>> [speaking spanish] supervisor campos: district 9, as all of you know, is one of the most amazing places in san francisco. [applause] it includes some of the most successful neighborhoods in our city.

brno heights -- bernal heights. [applause] and, of course, the mission. [applause] i want to begin by thanking each and every one of you for being here tonight, for taking time out of your busy schedules and making time to come to this town hall meeting. [speaking spanish] by the way, i see dean. i do not know if you want to come up here -- i see the dean of the city college. i do not know if you want to come up here. please come on up. [applause] we are going to first go to the big production, so you will hear from each of the individuals we

have here. they are going to say their names, who they are, what they do for the city. i also see a supervisor -- i also see supervisor kim. thank you for being here. she represents the neighboring district. this shows how much she cares about the city, so thank you for being here. this meeting would not be possible without the help of so many people that have worked in the last few weeks to make it happen. i want to begin by thanking mayor lee, first and foremost. [applause] one of the first conversations we had was about the importance of involving the community in these discussions. one of the first things we talked about was how he was going to come to district 9 and have a budget town hall meeting so that the budget discussions do not just happen in city hall but actually happened here in

this community, so thank you, mayor lee. i also want to thank the organizations that have come together to work on this. they have done everything from helping to create the format for the town hall meeting to providing things like child care and translation. on that note, each you need child care, as was previously announced, we have licensed child care personnel in room 101. you go out these doors. that is provided. we also have translation, but these organizations are the ones that have made it possible. i want to thank these individuals. without their help, this would not be a reality. courtney, who has worked to provide food for us tonight. later on at the meeting, if you would like to go in the back in an orderly fashion, food is provided. so many others in the nation

that have helped to make that happen. the district organizations that are now providing translation. [applause] the mayor's office of civic the basement. -- civic engagement. you saw the performance that happen. but also [inaudible] thank you. you saw the performance by those kids. child care provided by family connections, basic neighborhood center of family services. thank you for providing that. [applause] i also want to give special thanks to mark sanchez. thank you for your help.

we greatly appreciate it. thank you for housing in the bronco heights neighborhood center -- in the burn all heights neighborhood center -- in the bernal heights neighborhood center. [inaudible] lastly, but certainly not least, and i want to thank my staff. [applause] [inaudible]

they really make so much happened. with that, i will hand off to mike so people can introduce themselves -- i will hand off the microphone so people can introduce themselves. >mayor lee: good evening. my name is ed lee, mayor of san francisco. [applause] i want to thank supervisors campos and kim. i'm here because supervisor campos is doing his job. when he was part of the board of supervisors who appointed me to this position, i promise to do the best job i could as interim mayor, which means that every mayor, whoever he or she may be, needs to be in district 9 and in every district of our great city. [applause] [inaudible]

tonight, the topic is about our very serious budget, and i wanted to have that conversation with you because we are beginning that process already with all of our city departments, and conversations with different agencies of our institutions with the state and the federal government. as you all know, our economy is not very good. it has not been good for some years, and we have had to make some tough decisions in the past. we also this year are faced with a $380 million gap in balancing our budget. that is a lot of money and a lot of services that state -- services at state -- services at stake. so it is important for us to talk to you about it. a lot of people told me in my 21

years of working government and, certainly, the supervisors told me that a lot of surprises came out in the budget cuts, surprises that angered a lot of people, that they never heard about, that they were not prepared for. so if we talk more and share with you more information, perhaps we will take care of most of that problem. it would also make decisions where we can agree as much on the front end of the budget so we have less to argue about on the back end. that may be a very logical step, but we have not done that for many years. so i'm trying something different this year and opening up the doors and talking to as many people as possible to see if we can get a grievance on the front end. it will not be easy. we still have to make very tough choices in the following weeks, so i want to make sure that we have input from everyone as much as possible so that we never

make those decisions with closed doors and would ignore it - -- and with a their minds. so i want to thank you, and -- because you are the most important people here tonight. you come out to tell us what you believe is most important. is our job to listen carefully and make those balance decisions -- is our job to listen carefully and make those balanced decisions -- it is our job to listen carefully and make those balanced decisions. i gave instructions to our city departments, and i want to share them with you tonight. three principles i have asked the departments to consider when they present recommendations to me -- i want the city, first, to be safe in the sense of our public safety, and i want to acknowledge the police officers here tonight. they have been doing a good job, and we had a little uptick in

some of the departments in the district, and we have been paying attention to it. do not ever think that we are not concerned about public safety. i want to thank the police officers for being here tonight because they are working very closely with us, along with many members of this community. but i want to -- i want the budget to reflect that we want to have a safe city, in a sense that we protect the core level of social services that we believe will also make a community safe. i want the city to be solvent, that we have programs that we know we can afford, and to sustain them financially and pay for them. when i mention the word solvent, that also means that sometime this year, i have got to solve the very serious pension problem

that we have in the city. [applause] [inaudible] over $100 million a year, and it is eating our ability to deliver services. finally, i want the city to be successful. i saw the kids here tonight. some of them -- all of them are going to grow up to be successful -- [applause] [inaudible] they have the ability to do it. to have the ability to pay for the programs that they want, the training that they want, go to schools that they want, to have schools and support where they need it so they can become successful individuals, successful members of their families. the city also needs to support families and support neighborhoods that make us successful. more and more, the people coming into this city -- they are not just going to fisherman's wharf any more.

they want to come to the mission. they want to experience the cultural diversity we have and celebrate with us. so a safe city, a solvent city, successful city are the principles i am sharing with everyone while we make tough decisions that are bound to come up, and i want to make them with your concerns in mind. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. that was a brief introduction to some of the key figures in city government, department heads, and everyone else who is here who will just introduce themselves. >> my name is phil ginsberg. i am the general manager of recreation and parks. -- my name is phil ginsburg. [inaudible] thank you.

