and of course, this is the fifth of 7 budget town halls that we have held throughout the city and i want to especially thank, supervisor mark ferrill because he has been with me on every one of these as he fulfills his role as the chair of the budget committee that he has inputs from each of the supervisors and the residents of each district. this say promise that we have made that primarily today and each of these town halls to listen to the residents's views of what they think is important in what sburp yee has described as a very large budget. it is one that is reflective of a huge number of amount of responsibility for the city to run it. but within that, it should reflect, a budget that is sound, a budget that represents a level of safetiness, safety,

for the city ebut mostly what would make our city successful. how do you define success? from the neighborhoods, we want strong, commercial corridors in our neighborhoods. we want the city to be safe. we want, our education system to reflect high values, we want pot holes to be filled. we want muni to run on time and not do the switch backs that supervisor tang has always been focused on. >> we want our play grounds and our parks to be very clean, very open, very welcoming, and very affordable. all of these things, we have been hearing throughout the city and i want to make sure that the bulk of time today is that we listen to your viewpoints about what is important. in the past years, you should know that much of the testimony in these meetings affected the way we prioritize in the budget. and when we heard a year ago that many of our seniors were

really facing a lot of cuts in their nutrition programs, we responded, last year, when we saw those cuts and aid's funding from the federal government. we responded to make sure that the health system really focused on the people that were in great need, or our senior centers or our youth centers, when they say that a lot of kids are running around and nothing to do and there is going to be a lot of trouble if kids don't have things to fulfill their rich lives. a lot of parents came out and said let's invest in recreation programs and prevention programs. our budget was successful because it reflected what people said was needed in their neighborhoods and we are going to continue doing that. now, we are getting more revenue in the city. i will never use the word surplus, because there isn't any. we always have a deficit still because we are doing smarter things. we are trying to make sure that our budget covers two full

years. and that is the big challenge. but, because we have done that, guess what? our unemployment rate is down to 6 percent in the city, that is the third lowest in the whole state of california, and we are going down even further. and one of the reasons why we are doing that, is that, right after this, we are going to be joining probably about 1200 kids who are looking for jobs this summer, we are going to help them. kids from the east districts and from all over the city and we are going to give them some training about how to conduct themselves in the interview, how to put together a resume, because, we are working with united way this summer, for the summer jobs plus, we are going to work with every single department in the city, and as many companies in the city to produce 6,000 summer jobs, all paying jobs for kids in san francisco this summer. so this is... [ applause ] >> what we want to do.

because this makes our city successful. and we are going to continue increasing that, every single year because we know when kids start understanding how they can earn their way forward, they are going to appreciate what we do as parents, because we work pretty hard every day but sometimes we don't know if the kids appreciate that. but based on earning then they know that when they buy something they have earned it and so we are going to kind of instill that spirit in all of the kids. we are going to focus on a lot of economically poor kids in the city, but 6,000 jobs, last year, we got 5,200, so this is very doable and they are going to be in companies like starbucks and technology companies and sales force and wells fargo and they are all stepping up along with every one of our departments is stepping up as well. so i think that we are going to have a fun summer. one that is enriching for everybody. and in addition to work, there

is play, there is many more parks to work on. and then we are going to take care of a lot of other people. but today, let's spend the time listening to you, and and give your testimony about what we should be focused on in our budget and we will try to honor that as best as we can and balance it with all of the other viewpoints that we have been given in the five others and ultimately in the 7 full budget town halls that we are holding throughout the city. thank you so much for spending your valuable time coming out here on a saturday morning giving us your feedback, i appreciate it. now we will have supervisor ferrill, do you want to say? >> [ applause ] >> thank you mayor lee, and happy saturday, my name is mark ferrill and i am the supervisor for district two and the honor of chairing the budget city and town hall. and with chu who did a great

job the last two years, i am going to keep this short, as mayor lee mentioned today is about listening to you. we are doing six of these town halls out in the different neighborhoods of san francisco, we did an on-line town hall the other week on the internet. the point is that we will have a budget that reflects the values of san francisco but we want to make sure that everyone has the confidence that we are doing it in an open and transparent manner and our priorities really is to manage our budget in a way that not only reflects our values but also balances the need to make sure that we do everything that we can today in san francisco, but also that we plan responsibly for our future as a city. and future for our children, and for our grandchildren to make sure that san francisco tomorrow is just as great as it is today. so thank you all for coming out on a saturday morning and look forward to hearing from you throughout today. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, superviser ferrill. he want to go over the agenda, next i am going to call kate howard the mayor's budget

