>> thank you very much. >> i think that he has done a tremendous job. all of the staff has been tremendous. your boss is in your subordinates, i have all come together. and one of your earlier directives, this led to a sign the accord nader's, and this actually worked out to be well -- to the basics for a lot of what we do right now. i did want to ask the people who were here if they wanted to add on to anything. the departments -- if they saw things that were mentioned that were not mentioned that or an asset to the city. -- that were an asset to the

city. >> the mayor did a great job of walking through the things, and one of these was the elevation of the council. the cross sector communication, this has made my life and the work that we do much much easier because of the council. and i want to thank you for that. the embrace of the entire government, the response and the preparedness has been amazing. this is something that the cities should pay attention to. and the many different committees, the different aspects of disaster, if you take red cross office, this has been made to be fantastic. we know what is going on because of the engagement from the department of emergency management. and you have the best fire chief

on the planet. there is the public health department and we did a lot of collaboration during the flu scare, and the people that you have working there have been amazing. and human services agency, they just make our life so easy as we figure out how to take care of things. the partnerships have been amazing. i want to thank you for providing great leadership. >> this is an obvious segue, now that you mentioned this. she was very helpful. we're trying to find someone to replace her. there is the temptation, where we go to somebody with a cigar, or name some general as the leader. and this is not wrong, but this is not always right. and it occurred to me, we are so blessed, with the fire chief and

the police department, with all the work that is done here. the public safety people are incredibly organized. we thought about health and human services. and when there is a major disaster, this is the health that i am word about. this is the shelter that is in place, and these concerns about distribution. resources. and this was very helpful identifying some one that fits the bill. and so, we have very proudly offered -- we have accepted anne cronenberg. she could not be here today but she will appreciate all of those who have applauded her. so reach out to those of you who

did not. and, she will be taking the job. she did a lot of work in the early '90s. she had a wonderful reza may then i had not seen in 20 years. this is the right person. at first, i was not certain, to make certain that this was the right thing. i am very pleased about this. they were working with all those people out east. we are looking forward to hold first in the country. the recovery plan. we started to go back to the health side, and go back to the human services side. we go to the cigar, in general. we just think that she is going

to be fantastic. you are wonderful in terms of your enthusiasm. i had to mention this. >> this is very appropriate. this is the day to highlight some of the things that the court has been able to do. we were partnering on a number of projects, the security grant funding for the state and federal level. this is one of the biggest things that we have done, what people see with the infrastructure. this is the most challenging. there is the training, identify the people to fill in with the emergency operations center, the

exercises that we do and the planning. they made great plans, and then they will sit on the shelf and gather dust. we have been exercising improvements and this is a continuing cycle. and we appreciate the operation plan, the assistance that we have and we are partnering on the continuity plan, not just for the report but also across the other courts in the area. thank you. >> my staff can talk to quite a bit on this. one thing, we're also in charge of the 911 emergency services. this is a big part of what we do.

the deputy director in charge of emergency communications, i want to thank her for all of her help, and the chief financial officer, and the person i really depend on, in the other divisions. he could not be here today. but i was wanting to thank him as well. thank you. >> most of the other cities emphasize a faster response. all the funding and the grants have allowed us to open a new category that people have not had the time to touch. the newness of this is there. i also think that when we talk about the disaster, everyone is very negative. the recovery is actually, this is giving the hope that everyone will be there.

everybody has to roll to advance the recovery. and then you talk about this, this is a great advance for san francisco. with your leadership, we're hoping to begin a dialogue on recovery. this is helping us come together and figure out what we need to do to mitigate, and make the recovery. this is one of the things that we have done in this disaster council. we are trying to do a lot more because of this. this is very exciting to look at this level. i do not know if anyone knows this, this is one of the principal players in an emergency planning. the continuity will continue with a lot of the work that we are doing. maybe we will be able to extend this the last -- the rest of the

