person. we worked with him on many projects in north beach. it to work with us on the noodle fest. he can work with children, the police, neighbors. a part of our district is broadway, and he has been great. we have members of our association hornell from broadway, coming to the table, thanks to shell. it is time to move on from these partisan people on the entertainment commission and find someone who knows their stuff but is not going to be beholden to the industry. i cannot of size that more. at this time to move on from that time. thank you. supervisor avalos: next speaker, please? >> good afternoon. i am a member of the small business commission and i'm here to support the application of shell thomas, for several of the

reasons the previous speaker outlined. i know shell. i have watched him work with people. his economic opportunities for youth are extremely important. somebody who has experience in the community, active experience, is also an important consideration as you choose between i believe several very qualified applicants. i wish our commission. i hope that all commissions have as deep a pool of qualified, active people. thank you very much. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please? >> good afternoon, i'm just here to show support for shell thomas. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker? >> good afternoon.

i am proud to be here to support tim benetti. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker? >> i have been in the entertainment industry 12 years, operated several different venues. i am here to give my support to shell thomas, partially for his work with the neighbors associations, truck tried to get the police departments and associations and us all communicating. that is all i have to say. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker. mr. brown? >> i feel like i'm living here. only three hours until the giants go on. i am supporting mike o'connor. i have known him for a while.

the class of 2000, devyn became the mayor, gonzales has his own law firm. at who do you were about of all of your colleagues? chris kayleigh. michael o'connor, you know what he did? back before chris daly was the supervisor, he was a bartender. michael o'connor taught him, and out chris daly is falling back on the skills. o'connor is fantastic. i have known him for years. six years on small business, o'connor is a great guy. he gets along with everybody, works well with everybody. when i had to throw a bachelor

party for my son in law, i looked up michael o'connor. he is known in every establishment at every level in san francisco. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you, mr. brown. go, giants. any other member of the public would like to speak on this item. seeing none, public, disclosed. supervisor alioto-pier? supervisor alioto-pier: thank you, supervisor campos. mr. o'connor, regardless of what was set up here, it will not affect the outcome. although we are all very grateful that you help supervisor daly in that regard. i think i have no new water problem than chris has. regina think i have known you probably longer than chris has. but me just say, this is a

remarkable group of people. we always have remarkable groups of people, but very thoughtful, articulate, experienced. if the entire entertainment commission looks much like what we saw today during testimony, we would be a very lucky city in deed. i want to thank mr. o'connor for his service. the work on the small business commission has been truly significant, and i think that experience would play well in a commission like this. the testimony of mr. hahn i thought was really -- i thought that stood alone, and so did mr. thomas and ms. weissman. the work on the civil grand

jury, you have probably worked in learned on many things that most people do not know, which would benefit the commission. but i will be supporting mr. benetti today, for a number of different reasons. aside from the fact that he is truly qualified for this position, his resume is fabulous. but i think mr. benetti and i share a perspective most people do not share. when you sit at the board of supervisors and are in the middle of heated debate and one of your colleagues turns around and looks at you and says, you know, disabled people don't go to golden gate park so we don't have to worry about the issues there which is an honest to god statement, i have to say to myself, we need more people who were about and are concerned with and understand issues of access. when it comes to places of entertainment. i think i as a person of disability and a person who uses

a wheelchair, most of my obstacles are places of entertainment, restaurants that are too pact, night clubs that say you used a chair, you don't dance. how do you know? it has a lot to do with having the same access as everyone else. i think mr. benetti's point of view is very important and one that we cannot get enough of. but he said about having a place that is a little higher so that you can see over the crowd -- that is a really good idea. i go to the american music hall and there is no elevator. and nobody says anything. to me, this is a personal choice. but i believe we need more people who are focused on access issues, involved in city government, and i was really happy to see he had put his name

