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, pleasereview 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 of the belief that we do not have a patrol car in our neighborhood. a lot of instances have been happening more frequently in our area. we hear from private security firms and such that they're getting accidents or crime scenes are potential crimes well in advance of squad cars and the like.

so we very much would appreciate it if the budgeting process to look at putting more money into the staffing at the richmond precinct, and i am sure that is probably a general city-wide concern. we are also very concerned about commute traffic generally. by commute traffic, i am referring to the fact that our neighborhood streets have become thoroughfares for commute. and in our neighborhood, that is largely to and from and through the presidio, and it is through the presidio and the gates. but it is coming into our neighborhoods but then going down jackson, broadly, and washington. just because it is avoiding major arteries the mark -- arteries that are more congested. a specific budgetary issue would like to ask you to consider in this two-year budget process is that we are concerned that presidio parkway, when it is opened up with the gerard exit, will create a new

traffic pattern flow that will affect our neighborhood, pacific heights, marina, and cal hollow, so we would like to see a thoughtful traffic plan study in the city to look at where traffic is currently and where it may well end up once that presidio parkway has opened up, in terms of how traffic throat -- and traffic flows through lombard entered the presidio when they open up the exit. we do feel that that is going to become a traffic nightmare. and i would also point out that the superdelegates are high pedestrian and traffic gates because of jk park. it is health and safety concern in so far as traffic. i think people think we will solve traffic with a traffic light. that is not what we are asking for here. we're asking for a thoughtful analysis and a determination of what the right outcome is. you know, on the other side of

the revenue and spending equation, we would just urge that as you're looking for additional sources of revenue, that you do not look good parking meters in our neighborhoods. because that is not something that really, you know, honors the character of the neighborhood, as mayor lee just suggested. and we recognize that you're looking at an extremely challenging environment in terms of where the revenue comes from, but that is not something we would like to have happen. and building increasingly intensified neighborhoods is not something we think actually honors the character, even though it does generate revenue for the city. we do not know if that is a revenue fix either. but we recognize that your challenges are considerable. we're behind you in whatever way we can to make sure you try to push that. those are my comments. >> thank you, bill. the next speaker from district

two is greg scott. >> thank you, tina. thank you mayor lee, and supervisors chiu and farrell. phaa shares of the budget priorities expressed by presidio heights. the traffic issue concerns us greatly. one of the things that we think will make it worse on what is supposed to be residential street, that were mentioned by my predecessor speaker, is the bus rapid transit plan. we think that will force traffic off of geary and off of van ness and on to what was meant to be sidestreets that will become jammed with fast-moving traffic, a dangerous situation. our priorities also for safety and fire. we want the streets to be safe. we want adequate coverage for

the quick response time. with respect to dpw and nt, we want to approve the deplorable condition of many of our streets. we want to improve muni service. we want to keep the three jackson. it is a line that is important to our neighborhood. we want the muni drivers to be trained and to enforce appropriate behavior by muni drivers. muni drivers create a lot of the problems on the streets. they need to poll fully to bus stops and not block lanes. we have buses that the ballpark routinely in the 2300 block of jackson street by the meat toilet because they will not walk half a block. they doubled part of the use the muni torula. inexcusable behavior, behavior that should be easy to change. education. we have to get adequate funding. we believe the life of families to the suburbs could be stymied if we would return to the neighborhood's schools where people could have a certain child go to school close to home so they can walk to school. we should make school sites available during non-school

hours for other uses. for example, the parking lot, the playground on webster street are being reconfigured by the school district, and we're concerned that they will no longer be available for parking for calvert presbyterian on the weekends. having that excess property that the rise since a vacant be available for parking on off- hours when schools are not in a position to pressure off the streets. the libraries need adequate funding. rec and park, we want our parks to be clean, well repaired, and petrol. too often in lafayette park we have homeless and camps the need to be cleared. we need to make sure those parks are safe. we have had people shot and stabbed by both lafayette park and the plaza park. building and planning, we need to train the planners to make the projects conform to the code, and we need enforcement. enforcement is lacking. on the housing element, we need for the city to stop trying to integrate existing single-family

residence neighborhoods. we do not need secondary units legalized everywhere, especially without parking. we do not need all the high rises that are proposed in the housing elements. the neighborhoods have sued the city once before. and we will sue the city again if the city does not get it right. we need funding and training in imitation of more effective outreach to an engagement with neighborhood associations on proposed legislative exchanges. there were discussions and the input was largely ignored. this had to do with limited live performance permits in the current rezoning of restaurants. a restaurant limited as a writer in the upper fell more, even though we just lifted the prohibition that all two service should be a conditional use. the neighbors needs to be listened to. the neighborhood input is important. to lock in the neighborhood is ignored. we hope there will be taken more seriously in the future. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, greg.

