>> good afternoon, supervisors. >> [speaking chinese] >> my name is mr. lin. i am a member of the chinese progressive association. i have been a construction worker for many years. >>i am also the main breadwinner for my family, but i have been unemployed very frequently. the job i am doing is not very secure. >> [speaking chinese] >> that is because of the high

unemployment rate, and also because of language barriers. >> [speaking chinese] >> i have been mainly unemployed for the past year. and of course it is not just me who is unemployed, but many of my friends in the construction industry who have been unemployed. sometimes, i have work. sometimes, i don't.

so the kind of jobs they get is if they do not have minimum wage. sometimes, they do not even get paid for the work they do. >> [speaking chinese] >> some employer says it is hard to find workers locally who have no experience -- to have those experiences or skills. this is just an excuse. we have a lot of workers in the city with experience and skills who are very industrious.

>> [speaking chinese] >> some employers may also say the wages would be really high. >> [speaking chinese] >> if you're talking about expenses, as the previous speaker said, what about the money you spend on prisons and jails? what about the money you spend on social benefits? that is expensive. >> [speaking chinese] >> i was not paid a lot. i was barely paid above minimum wage. >> [speaking chinese]

>> we in san francisco care about this issue. listen to unemployed workers. thanks. chairperson avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. [applause] >> [speaking chinese] >> good afternoon, board of supervisors. my name is lei tsai. i am a member of the chinese progressive association. i am here to support the local hiring initiative. >> [speaking chinese] >> i am a restaurant worker and my husband is a construction worker. i have two kids, and my husband is the main breadwinner.

but he is frequently unemployed. we are dependent on the meager wages i learned from working in the restaurant. -- i learned from working in the restaurant. -- i earn from working in the restaurant. it is not just me. a lot of families are facing this problem. [inaudible]

we need a plan to create jobs, to have jobs for economic progress. we are happy to have this local hire initiative. >> [speaking chinese] >> this initiative would create many job opportunities for us. we hope that this legislation will pass. thank you. [applause] chairperson avalos: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am the president of a construction company as well as the san francisco chinese club. today, i am supporting local hiring.

construction bonds are local money. we need to use it rightly by benefiting the local work force. another is some concern about inflating the price. i am a local subcontractor and general contractor. i do not see prices go up because of local hiring. we see a lot of workers do not have work. a lot of local businesses are out of work. their equity is coming down substantially. i believe we need to train our local workers to work for our city jobs. i do not see any problem to meet a 50% local hiring goal. i see that a lot of people stay in the city, and it is more expensive to stay in the city. we need to help those people to stay with us and pay more property tax, sales tax. also, to cut down the unemployment rate by the local hiring policies can help to resolve a lot of social

problems, and to lower the crime rate so our community will be better. local hiring also promotes greens. i encourage contractors to provide opportunities for training for the next generation, the new generation of skilled workers. san franciscans are the ones to build san francisco. [applause] chairperson avalos: think you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, chairman and members of the committee. i am jim salinas, a native san franciscan, born and raised in the mission district. i am now passed the half century mark and lived here my whole life. let me say you will hear a lot of lame excuses as to why this legislation cannot or will not work. that is all they are. it is the outsiders and carpetbaggers that are here telling the stakeholders' like myself, folks that have lived here all our lives.

please make no mistake that the communities are not only suffering from high unemployment, but displacement as well. i know too many brothers and sisters who have had to leave their city of perth. they are living in antioch, pittsburgh, and to go. anywhere but where there were born. that is not right. i am an anomaly now. i should be the norm. everybody should go to work here. i got to work every day with the tools of the trade, buy a home, raised four kids in the mission district, and let them go to prestigious universities because of the career i got over 35 years ago. you'll hear a lot of land excuses. mccarthy construction is the only one that hurt communities of color at the mission campus site, -- that an arctic communities of color -- that heard communities of color at the mission campus site. there were people peacefully

