cannot be directly involved with. they are reducing the general obligation funds. those are not simply givebacks. these are things that we have shared. we have to have a balanced budget that has these programs that make errors in the vital. these make it possible to have this before us. there is a tremendous amount in the budget that reflects from department to department, their best effort to live within the means of are available. whether there are over time

issues or workers' comp issues. the department heads have taken what has been a very dispiriting process and have responded greatly to get. i do want to thank all of you that have done so much this year that have put forth a budget. going forward, it is really going to be regarded for all that it has done for the city. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, supervisor campos. >> i will try to be as brief as i can. i want to associate myself with all of the comments that have been made, especially around the tremendous work that has been done by staff from both sides of the political aisle. with respect to my office, you can only be as good or effective

as the staff that you have. i just want to thank my two legislative aides. in particular, hillary, who has taken a leadership role this year and has done a terrific job in terms of work effort and the product and the spirit and the manner with which she has approached this. i just want to say how grateful i am to have been able to work with them. along the same lines that my colleagues indicated, i wanted to thank the chairman of the budget committee for taking on this responsibility once again. you have done and a lot for the city in a short period of time. the fact that your willing to take this on in a tougher budget year, that says a lot. it is not just you, it is your family and staff. they all have to deal with what it means to do this process.

it has been a pleasure to serve with you on the budget committee and a pleasure to serve with all of my colleagues. supervisor elsbernd, supervisor mirkarimi. i have learned a lot. that is one of the things about this job. you get to see all that each one of you brings to the table. it is a very humbling experience. you do learn a lot. with respect to the mayor's office, i do want to thank mr. wagner and the level of professionalism he has brought to this job and the level of opportunity that we had to talk about the budget. i always felt like i could trust the information provided. you should be proud of the very good work you have done in your first year as budget director. i look forward to continuing to work with you and your staff.

a supervisor dufty indicated, the work of the comptroller, what that means for this process is just invaluable. we wished him the best of luck as he is taking care of a newborn. hopefully, he will be getting some sleep. that will probably not be for a while. harvey, we would not be able to be where we are without his inside. i know everything that they do is a lot of professionalism. they are very accurate. i want to thank you. of course, the leadership of president chiu, even though he is not on the budget committee, he plays a very important role. i want to thank you, mr. president, for a very hands on approach to this budget. with respect to mayor new sum, i

do want to make up for the manner in which he had approached the discussions that we have had about budget. even as supervisor mirkarimi indicated, even we do not agree. it was always very cordial and substantive. the last thing that i would say is that i think we can all be very proud of passing something along the lines of what has been proposed in this budget. there is no such thing as a perfect budget. even though there is a lot to be proud of, there is a lot of work to be done. to address the issues that are facing the city, it is not enough for us to figure out how we balance this budget. we need to figure out ways in which we can inject revenues into this budget. this is only part of the equation.

even though many restorations were made, there were many significant cuts that remain. many programs, even though they had restorations, the restorations were not to the level that all of us want to see them. i think that the next few days are really critical in making sure that we inject revenue into the system. we do not complete as a venture without adding revenue. i think that we owe that to the citizens of the county of san francisco. i really look forward to engage in the mayor's office in that discussion beyond some of the revenue measures we talked about, there are structural reforms. i look forward to that discussion later on in this meeting. it is not just money that makes government run well. there has to be structural

reform. hopefully, we will be talking about some of them very shortly. thank you very much for the opportunity to serve. >> thank you, madam president. i would really like to congratulate the members of the committee for a document in front of us on its whole is excellent. unfortunately, based on the best intelligence that i have, i congratulate the mayor of san francisco for successfully holding three charter amendments hostage through a budget negotiation. if items 22, 53, 57 are on the ballot a little bit later, then i stand corrected and i withdraw

my statements. i would vote for this budget. i have a feeling that not only tonight are pretty strongly worded state laws referring to california penal code sections 85 and 86, which i all know you have seen the memo that has circulated when i first got wind of that the mayor wanted to take items that are unrelated to the budget without a monetary impact and make them part of a deal on a budget agreement. not only illegal, but the wrong course in terms of good government.