from districts 3, annie chung. there you are. >> hello. thank you. good evening. good evening, mayor, supervisors, and all our representatives from our city departments. i am from self help for the elderly. we have been serving close to about 35,000 seniors in the bay area. we started right here in district 3 on washington street at old chinatown lane. i think we started with the very basic program, serving 50 elderly in 1966. and now we serve close to about 1500 seniors every day between our congregant new site, four in district 3, and funding supported by the department of aging and adults with

disabilities. we thank them for always thinking about supporting the most vulnerable in our community. i think tonight we have invited seniors from lady shaw, also in district 3, which is affordable 202 housing. average age of residents are 87 years old. the reason why they live too long age and longevity in a healthy lifestyle is because we have nutritious meals served in a dining room and social workers at lady shop. 20 years ago and they built this affordable housing, we got major support from the mayor's office of housing to complete the hud 202 project. ever since we build it, our seniors have settled down. even when they got hyper pressure and health problems before, they now become volunteers at the senior center, serving other seniors. because we have provided them

safe, viable, and affordable housing. some, mayor, if you ask us what is the top priority for our seniors, it has always been affordable housing. every project in town, when they started to have open recruitment for the residence, i tell you, there will be 5000 elderly lining up on is a very, very precious units. when lady shaw opened 20 years ago, the waiting list was almost 4,000. nobody could ever move in because there's hardly any turnover. finally, after 20 years, when we exhausted the waiting list, we opened it up last year just to put their name on the waiting list, and another 2300 elderly came in. the applications all qualified. and now i think that in our lifetime, we will not see lady shaw open again for open recruitment. that is the critical need for affordable housing.

supervisor chiu, you are a good friend of ours, but when you ask me to talk a little bit about senior needs, i think that ever since the mayor has called these town hall meetings with our district supervisors, our seniors from every program have come and attended the meeting. i want to think adrienne and her staff for always taking time to translate for our seniors, making them feel welcome and feel that they could participate in these hearings. they have always told our supervisors and mayor and department heads that every city's greatness is measured by how you take care of the elderly and how you take care of your children. those two populations are the most vulnerable of all the populations. in san francisco, we just looked at the 2010 census figures. 13.6 of san franciscans are over 65 years old. in number is astounding.

almost 109,000 people. 65 +. and if we add 75 +, it is even more. so we know that this population needs a lot of resources from our budget every year. and, mayor, you listen to us last year when we forgot -- one we fought for the adult day health care, and you came in and supported us. now the state has come in to support this population. we hope that you will at least look at, for five years, a lot of the nonprofits supporting the senior population, our budget has been flat or decrease by almost 20% to 30%. so we ask you to take a look at what it costs to really take care of the elderly population. we need nutritious meals. we need case management, affordable housing, and we also need recreation from mr philip ginsburg's department. so we partner with a lot of departments to help deliver these services. we hope that even as your budget

is a very, very tight that you cannot look to balance the budget on the backs of our seniors. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, annie. whoa, you had a lot of statistics. good stuff. the next speaker from district 3 is janet. >> get the evening. it was really an honor to be invited to speak to you this evening, and i am just really grateful for that. my name is janet, a small business owner here in north beach. i just completed a four-year term on the small business commission. and in the 30 plus years that i have run the small business in north beach, i have been right in the middle of the broadway- columbus corridor. and i have to say that the

public safety issues are around that corridor, they cycle. you know, they cycle. they get better, we work, we work, things get better, but then something might happen in the economy. something might happen just in the world. and the situation out here deteriorates. unfortunately, over the past, i would say year, a year-and-a- half, it seems like the resources in the police department have been stretched incredibly thin. for different reasons, i know, but something really has to be done to look at the allocation of resources. i do not know if it is looking at the entire budget, but we really have to look at our police department. it is efficiency. the academy class is coming in. new people coming up. it is affecting the entire city. distich -- to district 3 has so much activity. polk street. not just columbus-broadway.

