is no lightweight. ed lee is someone who has, for a long time, distinguished himself in different capacities. the ed lee that i will be supporting today is someone who has demonstrated to me through his work that he is committed to making san francisco government work for all people. that said, there are still questions that remain in terms of what ed lee administration's will look like. there are still questions that need to be answered. i am hopeful, based on the conversations i have had with him, that he is prepared to have an inclusive government that recognizes that especially in the capacity of an interim mayor, it is important to govern in a way that includes every member of this board, that includes every community in san francisco, that is transparent. he has made that commitment. i know that he will abide by

that commitment. i look forward to working with him to make sure that happens. this appointment cannot be seen as one side of the political aisle winning over another. if that is how it is seen, and more portly, if that is how it materializes, then we all will have failed. i am putting my faith that ed lee understands the importance of reaching across the political aisle and including all of us, whatever your labeled, moderate, progressive, you name it, that you will be included in this government. i think it is important, especially in the first few days of this administration, that he take steps to make sure that happens, to make sure that the mayor's office is run in such a way that access and transparency are two words that clearly define everything that is done,

and that the individuals that will be working in that administration are people who understand that. i have faith that he gets that and will make that happen. whatever i can do to help, i look forward to doing. i see many people in the audience who are here to support ed lee. i know the significance this has for the chinese-american community. as a person of color, as an immigrant myself, i know that there is something very special when the community that has felt it has been excluded feels that one of their own can take the position as important as being mayor of san francisco. i think that those of us who are casting this vote need to take that into consideration as well. that is an important part of why i will be voting this way. mr. lee need to understand it is not just the hopes of the chinese-american community that are being placed on his

shoulders. it is the hope of every san francisco. it is the hope of the people i represent in district 9, the hope of the latino community, the hope of the african-american community, the hope of so many immigrants who will look to him as someone who will make sure their voices are heard, and that the doors of room 200 will be open to all san franciscans. with that, i will be supporting mr. lee. one of the questions i will pose to him as making sure that as he has been and probably will be selected by the sport, that the laws that the sport has passed, that those laws are fully implemented. one of the things that goes to the core of this question of including everyone is making sure that all san franciscans, all residents of this city, are given equal treatment. my hope is that the ed lee that

is elected, if that is what happens, will provide due process rights for all san francisco in. my understanding from reading the paper is that at least one member of this board has given -- has been given confirmation that he believes we should remain a sanctuary city. my hope that the ed lee that i know when that we all have heard about and will hear more about will make sure we continue with that and that the rights of undocumented youth in the city continue to be protected. i look forward to working with mr. lee and to the progressive community, i know that we all have questions. we have disappointments. the question of what happens to the future of room 200, as important as this is, will ultimately be decided in

november of this year. the best thing we can do as a movement and a community is to come together and make sure that we advance the agenda that is based on sustenance, based on issues, not on individuals or personalities, and that we, as part of the progressive movement, move forward and try to get results that -- results to issues. president chiu: supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: thank you, president. colleagues, thank you for your patience to come back another day. perhaps many of you never expected to be here on friday after the last tuesday board meeting. i really needed some time to consider ed lee's nomination more thoroughly. the last time i have a conversation with him, he said he did not want to be the interim mayor.

since then, i have the opportunity to speak twice with ed lee. probably the best time i have reception in my home was talking on my cell phone wednesday morning. we spoke for about half an hour. it was a very direct conversation. i had a number of concerns about the administration that he would run in san francisco. my chief concern has really been about the effort that my office and the offices of other supervisors here have been involved in the legislation to produce a local hiring ordinance to the legislation that came in the making across many communities in san francisco. i wanted to have an assurance from mr. lee that the city and county would make sure that it could be implemented as strongly as possible, to make sure we were given the resources to the office of economic and work-

force development, to implement local hiring, to make sure communities were involved. we need to make sure we're doing our best to prepare people for the work force. he gave me that assurance. that is something that was very important to me. think about the city and how our city is changing demographically, and changing in good ways and bad ways. we have a discussion about the african-american out-migration. look at the local hiring ordinance. i think it is something to stem the tide of migration of african-americans. we look at the issue of the growing asian community that needs support. working-class immigrant communities still need support and are in great flux. these communities need a lot of support. that is something that i think -- why we need to be looking at,

not just a short-term decision around of the mayor to bring stability in the transition, but also long-term about how we will unite communities that often are divided. i feel that we are so far along in this process about deliberating on the mayor, we could go on forever. we could open up nominations and each person that comes up would have good points and bad points. we could hash goes out over and over again. we would actually be doing more to defy the city, to prevent us having a better transition into the new mayor and to the new mayor in november as well. iowa -- it is best that we make a decision and live with the decision that we make. i feel it is so important that we recognize that the chinese community in san francisco has never had this opportunity before. it is very meaningful.

