standing they were going to present today. supervisor mar: supervisor daly is suggesting that someone from dcyf, that we try to get comments from dcyf as well. >> should i finish? i do believe there are representatives from dcyf present also. there was concern about doing an entire audit. our understanding is that the controller's office has just completed some work looking at some of the programs and nonprofits that are provided. we have begun looking at that, and that will be one of the starting point. because of that, there was also concerned about early childhood education and care, and that area in specific is what we would be looking at. we would identify those city departments that actually

provide early childhood education and care. these would include dcyf, human services agency, the first five commission, department of public health, recreation and park, and other city departments. we would also evaluate if the city policies and standards for providing early childhood care and education are contradictory or inconsistent. we have some understanding that there are different programs that are going on by different city agencies, and we would look at that. we would then identified as best practices -- identify those best practices for citywide early childhood education. this would be for san francisco and elsewhere. we would evaluate the duplication of services among city departments, and also those gaps in any program services, those services that were utilized and in underserved communities within the city and county. we would then also look at

federal, state, local, or private foundation funding sources for programs for early childhood education service, and look at the city departments that are applying for these funds and how they are using this funding sources. we would also look at any potential overlaps or gaps in providing funding for these various early childhood education and care programs, and look at the department's oversight of the funds and the providers. we would not actually look at the nonprofit providers of these services, but look at it only from the city's perspective in providing that oversight. in terms of consistent criteria for evaluating the program performance, the use of the program evaluation and making program funding decisions. we will also evaluate the city's early childhood education care coordinate with child health programs. this could be a potential

problem. we would also identify opportunities for improved coordination and consolidation of the department's early childhood care and education program. we estimate that this audit or study would require approximately 1000 hours of our staff time and that we could complete it by the end of october. again, as i indicated from the earlier audit, we have the capacity within our existing contract to take on this study of early childhood care and education at this time. we would commence it immediately, especially during supervisors break when we will have available staff to place on this assignment, and even if both of these assignments were

given to us at this time, we would have additional capacity to take on other work when the committee and the board resumed. on that note, i would indicate that in discussions with the chair, we have talked about coming back before this committee in september to talk about the overall work plan moving forward. in terms of other projects, we would welcome other projects and assignments from this committee and other members of the board as we come back to you in september after your break to talk about our additional assignments going forward. supervisor mar: thank you. we have comments from representatives from dcyf. >> good morning, supervisors.

thank you very much for inviting us to comment. in general, our office is actually ready to respond to the audit. in particular, we look forward to the narrowing the scope of this audit. when we first heard about the dcyf study and audit, we were curious to know in what ways we could participate further. since we play a smaller role in the larger investment, we are glad to hear that this will be an interdepartmental effort, and we look forward to your further guidance to cooperate with the office. >> it is active in, i guess. city-wide child-care administrator, and to echo that comment, we really welcome the opportunity to work with the

departmental audit as we jointly fund, joint discussions around policy and planning and services, and also work with eph. it will be a welcome opportunity to dialogue about how we might be able to interconnect with services and programs. supervisor mar: can i just ask a question? i know that through the early childhood education funds, there has been an effort to try to urge the city to look at better coordination of early childhood education program in. could you talk a little bit about what is currently going on with dcyf and hsa and first five and other early childhood education in duties? >> are you speaking of the mayor's proposal to online the two city departments? at this time, dcyf and hsa have been hosting community forums.

we had two. they were duplicates of one another, where we shared the background and history of the effort to align city departments around early care and education policy planning and financing. we spoke about the vision for early care education in the city. we also spoke about objectives and the next community forum will be held next month in august. first 5 has been present, but again, the mayor's directive was city departments, so they are engaged in the conversation and have shed their commitment to be a strategic partner. that is where we are today. -- shared their commitment to be a strategic partner. supervisor mar: sounds like this 1000-hour service of it and study, to be completed by halloween some time, should be helpful in this process of increasing efficiencies within our departments and better communication for early childhood education, so i think this is a very good use of the

