the small businesses, and i know we had a conversation here earlier, some of the -- not all, but some small businesses have always felt that if the parking control officers are not doing their jobs, you're going to have people part inappropriately all day long in those spaces. we get complaints about that from even folks who claim they have legitimate for the blue placards and things like that, and we have got some abuses there. but some of the small businesses are saying that if you do not keep people moving around, their businesses suffered. particularly in those very successful merchant corridors. so in a way, keeping, you know, the parking meters active or keeping the space is exchanging out is supposed to come in at the erie, helping those small businesses with their jobs. >> and that first block of west

portal. come with me tomorrow at 2:00 p.m., and you can watch the people who park their and then get on it muni and head down for hours. they do not shop on west portal. they shop downtown. and they go to the giants game. and they do not pay for their parking. >> [inaudible] >> but if they filled their meter for 20 minutes, that is all you have to do. they can avoid the ticket. ok. all right, this will be our very last question. >> i think the problem is sometimes you may go down irving street or west portal, you're going for lunch, so you're going into a restaurant and maybe you are going to do your banking at the same time. what happens is you may have a meter for one hour two hours and

that may not be enough. it is four hours or longer, at least do not get a ticket. that seems to be the problem. you're getting tickets. if you go a couple streets over, it may be two-hour parking, the it is very hard to get. you have to go two streets over to get four-hour parking. but it is a hike. >> ok. i am holding, and we're working hard on this. i am hoping that there is some technological solution to this. because, as you know, we're changing out all these meters into meters that can not only use your credit card, but you can pay with your cell phone. you would register in and literally almost tapped it or some mid end in a so that the meter tells her cell phone when your time is up, so you get a buzz. we are getting there. there are experience -- experiments going on as we speak. hopefully that technology convenience will prevent people

from getting ticketed inappropriately when they're trying to do the right thing and have that notice and cannot run back out. but they will get the notice like five minutes before the thing happens. we're going for that. because we believe that that better technology with the areas we have experimented in, we did have less to get. we had more people paying the meter. there is some good behavior going on with the modern meters that we have in the city. >> [inaudible] >> no, you can actually feed the meter from your phone. oh. >> [inaudible] a photo of the license plate? [inaudible] >> ok. >> that is why it is a longer

time frame. >> ok, we will talk to the mta about that. yes, yes. cards. >> [inaudible] >> you can buy them online and they will come directly to your house. sure. sfgov.org, you can buy them and have them mailed to your house. >> [inaudible] >> the one department that does not show up it's the biggest one. [laughter] is that how it works? department heads, tell them that is how it works. very good. listen, we would like to thank you all very, very much for coming out and sharing your thoughts. that me reiterate the point from the beginning, this is just one opportunity. you will have many opportunities. there are other town hall meetings, a number of public hearings at city hall, and beyond that, carmen and i are always available to take your

calls, take your e-mails, read your letters. you have a lot of opportunity, and please take advantage of it. it is your thoughts that will shape our decisions over the next few months. >> again, i want to say thank you very much for spending your saturday morning here with us. i know it is not easy. we appreciate your thoughts. we all benefit from hearing your comments today. sometimes in city hall we hear only one perspective, and we do not necessarily here the perspective of your database citizens or running your business or who have frustrations with parking meters or he wants to bsee recreation and parks services be better. thank you for that. one plug. we had the sunday streets event this week in our district. it starts at 10:00 and i believe it goes to 3:00 on the great highway. please come out with your family with your bikes and walking shoes. >> i want to thank again our office of immigration affairs and civic engagement for

translation for people who are here. obviously we have a rich diversity and the city. i am glad we can get people who speak different languages and tell us what they need as well. thank you, everybody, for being here, and giants. -- go giants. [applause]

