gay utopia. it afs awesome to see and i felt safe enough to come out at school during the pride assembly. the students and the school became very friendly place towards gay people. one more thing. if it wasn't for lyric i don't think i would have continued alive. it saved my life and i am sure it has saved other people's lives. it's become one of the biggest part of my life and i am asking you to please fund lyric. >> hi everyone especially all of you over there. i am eddy and i identify as queer, gender queer, . i'm an emerging

activist and transfeminist. i came in front of you all to talk about and emphasize the ideas of lyric's school base program which kind of like i wish their school based program was in my school because they teach a lot of. sm's and how to combat them and racism and sexual and all of those and transphobia. they try to find a way to empower youth and make them better independent individual and i want to ask that lyric -- just say it gets better and lyric makes it better for all youth, especially queer youth and if you want to think about funding lyric is not just for queer youth but youth of different identities, race, color, class, like abilities, anything you name it. lyric will support you with that.

thank you. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is dan david. i am the deputy director of lyric and i want you to know for 20 years our program has provided safe and welcoming home for this youth. this program provides the critical access point for the city's marginalized people who have been disconnected and face violence in their homes and schools and communities. each year 200 youth access this program and it's their first entry point to housing and jobs and importantly to friends. without support from the board of supervisors for this youth programming this program will not be able to continue. i encourage you to listen to the voices of the young people today. there are a generation of leaders. we are incredibly proud of them and they can tell their story why programs like

this are important. >> hello board of supervisors i am ferdinand and i identify as a young laila teeno and talk about the importance of why lyric should stay funded. the first time i got there was july 2011 and the first time i went into a community building space and i felt safe and not get attacked for who i was or my identity, so when i started off i kept going to the community building groups and became an intern and now a queer educator and i facilitate one of the groups and from the first day i went there i felt the warmth and giving and welcoming space. identifying as a lgbt person so that's what i want to give back and also for the fact that lyric provide so many services for youth and maybe housing, finding jobs, finding your niche in society

and i believe the safety and success of the lgbt youth is in your hands. thank you. >> hi. my name is pablo rodriquez, so two years ago my mom kicked me out of the house when i told her i was gay and lyric was there for me and why i am standing today and they supported me before, so and it's a little bit of my story and there are a lot of stories out there from youth that come to these groups. although marg margannized in society. lyric is making progress and now that is gay pride month i feel very gay actually, and it's so so funny outside there is a. >> >> statute of harvey milk and

talking about hope. finding lyric is hope and progress. thank you. >> we love lyric! >> next speaker. >> hi good afternoon. i'm natalie with local three and we are here to talk about the 4% cost of doing business increase. we have had a 1.9% increase in the past five years which we are thankful for but it is not enough. >> my name is james fowl. i

work at [inaudible] and part of the episcopal community service. i'm a case manager and i work with the homeless seniors which is one of the most vulnerable populations here in san francisco. i'm concerned that we workers have been left behind in budget deliberations. it seems that we who work with the low income populations are not worth our vital or not worth anything for the vital services that we provide, and there seems to be a connection between anyone associated with the poor community whether worker or

consumer, and just don't matter. i urge you to remain the city that once was known as the sanctuary city because san francisco is vastly becoming the city without compassion. now san francisco is too good a place to allow it to become cold and callous for those in need and nothing can come out of that attitude. we are local three remain optimistic that you will do the right thing toward us and those that we serve. [applause] >> good afternoon. my am daphne and case manager with the outreach team and local three. i am calling -- calling -- i

wanted to say san francisco is traditionally the city of outlaws and now it's the have's and have not's and the people that i work for have nothing. everyone has failed. in this field we know it offers poor financial compensation and the apartment is 72% of my income every month. i will never be able to buy a home in san francisco and i accepted that. i probably can't get a master of social work because i can't afford it and i'm at peace with that. what i am not at peace is when i see a dead body or a client wants to cut off my head or go into a room and a person has cockroaches all over them and i do this and worried about

a house over my head and housing the inhousable and have to worry about these issues for myself and my clients and i am asking you to put the city of san francisco forward first. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. thank you for hanging in with us. it's been a really long day. i know. i really appreciate it. i am jane with ope local three. i am sorry you won't be able to hear from the several case managers from hospitality house who were here this morning and had to leave to run a woman's group and serve lunch. the other case managers who had to return to their duties and many other case managers from the team that were here with daphne. thankfully she gave such a great statement that will cover everybody. one

