or ceo's, they all want a quality city. my job is to make sure they trust government, so that when we say something, we do it. what i do not like it, and past relationships with the government, they could not do what they said. that is where the mistrust comes out. that is why i am going around talking to every community possible. if i can take care of it, i will tell them. if i cannot, i will tell them honestly. i think honesty in government is the most important thing right now, especially at three are trying to build quality for the city. that is how i will approach the bond, the pension, and sales tax. >> [inaudible]

>> it will be by the actual roads. they have something called the pci index, the measurement of the road conditions. just because it district is larger in geography does not need -- it will have to be a combination of what is the quality of the road and what are the most traveled roads that need of repair? which ones are in a state, where if we do not repair that within the next year, they will cost five times more? those combinations of things we will use for every district to determine which roads. the equity is about how much money we have per year to spend with road pavement, it is about

$150 million of street pavement. the rest of the money will go to improvements for bicycle lanes, ada compliance. that is important for crosswalks. a lot of pedestrian safety projects. even sometimes in a district -- i always use carmen chu as an example -- because she has a flat district. she says her streets are in pretty good condition but they have some pedestrian issues where they could use money to make sure that the long crosswalks are safe for seniors and kids to cross all the way. that is in there. almost $50 million is focused on pedestrian safety projects. so it is not just the roads. it is also a road-related work

that is important for pedestrian safety. bicycle lanes are in there, signal lighting. but may look at geographical equity, it is spending the same amount of money in each district, not because of the size, but what is most important to that district? we have different categories for different things. some might want more money for pedestrian projects because their roads are in ok shape. then there are others who just bought it for the roads. my streets are narrow, people get across, not all lot of history of pedestrian accidents. >> [inaudible] are you going to bring them back? >> yes, the budget does contemplate a police academy. the budget has passed, so there is a police academy included in

there. we are glad to see that. i think the police department and public will be glad to see that. we are now getting more retirements from the police department and we would like to have a number police officers coming in -- younger police officers coming in. >> you talked about sciu as the union that you had to work with. the pension is going to change their life. >> we did meet with retirees. they told us they're concerned is not their pension, it is health care. they have some plans that they believe are very good for them and their age already.

our changes on the retirement services board have to do with economics. if there is a choice between the purchase of generic drugs versus brand name drugs, that decision has come before the health services board. in my opinion, there is no difference between generic and brand name, except cost. so why don't we make a decision that saved us money without compromising quality? that is the kind of decision on what the health service's board to make. in by generic drugs -- invite generic drugs in. if we do not take quality away, we need to let you know, we are just lowering the cost.

they are a little bit afraid of that, but i think they are more afraid of change which does not affect that quality of the health care they want. i think the additional person that we anticipate to be on the health care board will pay attention because it is somebody being selected and presented by the comptroller's office that will pay attention to the cost. we need to have some cost containment but it does not need to compromise money. >> we just heard yesterday that there was a new comprehensive proposal, including resources that were already provided to the city in charity care. >> i have a team of people from the department of public health reviewing the proposal, also

with the housing, also with the tenderloin community for the impact on their community, and of course, muni, mta, the human services group. they are reviewing it in detail. i will be scheduling a meeting with cpm see to go over that to see how -- cpmc to see how that translates over into the impact we want. i do not have an immediate response except to say we are discussing this in detail. i am trying to help cpmc be successful at the board of supervisors and planning commission. as we get closer and closer to an agreement, i believe they need to listen to my advice. i work with the board every day. i know how they think. they want to have a successful

vote at the board. i am guiding them there with the conditions -- it was not conditioned that i made up out of thin air. it was to deal with all of the impacts of a hospital decide they want -- they want a big hospital and want to have to take care of everything else. i am very careful to know how each supervisor feels about the impact on the project. i would like cpmc to be successful because they do not have a lot of time. we would do the best we can and review every aspect of this so that they have the best chance of success. >> the issue of the state

budgets have affected many local businesses. is there any way that the city could help more nonprofits? >> that is why i am proposing a set sales tax. the state did make some severe cuts. we do not know when those cuts will start that impacting the nonprofits. as you know, through our city budget, if you ask many of the nonprofits, they're pretty happy. we restored a lot of the original cuts. their services reflect the values that i hold, board of supervisors hold. now the state is making cuts, some in the same places that we've restored. we cannot promise to back fill all of those cuts. we can promise to go through the same process and asked what are the critical services that we must save, and work on them as