forward. i will be supporting his candidacy today. supervisor avalos: thank you, supervisor alioto-pier. supervisor mar? supervisor mar: this is a tough decision, but it is so great to see so many applicants. i want to thank terrance alan, for his hard work on the commission, building up the commission since its inception of the past seven years. i appreciate brit hahn's willingness to concern, but i have concerns about industry. i think for legitimacy and stability of the commission, we need independent voices on there. i agree with some of the speakers that said it has to be somebody was outside of the ownership of clubs. i want to say michael o'connor served as a great small business commissioner and i want to see him continue, but i think the

diversity he would bring to this seat is important. but i still feel that that ownership question and independents -- and independents that drives my decision, i think miss weissman and others have been giving good qualifications. mr. benetti, like mr. hahn, gives me some concern because of the connection with club ownership. i want to know more about the music and culture association, as well, or the california music and culture association, to talk about the industry, but i feel the most independent person for me would be shell thomas. is why i think there is the broadest range of support for them. i even like the type of work he has done within the city, from the green businesses to even turning around former liquor

stores to be successful businesses. there is tremendous experience, and a range of experience that i think could bring tremendous qualities to the entertainment commission and help with stability, but to them sick, and provide that legitimate voice. -- stability, legitimacy, and provide that legitimate voice. supervisor avalos: thank you. the key to all the applicants. i know they cannot all be here. thank you for missing your name. -- thank you for submitting your name. we also want to thank outgoing commissioner terrance alan for his leadership and service. i think what i am looking for in terms of the entertainment commission is independence, but i also think it is putting that issue in context.

i know there are probably some colleagues on the board of supervisors who have a difference of opinion with me on this issue. i have worked with a number of these individuals. i have seen commissioner o'connor, and i think that makes sense. but mr. thomas' presentation was impressive, as was mr. hahn. this supervisor has a different take on some of the issues around entertainment. i believe the industry has to be responsible. i believe the industry has to be held more accountable, and that has not happened to the extent that is needed. but i also worry about the anti-entertainment center that that is coming out of local government at times, and that worries me. i think that a member of the atomic commission should not be persuaded by the industry -- of

the entertainment commission should not be persuaded by the industry, but it cuts both ways. that have to be independent. not that any of these individuals would not be, but based on the presentation and experience i see, i think that tim benetti is the better choice and i will be supporting tim today. any other college questions or comments? can we have a motion? do we want a roll call? ok, we take that without objection. thank you, congratulations. madam clerk, any other business before the committee? >> no, mr. chair. supervisor avalos: thank you. meeting adjourned.

>> thank you. thank you. thank you for being here. >> santa clara graduate. truth be told. i couldn't get into cal and berkeley. it is not all about cal and berkeley. but of course drew is a better baseball player and moved on in his life and i'm stuck in public service which is hardly a place to feel stuck. i'm very enlivened by it, but i'm trying to make public life

more entrepreneurial. that's why i'm here. i am here because i admire the work you're doing and i'm frustrated by what we do in government, it it doesn't necessarily match the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit alive in this room and nom the city and state but across the country and the world. i want to say a few things. we're in san francisco, in one of the most diverse cities and the dirs states and the world's most diverse democracy. people are prospering and living together across the most imaginable difference. why do i say that? birthplace, united nations, why do i bring that up? i do at the end of the day make this strong point, that nothing matters more than our capacity to recruit and retain the best and the brightest minds from around the world. that what makes san francisco, what makes this state, what makes this country special at

our best is that quality of imagination. that innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, that ability to retain the best and brightest minds. that's why it is right that we're in a city that doesn't tolerate its diverseity. we celebrate it each and every day. that human capital, that differentiater. that is alive and well today because you wouldn't be here had it not been for that differentiater. you have a million other cities that you could be doing this first conference, but you chose san francisco, the birthplace of life science and biotechnology, the home of the california stem cell institute, one of the most dynamic cities still in this very difficult economic climate, the -- the home of twitter and companies like wikipedia, sales force.com. four square as he was mentioning. all of these remarkable companies that are now starting

to take shape here in san francisco. play fish, the gaming industry really taking off. zinga and the work that mark is doing and their growth and that potential, all taking shape in this small city that we call home. again, because this is where the talent about that ability to recruit and retain the best and the brightest minds. almost 0-plus percent. not almost, over 40% of the people in the city have bachelor's degrees or greater. not many cities have that concentration of talent. at the end of the gay, the primary function of a mayor is -- to create the conditions so we could create an environment where people like you can come to -- together and do extraordinary things. now, back to my point, i won't take too much of your time, government -- government needs that entrepreneurial spirit now more than ever for -- for obvious reasons.