>> so thank you very much for coming to the second annual budget town hall. my name is david chiu, and i am honored to represent the district 3, which is the 10 any neighborhoods. i want to welcome all of you to this town hall. i want to thank all of you for your community leadership and let you know that you're taking part in a very, incredibly important part of our city governance. i thing many of you know that the budget is the most important set of decisions that we make every single year. the budget reflects our priorities as a city and reflects our values. and many of you probably also know that in recent years, every

year since i have been in office, we have had a budget deficit. so we have to make some very, very difficult choices. i want to thank not only not of you who have -- not only all of you who have come here today, but those from city government, in particular are city officials. this is the second annual budget town hall, something we started in mayor lee's first year. in the first meeting i had with mayor lee after he was sworn in as our interim mayor last year, i asked him and other supervisors asked him for ways to make our budget process more collaborative and more transparent. and the budget team and mayor lee in the board of supervisors, we thought that this format of budget town halls in many districts around the city would make a lot of sense, and i think it has been a very good way for us to have feedback. without further ado, i would

like to introduce my co-host for tonight, who is my neighboring supervisor from across the van ness, supervisor mar farrell. it is great to have you here in district 3. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor chiu. i also want to quickly thank everyone the for coming out tonight, especially those from districts two who traveled all the way from the telegraph hill. that is right, go ahead and clap for yourselves. thank you for coming out tonight. last year we started this with mayor lee, and i do think this has become such an integral process and kind of part of our budget cycle in city hall. we really want to hear from you. tonight, that is what this is all about. i hope those of you who are here will take the time to write in your questions. i know there is a format here to come up and speak. we have the best moderator in town in tina, president of the russian hill neighbors

association. thank you for moderating tonight. but i encourage everyone to submit questions and conduct was after words as well. we want to hear from you and make sure we incorporate everything you say tonight into what we decide in city hall, not only this year by going forward in the future. again, we all want to thank all of the city department heads and staff that are here tonight. thank you all for being here. it is a big deal that they come here to all these budget town halls to really make sure that any of your concerns they can speak to as well. without further ado, the one person we really want to thank for making these budget town halls happen is our major. he has taken time out of his very busy schedule -- [applause] and please note -- i know the board president mentions this as well, but it is really, as a representative of district two, it is really a pleasure to be working with mayor lee, not only on many issues on city hall but

especially as it relates to our budget and is transparent process going and long way. so please give a warm round of applause for mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you, supervisors, very much. good evening, everyone. it is my pleasure to be here at telegraph hill center. it is a personal pleasure of mind. i actually do -- i may be in opposite to what you think. we do enjoy being out in the neighborhoods. it is better than the question and answer period in the -- [laughter] anyway, we do enjoy it. i know tonight we will be talking about one in the most important things that we do. and i cannot think of a better way to make an important decision that involve everybody who are stakeholders in our budget. you must tell us what you think is the most important thing that we should be focused on. and while we may think, as political leaders and people who

have been elected, that we might at times know better, quite frankly, we need to hear from everybody always so that we honor a commitment that this government has made for many, many a decade. i have been involved in it for 22 years. honor the neighborhoods, and you will survive. so i want to thank the various department heads with me. i want to give a shout-out to the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs or here tonight to translate for anybody who wants. the extra help for anybody needs to make their point across. most importantly, i want to begin with a big thank you to all of you. you kind of heard that our budget is approving a little bit. yes. unemployment is down from a year ago. in fact, we got some great news a couple months ago, that our first six-month report indicated that we were $129 million off,

and the good way. that what we had thought was going to be the first year of a two-year budget to be some $225 million in the deficit, we found out that we're now about $170 million in the first issue deficit and about $312 million for the second year. so i need to remind you all of that we are no longer doing budgets on a year-to-year basis. one of the reasons that we need to spend more time in the community is to get you to know that we have to two-year budget. we have to put a little more discipline in the way we budget ourselves. a little more discipline and taking care of things like our infrastructure, think that they get very long time. a little more discipline in making sure that when we way would you tell us tonight, what we need to pay attention to, that we have the revenue and resources not only for one year

but two years going down. by law, by what you voted for, we have a two-year budget. we have a deficit of $170 million in the first year and about $312 million in the second year. it is better than what we saw a few years ago for these years coming forth. now that may sound like a whole lot of money to you, and it is, but it is much better than the numbers that we saw when we did not have pension reform, as they accomplished with the board of supervisors in with people like warren hellman and others that helped us last year passed that very important thing. it is looks better now that we have proposition d that was passed with our street paving bonds and other things that we have done smartly. but with that, we still have a very complicated decisions to make that will reflect our priorities. i want to also thank supervisor carmen chu who is out here