a grand avenue. fisherman's wharf. it is really a large district. when we need resources here, it stretches resources from the entire city. so i would really like a good look at the police resources right now. we talk about family fight -- a family flight in the health of the city. not being able to work safely through my neighborhood, the mission, or my work neighborhood, district 3, i mean, we really need to take a long comprehensive look at violence and public safety. i would like to ask for that. the other thing i would like to talk about -- i would like to actually take this opportunity to thank the public health department. when i came to san francisco 30 years a card, my first health care plan axes was right in this building. before i had health insurance, it was a sliding scale, completely affordable for a student cartel waitress,

completely affordable. when i had health insurance, they took health insurance, but it was right here. it was accessible, affordable, and it was quality care. the public health department is the largest general fund department. so i would ask for some real thought about the public health clinics and innovation in your delivery, because we may not have more money, but we may have better options for delivery. so i would really prioritize and see the overall work in the public health department, because it does -- no, it addresses issues of violence, drug addiction, of abuse, drug abuse, family issues, and all so it cuts across the age groups. from the very young to the very old. so i would like to see that. and i would also like to just take a brief moment to remember that we had a homeless person who died on the street here in

district 3, and he did not die of exposure. it would have been bad enough that he died of exposure, but he was actually assault that left to die on broadway. so i just want to remember him for a minute, and i want to say that the work you do, it really is a very, very important. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, janet people -- janet. and our last speaker from district 3 is don trenor. >> thank you, schettino. -- tina. dawn from the middle polk association, divided between central and northern stations. mostly in district 3, but a little bit of our western border

is in district two. we have had continuous, continuous, continuous problems with prostitution. it has never been successfully addressed. it is a crime that deteriorates and eats away at a neighborhood. there seems just to be no answers within san francisco. why is it that san francisco invites the prostitutes to come in from stockton, from the east bay, from the north bay, from the south bay? why is it so much easier for them to do business here and come in and market themselves here in our neighborhoods? in addition to this evening crime that we have suffered, evening and morning crime that we have suffered with prostitution, homelessness is on a huge, huge rise. we were hoping that it would be addressed, but the flagrant abuses are mind-boggling.

most mornings, afternoons, and evenings along polk street from california to clay, you can see a minimum of four people sitting or outright sleeping face down on the street. the rentable wheelchair in front of walgreen's between sacramento and california is a great example of this issue. there is a wheelchair that seems to be printed. the first gentlemen the comes on in the morning, after he stows the malt liquors in a row in the screen news stand, he gets up and finishes his ship, walks away seemingly quite easily, and the next renter of the wheelchair comes in and he begs and does whatever, and this goes on and on. the police are called, apparently from the district

attorney's office, that these people are off limits to the sfpd because they are in a wheelchair, and there's nothing that we can do, even though this is so flagrant. so we have the prostitution's stuff going on in the evening. we have the homelessness going on in the daytime. we hoped that our very active neighborhood court would be able to do some been to address these issues. especially when neighborhood court, the polk street neighborhood court was charged with handling of that -- all the prostitution cases within san francisco, in addition to our regular cases. unfortunately, as an example, last tuesday in our regular monthly neighborhood court session, we had a full slate of panelists, a full slate of observers. we had two cases scheduled for all of the prostitution in san francisco and our homelessness and other issues on polk street.

two cases scheduled and nobody showed up. this is a court that was a very, very active for a very long time. so it seems to be a very promising solution is turning out to be nothing. the neighborhoods are wanting to be involved. we're wanting to be out there and working with the police, with the district attorney's office, with dpw. wanting to be there. but we're not getting what we need to make these solutions a reality. it is getting to be very, very difficult to stay involved. we want to stay involved, mr. mayor, but we're not getting what we need from the city. please help us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, dawn. well, it really seems like

safety, prostitution, health care, transportation, homelessness, senior affordable housing, restorative justice, aggressive panhandling -- i mean, they are all things that happen in the community. the community is trying to embrace them, and it is really in every neighborhood. and all of these things -- i mean, it is huge, but you're getting input, that is for sure. and what we're going to move on to -- i mean, i think it really wraps it up, perhaps shrinking funds and so many needs -- i just think promoting and inclusive budget process like this is so, so fair. and there should be no and, like janet said, die on good friday and there should be no and, like janet said, die on good friday