mayor newsom: thank you all very much for taking the time to be here. i'm grateful and surprised by the number of people that actually showed up. i'm grateful for the number of people that took the time to be here to watch a number of your friends and family members and get to some various boards and bodies. this officially will constitute i believe my last public swearing in as mayor. there may be one or two people that i will be swearing in quietly in the mayor's office, but we are running out of commissions and running out of commissioners and boards, so i'm grateful that you took the time to be here for this.

i thank supervisor dufty, supervisor elsbernd for also taking the time to be here. how about a giant round of applause? [applause] i want to thank a number of department heads. the press secretary and other commissioners, i want to thank matthew for all his hard work getting the commissioners to give up their resumes and in some circumstances, give up their tax returns so we can find out more about you -- not literally. i am grateful to be swearing in

a dozen or so of you. the arts commission, the asian art museum commission. i will have some editorial comments in a moment. the finance corp., the golden gate bridge district, golden gate park concourse authority, graffiti advisory board -- and there is a story attached to that -- housing authority commission. small business commission, and the south east community facility's commission. briefly, i see p.j. johnson is the president of the arts commission who is here, and i'm pleased that kimberly striker is more publicly going to be sworn in, and my old friend who is going to move over from the department on the status of women and has long had an artistic bent and passion and history and background, and it seemed appropriate that we took this opportunity to appoint dorca to the arts commission.

i happen to think that our public arts scene in this community has improved dramatically. i was pleased to see something highlighting one of those pieces, but i'm very proud of the work that has been done over there, and i certainly hope and expect that we will be doing all those wonderful things for this neighborhood, but never forget the quality and imagination we strike when we probably right and opportunity to access in any meaningful way that challenges, ignites, and excites them, and that is why having these big, bold pieces of public art i think is so important to our city and provides a framework at least symbolically, not just substantively, people can appreciate the great history of the arts in our city. the asian art museum, at work and victoria both be reappointed -- i joked about that. we have work to do over there.

great things are happening. when we say world class, it tends to be a widely overstated phrase, but you talk about collection. there is simply not a collection in the western world as broad and deep as the asian art museum collection. it is truly an extraordinary collection. the challenge is it is in a beautiful building, and as great as that building is and as beautiful as the civic center is, it sometimes gets lost to those other cultural icons throughout the city that are in areas that are more accessible to people, at least they believe them to be more accessible. the challenge for the asian art museum is to build its foundation and to provide some new -- i see jay who is here, the director -- the opportunity

to take more risks in terms of how we rediscover the museum and get people to appreciate the extraordinary work that has been known over there in its leadership, so i'm excited about what you have been done. that is why you are being appointed back. we hope to have some announcements very soon about the asian art museum and its stated future. a lot of work to be done behind the scenes, as you know. finance corp. -- this is interesting. i'm pleased they are both going to take the mantle to serve on this corporation. this is a big deal. thank you for being here. [applause] the finance corp. was conceived as sort of a watchdog group of folks that could make sure -- that is why not yet as to say you wonder why these people are year. there's a connection. to make sure that we are being good fiduciaries to the work

that is being done in this city that is being sponsored by the people and their support of our municipal bonds. there have been questions in the past -- distant past -- that we have not always been doing what we could be doing, and that is why this was conceived. so it does not get as much attention as it deserves, but it is incredibly important. that is why i called ken and arnold up and asked if they would be willing to serve on this body, because it is an important body. so i'm very grateful. i have known arnold for many years, and i have admired and appreciated his commitment to this city. he knows more about their brown and jordan and feinstein am i ever will, as he has been a friend and served in different

capacities formally and informally for previous mayors. i'm very grateful for the role you will be serving. can cleveland -- you are always saying we need to be they of fiduciaries, so why not put the watchdog group, and i know all the members of the group, and i appreciate your willingness to serve. john, how many years have you been on this board? a long time. he was laid off a few times, but he keeps coming back. i guess that is the real story. but i told john his only job -- i'm going to leverage you publicly -- i said i'm going to be a poignant, i want one thing -- i want to walk up the table

of the golden gate bridge -- if i'm going to be a point you. i conditioned his entire reappointment on that, i expect publicly there is going to be some announcements. spend the day with us, so i said i'm happy to do that, so i'm happy to walk up with those men and women. i still want to do that. there is two more directors. i know. i'm very pleased as well. stephen, an old friend of mine -- not a very old friend. we got to know each other just a few years ago, but he works with the giants and has been very involved in community work and

