education. so, that's a gratitude i really want to share with you, with all -- with the mayor, with supervisors, and all the departments. thank you for the support to our children and families in this community. [speaker not understood], i would like to share some comments, how do we do better here. i would like to see the community that we can continue invest in early childhood education as a foundation of everything. and i would really love to see allow cbos to be able to make long-term planning. every year we almost have to learn year after year after year, we want long-term, three, five, seven years training become possible. and also we would love to see

the consolidation of resources he. we have, many, many resources. if we can consolidate all the resources, that would be much easier for the cbo's. thank you again for supporting early childhood education. thank you. >> thank you, mr. yang. (applause) >> we also have eddie chang from the community youth center, formerly chinatown youth center. >> thank you, supervisor mar. first of all, i want to thank all the department heads and the mayor and the supervisors and all the residents who are coming out for this town hall. this is very important for us to have a voice, have input. we don't, and we do a disservice for the people that we service. so, for me i'm a project manager. my name is eddie chang, cyc community center. it is important to focus on city of san francisco immigrant youth for the last 33 years in the city of san francisco. our main office is in tenderloin, but we also have

the branch offices in the richmond district and we also have a branch office in the bayview district. so, we are very grateful for that. so, thea of ~ three of the things i want to talk about we want to ask the city to help support us is we would have a city wide multi-cultural youth leadership model that we are not only engaging to people in our neighborhood, but also engaging from people all across the city, especially young people who happen to deal with a lot of different challenges, especially in the more challenging districts. the bayview, western addition, the mission, excelsior, potrero hill area, that they deal in a lot of stress and trauma every day. so, we have a need for that. the multi-cultural youth leadership one. the other one is more work force opportunity, employment opportunity for high-risk api youth. so far the city, we were able to be very fortunate to have the funding for a program

called a generating leadership opportunity work force. however, at this round of funding we don't get to fund that. it directly shows from the department youth and families, there's no need employment programs for the api population in the city of san francisco. especially target high-risk youth, many youth from the ages 14 to 21 involved in the criminal justice system who have a lot of charges. and the other one i want to encourage some support in is that we need to have a courageous conversation, you know. starting with ourselves about racial dialogues in the community. >> thank you, mr. chang. now we have linda merly to speak on student services. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is april.

i'm presenting the seniors in the community, especially from [speaker not understood] for the elderly in district 1 and 4. (applause) >> in the past 46 years, south park has been providing a comprehensive range of services designed to empower seniors to maintain their independence, dignity and self-worth. the nutrition and senior center department assists low-income seniors who are culturally and socially isolated by providing activities and nutritious meals. as supervisor mar just mentioned, the senior's populations in both districts have been growing. the total number of seniors in district 1 and 4 is 31,98 4, age 60 and older. of which over 58% are asian or pacific islanders and 39% speak none or limited english. and over 30% of the seniors age 60 and older lives alone. the senior center located in district 1 and senior center

located in district 4 serves over 200 seniors a day. in the past year with the budget cuts and nutrition program we have to limit our service. we had to turn away seniors who simply want to find a place to stay out of hunger, a place to hang out with friends, a place where they call their second home. besides our nutrition program, betop is another program for our seniors. three hours on the day of the press release, all of our places are filled and we have to generate a very long waiting list. we need the funding to provide the tech support, system maintenance in order to keep our seniors connected to the world to get roots and to their distant loved ones. on behalf of our seniors i would like to thank you, mayor lee, supervisor mar, supervisor tang, and [speaker not understood] for the engagement over the past years and future support in self-help nutrition programs and betop our seniors

will not be isolated, hungry, and lost. (applause) >> thank you. next i know that self-help for the elderly was representing both district 1 and 4. next i would like to call up -- i'm sorry, i'm sorry, linda merly. >> thank you. mayor lee -- oh, good -- supervisor tang, supervisor mar, all the department heads and everybody here today, i think we're all pretty illustrious beingses for being here today. so, i'm here to speak on behalf of some of the seniors that i serve in district 1. ~ my name is linda merly, i am the director of the richmond senior center which is just down the street on geary at 26th. according to the 2010 census, 21% of the people in the richmond district are seniors.