of the folks that left asked me to read this statement. his name is mr. curtis berry and he says "my name is curtis berry and a case manager. i'm a manager of local three. i am here to ask your help in getting a 4% cost of doing business increase for the nonprofits in san francisco. we received an increase last year that equated to 1.9% and that was over the last five years while the cost of living has gone up 12% in that time. i am a native san franciscan and now had to move out of the city for affordable housing. my arrangements in the beginning were affordable and now rent and the cost of commute has increased not to mention food costs and child care and education costs have gone up as well. i feel enslaved not to

enjoy time with my family because i had to get a second job. we're asking for fairness. the nonprofits can't provide service with the funding that we are receiving now. i am asking for the 4% increase for the nonprofits serving san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> i'm tammy. i'm with them and shanty asked me if i say something for them and i said i would. you know most businesses they get a cost of doing business increase anyway, but our nonprofits got to come here every year and beg you guys and it's ridiculous, you know, and another thing i want to say is

shanty -- i don't know where i would be without them. i have a peer advocate there, and i deal with a lot of idiots and she's able to senior homeless person

is a subsequence of a recent fire and an attempt to deal with the problems that come up to alleviate that situation i had to jump through hoops and deal with the various agency nas provide services for people like in my particular situation. presently i am helped by canyon senior center, and i would like to one support all the various organizations and people who have come up and asked for -- should be demanding services

and funds from the city that they -- that we so desperately need and i want to also support a reasonable cost of living -- raise, whatever you call it because right now if the people that deal with folks like myself don't get a reant cost of living increase then they're getting a cut and if they're not around then they're not able to help people like myself. thank you and please have a good day. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello board of supervisors. thank you for listening to us today. i am amy. i'm here representing the wild equity institute. unlike many speakers today i'm not asking for money but consider the amount of

money that is being put towards performing golf courses. the proposed budget for golf courses that we are considering presuming that the revenue will be decreasing by 1.4 million and this budget projections have the revenue falling short by narrowly $1 million. this is due to decreased demand and environmental problems. this is being mitigated by 2.5 million en infusion of programs in san francisco that are in dire need of funding and we would like to know why we're funding golf courses that fail to perform when there is such great need here in the city? rather than funding the golf course in san mateo county we would you to put the funds towards programs that are more beneficial to the city as a whole. also more

specifically there's a number on page 191. it's under the heading pr rpgt and says 175,000 -- >> where is that? what document are you referring to? >> it's the budget that has it line by line for all of the departments and page 191 and we're wondering if it's for the harding park pga tour or being used for something else. that's it. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. i am lindsey seal and here on behalf of the sierra club. the mayor's proposal proposed this amount to give to the golf course fund and includes $1 million for a short

fall balance as stated by the city's own budget update is caused by revenue loss and environmental issues at sharp park. the question is why does the city of san francisco need to spent 2.5 million dollars to fund golf courses that include one in san mateo county that floods every winter and killing two endangered species in the process? thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello i am harriet larkin and here from renaissance parents of success and nonprofit in the southeast sector. however we serve all children city wide and by children i mean youth. we also support the families and we were not defunded for our specialized team, social justice program or work force development programs that were developed by our children who

are black and brown and yellow, and we are asking for their support. by not receiving the support it sends a message to the children who work hard collectively from different communities and different ethnic backgrounds that they don't matter and the focus was actually the right for african-americans to remain. every time you go to a meeting that is the focal point of the young people want to address that and it's not recognized. the group that the developed the program is diverse was not -- one of the comments is it's not diverse. i am personally offended because one of the comments there was not enough post secondary education among the staff. our staff has been doing this work for more than 20 years. any other agency, even the city itself recognizes education versus work experience, and we take offense to this. we speak openly to

our children. they know what the comments were and it's just sad that you sent message that was sent that the people they consider their family don't matter. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi. my name is loretta davis and i work for the reason -- renaissance center and started with calworks program and ended in 2012. i have been there since then as of january 2 this year. i'm a volunteer. i have been volunteering ever since my job ended because i still have clients and they need me. i refuse to leave them just no where, nobody to help them out.

[inaudible] i refuse to let it go until i am finished so my position i'm administrative assistant /case manager. we deal with youth from the age 14 through 17. from there we go to 18 to 24 and from there we go on to 25 to 105. it doesn't matter. if you can work you can work. we're not just district here and there we're city wide. we do what we do. i love my job and until you guys can give us the funding i appreciate it if you do. i will continue to volunteer my services because i am needed and i feel important to the people and i am appreciated. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> my name is keith. i'm one of the volunteers for these

people, and i volunteer all the time, everyday, five days a week, and they do a lot of things real good for these people, black, brown, blue, whatever, you know what i am saying? really you all need to really look into these people and really looking into how the way they work, and a lot of the people need to be around these people man. we try to do a lot of stuff for our community and try to have these people do things right instead of being in jail and being on paperwork and all the stuff like that they need to be out here doing getting jobs and doing other stuff. that's all i have to say. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> hi. i am greg boxley.

