mayor who will prioritize our nonprofit sector coming here in san francisco. >> supervisor daly once again called for a discussion of mayoral character polities and possible nominations. >> it would be a good idea to try this mechanism out and see how it works. >> the daily would again be disappointed. supervisor maxwell motion for the question to be tabled until next week. >> the motion to continue passes. >> they did not want to push the envelope and vote until they had it in the bag, and no one was able to get all that in the bag, so without that, people were afraid to take the vote. if he took it and your friend was not picked, and of story. >> for maxwell bought determination to delay the voting, one thing she wanted to do was to make sure she could find a consensus candidate. >> the next week in december,

the board met again for the last in the meeting of the board. still without a mayor selected or even nominations made. time was running out on the current board, but december 14 seemed like a rerun of december 7, with supervisor maxwell again making a motion to continue to the last board meeting in early january. >> colleagues, i ask that we continue this item. i think we have three weeks to have somebody floating out there for that amount of time is not going to be to our best interest. it will give us an opportunity to really think about, in the next few weeks, what is ahead of us. it allows the board to step back and take a breath and wait this heavy decision that we were just about ready to make. >> there was no one lined up. that was one of the most fascinating and frustrating things about the process.

no one knew what was going to happen. everyone was asking. it was amazing. do you know what is going on, do you know who has the upper hand? >> after the holidays, and jerry brown was sworn in as cal.'s next governor. but the tenant gov. elect gavin newsom played his delight card and was not sworn in. some saw humor in in his delight. >> i am proud, from your the tenant governorship, if and when it begins -- >> others disagreed with the decision. i think he should have been sworn in on monday. that seems to be in the spirit of the state of constitution of california. >> the next day, the board had one last chance to nominate their twice for interim mayor on

january 4. >> when the board finally got around to actually nominating people for, and taking up the issue of inter mayorship, the first thing people should know is it was late at night. the board really put this off as light as they could. people were tired and cranky. that is the first thing people should know about this meeting. >> they said they would take nominations according to who was on the roster first. so it became a game of jeopardy where the question was, who could press the button first? then it became this sort of strategy. >> having run out of time, board members began the first round of nominations. >> i would nominate former mayor art agnos. >> current city administrator ed lee. >> everyone is expecting hennessey to have the sixth vote. >> i would like to request a 20-

minute recess. >> perhaps an explanation? >> i would like a recess. that is my explanation. >> colleague, can do that without objection? >> he took sophie maxwell and they started walking down the hall, across the hall to room 200, the mayor's office. when it came down to it, bevan dufty said, after talking to the mayor, newsom made an argument as to why edwin lee should have the job. >> supervisor daly, having witnessed several progressives vote for a moderate saw the progress of dreams away. >> we ostensibly had a majority on the board of supervisors. we had an opportunity and we made the biggest fumble in san francisco political history. >> once it became clear that ed

lee had the votes to win, nobody wanted to pull the trigger. so they stopped the meeting -- at midnight -- and decided to have another meeting that friday. at the end of the day, so many people had been put up for consideration, and here is the one person that had not and he ends up being the person who the board ends up with. that is a huge shock. >> when the board finally made their appointment, i was joyful because i thought it would be much more difficult. >> supervisors avalos and, thus ask that the meeting be recessed until friday to allow for a meeting with ed lee. >> i have not had a chance to talk to ed lee, any more than him, to my office and telling me that he was not interested in doing it. that was my last conversation with him. ed lee is currently in china. i would like to see if i can

have a conversation with him before we make any kind of determination. >> the current board had run its term. they return for one last meeting to begin -- finish what they began on tuesday, nominating ed lee. >> i will support mr. lee. >> it is for those reasons i will be supporting mr. lee's nomination. the reason why i wholeheartedly support ed lee is because he is a qualified person and he is the right person to lead san francisco. >> we have engaged in an orderly transition of leadership. this is what separates us, as a democratic society, from other less democratic societies. and i am so proud of us for what we are about to do today. so with that, colleagues, thank you for being part of this historic moment. >> the supervisor campos?

there are 10 ayes, one no. [applause] >> the motion for edwin lee passes. [applause] >> you are talking to one of the happiest people in san francisco. this was an extraordinary an historic vote. but it was symbolic. remember, the new board of supervisors who convenes tomorrow will make the actual decision on who the next mayor will be. >> everybody came down to ed lee with the expectation that it will be done in the most intellectually honest way and in a way that role and order is respected. i think we discussed a few nominations and came down to this one by a common denominator.