state. >> this is not my department. >> i would have done this differently. >> there was not an earthquake. but as a nation, hurricane katrina, one of the lessons that we learned was how poorly prepared most parts of the country are to work with people with disabilities. this was responding to this, and recovering this. they were doing this in every area of the work. and i just have been so impressed with their support,

hybridizing people with disabilities, and funding the people with disabilities in the office. we have gone from having three accessible people -- accessible services, and we have gone from the siren system, people who have been desperately hard of hearing, people did not know the hurricane was coming into the water. this is accessible for people. we have identified the triple liabilities -- with the finding that they have provided. the vulnerable buildings, and the vulnerable populations of people with disabilities in the area. there has been a huge amount of work that is happening under the leadership here i want to thank

you. we have a lot of people coming here after hurricane katrina. we all have to come together and so many different agencies come in, and they will connect to the data base together. and we have all these different private partners. we are trying to set things up at st. mary's. as if this was a project can act. we have the intake process, and we knew how to deliberately organized. and this is an important discipline. this is almost an exercise in and of itself. >> i would like to say that under your watch, what has been

impressive is the emphasis on activating the service center. they have been invaluable, and indispensable. i think that this will play on having people compare themselves beyond 72 hours. this makes us more confident in the ability to weather whatever happens as long as we're able to take on the town, and the quality of activating, in a gratitude kind of way, and organized response by the citizenry, and this is something that you could be very proud of. >> going back to what he said about the intake process, they are really focusing on logistics'. doing purchasing supplies.

the training has reflected the response, taking into getting the purchasers, and other logistical people, involved in reacting to an earthquake or a tsunami or other disaster. >> we had so much money to spend, at the beginning. we're trying to get the equipment here, and i'm wanting to thank you for putting this in place. yahoo! >> when we got all of this driving down, the question is, if you were spending this. we have the process, to spend money. and not everyone in that sector

of the economy necessarily represented at the valley is. and we had to figure out some ways in a strategic way to organize and get all the equipment purchased. and in the money would disappear. >> go ahead. >> since everyone is saying thank you, i would like to offer my thanks for the efforts and shepherding these contracts, and this is a system where you can employ these workers. i help the most of the received that call. this was for the closure of the bridge, perhaps one year ago. this system is a very important to us. and thank you for helping us to get this contract. we did do a crosswalk, of the

categories. they're working with the departments for the doubling skills and training information. this may be uploaded into this course, and we will utilize another level of efficiency, for these employees. this is a real achievement for the city. and the emergency volunteer center plans are coming through. we're trying to find more efficiencies every day. we cannot have done this without this. >> one thing i take away from this is how we started out with the emergency management being

our problem. this is the first responders. this is part of every department, in terms of what we do every day. this is part of the everyday culture. this is one of the most important things to take away, from hearing what everyone has to say today. thank you all, very much. >> good afternoon. i am the assistant deputy chief of the fire department, and i would like to say, as a veteran of the fire department for 22 years, with nine years in the police department, i have seen the face of disaster preparedness change dramatically. i have this with the other department agencies, we have been able to enhance the level

of response and readiness. prior to this, we were basically on our own. we were going to take the lead and we are not going to work with anybody. this is how everything was. >> i have seen things change dramatically. are like to thank you, mr. mayor. congratulations. >> i would like to thank everyone. >> i've been exposed and

emergency response through fires in my neighborhood. one of the things that keeps us up is that we have to rely on you to deliver services when things got wrong. we do wake up at night wondering what could happen. everything you are doing is so important. vicki, thank you for what you have done. she had a list of things she promised to deliver to me and she continued to check of all the things. i would like to thank you for your attention to details. you will be missed.

we all have worked closely with her. that is very exciting. >> i did want to tell you that my last day will be january 7th. i will be visiting every once in awhile. i thought that you might want to know that. is anything else? we have two of our scholars. i would like to thank both of you, but you come to every meeting.

isn't -- is there any public comment at this time? >> seeing none, i think that we can adjourn. >> thank you very much. [applause]

>> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and

we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the

structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested

in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would

choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little

diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals.

this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up

that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit.

i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements