we are challenging ourselves a little bit more. about $170 million deficit for 2013. having said that, the $170 million is better than what it was six months ago. as our economy has benefited from some good sales revenues, and some of the buildings are occupied, we have a better revenue stream all the time. we knocked it off almost $129 million than what it was a few years ago. it is improving. please do not use the word "surplus." it does not exist in my district yet. hopefully while i'm mayor, i hope to use that term in the

near future with the supervisors. that would signal to you we've done everything we can to bring back economic prosperity for everybody. tonight, we still have to wrestle ourselves with deficits, with how we deal with government, how we deliver services, which services are most important, and i need that engagement with you. i also want to recognize a supervisor carmen chu, head of the budget committee for the board. she will be making virtually all these meetings with us as we go to all the neighborhoods enjoy all our various department heads to help make those decisions. she will guide us through, with supervisor campos, supervisor wiener, and all the other supervisors, as well. i want you to remember this year -- last year, i repeated over and over again. i wanted to make sure we had a safe, solvent, and successful city. this year, i would like to guide

you in terms of making sure our city is involving you, that we are innovative in our approaches, and that we end our decisionmaking with a full appreciation of how we invest in our city. involving you, being innovative and creative, and investment in our city. whether your investment is just yourself, your family, your investment in the small business, or somebody else's business. if we are in investment friendly city, then you are going to want to stay here and grow. that's how i see it. that city that we love of san francisco can only be that way if we all work together, all listen carefully, that we reflect the traditions of a great city that listens to every neighborhood and bounces and makes those hard decisions the best way we can -- balances and

makes those hard decisions the best way we can. guess what? we are not going to have state. jerry brown is not coming in offering more money. he is doing the opposite thing. he has to. washington, d.c., guess what? they are not going to give us a whole pot of money. we have to innovate our way to solutions in our city. i cannot think of a better way. if someone tells me they do not have enough money to do something and that i've got a period of time to do it, i'm going to look around for the best minds and the best friends and people who love the city most and say, let's work together to find solutions. how do we pay for those cuts for the aids programs scott has referred to, or supervisor campos has talked to me about community-based services that need to be here in the community, not in some centralized place where you cannot get it. how do we do all of that and still maintain the balance?

that is up to us to find that way. you have a mayor that is seriously focused on your problems, because there are problems. it's not my budget. it's our budget. i will spend every day and hour i can to find the best solutions that i can. i have some really keen brains here. they are very smart people. they are very dedicated people. they are going to work really hard with me as to how to bring the best, highest level of services, culturally competent services, services to every neighborhood, and still try to balance the budget with all the things you been reading about and hearing about the enough speeches. tonight is about listening to you. thank you very much. let's get the road show started. [applause] supervisor campos: thank you, mr. mayor. we assume that by your presence here, if there's any surplus, district 8 and district 9 will

be the priorities, i imagine. [laughter] let me introduce the department heads that are here. before we do that, i want to acknowledge supervisor carmen chu, chair of the budget committee. i want to thank her for her presence and for also having a truly transparent budget process. thank you, supervisor chu. [applause] so, these are the department heads that are here. if i missed anyone, please let me know. we have our city librarian, child support services, karen roy, san francisco housing authority henry alvarez, capital planning committee, brian strong, our fire chief,

human agency, department of children, youth, and families. from the department of public health, barbara garcia and the cfo is here. department of public works. recreation and parks, phil ginsburg. our police chief is at the police commission meeting. we have the deputy chief and also are station capt. here. from the mayor's office of housing, we have olson lee. we have our newly appointed city administrator. we also have the mayor's education policy adviser, who is also a member of the board of education. i do not think i missed anyone. i am.

sorry. that is later. it's my honor to introduce rachel, the executive director of the vernal heights neighborhood center. she is an amazing community leader. we are grateful she's here. to introduce our budget director. we'll tell you more about the process tonight. thank you. >> [speaking spanish] thank you, supervisor campos. good evening, everyone. [speaking spanish] it's a pleasure to be here, not only because my organization serves more than just district 9, which is where we are, but we also serve district 8, 9, 10, 11. it is important that we see collaborative processes like this happen. my role tonight is to let you know what you can expect for this evening. the agenda of roughly will be -- you will hear the budget overview from our city's budget

director. then you will hear some statements from a constituent representatives from district 8 and district 9. then the most important part of the evening, when you come in. this is about all of you being involved. being invested, having the time and energy to come here on an evening, a weeknight, to be here, is already in investment on your part. the last thing is innovative. during the open mikc section, that's when all of the people appear to make decisions for the city who want to hear what your thoughts are in terms of priorities, revenues, cost- saving measures. lastly, after the open mic, we can expect to hear the thoughts and ideas from our guests on

what they heard from all of you. without further ado, i will go ahead and introduce our budget director for the city, kate howard. [applause] >> thank you. i thought i would just do a very brief overview of how our cities budget works. we talked a lot about it being a policy document, about where our priorities are. that's right. it's also like your family's checkbook. as families, we make a budget. we have income that comes in from our pay checks. we have expenses that go out every month to pay for rent, to pay for our kids' education, to pay for clothing, all of those kinds of things. our city's budget is large. it's about $6.8 billion per year. it's about 50% what we call