director and going to give an overview of the budget process and after that we will go into budget comment and so the mayor's office staff if you want to raise your hand, they are going to be coming around to collect your comment cards. we will not be able to get toefrn, but we will try are very best. so after public comment we will hear from supervisor ferrill again to talk about the budget hearing process. so we also wanted to set a few of the ground rules here. if you like to speak, again, fill out those speaker cards. and the open mic will be limited to two minutes per speaker and we have the time keeper, make sure to keep your eye on him if you see the red paper just make sure that you realize that your time is up. so we want to be respectful of everyone's time. and if you could stay on the topic that would be great. if we don't get to your speaker card we will collect them and take your comments into consideration. so with that, kate howard. >> good morning, everybody,

thanks for being here today. i would just talk for a few minutes about our budget and but before i do that i wanted to make sure that you all know what is here. and so we, have a number of department heads here with us today. the fire department, the department of public works, san francisco police department, office of small business, san francisco housing authority, the arts commission, mayor's office of housing, the department of building inspection, the office of economic and workforce development and our department of public health. and then on the far side of supervisor tang human services agency, the public library and the department of child support service and mta, and rec and parks and juvenile probation and we also have a number of department heads and department staff up in the front over here. and we have mayor's office of disability, the department of yoegt and their families, aging adult services, the controller's office and the

department of the environment. i think that i got everybody. so today there are here to listen to you about the ideas from our budget, feel free to approach me of the department staff at the end if you have specific questions. so, what is a budget? >> um, i think that the mayor and the supervisors addressed this well. it is really our plan for how we are going to spend the money, the resources that we have. it should reflect our priorities and our values of san francisco and it is also a law, and it is a law that the board of supervisors has to pass every year. as supervisor yee mentioned our budget is very large, about $7.4 billion dollars, it is for both the city and the county of san francisco, where one government. and we spend if you look at the second chart in the middle. about 32 percent of that total budget on public works, transportation and commerce, so that is things like the mta and the airport and the public utilities commission and so we

have another 20 percent on public health. and then, about 14 percent over all on public protection, and so that is the police department, the fire department, the department of emergency management. the people ask anywhere do we get our money and the easiest answer is from all of you, right? it comes from the tax payers but more specifically we get in our general fund which are local tax resources that are not associated with those enterprise departments, about 32 percent of our over all research is from the property taxes so about a billion dollars a year, from property taxes. we also get about 13 percent from business taxes and about 1 out of every five dollars in san francisco comes from another level of goment, from the state or federal government in particular. and that is important because the state and federal government makes changes in their budgets they have really

direct effects on us here in san francisco. and since we rely for about 20 percent of our total general funds sources from the state and federal government. >> as supervisor ferrill mentioned, we have begun a really important planning process where we are looking at our five-year budget out look and this chart over, that you can see is showing you the gaps between our revenues that we were taking in over the next five years and the expenditures that we are projected to have. so over the next five years they are expected to grow and if you look at the red line and about 25 percent, and our revenues are expected to grow by about 13 percent and so the gap between the black bar and the red bar, is what the challenge that we are trying to solve, so how do we solve that deficit? >> so kind of the budget in brief. and i also wanted to share with you a little information that

we had, you know, we showed the data here, your experience, your stories your priority and we also have a way of getting information from you on a regular basis which is through 311. when people in the community call and report their concerns or have things that they need help with. and so, for districts 7 and 4, the most common concerns that came into 311, were related to a band of vehicles, and streets and sidewalk cleaning. so we certainly would be interested in hearing if those kinds of concerns are consistent with your experience or if there are other things that you want to share with us. so with that, i will hand it back over to supervisor tang. >> all right. thank you, kate. so just a reminder so everyone can start filling out their comment cards and turning them in i am going to call groups of five at each time and if you could make your way to the

podium, megan ag, and chang. angela picler. >> annie chung and lisa spenali. >> i guess i will go first. hi i am the director of the sunset neighborhood beacon center in district four and i am representing youth services she had to cancel last minute because her son qualified for a music competition and he is a senior in high school. on behalf of those of us, and i think that i have interacted with them talking about the youth and family in district four. which is what i am here to talk

about. working in the outer sunset is a real challenge when it comes to the conversation between absolute numbers and percentages. so, in the budget process, i really encourage all of the decision-makers to think about absolute numbers. the beacon center will work at five local schools and they are obviously more than that. 3,000 children, more than 3,000 children attend those schools. percentage wise, only about half of them or little over half of them qualify for free or reduced lunch which is a major metric that means that more than 1500 children are hungry every day and that is what is just on the registers, i encourage you to think about absolute numbers, there are a lot of population and percentages don't tell the full story. the second point is summer services, we have talked a lot about summer services. and i got an e-mail at 3:20