that's individuals over 60. by 2020 we're looking at a senior population in the city of san francisco of 25%. that's all across the city of san francisco, 25% of us will be seniors, including me. at the richmond senior center, about 81% of the people we see each day identify themselves as at or below the poverty level. we ask for a $2 donation for lunch. it is a donation. it's not a requirement. i get phone calls every once in a while from people who ask me if i can help them pay their rent. i think sometimes that people think of the richmond district as asian, russian. at the richmond district senior center, we are people. we are people who speak mandarin, cantonese, tagalog, russian, french, vietnamese and

english. we are just people there, a lot of people together. we have some developmentally disabled seniors at the scenier center. one of them plays the conga in our drum circle each month. we get our funding through a community services contract with the city. a third of that contract goes to paying our rent each month, each year, i'm sorry. and that rent a year is $50,000 approximately. i was told that i could ask mayor lee when i was here, and i would ask you to talk to our landlord. maybe you can get a rent reduction for us. that would be very helpful. thank you. thank you. (applause) >> all right, thank you, linda. so, now i'd like to call up caroline from the jewish family and children services. anyone from jfcs here? okay, all right. so, i guess we'll move on to

public comment, then, or summer jobs, actually, here. >> good morning, everyone, mayor lee, supervisors, department heads. eric mcdonald chief operating officer for united way of the bay area. we are thrilled to be partnering again with mayor lee, city departments, and our private sector leaders to provide jobs and internships this summer. last summer mayor lee raised his hand, let the nation, i should say, raising his hand to say we in san francisco will make a commitment to investing in the lives of our young people in creating jobs and internships that, one, will hopefully inspire them to sofa focused on their educational pursuits and two have them see the vision and the opportunities that are in public sector and public sector jobs. last summer we celebrated over 5200 jobs and internships. 39% of which became permanent jobs. we have a longer term vision that is not simply a summer job program, but a year round program. and ultimately we want to see a pipeline that is connected to

our k-12 program, our crick will you have as well as our academies that leads thened to the city college connection of vocational training that leads to our four-year institutions so we have a growing pipeline of young people ready for the kinds of jobs in our economic growth and vitality that is happening in san francisco. and, so, again, if you have young people, have them come our way and match bridge at united way bay area.com. but more importantly, i want you hear today from one of of our 39% that went into a summer job and became a permanent job. so, please welcome tim shake. (applause) >> thank you, good morning. my name is k remarks ma shake and i'm 18 years old. i go to san francisco state university. ~ and last year i had the pleasure of working with united way and match bridge and i participated in a real estate management program [speaker not understood]. with that i was a six-week internship learning about accounting, learning about the different styles of real estate management, property management, you know, also insurance.

a lot of different stuff, budgeting from homeowners association. i had the pleasure of working with that. after the six weeks my supervisor asked me if i wanted to be permanent. and i immediately said yes because, why? it was a chance for me -- because my major is accounting. it's a perfect way for me to link my job and my experience to my education. and i just want to talk today about the importance of youth jobs. because if after college, if you don't have any experience in our major how are we supposed to get our job? match way united way, thank you for allowing me to have a job that will be useful to me in the future. so, i just wanted to talk about the importance of youth jobs and also -- also i wanted to say that the youth is our future. so, we need to focus on our youth so that when the future, when the older people leave, we're going to take over. so, we need to have those series of jobs that will help us in the future. thank you, mr. shake. have a good day.