the legislature passed the law against doing it. it is clear that it is illegal for members of the legislative body to be doing this. there are good policies that we will talk about in a minute. in terms of governance, in terms of good government, even though the document that is in front of us is excellent, i would love to be commending the members of our board and the committee president based upon what i hear about the items, i cannot and will not be a party to this agreement. >> i forgot to thank hayward. he has worked with me for five

years. i do not think i could have navigated the budget of the terrain without him. >> supervisor chiu. >> i am going to be brief. i want to echo all of the thanks that have been named for the budget share. i spoke to supervisors mirkarimi, campos, and maxwell for your great work. the comptroller's staff, to my staff that have been putting in many late hours. to the press covering every word, thank you for tracking everything we are doing. to the community advocates that are here and have been here for many weeks, it takes a village to put a budget together. i want to thank our budget director, that possibly puts in the most number of hours on this

budget and his entire budget team. we know that budgeting is the core of city government. it is probably the most important thing that we do. there is going to be an incredible amount of work in the coming months and years to get our city on a firmer financial footing so that we can continue to provide financial services and provide public health for our most vulnerable san franciscans. i look forward to working with you on that in the years to come. >> supervisor avalos. >> thank you. i just forgot a couple of things. i wanted to thank president chiu for your work and your leadership on the budget process has helped us get through the past few weeks. i wanted to acknowledge mayor gavin newsom that you -- he was out with a budget as well. it was part of our collective

effort that will keep our city running. i also want to acknowledge my backing at home. my kids that i have not seen much in the past month. we look forward to spending a lot of time together for weeks to come. >> i would like to thank all of my colleagues on the budget committee. i would like to thank supervisor avalos. he was great under pressure. he was wonderful. all of us act in quite well under the circumstances all of the folks that came more understanding. they also understood what we were up against. they would mention that in their comments. we mentioned that the job was

difficult. where would we be without the people behind the scenes? they never left until i did. i just wanted to thank them and all of you that are part of a car city family. this is what makes san francisco a great place to live. because we care. thank you for all of that. colleagues, any further comments? if not, i would like to take roll-call on items 13 and 14. >> thank you, chairman maxwell. supervisor campos. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> supervisor daley, no. elsbernd, aye. mar, aye.

maxwell, aye. mirkarimi, aye. supervisor avalos, aye. there are 10 ayes and one no. [applause] >> the item has already been called. item 22. colleagues, any questions, comments? item 22. supervisor mirkarimi. >> we are shifting into a different year now. this item was called approximately seven and a half hours ago. the charter amendment that is

before us is a byproduct of many throughout san francisco that have worked very hard to get us to this particular place. i want to remind you all, since we have had a couple of committee hearings, i would be remiss in not thinking many of those who helped us to arrive at this particular discussion. some of those people have been here since 2:00 today. now we are approaching their 11:00. that is the golden gate audubon society. members of the youth commission. the golden gate white tenants association, the sunset park site education action committee. an open space conservancy. the richmond community association and quite a network

of the vs and read throughout the city of san francisco. the reason why there has been such a strong showing from all corners of san francisco is that it directly reflects the mission of all of us as 11 members of the board of supervisors. part of our core reason for being is to help constituents to feel a greater connection to city hall. city hall has to work harder for the people of san francisco. we want government to work well for the city of san francisco. that miller is one of the great features and accents of san francisco. that is the indigenous resource in. one of those happens to be administered by our recreation and parks apartment. our recreation and parks department has that particular challenge.

it has the noble goal of providing whether one is poor or impoverished or affluent in san francisco. one of the greatest equalizers in the cost for give and give city is access to our parks, no matter how small or large. the recreational services that are provided to any one of these populations. that is a big asset for a city that is compact, that is dense, and that is obviously seeking to keep itself very accessible. it wants to be affordable, even though this is a challenge from year to year. we are constantly reminded of this in a huge ways. when we see decisions being made on the recreation and parks commission, the commission that this unilaterally appointed by

the mayor, we do not always get the benefit of having that level of benefit in intersections in a way that many would like. we often feel that concerns by constituents that feel a detachment for a divorce from some of the most important decision making processes of the commission. there are no subcommittees on recreation and park commission. there are no advisory groups. there is not a level beyond the primary commission contact where people then have to go to the commission meetings to be able to process the kind of decisions that are quite frankly profound and meaningful to the day to day existence and being a san francisco. there are many people who were frustrated because they were not able to engage in a way that they would buy. they do this on the back end of

not being in a co-driver's seat. many of these amendments like to refer this to some sort of power grab. this is a misstep in the notion that this is not about legislative or executive. it is not about any members of the board of supervisors or major new sum. all of this would be projected for quite practically speaking, when mayor knew some leaves office. it is very clear that there is this ongoing desire and need to bring government, the many tentacles of government like the recreation and parks department closer to the people and make sure that is institutionalized in a way that people are in the comfort zone

that people -- in government is working for them in a most democratic and spirited level of engagement that is missing right now. i am not saying that rec and park is not doing a good job. i am not saying that they are not struggling financially. i also am saying that we can fortify the greatness of an entity like rec and parks department to make sure it is fueled by citizens power. we are not see and we are looking for any kind of shift in power. we are looking for a co- governance system. this is not reviewed by the board of supervisors and then picked by the board of supervisors in order to enforce that cooperation which has not

