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.

>> i never thought i would be at a press conference in the city surrounded by a bunch of pickup

trucks. here we are. these are no average pickup trucks. these have solid green credentials. san francisco has a long history of groundbreaking initiatives an enlargement of victories. this is where the latest bring innovations have been, whether it is pursuing our zero ways to goals by 2020, when the reducing toxics in san francisco, whether it is becoming the electric vehicle capital of the u.s., this is where green innovation happens. and we practice what we preach in san francisco. every city of san francisco's department is required to develop a department action plan annually, which inventory their own emissions and sets common action targets for the department. this process engages departments that do not typically considered themselves and are mentally focused and effectively makes the link between in one of the responsibility and the financial

bottom line the efficiency. requiring each city department to be responsible for the carbon footprint helps integrate the city's climate work into all levels of organizational functioning and incentivizes all employees to participate in this process. the program that we are going to announce today will help make our individual departments sweet -- more sustainable and help us meet the goals from our climate action plans. additionally, plugging hybrid technology and its electric vehicles represent a good start towards achieving the new fuel efficiency standards that were just announced by president obama, a 54.5 miles to the gallon. this was announced when president obama noted, just as cars will go farther on a gallon of gas, our economy move will farther on a barrel of oil. when we achieve the 54.5 mpg target, it will reduce consumption from our vehicles by

40% and cut in half the amount of greenhouse gas solutions coming out of our exhaust pipe. the electric vehicles, as you may well now, building up the electric vehicle capital here in san francisco is one of mayor lee's top anbar mental priorities. we are honored to be partnering with chrysler and the u.s. department of energy to push forward with yet another dimension of electric transportation. but first, without further ado, i would like to introduce chrysler's senior manager to tell you more about the program and to make a special presentation to mayor lee. >> good afternoon, everybody. thank you for the warm welcome, mr. mayor. beautiful weather, beautiful city. on behalf of chrysler, i am proud to present the mayor and the city of san francisco with

the supply and hybrid trucks. these trucks are part of a grant received from the department of energy to demonstrate technology and further enhance the ability of engineering organizations to implement this technology and future applications to be a part of the green energy that chrysler and bodies and to support the recently announced fuel economy rolling. we are proud to be in partnership with the mayor, and we are looking forward to work with your team over the next few years to demonstrate the technology and to learn from how they will dry data and further enhance the ability to demonstrate these applications. thank you very much. i look forward to working with your team. [applause] >> thank you.

we are just commenting, as your walking up, he has been in the auto industry for quite some years. i have been working in government for some years and we are both tried to find our youth in what we do. it is need to work on something that is fun, that is great for our country, that is very much a part of this movement that the whole country is not interested in, getting off of foreign oil and making sure we do something for our environment. this is fun because you are looking at 14 pickup trucks that have in them a hemi engine, but powered by electricity. these 14 pickup trucks will be lent to us for the next three years or free, thanks to our department of energy and their

grants with chrysler's own contributions put together to allow for our city to devote one of the few cities organized across this. i know sacramento will have some of this. other states, there is only less than a handful of other states participating in this nice experiment. for san francisco, we are probably going to be one of the hilliest cities that have this opportunity over the next three years to test these electric trucks in the most hardened ways. in other words, we are going to have department of public work'' picking up trash in these vehicles, the bureau of engineering to be looking at and traveling to all parts of the city in these vehicles, managing the projects in this city, thanks to our city engineer. different departments under our

acting city administrator, including, interestingly enough, animal care and control. they will be caring for stray animals, making sure they are safely transported, and the day from our streets and into shelters, and so forth. the puc, police department, real-estate department, a multitude of some 14 departments, that will have the chance to use these trucks and the way in which they operate. the very essence of city fleet operations. so i want to thank chrysler for allowing sanfrancisco to experiment with our department of energy, and also while we are experimenting with this, we have uc-davis as a partner. we have the director of our plugged in demonstration project. working together with the

transportation electrification institute here. with their corporations, getting the data about how these vehicles are used, how they are tested, whether they can go up hills as efficiently, bringing up the cargo and animals and tool that dpw will use, various departments inspecting buildings, streets, all of the different uses for a city fleet, all on the dime of the department of energy because they want to see these the electric vehicle properly used, the way that we use our fleet generally now. ali, they will be replacing the fleet that we are using now and saving that money. and then do what i do, i keep in mind -- i do not ever want to run out of the electric power. as i come to city hall, i asked

my staff, plug it in. i try not to use any oil so that we can try to do this in the cleanest way possible. that makes it fun. it is a bit of a game that i play with our staff, but that is a game that everyone is playing with these cars. making sure they can go the whole day without using a drop of oil. that makes it fun and challenging and keeps my mind up to use the vehicles in the proper way. it is a corporate for san francisco to do this. we declared some two years ago, in cooperation with all nine counties in the bay area, we want to be the rv -- ev capital of the world. we are doing everything necessary to make sure that we are. with the cooperation of great cities like san jose and oakland, san jose and alameda

counties, we are already putting in the anxiety-recharging stations all over the bay area. in fact, the airport already has 14 charges already installed at the airport, and we have, by the end of the summer, some 43 charging stations in our garages that are already being done. by the end of the year, working together with charge. america, coolant technologies, we will have 100 charging station within san francisco already installed. so you will not have any anxiety. one of those is in the mayor's crotch, and that will be installed in the next couple of weeks. these fast charter will be out there in a public setting. with charge. america, in the bay area, they

are doing charging stations for the residents and another in the public sector for the whole bay area. so we're getting rid of that anxiety quickly and making sure that all of the automobile manufacturers, including chrysler, can develop these beat -- vehicle the best they can, use the data, test pilot them, but ultimately, i think we will see companies like chrysler bring to market an electric vehicles for all of our citizens to use, and every city fleet is doing so. we are working with the company throughout the bay area. we are all experimenting on the different flight uses of this. this is the first time i have seen or course trucks -- really, the dpw's of the world, puc's of the world, all of the utility- driven departments in our city,

to carry equipment, cargo, transport trash and all the other thing that we do, these are the workhorses. this is going to be a great test and use of federal funding. i have to say -- i have to make sure i say this. i am happy for this moment because president obama just signed this very important debt ceiling settlement with congress. the senate and house voted on it. leader pelosi was extremely grave in her performance, getting a number of democrats to sign this. i would be looking sad, even in light of this great news, we have to keep this country moving forward. we will not have the opportunity to use the technology that chrysler is offering if we are not strong in our economics. so we are doing it right. now that we have the debt ceiling behind us, we can move forward on all these programs. i want to thank the department

of the environment. alan, you are gracious in your remarks, but the department of environment keeps me up with great ideas, keeps me talking constantly about one beacon do as a city, how we can contribute to our environment. the department of the in gardening keeps me on my toes to say what can we create? so i want to thank chrysler, the department of energy, for their grants, the uc-davis, their work with the electrification transportation education program, to make sure that we test these things correctly. if we test them right, if we use our knowledge and experience the data here, we are going to have the best performing automobiles developed by the companies that have a great interest in saving us from oil and making sure that our country moves in the right direction. this is our new economy, one

that i am proud to say we are doing across major cities across the country. but we in san francisco want to lead the way. we want to be the experimenters, the ones that push out this idea that we can do it in the bay area. if we do it here, it sends a trend across the country that they can do it elsewhere. get ourselves off of oil, into a more pollution-free society. i just thank all the people working together on this. it takes everybody working together to line up not only our educational institution with us, car manufacturers with the stimulus package fund from the government, and with our own local leaders to make sure we are doing the right thing. again, thank you very much for using your many years of leadership in the auto industry to bring forth new