in san francisco and that is our mayor. please welcome back to the stage john mcnedo. john. [applause] >> thank you. it is now my pleasure to introduce our mayor. edwin m. lee was sworn in on january 8, 2012 as the 43rd mayor of the city and county of san francisco. ed lee is the first asian- american mayor in san francisco history. [applause] mayor lee was elected on november 8, 2011 by the people of san francisco while he was serving as interim mayor. appointed unanimously as successor mayor by the board of supervisors on january 11, 2011. while serving as interim mayor,

mayor lee championed balancing the budget to keep san francisco safe, solvent, and successful. reforming city pensions, economic developments, a job creation, and public safety as his top priorities. mayor lee has worked hard to keep the economy and economic recovery on track, create jobs for residents, and everything that supports a thriving economic climate like parks, transit, housing, quality of life in the neighborhoods, and public safety. mayor lee's focused on job creation, taking responsibility for building san francisco's future. for helping each other and that government more efficient and accountable through innovation and technology. here to talk about the priorities, please welcome our

43rd mayor of the city of san francisco. ed lee. [applause] >> thank you very much for that kind introduction. good morning, everyone. i want to thank john and wade and steve and the chamber for the invitation to address you. i am the last speaker. after that panel, i am almost eager to go back right to work. there is a much to do and thank you very much, katie and george. i very much appreciate that dialogue. as you can tell, when you hear about all that, i could spend hours going through all the tech companies and what they're trying to do. ultimately, it is about job creation. i do get excited about that. it does keep me going, getting

up very early, sarah. regardless of how i get there. if i can create one job every day for someone here in sisk -- in san francisco, that will satisfy me greatly. there are hundreds and thousands of jobs at stake. i will continue making this might mantra because i think it is the right thing to do for our great city. i might also acknowledged the members of the board of supervisors here today. they have been announced earlier. we all work as a team. it has never been about the mayor him or herself. if i have learned anything i have learned that working in concert with the board, making sure we have clear tones of communication and making sure we speak more and more in the language that is important for the city. language and policies and ideas that create investor confidence in the city. that is what i have been talking

about more and more. we have got to have a city that is investment-confident. one that does not have a doubt because if your investment is your family, it is a small business, it is someone joining another one's business, we have to have that level of confidence to see things through for you. your investment is one that is positively welcome, it taken care of, and prosperous. that is how we get to the theme of today's breakfast of prosperity and sharing of that prosperity. before began, i want to take a moment to thank my good friend. john has been at the helm of the chamber for the last year. he has been an important aspect of the work i have done over the years, as you know. i started at the human rights commission and i went to the purchasing which was the finest job i ever had. who could not have fun buying a

billion dollars worth of supplies every year? the former mayor willie brown gave me a good job of director of public works, picking up everyone's trash, engaging in conversations with everyone about what was wrong with our streets and making them right. it was in that toughest job i ever had that i found probably lifelong friends, people who care enough about the city that picking up somebody else's trash is nothing when you can work together and drew about how better the city can become. i want to recognize john because he is one of those few people who i can properly engage in the trash talk and still talk about the city in a positive way. thank you, john, for your wonderful service. [applause] when i came a year ago, san

francisco. the unemployment rate was 9.5%. we heard a presentation about how we made that change. at the time we faced the $380 million budget deficit and we were struggling. how to meet the increasing cost of our pension and health care obligations. you remember that discussion about our pension? have we come along way. it is still mentioned -- still prevalent. a year later our city, board of supervisors, the mayor, elected officials have come together with the help of great city department leaders that are also here today, doing everything we can to make sure that we tackle the pension issues and make sure that our budget is balanced. more importantly, we put people back to work.

that is the most important thing all this have joined together in doing. the last 12 months, guess what we have done? we created jobs for an additional 17,300 san franciscans, bringing our unemployment rate down from 9.5 to 7.6%, that is just in one year. thank you for your help on that. [applause] two weeks ago, in our city comptroller's report, we got another nice little nudge of good information. more positive news about our economy. our revenues became $129 million greater than projected in the first six months of the fiscal year. $129 million. [applause] that is wonderful data for san franciscans because guess what? for quite some years now, it has been deficit, deficit, deficit,

no increase, revenues going down, all the bad news that have been shared year after year with our department heads and all of you know how wonderfully- negative the discussion has been and now we see some positive light. i stand before you a year in office to say that san francisco -- economic recovery is real and underway and the economic policies and the strategies we pursued are working and they're working well. our city could not do this without the partnerships of many of you who are here today. san francisco is back on track we must stay the course. what i mean is even though our revenues have surged from the economic growth that our tech companies have provided and

traditional companies who have been here for so many years, let me do this. i know that i have been known as the tech mayor and i want to share that with the board and officials but i also want to say one of the reasons i come here so enthusiastically to the chamber is to have always been here for the city. your members have been with the city struggling with us, we come to you to help us. you helped us tremendously on a number of things last year and i want to say thank you to all the traditional members of the chamber as well. whether it is wells fargo, pg&e, or ecology, and the worst numbers of sponsors who have been here today and continue to come here. you have been part of the life blood as we walk them -- welcome in the biotechnology and green tech. the people of this city and

every neighborhood and who have experienced all the great, positive dialogue but has also been concerned about-dialogue -- about negative dialogue. many of you joined with me weeks ago when we celebrated 50 years of tony bennett and his wonderful song. we have much more to celebrate in the coming years and i hope you join in the chamber in making sure we share this prosperity. having said that, and knowing that our economy is improving, i want to make sure you know i will be at the helm with the board making sure we are not attempted to return to spending habits and to short-term traces that got us into trouble in the first place. we have to your budgets now. we have a renewed sense of obligation responsibility. we talk about things like our infrastructure.

