good morning. welcome to the regular meeting of the budget and finance committee, carmen chu, joined by supervisor kim. supervisor avalos is unfortunately tied up at a bay quality air quality management meeting. i would like to entertain a motion to excuse him. our clerk is mr. victor young. at sfgtv we have mark bunch and jesse larson. announcements? >> yes. please silence cell phones and devices. complete speaker cards and documents to be included as part of the file to be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will be on the october 23rd, 2012 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you very much. just going back to the earlier comments, supervisor avalos unfortunately is tied up at

the bay air quality district and will not be able to attend in time. do we have a motion to excuse? >> motion to excuse. >> we have the motion. without objection. call item one, please. >> one, resolution authorizing recreation and parks to accept and expand habitation grant in amount of 163,587 from california department of parks and recreation for glen canyon loopside project. >> thank you, we have lisa wayne. >> tony moran, the grant manager. i will present the grant. i'm here to present to accept and expend habitat conservation fund grant for glen canyon creek side loop trail. also to authorize director of real estate to file a memorandum of unrecorded grant agreement on the trail portion of the park. the glen canyon creekside trail is part of the 2008

clean and safe neighborhood park bond trail program. the intention of the 2008 park bond is to leverage bond funds to secure additional grant funding. this grant is one of three that will provide additional funding to trail projects identified in the 2008 bond. in 2010 and 2011 the recreation park department and trust republic land held a series of meetings regarding improvements to glen canyon park. this project is the as a result of that public process. the content plan for the glen canyon trail system, which includes creek side trail loop was approved by recreation park commission in august of 2011. we expect the bid and award for this to happen later this year, or in early 2013. and construction to be scheduled in spring of 2013. the state park grant funds

provided through this program will be used mostly to the existing creek side trail. the state park grants require grantee to provide public access for period of 20 years for property that benefits from the grant program. the legislation authorizes director to record memorandum of unrecorded grant agreement for this purpose. in closing i'm requesting committee recommend to the board of supervisors to accept and expend the grant and to authorize the director of real estate to record the memorandum of unrecorded grant agreement. i'm available to answer any questions. >> thank you very much for the presentation. for this item i believe we do not have a budget analyst report. like to open this up for a public comment. are there any members of the public who wish to speak on item number one? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> motion to move forward

with recommendation. >> we have a motion to move forward without recommendation, without objection. mr. rose? >> i believe on today's agenda we do not have any items that have a budget analyst report, that's correct? >> that's correct. none of the items meet the definition of fiscal impact -- the threshold of fiscal impact. that is why we have no report here, supervisor kim. >> thank you. given there are no budget analyst report i think the committee is fine if you were to return and not waste your time here. >> fantastic. thank you very much, supervisors. >> thank you very much. item 2, please. >> item number 2, resolution authorizing office of economic and workforce development to accept and expend grant in amount of 105,000 from us department of labor, pass through california employment development for disability employment initiative. >> thank you, we have a

director from oewd for this item. >> hello, john halpin. so this is a flexible funding. we received grant from california employment department for disability employment initiative last year. there was supplemental funding in amount of $100,000 added to the grant. flexible funding can help us provide services to our clients with disabilities served at the one-stop centers, so this grant is primarily going to be a subcontract to community vocational enterprises, as well as some travel expenses for oewd staff for mandatory national meetings for disability employment initiative. >> this is a piece adding to the existing grant? >> yes.

>> in addition, no matching fund required? >> no. >> okay, thank you. why don't we go to the members of the public who would like to speak on this item. are there any members of public who wish to speak in seeing none, this is closed. send this forward. >> with recommendation. >> we will do that without objection, thank you. item 3. >> resolution authorizing office of district attorney to accept and expend grant in amount of 399,442 through the california department of justice for a program entitled forecast closure crisis recovery program for period of july 1st, 2012 through june 30th, 2013. >> thank you. for this item we have conrad delrusario. >> thank you. my name is conrad delrusario from economic crimes office in san francisco, currently overseeing many units. a particular one is a real

estate fraud, as well as mortgage grant. we previously had mortgage and investment grant funded by the federal government that had just recently expired. this is grant presented by the attorney general's office as a result of a settlement with countrywide loan or countrywide bank several months ago, if not a year ago. the grant is specifically targeted toward assisting our office in developing and maintaining specialized prosecutors and investigators -- sorry, singular. specialized prosecutor and investigator in area of dealing with mortgage fraud and associated type crimes. san francisco is a city that is very rich area for purposes of these type of frauds and scams to occur. notably the landscape encompasses people that own a lot of property or people that own property that's

real estate value have appreciated. there's a lot of equity and people that purchase during the housing market so there are people at risk of foreclosure. this makes a rich environment for people to commit fraud and scams. they are preying on people that have property or equity in the property so they can take the money in the property. they have people desperate in need of relief from mortgages. there's a lot of activity in san francisco. what this enables our office to do is create a specialized unit. to continue to create a specialized unit and build on expertise our office has previously developed. many of you may have heard recently we have had two very noteworthy cases, one was a case involving a 2.2 million fraud scheme where several suspects had filed false deeds in attempt to

