solutions, what we need, is communities coming together and have been support from the city, from our county. for example, with your help, we can obtain