of education on how to share the road. i do not think cars know how to make a right-hand turn when there is a bike lane on the right. i see by sneaking left-hand turns like they are cars. there are all kinds of other violations that are going on. i would like to see some kind of public education around this comment in the newspaper, on tv or something. we have to learn how to share the road. thank you for your attention. [applause] >> terry patterson? if a elizabeth jones could get right behind me, i will give you half a minute peters you will be talking about something that is important to me. >> i am terry patterson, a resident of district 5, a member of the sap system mental health

board. as the last speaker, i am glad to be able to express my concerns on behalf of cuts to the mental health budget. as you all know, mental health affects every area of city life. and as many of the eloquent previous speakers spoke to senior centers, used shelters, community centers, public transportation, the people who are not getting our corporate mental health care are often hidden in homes where families have to deplete their budgets and take care of them. i am talking about the people with bipolar and other serious disorders, who, if their immediate situation does not rise to the level of going to cite an emergency, as many of you know, or become hospitalized, they do not get

services. so, i want to urge the city not to be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to preventive services and sustained services for people who need them in the city, not only to protect public safety, but to bring our families together to function adequately. thank you very much. [applause] >> this is the reason i wanted this laid to speak about summer programs. -- lady to speak about summer programs. >> good evening, mayor lee, city officials. my name is elizabeth jones, president of the west sacramento tennis association. i am standing here hoping to receive funding for the summer arts camp. i started the program last year in the summer of 2011, and it turned out to be a huge success.

i founded the program, which was an out-of-pocket expense from a part-time job. i have made numerous attempts in try to obtain funding for the west side courts summer camp. it is just unfair that west side courts children are once again being left behind. there is enough funding that can be divided equally where west side courts can receive a portion of the proceeds. why can the children of west side courts receive equal treatment as the other developments? i understand some of the kids wanted to speak, but they are shy. thank you for listening. [applause] >> the residents of district 5 and district 1, this does that make your job any easier. they were eloquent, talked about the problems they see, where we think the minute should go. now it is time for you to answer back, right? you do not have much time, but

that is okay, too. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. first of all, thanks for your input. you know, tonight, we emphasize from the start of our time would be focused on listening to all of you. so, we have done that. obviously, some of you deserve answers right away, but we cannot do that because we, the supervisors and the mayor, and all of these departments, have to get together to decide, after hearing from all of you, what are those things that we must pay attention to? so we have kept our minds open. there has been no decision on

the budget as of yet because we wanted to make sure we heard from everybody about what you think priorities are. having said that, we can at least give some of you a feeling of what direction we are headed in. some of you tonight spoke very eloquently, and i wanted you to know there are some answers on the way. for example, that washington, did you know we got 5000 jobs this summer for kids -- matt washington. to thousand 500 of those jobs are with city agencies, and another 2500 jobs are from private companies, and all join together with united way to create jobs for our summer youth, age 16 to 24, aimed specifically at disconnect the use and use in poverty. in other words, youth from our public housing. these are paid internships jobs

the would begin in very short weeks. everybody is participating. so that is part of the answer. i just wanted to let you know that because we knew that having positive outcomes for our youth was going to be very important because we pay in the short and long term if we do not do that, so that is on the way. we are focused on -- in fact, we've got some proposals already. you heard hsa has already submitted a proposal to not cut some very valuable funding that we had for seniors. we are listening to our director tonight to make sure we pay attention to that. he is watching us like a hawk, make sure we do not say anything different, but at the same time, we will try to figure out other things that we need as a city. we need to invest in public safety. all of us have been around.

i'm not getting any younger. neither is our police force. captain goldberg, thank you very much for being here today. his cohorts are younger. they will be here, but we need to move on, so we've got to make room for classes for our training. we also are paying attention to families. we are working very hard to create family-friendly policy that will lead to good investments in our city. by the way, i know you said may be giving away to some rich folks. i turned to my supervisor -- did we give some money to larry ellison i did not know about or to twitter? ok, but we are raising that money in the private sector. to cover our costs for america's cup.

that is why we have recreation and park here. they know that. we have to raise $32 million in the private-sector to cover the cost in that, so they are going the public/private partnership in that way. we will go into more details about it because i know there are perceptions out there that we are giving money away to twitter. we did not give money to them. we just tried to save 2500 jobs to make sure they did not go to south san francisco because they were moving. we gave them a tax break. but something that we can cover because we are going to get it back with their investments in mid market. these kids, when they are living and staying and working there, they spend money. that is why we got revenue increases coming on in the city. maybe, but they would not be spending money at the levels they are spending now. that is why we got the recovery going on. i will not say the word trust,

because there's different perceptions out there. we have to prove to -- >> we are not here to argue. and saying that to the gentleman over there. we are here now to listen to this gentleman. >> i'm trying to provide some answers. i will not have the complete answers. we will have some answers to it, and we will work on providing complete answers, hopefully more in our budget and more in ongoing discussions that people want to have when it comes to families, to schools, transportation -- i think a gentleman here was saying we should work with the adults -- there's a lot of other investments that we could be making as we go into our sessions about how we collaborate with each other to make sure we find the best and most important things we are hearing throughout the community. i just wanted to let you know, at least when i regurgitate some of the things, you know that i heard some of it, that i'm awake, not on my cell phone listening to the latest twists

or something like that. i just wanted to let you know these are some of the things i have heard. i have taken my notes. we will read through the others that have submitted. thank you again for submitting written comments and questions. we will get those back out. we have a lot of other groups we are meeting with between now and when we present our budget to the board of supervisors, but again, a big thanks to all of you for coming up tonight and for being participants on this and having enough trust and faith in your kids can come out and give us a good feeling about what we do. liz, you got my attention. >> thank you all for coming. [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 moneyn