in turn in my office for the summer. there is an army of in terms that have been helping out as well. thank you so much for all of your great work on this budget. this budget would not be brought to us without the fortuitous and unexpected windfall from the real-estate transfer tax. if there is a real estate transfer tax god that is out there, i want to thank you for helping us close this budget. people buying property has helped us close this budget to make sure that we continue to do this in san francisco. i would like to say no more. i want to thank you for all of your work and consideration on this budget. we would be voting in favor and

moving forward. >> thank you. i would very much like to affiliate with the comments of the budget chair avalos. we have moved forward two years in a row. we have navigated around three years of consecutive budget deficits that have been landmark budget deficits, we are told. we understand that we are facing a year or two of the even more significant budget deficits. we are becoming quite skilled as a body of legislatures -- legislators in navigating around the trends of boom and bust nationally. while our economy is flying and a low altitude with high turbulence, san francisco continues to indoor and and were well. this was made to happen by the

way that our body on the budget committee and the websites along with the mayor's office was able to move forward with sometimes great debate. obviously, keeping in mind that the strong instance your intent on doing the best on the behalf of the people of san francisco. i want to extend our strong appreciation to the status of all of our offices who have helped considerably in marshalling all of those fine nuances that often go unnoticed. they somehow become the hinge or the glue that keeps us moving forward as a unit. i want to extend our confidence to the mayor and his staff and the budget office. i have been part of the budget negotiations. at times, we may disagree.

there was not one time where it may be collegial. there would be a high respect and pride that we have for the offices that we maintain and the honor that we feel in representing the people of san francisco. i want to thank both controller and budget analysts for their hard work and the legions of people that have affiliated with one cause or another that are still here, that have been here during these torturous recesses. they have endured over the many weeks of this process, not having a road map, but trying to figure out telepathically what we are trying to figure out telepathically, since none of us want to violate brown tax laws. we have gotten to a place where many cities wished they were at

as well. some are struggling to maintain basic services. struggling to maintain a quality that san francisco is providing. i think we are on the cusp of demonstrating that this is a city that knows how. with a budget of $100 million less than last year, we still have a budget that is a fantastic at the size that it is. that is still larger than 10 states in the united states. that is a lot to shoulder. >> colleagues, i want to indulge those of you who led the budget committee process. chairman of loews, supervisor elsbernd, campos, and maxwell. thank you so much for the hours of dedication. for those of you not on the committee that suffer in

ancillary ways as we try to make sure that this is not too extensive. somehow between our colleagues on the board and the mayor, we are able to stay out of the way and make sure that things go well. i know that our chairman " has wanted to put this to rest. there is so much good work and good news. over the days to come, the work of this committee and the chairman is going to become very evident. the importance of this document to reflect upon our colleague, supervisor daily said, this is the most important document that we have every year. in the area, a number of people came out. the budget process is a very

humanistic and organic process. legions of people come out. many young people and people who dedicate themselves to serving young people came out. at the time, it was overwhelming. there were so many young people that were frustrated at the time. i hope that in the days ahead, the young people in the organization are going to benefit from these organizations. these voices were heard. this document does reflect what their needs are. this does reflect the goals that we have as a city. know what -- no matter where a young person might live, no matter where they're starting, this person does aspire for them to achieve greatness. there is a tool box in place in every neighborhood in this city. this has guided us and showed us as they were reflecting on the amount of production.

i was floored when i saw that they had one of the highest possible level of reductions. i do feel like the controller ' s work reflected it. this will be the last budget that i have an opportunity to participate in as a supervisor. we are coming to a place where i think there is a commonality between the office to achieve mutual goals. >> i want to reflect on the staff that contributes so much. i am not that avid of a baseball scorekeeper. i would say that he had a very good year this year. there were relatively few voices raised in objection. the work comes up from the budget proposals, a lot of the work we have done in the process.

our controller is not here. i hope that this will not be in the budget. the comptroller's office is particularly unique. they will contribute to this process. they will work with all of us on the board, which is an amazing quality. hopefully, all of us could aspire to have that in city government. they bring information and guidance and professionalism to this process. i want to a knowledge of our deputy city attorney who has always kept us on the road successfully and provided the information that we needed and take a moment to reflect on greg wagner, who had an extremely difficult year and has done an outstanding job in leading his team. i have great appreciation. i know that all of my colleagues do. i want to tip my hat to the mayor. i know he has focused on the

major challenge he would have in 2010. i think that he has been very diligent. he has had to deal with reserves, reductions, changes at every turn. i have to point to my dear friend. he has been involved in the labor negotiations that we 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