two that are self-evident to all of you. one, we're broke. the soaked, you don't have that much confidence -- the second, you don't have much confidence to solve your problems. we're better off taking inspiration from you and the private sector and trying to inject it into government as we know it. my friend tim o'reilly came to me a couple of years ago and said, he started talking about the notion that -- of government as it -- as a vending machine. and that -- you basically pay yore taxes then offproscribed list of products and services, you basically pull the lever and that product or service is dispensed. that's it. that's rather one dimensional. the at some point to have you our consumers, the taxpayers, the shareholders to design government in your interest,

individually and collective is limitless. that's really what -- what i am looking -- looking forward to in terms of the work that you're doing. not just for your own interests but -- not just for your private interests but for the public good. that's why a year and a half ago, with tim and others, we came together and we put together an open data strategy for city government. we took a bunch of information and put it together and said, it is yours. this is your government, this is your information, now go at it. now figure out something to do with this information. something we could never have imagined and my gosh, got forbid would take us a year or two to go through a procurement process. you'll have to do an r.f.i. an r.f.q., r.f.p., lowest responsive bidder. then go through a process and where it goes through hearings

and the county board makes their way to the mayor's office and by the time you get it out there, we run out of money and nothing happens. you on the other hand have taken information and in realtime put applications now that exist days, in some cases hours after we put the data, you had days weeks and months and the cost to the taxpayers is zero. let me give you specific examples. we have an application showcase. if you go to s.f. data.org, you'll get the data we put up. we're barely getting started, we only have 150 data, we're getting started and tomorrow coincidentally, i'm going to acquire with the ordinance, diane executive order and codify with an ordinance to make san francisco government responsible for putting up thousands of data

from every city department. be it the department of environment, be it the department of public works, be it the police department and the fire department, et cetera to do the following. we put muni information up, company out of nowhere comes together and calls roots and takes information that exists so you could go on your p.d.a. and instead of worrying about whether we're on time with the public transit, you could find ow in realtime exactly when the bus will arrive. you got mothers that came together, because -- they actually -- are working more collaboratively to celebrate a lot of work that has been done to our play grounds in san francisco and they put together a mom map application, which uses the g.p. snfment your hand and can tell you where a play ground or park is within your area. you have got crime mapping that is being done now so if you you want to make sure you come to

san francisco and you're nervous and you read about the tragedy with the tourist and you're not confident, you're going to stay at a hotel, you're not sure if the tenderloin is the right place, you could go on this crime mapping,.com, application, and you could get all of the latest realtime crime mapping data. well ahead of anything that the city itself produces. we -- we're doing this for literally dozens and dozens of applications. how about this? how many of you, i imagine, everyone, some of you may never have had this indignity. not waking up in time when those street sweepers are outside. it is as government purposely does this to you. you're working hate and it is 5 a.m. they do the street sweeping. why not 7:00 our 8:00 or 9:00. it is always that hour or two before and you don't want to wake up. now we have an application.

we were going to spend 30,000 to put this together, it would have taken us months to go through that procurement process. and folks came can up like that for no cost. now we have an application that will tell you and warn you when those street sweepers are coming so you don't get outrageous tickets. these are the kind of things that are very practical that make a big difference in your lives. very soon incidentally, you're going to be able to go. this is the first city in america that has congestion parking meter prying, where you have an inventory of all of the on-street parking spaces and you're going to determine the availability of parking in realtime on your p.d.a., so you don't have to circle around the corner 20, 30 times. called s.f. park. again, three dimensional, this is the future of government. real transparency. real accountability. you designing government in your image. i think this is