without the builders. i would like to introduce the senior vice president of our builders. >> you know, it is quite something to stand here and get a chance to reflect and look up at what this is really going to be. i would say three or four years ago when we were thinking about that, we did not have any specific ideas except we knew what we really wanted to accomplish. we knew we had to accomplish something great. if you think about those existing buildings that are here, they were built over 100 years ago. what really cured people back then was some light and fresh air. we had very few things to worry about on the design side. 100 years later, we have so many more things that can cure and help and benefit the community,

and our hats go off to all those who have been a part of that. truly, from the architect and the engineering side and the entire engineering staff -- all the conditions, all the issues that come together to provide the world class opportunities and facilities that are here. coupled with that our partners, dpw, the department of public health. it is really a collaboration above and beyond any single project. that is what makes the difference in some of these ceremonies. i have been to a few of them. this one will have a special place the cause of, it will be there, not only when it is needed with regular emergencies, but true emergencies. and the city has gone through those in the past. when you think about it -- the next earthquake, the ball bearings this is sitting on keeping the building will move as much as two and a half feet either way. when that all settles out and

there are the needs and the demands pressed on the hospital, this hospital will be here to serve. to serve the community, the people who need it. that is why we are here today. something much larger than all of us. thank you to the engineers, the designers, are partners at dpw. this was really a team effort. if a guy is standing up here in a suit, the guy's not in the suits in the background are the ones really doing the work. we look for the next couple of years to finishing at. thank you. [applause] >> to complete the building, we are taking the nation's. we have the san francisco general hospital foundation. they have been working very hard looking for donors.

we want to acknowledge the board president, some of the board members. connie shannon, jennifer bilko, and all of there supporters. we want to recognize them. they are going to help us finish. i would like to introduce the chairman of the board of directors for the san francisco general hospital foundation. she has just been working really hard seeking those donors to complete this project. >> [laughter] the concept of a moving building is a little -- terrifying. and wonderful. always when i'm out in the community, i feel so proud.

and i really hope all of you do. the guys from the city and the fire department -- because this hospital is preeminent in every field in every way. we care for patients in a compassionate and cutting edge way that is just phenomenal. 84% of the people in the city voted for a bond measure, and whoever heard of a bond measure passing the first time, let alone with 84%? it was a resounding "yes" vote for all of the people who do smart, capable, and compassionate work. i am so proud of the hospital. i am so proud. i am glad we're not stopping work for 1 minute. i am so proud and we're building

this building on time and ahead of schedule and i want to thank everybody. thank you. our we doing, everyone? -- how are we doing, everyone? >> we have an incredible relationship with cfs. we have leaders from the hiv/aids fight. many of them have become administrators and the health department. and soap ,ucfs -- and so ucfs has been an incredible partnership for department. [applause]

>> thank you. it is such an honor to be here today, to represent the over 2000 employees who work here on this campus and come here every day to provide the best service people can in partnership with the city. it is one of our major sites, not only for delivering health care, but also for teaching the bank in all of these schools -- the school of medicine, the school of nursing, the school of pharmacy, and the graduate school. this is a site that is important to all of us in terms of having cutting edge research. we have over $250 million on this campus as well as 800 people who work here doing research that will lead to the

improvement of our health and the future. so, with this partnership, i am just so pleased looking out on this wonderful crowd to be here and to also say thank you for all the work that you dare. thank you. >> i would like to recognize the vice counsel of planning and who is working with us throughout this process. it is such an honor to work with the honorable mayor ed lee. we have been given the initiative not only to get jobs, but also to work hard for the service. mayor lee has been nothing but a tremendous supporter of the department of public health. with the last budget, the department came out with no cuts

in the budget. [applause] we are extremely grateful to him and his commitment to health. honorable mayor ed lee. >mayor lee: thank you, barbara. good afternoon, everyone. this says "sweet." scott has his on. dennis is looking for an orange 1. i want to reiterate my thanks to everyone on the stage and in the audience. the team effort is really going on your. that is also effective in our economy does -- that is picking up. it is akin to attitude of the p.w. -- the can-do attitude of

dpw. in everything that we're doing, there's a positive result if we all work together. that is the message here. if i can add to this, two things. i want to continue thinking our san francisco general hospital foundation. as this building goes up, there'll have to be a lot of expensive equipment that goes in there. judy has a wonderful team and all the board members are here, to fill it with the most modern, lifesaving equipment, the greenest technology there is to make the best hospital so we take pride in that. why? because it is for these kids. they are going to be the future doctors, the future nurses, the future hospitals administrators. is all for you that we are doing this. because it with this team effort the promise was made, the

promise with our board of supervisors was made a couple years back. we promised to create the best hospital. hopefully, for all of our future kids so they can work get it, they can be there to be part of a wonderful community that is san francisco. that is why this is a wonderful opportunity to top off with the most fantastic -- it is the largest, as barbara said. but it is worth it, to have a world-class hospital for world- class city. everyone sharing in, this moment, this milestone to top off. the graffiti that we have here today is, for all of us to share in this very moment, is a great, great test to thank everybody for getting here, and we look forward to being here in 2015. so, we will do little sign i

andage and have the last -- signage and have the last bean put in. shall we say thumbs-up? we will sign at first and then give thumbs-up. with that? are you ready? all right. >> 3, 2, 1. [applause]