hard as we can. that is why i need an additional cushion with a half cent sales tax. that will give us the of the need to restore cuts that the city is making. it is unfortunate the state cannot resolve their problems and they push it off onto the counties. i know the governor is trying hard, but it gets frustrating that they cannot agree. i am happy to be working with a board that can agree locally. maybe we need to send a message to get agreement that's fair. i need more resources to help with those state cut spirit that is by the have cent sales tax is important to me. and it is not increasing the sales tax, in my opinion. it is just saving half. the public gets the other half. that is what i considered the sales tax as a safety valve

sales tax. >> i wanted to talk about redevelopment. what is the city going to do with that? when the state cuts, how much impact is that to the city? >> on the zoning issue, we have calculated, in their process, they say if you want to restore your pre development agency, you have to pay a certain amount of money. we believe the amount of that money is about $20 million. we do not have that kind of money. we are trying to figure out ways in which we can finance that, but that they need to come through redevelopment. we do not have the money in the

city at all. that is the challenge. the other challenge is, it is the opinion of the redevelopment agency that it is illegal for the state to do this. the redevelopment agency for san francisco will most likely join in a state-wide a lawsuit against the state from doing this. as a city, we are reviewing our options, but because it is a separate agency, the redevelopment agency can make its own decisions. we have not included on our decision. we are working with the city attorney to get some aspects on the legality of this.

we are fairly certain the redevelopment agency will be joining the state-wide lost it with all of the other major cities in the state. they believe -- and there are good grounds to believe that -- that this is not a maneuver taken by the governor's office. >> does that mean we are going to have a temporary injunction first? >> i think so. the national league of cities, as well as the california redevelopment association, have indicated strongly their attorneys have strong opinions that that was not legal. >> [inaudible]

you said many times that you would not be running again for mayor. have you changed? with all of these campaigns asking you to run, what is your position? >> i tried not to pay too much attention to the people who have been starting the campaign to ask me to run. to the extent that i read and see it, i do appreciate that many people support what we are doing and how we are doing it. i enjoyed a lot of support, i think, not only internally from the government, but i think there are lot of people that agree with me. therefore, they believe that should automatically translate into my riding.

there are two issues. -- running. i like that people are in joint what we are doing. it is much better than, you are a failure, get out of here. for me, the personal choice has debate with an understanding of why i came to do the job and under what circumstances. it is a personal choice that i had. i never wanted to be a politician had i been, i would have signaled that many years ago. so i am still of the position that i will not be running for this job. i know there will be a strong effort the next few weeks to convince me otherwise. we will let that play out, but that is where i am at. i never look at myself as a politician. >> [inaudible] >> i think it is more

appropriate for me to focus on the things that i asked the voters to pay attention to. i have not really paid attention to either of the candidates for what they are saying. right now, to me, that is it a distraction. -- or what they are saying. i will not be endorsing anyone for any office. i do need to focus on the pension reform, sales tax, and on the road repaving, as my contribution to the voters. i think that is a lot already for people to understand. i think people will have to make up their mind about the other candidates they choose. but i hope they hold a session with you because you have some good questions. >> when you talk to supervisors, some say that you promised not to run. >> that was the circumstance.

they did not want someone distracted. i understand that. that is why i came into this job. >> how do [inaudible] you may go back in many years? >> of course, i do not think i would get this type of attention as city administrator. i do not have to do press conferences. city administrator is exactly what it is. administer the programs and policies with the mayor and board of supervisors. i enjoyed that. it does not have the day-to-day stress. one of the things i have been clear about as mayor is, i worry

about everything. i worry about when i get up but will be on my phone, a shooting, pedestrian that got ran over, a police officer. you worry about everything. you worry about every neighborhood, the fire victims. what happened to them? where are they going to live? what happens to their kids? you worry about every detail because you feel responsible for them. every day, the mayor is forced to do that because of where you are. everyone helps you expect them to solve their problem. i did not have that experience as the city administrator. therefore, i could go to sleep, i could have a two-day weekend. i could play golf and only worry about the ball and a whole. now i play golf and it is, where is the ball, where is the hole?

my mind is on the budget, what i will say, how i will say it. yesterday, with the ping-pong diplomacy, it was fun. i tried not to worry about it, but i said, i do not want to make a mistake because this is international and everyone wants to feel welcome, that they are involved. but as a mayor, you have to worry about many things. so i go to sleep tired, my notes are in front of me. i have to read my details and be prepared. it looks like sometimes i'm having fun, but in the back, my staff is working hard to prepare me, making sure i understand everything. it is not just making mistakes.

it is doing the right thing and making sure it is the right way to do it. i compare myself to the other mayors in other cities. i went back to the conference of mayors and i asked mayor bloomberg of new york. how did you do this over 10 years? these mayors, they have really been helpful. willie brown has been helpful in giving me advice about things that i did not have. i have had some private conversations with people about how to do things. that is part of my were read. i also enjoyed a lot of support from people because they want me to be successful. they know i am open to honest dialogue. whatever advice they give me, i keep it secret. and there are very content with that. -- they are very content with that.