protesting and there were assaulted by the head of the building trades because they wanted to say, "put our community to work." the fbi system is fully ingrained in the construction industry. that system has to change. you have the ability to do it. friends, brothers, and in-laws. there is no work in the east bay, the south bay, the north bay. the only work is in san francisco. we have young brothers and sisters killing themselves over the fact that they have no work. give them hope. put them behind power equipment. [applause] chairperson avalos: next speaker, please. claudia rocha, jose reyexzz, ruben santano, james bryant. will stop there because the

cannot read the next speaker. >> commissioner avalos, please speak spanish. mr. salinas, please. >> [speaking spanish] >> good afternoon, supervisors, chairman avalos. i am a member of the carpenter'' local here in san francisco, but i am here speaking on a personal basis. >> [speaking spanish] >> i live here in san francisco,

and i am constantly out of work as a result of the fact that the companies will not hire us as a result of the fact that they have friends that they would rather put to work. >> [speaking spanish] >> i live within two blocks of two projects that i could -- i live within half a block of two projects, and within five blocks of a major construction project. >> [speaking spanish] >> i have approached his contractors over and over, trying to secure work, and have

not been given any opportunities, even though i live here in the city. >> [speaking spanish] >> i have many friends that work on these various construction projects, because i work with them on many other construction projects. >> [speaking spanish] >> i do not have any problems with them coming and seeking work. i work with them. i support them. but there are projects in the city and we should have the first opportunity to have job opportunities. >> [speaking spanish] >> in this moment, you find me without money or without a health plan, without resources to continue to maintain a presence here in san francisco

as a result of the fact that i cannot find work. >> [speaking spanish] >> i plead with you to move this legislation forward and help us find work. thank you. chairperson avalos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> walter paulson. good afternoon. ♪ construction feelings coming over me there is wonder in this city that i see and the reason it's clear is because the item is here and it is the nearest thing to hiring i can see i am on the -- i want the top of the world on construction hiring and the only explanation i can find it

is the love and money you have, and time to give it to this item if you can i am on the top of the hiring construction world looking down on the city creation and the only explanation i can find is it is time that you give to this item and we need it now your love and money and have put construction hiring on the top of the world ♪ [applause] >> to the board of supervisors, my name is madam scott and paul at brown. we are the mothers of the human services social support growth. we are for the hiring of san francisco to be part of this project. the board of supervisors should

up and take a look at it and vote on this. if you do not, you will have more crime on the streets. we have already lost our sons to gun violence. we just left 850 bryant for a young man named k.c. evans who is now, because of the stimulus plan and because of the budget cuts -- he did not know what else to do. he has a doctor. he has gone back to the streets. as a result of that, he is looking at two to five years he is going to be serving. when he had a decent job paying his bills, he was able to buy a car and be a productive citizen. if we do not pay attention to this, we are going to have more young men like casey evans. you are loading a gun. you're going to be killing our youth. there is going to be more crime and violence in our streets. i say that i am for this. we are for it at the human circle as mothers who have lost children to gun violence.

please higher san franciscans. hire our children and our young men. they have nowhere else to go, nowhere else to turn. they need our support on this initiative. thank you. chairperson avalos: thank you, miss scott, ms. brown. >> my name is rubin santana. i am the owner of a building carpenter. we are a subcontractor. we have done work >> arrive done it for many years. if you want real factual budget data, come see me at my office. i have done up to 68% local hiring in the million-dollar bracket projects. it is very easy. we are a union contractor. we pay good wages and benefits to the whole family, and we make it work. no one is going to be robbing the train here and stealing

from the city and all its projects because we can make it work. the bottom line always works. anybody who says they can't do it doesn't want to do it. they don't care for san francisco. so mandate is finally here. i have been hoping too see this as a kid. i started my company because i could not find a job when i was a kid. now i own a company. i also own an electrical company. i had to buy my own. i couldn't become an electrician in san francisco. all trades need to be opened to san francisco youth right away. it has been a long time coming but never happened. but the budget committee needs to know we can make it work. to my office. i will show you all my data. it always works. we have always made the reason why big contractors