>> i had a sense of urgency because i did not want to see anyone being acting mayor in the presence of the board of supervisors. that is not the kind of transition i talked about. we need to have a transition -- legislative branch separate from the executive branch of san francisco. that is the best way to do our work. people would not like the situation of having an acting mayor and president of the board of supervisors. >> now the dominoes in this chain of political events were falling day-by-day. the next day, january 8, new board members were sworn in. >> congratulations. [applause] >> and on monday, gavin newsom was finally sworn in as lieutenant governor of california. >> the duties upon which i am

about to enter. [applause] >> the very next day, january 11, the new board of supervisors met for the first time, with the historic first decision of their new term. >> item 3 is a motion to ratify the appointment of a successor mayor due to the occurrence of a vacancy in the offense of a mayor expiring january 8, 2012. >> i am hoping for is, as we look forward to the confirmation of mr. lee, that we will also, leaving behind the kind of tactics that were used last week, that i thought really made the process feel more clumsy than it should have been. >> this is ed lee's day. i have said a lot about my perspective of this man who comes from the community, who is rooted in our community, who has a tremendous breath and

death of city experience. colleagues, at this time, i hope and ask that we unanimously vote for ed lee to be our next mayor. >> supervisor campos? president to? supervisor chu? supervisor colon? supervisor elsbernd? there are 11 ayes. the motion is approved a [applause] . >> colleagues, i am going to move that we recessed the meeting and we conduct the swearing in ceremony of the new mayor in the rotunda of city hall. [applause] >> so ended one of the greatest challenges the board of supervisors has ever faced, resulting in the first interim mayor in san francisco in 32 years. >> we had a real sense of

belief when the full board made the final appointment to successor mayor. we thought there were some and gaps in our knowledge about how to appoint a successor mayor. by the time it was actually done, it seemed almost easy, but it was not, to be honest. we had planned for different types of variables to occur, and none of that actually happened. no conflict of interest laws came into play, no inquiry issues. >> i thought they did a good job, actually, trying to figure out something that had very little precedent in our city's history, something that was very important. >> angela and her staff did an extremely professional job. she was on the hot seat, under a tremendous amount of pressure. i did not see a lot of the back room arm-twisting, hair pulling, chest pounding that was going on, the pressure she was under,

but when she walked out into the board chamber, when she walked into the hallway and the reporters were chasing after her, she was precise and professional. >> in the end, there were some questions about the charter of san francisco. >> our charter spells out a formal process, but lee is pretty silent on that application process. >> this has happened in 32 years, but i think we need some better certainty on how we deal with this decision of succession. >> the charter has worked several times during times of vacancies like this. it certainly worked during aftermath of mayor mosconi and harvey milk. >> so we may be seeing more of these successor issues coming up, certainly something we do not want to legislate. i hope that we can trust people to be grown up about it, but if that is not the case, we can spell that out. >> going through the first time

with little knowledge and information was difficult. now that we have got our record of how to do this, i think the next clerk and the city will be much informed with having our process and having our archives to look too. >> and that is how san francisco government worked out the kinks, twists and turns, bombs in the road, to select its new interim mayor, ed lee. san francisco's first asian- american mayor. >> this has been an unprecedented and historic transition of power here in san francisco. i am so happy the board of supervisors came together to select an outstanding choice along many outstanding candidates to lead us over the next several years. >> over the past several months when this issue has come up, it had been agonizing. the board has been put into a difficult situation. there are a lot of differences of opinion on how to run the city, how to mass make a

