unfortunately their son kevin passed away much too young at the age of 9 with a brave battle with a brain tumor and passed away august 4 during our legislative recess. he was appropriately born on valentine's day and filled the world with love and joy and paved the way for his youngest brother's connor and dylan mcguire. he attended the french american school here in san francisco as well as saint gabe's and was a huge, huge soccer fan. so, i attended his funeral over legislative recess. it was a very touching to see the overwhelming amount of community who came out for kevin. and, so, i just wanted to send my deepest condolances to pat and buffy mcguire. they have contributed so much to this community. i even remember kevin when he was very young came out to help and plant a garden with us under supervisor chiu's office. so, just want to send my best to the mcguire family and request that we adjourn the

meeting in his honor today. >> thank you, supervisor tang. supervisor wiener. >> thank you, madam clerk. today i am calling for two hearings. the first relates to staffing and budget at animal care and control and the ability or lack thereof that important agency to meet its legally required mandates of caring for all animals in need in san francisco, whether they're animals that have been abandoned, animals that are being mistreated, in distress, and making sure that other animals are cared for and hopefully ultimately adopted out. animal care and control is a safety net agency. it doesn't get to pick and choose which animals it takes in. and, so, you have a lot of animals who are difficult to adopt out. yet animal care control's

budget appears to be highly inadequate to provide the level of care that we in this animal friendly city expect for animals in need. in addition, the department has very few enforcement officers who are able to go out into the field. whether to respond to claims of mistreatment or neglected animals or to deal with potentially aggressive animals. we've been seeing more complaints in dog parks from dog owners who state that other dogs are aggressive toward their dogs. animal care control has few resources, but it's really not possible for their agency to stay on top of those complaints and do an effective job monitoring and enforcing. so, the hearing will really take a deep look at animal care and control's budget, its staffing levels, what would be

necessary to meet the needs of san francisco and the responsibilities of the department and how we can go about meeting those needs through the budget process. i'm calling the hearing now because rather than doing it in the middle of our typically hectic budget process, i wanted to air these issues very early. second hearing is a hearing on the state of our light rail vehicles and muni's light rail vehicles. as the mta begins its procurement process for the next generation of light rail vehicles, we have a once in generation opportunity to get it right and i think it's very important for us to take a close look at our current light rail vehicles. what the challenges have been in terms of design, in terms of maintenance, in terms of specific problems with lrvs, to make sure we're all fully informed as mta begins this

process. light rail vehicles are critical part of our public transportation system and they need to be good and reliable. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor yee. >> yes, thank you, madam clerk. today i'm introducing an ordinance to improve the quality, oversight, and accountability of our city's child care facilities fund. the ordinance i'm introducing today will change the planning code to transfer all oversight of the fund in child care development projects that use the fund to the office of early care and education, to offer a seamless approach to ensuring our child care facilities. not only meet the needs of families in the city, but also are consistent with the city-wide plan for early care and education and out of school time. i strongly believe that streamlining the oversight of our child care facilities fund

will improve our ability to serve our city's family in the most efficient way and as a strong supporter of the office ability care and education and their division. i am happy to see more responsibilities being shifted to them. i also today would like to adjourn this meeting in honor of evelyn wilson. evelyn wilson passed away monday morning. i've known evelyn for eight years as a parliamentarian at the board of education for eight years there, and i've known her also in being active in many civic groups for decades. and my memory of her is that she's always been a loving --

excuse me -- and caring person. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor yee. (applause) >> supervisor kim, did you wish to add? >> yes. i also want to add my respects for ms. wilson, someone who supervisor mar, yee, and actually campos got to work with during her time as parliamentarian for the board of education. she was a regular. she was an institution. she never missed a meeting. i believe she had a perfect attendance record on our board of education. and she was a stalwart. she really believed in service and in serving our city. specifically, san francisco unified school district and, you know, when i got to the board of supervisors i really missed her and her guidance. we can certainly use a

parliamentarian here. you need someone who is passionate about [speaker not understood], and so many other processes that sometimes we take for granted. but are really important in making decisions that are important to our city and our municipalities. and i just want to pay my condolances and best wishes to her family. she lived a wonderful life and she will be greatly missed. >> thank you, supervisor kim. other supervisors who wish to speak about ms. wilson? supervisor mar. >> yeah, i wanted to thank supervisor yee and kim for their comments. evelyn was an amazingly warm person, but she really knew parliamentery procedure like the back of her hand. i also want to thank her so much for supporting democratic women's forum and other community groups as well. it was really an honor to serve with her and to be mentored by

