there had been a lot of work done in november and december by coalitions in sacramento in the wake of the passage of proposition 26. that has the potential to have an effect on state financing to the tune of $2.5 billion if certain legislation is not re- enacted pursuant to proposition 26. i can answer questions, if that is your interest, but i wanted to get to the bottom line. the governor has embraced the coalition perspective which is, let's wrap in the reenact the necessary statute pursuant to proposition 26 so that we save those funds that were adopted a year ago. we think that has a reasonable chance of passing. there were two other notable elements in the bond act -- i am sorry, in the budget for transportation. one is they tried to maintain

faith with the amount of transportation assistance to operators, a target pursuant to legislation adopted in 2010. about $350 million to be distributed statewide to operators. due to a shift in the estimate of the source of the revenues, it is probably more like $330 million. nonetheless, this has been a target of previous administrations to redirect the general fund. they are going to try to finance transportation operations at the minimum acceptable level, which is a change in attitude in sacramento which is welcomed by transit operators across the state. finally, the last point to make is, that the governor has made proposals that would shore of the general bond plans that are earmarked for transportation.

they decided to dedicate truck weight fees, in lieu of the general fund, to pay for general obligation debt service that the state would otherwise have to pay for out of the general fund. that is projected to be as much as $700 million in any one given year. so that was money that we were not counting on. that will now be used to shore up transportation general obligation bonds, which is an important thing in the coming years. commissioner mar: we have a question from commissioner elsbernd. commissioner elsbernd: we have you here, so i went to take advantage of you being in front of us. just to give us a quick primer on what the governor means when he talks about realignment to local government. i know that may not be a specific question to transportation, but it will hit everything that we do. >> there have been factual,

direct reallocations of local redevelopment funds. and there is the programmatic part and the underlying part. on the programmatic side -- i did not spend any time mr. looking at the governor's strategy in the realignment area -- but it is looking to shift certain programs from the state to local area, in areas like public safety, child care provision, and certain medical and mental health services. i do not know the breadth and scope of those. i could probably provide -- commissioner elsbernd: generally shifting from state to local, but maybe we will get some additional revenue? >> correct. by repealing the statutory

reauthorization for development agencies, they ceased to exist. by action we take -- the property tax in california would then be available for local expenditures for the state programs. in a nutshell, that is how that would work. it sounds counter intuitive, in contrast to proposition 22, which says you cannot move the money, but they are not moving the money. they are proposing to eliminate the authority for the blight condition, any incremental financing with property taxes. in addition, i believe certain portions of the taxes that are due to expire, some at the end of this year, some next year, were adopted in 2009.

the permanent extension of that was declined by the voters in 2009. some of those funds will find their way to support the transit activities. commissioner elsbernd: my question for staff, transportation, we are talking about redevelopment, but what will be the impact on transbay and the overall transbay plans? i am sure commissioner kim is very concerned about that. we are doing every development in commissioner cohen's district. it is all going to have a trickle of fact. i know is not specific transportation funding, but it is important. -- effect. if you could let us know, we would be appreciative. >> we are looking and that

already. obviously, we have seen the ability to leverage tax increments for infrastructure projects is a key, especially in an urban setting like ours. we want to make sure that remains the case. commissioner elsbernd: just another one to look at, the park merced project. i know that there are some taxes that could be used to improve the 19th corridor. that will be key to whether the project is approved. >> it is also a fundamental mechanisms for listing the private sector in participating with infrastructure building. we want to see that continue. commissioner elsbernd: it is also my dream financing mechanism for caltrain. commissioner mar: thank you. anything else?

colleagues, if there are no other questions, let's open this up to the public. is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, can we move the recommendation forward without recommendations? thank you. are there any other items of for us? >> item 7, introduction of new items. this is an information item. commissioner mar: are there any items that colleagues would like to bring? seeing none, let's open this up to public comment. is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. are there any other items before us? >> item 8, public comment. commissioner mar: is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you. >> item 9. adjournment. commissioner mar: thank you, everyone. meeting is adjourned.

>> the civil grand jury is a unit and no one person can pursue their own idea to the exclusion without the force of others. not saying people don't come on with something they want to push. i have not seen it be successful in the 2 years i served. the topics are chosen by the current grand jury. we got to the top issues. the first one would be

accountability? city government of the how does the city function and in what ways do they embrace business concepts in analyzing this program? if you made a prediction that something was not going to cost something or something would cost something. an ordinary business, you would follow up and make sure you were on target. if you weren't, you would go back and revise your analysis or your system of analysis to get better predictions. we felt that a business practice would be if a department is required to file the report, there would be follow ups and someone would do something about them. another topic was homelessness. recognizing that a significant amount of budget goes to the

homelessness program. how is the money being spent? the city has made great striding in finding homes for the homeless. however the perception the homeless is it's not being solved. drinking in the parks. drug use. pan handling. those sorts of problems the citizens are seeing. so our recommendation was that city should provide homes, but really needs to address this other issue, which is the quality of life for homeless and other residents of the city. some people are suspicious of election process and question is it fair? is it open? it's accurate? we went to the department of

elections and said we will really like to observe the election process. it was a time consuming process. we observed 4 elections. the problems were fairly clear cut. the elections department needs a permanent home first operation side. they took out a 4-year lease and that did help the operation side for a while. that's a short term lease. the city should be submitted to find a permanent home for the operations elections and the last one, probably the report that interested me or got to me the most was the school's

report much the admission process is unique only in san francisco. and one that i find personally very complicated and undually so. we recommended that they seriously consider a lottery system that would a sign students to a school at the same time giving families the opportunity to go to a different school if they wanted to. we recommended they redefine the attendance area and have them attend closer to home. some department managers will say thank you. thank you for bringing this to light. thank you for identifying the problem, thank you for your work. others will wish that we had not asked the questions.

may be don't appreciate the way the report is worded. disagree the problem identified is a problem. one of the things a civil grand jury has to be careful about is that you maintain an objectivity and your report be factualy based and that your recommendations are based on findings. it's reviewed by the presiding judge and he orders a grant. the mayor's office is required to make responses within 60 days and the board of supervisors is responsible for responding in 90 days. in the past 2 years, they have undertaken to have hearings where the reports are reviewed, the grand jury has an

opportunity to testify or make comments. the departments are invited to come and make comments where they agree and disagree and the public can comment. if a person would like to learn more about the reports that can go to the sf gov and go to courts, you will find civil grand jury. the advice i would give to anyone trying to understand and short on time. i would go to report and each one has an executive summary in which we tried to explain what we're looking at and then i would go to the back and read the summary of the finding and read the recommendations. if you read those 3 sections, you would have a fairly good idea of who we looked at, what we found and what we

recommended. >> 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 know there will be a celebration in the not too distant future. we will do what we do at my church. we burn the mortgage. we are going to burn the mortgage. [applause] thank you, mr. mayor, mr. brown. >> we have had tremendous leadership from the mayor's cabinet, city attorney's office, but also from the board of supervisors. with us is the president of the board of supervisors david chiu. welcome. >> thank you. >> thank you. first of all, i want to th