enterprise funds. about 50% is what we call the general fund. i like to think of the enterprise funds as the city's small businesses. if you were a person and you had a personal budget, you would not combine your small business budget with your home budget. we do not do that either. in our enterprises, just like the airport, the puc, the mta. we spend most of our time talking about the general fund. what do we spend our money on? we spend our money on our priorities. those are things like -- that are represented by all the departments that are here. things like community, public health, recreation and parks services, fire, ems, and police services. programs for children, families in the city. we also spend money on things like our infrastructure and r streetour streets.

that's where our expenditures are. the other part, where do we get our money from? our income is really our tax revenue. we get money from property taxes that homeowners pay and private property owners. we get money from the hotel tax, when tourists visit san francisco. we get revenue that people pay. we also the money from the state and federal government. all of those things are fluctuating with the economy and fluctuating with the state and federal government's ability to pay. we spend a lot of time talking about the budget shortfall. what is the budget shortfall? basically, the gap between how much money we get in revenue and how much money it cost to keep doing exactly what we're doing now. one way to think about it is, if you get your paycheck every month and next month the rent

goes up and next month the utility bill goes up, your expenditures are growing faster than the income that you have. that's the same situation that we have. the difference is $170 million and next year will be $312 million. the task is to figure out how we balance that. how do we create a situation where expenditures match revenue over the next two years while at the same time investing in the priorities that we all care about and doing the things that the mayor and the supervisors and others have spoken about. that is the basics of the budget. i think the best way to think about it, not much different than the choices you have to make at home. you have to think that we are buying different things than you are buying.

we're looking forward to hearing from you. i will turn it back over to rachel. >> thank you. it might seem like a simple process. in some ways, it is. we want to make sure we get everyone's input, thoughts, and ideas through our open mic sections. i want to make sure to bring to your attention a few things. in order to participate in the open mic session, you want to fill out one of these things here. these speaker cards are available up front. there are two bowls. one is for district 8 and one is for district 9. we will be just like a city hall. we will pick names. i will be explaining or announcing who will be coming up. up and you will be using this microphone in the middle here.

it looks like there are some areas of concern that you would want to select, as well as a summary of your question or concerns. because we are not going to be able to get to everyone tonight, it's really important that your input is included. if you please fill this out, even if we do not call you, the idea is that the supervisors will compile this information and included in the way that the budget process is being handled. this is just the beginning of the budget process. it is april. this next section -- i am pleased to introduce some constituents speakers. we're first going with district 9 speakers. i'm introducing to you from good samaritan, mario potts. >> thank you. thank you, mayor, and supervisor campos and supervisor wiener for

this opportunity. this organization has been around for a long time, more than 100 years. we have been serving district 9. we have certainly seen the changes over the years. i was also born and raised in district 9. i went to both public and private schools. i launched my career here. this is the community that has been in my heart for a very long time. i'm very honored to be able to continue to serve it. i often get asked what the mission district is like now. many of my friends, we grew up here together. i like to describe it as sort of a tale of two cities. depending on who you ask, if you the best of times or the worst of times. if you are a family with young children, i think it's the worst of times. struggling to find affordable

housing, increasing rent, and trying to find affordable child care, and making sure that the streets are safe for your children and so forth. it's not the best of times for them. it's not the best of times for the long-term small businesses in the community that have been the heart and soul of this district and these are family owned businesses. people who have been connected to the community for a long time. they are struggling with right. they are struggling with increased business costs. they're also having a hard time. it's probably not the best of times for community-based organizations like a good samaritan and many others that serve district 9 and the surrounding neighborhoods. cuts to services affect the quality of life for all families and residents in this community. there's another important point to make. small businesses and nonprofit in this community also create jobs. they are also critical to

economic engine of this trend buneighborhood and the city in general. we employ community people. mayor, you know very well. you started your career as a community-based organization. you are now the mayor of the city. we're very happy that you are going to create jobs. i think we really need that. community people need jobs, also. look to nonprofits. look to the small businesses. this neighborhood and others. they can be part of that plan. we know that family flight is a big issue. we have been reminded of how difficult it is for many families with children to stay in this community. as you know, 13.4% of san francisco is younger than 18. the smallest percentage of any major city in the country.

