at 7:15 now so we have 15 minutes. if people can keep their comments short. there's a question from the senior activist from the richmond district. how can you save senior meals? i will give this to ann hinton. >> thank you, vera sofment we are in the process -- many people know here that it's part of our budget reduction plan, we're needing to reduce some of the service areas and we presented tpwhalmt to our -- can you hear now? i saw somebody signaling. ok. we presented that budget to our commission and it's now with the mayor and his staff. we're just talking the other day about what that looks like and what the detail of it and what we might do with it. i would say that nutrition is a big negotiate our community. it's become bigger in the last couple of years because of the downturn and more people's s.s.i. checks being smaller and people not having the income. so should we determine that we

can fund the meal program again, we may need to look at other ways in addition to that, those funds, to feed people. because the need is greater than we as a city are able to -- toe we provide at this point but those conversations are still going on at this point. >> and there's a coalition of senior organizations that's working with my office to try to do our best to find funding streams or protect critical safety net services for seniors and others. a couple other questions. mr. mayor from the audience, are you aware of the layoffs that the director of the sfakehougs authority has imposed on unionized labor and the horrible effect it had on the tenants and namely it was supposed to serve elderly and children? health and sanitary conditions are breaking down rapidly. do you want to respond to that? >> i can find out. the housing authority, of course, as you know is a separate agency and they also have challenges balancing the

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.

>> i am glad to see some many of you people survived the apocalypse. he is doing a great job here. i see you've. who else is here that i can recommend. could deceive from the redevelopment agency. los is here? could this deal, it is good to see you. we have a great celebration

today because i get to a 0.12 commissioners, -- get to appoint 12 commissioners, about half of them are repeats. i just wanted to signify that we got the opportunity to welcome new and existing commissioners, but to let the public know even more about what we're doing. they wanted to put together something that was in the works. making sure that we have an online ability to let the public and tell all of the positions, who is serving on them, when the terms are up.

decentralized online database that represents all of the commission's and all of the appointments that we have, the terms that are about to expire at the terms continuing are now on line for the public. all your lives are going to be much more public. we have just a diversity of the apartments and commissions to fill today. our deputy administrator is here. think you for being here. the mayor's office of housing, thank you. as henry here, too? we cover a let me.

let me go through the names as we start out. thank you for being one of our new commissioners and coming aboard. your expertise has been in the private sector, making sure that the ordinary citizen has an understanding of our changes that we want to make. how to thank you for your ability to communicate even better put goals of our department and the environment. thank you for joining the family. we have in the veterans affairs commissions, thank you for joining back up again. and chris, you and i have talked at some length. i will personally be working with the veterans commissioned this year because of what to understand even better not only

the work that the commission does the what goals we have to welcome back our troops and our people who, i think they found dignity in the work for the country. can define dignity as they come back here? a lot to thank the member for working with us as well. you and alexander are two of three women already on the commission. i know your expertise works making sure that there is a look at the health of our survivors and people coming back making sure that these people are critical to our approach. allowed to make sure that we also have dignified jobs for everyone that wants and can work. what to make sure that we are hooked up with our community

colleges when we do that. thank you for agreeing to serve. our goal and a concourse authority. the key for serving again and helping us. certainly with nancy conner, thank you very much for agreeing to work with us. we're going to be working together as well because i am so interested in making sure that the music concourse is activated for the benefit of everyone in the city and to make sure that we have good approaches, to fill that area more as we are in between the two fantastic and wonderful institutions. thank you for serving on and helping me make sure that the golden gate concords gets filled and it's done right.

to the housing authority, we are challenged by some money different things that affect our economy. and with housing being as critical as it is for those economically struggling, it is important that we have expertise. a lot to thank you for bringing your expertise interiors of commitment and your shallots and connections. lead them everywhere we can to help the housing authority. and the residence of that agency, vacuum much for of the housing authority. and of course to our new commissioners, thank you for stepping ahead and helping our report. for the many years the use

serve, at the helm of their international real-estate, it will bring us tremendous talent for the port commission. think you very much for stepping up. thank you for being such a wonderful candidate for us. i want to thank supervisor scott wiener. you identified what we could have. and the the the mta is going to be a very big challenge for anyone that serves on that. it will be one of those years of service that are very sacrificing for all of us. i know all of you love the city in some anyways had to reflect very strongly what i feel the city needs. with that, i also want to thank

our rules committee of the board of supervisors for making it a very smooth the appointment process. supervisors kim, elsbernd and farrell have worked with me on the rules committee to make sure that the appointees are transferred -- the transition to correctly. had received by unanimous vote of confidence that is very reflective of how we are administering government here. and the closeness with the board of supervisors. with that, please stand and we will take the oath and if you could raise your right hand and repeat after me, we will go through every one ofr