powers of the budget analyst, and i think this will help inform and guide some of the efforts already going on as well, but thank you for the great work. supervisor chu: just a clarification to the budget analyst -- from my understanding, this will now be an audit that is not necessarily only focused on dcyf. it will be a number of other departments. >> department of public health, because of some of the child health programs. supervisor chu: ok, so the document we have before us will have to be changed then. i'm imagining we will have an amendment as a whole, particularly if we do send this out to the full board of supervisors, but from my understanding, the scope of the audit has changed such that now, we will no longer be focusing solely on dcyf. we'll also be concentrating on

first five, hsa, and and organizations in the city that do have a hand at early childhood education in the city, correct? >> that is correct, but my understanding it is actually a narrowing of the focus. supervisor chu: right, and in terms of the population, the population now is early childhood, so we are talking about zero to five, i would imagine? >> i believe that is correct. that would probably be one of the first tasks we would do, define the scope. >> when we talk about the joint founders, and we primarily talk about early childhood, but we also fund child care, which goes up to 12, so many of our programs that serve the 05 population also did after-school time, so some time there are linkages, but i would imagine that the scope of the work, because the program serves children up to that age, that it will cover children older than

five -- programs that serve the zero to five population. supervisor chu: one of the issues is that the lines on page two, lines 1214, authorizes the use of the commission to recommend programs and areas of importance to be reviewed. that probably would not be relevant, given the fact that we are concentrating on 05, i would imagine -- on zero to five, i would imagine. ok, that is all my questions. supervisor mar: supervisor, were you suggesting those as amendments that should be added this language into our motion? supervisor chu: i was actually trying to make sure that i do have clarification because the document before us does not have reference to any of the other departments. if we are focusing on the 025 population, then the youth commission would not necessarily

be the best organization to provide programmatic descriptions -- on the zero to five population. supervisor mar: this is amended language? >> that was the motion that was handed in earlier. >> that is the language we drafted and submitted to the supervisor's office. i believe that will be an amendment as a whole that we will submit. i do not know if they are going to make additional edits to the prior to submission. i suspect that is most of the changes that would be made. supervisor daly: i would actually make a motion to forward this item to the full board without recommendation. i am interested in hearing from the sponsor of the item was the

impetus for this audit is. it seems to be looking for work and in trying to craft its so that it makes sense, so -- as opposed to there being a clearing call from the public or some crisis of confidence or something that was found through budget deliberations or engagement with the community that brings us to hear, so i'm not opposed to the item or this being done, but i would like to hear from the sponsor why she thinks we should be going in this direction. so that would be my motion. supervisor mar: ok, and i think that is a valid point. supervisor chu: i'm wondering if we could -- just a friendly suggestion. perhaps what we could do is make an amendment as a whole and except those that are initial draft reports because that represents a narrowing of the scope that the budget analyst

has been in discussions with so that at least that will be part of the but the -- a public document that goes forward to the board of supervisors the public can look at, and i would be happy to send it forward with recommendations that -- without recommendation so we can hear from the project sponsor. supervisor mar: sounds like there is no objection to the friendly amendment as an amendment as a whole, and also, there is a motion to move this forward without recommendation to the full board. is there any objection to that motion? seeing none, we are going to move this as amended to the full board without recommendation. any other comments, colleagues? did we open this up for public comment? no, we have not, so before taking action on this, is there anyone from the public that would like to speak >> -- that would like to speak? >> good morning, supervisors.

i would like to speak out in opposition to this, so in a certain sense, i am agreeing with supervisor daly. the reason i'm opposing this is that it seems to me that this organization was very well run, and according to the newspaper reports, she was removed and necessarily, so if we are going to do any audit of that agency, i think we ought to start with why she was removed. according to my research, everyone agreed that she had done such a fine job, but somehow, she met the same fate as myself. in other words, if you are an able city employee, somehow, they find a reason to remove you. anyway, back to this motion, i think it is more relevant since ms. newman repeatedly says that she has so many hours to do audits. as a public service to san