(applause) ~ thank you, my name is tama shake, have a good day. (applause) >> thank you. we have about 45 minutes for comments and questions from the public. and we've taken a number of cards. we're going to call people up for one minute comments in groups of five. so, supervisor tang and i will be calling people up here. let me start by calling the first five. we have man lee. kay lee erickson. balton kukox. jen ruhau and kevin chin. and maria. it doesn't have to be in the order. if your name was called, please come forward. and try to keep leo chi up here for the time. hi, good morning. my name is kay lee erickson.

i work here at the richmond village. began at washington high school. my question and sort of comment is one about youth workers' rights and my question is to mayor ed lee, do you have a plan regarding undocumented youth and their access to jobs during this budget year? because one of the issues that we come across daily and annually is the access our youth have to jobs even if they're not documented and legal. so, thank you. >> thank you, kay lee. we're going to have comments towards the end, but people can point -- pose questions or make comments, but thank you. next speaker. hi, my name is jen. i am a student here at george washington high school. i'm a junior. i also work for the beacon at

presidio middle school nyca. yeah, i just wanted to mention that, and that funding for us is a really important and it helps people like me and other students who are here today get jobs and be able to work. hello, my name is kevin chin and i am also a at george washington high ask and richmond village. i am in multiple programs in the beacon such as young workers leadership academy and the beacon leider ship team. in those programs i learnment, many activities ~ and i learn skills, skills that will obviously help me in the future, like learning to speak in public like i'm doing now. [laughter] which is really hard. learning to speak in public, making presentations, conducting counsel. and i would like to thank you for funding the beacon and to

continually support the beacon and the youth leadership -- and the youth employment. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you, kevin. next speaker. hi, good morning, eddie lynn. i was told one minute. i thought it was two minutes so i'm going to be really, really fast. so, listen carefully. hi, good morning. i am in charge of the city leadership program and self-help for the elderly. as you see today we have a [speaker not understood] seniors come from our agency. and the seniors, we have to go through a lot. the road to be a citizenship, chinese, citizenship is very long and difficult one, especially for those who [speaker not understood]. almost every of our senior [speaker not understood] help with completing the form

[speaker not understood] the form to become united states citizens. but we are very grateful for the funding provided to us through the office of [speaker not understood] immigration affairs past. thank you very much. so we can provide [speaker not understood], 2000 seniors each year. we anticipate an increase for the service if the [speaker not understood] pass this year. so, many more asians will be applying for legal status as well as citizenship. [speaker not understood]. and we help prepare seniors for their roi exams. we are very proud of our success of 95%. that's why many seniors come to

us for help from us. we need your help in providing more citizenship service to our community, especially for those who live in the richmond and sunset district. thank you tov. >> thank you. (applause) >> next speaker, marie. thank you, my name is marie jobling and i work with the community living campaign and our goal is to keep people from -- to age in place and to not be isolated as they get older. and today i'm here as part of the keep us connected campaign. as many of you know, over three years ago, the san francisco was awarded a b-top grant, a large federal grant that over the last few years has put over 275 accessible computers in 54 sites across the city. together the trainers of which we are a part have provided over 400,000 hours of student trainers -- of training to seniors, people with disabilities and their caregivers. but that grant will end in september. and without it, while the computers will stay, there will be nobody to maintain them or keep them connected to the

internet. there will be no one to train and recruit students or volunteers. there will be no more paid lab coordinators, computer trainers or 101 tutors to help people feel more comfortable in this digital age. with that that means there's fewer less part-time jobs that are available. many of these jobs have gone to people who are bilingual and can help people access the internet. we know that san francisco strives to be in the forefront of innovation and is slated to spend over $375 million on technological -- on information technology over the next five years. and a portion of that is really to give the public access to information like the open data project that you heard about. and it's there to help people apply for services, communicate with their elected officials, learn about their neighborhood, everything from crime statistics to how to report a pothole or graffiti. but if we spend more and more on technological innovation without funding the training to help people, we just have a

wider digital divide that we had before. so, we would ask you today if you're prepared to support continued funding for the now called s.f. connected program, and enjoin us in being a part of the campaign. some of you have computers in your pocket and you know how to do this. so, please like the community keep us connected campaign, and join efforts to get more folks involved in technology. thank you. (applause) >> we're going to call up the next five speakers here. amber carol. rariko ruby he espinosa. [speaker not understood]. and one more, vera hale. hi, everybody. it's really nice to see such a good turnout of community members and community collaboraters. my name is amber carol. i'm here representing the aging