steal property that was already paid for, no mortgages. and later attempted to go get money loans off the property they had stole on paper. successfully prosecuted and individuals facing upwards of 20 and -- 15 years and up. we've had another scam related to loan modification scams, targeting the hispanic community. where an individual had been promising foreclosure relief and had been taking people's money under the impression people thought their loans were paid off and being modified. in reality not only were they not being modified but falling further into arrears. our office has been able to tackle these more complex cases and having a dedicated prosecutor and dedicated investigator as well as support services or resources the grant permits us to have will permit our office to maintain that

program. i'm available for questions from the board if you have anything. >> thank you. just a quick clarification it does pay for an attorney, investigator and parallel to do the work that you detailed earlier. these are not positions but existing folks? >> yes, that's correct. >> this is not new but recurring grant? >> this is a new grant. a grant that was solicited by the attorney general's office last year. it is $399,000. i guess one lump-sum kind of grant. >> does department have staffing hired or room in aso to do this without hiring an additional three people? >> can i consult with my --

>> yes. >> my understanding is it does allow for these positions. >> excuse me? >> my understanding is it currently -- aso does currently allow for the positions. >> i see. you have three with position authority that are not currently filled where you are using those positions to -- using this grant to pay for positions to be filled. >> correct. thank you. >> why don't we open this for public comment. are there members of the public who wish to speak on item three? seeing none, closed. nomination? >> motion to send forward with recommendation. >> we have a motion to send forward with recommendation. without objection, thank you. >> four is resolution authorizing office of district attorney to accept and expend 714,138 for a

project entitled joint powers agreement for july 1, 2012 through june 30, 2015. >> we have maria bee from the district attorney's office also. >> yes, good morning. this is a recurring grant. we have had this grant for 13, 14 years. it supports seven staff members. the work they do is review victim compensation applications to determine if they are eligible for benefits. this requires them to look at each application and analyze them according to state guidelines. they will review each bill for payment and determine if it is crime-related and submitted on the proper forms. eligible crimes are of violence, not property or theft crimes. benefits include medical, dental, relocation, crime scene cleanup, funeral, burial, mental health counseling. the most recent stats we

have are from fiscal year 2010-2011. during that time frame we received 1,137 applications from san francisco crime victims and paid out $2,337,570 to san francisco crime victims. are there any questions? >> not at this time. why don't we open this for public comments. are there members of the public who wish to speak on this item number four? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> move forward with recommendation. >> we have a motion, we will do that without objection. item five. >> item five, resolution authorizing office of district attorney to retroactively accept and expend 85,658 allocated from california victim compensation government claims board for a project entitled criminal restitution come pact for the period of july 1st, 2012 through june 30th, 2013. >> thank you.

for this item we also have maria. >> for this grant it supports one staff person who obtains reimbursement for the state. if a crime victim comes in, fills out an application, is eligible and receives 2,000 for relocation, under the second grant the crc that restitution specialist will seek that $2,000 back from the defendant payable to the state by way of cord ordered restitution order. the money reimbursement goes into the restitution fund, which is a state fund which supports the joint powers agreements and all expenses for crime victims. the most recent statistics i have on this grant are from october 2011 through june 2012. nine-month period. during that period the resolution specialist obtained 137,785 in court orders for defendants to reimburse the state. >> thank you very much.

why don't we open this for public comment. are there members of the public who wish to speak on item number five? seeing none, public comment is closed. we've got a motion to send the item forward with recommendation, we will do that without objection. thank you. item 6, please. >> resolution supporting fiscal year 2013-2014 community development block grant, emergency solution grant and housing opportunities for persons with a.i.d.s., consolidated planning goals. >> thank you. for this item, brian chu. >> good morning, supervisors. as we do every year, we come to alert you as to the goals and principles we are going to insert into our annual request for proposals for the community development block grant, emergency solutions grant. now our housing opportunities for persons with a.i.d.s. programs. with that dissolution of redevelopment agency, the mayor's off -- office of

housing the mayor's office has taken this on, as will be in the rfp. as last year our rfp will continue to follow five goals as in the resolution that were approved in the five-year consolidated plan, so we have no changes in those overall principles. our public service portfolio will not be put out for bid this time, as we are in the middle of a multiyear cycle. workforce development cdbg dollar also be put out for bid, as well as some of the capitol and housing development dollars. we anticipate releasing our request for proposals in november and december, getting back our proposals in december and january. and announcing preliminary

recommendations, hopefully in march. in terms of the amount of money coming down from the feds, it is a little unclear. we have looked at what the president, senate and house have proposed. at worse it looks like will it be flat from what it was in 2012-2013. it is unclear how the effect of this possible sequestration may affect a portion if they don't come to some agreement. we had hoped we might be seeing a slight increase, depending on what happens in the november elections. it is up for grabs. it is different from last year. as you recall the house proposed a very significant reduction. this time both the senate and house if anything proposed a slight increase over what the president proposed. so regardless of the election results, i think that we will probably see

flat funding going forward. i take that as good news in this environment. so that's the end of my report and open for questions. >> you will be back in mar top-notch share with us roughly the allocations. >> yes, i will. >> are there members of the public who wish to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> motion to move forward with recommendation. >> we have a motion to send this forward with recommendation. without objection. >> thank you. >> any other items before us? >> that completes the agenda. >> thank you, we are adjourned.

>> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the

financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen

decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built

that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy

the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew

up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives.

things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling

these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to

be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and

this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the future project to address the north side. [music]