francisco, especially the poor and disabled, we ought to be doing it on san francisco general hospital, and if ms. newman feels she has enough time, we ought to do the whole department of public health. it's still baffles my mind why almost every supervisor has opposed any formal inquiry into san francisco general hospital and department of public health. according to ms. newman's own words, she said she had plenty of ours, and in order to maybe expedite the process, since i myself work for 20 years at general hospital, i would gladly donate unlimited number of hours to point the budget analyst's office into areas where they should be checking this out. there was a 2003 financial audit done and presented to the board of supervisors. i'm still wondering why there is still opposition on the board level to doing a review to see

whether those recommendations are carried out. doing something like that, i think, is far more helpful to the poor and disabled in san francisco who depend on the hospital's services rather than doing it on an agency, according to my research, that has not really had any problems. i have not seen any reports lately saying that there were problems with that agency. for the record, i did speak with supervisor alioto-pier regarding an audit of general hospital back in 2007, and she politely refused to support that idea, so i agree with supervisor daly that maybe her thinking is a little off on this matter. supervisor mar: thank you. is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. there is a motion to amend this that has been moved without

objection, and then we are going to move this forward to the full board without recommendations, without objection. so move. is there anything else on the agenda? >> no, there are no further items. supervisor mar: thank you, everyone, for coming. meeting is adjourned.

>> get this ceremony under way. we have a great day here for the momentous occasion for the sentences " and a bridge retrofit. in the public information officer for san francisco opened a bridge with caltrans. \ we're going to hear from a few key folks to talk about the history, what is actually happening today, and media that are interested, hopefully you have signed up on the waiver sheet and the signing sheet to take a boat tour that will get you a little closer to the work

happening today. this morning, about 6:00, we started lifting a 1200-ton, 165- foot tall section that is the first part of our signatures than for the world's largest self-anchored suspension bridge. you can sit right here behind me. it is already vertical. it is being unbolted, and it will be split into place and sit down on a foundation where it will stand for at least 150 years in the next few hours. without further ado, i would like to introduce our secretary of california business, transportation, and housing agency, secretary dale bonner. >> thank you very much, and thank you all for coming out here this afternoon. great to be here. great day for the bay area commuters. i want to just underscore that today is a day that has been very long in coming, so we are all gathered here today to recognize a little bit of history that is going on.

i'm here on behalf of the governor and state to release say not only congratulations but a number of well-deserved bank used to everybody who has been instrumental in helping us get this far today, and that includes our local and regional and federal partners who have been great to work with over the last several years at least and probably longer in getting us here. members of the toll bridge program oversight committee, i see some of you here today. i see we have some members of the california transportation commission, at least one of whom you will hear from this morning, but the others, good to see you here today. i want to thank the new director of the department of transportation who has been working on at least the financial and funding part of this project for a number of years, and we look forward to the leadership you will bring to it now as the director of

caltrans. i was here last week trying to tell everybody what a good job your doing in district four with this project and some of the other complex projects you have going on in this region, but we appreciate you hear as well. i also want to thank a few of the hard hats we see here today. these 30 people who have worked very hard to turn a vision and a bunch of raw materials into the world-class asset that will stand the test of time, so we appreciate the hard work they have done. and most of what we, i think we need to say thank you to the bay area commuters for their patience and support and for hanging in with this project and for pushing and cajoling those of us, the decision makers, and those of us who were responsible for delivering this project on time. we appreciate your patience and support. we're celebrating the placement of the first tower section in the self-anchor suspension span, which will soon be a very

breathtaking landmark here in the san francisco bay area. this is yet another impressive engineering and construction milestone in what has been an ongoing seismic retrofit project here for a very long time. it is one of the country's most vital bridges that was important not only to the bay area and the state of california but in fact, the united states. we all know we have achieved a great deal so far and that is why we are gathered here today, but we also know that there is much more to do, so we are going to look forward to the continuing support and dedication for many years to come. i would like to ask my friend, another great leader in this area, the mayor of oakland, to come forward and say a few words this morning. [applause] >> thank you. i have a few brief remarks i would like to make, but let me just began on a personal note.