i have to speak to that, how meaningful it is. we look at san francisco and how san francisco and california is leading the way towards, i would believe, putting this country and a better path, recognizing people who are struggling. we have elected democrats again for congress and at the local levels. mayor gavin newsom and another person are going to sacramento. changes are happening in oakland. we elected a chinese mayor in oakland. these are incredible things happening in san francisco. we need to look at the incredible changes that are happening. to go back on where we are at right now would be incredibly divisive. that would be setting the work that we do in this building and the work that i have been doing as a community organizer, as a social worker, as someone who has been working in grass-roots organizations for years, would set us back.

i looked toward how we can build the kind of power and inclusion of people, the involvement of people in our city government to make city government more accountable. i believe that a vote against ed lee at this point would be something that would be setting us way back. i want to move forward. i had questions about the process, how we got this far, how we got this way. i raised those questions here about the mayor holding off on being sworn in as the lieutenant governor position. i have made comments about the process, how we came to the appointment of ed lee. ed lee has been out of town. it is difficult to get a hold of him. despite my difficulties with the process, moving forward from here, i believe, is the best thing we can do for the short- term in terms of developing a transition, and for the long- term in terms of developing the kind of community inclusion that we have to have, that we need to

work together to unite our communities across san francisco. to divide our communities is something we have seen too much of. we have seen too much of the communities with in these chambers. i want to think we can put our best foot forward to unite around ed lee as our interim mayor. i look forward to joining you in that vote. thank you. president chiu: supervisor mar? supervisor mar: i want to thank our outside clark from santa clara county. i really appreciate your vice. i also wanted to think angela, our clerk, and her efforts to work us through a difficult process, and to make sure we thoroughly discussed with the public and with colleagues all of the nominees. i wanted to also say i really appreciated all the calls and e- mails from so many community

organizers and advocates, workers' organizations, and neighborhood groups weighing in on this difficult but important decision that we make as 11 members of the board of supervisors. i was also able to talk to ed lee on thursday morning. he took the yacht -- took the effort to call many of us very early in the morning from taiwan. if he sincerely wanted to be successor mayor -- he currently serves as the city administrator. after the conversation, and other conversations with my colleagues, i am ready to support his nomination for the following reasons. i have known him since he was a managing attorney over 20 years ago. many of us know him as a strong community leader. he is from an immigrant family. i knew him when he joined the administration in 1989. i was strongly support of other candidates who would have made great success for mayors.

i think ed lee as the head of the human rights commissions of more rigid supported so many local businesses in the city and civil rights and immigrant rights in our communities. he has been an amazing affordable housing leader as well, with a strong background in chinatown and other areas. through this difficult budget season that we will find ourselves and, my staff and i will pledge to work with him to be sensitive to community-based services, and to work together to create a fair budget process for communities. it will not be easy. i feel he will be open to a fair and humane approach to generating revenue and sharing the pain across the board with the cuts that might be coming in a few short months. i see this as a historic vote, as many have pointed out. we have an opportunity today to choose a highly qualified mayor, but also to make history in san francisco by supporting our first asian-american mayor, who

will represent with pride all of our diverse people. i will also be casting my vote for ed lee as successor mayor of the city and county of san francisco. president chiu: supervisor daly? supervisor daly: i have been here just about 10 years now. i have seen go-along to get along. i think if you want to not rock the boat and skate by, it is not a bad course. if you want to do more than that, if you think that there is a fundamental problem with the way things are in this world, go-along to get along does not

get it done. you know, i have probably a reputation for reigning on parades. today will likely be no different. i reference my words from tuesday, all of them. i stand by them. something is not right, not just with the process of how this happened that supervisor campos referenced, but something is not right in the world. there is injustice that i will not tolerate. if mr. lee surprises me, then so be it. i will be pleasantly surprised and i will apologize to him directly.