[cheering] [cheers and applause]

[cheers and applause]

>> there are kids and families ever were. it is really an extraordinary playground. it has got a little something for everyone. it is aesthetically billion. it is completely accessible. you can see how excited people are for this playground. it is very special. >> on opening day in the brand- new helen diller playground at north park, children can be seen swinging, gliding,

swinging, exploring, digging, hanging, jumping, and even making drumming sounds. this major renovation was possible with the generous donation of more than $1.5 million from the mercer fund in honor of san francisco bay area philanthropist helen diller. together with the clean and safe neighborhood parks fund and the city's general fund. >> 4. 3. 2. 1. [applause] >> the playground is broken into three general areas. one for the preschool set, another for older children, and a sand area designed for kids of all ages. unlike the old playground, the new one is accessible to people with disabilities. this brand-new playground has several unique and exciting features. two slides, including one 45- foot super slide with an elevation change of nearly 30 feet. climbing ropes and walls,

including one made of granite. 88 suspension bridge. recycling, traditional swing, plus a therapeutics win for children with disabilities, and even a sand garden with chines and drums. >> it is a visionary $3.5 million world class playground in the heart of san francisco. this is just really a big, community win and a celebration for us all. >> to learn more about the helen diller playground in dolores park, go to sfrecpark.org. >> ok. good morning. it's really great to see everyone indoors on our -- working on our budget when we had the beautiful day outside. so thank you for taking time out of your day to discuss our city budget from the perspective of

district 10 and district 11. my name is supervisor john avalos and i'm the supervisor for district 11. [applause] and i want to welcome our mayor, mayor ed lee for his presence here. [applause] i also want to welcome supervisor cohen who is also co-hosting our -- [applause] our budget town hall today. we also have the chair of the budget committee of the board of supervisors, supervisor carmen khu. -- chu. [applause] and after having chaired the budget committee two years in a row in 2009 and 2010, i can honestly say it's one of the most challenging jobs on the board of supervisors and with carmen, you have a great leader, someone who knows the ins and outs of this budget and really

will be looking closely at neighborhoods like arson to make -- ours to make sure we can get out of this budget so carmen is a great person to have on our committee. i want to welcome all the seniors and the youths and the families and residents of district 11 and district 10. we have an incredible task before us on how to balance this budget. even though budget times are looking better, we have hard and difficult choices to make as we do the budget balancing work in the city county of san francisco. our budget is really a statement about our priorities as a city. we have lots of priorities as off our complement each other but sometimes compete against each other and we have to make hard decisions about what gets budgeted first and foremost. over the past few years, as your supervisor for district 11, i've invested small amounts of money

in community development efforts of how we can create more resources for people in our district, we have a committee grant making program supporting seniors, young people. it's making sure that leaders can actually come about in our neighborhood street. there's a report on telling us now make employment work in this part of san francisco. right now, we do not have any major workforce development dollars that come directly for employment where in the city, we want to be able to change that. this report points us in that direction so in the future, we'll be -- [applause] thank you. so in the future, we'll be pointing in the direction for jobs for youth, jobs for adults,

in this part of san francisco and ways that we can support communities that don't get employment if our traditional sectors. so we'll be hearing from people about that today. i want to hear from everyone and i'll stay as long as it takes to hear from public comments and thank you for being here. i want to pass the mike on to supervisor cohen. [applause] >> thank you. >> good morning, san francisco. i'm glad to see you this morning. do we have anyone here from d-10? all right. good morning. do we have anyone here from d-11? whoa! do we have anyone here from the city family? [laughter] do we have anyone here from the city family? [applause] we are fired up and happy to be here today because we are going to be talking about the number issue that has an effect and

connects all neighborhoods, awe races of people, all classes of people and that's our budget. we are here to begin the conversation about our budget priorities and hear from you, from your perspective, from our first line of defense, our service providers, our constituent, our friends, our neighborhood leaders, our democratic clubs. all of you on here have an opinion on what our priorities should be and we have come to humbly receive that information. humbly receive that information so they're going to be very few speeches today. we're going to be putting on our ears today and we are going to be listening. and we're going to be listening in chinese. we're going to be listening in spanish. we're going to be listening in every language that you speak. if you're speaking, we're listening. and our priorities, our budget priorities at the end of this process will most likely hopefully and will reflect what we have heard in other budget town hall meetings and all

