and i pledge to you, i will serve as i most ably can over r represents a changing of the guard, a transition. we are saying thank you and goodbye to mayor newsom and to our last colleagues who were elected in the early part of 2000 and we are welcoming a new interim mayor and four new colleagues. a few months ago, our city had a tressel brace. a group of young people who came to san francisco from all over the world came together. they were underestimated, considered a rag tag bunch, they combined their individual talents and they built an incredible team and became the

2010 world series champions, the san francisco giants. [applause] if i could think of a metaphor today for who we are as a board of supervisors, i think that the giants are a good example, and not just because we have a couple of beards here on the board that we ought to fear. we are a young board. eight of us have served for less than two years, but we have a tremendous amount of talent. we now have seven law degrees on the board. we have six masters degrees on the board. with our new incoming class, we have a civil rights attorney, a deputy city attorney, a venture capitalist, the founder of a small business. we span the diversity of our neighbors, the diversity of our demographics, the dersty of our

political perspectives, and starting on tuesday, we are going to come together to play for the first time as a team. now, we need to figure out fast thousand do this because we have many challenges in front of us. within very short order we are going to have to tackle a budget deficit of almost $400 million without any of the budget tricks we've been able to use in years past. we are going to have to figure out how to collaborate to bring down our looming pension and health care benefits. we're going to have to figure out how to continue to provide basic city services while taking care of the most vulnerable in san francisco. we're going to have to do this together. as we think about doing this, we know that we're going to have to move beyond the past, move beyond the past oppositional politics of personality, where

if the mayor or some members of the board take one position, others have to take a position in opposition. none of us were voted into this office toe take positions. we were voted into office to get things done. [applause] we were voted into office to create jobs to, make sure muni runs on time, to make sure our streets are safe and clean, and again to make sure that the least fortunate among us is taken care of. we can only get thingenings done if we work together, with our new interim mayor, with each other and with all of you here from the community. building consensus issues not about ignoring differences. i think it is foolhardy to not

recognize that we have really real defenses. but building consensus is about acknowledging that we have differentials and working through those with our hard work. that is what leadership is about, what is what government is about, and that is what we will be about here at the board of supervisors. now, here in san francisco, we are blessed to live in the most amazing city in the entire world, and as we move forward this second decade of the 21st century, we have to solve some very serious questions about our future, about who we are, about who we want to be, and about how we will carry out our shared progressive values, exemplified by the namesake of st. francis. i look forward to working with you here rat the board to doing this work, to leading together

together, here as elected officials, as public servants, and as san francisco cans in this beautiful city by the bay in our beautiful city of san francisco. thank you very much. [applause] and at that time let me ask madam clerk, do we have any more business in front of our board? >> that concludes our business for today, mr. president. supervisor chiu: our meeting for today is officially adjourned.

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>> ok, let's get started. good morning, everyone.

i am happy to see so many city leaders here as well as students from local schools. welcome to the asian art museum. my name is jay shee, the director of the asian art museum. on behalf of the staff and board, we welcome you in the backdrop of the upcoming exhibitions, ritual performances. it will be open to the public february 25. this is the first time in history of the united states that the indonesian culture, particularly the island of bali, will be presented to our public. this is a wonderful example of the value and service that a museum provides to our community.

we are a platform for cultural exchange, as well as cultural diplomacy. this museum has served for many years this say and we continue to be more robust in our service to the public. as you know, our museum is governed by a couple of foundations. the foundation is a private fund-raising arm for the museum. that museum took out a loan in 2000. we have had some difficulty and this is the news lately. under the leadership of our city and our commission and foundation board, today we are pleased to present to the public a proposal to solve a bond issue

that is conflicting the foundation. let me introduce to you the leaders from our city, mayor gavin newsom. [applause] city attorney dennis r. veherre. former mayor willie brown. and the president of the asian art museum foundation. as well as the vice chair for the asian arts commission. carmen chu, our city supervisor. then rosenfield, the city comptroller. and nadia, our city finance public director. welcome all. without further ado, let me give you our mayor, gavin newsom. >> thank you all for taking the

time to be here. this is an important moment. we have been working diligently behind the scenes for the last number of months to try to solve a bump in the road in terms of the future of this extraordinary museum, the finest collection of asian art artifacts anywhere in north america. we are very proud of this museum, its place in history, our city, and the contributions from americans that have built this extraordinary place. in fact, last year i gave my state of the city here because of all of the accomplishments and contributions that were made. it goes without saying, when we first made aware of some of the challenges that were taking place and taking shape here, the city family came together very quickly to try to help work through those challenges. we are blessed to have not only

