actually never paid for before, and we're getting a lot of requests to pay for things that the city has never paid for before. they have been state and federal responsibilities in the past. we will have more information as the state completes their budget and estimates there may revise. we do have a fairly large stake reserve this year. it becomes part of the trade-off conversation that the board of supervisors and the mayor's office and the community need to have. but how much we can prioritize this. you know, we definitely need the help of you and the rest of the community to go back to the state and the federal government and make your voice is heard to ensure that that funding stays as high as possible for our city and we do not wind up in a situation where we are making trade-offs between hiv services and streets and parks. we rely on your help to solve that. we do our best, and we will be -- you know, we are cognizant of

this and constantly monitoring what is going on and deciding how we can deal with those. [applause] >> hello. merrill loma park improvements club. i have a question for the administrator. you mentioned in your budget presentation that our city expenses are increasing a lot faster than our revenues, more significantly. could you identify the main cause of the main expense lines going up and that is responsible for that situation? thank you. >> again, i think there are many pressures that the city is facing. about half of our expenditures, just so you know, are spent on salaries and benefits for our city employees. and we're seeing significant

pressures in that area. our employees have not taken raisins -- races for the most part in several years now and have actually taken pay cuts. however, as all of your very well aware, health benefit costs for our employees continue to rise at a quick pace, and our pension costs continue to rise. again, because of the downturn in the economy that the city is now having to deal with. our pension fund is still sort of reeling from the impacts of the downturn and the hit to our benefit trust from a few years ago. so benefits are one of the significant pressures on our budget right now. other pressures are just from the fact that over the last few years, we have sort of, because it has been such a bad situation and we have had to make cuts and not fund things that the level that we want to, we are seeing pressures from normal things that we have not

been able to find that the right level in years past. ford's of all, capital. you know, streets, our buildings. so now we are getting to a point where we need to be cognizant of the fact that we have not been funding those things at the right level to maintain them in the last few years. if we do not pay attention to that, it will become a problem in the long term. that is sort of the biggest pressure. saturday -- salaries and benefits is one of the biggest ones. but others is just trying to make sure we get back to the level of services and infrastructure that we were at nine years passed before, before the downturn hit us. >> thank you. any other questions? >> good morning, mayor lee, supervisors. thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of job-seekers in san francisco. i am the center manager for the

chinatown one-stop career links center, operated by self help for the charity. we provide many resources for job-seekers looking for work, as well as a free assistance to small businesses looking for workers. in district four and district 7, we were wondering of supervisors and the mayor to look for resources for job-seekers who were looking for work, because there is a lack of job training programs, as well as for english learners to learn english. because we are seeing job- seekers and seniors coming into the chinatown area and using services there, and there is a need. it would be great if you could consider that. thank you for the opportunity. [applause] >> any other questions? george. i was surprised he waited this long, george.

[laughter] >> thank you. george, district 7. a question for mayor lee. i wanted to ask him if he felt extending parking meter hours, increasing parking meters, adding parking on sundays, increasing traffic tickets is going to help create jobs in san francisco for small businesses? >> wow, you really waited a long time for that one, huh, george? i have had several discussions with the mta. some years ago, and a little bit on you, the voters made sure that we did not mess around with mta's budget. at least take things out and put things in in the way it did in years past. the board has to vote up or down on the whole budget. having said that, we did talk a little bed about, you know, our

general resistance to putting meters on sundays. it is $2.5 million revenue source for them. they believe that times have changed where there are a lot of tourists and visitors that come in too many of our sections throughout the city on its sundays to enjoy, of course, all the things that we have. so we believe that revenue they need to have to balance their deficits. we have like a $26 million deficit when we started going through all of these things. i will say that we also talked about this parking increase of the penalties. one of the things that they told me that a good portion, three- quarters of that increase the they are proposing in their budget on the parking tickets as exactly to do with the state grabbing more of their revenue

from those tickets but not of them wanting more revenue as our mta. they obviously needed, but there were not going to put it on the backs of the parking tickets, so they have to recover that. otherwise they will be in a bigger deficit. so that is the answer on that one. the debate that i have had around the sun. meters probably have to accept some kind of a compromise and there. they did not want to -- they did start out with the regular 9:00 to 6:00, and we said, gosh, that is going to be too hard. we at least get them to compromise to 12 noon. i know that is not satisfactory for those who believe you should not touch parking meters or not have parking meters all sunday, but they did make at least that

compromise, and that is what they're voting on on tuesday. >> [inaudible] >> ok. so the question is -- how does that impact jobs? you know, i probably will have to say it does not necessarily immediately help jobs. it is an effort to make sure that the muni budget is balanced in all of the jurisdictions that they have. it does keep jobs for some pto's on sundays, i have to say. but apart from that -- you know, 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]