everybody has been very passionate on why they should be getting money. i'm just going to get to the facts. eric mar mar talked about a lot of good things looking at the demographics. let's go back. you have a migration report. you have an unfinished agenda. gavin newsom signed off that and there is short fall in the comment and the black community sat back and allowed everybody else to grow. even in the budget cuts right now and the city has recognized the shortcomings, the development done in district 10, billions of dollars being pumped in how can you not take under consideration when you do the budget these important short coming in these reports. you might as well use

it as a table mat. number two, i sat on a few board in the city. fob and executive board for affordable housing. i also worked in real estate for 10 years selling money. i am trying to figure out why i can't get black people in housing and why i got into community work. at the end of the day any investment, the investment dollars that we have that are city taxpayer members that pay taxes we're looking for a return. our return is the majority of our people have jobs. the majority of our people are not in jail. the majority of our people are productive. that's the return you want to see. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. come on up. >> hello. i am a donis

williams and from district 11 and formerly as the [inaudible] district. i am a graduate of lowell high school and i can say that inner city youth has played a key role in my success. from fostering positive growth in me academically and professionally it's the goal of inner city youth it was their goal they was prepared after high school and reflect on the programs that inner city youth affected by success. to this end funding for the teen program is important as inner city youth maintains their commitment to serve the youth that comes through the doors. i wouldn't be where i am today without such programs and initiatives by this program that aided in my success. thank you and with me is our executive director michael brown. >> thank you a donis. you said

that very good. we have a population in san francisco in the 1999 census. you should be 44% african-american in district 10 -- district 11 i'm sorry. that was in the 1990 census. now we're a population of 4%. how can we have 65% african-american incarcerated but we have the aggressive leaders in our community? we have coalitions that are beautiful, all of the coalitions and everything, but when it come to the the african-american they're doing this, doing that. all of this negativity. we want the leadership to stand up for the people who have been stepped on the most. how can i give him a job if i ain't got a job? that's the problem. that's what they're talking about in district 11. they all fight for funding because they need jobs in order to give the kids a

helping hand so this has been a revolving door. we talk about economics and equity and inclusion but when we go to somebody with a contract and get help. well, you know politically i can't help you and all this nonsense but you can go outside this county and other districts and we get help, but i mean we are in that part and african-americans are melting away. if we put the emphasis on the endangered species like we put on the african-americans we putting up some conservation program to make sure that we can ensure that they stay here like we do for the whales, like we do for the garden snakes. i know san francisco you can do better and this is a progressive city so 55% was cut in the program. we asked for the music program. they cut it out. transition --

going to an organization. they don't work with that youth. i know it's been a long day. consider that and come around. come around. we're not strangers. come around. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is sue anne shift and executive director of san francisco botanical garden society and here in support of the lease agreement and the fee. there are other people here who will speak in support and other people unfortunately had to leave. in addition i have here a print copy of the online petition that we started at the beginning of this week, and i will be giving it to the clerk afterwards. we have 672 signatures so far and the comments are also included

here. the botanical garden society has worked in partnership with the recreation and park department for 60 years. we exist for one reason and that is support the botanical garden to make it the institution that it is today that both cherished locally and respected globally. in recent years our budget has ranged from 2.5 to $3 million. we fund and staff many essential functions including all of the botanical garden's education and community outreach activities. i want to highlight our youth education program as one of them. we serve 10,000 children a year. we reach almost every public elementary and k through eight school in san francisco. this is a really important program that we want to grow, not be forced to shrink for lack of funds. we fund the gardens management activities. we fund

improvements. we are funding the nursery center for sustainable gardening and hiring and total support is more than $2 million a year and provide the garden 36,000 volunteer hours a year. fee revenue has grown to exceed expectations and we are growing as well. botanical garden is not different from other cultural institutions. the garden cannot survive on city funding alone much thank you very much. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is mary pitts. i'm a dosant and trustee at the san francisco botanical garden. i'm here to support the lease management agreement and also the admissions program for non residents. i'm very impressed

with the budget process which i have sat through for hours today. i have new respect for what you do and i am simply here to ask you and glad to ask you to allow us to contribute to the city in the way that we. do we contribute the -- the botanical garden society contracts through school programs, education and outreach and through the tens of thousands of hours of volunteer hours which benefit the city. in the more than 44 years i have been a resident here where my children were born, where they were raised i watched and participated in the botanical garden. i have seen what the society has allowed the garden to do to develop unique collections and new asian discovery garden, the expansion of the asian plant collection and educational materials and expansion of the childrens' gardens which teaches thousands of children and their families now on the