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 weekends about the

natural world and the need to be a tender of the natural world. as a dosant i can say that i have seen visitors come from all parts of the globe specifically to see things in our garden that you can't see anywhere else and i invite any of you that don't understand what the garden does in that way to come and have a dosant take you around and see. one resident who was opposed to paying a fee because she didn't have her card -- i paid the fee for her. took her on a toor with me and she thinks everybody in the garden should pay because it's such a wonderful place. i urge you to come with me and find out why. >> my name is bob hendenburg. i'm a volunteer at the center

and i became one to learn about plants and i have been learning about plants and since then i changed the way i think about the arbor rightum and a nice place in the golden gate park but since i have been working there i understand it's really something different. it's like a museum. they have got all these amazing plants there, strange and weird things, wonderful thanks from all over the world. >> >> thanks that are hard to grow. you need experts and boftnists and all expertise and i think of it as the people that run the swroor you have to know what you're doing or the people that run the museum to take care of all the beautiful objects and i think if you starve such a place of funding it goes down. it's no

longer a precious thing and if you support it properly you can make it more wonderful than it is now. i think it is justified to have other people -- i think there are two reasons to support it. one is the economic reason. you make it more wonderful more people want to come and it becomes another feather in the cap of san francisco. the other thing is fairness. is it fair? i think it is to have non residents pay. when i go to berkeley i have to pay $10 to get in. on the internet i looked it up yesterday if i go to london i have to pay $25 to go to theirs and it seem to me if you don't live here you don't pay taxes here and you want to see the strange and wonderful plants we can ask you to pay. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is earnest ying and a volunteer in

golden gate for the past 25 years and also a dosant at the san francisco botanical garden for 15 years. i came here to speak for the lease management agreement. the san francisco botanical gardens society and the city work together. the society is the major fundraiser for the botanical garden. we provide education through the works of the dosant, the library and the book store. we run the nursery propagating plants, buying plants and this is the major benefit for the city and the park here. they buy the plants and support also the infrastructure. this is a 60 year success story. i hope that we can continue on to do this year. i hope that you can see that the benefit that the city does get from this organization here. i am here also to support the continuance of the non residents fee for the botanical garden. this is another

success story despite of what some of the naysayers said four years ago. visitors expect to come to -- when you visit another city expect to pay for many of the things that you visit and i have seen people who have been through the garden and then before they leave add extra donations to the donation box here. without the fee we would lose about three to four gardeners and 1/3 of the staff and no organization can survive with 1/3 of the staff gone here so supervisors i hope that you consider this. you have been hearing people ask for money and not cutting the budget and here we have a society that earns money and the fee for the park is actually a source of revenue nobody considered three or four years ago so this is a plus, plus for the city and the park. thank you.

>> i want to thank the supervisors for their perve verance. i admire it and pity for the large number of conversations that have gone on this afternoon all of which are worth and he highlight the many important issues in san francisco. my name is larry pitts. i'm a 44 year residents of san francisco and i want to urge the budget committee to consider recommending the agreement between rec and park, the management agreement between rec and park and the san francisco botanical garden society. it's a remarkable place. it is in fact of a museum which was said as a negative this morning and it's inaccurate and not true. it trued all san franciscans. the non residents fees are for those living outside of san francisco

and it's for the garden of the garden has areas of growth that can't be sustained in most places in the world. for example we have a cloud forest for south america, southeast asia and no where else can do that because we have unique climbate here and with the california native garden and with birds and insects from california. the volunteers provide a great service to the city in education and managing the nursery and many other tasks. these are services that enrich the garden and enrich the lives of californians and san franciscans so i urge you to support the management agreement, and for the continuation of the non resident fees. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors.

my name is monica martin and i have two statements this afternoon. my own and one who had to leave earlier. i'm a botanical garden volunteer and a member of the board of trustees. in the botanical garden society was formed to look after the garden. its soul purpose was and is to support the development of the garden and provide educational programs. our partner in achieving that is the city. we couldn't do it without you. the non resident fee has worked well. it's important for the maintenance of the garden. the lease and government agreement is fair. it's the result of long negotiations between the interested parties and i urge you to support the agreement and renewal of the fee. this statement -- i'm now taking the name. dr. joe barbachi "i

serve as a educational dosant and educator in the program. i want to relate several of my recent experiences in the garden. yesterday morning i gave an educational walk for 10 of our summer enterprise high school and college interns and their mentor. they're working with one of gardeners using a staff design plan to install the first mediterranean basin program. we discuss the importance of plants. we talked about the difficult problem of global warming. it's my firm conclusion that the fee has maintained the botanical garden and i am concerned that the lack of the understanding of the importance of the collection and our educational role in the crucial relationship in plants and people. i want to urge you to support the new lease and management agreement and the continuance of the fee thank you".

>> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is joseph mack. i am a botanical garden society volunteer. i'm speaking as an individual. i want to briefly go into my personal archive. i found a photo of me in a bunch of head start kids visiting the japanese tea garden. please consider the lease agreement to make this a reality of supporting children into the future. whatever direction the budget committee goes please approximate the welcome mat of the past into the future. thank you. >> thank you next speaker.

>> hello. i am ramone gonzalez and a student at san francisco university and here representing san francisco state college -- [inaudible] and i have been and because of me going to the garden i did research on plants and seeing how the upkeep of the plants and i would hate for that to go to waste and i urge you to approve the lease management agreement and approve the fee. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please.

>> and addition be being i beautiful place there are programs that provide san francisco residents that are valuable for our future and again i hope you renew the non resident fee. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is lane borden. i think it's fitting that my first foray into san francisco politics involves plants and i have been a fan since i was three. i am a new resident of san francisco but coming to the botanical garden for 20 years. it's one of the things i visit every trip so i have a perspective as a non resident visitor in the past and i don't find -- didn't find the fee to be particularly onerous

and i don't find it onerous currently especially in light of the fact this is part of the budget that actually is bringing in a bit of revenue and others have asked for it to be cut. i think it's a modest imposition of bringing some form of id which most of the services that are target the towards residents require anyway. the botanical garden is a museum that is living and breathing that requires care and maintenance for the collections to survive and thrive and to consider it merely as a place to picnic is doing it a disservice. it's far more than that. i urge you to support the lease management agreement and the non precedent fee. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello supervisors. i am big rich and represent project level and we occupy and operate the recording studio of

african-american art and culture complex. we could stay up here all day and talk about our list of accomplishments. we are a musicking programming program in a safe environment that the african-american cultural center has provided for the youth. this is a small fraction of us here but i wanted to speak on behalf -- actually we were requested by the district attorney's office to write the theme song and we performed it today on the steps here and we have been operating for the last year on a shoe string budget and any other cuts will disable what we're doing anyway. veronica who is one of our stars, one of the team leaders wants to speak of what we do at the center also. >> thank you. >> hello i am veronica. i just kind of want to talk about project level as an organization. it's not only

just music. it's a family base where somewhere you feel comfortable where you're out of the difficults that our teenagers and young people are going through, and i know a lot of people hear about the shootings and killings and people you know killed left to right, but project level is a place where you're safe and you're occupied and you're learning everyday, and this past year i have learned and i have grown as a person. i was in trouble myself with the law before, and the head coordinators rich and danielle helped me get out of that. they have been at my court meetings and even with my being stable at home. i grew up in foster care and they have helped me to have a stable -- something stable in my life because everything has always hasn't been consist annual. i can list a lot of. >> >> stuff that project level has

done. i got to sing at london breed's i can never say the word. i am sorry. i will get better at it but that was a blessing. that was one of the performances i will never forget and project level is just -- it's not just music. it's saving lives and i just want to please like -- please we don't need anymore budget cuts and that's pretty much it for me. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good afternoon. thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. my name is peter demeris. i'm a volunteer and serve on the board for the st. francis living room on golden gate avenue in the heart of the tenderloin. st. francis living room monday through friday provides hot nutritious breakfast, activities and a place to congregate off the streets for the elderly poor of

the tenderloin. we serve about 100 clients each day and the numbers keep growing. we are a secular organization governed by a board of directors that volunteer, a volunteer board and financial officers. volunteers serve our clients each and everyday. we have two part time employees that assist us. these employees like those before them are economically disadvantaged individuals who are graduates of the st. anthony's recovery program. our annual budget is approximately $100,000 of which only $41,000 is paid in salaries. st. francis living room is very efficient in the riewses of funds because it focuses on volunteers. we provide a lot for people in need and do a lot with the dollars

we receive from the city. the st. francis living room contract will exspire june 30. we didn't make a submittal for a new contract and funding will cease july 1. we respectfully request that you consider the plight of the people that we use and use your discretion to restore funding. we need $78,000 a year to survive. thank you for your help. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> i am eric booker and the manager of st. francis living room. like peter was saying we do need your help because we have 100 people we feed on a daily basis and [inaudible] some barely walk and in wheelchairs and safe environment for them. we help them with clothing. we help them with shower

information. we counsel things that really need you guys' help on and without the help from the city we won't be able to stay open. guys look forward -- everyday, monday through friday and get a nutritious meal and do stuff and we show them love and i appreciate if you all can really, really, really put in your hearts to keep us -- to keep this funding going on for these guys because they really need it. thank you all. >> thank you. >> hi i am edmund larry and want to show you a couple of fliers and what is coming up this sunday at the african-american complex banking on health and journey from green wood about

the black wallstreet and then on monday the 24th the san francisco international faith council is having a talk on racial profiling in the 21st century. prolaris society. you can call the san francisco international faith community, but being here today something i heard a lot about being young, gay, old, gay, black -- so many different diversity of san francisco i think this budget it covers us all, and just like -- i know that in the sro in district 6 we don't have representation for violence, bullying, the way that other districts have it because like -- i want -- i will put -- just to show you this monday i'm going to be in court at 10:00 a.m. at 514 dealing with

home phobia racist, bullying right in district 6 where all of the drugs -- often when i hear people talk about young people district 6 has a lot of drugs, young and old. there is a relationship between young and old. young have money. old have the drugs. we need to make there there say people's budget along with the mayors and conference and the board of supervisors. i think we should have a three tee budget system and everybody is coming out and concerned should be able to craft a triangle, the mayor, the board of supervisors, and the people because we know what issues we're dealing with and what is left out and i think this would cover everyone. happy summer. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors.