around the city. so i want you guys to put a warm welcome to a man that has changed this budget town hall process. not only under the leadership of supervisor carmen chu but mayor ed lee who began last year implementing budget town hall meetings. this is what i understand one of the few -- one of a new way that we begin to discuss budget priorities. so please welcome your mayor, our mayor, our friend, ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. >> tough. good morning, everybody. and i want to thank the city art and technology school for hosting us here. yes. [applause] principal daniel allen. thank you so much for this lovely location. [applause] so as supervisor avalos and supervisor cohen and we're

joined by supervisor carmen chu as well. you know, i've had the pleasure of working with our whole board of supervisors and i'll tell you, all of them have been very dedicated. and you have heard the new tone at city hall. no calling names. no wasting time. we are on your business. and that's why we enjoy coming out so the neighborhood. we enjoy holding budget town hall meetings because the most important thing that we should be doing is listening to the needs, not making decisions in isolation, and then respecting our communities. that's what i want to do. you know me. i've been picking up trash for a lot of you in this district for many years. we've been out in mccarron park cleaning that place up. we've been down in sunny dale trying to keep things clean, safe. we know these neighborhoods but we also want to make sure we honor a tradition that has been long held in the city.

we make decisions with our community. never in isolation. that's why it's important that we be out here. that's why it's important i tell you we haven't made any decisions yet on our budget. but we are heading in a particular direction. and that direction has to be recovery. it has to be job creating. it has to be about positive investments in our communities. and in our city. because i really have to tell you the truth. i'm not going to head up a city that's dependant upon the state government that keeps failing us. i can't depend upon a federal government that can't have a decent conversation in both houses to put forward transportation and parks and environment and schools. every time we listen to state and national political discussions, i get so disappointed. so i'm turning to the only hope i got. that's our neighborhood leaders.

you've got the answers. you're positive about where you live. you're not giving up. you're picture assistant. -- percent. that's what -- persistent. that's what i love about san francisco. so we're here to get energized. we get energized at city hall. yes, you're going to tell us about problems. yes, you're going to challenge us. but when we go to work and we get things done and we feel that much better. that's why when we team one the board of supervisors, we get local hires done and done better. san franciscans need that job. when we say to you that we're going to create jobs for our youth, 5,000 of them this summer, we ain't messing around. we go to cooperations -- corporations like wells fargo and bank of america. get your hands up. jamba juice. how many are you going to hire? we go to every corporation. and i want to thank eric mcdonald from united way. thank you, eric, for helping us

lead 5,000 jobs this summer. [applause] he's working really well with our school district, with our families and children of youth and families departments, with all the city departments to make this commitment true, 5,000 summer jobs. and we've got a website for those of you who are asking i don't know how to get those jobs. well, we're aiming those jobs this summer at disconnected youth. and for you not to be disconnected, the website, hiresfyouth.org. get on that youth. we are serious about this. we've got jobs from all of the great companies in san francisco joined with all of the departments that you see here. we've got a lot of departments here today as well. they're here to listen. and we can answer some of the questions that you have today, we'll do that.

but most importantly, we're here to listen to what you believe the priorities for district 11 and district 10 are, what you think the issues in san francisco have to be paid attention to. and we want to make sure that we get this input right. and so i want to thank all of the department representatives here. we've got departments that you know. departments that you seen day to day. we're all working together to make sure that we manage your city well, manage your taxes well. i know a lot of people, d-10 and d-11 pay a lot of taxes. you want to make sure we're doing the right thing to them. we'll be listening carefully. we'll be challenging you to tell us what those priorities are. having said that, i want to let you know the budget is not as difficult, perhaps, as challenging as it was a year ago, a year ago, we're staring

at a budget deficit of over $350 million. -- for this next year. now, it's looking like about $170 million deficit for the next fiscal year. the following year, it's about $312 million. and as you may have heard, we're no longer doing one-year budgetting. we're doing two-year budgetting. we want to put in a lot more fiscal disciplining so when you see that we make investments, hopefully, you'll see the programs come out. many times, there's been years where there are problems made but you never saw the programs. you never saw the brick and mor tor come up. we need to do better fiscal planning and that's been where i've been emphasizing and doing a better planning job with the board of supervisors and with all the different agencies. you know me. we introduced a 10-year capital plan. put in a lot more discipline so when your property taxes are at work, whether it's rebuilding a general hospital or playgrounds, you can see when they're supposed to get done.

and then we promised not to raise your property taxes when we use the bond program to fund other things that you care about and you tell us that you care about. same thing with our budget. we have $175 million deficit. we are going to buy law, but also by our very commitment to you, balance that budget and when we do that, we will balance it with your interest in mind. but it is still a deficit. so please make sure you don't use the word surplus here. there's no surplus yet. that doesn't exist in my textbook of words yet. but i hope to get there with you in a matter of years. i hope to help create a new challenge one of these days where we do have revenues that exceed expenditures. but we're not there yet. we're not there because we still got some expenditures that are far exceeding our