incredibly substantive member of the board. be she did an incredible job of bringing those business interests together with the city, helping us understand it, really being mayor brown's point person. with the transition to district elections as a proud resident, there was a longstanding supervisor, and not often in public life do you see someone get back and accord someone that respect that tom was deserving, not seeking to just pick up roots and move somewhere else, although probably over time, she did come to live in my district, but i just sensed that lesley is really an incredible member

of the public family in san francisco and a longstanding member of the democratic central committee, someone who did not just get on the central committee in order to get somewhere and let it go. she stayed there as a stalwart democratic and someone who has made a significant contribution. i know so many people in the community have reached out to me, to be sure that i knew how important it was to see someone of her accomplishment, someone of her integrity, and someone of her capability have this opportunity. supervisor mar: i was just going to thank supervisor katz as well. i appreciate your interest. i think you would bring tremendous depth of experience to the commission, especially during this critical america's cup period. i see you as a problem solver, but also someone who believes in

strong community engagement, community relations. you were also one of the nominees today that i'm supportive of, and not continuing, especially given what monique just said about the need for as full report commissioned as possible as we move toward the america's cup. i appreciate your enthusiasm as well. supervisor campos: thank you. i know we're going to take public comment, but i do believe it is important to us to make sure that we have as full a complement of that commission as possible, and i think that the sooner we act on any of those vacancies, the better. what a better way to do it than with someone who has the experience of having served on this very body. why don't we open it up to public comment? is there any member of the public who would like to speak? please come forward. we continue to be joined by the

commissioner of the board of education. >> briefly, i wanted to thank you both for your service, and i feel lucky to have senior here today and be able to express that, so thank you very much, and good luck. i also want to let you know that i'm supportive of leslie katz in all of her public service. i think she would be a wonderful complement for commissioner, at -- to the current four commissioners, and particularly at this crucial time, we need someone with that experience and with the ability to negotiate and understand public service, private sector coming together for such a big event, but there is a theme, for me, that means

true with lesley, as it also has done for the other appointments that i'm here to support today. mr. courtney, ms. bridges, and ms. katz has an incredible an uncanny ability to reach across the boundaries of political spectrum, community spectrum and engage in the discussion in the argument in the conversation, and that is why i'm here standing before you to support her. i wanted to let you know that i'm in support of her nomination. thank you very much. supervisor campos: 9 you, commissioner. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i've been a resident of san francisco for 55 years, and for 24 of those years, i've been a supervising deputy attorney general. i've done litigation, appeared before many boards and commissions. i know lesley professionally and

personally, and i have to give you full disclosure -- she is my daughter-in-law. there are probably not very many mother-in-law's who would come before you advocating for her daughter-in-law, which shows what a quality person you have before you, and i volunteered for this. leslie is a fantastic person, the most competent professional person i know. there is a running joke in our family. anytime anybody need something done, call lesley, and she gets it done. you have heard from her, and i've heard from you. she's enormously devoted to public service. she's worked tirelessly in all kinds of things with no compensation at all. she loves san francisco, and i know she wants to do everything possible to help san francisco. on a personal level, she is just a wonderful person, would be fantastic to work with.

she is very collegial, very easy to get along with, and i would enthusiastically add my voice to all of you who supported her nomination. supervisor campos: thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak? yes. >> sue hester. may 1, there were three seats open on the port commission. the mayor did not do anything with them for an awfully long time. then one commissioner moved on to i believe the fire commission, and after he had been confirmed, the president of the board commission was surprisingly moved to the planning commission. that shocked everybody. we have had these rolling vacancies. this is the last appointment made by the mayor on this very powerful, extraordinarily

important commission. at the beginning of this hearing, you said you were going to defer making a lot of decisions. this nomination was made the first of december. this hearing was notified thursday. for today. no one knows about it. you have to be really obsessive to find out about a hearing over a holiday weekend. i really think that's a port commission, given its magnitude -- there should be a little bit more thought given to it so that people can have a chance to really raise issues, and you can ask the full range of questions. i do not see why this has to be voted on tomorrow. that is my point. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak?

seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues? supervisor alioto-pier: i would like to make a motion to send this forward to the full board as a committee report with approval. supervisor campos: we take that without objection. thank you. madam clerk, is there any other business before the committee? >> no, mr. chair. supervisor campos: thank you very much. the meeting is adjourned.