a disproportionate number of families are in this district. we also worry about economic disparity. there is a divide. there's a sense of lost community that we feel in our district. we welcome a lot of great new residents. what we see the bus is picking people up, we know they are part of the fabric of this community also. there is a divide. there's also a large number of low-income families. there seems to be a disconnect between the newer residents and the long-term residents that have been here. we hope we can find a way to bring those communities together. people say it's gentrification. we want to find ways to bring people together. the budget is just as much about

value as it is about numbers. please remember families with children. please remember small businesses. please remember the community- based organizations and other small businesses that are really important to our district. lastly, i would just like to say that strengthening our schools -- make sure we have safe and clean neighborhood parks, that we support passes for our youth. these arehings that will continue to make our district strong. i really appreciate you allowing us to really present some of these issues to you. i'm going to turn it back over to our moderator. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mario. i want to acknowledge rhonda simmons from the mayor's office of economic development. there you are. just a reminder to our esteemed mayor, supervisors, and

department heads up here, this is about listening to the community members here. please do take notes. at the end of this budget town hall, hopefully we will be able to hear your thoughts on what priorities you heard, and what are some ideas you might think to be good to apply to the next budget process. also, the different ways we can work together as a community. my neck speaker is also from district 9. i am pleased to introduce her. >> good afternoon, mayor. the director of the mission neighborhood resource center, a homeless program which has been in the district since 1967. we are one of the oldest community health centers in the country.

i want to acknowledge and thank you. [inaudible] we know that this year, we're hoping you will commit to the same -- in some ways, this very important role. for the district, one thing i want to tap into what mario said, 1/3 of the mission district district lives below the poverty level. when we talk about a tale of two cities, some of the city departments are serving very poor people. some are very specific. some in district 8. these are the problems we want to make sure to urge you to prevent from any cuts. that would drive the folks that are leaving -- the bad story of the mission, driving them into the streets and driving them into more desperation.

also, interdependency. i will touch on four programs that are very interrelated. first, maintaining housing. last year, we were here asking you for the same. 55 units of support of housing in the mission. as you know, our housing stock cannot meet the needs of homeless individuals. there are currently 800, as individuals waiting for placement. 1/3 dealing with the start of hiv aids. outside the delores hotel is probably the largest number of spanish speakers. also, the loss of those units could cost about $1 million per

year to the city. we also want to preserve hiv aids services in the mission and throughout the city. our community is very grateful you have made the savings through june. we know we are expecting cuts come as the supervisor has already mentioned. we will face a 20% reduction in funding. at least half of our patients, about 200 patience. most of the severe cuts will impact the most important services for people living with hiv. it is vital to preserve clinical services. many of them -- they are some of the most fragile patients. protect mental health services in the district. the potential funding will result in the loss of 1040 hours

of mental health services. the loss will institute -- [inaudible] we are piloting this integrated model, which served 594 patients last year. it is estimated that 50% of the clients are up in marginal health. this potential cut will result, as we said last year, and higher costs, such as emergency care and patient hospitalization, and potentially cleesplays seen our clients at greater risk of homelessness. there's a cut coming -- this is

as a result of the priorities changing. this will impact both good samaritan -- with less access to learn esl, critical job skills, and literacy, which is the only way to have any hope for a job. we want to make sure we ask you and urge you to help us find jobs. we hope this is a list of our priorities. three are for comfrom communityd organizations that serves spanish speakers. if we lose those services, we are losing services for the spanish speaking community in the entire city. thank you very much for your support. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. there are some things you are

hearing from the two speakers that just spoke. needs around supportive services, prioritizing education, affordable housing, making sure opprobrious services are available to vulnerable populations. i'm sure there are some things from the next two speakers, as well. now we will go to speakers from district 8. brett andrews from positive resource center. [applause] >> thank you, rachel. if someone is so kind to take a couple of these. [laughter] good evening, everybody. i'm the executive director of positive resource center and the vice president of the hiv aids provider network. i see i have some colleagues and partners in crime here.

bill hersch and courtney. thank you for being here, along with so many other community- based organization representatives. you did a great job. mr. mayor, you and i have been working closely together with supervisor chu and specifically with the leadership of supervisor wiener and supervisor campos. you've done an extraordinary job of helping us with the supplemental piece of legislation for $1.5 million around these ryan white cuts we were dealing with. that great work we have done, we know there's so much more to do. i handed out a presentation for you that's about six pages long that basically lays out the challenges that we face.

over the last 11, 12 years, we've watched the hiv aids infection rates to continue to go up for those who are aware of their status and for those who are not aware of their status and the city and county of san francisco is up. we've watched funding go down between a blend of federal cuts, state cuts, and even on our local level of adding general funds. we've watched funding go down from just under $40 million down to just under $20 million. obviously, the need is there. the funding is not necessarily there. what we are looking for from the mayor, your leadership, and the board, and supervisor chu, is to continue the discussion and the conversation to educate and reeducate ourselves on the challenges that we face in making sure the support of the services are there. primary care is important for so

many people living with hiv aids. if you do not have the support services to really wraparound, to release of for you, so you are there to show up at your doctor, to make sure you are on your medicines, and look for the other amount of emotional and social support that are there -- then you probably will not be engaging in a way that we would love for you to. the other challenges that we have around ryan white care funding is part d, which identifies services for family and children. san francisco received about $1 million in years past. that's a $500,000 cut we are facing. we are looking for to working with you on how we can address that. starting january of 2013, the cdc has slated a cut for san francisco of just under $3 million. million. as scott mentioned earlier, we