tonight. she is going to be the head of the budget committee -- committee. [laughter] that the supervisors have selected with david chiu's help. this is her third. i have committed to six. we are combining as many of the districts together as possible, so we're trying to do this as efficiently as possible. but we will do all six. we know, based on last year's turnout and i think tonight, the turnout as well, if we listen to closely, we go and do our homework, we will make good decisions so that hopefully you are not there the end of may screaming at us in the months of june saying we did not listen. we have got to listen early, and we have got to do -- got to make good decisions. we're ready to do that. i wanted to forewarn you that this is a two-year budget and is still bouncing a deficit. and guess what -- the news from the state and the news from the federal government is not

improving. every time we looked around, there's something else of the governor says he has got to cut, because we head -- cannot figure out how to balance the state budget. if you notice, on every major decisions that they are making, they are making the cities, with their own dollars. they are pushing. so they call something realignment. that sounds kind of like, ok, you're shoveling a little bit. realignment means they are rushing into the county's and making us figure out how to pay for it. that is what realignment is. that is what they did with redevelopment. they eliminated that agency, and now we have got the burden of coming up with solutions to build more affordable housing in the city and more work force housing in the city. they're pushing more and more things. then the federal government does not seem to be playing in a different tune as well. they're pushing out federal jobs. they are pushing down federal programs. they are cutting spending. as you may have heard, we got a

big, big hit announcement or they're not going to fund red- and-white and we have people with aids that need treatment. -- not going to fund ryan white, and we have people with aids and the treatment. everything is on the table. child care is on the table. senior programs of nutrition are on the table. while we're trying to figure out housing at the same time. we have all these problems that the city, and not just me, every urban city is experiencing this problem, particularly in the state of california. so i need to give you that backdrop to let you know that the decisions we are going to may, with all these very smart people that head up the several dozen agencies, it is not going to be an easy thing. but i will repeat over and over again, the best decisions we make the once grounded with -- with community support, and we want to hear you carefully. so i am going to end my speech is right now so we can spend the

bulk of the time listening to your ideas, your solutions, and your suggestions. i leave you with this one thought. be involved. be a bit of with your ideas, because i think innovation, finding creative solutions to old challenges, is extremely meaningful in the city. finally, think about where we should invest. because if we are an investment- friendly city and if we have our priorities straight, guess what, a lot of people with a lot of money will invest in our city as well. not government, because i told you that story, but maybe these other companies that if we talk to them the right way, if we suggest to them there are programs that are really important to all of whether to defer our parks, used, are homeless programs, that they are really important, they're going to come up with some dollars to help us with that. that is what makes an investment-friendly city and also reflects the values the

city has. thank you for coming out. i appreciate your time and your effort. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. i am going to take two minutes to introduce the men and women to my left and right. as the mayor said, a unit next to as the leadership of many of our city agencies that help to manage the close to $7 billion and the over 50 debarment we have in the city. starting on my right, mayor lee introduced supervisor carmen chu, who heads of our budget committee. thank you for being here. next to her is kate howard, our city's budget director. next to her is luis herrera, our city librarian who manages the san francisco public library. our housing and 30 is run by director henry alvarez -- housing authority is run by director henry l. burress. our human services agency, derek chu.

now relations between any of thechu's tonight, by the way. the head of our department of children, youth, and families, maria. the head of the department of public health, barbara garcia. from our neighborhood, a member of the department of emergency management. end of the blue uniform here, a well-known gentlemen, our police chief, greg suhr. good to see you. to my letter to your right is ken from our city administrator's office but also in uniform tonight is our fire chief, chief hayes-white. [applause] from the children's support services, we have karen. to her left is our mayors education adviser and a member of our school board, hydra mendoza. a man who is responsible for cleaning and repairing our streets and other public works in our city, the director of

public works, mohammed nuru puerto rico director of rec and park department, philip ginsburg. [applause] from hr san francisco mta -- and from our mayor's office on housing, olson lee. in addition, i want to thank all of the volunteers who are here. i also want to think the mayor's office on a neighborhood services, disability. bud from media services. and sfgtv for helping to broadcast tonight's town hall. with that, it is my pleasure to introduce our moderator. we have one major neighborhood that is shared by district 3 and district two, and the head of one of the largest ethnic associations in both districts is the president of russian hill neighbors, tina. thank you, tina. [applause] >> i do not know whether to