her over the years ~. and i know many in the school district and in the schools will really miss her as well as much as i do as well. >> thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor campos. >> i don't know whether anyone can find the words when someone dedicates herself to public service as evelyn wilson did for so many years. i served as general counsel of this group for a number of years and i remember being at those meetings that ended many times in the wee hours of the morning. evelyn wilson was always there and i don't know if people know, but she really didn't get compensated that much. i think she got maybe like $35 a meeting, and she was there meeting after meeting year after year because she cared about the school district, because she cared about how we educated our kids. and i think it's just

remarkable that someone can sort of add that level of service to her community. evelyn wilson, you will be missed and you did an amazing job. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor campos. mr. president, if i may, evelyn wilson was my mentor during the mayoral succession, a subject matter that occurred here at the board. so, she helped me get us through that as well. >> if i could can. colleagues, if we can do this in memoriam on behalf of the full board. without objection, that should be the case. [gavel] >> madam clerk. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor avalos. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i just have a few comments to make based on the mayor's responses to question time. am i allowed to talk about that today? >> is this on the introduction of new item, supervisor avalos? >> yes. thank you. so, you know, i thought what was significant was not so much the mayor's responses to the question. what was significant was that

so many of us were concerned enough about the clean power program that we wanted to ask the question of the mayor about the same program. but in terms of getting a response that was accurate from the mayor, we really did not receive that. i'm holding in my hand here a copy of a resolution that was made by the public utilities commission back in december of 2011. this is a commission that consisted of all the same members that are currently on the commission according to radika fox of the public utilities commission. one person was absent. that was commissioner cain, but all the rest of the commissioners were present. this is a resolution that approves the shell energy contract. it approves the general manager going into negotiations with the shell energy contract. the mayor said that the shell contract was a sole source contract, but we know that these contracts were contracts for providing clean power to

the puc and consumers in san francisco. it was competitively bid. there was a lot of discussion over and over again from the mayor's responses that the board of supervisors had approved by resolution an ordinance a certain energy mix of 95% clean power and only 5% recs. there is nothing in the resolution ordinance that says that you would have that energy mix and there is actually in this resolution that comes from the puc, there is nothing there either. so, there's no reference to -- it's only anecdotal discussions that we talked about a framework that could be 95% affirmed energy mix with 5% recs. it turns out that the program that we approved at the board was a program we knew about was going to evolve over many, many years. and what we started on day one was not what we were going to have in year 4 or year 10 or year 15 or year 20. eventually we get to be able to

have a build out. the mayor also said that we would be providing power from -- shell will be providing power from out of state. actually shell provided the public utilities commission last month with a letter saying that they will be committed to providing power within the state of california using power from hydro and wind power sources. and, so, we're seeing while there was really good effort from the mayor to be able to respond, provide words to our questions, they weren't necessarily the accurate words. now, i know that the mayor doesn't actually write his responses to us. his staff do that. so, i would think the mayor would be concerned about getting the most accurate information to present to the full board about what he's talking about. that clearly wasn't the case -- wasn't the case today. so, we have a real political problem here in san francisco when it comes to clean power sf. the board of supervisors has

approved a policy with many, many really good parts to it that are about how we can move forward on our climate action goals, but we can also make sure we're giving san franciscans a choice about having clean power to run their homes and the mayor's office seems to be blocking that. blocking with misinformation with red herrings, with arguments that don't add up, arguments that aren't consistent with the work that the puc staff has made and that the puc commissions have approved in the past. the puc commissioners say they would not support a shell contract moving forward, but they already have. and, so, i just think it's important to be able to point that out. i how we move forward in the program when the politics are getting in the way, i think calling out the politics when you see them happening is one way to start moving forward and that's what i've done. i'm trying to do today. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor avalos. supervisor breed. >> thank you. in april i introduced a

resolution that enabled the city to apply for a california debt limit allocation committee for a bond allocation to retrofit -- retrofit and approve western park apartments. it's a 182-unit affordable housing development in the western addition sponsored by the northern california presbyterian house and services nonprofit. the project received a funding allocation and today i'm submitting a resolution that will allow the city to issue the bonds and close the financing service sponsor can begin construction. it's located at 12 80 laguna street. the western park projects offers housing medical screening, recreational a activities and a sense of community for hundreds of low-income seniors. the development has a 182 units spread among three cottage buildings ~ in a 13-story tower. built in 1972 under the redevelopment agency and hud, the complex is in dire need of rehabilitation. presbyterian homes and services