>> i have 2 job titles. i'm manager of the tour program as well as i am the historyian of city hall. this building is multifaceted to say the very least it's a municipal building that operates the city and county of san francisco. this building was a dream that became a reality of a man by the name of james junior elected mayor of san francisco in 1912. he didn't have a city hall because it was destroyed in the earth wake of 1906.

construction began in april of 1913. in december 1915, the building was complete. it opened it's doors in january 1916. >> it's a wonderful experience to come to a building built like this. the building is built as a palace. not for a king or queen. it's built for all people. this building is beautiful art. those are architecture at the time when city hall was built, san francisco had an enormous french population. therefore building a palace in the art tradition is not unusual. >> jimmie was an incredible

individual he knew that san francisco had to regain it's place in the world. he decided to have the tallest dome built in the united states. it's now stands 307 feet 6 inches from the ground 40 feet taller than the united states capital. >> you could spend days going around the building and finding something new. the embellishment, the carvings, it represents commerce, navigation, all of the things that san francisco is famous for. >> the wood you see in the board of supervisor's chambers is oak and all hand carved on

site. interesting thing about the oak is there isn't anymore in the entire world. the floors in china was cleard and never replanted. if you look up at the seceiling you would believe that's hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the only spanish design in an arts building. there are no records about how many people worked on this building. the workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. and what happened was the person working next to the other person respected a skill a skill that

was so wonderful that we have this masterpiece to show the world today. >> good evening. i am the secretary of the police commission. on behalf of the commission, i want to welcome everyone to the san francisco 2010 medal of

valor ceremony. please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you. mayor newsom was unfortunately unable to attend this evening. he sent his congratulations to the medal of valor recipients. we are joined by commissioner president thomas does it go, dr. joe marshall, commissioner james slaughter, commissioner petra dejesus. we are also joined by chief of police george gascoign.

also with us are the it assistant chief. this isn't she said of the operation pirro. assistant chief denise schmitt. deputy chief john murphy, enforcement and security at the mta. commander sandra tong of the airport bureau. commander james dudley of the airport operations bureau. commander daniel mahoney, chief of the operations staff. commander daniel lazard, chief of investigations. this is a time when we stop and offer special members of the police department. these are members who have distinguished themselves through their bravery and dangerous situations. it is important to note one of the criteria for the medal of honor this one failed to --

failure to take such action would lead to center. these are actions above and beyond call of duty. at this time, i would like to invite the chief of police, cheif gascon, to come up here and speak. >> thank you, everyone, for being here. this is a special moment in policing movie get to celebrate the incredible acts of bravery by the men and women in our department. before i say a few words about these incredible men and women sitting in the front, i want to thank their families. your support, day in and day out, or caring, companionship, your ability to talk to your loved ones as they are going through difficult times -- i was going to say men and women, but

today we have just men. able to get through the incredible things that they see day in and day out, the things that they have to do to accomplish these things well. it is very special for me to honor you. this is a very arduous process. there was a great deal of review looking at your actions. for those of you who earned a medal of valor, or acts of courage were clearly above and beyond what we would expect of someone. you're not only exemplified the best at the san francisco police department can offer, but you offer the best that our profession can offer. i cannot say enough good things about your actions. the rest of you, again, your dollar, courage, -- quite frankly, the line between a gold

medal of valor and a bronze one is a very thin line. all 11 of you that are here today took incredible steps in order to save lives, in order to protect our community under a difficult situation. i want to congratulate you. you are someone who makes us incredibly proud. will come to this ceremony today, to the families, congratulations. god bless. >> thank you, chief. next, i would like the president of the police commission, thomas mazucco, to say a few words. >> thank you. on behalf of the san francisco police commission, commissioners slaughter, de jesus, and others,

we want to let you know what an honor it is to stand before you for these awards. for the audience, the police commission, by way of the san francisco general orders, has the authority to audit and review each of the metals you are seeing presented tonight. it is an awesome responsibility but it is also an incredible experience when you sit here and listen to the heroism and valor of these officers, as you do tonight when their commanding officers present what they did. you will hear things about your loved ones and family members that you never left new before. as commission members, we sit there with a lot of pride and a lot. also, we come to the graduation of police academies. for those we come to congratulate, to the promotional ceremonies.