doing other things before that, and is just a passionate enthusiast of our recreation and parks system, and it was one of those things are you said, "my gosh, what about steven to serve on the golden gate park's authority?" and he kiley said yes, and i'm very pleased you are willing to do this, so thank you. you are going to be outstanding. there was a column in the "chronicle" which i thought was interesting, about someone, and i will not get into the particulars. you can read the column if you are interested -- who went out there -- i do not want to belittle what the column said. what do you call those fancy shoes? manolo or something. i purposely did not remember that, so i do not have to at home. some fancy shoes and fancy outfits, and she was out there

cleaning up graffiti, and she sort of made an art of it because she does some serious work in the real estate world, some fancy work, and she drives a fancy car and gets out there with big cans of paint. they are in the back of a car, and she just stops everywhere, middle of the street, double parks, whatever, and jobs out there and will clean out your graffiti. i thought maybe there was something right about her. maybe there was something wrong. so i had to check. i realized it was hollow. i had known her over the years and did not connect the dots. -- i realized it was paula. kurd of like you are going to sit there telling us we can do a better job -- how about this? we have this position somehow that was vacant on the graffiti advisory board, so we said how about that? she said yes and went on to tell me more about the -- anyway, she

was already on the job. i thank you for your hard work on this appointment. kind of, i don't know, interesting circuitous way onto this board. but good luck. but now, you are part of the problem. not just books at city hall. housing authority commission, dorothy smith. this was interesting -- we had a public process for this commission. there is always a public process, so we decided to dig deeper into public housing, and we had a very specific slot for a certain type of commissioner, and we interviewed a bunch of folks, and we found the perfect person to serve on our housing authority. you all know how exciting housing authority is, right? they are going through a complete reinvention, out there,

starting at hunters point and moving out to sunnyvale, and eventually alice griffith. completely real imagining public housing. -- completely real magic in public housing. we keep putting band-aids, and is just failing more efficiently. we put up $95 million of city money. people do not fully appreciate -- $95 million in bonds the city put up to build this public- private partnership. we're finding that will dollars, state dollars that we otherwise would not have discovered had we not have the courage to put that deals together. so it is an exciting time in public housing. and no, public housing is not what it should be, and, yes, a lot of us should be ashamed that we allowed it to go this long and thus far, but that is a national issue as much as it is a state and local issue, but the state is stepping in where the federal government walk away,

and dorothy is going to be a big part of that. i'm grateful you said yes and your name into this mix. so thank you. small business -- steve adams. a small-business advocate. he has friends here. he is just a great guy. i think all the supervisors know steve well, really committed to the mission district and stepped up in some creative ways to create a little miniature community benefits district there and has always been out front supporting our small business week and our small business commission, our small business this, our small business that period has been an informal adviser on this position. a number of months came up, and we called in -- call him, and he said yes on the spot. it has just taken months to get here, and swearing in, but i'm grateful for your service. finally, the southeast community facilities commission. we have known bridgette for

years. this is it, because i know you guys are hungry. almost lunch. it is a wonderful facility, but it is underutilized and needs to be completely be imagined. and we need to really gauge the community -- we need to reengage the community to reimagine this facility. as the she could do that in an appropriate manner. so that is the lineup. now, for the swearing in. this is rather easy. all you have to do is raise your right hand. you appropriately if you would like, to stand just because it seems more formal. what i will do is i will say "i" and then you will state your name, and then entering such

time as you hold the position of, and you will say, "small business commission, blah blah blah." got it? this is not as hard as it appears. please raise your right hand. please state your name. >> [inaudible] >> do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that i take this

obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i'm about to enter, and during such time as i hold the position as a member -- >> [inaudible] for the city and it -- >> for the city and county of san francisco. it is official. congratulations. [applause]

>> good morning, folks. good morning. in the general manager of san francisco utilities commission, and we are here for a moment this occasion. we are at the potrero, the last dirty power plant in san francisco, so the big question we have been asking is not whether this goes away, but when does this go away.

today, you will hear the official announcement. the first one to try to answer that question -- there will be two people doing it -- is our mayor, who was so instrumental in making this happen, mayor gavin newsom. mayor newsom: thank you for coming out. i know it is called, and i know you are worried because i get so excited about some of these issues. this is something that is near and dear to all of us. we would not be here had it not been a point of intense purpose and passion that unites all of us in terms of our desire to shut this power plant down. there are a lot of champions of this effort. most importantly, the community. the people of the southeast sector that demanded that we reconcile the fact that we had two of the most polluting power plants in california that were operating not too many years ago. we were successful finally in

shuttering the hunters point plant in 2006, and we then turned our intent -- attention intensely on shutting down the potrero power plant. to say so is quite easy. we can hold hands, passed resolutions, have candlelight vigils and talk about the issues of environmental justice and prostate cancer rates and cervical cancer rates and asthma rates and recognizing the problem and elevating it in the consciousness of and the minds of people in the city, state, and nation. to take a pragmatic steps required partners and leaders. community has that foundation and support, and having elected officials and appointed officials in key positions that were stewards of this process. we have had many of them -- former mayors. former supervisors. i would argue the current mayor and current supervisors. we have partners in the state and partners in our federal