happened before in these kind of split commission appointments. in this particular construct, the person would be jointly pecked by the board president and the mayor. i think that would work very well. it would answer some of the concerns that have been ongoing and chronic. no matter what the fate is of this particular charter amendment, no matter what the fate is of any of these charter amendments, i would have to say coming out of the budgetary discussions that i am reminded that there must be a reestablishment of a bright line that must be attached to a certain principle that the fundamental integrity of our legislative process cannot be auctioned off and cannot be traded as part of a larger negotiable strategy. being able to reconcile and

rectify our budgetary process. that is a hard thing to do, especially when it is driven by those who hold purse strings. in this particular case, it is critical that we pull back and no matter how high of an order it is in order to pursue legislative and governance reform, sometimes those are going to have to be pursued at a high cost. at this particular time, we have arrived at in level of some stability when a city is struggling like ours, when we are looking to keep the quality level of service for the vast network of recreational and parks needs, to be able to upgrade the level of participation well we also knew seek tough budgetary decisions being made or not being made to the degree that we would like and answers sometimes becoming the front burner for seeking

towards privatisation or seeking toward outsourcing or seeking toward selling of property in order to pay for the restoration of services. those are the times that i wish we have some representation on a committee. colleagues, i appreciate very much your hearing this in full chambers here. i appreciate the rules committee for facilitating this conversation. my heartfelt appreciation to the many advocates who have long in gourd with this particular question of seeing some reform before anyone of us could pick up this mantle. i do not know what the outcome will be. that does not mean that if- charter does not advance, so should our efforts to not continue to seek these reforms

that would fall by the wayside. i look forward for us putting our effort in one capacity or another towards making sure the people of san francisco are getting what they expect. your support would be appreciated. >> thank you very much, madame chair. i want to thank supervisor mirkarimi for bringing this item forward. i am proud to be a co-sponsor of this amendment. as i indicated in my prior statements about the budget, i think passing a budget as part of the equation of effective governments of the city. it is not enough to pass a budget that makes sense. you have -- you have to look at whether or not structural reforms are needed. you have to assess each individual charter amendment on its merits. i want to speak now as a member

of the rules committee and a chairman of that committee and somebody that heard from all sides of this issue. i have to say that we had a lot of testimony. we had passionate testimony on both sides. i appreciate the fact that so many people came to talk about the charter amendment. the reason that people did come to rules is that our parks and recreational areas are something that are very important to the daily life of this city. i always say that you cannot talk about public safety without talking about parks and recreation. public safety takes more than just having police officers on the street. you have to give people, especially young people, things to do after school. recreational opportunities play an important part in keeping in

neighborhoods safe. i am in a position where i can say that even though a lot of good things are happening in this department, i do not believe that the current government structure is the right structure in terms of having the level of accountability and transparency that is needed. the fact is that until you have some division of power in terms of how appointments are made, some of the problems identified throughout the hearing will continue. it does not matter who the mayor for the individual members are. it is not about individual people or targeting individuals. this is about structural reform. even though we have a strong mayor system, that is a strong mayor system, but it is not a marquee. i think the proposal that has been put forward is a pretty modest proposal. it is one that recognizes that

there is something to be gained when the legislature also has the opportunity to make appointments to this body. it makes it more representative. oftentimes people that have no connection to this building, but nonetheless have a record of involvement and achievement around the area are people that should be on the commission. as an example, without choosing an individual or picking on an individual commissioner, we have at least one member of this body that has a majority of the members of the board of supervisors that voted against this individual. because of the current structure of this body, we do not have the ability to change that fact. we as a city need to make this a priority. that is why i am supportive of this amendment. i think it is something that

makes sense. so many people pointed out so many different issues that this charter amendment will go a long way in addressing and i am proud to support. >> thank you, madam president. i want to thank the supervisor mirkarimi for his leadership on this issue. i want to thank all of the activists and advocates that have move this forward. i support the spirit of the measure. i do want to say, as it has not been surprise to anyone, i have had such -- concerns about this measure. i believe that the parks and rec commission needs to have a more open and inclusive process. they have heard that message loudly and clearly. i anticipate that there will be changes in how the department interacts with the public in a more open and inclusive way.

i do not intend to support the charter amendment on its merits. i will be open to future reforms and changes. what we are all trying to achieve is to make sure that our families and our children have the most outstanding recreation and parks service says that we could possibly have. i look forward to working with you. >> let me just say that sometimes i enjoy a pissing in the wind. let me go ahead and do some of that. thank you, supervisor mirkarimi for bringing this forward. thank you to the advocates who have been organizing around this and mobilizing. a few of you are still here. what we have in front of us is a good piece of public policy. i have watched