someone mentioned history a few minutes ago. someone had said longevity has its place. i'm probably one of the few people at this gathering that can recall the origin of this bridge or at least by my mother and father's accounts. when the bay bridge first opened up, they allow people to walk on the bridge for a nickel or a dime, and my folks told me that they carried me as a tiny kid on to that bridge, so i have lived long enough to see an extraordinary evolution. it is fitting that the entrance to this world-class region, which serves as a gateway to the pacific rim, and the world of trade, commerce, and economic exchange, is a world-class landmark bridge, a remarkable engineering feat. this bridge not only graces the point of entry to the port of oakland, one of the most

powerful economic engines in the greater bay area region, but it also connects the people and cities of the bay area. our economies and opportunities are interdependent. safe crossing facilitates healthy exchange and movement of goods, services, people, and tourists. the safety i allude to cannot be underestimated. as beautiful as this remarkable tower will be, and indeed will be beautiful, the critical factor of this seismic retrofit is our emergency preparedness. to that end, this project is essential for the bay area's economic health, particularly following a major disaster. in this case, potentially an earthquake. finally, i wish to both thank and congratulate each and every person that participated in the planning, the hard work that

brings us to this moment and beyond. with those remarks, i would now like to introduce my distinguished colleague and very good friend, the mayor of san francisco, mayor gavin newsom. [applause] mayor newsom: thank you for being out here and taking the time out of your day. let me just pay special thanks to all the hard working men and women that have worked so hard on this project for all these many years. the people in the building and construction strayed, all the engineers, all the seismic experts, all those consultants that helped bring us to where we are today. i have got to admit -- three years, $77 million, and a new bridge and a transbay terminal is pretty impressive. i want to remind you it only

took three years to be imagine the day by building this bridge. here we are with a $1.43 billion self-anchored suspension with a component of a 6.2/$6.3 billion project just for a portion of this bridge that has taken a little bit more than three years. i have to be honest -- i, at a point when i was a city supervisor, thought this would never happen. this thing that caught up in politics, the likes of which i could never have imagined. we had a new mayor on that side, new mayor on the side, one has strong opinions about where this thing would take off, and another had a design issue. the two governors, one that had left, and finally, greg davis said enough, stop, we have to

get this thing done, and basically broke the impact and got us moving. i know folks do not like to hear that, but let's be honest -- the earthquake was in 1989, and here we are 20 years later, and we are a number of years away from this being completed. my long winded point is not to rein on the party but to acknowledge this because it needs to be acknowledged. that is an important point of the history, that we have finally made up for some of those delays. we are finally moving expeditiously. we are reaching our goals. we're working collaborative live together on the east side and west side of the day. we're working with the governor's office. the bureaucracy is moving. unions are working. people are out here, and real things are taking shape. the 280,000 vehicles that go across this every single day, and they have been waiting

patiently to get to this point. by the way, i have been waiting patiently, too, because i was just in shanghai, it seems like a few weeks back, and literally, the day that we arrived was the day that this piece of the bridge was shipped off. if it could have gotten on the plane, we would have been here a few weeks ago, but it took a little bit of time. it was wonderful to actually be here with some of the folks that were doing the construction out in shanghai, a sister city of san francisco, and to see it be here. it is a wonderful sight indeed. this is a world class structure. there is nothing like it in the united states of america. one could argue there's no tower like this anywhere in the world. this is something for generations that we're going to be very proud of. we have the icon, which is the

golden gate bridge. i think the bay bridge is beautiful. it always is the stepchild of the golden gate, but i think that could change. nothing will replace the putin and majesty of the golden gate, the folks will be talking about this bridge all around the world. it is absolutely spectacular. has been a work of love and passion. so many people that made this happen and kept this moving, and i want to put my hat off to all of you, and in the spirit of and had, make a point that needs to be made about this hat, and that is we are very proud that we delivered another icon. this not from the far east in asia, but from back east in new york city with a brilliant move by the golden state warriors that was lost not by all of us out here but by some folks in the media le media lebron game stuff