i don't see it happening. i see a status quo being maintained, when what we need as candidates obama said more efficiently than anyone else, although there have been disappointments since then, as candidate obama said, we need change. i think now more than ever, we need that kind of change. what we have in front of us today is not that kind of change. it will not address the fundamental injustices in san francisco. it is business as usual. i will be voting no. president chiu: supervisor chu? supervisor chu: thank you,

president, and thank you to my colleagues. as many people in this room know, this issue is a big issue, particularly among the asian american community in san francisco, a city that has such a large population of asian- americans. what i do want to say and spend a bit of time on is not only is this an important issue for an important step in an important day for the asian-american community, but the reason why lee is because he is a qualified person and he is the right person to lead san francisco. he has been confirmed by the board of supervisors twice. he has been our department head for multiple departments and he has a strong history for fighting for civil rights. aside from the importance and the historical nature of this issue, i want to say and

reiterate that he is the right choice because he is simply the right candidate. thank you. >> regarding how we got to this place reminds me that it was just a few days ago that we got in gearing up for what is probably one of the most seminal decisions of this body. we all came here and with an earnest notion that we wanted to advance the best candidates possible because we take this discussion so critically serious. we nominate candidates of our preferences and we have some serious debate.

i chose the former mayor -- and then i also had signaled my support for mike hennessey because they have been tested and elected and they actually have the kind of impact that would well-suited best. this was a surprise to making the choice. one of the candidates that was

suitable was mike hennessey. it was a surprise that in some signal that that flow of thinking was interrupted. i thought it would be wise that this body trying to do a thorough vetting with the any of the others that we were trying to advance. i am glad that we were able to take this intermission and reflect on mr. lee's consideration. he has garnered significant momentum. i did not understand that at first, i get that more now. i have not had the opportunity to speak with him at all leading up to this process. i did have the opportunity to

speak with him yesterday and i thought the conversation was constructive and fruitful. in some cases, we will -- in our process. we will be able to evaluate candidates without any kind at the parents of manipulation or engineering or political dealmaking. that did not give justice to mr. ed lee. this means to be feted. i feel that we did just that. i will support him. i believe that he is well known

as a very effective department head and he has proven to be extremely responsive to our needs. i thank him for that responsiveness to all of us a matter of partisanship and no matter the affiliation anyone has with him in city hall. they are able to take care of the needs that are necessary by our constituents. to me, that makes sense that he would be a proper consideration.

people feel very strongly that he would help to unite the city in a way that at least begins to take some of the partisanship and some of the political perceptions away. i believe that he could help us do that. we appreciate the opportunity to address this more thoroughly. i will be casting my vote for mr. lee. >> i would like to start by thanking my colleagues turned down i think that we have come to a much better place today and we had on tuesday. i think that we are getting the city and the people of san francisco the respect and dignity they reserved. i would like to thank sheriff

mike hennessey. one thing about this entire process that needs to be made clear is that most of us here in this room believe that he is one of the great public servants. he has been serving the san francisco -- the people of san francisco for the past 18 years. there are many reasons to support the candidacy of mike hennessey and i would like to thank him personally for being able to do this. the job for the interim mayor will be an extremely daunting one. so, this is not a little thing to agree to sit and take that

post for 10 months. i would also like to thank mr. lee. the fact that he has also put himself forward speaks highly of mr. lee. as mentioned, he was the director of purchasing, the director of the department of public works, he was the director of the human rights commission. he has worked in almost every area of san francisco government. he has overseen our capital plan. bandwidth he oversees -- he oversees the city's disaster recovery and response. this is a very important issue

in district two and 10. he has worked on government efficiency and reducing the size of government. this is something that i used to do at the federal level. paul -- i will be supporting the nomination of mr. lee. in a time of budgetary restraint, it is good to know every facet of san francisco. both of these men have served the city. i would like to thank them for

serving the city and county of san francisco. >> i would like to thank colleagues for engaging in this deliberation. i would like to think all of you for crossing the political aisles that exist here and understanding the decision. i would like to thank all of you from the public to come out here today for your engagement in this very important discussion over the past two months which will impact the future of our city not just this year but for years to come.

at least reflect our shared progressive values. he has fought for working folks and for seniors. this is a historic moment. this is an historic moment for the chinese-american community, for a community that has been in the city for 160 years. a community that has struggled. a community that has seen discrimination. a community that has had a place here in san francisco. a community like all committees similar to it, if you come to the city from another country,

either you or your son or your daughter can someday reach the very top echelon of san francisco. this is a historic moment because this is an orderly transition of leadership. despite wonderful references to donkey kong, we have engaged in an orderly transition of leadership. this is what separates us as a democratic society. this is what separates us as a free society from other less free societies. i'm so proud of us for what we're about to do today. with that colleagues, thank you for being part of this historic moment.