decision, who should be in place, 11 people to agree on that is a challenging thing. i think we have done the best we can do in the process, considering the difference of opinions. >> the people of san francisco can now choose their mayor, the direction they want to go. that is why this decision was so appropriate. >> the other big shock is that the moderates seem to have won this round. people thought, progressives have themselves on the board. there is no reason that they will not get together and take a noted leader who is a progressive to be interim mayor, and then stayed there for another term. the great thing about being in term mayor is to get to run as an incumbent. the fact that the progressives could not get together to get somebody into office as interim mayor in their own self-interest was very surprising for a lot of us. >> what happened in the last month in city hall was an incredible show of democracy that was part policy, part

politics, and it all came together, and more than anything -- not just from a reporter's perspective, often was this? but there was a public interest as well on what was going on in san francisco government. we take it for granted a law that there is a city government here. this was something that brought people together. you heard people talking about it at the cafes, park playground, people who do not always pay attention. in that $0.10, it was the best thing we could have done for city government, even though it was a little bit messy. it was a lot of fun and an eye opener. it got people interested again.

>> good morning and welcome to the dedication of westbrook plaza. this is an unusually beautiful day for which i'm sure we are all very grateful. i am the interim president of

mercy housing. this event, which celebrates the creation of 49 units of affordable housing and the state of an art community health care center is the result of a strong partnership between mercy housing and the south of market health center. more than 12 years have worked -- of work. the dedication and commitment of numerous, talented, hard-working people. participation of a lot of public and private partners and a lot of money. it does not take just a village to create a community facility such as this. it takes an entire metropolis. we will take the opportunity today to thank many of the people and institutions who have contributed to this stunning facility and because there are so many to thank, i will be brief now so that we can move the program along. at this time, i am particularly pleased to enter is the director -- the executive director of the south of market health center, an extraordinary community

leader, fabulous partner, and a great person to share the podium with. [applause] >> thank you. i really appreciate everyone being here today. let me first of all give you a little history. some of you may know mrs. westbrook and some of you may not know mrs. west work. but she is a dynamic leader in san francisco. her history is outstanding. it is so outstanding that we did not hesitate in naming this the westbrook plaza. she has done a lot for health services, not only in san francisco, but throughout the nation, and she has done a lot for housing. she served on a lot of commissions in san francisco. so because she has spent her

whole life looking out for those who we sometimes must reach out to give a helping hand, she always did that and made sure and reminded all the politicians, all the directors and exactly what our responsibility is in taking care of the needy. with that philosophy, that is the reason i came to this organization. and because of her, that is why we push -- we really started this project almost 20 years ago. i came in 1990 to this organization and in 1991, the board and this community wanted a new medical facility. so out of that, it took years. how many mayors? one, two, three, maybe four. it was four.

and it was under willie brown who put the first amount of money in the redevelopment budget to deal with side acquisition or at least to look for sites. it was not enough to buy the site, but at least we were looking for it. so we found this site. i appreciate everyone being here. this beautiful two buildings out of half an acre of land. it is amazing what can be done in san francisco with creativity. i want to thank everyone, including all the people here that have been involved. there have been so many. i could never named everyone, and i appreciate that. i would like to invite our first speaker up. it is our mayor, mayor edwin lee.

it is nice to have a mayor that comes out to the community. this is a community facility for residents of san francisco, and being the mayor of san francisco, i'm sure his heart is as big as mine in terms of what this means to the residents of san francisco, so i want to introduce the mayor to everyone. [applause] >> thank you very much. i want to also continue the very important attribute that we have for eloise westbrook. when i was just a young workers never trying to cause trouble in the city on behalf of low-income residents, i have already heard of ms. westbrook. she was already helping lead the effort to improve housing conditions for all of our public housing tenants.