stand in front of you or in front of you. either way, i have my back. i wanted to point out first that we have translators. so i would like everyone to speak clearly. and when you finish a sentence, pause before you start the next one. it really will help them out. i want to go over the two-minute rule we are going to have at the very end. and we are going to have two minutes for every speaker. i know you all will not get a chance, but i think you put your questions and to the fish bowl, and we will take one question per district. one from two, one from three, and go that way to make it fair. you can spend all two minutes in making a statement or speak for one minute and have an answer from one of the department chiefs, supervisors, or the

mayor. keep in mind, i do have a timekeeper. i am going to go over the ground rules for the evening. basically, we want everybody to be able to speak, but if you cannot, there are going to be budget meetings and hearings with the finance committee after tonight. in order to have an effective meeting, we want to lay out a few of the ground rules to guide our conversation. number one, stay on the subject. number two, all ideas and perspectives will be heard. number 3, please be respectful of one another. and number four, speak one at a time. finally, please review the transmission equipment, as i mentioned before, so you know to not one speaker come on top of

another. with that, i would like to introduce the mayor's budget director, miss kate howard. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. thank you, tina. thank you for hosting us here tonight and for giving us a chance to hear from you directly about your ideas in priorities for the city's budget. i thought i would give you a brief overview of the city's budget and how it works. as the supervisors and the mayor mentioned, the city's budget is really -- reflects what our priorities are for our city. it is also a spending plan. how are we going to spend our money in the coming two years? generally in san francisco, we spend about 50% of our dollars on personnel, all the people who work for the city. about 26,000 of them. and about half on everything else. we also spent about 50% in what

we call our general fund and 50% in what we call enterprise fund. as many of you know, and as the supervisor mentioned, we have more than 50 city departments. everything from the mta and the puc to health and human services, police and fire. i like to think of the enterprise departments like the city's small businesses or the city's business operations. we do not mix our home expenses with our business expenses in our home budgets, and we do not do that for the city. so what do we spend our money on every year? we spend our money on our priorities, things like community health, things like social services, police and fire, rec and park, all of those things that are the core services and priorities for any city and county. where do we get our money? our money is like our paycheck. the revenue we get to operate the city.

the city's general fund primarily comes from tax revenues. so we get some money from the state and federal government, but most of our money we get from property-tax, payroll tax, business tax, hotel room tax. basically, we get our money from you. so it is important to hear from you about how we should spend that money. as the mayor mentioned, one of the things that we are here to talk with you about tonight is how do we bridge the gap that we have in the amount we have to spend, our expenses, and how much revenue we are taking in? a good way of thinking about that is, for many of us over the last few years with the economic downturn, our income has stayed flat. in some cases it has even gone down. at the same time, our expensive -- expenses have gone up. rent has gone up. gasoline has gone more

expensive. health care is more expensive. those factors are making a gap in their city's budget, where our income is not growing as fast as our expenses. so our task tonight is to hear from you. as the mere mention, but want to hear from you about how do we think about investing, how do we think about innovating, and how do we really think about this new challenge of balancing a two-year budget in thinking about the long term? this is really just the beginning of our budget process, and there are lots of opportunities for folks to continue to be involved. we're looking forward to hearing from you tonight. teaneck? -- 8tina? >> whoa, that was fast. [applause] you had another five minutes. as you heard from what she said, i counted 19 -- 18 of you out here. i know there are more supervisors and police.

how far that budget has to go is just mind-boggling and how to decide upon it. you know, hopefully you can get some questions. we are going to have some speakers up, but then put some questions in that would have relevance. i think it is really important that we all have a say, and with this transparency, our voices can be heard. one that is really important for me is the flight of families with small children. we have lost several on our board. safety is a huge thing. and health care. i mean, you name it. it is huge. so thank you for your remarks about the budget and the overwhelming decisions you have to make. and we're now going to have 20 minutes -- we are going to hear

from two members of the constituency of district two, who will speak on it and their topics. and then we will have district 3 representatives. >> not that i do not want to talk to you all, but i figured us are talking to them. my name is bill hudson. i am with the association of neighbors. u.s. as to speak to the issues that we have most pressing in our minds that might drive your budgetary decisions tonight. first and foremost, as it was referenced, we are very concerned about public safety. we have a real concern that the richmond district is light- staffed and has a lot of senior officers, and they're not really feelinfilling the chain underne. we are ofe