i mike with the wrap around project of san francisco general hospital. we work with penetrating traumas, victims that come through the hospital. we try to hook a lot of the victims up with linkages with resources around a city and i know that's a program that works because we're able to cut down reentry and recidivism from 15% -- from 30 -- 36% down to 4% and i just ask for the supervisors' support to help with the project at the general hospital. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon board of supervisors. my name is [inaudible] and work with san francisco wrap around project san francisco general hospital. i want to say that the man that just spoke he's a hero. he's

saved lives at san francisco general hospital. when there were two rival gang members that come to the hcht because there is a shooting this man stuck his neck out for the public good to negotiate a diplomatic peace agreement on site within 10 minutes to half an hour and he provides a competency to the hospital that is extremely difficult to provide because he grew up here in the city and he knows the people in the neighborhood. he understands the culture, the streets and he's a public health professional, so we're here today to ask the city and county of san francisco and board of supervisors to support the increase for our budget. we haven't had a increase in four years and we want to thank supervisor john avalos and eric mar and london breed for assisting us and pushing forward our budget ask and we also want

to say because of the increase in cost of living that is driving up poverty for a percentage of the city while some are benefiting from it others are forced into dire straits. there is a huge unmet need and we also support creating new revenues to fund social services supporting the restoration fund to restore social services before the recession happened. budget cuts translate into violence and people in the jails and people on the street and we have to address the cost of living. otherwise san francisco is just going to turn into manhattan so i want to thank you for your time and have a nice day. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is ken. i'm director of episcopal services and join my colleagues and many of the

residents and clients here today in urging you include it, add the funding for health and human services in this year's budget. we're providing today shelter to 535 homeless men and women. we are providing supportive how longing to 1,000 formerly homeless men, women and children and we would have served this year 3 million meals and education to homeless and formerly homeless san franciscans. we do this with city funding and private contributions and while we maximize our private funding we haven't been able to off set the 2% increase in city contracts during the course of the past five years. that's 2% during a period when the cpi is increased by more than 12%. it's 2%

during a period when ucsf received 16% increase on its city contracts and 2% did little to help our organization meet the 60% increase that we have seen in health care premiums and the 160% increase that we have seen in workers' comp. san francisco values business and technology and transportation and public safety but we also have great history with health and human services and i am urging you to find a way in this $8 billion budget -- almost $8 billion budget to include a 4% cost of doing business increase. thank you. >> thank you very much. okay. at this time are there any members of the public that wish to comment today? come on up. >> good afternoon supervisors.

i am anggel caand with [inaudible]. i'm actually here representing our youth in soma. we thought this hearing was going to go until later in the afternoon so a lot of them are running here but if they don't make it i just want to remind you that last year we spent a lot of time talking to voters informing them about proposition a, b, c and e and a clear mandate to the city for that and we work hard to generate more revenues that is shared equitably across the city's priorities particularly the area that has been hard hit by state and federal tax, the majority which are children, youth and families, so for us we are really saddened that dcyf cut a lot from our district even

though our numbers in terms of youth might be declining that doesn't mean their needs are actually declining. according to the budget analyst when he did a city wide analysis and according to its report district 6 has the highest poverty per capita of any district in san francisco. this proves that the children and youth of district 6 are the highest need in san francisco. also according to the budget analyst there is -- the total population of san francisco are located in district 6. 5.2 3%. that's about 5600 children in a really small area with high needs so we're here to actually ask to you please support our district 6 youth stakeholders budget that represents different organizations from our upon

neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is raymond castillo and i also work at [inaudible] the community action network here at district 6. i am here to ask you to please support the full budget of the district 6 youth service stakeholder. just to follow up the passage of these propositions was a clear mandate for the city. we work hard collectively to generate more revenue so it could be shared equitably across the city's priorities particularly the areas that hit hard by the state and federal cuts. also according to the budget and legislativeanalyst and it's as was said the number

of children were stated and i encourage you give the budget back for district 6. there is more than enough in the budget to meet all of the needs in the community, members and voters by the board of supervisors being diligent and thoughtful and responsible when approving the final budget so please invest equally all of san francisco and support district 6's budget. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good afternoon i am angela and currently attending san francisco state university. i am a product of the youth programs south of market. i help coordinate youth empowering soma and we did see -- like we do have a fluctuation of youth involved in the program. we started with six youth in 2010 and now 2013 we gained 15 more youth from when i started so this program is vital to the community because