this morning with a parent begging us to admit her child into programs that is well over 100 youth that is not possible. so invest in summer services for families and the final point has to do with the children's fund. this say critical part of the city's budget and the way that we spend, and it is an investment and a statement of what we want san francisco to look like ten to 15 years from now. so if our families are not supported now we have no long term vision. i am done. thanks. >> hi, my name is yuni and i am the president of (inaudible) association. the priority is to fix our streets (inaudible) it is long due for the paving and (inaudible). there are many (inaudible) and street signs like crosswalk signs and stop signs are fading

and it is very dangerous. (inaudible) we want more planted on the street. we have some but not enough. if we can do all of this, our street will be very attractive for many people to visit who are (inaudible) and it would be a beautiful place for our (inaudible) to live. thank you. [ applause ] >> angelaticler and i am the owner of the hardware store and the president of the merchant's association and i would like to speak to a bigger picture related to trying to find the ways to minimize the disruption that occurs to the local businesses and residents when it comes to redundant or repetitive street construction. i am not discounting the need for infrastructure improvements but for example, currently, the area of 19th and 20th avenue in irviing is under going a month long pg&e project which is

taking away parking resources. and businesses in that area are extremely, 30 percent in revenue which for a small business for a month is enough to put you under. that same area, will undergo the exact same problem later on this ywhen our corridor is repaved, which we are quite grateful for. and we will happen potentially again when the 88 curbs go in if they are not timed with these street repaving. and it is a hit that the small businesses take particularly hard. and we have experienced the same thing on 25th avenue between lincoln and irviing where the street was repaved by the city two months ago, it was already torn up twice in two areas by two different city agencies at&t is one and i can't remember the second one, it has faded again for 88 curbs

to go in and again it will be disrupted with the addition of the at&t services facilities that are going in. so i just urge you to find ways to try to coordinate more of the city's construction, and outside vendor construction. because basically a brand new street was already compromised, less than a year after it already went in, twice, and it will happen two more times. thank you. >> good morning, and my name is ian and i am a senior from high school and i am sure that many of you have heard the recent tragic accident that happened in early march that took away my childhood friend (inaudible) and i still remember the days that i found out about the news. it was first period and i was in class and my friends a classmates were like have you heard about the recent accident. and was like no who is it and

he was like it is (inaudible) and i couldn't believe it until it was confirmed it was (inaudible) to all students. and to this day i cannot believe that our friend or family member can be taken away like that. and i believe part of it the issue that part of the issue that has happened is because of the unregulated street slope. people if anyone driven by slow on 19th, it is a long street, just like (inaudible) without any regulation, no stop signs and no light, and no walking light or anything. and drivers, anyone can tend to speed up on that strip. because oh,, this is long, of nothing to stop me so i am going to speed up. and you know, just usually (inaudible) pedestrian and except in school time.

i think that it is crucial that the city spends the budget on production and safety because i have done research and it is not the first accident that happened on slope. there has been many previous accidents and according to the neighborhood associations it has been a problem before i was born. and i really want that to be the last accident that happens on slope. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. i'm lisa and i am the president of the sunny side neighborhood association. and just after the last speaker, we lost the custodian due to a fatality with a car. and i think that this issue of safety. and i want to talk about two things today, i want to talk about safety and blight and they are related. >> first with safety, we have

lost too many people to unnecessary car accidents. and that i am struck by how much money we spend on bicycles we want more but we all walk but yet pedestrian safety is not something that we are allocating, enough resources to and i think that needs to be something that we need to make sure gets an appropriate amount of expenditure towards to really make us a safer community, collectively across the neighborhoods and so that is my first point and my second point is that i should thank all of you. we don't have like... we have mother's day and father's day and we don't have a special day to honor public servants, i don't think and there is not always a greeting card and i want to say that to you because i call your departments and i asked for things and you are responsive and i want to appreciate you and you can do anything for a living but a

public servant is not an easy job to take and i thank you all for what you do. i am trying to be advocate for the city with the community. so the second thing that i want to talk about is, around blight that we have a lot. and the first thing is that i want to make sure that you have open pots of money that can be leveraged. we can volunteers to do things but we need resources to do that. planning is an example of that and so i suggest that we continue to do that and the last thing is that i would say that we have mixed results with 311 and suggest that we take a look more closely at what could complete the cases of 311. i would say that 50 percent of the time they are a result verses the times when they are handed off. so thank you again and i appreciate all that you do. >> thank you. [ applause ] . >> and before she goes up i want to call the next five speakers if you want to make your way.