things that allow our tech companies to be successful or what sarah talked about. we have to solve some serious transportation issues in the city and that is why we spend an hour saturday morning at a technology hackathon or un- hackathon. we are trying to solve problems with our taxis and make sure someone can attach -- catch a taxi where they need it. another aspect of our issues that we will continue to try to get solutions to. more than ever we have to double down on reform. on innovation and investment in our future. that is why we will continue to announce we are the innovation center for the whole world right here in san francisco. soon enough, there will be signage that reflects that in the city because we have to break with some traditional things that prevented us from announcing that in the most broadway.

letting everybody know that this is the center for great things to happen. we want to keep that innovation strong and keep the dialogue like the panel has been talking about, how to keep the sales force growing, how to keep twitter here. as this technology helps us to find solutions we have not thought about. once and for all, we must treat government and our responsibilities as mayors, as families do. find savings where we can, reduce unnecessary spending, and most importantly, and vast. invest in our people and invest in our infrastructure. as said earlier, i'm going to continue talking about jobs. i do not care if i am called the guy who has one thing. i come here every single day to the office asking whether or not i have created another job for

somebody else and when you learn about the statistics that ron and others are sharing with us, if it is jobs for san franciscans, that is worth getting up early, that is worth sacrificing late-night meetings, that is worth giving up weekends, except my golf. we are attracting tech. we're attracting biotech and clean tech. we are supporting manufacturing. we're going to be making more things. i heard this morning fashion is coming back. technology, of fashion will be an exciting area we unleash soon but i will tell you this. there are areas we do not pay attention to but that are not only stable, increasing, and wonderful when you hear this. did you know and i got this from a recent report from our health

care, our hospital council recently. did you know that our health care industry in san francisco generates economic impact of over $15 billion a year? our own health care industry. 99,000 jobs. that is a huge contribution to our economy. i do not want them to be silent anymore. our health care needs are important and we will get that cpmc job done very shortly, weighed -- wade. we need to continue to reform our payroll tax. we have got to incentivize business to create those jobs. while they are doing that, the conversation the board has been very good -- at the board has been very good. we have got to get that

employment training center up and invite those that are living in the tenderloin, the mid market or south of market, the traditional groups who have struggled and they identify programs in the past, they called them digital divide. there were not caught up to the level of education and technology they wanted to be. we have to help them and help our returning veterans get those skills sets. people who are in their mid- career as get the skills that -- skill sets. that is why training is so important. we also need training in -- partnerships and more private and public investments in our schools. i will talk a lot about that with the new president of our school board, norman yee and hydra mendoza. i will talk about how our schools can participate and make

sure there are generations of kids who do not lose hope in the city. do not look elsewhere when the best jobs are created right here. all they have to do is do their part and when they do their part and complete that education, the education they need will be there for them. i want to say one thing about our infrastructure. something i want you to remember as you leave today's room. it is -- want to mention something about hetch hetchy. there is dialogue out there that some people are suggesting that we can tear down our hetch hetchy dam and still survive as a city. i want to let you know that as insane as that is, it is in fact, insane. [applause] there are going to be some leaders that approach you,

suggests that tearing down the hetch hetchy is a good idea. they will grow pew into some discussion about water sustainability issues. but know this. not only do we have the cleanest water, not only have we spent serious amounts of money upgrading seismically the whole system to deliver that clean water, but it is also one of the strongest clean hydroelectric power sources infrastructure that any city across the country has ever had. i want to make sure you know that as this public dialogue begins and do not get misled on those discussions by people who will connect up something that we do want to have which is a good sustainability of water but not by tearing down our dam. finally, i want to end with a discussion about america's cup.

yesterday we did make that announcement that pier 30 and 32 are no longer part of it. the public discussion and discourse around the investment we do need to rebuild the piers including the horrible conditions of 30 and 32 have gone steered away from the excitement and the focus we should be on, hosting the 34 american''s cup, where the greatest sports events we will see. the only international sporting event in 2013 in any part of the u.s. and is coming right here to san francisco. that excites me to no end. it will be the blend of technology with boating and viewed by new technologies to introduce us to generations of new sailors and using our waterfront and our base in the right way. i spoke to larry ellison derica

a for a good few moments and we reiterated our excitement about the race. it is on. it is on for this year. for the smaller boats and next year for the larger boats. we expect hundreds of thousands of people to come to our city and we have figured out with great plants that have been worked on by the event authority and our host committees, all the different plans we have to use properly our open space, our transportation lines and make sure we create the venues that are positive. i want you to know this. the change in a little bit of the investment and the public discourse just is a very i think he reminder of how sensitive we have to be to this whole dialogue about investment. that can go different ways. the thing that i need to make sure we do at the board of supervisors and the mayor's office and all of our

departments, keep a strong foundation for economic growth in the city. keep talking to audiences like you and others who can help us. keep talking to our neighborhoods, making sure that dialogue understands that job creation is about skill and direction. this thing today, prosperity together, sharing it is consistent with what i have been saying throughout the city. we are the city for the 100%. we will work together. i will make sure the city. discourse is positive. we will not forget the foundation that provides us with economic growth. let's move forward and let's move forward together. thank you very much. [applause] >> i guess that makes it clear why mayor lee's approval rating

is soaring. thank you, mayor, for your leadership and vision and since we're running over, i will do just a very quick wrap up. prosperity together as possible. but it is only possible when business, labour, and government work together. that was our theme today. that is the goal for the year ahead. we could not bring new programs like this without our great sponsors. let's get around the's to jpmorgan chase and all our top sponsors -- let's give a round of applause to jpmorgan chase and all our top sponsors. thank you to our board members. thank you for support. it is going to be a great year ahead and think you for coming out this morning. -- thank you for coming out this morning. [applause]

>> we did not expect the house to be so packed tonight, so i apologize for lack of seating in the back. i am inspector john wrote a and chief inspector secretary. -- john monroe. i would like to welcome you to the 2012 middle of valor ceremony. can we all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. into the republic, for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you. you can have a seat.

i would like to acknowledge and introduce some of the people we have on the stage with us. first, at the police commission president, thomas mazzucco, commissioner kingsley, paul henderson from the mayor's office as representing because the mayor was unable to come tonight. also, we have commissioner loftus. also, the command at steep. d staff. deputy chief james that lake, lyn tomioka, leanora militello,

and next to lyn commander biel, corrier from field comman. i would like to introduce chief grigory p. suhr. >> good evening, and hopefully lyn still wants to be your boss tomorrow. i know it is quiet and there are a lot of kids in the room. that is terrific. the medal of valor ceremony is the best event that we get to attend. it is when there is a crisis,

emergency, extreme danger and takes everything you have to go forward, and everyone else that would want to run away, the people you will hear about tonight not only went forward, but they stood their ground, they saved lives, they promoted public safety, and i have been attending the medal of valor ceremonies as a captain since 1996, and i can honestly tell you the stories you will hear tonight in the roster we are born to go down tonight is the most impressive night of the medal of valor ceremonies i have had in however many years. it really is something. tonight is for a officers to recognize them, but also for their families and officers that are not necessarily going to be recognized, because it shows what they're capable of. san francisco's finest, if you

will. they just do it, they do all the time. we get used to it, because they do it without a segment thought. than they are embarrassed for the recognition. if you are parent, child, a loved one, whatever, it is so important that this is also for you for lending us if these fine men and women for their time when they are serving the city as san francisco police officers, because they will -- when you hear these stories, it will take your breath away. nobody would blame them for not if they had, and they did not. you have heard enough of me, so let's get to storytelling and recognition. thank you all for coming. [applause] >> thank you, chief.

commissioner president mazzucco: . president mazzucco: thank you. after watching your vision, i am a little nervous. i drove with him today. on behalf of the san francisco police commission, i want to thank you all for coming here this evening. it is an honor to stand before the police officers this evening, and i am humbled by it. when you hear their acts of valor, a chill will run up your spine. these men and women who have joined the police department to serve the city took an extra step, and i was actually the commissioner president during the voting for each and every one of these metals. a little bit about the process. in this process the only people allowed in the room are civil service capt. and above. id was allowed in the room, and it was an honor to be there.

inspector monroe was preside pr. interestingly, after every presentation they turn to the officers and say, do you have anything to add? not one officer added anything other than we were doing our job. we were doing what we were trained to do. i am thinking about how many people watch these action tv shows, things that are not real, and i am listening to what really happened. people watch reality shows where people deucedly games to impress people. i am sitting here saying this is impressive. these men and women risk their lives for the city. it goes through the process in the command staff boats. they use little marbles. there are black marbles and gold marbles. they bowed. they get two-thirds of the boat from the command staff.

these members of the command staff, many are very decorated. they make this decision not likely. then they bring the officer's back and they get a standing ovation from command staff. that is one of the most impressive things you will ever see. i want to think the family members. -- thank the family of members. you made them who they are. men and women who are willing to risk their lives to protect the public. there is something special about them, and you deserve the credit for it. tonight i would not be surprised if many of you do not know the true story until tonight. there will be a chill running up your spine when you hear about what they do. you will be very proud of them. we're so proud of what they do. i want to send the family members for making them who they are in sharing twi