is planning a $20 million renovation including new windows, electrical upgrades, a new sewage system it, new roof, fire, sprinkler system, and new kitchen, flooring, doors, and paint in the unit. the tenants will be provided temporary housing during the construction and will return to their current unit. this resolution authorizes the city on behalf of the project sponsor to receive up to $35 million in bond funding for the project. the resolution does not financially encome beerth the city nor require us to repay the bond. the cost to the city, we can provide safety and dignity for seniors in these units. i want to thank the mayor's office the housing and sprue tierctionv homes and services for working together on this vital project. i'm looking forward to providing new opportunities and improving some of the existing affordable housing opportunity for many of our low-income residents. and i just want to also -- i

know that olson lee is the director of mayor's office of housing and these are the kinds of incredible projects when he served as the housing director for redevelopment agency commission that we were also able to do on the redevelopment commission. so, i'm so glad that the loss of the redevelopment agency that we're still able to make sure that we retain as many of our affordable housing units that are falling apart as we possibly can. on another note, since we're on seniors, tomorrow is my grandmother's 92edction birthday. my grandmother camilla brown. ~ 92nd birthday i want to send a howth shout out to ward 6 laguna honda, and the numerous residents of laguna honda hospital. it is an amazing facility with an amazing team of people who workday and night to take care of some amazing individuals who are housed at laguna honda.

the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor breed. supervisor campos. >> thank you very much, madam clerk. supervisor breed, happy birthday to your grandmother, wonderful. i have a number of items and i'll try to be as brief as i can. the first is a resolution that i'm introducing and i want to thank my colleagues who are co-sponsoring, supervisors avalos, mar, cohen, and kim. san francisco homeowners have generally held their homes in equity and, in fact, are in better shape than many families in the country and areas like the east bay. but according to a website, the website sill owe, based on a quarter of 2013 housing data, we still have a significant number of ~ households in san francisco that are seeing delinquency in their mortgages. in the 94 124 zip code, bayview

potrero hill, 07% of homes are under water, 10% are delinquent. 41 32 zip code, ~ [speaker not understood] 13% of homes are under water 14% are delinquent. ~ 70 in visitacion valley, [speaker not understood]. in my district, 58 households that are facing foreclosure, including neighborhoods like ben bernankevval, mission, and portola. ~ the reality is that not all san franciscans are sharing the recent economic prosperity we have seen in this city. in fact, there are neighborhoods where foreclosures continue. and these are the same neighborhoods where you find lower income people and many of them are people of color. these are the families that would be forced to leave the city if they lose their homes because they certainly could not afford the rental prices that have been sky rocketing. someone recently told me about

looking for a studio and being asked for $2700 a month. and then you have the fact that the federal government and the banking industry have yet to truly act to help these families. the federal government bailed out the banking industry, but it did not bail out many of these homeowners, any of these homeowners. and, so comes the city of richmond which has been particularly hard hit by the foreclosure crisis and it has taken a very bold step to find a way of helping assisting homeowners in that city. more than half -- more than half of the owners of the city of richmond have homes that are under water, meaning that they owe more on their mortgages than their home is more than half of that city. so, richmond has teamed up with an investment company to

acquire these troubled mortgages with the goal of lowering the principal owed and keep l homeowners in their homes. and if the current homeowners refuse to cooperate, they will consider use of intervening as a tool. ~ i'm introducing a resolution that does a couple of things. first, it supports the efforts of the city of richmond. whatever you think about the specifics of what they're doing, the fact is that at least the city of richmond is doing something to help these home owners. and i think it's important for other jurisdictions to say that it's appropriate for local -- local jurisdictions like richmond to take action where the federal and state governments have failed to take action. the second thing that this resolution does is it simply calls upon the city and county of san francisco to consider options for getting involved in how to help our residents. it doesn't expressly say that we will do exactly what

richmond is doing. we understand there are legal issues, financial issues that need to be taken into account, and we believe that we need to explore how we act in a legally and financially fiscally responsible way. but we have a responsibility to at least explore options, and that's what this resolution does. it puts us on record and it asks the city attorney and the budget and legislative analyst to study whether a similar strategy like the one that richmond is using could work in san francisco. and i think that we have to act, and we in san francisco have a history of acting where the federal and state governments have not and it's consistent with that history and that tradition that this resolution call for the city and county of san francisco to explore responsibility. the second item which is