for the medal of valor, we come to honor. what is valor? you look at the definition. it means personal bravery, heroism, gallantry. that is what each and one of these officers has done, bravery, personal heroism. but before we talk about your dollar, i want to give our appreciation to the people that brought them there, from the academy staff, field training officers. those are the true professionals that prepared these officers for what they do out on the streets. talking to one of the officers receiving a medal tonight, i asked him, what were you thinking about when that went on? he said, i was not thinking, i was reacting to the training that i got in the academy. i would like to think the family members. as the chief said, the family members are the ones supporting

you, the one that see the good and dark days. they are the ones that will give you to who you are today. thank you to the family members for sharing these heroes with the police department. and to the officers, valor-- --t is that are characteristic to quantify, that brings you to do something that is above and beyond the call of duty, where you are willing to risk your life for the sake of others or for public service. it is an incredible gift. in talking to one of the officers receiving an award tonight, he told me about a suspect with a gun that just killed somebody and he held back from firing his weapon because it would have killed him. he did not want to strike anybody nearby.

it was a veteran officer who could never tired and gone home. that is belair. that is why we are proud to be at the commission tonight. you are truly san francisco's finest. thank you, on behalf of the commission. [applause] >> both the chief and commission president mention this long review process to become a medal of valor recipient. i want to give you a brief idea of how these acts were reviewed to get us here tonight. when an officer's actions are such that any supervisor take notice of any break, that supervisor officer prepares a report detailing the event. the commanding officer then conducts a personal investigation of the event, and if they approve the nomination, it prepares the report to the

chief of police. the chief than four or -- forwards these nominations to the office of the police commission. then those are sent off to a screening committee. if the awards screening committee approved the nomination, they send it back to the commission office so the awards committee secretary can set up a meeting. this is a meeting of all of the department's captains and command staff where the nominating commanding officer who presented the nomination, while the officer is sitting there, answering questions about what they were thinking, what they were doing. next, by secret ballot, the awards committee votes on whether to award and what grid of metal. finally, they presented to the police commission for final approval. you should be proud of your family members who are here. this is something that every

captain looked at before these awards were made. it is a tremendous statement about what these people did to be here tonight that stood up to that kind of betting. -- vetting. at this time, i want to call forward mr. lazard to read the spirits of officer suguitan. >> on saturday generate 23, 2010 at 1721 hours, ms. johnson phoned the police to report that her roommate, mr. smith, was suffering from psychological

problems, had been drinking, and was taking medication. in her request for the police, this johnson indicated mr. smith was not known to carry weapons and that she wanted vice from officers on how to deal with mr. smith. she needed assistance based on his behavior. officers brodericks suguitan and samuel fung arrived at the scene within four minutes. officer suguitan and fung were met by the woman outside of her porch. officer suguitan observed at the front door of the residence was open and stepped inside. officer suguitan noticed mr. smith and mr. rios, an additional roommate, were standing face to face having a conversation. both men were approximately 7 feet in front of officer suguitan. officer suguitan looked at both men and stated, how are you

doing, we are here to help. mr. smith and mr. rios both faced officer suguitan. immediately, officer suguitan realized mr. smith's and were behind his back and concealed from officer. officer suguitan directed mr. smith to "show me your hands." instantly, officer suguitan here's what he believes is an item quickly being taken out of a sheaf, and without notice, mr. smith raises a large machete above his head and in close proximity to officer suguitan. officer suguitan, fear for his life, draws his department farm, and that close proximity begins to rapidly backup. mr. smith begins to advance on officer suguitan. of a suguitan continues to back up, but begin to officer fong and mr. johnson in the doorway.