>> congratulations, chief. as you may well know, we were named the top in 2005.

i thought that was wonderful. >> that is the top irish- americans in the country, not just san francisco. >> they knew they could fire chief when they saw one. we thought we would do a nice irish song for you. we will not take long, we promise. ♪ , over the hills my money-eyed irish lad come over the hills to your darling you choose the road love and i will make the balancvows and i will be your true love forever red is the rose that beyond the

garden grows there is a lily of the valley here is the water that boasts from the spring but my love is [inaudible] ♪

♪ down by killarney the moon and the stars they were shining the moon shone she was sure she would be my love forever red is the rose that beyond the garden grows there is delayed of our valley there is the water that flows

from but my love is better than any ♪ [applause] >> over in the corner, and john's father. we are so thrilled that this long overdue that we hang your picture on our wall. you have supported our 1906 survivor dinners and luncheons over the years. i do not know what i always see you at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, but you are always there for us. 1983, there was a fire at jon's grille. your guys came in. in those days, i think it was guys. they got the bar out, they got

chief bill murray's picture off the wall. but mayor christopher's picture off the wall. we have been rebuilding ever since. but we are a little short on beautiful ladies. we are happy to have you on the wall. [applause] do you have something that you would like to -- >> lee and john, thank you for inviting me here. for all of you, fire commissioners, city family. i guess when joanne came,

everyone said, first female. she has shown that she has joined the great chiefs of our city. it did not take long at all for her leadership to come out, for her personality, a french ship, but also for that wonderful leadership. our great city sometimes, a lot of people focus on who is in room 200, but there are very special moments for many periods of the city where the city is defined by its great chiefs. today we celebrate one of those already. who is this movie star? that is a great thing. i want to thank john's grill for putting up, under their 40- year tradition, someone that we believe very much in our city, who has really led a great leadership and our fire department and has been a great leader on many fronts, helping

us so much on anything -- everything from the toy drives to community participation, to everything that reflects a modern fire department and all the men and women that served the department. really give them the pride for working for the great city. chief, congratulations for making it on the wall. lee, john, to have this tradition, welcome our great chief. [applause] >> since you are the last one that has been hung on the wall previously, you two work so closely together, could you say something? >> i am no where near as good looking as joanne. kind of down the line there. joanne and i have been friends forever. i played football with city college with her brother dan who was the coach.

talk about a great person to be able to follow. she has been so supportive. i have learned so much in my short time on how to be a good chief. she is modest, gracious, everything that you would want to have. i just hope someday people will think of me the way that i think of her. [applause] we have a surprise hear from senator mark leno, who i believe has not made an endorsement yet. would you like to make an announcement? >> speaking of better looking -- >> it is my pleasure to join mr. mayer and our chief on this auspicious occasion. i think all the kind and generous words have been said. if you look on this wall, joanne, you can see the threshold to get on this wall is

rather high. with some exceptions, we have got police chiefs, fire chiefs, mayors. i have been discriminated against because i am gay, jewish, but never for being estate center. i asked, how and why going to get on the wall? -- when am i going to get on the wall? he said soon. it is my pleasure to join in with the celebration and take a moment to recognize your unique accomplishments. chief hayes-white is the only chief to have served in all 42 different stations. i think that says something for your hands-on leadership style, that you have not only earned your stripes, made your way up the ladder in the department, but also have brought to us a

motherly touch that is uncommon. congratulations to you on this wonderful distinction. i would also like to thank john and john crow for supporting this tradition, which i aspired to at some point. >> thank you. [applause] >> you will be well-hung. you are jewish? all of you who would like to, we hope that you stay and eat and sleep and -- share wonderful stories. thank you, everybody. >> thank you to lead to help steer values -- continue to buy

a the city history. certainly, to mr. john and gus constant, owners of john's grill for four years. it is an honor to be here. to have my picture up there. . a lot of water under p.m. very under the bridge. the firefighter was behing me, and taking good of us.

i feel good about it. thank you. i think the world of chief s uhr. thank you to my co-workers. is all about teamwork. thank you very much. i consider you part of my team. thank you so much. it is a wonderful surprise.

a wonderful tribute. thank you for those songs. my younger brother dan is here. my younger sister is here. and my mom, who is 86 years old. 86 is just a number. i am sorry. of all the things i've participated in, this is the most exciting moments. is part of the history, and my mom has dined here many times and has seen the pictures on the wall. thank you, mom