my today, it is just really appropriate to make sure that our city honors mr. westbrook, her family, who is here today, i know. thank you very much for being here. this is very appropriate that this new project be in the name and westbrook loss of the another great place for people to understand and know about the history of the city. i am so happy to be part of this great city when it names and after people in the community who have done great work. i recognize that, and i know doris, our supervisor, was there as well. she recognizes that. thank you very much for being here, too. i want to also continue to congratulate mercy housing. the south of market health center, for working so collaborative we with our redevelopment agency. this $47 million project --

over 1/3 of it is the contribution of our redevelopment agency. thank you, redevelopment, for putting this together. [applause] it just shows again not only the fantastic collaboration with very reputable housing builders like mercy housing and they're wonderful financial participants -- i know wells fargo is here and u.s. bank and others, who are just a key to so much of our great housing we're doing -- but we are also combining it with some fantastic health provisions, which i know miss westbrook would be extremely crowded here. that combination coming together in the middle of our city and once again exemplifying how redevelopment works in our city and how it becomes yet another example for the rest of this state to understand the role of redevelopment. [applause] wonderful contribution. with that contribution, you can make a successful project but

also fulfil such an important objective of this city, affordable housing with the support that the tenants and residents here will need. again, i want to thank all of the collaboration that this represents. the communication to the rest of the state that even in the hardest of economic times, when we pull the right entities together, when they are focused, and we rebuild community around the objectives we have, we have the winning combination, and we have a redevelopment agency and mercy housing and south of market health center to prove it. i want the governor to even come here to see what we have done. i want all the other officials to come, to recognize how we do it here in san francisco and how we can do it elsewhere throughout the state if we have a focused and do not give up on the old promises that this city

has always made, that we will take care of the most needy and do it the right way, we will do it together. thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity. >> well said. well presented. also in this project, not only in terms of the redevelopment agency, mercy housing, all the bankers south of market and all of our founders -- and we had a lot of people do in private donations for this project -- we also reached out to washington, d.c. to bring some of our money back to our community. it is a nice feeling when that happens. so both of our representatives have significant involvement in the success of this project. i would like to bring to the

podium represented nicole rivera from nancy pelosi's office -- representative nicole rivera. she called me and said she may year by -- she may be here by the time was that the program. ok, well, we will go on to our renowned senator, who also had a significant contribution. i appreciate what they have done in terms of making sure that money that we pay taxes comes back to san francisco in some form or fashion. we have jim here to represent dianne feinstein. [applause] >> thanks. mayor, nice to see you. doris, always a pleasure to be with you. thank you so much. this is a longstanding relationship. the mayor said 35 years for him. more than 50 for the senator.

we are grateful that her family is here to celebrate this. i was talking with sister lillian before we got started, and talking about the old hospital. the first mercy housing project that was done here a long time ago. diane was then the -- the senator then was there to pick the lottery. this time, you did not have to do a lottery. this time, you had a great partnership with the south of market health center. really an important piece of work and just a beautiful facility, so we like to thank you for all the good work you did and congratulate you on just a tremendous project. charlie, good job, buddy. [applause] >> the next person i would like to bring up to the podium is an

individual that i am glad he is here. because he is with the federal government, and the south of market health center is funded by the federal government, and we want to continue that relationship. i would like to bring up to the podium dr. john meroini. -- meroni. he is a regional administrator. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i am with the health resources and services administration, the agency that provides some support to the south of market health center in addition to many other health centers throughout california. region 9, which includes arizona and nevada, hawaii, specific jurisdictions, and throughout the united states. i had the opportunity -- actually, i work just a few blocks away at the modern federal building towards market

street. i must confess that my first visit to the south of market health center was in december when the administrator was in san francisco, and we had the opportunity to visit the old space or the current space, and the new space as it was being billed out. i must say, we were all just so impressed. i had a little bit of envy. reconsidering where i should seek my primary care. such a beautiful, impressive space. and though the recovery act has been helpful in making these expansions possible, and the affordable care act as well, throughout the united states, is contributing to expansion of the health center program, such that by 2015, the program which serve nearly 20 million people in