bring and out of city contractors is to elevate the bottom line dollar. i can show you how it is done. come and see me. we have lowered the murder rate in san francisco neighborhoods because of local hiring. i have had pastors, and thank me for that. -- come up and thank me for that. [applause] >> can you name specific projects you have worked on or are working on in san francisco? a >> i have my own hospital and i specialize in laboratory and hospital workers. i would love to bring some of these people into the realm ha if i get more of that work. we have a lot of hospital and health construction coming up. i would love to put san

francisco to work with all trades. we can make it work. we have some mechanical work, of course. at san francisco general hospital. i barely got my permit, but sunday, i hope with the mandate that we can put some san francisco residents to work on that project. i would like to see that happen. we had 160 workers there. i had 100 people from the community on the project. we pulled gangbangers off the streets that were shooting at each other and put them in the carpenters' union. they went to bed early every night and they reported to work early every day.

this is my reward, still to this day. that is a big deal. we brought people back into the social society. they were living off of their parents, and that is really sad for projects that have been going on, that any of this statistic happens to the san franciscans. and all the people that have driven -- or been driven out of san francisco. anyone that has our human labour wages and benefits can afford to live here in san francisco. they'll cut. it is sad to hear all of these stories, and it is sad that i don't have the work that is coming out. you won't hear one gripe from me, but i will try to make 50

-- i will always try to exceed 50%. come see me at my office and i'll show you all of our data. we don't have to rub the san francisco train or budgets for all of its money like the potential numbers. that is not true. >> how many at your company again? >> rubicon builders. [applause] >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. the posters are a little bit. they told me to bring a 0.5 x 11. 8.5 -- 8.5 by 11. many of you know me from my he

many years. i will be coming back to you. i want to make the public, and i want to give you greg reed to tell you what we have been doing with the institute. we have a campaign in coalition with the southeast coalition. you have a minute. >> of like to let everyone know -- i would like to let everyone know the you can work with organized labor, we are at the beginning stage of putting this help build san francisco project together. people that were interested in the building trades, we want to

take advantage of this opportunity that is coming to the city. we have done some smaller test projects, we have done work with the puc. and we have other programs. the community is really hungry for this opportunity. the community has been waiting a long time for such opportunity, and we have to take advantage of this end of the community who be able to afford to stay here in the city and raise families and be positive citizens in san francisco. we look for the supervisors to do the right thing. we are a community-based

organization, and we're going to do on our part to help give people these opportunities. >> we want to thank you all and we think it is really important. we are trying to put a community back together. we need to this final sector of san francisco to have the tools and have the capacity to finish up san francisco and a bank of the bayview as good or better. this is san francisco, we need your help. thank you. >> we will hear the next two speakers. we have a couple of department heads. they will speak after the next

couple of speakers. >> i am with the filipino community center and wanted to introduce one of my youth your -- here. it is part of the progressive workers alliance. we firmly support this legislation. >> i am with the filipino community center. i graduated from balboa high school in 2008. i was looking for a job. i found out about city the academy. -- cityville academy. i wanted to get into the field so that i could hurt earn a decent wage. i wanted to work more and work

in the city. so i could provide for my kid and my girlfriend. i am an iron worker, and i support local hiring. this will help our people get more jobs. thanks. supervisor avalos: thank you. mr. blackwell, mr. harrington. >> i am the executive director of the san francisco redevelopment agency. it is good to see you. i am here to speak in support of what you have proposed. for a variety of reasons, the

executive director of the san francisco redevelopment agency, i hear about how development in the city of san francisco doesn't necessarily benefit the folks that have lived through years of holland left. for that reason, as we think about the things that will be going on in the city hall, whether it is the development of the shipyard, things that will be going on, infrastructure investments in the city. we need to take affirmative steps to make sure that residents of those communities benefit from the new development. i wanted to talk about a couple of things that i think is important for the committee to consider. i want to commend supervisor avalos for getting us here.

we have had many hours of meetings. i think that the openness of the process and the transparency, and there are a couple of things i think are important to consider. even though we know this is an important piece of legislation to put in place, we ensure that the right people benefit from the public investments that are in the pipeline. how easy or difficult it will be to give the workers how to move on to the work -- project. we don't know how difficult it left it wil f