>> [inaudible] i am mayor lee's budget director. it is my job to work with the mayor and board of supervisors to make sure we are going to balance our budget every year, as we are required to do under the charter. i appreciate all of you being here and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the budget. [applause] >> [speaking spanish] i am director of health. [applause] them a good evening. -- >> good evening. i'm from the department of children, youth, and their families. [applause] >> i am from the department of public works. dpw is responsible for

designing, building, and repairing public facilities, but we are also responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the public rights of way like sidewalks in san francisco, maintaining landscape, and keeping our public realm clean and safe. [applause] >> [speaking spanish] i am the director of the central [inaudible] i do not work for the city government. i work for the community. then a good evening, everybody. i am the chief -- >> good evening, everybody. i am the chief probation officer, and i'm here, all ears, and ready to listen.

thank you very much. >> [speaking spanish] my charge is to provide the best possible programs for the community. i believe education is instrumental, especially in crisis. we offer services [inaudible] please come to the mission campus. thank you. [applause] supervisor campos: 90. i'm going to be playing a little bit of oprah tonight, so please bear with me. -- thank you. we are going to give you a brief this -- description about the budget process and how that works.

>> [speaking spanish] thank you, all the families with children who are here. this shows how much this really matters to you. [inaudible] and hearing about what matters to our community. [speaking spanish] everybody, in our own homes, we have to budget.

on one side, how much do we learned? -- how much do we earn? on the other, what are the expenses we have to meet? [speaking spanish] working families in san francisco know it is hard to live here. who can find an apartment for less than $1,500 a month? one bedroom. [speaking spanihs] -- [speaking spanish]

when we look at the city's budget, it is not that much different from how we budget in our own homes. on one side, we have the income that the city has. we have the state and federal dollars that come into the city. in terms of the expenses, they

are broken down by the non- general fund, which is what we have to spend, and the general fund. we are here to talk about the general fund where there is some flexibility. the non-general fund comes with specific targets on how the money has to be spent. about 40% of our money goes into public protection. 20% goes to human welfare. about 20% goes into health. 4% goes and recreation. those decisions are part of what we want to hear you weigh in on. [speaking spanish]

next slide please. [speaking spanish] the problem we are trying to solve tonight is looking at ways to balance the budget. we are looking at the city's expenses next year, and they are much greater than the income we have. by law, we have to balance the budget. [speaking spanish]

30 years ago, city government was responsible for the majority of services that we are now receiving. 30 years ago, nonprofits started serving with the goal of having -- instead of reducing costs, provide services to the community. so we have city working in partnership with nonprofit agencies to provide the services you are all provided -- child care, public housing, legal services, support for the elderly, things like that.

[speaking spanish]

some of the things that are at stake right now is the proposed cuts are to homeless shelter closures. i am speaking in terms of the specific numbers we will be able to pass out later. also, proposed cuts to legal services to elders. there are proposed cuts from 20% to 100% for some after-school programs that do health promotion and also homework help. there are proposed cuts of 15% to women who suffer domestic violence. the list goes on and on. next slide please. all right, so -- [speaking spanish]

so, what are our roles? we believe community has to speak up to be able to inform the board of supervisors, the government, and work hand in hand with cbo's to create opportunities to solve some of these problems. small businesses can also be a partner in solving problems. in terms of community priorities -- [speaking spanish]

[applause] in terms of our community's priorities, and this comes out of the work of many years of many organizations, many leaders in the city -- we believe city government must prioritize the well-being of the residence and that we need to start looking at progress of revenue- generating measures -- progressive, revenue-generating measures. if we look at the budget over the last seven years, we see more and more service cuts are happening and less and less new revenue-generating measures. so we want to make sure the city government here is that. next slide. all right, so --

[speaking spanish] all right, so, your voice is matter. our voices matter. we believe if we start with your voices at the center, we can and former government and keep san francisco strong for everybody. do you believe in that? right on. [speaking spanish] [applause] supervisor campos: thank you. thank you for that very excellent, very clear, concise presentation. mayor lee, i do not know if you want to add anything to what you said about the budget, but i do want to say something about the process, how the program tonight is going to work. there will be one hour of public

comment tonight. we are trying to get to as many people as we can, and we are trying to get to a number of cards. i imagine all of you know that there are speaking cards that you can fill out and make a comment or ask a question. i have here the cards, and i'm going to pick them randomly. they will allow each of you who is selected to ask a question or make a comment on a number of topics. each speaker will have two minutes to comment or ask a question, and after each speaker, depending on the question or the nature of the comment, i may ask someone here on the panel to maybe respond, also for two minutes, depending on the nature of the question or comment. because we want to hear from as many people as possible.

it is really important that you stop when you see the sign that says "two minutes." i will call four names at a time. when your name is called, please come down and take the microphone or at least get in line to prepare to speak. if you are not chosen to speak, we ask that you write your comments on a post-it note. we will be reviewing every, and that is presented. we'd love to hear from everyone here, but we do not have all the time it would take to make that happen, but there will be other opportunities. at the end of public comment, we will also hear from someone who will be able to tell you a little bit more about some of the ways in which you can continue to be involved in this process. process. before i turn itlet me add somes