and disability resource center as part of a community services of san francisco. i'm here on behalf of both district 1 and 4. we provide information, referral and a sis tabtion to seniors and adults with disabilities throughout san francisco. ~ assistance we have a very small staff of 7 people who go to different senior centers and community organizations and provide these services for the community. we serve nearly 10,000 individuals each year. what i'm asking for is continued support of this program. we provide translation support. we help people with housing applications and give them really any information that they need. we're really doing our best to reach out to communities that are not as reachable. we're bringing in a lot of volunteers right now to reach communities whose languages are not represented very well in organizations throughout the city. so, i ask for your continued support and thank you very

much. >> thank you. (applause) >> next speaker, please. i'm peter war field, director of library users association. we're an independent group working for better libraries. and i want to alert the supervisors and the public to what looks like further book dee emphasis at the library, which is most unfortunate in this very important research -- resource which is city wide. two years ago the san francisco public library administration said that its top priorities are books and open hours. those were the top two priorities. yet with its budget increasing more than $2 million, they proposed a book budget cut of $500,000 and there hadn't been an hour's increase in years.

this is an example of the library's ongoing de emphasis of books. library users association and our allies made a big noise about this ~ including at the board of supervisors, the library commission, and at the library citizens advisory committee which was then in existence as a creation of the board of supervisors where we got a unanimous vote to alert the supervisors to this -- these poor priorities. so, it looks like at the last library commission the book budget is frozen, while huge increases are scheduled for electronic resources, unclear what those mean. and again, we want to alert the public and the supervisors to check closely the library's what appears this ongoing book de emphasis and to rearrange the priorities in a more correct way for books and hours. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker, please.

[speaking through interpreter]

my name is [speaker not understood]. i am with seiu [speaker not understood] also an ihhs worker. right now i am a residents of district 4. i am currently taking care of my mother that is 78 years old and she is a resident of district 1.

and for all the workers here today and not here today, i wanted to let all the department heads know that currently we're earning at 11.54 an hour. that was the same wage five years ago and it is the same

rate right now. and there has been a lot of inflation and, so, their standard of living has gone down. and there's been a reduction of 3.6% for the work hours. they want to see another 4.4% reduction in work hours. so, we hope that more services and resources could be placed for ihhs workers.

the average hours necessary for an elder is about 80 hours a month earning about $900 a month. and what we do is we help alleviate the burden for convalescent homes and senior homes. so, we hope the city can make sure you under the importance of ihhs workers for a lot of seniors. oftentimes it's very hard because the seniors may have behavioral issues or they may be frustrated and we take up a slot of the slack when we try to work and serve the needed seniors.

>> thank you. (applause) we want all the workers to thank you. you can allocate more funding to allow us to have an increase with our pay. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> i'll call up the next group. irena from s.f. safe. bradley weed meyer. she wow lee from home care. brian mark who is our community advisory committee member for transportation for the richmond. and eric wu. go ahead, irena. good morning, mr. mayor, supervisors, department heads. my name is irena [speaker not understood].

i am a program director for san francisco safe. it's a program that stand for safety awareness for everyone, and we are a small nonprofit sponsored by the [speaker not understood] department. what we do, we are going to neighborhood watch groups. we conduct security assessments. we give safety presentations. in a nutshell, we try our hardest to make sure that everyone who lives and works in san francisco knows how to protect themselves, their houses, their businesses, and we conduct our services in five languages, only 10 of us. i'm going to give you some numbers. only in 10 months in district 4 and 1, we facilitated 30 neighborhood watch meetings. we give more than 20 safety

presentations. organized five merchant walks and, of course, not to mention the new year press conference organized by safe, david chen who is in the audience. so, needless to say we are very, very passionate about what we do, but we are also very, very fortunate that we have the support that we do. we know nothing would have been possible without the support from the building department. thank you very much. and it's so good to see captain long and captain here in the audience. thank you. again, we don't take it for granted. and, of course, supervisor mar, supervisor tang, supervisor farrell board of directors, thank you so very much. supervisor mar, we just started a new and exciting program with