government that all came together with that stated goal and intent of getting to where we are in today, and that is this formal announcement that this potrero plant will be shut down as early as the end of the year or as late as the first quarter of next year. i'm giving a little bit of room for the real determinant of when this will be shut down, to give us a more precise date, but i just want to compliment everybody for their steadfastness and faith and devotion to this process, but we did not always necessarily agree. we had different tracks we went down. some have argued for some combustion turbines as an alternative, and we were getting close to that. we successfully pulled back. commissioner escolar a was a real champion, yelling and screaming behind closed doors --

never in public. he was always good about that -- saying, "you cannot walk down that path. you must listen to those that argue differently." to jeroboam felt, who argued the same period -- to jared blue bell, who argued the same. to others who felt we could do more and better. to yakut, always keeping us back on track and saying, open court are not care how you do it. my professional responsibility is reliability, and here's how i think you can get their." i cannot impress upon you how fortunate we were to have him. every time we pick up the phone, he answered. every time we wanted a straight answer, he gave it. he had a lot of political pressure and a lot of folks that wanted him to say something different, but he had a

fiduciary responsibility to say what he thought was right, but he always was there to provide direction and counsel, and i wanted to publicly state that because he was a fundamental linchpin and an incredibly important person in helping us move this process along. to the puc staff, so all the commissioners, i thank you for your guidance and counsel and your hard work. you were critical and central to this effort. to the city attorney's office, you were central in this effort, and were critical in getting us this far as we have come. his supervisor maxwell, her passion was shared with her action -- to supervisor maxwell, her passion was shared with her action. i wish we did record those conversations in the mayor's office. they were not necessarily yelling, but they were passionate conversations, and we had a back and forth in terms of

how we got here, but we certainly share the same goal of getting to where we are today. that was for sure. i know how proud you are of this moment, and you deserve to be prideful of this, and you deserve a tremendous amount of credit for getting us here and keeping us all on the same path. i want to also thank the state for their guidance and leadership and stewardship as well. again, 1000 fathers or mothers -- success, right? but i'm really honored that all of you work as hard as you did. i will close just personally. this was one of my firm pledges when i ran for mayor, that i would be the mayor that shot down hunters point and potrero. hunters point, i knew we could get it down, and potrero, and i knew we were intentional, but nothing makes me more proud than being able to -- and i did not

even have to stretch my time as a member of the city family. this is official. to be here is a point, really, of tremendous personal pride as well. thank you, everybody. we are going to shut this down, revitalize it, redevelop it, rematch in the area. research and development, green tech, and as was said in a paper, this is the last vestige of our industrial past, our polluting past. this is important. i know the folks in merant. they tried to make it cleaner and more efficient, and i thank you for that, but this was originally san francisco gas and whatever. they were burning coal. they were taking coal and basically converting it through a process that kept our street lights on in the 19th century

and allowed us to have cooking oil at home. it was a big part of san francisco's indiana foundation, but it gets to a point where we turn our back to the old ways of doing things and we'd probably lift our heads to a new way of doing things. really, this day marks the occasion as much or more than anything else. thank you all very much. [applause] . >> thank you. as the mayor said, a lot of people were providing information, sending messages to sacramento, but none of this would have been worthwhile if there was not someone listening to us as we sent those messages. with us today, the ceo and president of the california independent -- iso. >> thank you very much. of course, this is a historic day. the plant is historic, and shutting the plant is historic.

on its own face, this plan has been far art of date. more recently, it has actually provided a security cushion for san francisco, should anything happen outside of san francisco. but the the brassiere to replace the plan with other alternatives that would make the city more secure, more reliable, with much less polluting options, which is all the special projects that have been put in place for the last two or three years. first, transbay cable, an incredibly sophisticated technology that provides part of that supply, and the re-cabling of pg&e, and i want to thank everyone who worked very hard to make that technology work over the past year and have the cable in operation.

and also pg&e, who really were also very hard -- worked very hard to replace all the cables, and now, san francisco has a reliable secure supply. really, there are people that i want to thank. first of all, the mayor talked about listening. i just have not met a politician over my six years in california who listens with a full year's like gavin newsom -- listens with full years -- listens with full ears like gavin newsom. who helps us get through to something that will satisfy the community. i cannot thank you end up. out of all of this, we became very good friends as well. supervisor maxwell, we are finally here, and we are celebrating. city attorney, we have phone calls that were so