>> [inaudible] >> 6:00 in the morning on sundays. maybe every two weeks. >> [inaudible] you just want to be a city administrator. you are used to these distractions. >> no, there were a lot of things i have to get used to the first few months. there are a lot of things that i cannot get used to in this job, the attention, publicity, but also, the variety of issues. there are so many things coming at you. for example, this today, a friend of mine in mailed -- e- mailed me and said that one of his in-laws was one of the

fishermen that was caught out in the kabul area. i said that we would call the account the general in mexico. so we immediately made a call, asked the mexican consulate to ask the mexican government to continue the search. do not stop. do everything you can. the weather is warm. people have relationships. i did not know that. i was reading the news like you, and all the sudden, a friend says, i have a relative there. can you plead with the government? i never expected to do that. but here he is, a resident asking for help. so we called the mexican consulate. they were transmitting information, the request. so it is things like that that you never expect. every day there is a challenge.

if it reflects things that we can do, we will do it. ok. thank you very much. i hope this was helpful. ++ >> i am the deputy executive director for the sfmta. i am pleased to welcome you to the celebration of the completion of the california and power line cable car projects, which saw the california cable car line down for six months this year. in spring, the power lines were down for three different shut down -- shutdowns. the project was a comprehensive

line upgrade. the project was a collaboration with department of public works and the san francisco public utilities commission, both of which made multiple improvements to the infrastructure of this street in coordination with cable car improvements. we are joined today by the dpw director and sfpuc general manager. the businesses and communities surrounding the cable car lines were real partners with us, of course. this required close coordination to keep clear the lines of communication, and we are pleased to be joined today by members of various merchants associations, neighborhood and civic groups, as well as downtown management organiza of these various entities has been critical to the success of these projects. we are also honored to have with us this morning mayor edwin lee

to kick off the celebration. [applause] mayor lee: good morning. i know the sun is not out, but we can still be awake. i want to thank all of you for coming today on this reopening, and i want to let you know that you're so excited to join board president david chiu, who was a cable car writer -- rider from the first day he arrived, and also the departments that worked so closely with nat ford and the whole team, in doing not only this project, but it has been 27 years since there has been a major overhaul of our cable car system. with nat's leadership along with carter's and sfmta, we want to make sure that the system -- if we invite people to ride halfway to the stars, it better be safe.

we want to make sure that it gets a renewal in its brackets and sloths -- slots. you will hear about these details as you talk with cable car operators. i want to thank them for their patience. they are a wonderful group of people, dedicated to something that is part of our $8 billion tourism -- a very key part. soon, you will see the lines drawn here of people who want to take the cable cars on a daily basis, the tourists and also the residents who find this a fantastic local way of enjoying themselves. when we redid the cable car system, we did a number of things that i thought were very smart and smartly done by the collaboration with our departments. we had the sfpuc do what it could to identify the locations in our sewer system that could be worked on. that was very smart.

while this cable car system was down for several months. we had dpw and their engineers working to be paid streets and redo the curb ramps -- repave streets for ada access. that was smartly done. and on top of this, we had other parts of the cable car system redone as well. we had worked on the cable car bomb -- cable car bomb -- cable car barn, to make sure the propulsion system was adequately restored. all in all, we have done this very smartly. the main banks today is to the residence -- the main thanks today is to the residents and businesses that tolerated this

because they know at the very end it will be a blessing to have the cable cars run smoothly. i also want to thank the operators and the maintenance people at muni. they are very important to helping us run this system well, and they are part of a great system we have in san francisco to be very proud of. it goes to show that as we reinforce the system, as we make sure that the cable car system improvement project is done well, that we take care of the other infrastructure we have alongside of it. that is why not only is this project successful in many ways and coordinated and collaborate with other departments well, but we want to make sure voters know that that is the way we will approach the street bond that we will have the board vote on very soon that will be placed on the november ballot. 8 $248 million bond program to make our streets that much more

improve -- a $248 million bond program to make our streets that much more improved. half of our streets now are deteriorated. they need attention, and we want to make sure they are given the appropriate attention. we will be sponsoring that kind of infrastructure work as well with the leadership of dpw as well as the other agencies that will make sure when we do these roads, we will collaborate and make sure all the other infrastructure departments pay attention at the same time. with that, i want to welcome in this great cable car improvement and have a great chance of cutting the ribbon and make sure that the lines will start reworking for all of the tourists and all of the users of this great cable car system. thank you very much. [applause] >>