outstanding current leadership but outstanding leadership that was formally here and continue to be represented in the private-sector, particularly mayor willie brown, one of the first call we made. dennis brown and his team were magnificent and immediately asserted themselves in the negotiations to advance our efforts to get us to this moment. of course, we are blessed -- as was the case when i made when he was originally appointed -- that there are few people better than rosenfield in his ability to think about a tough issue. he partnered, in particular with nadia, and was able to organize a framework working with j.p. morgan, mbia, working with willie brown and working collaborative lee with carmen

chu and others on the board of supervisors so that we can get to a place where we can say the future of this museum is now significantly secure. [applause] you are all supposed i did not y applause time, a lesson for you students here. what we're doing here is important. we are also announcing a new team of people, and that is notably why mayer brown is here. he is committed to lead a civic effort to help significantly enhance the foundation's already good work, to raise additional

money for this museum. mayer brown and dennis herrera, are leading that effort. as the future ex-mayor, perhaps i can be committed to that effort, to go out there and to seek to reach, not only within the san francisco community but throughout the bay area and state, nation, and for that matter, around the world, to raise the millions of dollars that need to be raised by the foundation to put it on more permit financial footing. so the purpose of the day was to celebrate the work that has been done and the case that there is a lot of work that needs to continue to be done and we have the right people to do it. i will close by thanking those who are about to come up and speak, for their remarkable leadership and commitment. thank you, dennis herrera, ben

rosenfield, steve cava, carmen chu, and notably, willie brown. >> thank you, mr. mayor. our next speaker will be the city attorney, deninis herrera. >> thank you, jay. i thought it was notable to thank the mayor. he will be going to the lieutenant governor's office. i think it is notable that mayor newsom said he would continue to be involved. i think that is testimony to the leadership he has shown throughout what has been a difficult time over the last couple of months. there was a tremendous amount of work that had gone on ensuring the security of this

museum, going forward. mayor gavin newsom and his chief of staff deserve a tremendous amount of the credit for showing the leadership that we are focused on getting a common solution that insures the viability of this institution. i want to thank them for their leadership, then rosenfield, who does a tremendous amount of the heavy lifting, i staff who did a lot of the negotiating with financial institutions to make sure everyone had some skin in the game. the fact is, mayor newsom alluded to, there are a lot of people that have to do work to make sure that long-term we have the security that we have focused on here. it is going to take leadership from the city family. i applaud what the financial institutions have done in terms of showing their commitment, but it is going to need the commitment of all of us in the city to assure that this iconic

institution continues to provide an outlet for learned about bali, shanghai, japanese art, not just for students here now, but for upcoming generations. this is an iconic institution that does not just certification san francisco. it is a world-recognized leader. people come from all over the world to learn about asian art. that is the population that this great institution provides for a run the world. it will be incumbent upon us to work with the museum foundation to do what we need to do to make the case to the greater populous as to why they need to financially support this institution and assure that a few years from now we are not in the same place. i think everybody had done their part and it is up to us as a community to show that we value what is an iconic institution and provide world leadership for

people throughout the world to have an interest in asian art. i want to thank mayor newsom, mayer brown for coming out of retirement, so to speak, to make sure that he will continue to help in the fundraising effort, and i applaud everyone's work that they have done to assure that 15 years from now this institution continues to be the world leader in educating generations of san franciscans about the importance of asian art. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, dennis. what a wonderful speech. it was before my time, but i remember mayer brown who unveiled this wonderful building, museum to the people of san francisco. so once again he is with us. let's will come mayer brown. -- welcome mayor brown. >> when mayor newsom telephoned

me and asked if i would be available to participate in the effort to make sure that all san franciscans assumed collectively the responsibility to put this institution on sound financial grounds, now and going forward, obviously, i could not turn down that request. i suspect every other san franciscan would do likewise. he told me the city attorney's office would do what would need to be done to make sure that we would have the opportunity to do it. he said there were some people already pledged on the foundation side to be a part of the effort. obviously, it is going to take lots of hard work, but it is, frankly, a joy to be part of maintaining, and hopefully,

perpetuating one of the flagship cultural institutions in this city. this city is about culture. this city is about pride in ethnic heritage. this city is about an appreciation of the extraordinary talents of people on the arts side and to have 6000-year-old pieces that you can see no other place in the world come and to have the collection here -- you understand the brundage collection could have been dropped anywhere in the world. he chose us to be a caretaker of those 17,000 pieces -- whatever the number happens to be. we can do no less than justify that by being successful at raising what dennis tells me this summer in the neighborhood

of $25 million. that is a small figure compared to what we have raised with this young museum, what a fisher family gave for the expansions of the museum of modern art, what was raised with the jewish museum. what we're trying to raise for the museum that will reflect the culture of the hispanic world of san francisco and beyond. all these institutions come together in one fashion or another and makes this part of the most wonderful place on earth in which to live. mr. mayor, i am proud, from your the 10 governorships, if and when it begins -- [laughter] you still want to be a part of this wonderful city. the rest of us are certainly going to welcome you. i