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.

>> welcome to district -- need your district supervisor. we're here with supervisor john avalos, from district 11, which includes the excelsior, and will sign, our mission, and crocker amazon neighborhoods. supervisor avalos was elected to the board in november of 2008. we are going to get to know him and talk about the toughest issues facing the city. welcome and thank you for joining us today. tell us a lot about your background, where you grew up, went to school, the job you worked. >> i was born in a town called and los angeles. it was a lot of working-class

folks. my father was a shore worker, my mother was an office worker at usc. my parents were divorced when i was 10 years old, and i moved to the east coast for six years before going back to california after high school. i went to school at uc santa barbara, graduated in 19988 -- 1988. i have lived in the excelsior since 1999. i have had lots of different jobs, but my main job is doing social work force and a disco, i have been a community organizer, i worked at a labor organization supporting janitor's working in our high- rise buildings. i was a legislative aide before .wr. i got to see how it all work from the outside, community organizations supporting young people, children, families, working for labor, and saw how

city hall could be an effective tool for change and then considered running in 2007, 2008, and somehow, i made it. >> you were raised in los angeles, moved to the east coast. what made you want to come back and live in san francisco? >> i love cities. i never felt like i lived in a city in los angeles, but when i lived in massachusetts, where i live, i was close to boston. i had such a great time in boston but i did not like massachusetts so much because it was cold, the culture was foreign to me. when i came to san francisco, the first time i came, there was a rainbow over the bay and there was something calling me. i was 20 at the time. i knew that this was a place i needed to live. the history here, you can see it in terms of buildings, you know

the history from, labor history, hit the history, history of what happened in 1978 with milk, mosconi. but i wanted to be a part of its. >> what got you involved in politics? >> i had been involved in politics for decades. i was doing work around central america, supporting people in central america, protecting against u.s. imperialism, and their right to live. i was doing a lot of work on campus in college. head of work against apartheid. i was involved in a lot of the efforts to push back on efforts to remove affirmative action, prop 209, all kinds of work

around ballot measures that were tough, big ideas, like single payer, but i never got involved in supporting a candidate. i never thought that a candidate would be someone that i would support, but when tom and ammiano ran for mayor against willie brown, somehow, i got inspired. i thought, it someone that has integrity and honesty, that comes from the community, could run for mayor, maybe it is we something that can represent the community. i wanted to look at it from a candid perspective. >> when you did run for the border supervisors, what did you learn from that experience, from the campaign? >> from the campaign? so much. you knock on a lot of doors, talk to a lot of people.

some of the things were interesting, how connected a lot of people were to their schools, communities. people were involved in their communities in some many ways. we have neighborhood organizations. there are so many people actively involved in the communities, neighborhoods, our organizations, child care facilities, relationships with seniors, at the park. that was something exciting to see. there were multiple ways for people to be involved as residents and members of the city. i was stunned by just how many artists were in district 11. there are so many artists who are doing incredible work that do not have a venue within their districts to show their artwork. it inspired me and my office to sponsor artwork events, culture events. now we are starting an arts committee to get more funding,

having the community be a part of deciding what kinds of parts we want to show. that was one idea that i learned from campaigning. >> what kind of art? >> you name it. we have people who make their own musical instruments. people who are artists, painters, photographers. we have an artist showing her work right now in my office. she went to africa and captured some images of youth suffering, struggling to raise children. we have well known writers in latin america that are not well known here, but in the latin american world, are very well known. incredible amounts of vibrancy going on. musicians. it is great. >> switching gears up it, what do you feel are some of the biggest issues facing your district?

>> when i was first campaigning, there were a lot of murders going on. it seems to be settling down, but we need to be vigilant. how can we have a public safety environment that is going to be collaborative between community and police? that is something that i want to work on. how can we maintain strong relationships around public safety issues. occasionally, we have a murder. how can we respond, as a community. ? we have had several murders since i have been in office, and every time i look at how i can support the family, victims, regardless of the situation. try to get people involved in talking with the police, helping the community feels safer. these are the ways that i would like to be able to respond, something that i would always like to be a part of, the

effort, as supervisor. one thing that i am tackling and expect to be for a long time is looking at how muni operates in my district. the 14 bus is one of the busiest routes in san francisco. in my district, it is very well used. oftentimes, the muni bus does not go all the way to the end of the line. i am trying to work out how we can actually extend down to daly city. so if you want to get downtown, from my area, you can take the bart it, and then go downtown, and be there within 20 minutes. right now, you take the 14 bus 2 balboa station, and it will take you 40 minutes just to get to balboa station. that is one thing i am looking at, making muni more effective.

san francisco, we talk about it being a transit first city, but it does not mean a lot of options for transit are not well thought out in places further from downtown. my district is one place where we need to create better options. >> you mentioned muni and the changes that are happening. what about parking, traffic, is the area safer for pedestrians? >> there is always a lot of work to do with pedestrians. making sure the department of parking and traffic is painting along alemany. along balboa park station, geneva, san jose, pushing hard to get a ramp for pedestrians. right now, it is dangerous to cross the street, especially if you are pushing a stroller or are in a wheelchair. you have to go further than you