cheryl, and kim, brian, charles, i am sorry i can't read your last night, from inner sunset heights and dik more tan. >> good morning, good morning, mayers and supervisors. representatives from all of our city departments, please say hello to all of our seniors from the district 7 and district 4. and i thank them for coming to the town hall with us every time that we can, thank you for osha for providing language service and now it is easier to get the non-english speakers to come to this town hall because they feel that they can participate as equal citizens as those who speak english, thank you very much mayor and supervisors for supporting the language programs. today, for the elderly ceo i am here to talk about the needs of our seniors as you know, mayor and supervisors, san francisco is a highest number of seniors

over 65. we are already at 19 percent of the population higher than any city near us or near san francisco. i want to talk a little bit about how cpi has really eroded the core of the senior services that through path and the (inaudible) has provided to all of the seniors in san francisco for many years. for example, i am sure that kate and your budget staff have told us that for the cpi increase alone for food, for food items for the past six years the increase for food and gasoline and other cbi increased rises close to 57 percent. and for the past three years, 41 percent. and so mayor even when you make our nutrition program whole, a couple of years ago. but by, being... for the funding for the past five or six or seven years and with the

cost keep escalating and already support for the elderly as we try to serve the 300,000 for the year without finding ourselves staring at 100,000 dollar deficit and so i urge you to take a look at senior services like information referal, the (inaudible) program and the immigration program, the nutrition program, they all need some infusion of extra dollars from you. thank you very much. >> good morning mayor and supervisor and department heads, thank you so much for this opportunity to come before you and speak about the needs of our community. i also want to echo and i am really happy that we have translation available for our residents to be able to part of this process. and my name is kim garcia and my husband and i and our three school age children have been proud and happy residents for district 7 and i have been in

education for the past 20 years, the past six i have run and been the director of an inhome spanish language preschool and also in district seven i want to talk about the important need to be on the forward movement of providing quality, early childhood education from birth to age five and in san francisco, we have done some great innovative programs like preschool for all and we have invested in early childhood education and it is critical for us to continue to do that. it is a win, win, win, situation when we do. first of all when we provide quality early childhood education, from birth to age five, we make sure that our children come into our public school system, and our school system well prepared socially and emotionally and economically to enter our kindergartens, and we will previed the working families the opportunity to be part of the workforce and while making sure that the children are well cared for in the quality programs and as a small

business owner i consider a child care provider as part of our small businesses. we make sure that small business owners and providers and the platform in our district and our cities. and i am able to support and the child education and we all win. thank you. >> okay. so, good morning, city officials, my name is brian chu i and i represent the district on the youth commission and first of all i want to 1,000 jobs for youth and some of which will be firm mate throughout the year, this is accident because it is the youth to help with skills that are necessary for them to be workers for the next generation

and we hope that will become more of a permanent priority and on that note, many of these young people take muni and so what we like is a reliable system and a system that does not (inaudible) halfway through the sun et and be able to depend on through the school and work. and on the issue, is the pedestrian safety, and san francisco names one of the most dangerous cities for the pedestrians and i was using that at a loss for this meeting and whether it is stop signs or visible crosswalk or in forcing of laws i hope that the city can accomplish this in an urgent manner because i don't want to see another memorial before the city does this and some of the issues that will be discussed in the upcoming sunset district which i encourage anyone to attend and these meetings throughout next year and i hope that you will join me in the community to channel the district concerns and supervisor tang's office.

thank you. >> good morning, everyone, my name is chyrl and i am the administrator for (inaudible) and for the services and a social service agency that provides a full range of services from the cradle to the grave and the majority of the services are located in the what is attorney western part of san francisco. and we serve medically frail (inaudible) seniors around 86 is our average age and the clients attend our center two to three times a week and we are one of the largest centers in northern california. we provide medical services, nursing physical therapy,

occupational, therapy. and without our center, our clients will most likely be forced to live in a nursing home and possibly far away from the communities that they really would from their homes and their communities. and as you know, healthcare has taken a hit in the last several years and the state level and in fact the program was eliminated from the state as a medical option and due to a class action lawsuit and with hundreds of advocates from the state, it came back and we really appreciate the support of the mayor and the board of supervisors and the department of adult and aging services in providing for the funds and allow many clients to continue attending the center during this time. and to identify and to continue to help us for identify to cover the true cost of this