related to this request, to this resolution is a letter of inquiry that i'm submitting to our city assessor to find out how many san francisco homeowners are currently in foreclosure or are in the early stages of foreclosure. i think it's important to have that information as we are making a decision on whether or not to get involved. the third item, and i'm plowed to introduce this item, is an item in support of legislation that has been introduced by the speaker of the california assembly john perez, assembly bill 12 63. i want to thank supervisors avalos and president chiu for co-sponsoring this resolution. ab 12 63 would create the community cal program which would provide reliable access through language interpretation for medi-cal beneficiaries who

are limited english proficient. nearly half of all medi-cal recipients here in the state of california speak a language other than english. approximately one in five californians actually speaks english less than -- well, that's less than one in five. and what this legislation is doing, and we thank speaker perez for his leadership, is that it recognizes that there is a need for limited english speakers to be able to communicate effectively with their health providers. this bill is especially important right now since the affordable care act will be implemented, and 35% of the newly eligible medi-cal patients are expected to speak english less than well. it is also important to note that for many -- for any new medi-cal patients, the federal government will reimburse the state for 100% of the cost of interpretation. i think it's important for us

to be on the record to support ab 12 63. the next item is an ordinance that i'm proud to introduce that will allow an existing tourist hotel to rent rooms to homeless veterans for a period of time without abandoning the tourist hotel use classification under the law, under the code. the federal government has a supportive housing program for homeless veterans known as the hud veterans affairs supportive housing program. and this program combined rental assistance in the form of a voucher together with case management and clinical services provided by the department of veterans a farestion. ~ affairs. approximately 500 rental vouchers have been awarded here in the city and county of san

francisco up to this point. and while it's a federal priority to find housing for veterans, and it's likely that san francisco would get more of these vouchers, it has been difficult to help veterans avail themselves of this housing. i want to thank former supervisor bevan dufty for his leadership and tremendous work in not only helping homeless throughout the city, but specifically helping veterans. i am proud to introduce this legislation that would encourage and facilitate the use of rooms in existing tourist hotels for this voucher program. again, thank you, supervisor dufty, for your leadership. the next couple of items are very difficult and i'll be honest that i know there are things that happen sometimes in the world that we have, that we play as supervisors that are unexpected. ~ role

and there are things that are simply tragic and they touch you in a very real way. the next item that i have is a hearing request that i'm introducing regarding a very tragic incident that happened in my district in holley park. as you know, there was the death of christine vandermere this friday afternoon in holley park where this young mother and 11 month old was killed when she was run over by a maintenance truck from the rec and park department. i certainly was shocked and dismayed and certainly had a

number of emotions when we heard about this. i think i described it as being sick to your stomach when you hear something like this happens. it is tragic when this happens and we owe it to this family and we owe it to the city and county of san francisco to know what happened. i have been in conversations with the general manager of the rec and park department. i've also been in conversations with law enforcement to get answers as to how this horrific accident, this horrific event could have happened in a place, a park, a recreational space where families and children go where they expect to be safe and protected. i have received many e-mails, many calls from my district

which has been deeply impacted by this tragedy. one mother put it to me this way. we have lost more than a local mother. we have lost our ability to feel safe in our parks. so, today in response to this tragedy, i am calling for a hearing on the recreation and parks department's policies in terms of safety, the policies and procedures that are followed in terms of vehicles including maintenance vehicles and parks and recreational spaces. i'd like to know, among other things, the safety rules and regulations that the rec and park department and employees are expected to follow, especially when driving vehicles that are dangerous and

are large and could be harmful, that could be dangerous to someone who is using the park. what are the steps that are taken when an employee isn't following those rules and regulations. how is the department responding to complaints about any unsafe practices that have been reported by residents. quite frankly, a number of other questions that have been presented to us, we want people to feel safe in our parks. and we know that there is an ongoing investigation of this incident, including a criminal investigation. and while legally we may not delve into the specifics of the actual accident because it's still under investigation, i think it is important as a matter of policy to understand the rules that govern the conduct of these vehicles. i want to assure the public, i want to assure residents in my district that my office will

continue to do everything we can to get to the bottom of what took place and to ensure that there is accountability and full transparency with respect to this tragedy. lastly, i would like to ask the board that we adjourn the meeting not only on behalf of myself, but on behalf of the entire board of supervisors in the memory of christine vandermere who passed away last week. christine was a loving partner to her husband [speaker not understood] and had recently become a new mother to her