i understand it will take our clerk a few minutes to tally the votes so what i'd like to ask is that we proceed to the next item and then come back when our clerk has tallied the results. so at this time why don't we move to our 3:30 special order for the recognition of commendations. i understand we have a number of commendations today sparting with supervisor mar. supervisor mar: thank you, president chiu:. along with supervisor carmen chu and david chiu, and i'm sorry for the delay but we're honored with the presence of a veteran of the world war ii and korean war. he has been honored in a documentary that aired last year but it's a recent film. the -- he's the subject of the documentary as the first asian -american commissioned officer in the united states marine

corps. he's dedicated immense resolution and dedication to his country in the korean war in the bat. of chosin reservoir. he's also documented for bravery and heroism. growing up in sacramento, though he is san francisco born, major kurt lee was a proud american citizen eager to enlist in the military ate young age. he joined 9 reserve officers corps in high school. we also have proud members of the american legion post including commander ron lee and many others here with us today and roger dong, the founder of the chinese-american heroes project and nelsonan lum, the vice chairman of the war museum

and as a platoon leader, main kurt lee in the korean war fought in the decisive battle of chosun reservoir against the advancing chinese army who had encircled the american forces. i think the film really showed how harsh the conditions were, rugged terrain and being severely outnumbered by chinese forces. major lee bravely led forces and donning -- a brightly colored vest, some say orange, others say pink or another color, he endured enemy fire while receiving many wounds and forcing the enemy to reveal their stations. and they successfully evacuated the company's 8,000 marines to

the port city. some debate this but many say he and his men saved thousands of lives on that day. he's received the navy cross, the second kind of highest honor in the marine krps -- corps and two purple hearts. the smith sonya channel's documentary "undom -- uncommon courage, breakout ought chosun," was shown and i hope it's shown widely around the country. i'm pleased to have the opportunity to recognize such an exceptional hero and leader and thank major lee for being here with us today. he came out from washington, d.c. i'd also like to reveal that major kurt lee is also my uncle and it's my great honor to have him here in the chamber of the

board of supervisors today. he's 85 years young. i also want to reiterate my gratitude for his outstanding braverry and to thank the chinese american project for helping bring him out here and ron lee and the cafe post for making his trip possible so educate younger people on what he's done. thank you so much for your great braverry and dedication to our country. i wanted to introduce roger dong first who will introduce major lee also. >> thank you. president chiu:, supervisors, it's a great honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you one of america's great heroes whose story has been hidden for 60 years. we are very fortunate that the

smithsonian institution discovered him, told the story and on the internet one day we found it, the story that here is a san franciscoan who has done these tremendous deeds and none of us know about it. so we invited him out here and now he's here today. it is with great honor i would like to present major kurt lee. [applause] >> thank you, roger. to me, it is a distinct honor to be here to observe the city's government in operation, number one. i'm considered a native son of san francisco although in all hopsy i lived here for only two days when i was born here and my parents took me back to the sacramento river delta area where it was -- he was farming

back in 1926. and technically i was brought up in the sacramento area. but i am very happy to be here and to recognize the civic motivation of the chinese americans in this particular city and to see how well they're doing and how this is america in operation. thank you very much for the honor of being here. [applause]

[applause] >> thank you. major, and our veterans today. our next commendation will be offered by i -- our supervisor from district six, jane kim. supervisor kim: thank you, president chiu:. i'm really excited today to present commendations to an organization that does really amazing work in our district, la voz latina. neighborhood six and the grouppeds in the greater mission area are very familiar with the amazing work of this

organization, a fabulous group of women, mothers, that contribute to the vitality of our neighborhoods. they are a model for real community organizing and have taken on leadership roles on important issues that matter within our community, whether it's the safe passages guidelines, a program that started from the community with the boys and girls club north of market c.b.d. and several other community-based organizations, to take back the community to our own hands, to make the streets safer for our kids walking home from school and after school programs, to partner with a diversity of groups in the tender loin. they also work actively with parent groups in several of the public schools including tenderloin community elementary school, betsy carmichael, redding and buena vista. i became fack with the work of la voz.

they are hugely active in helping improve communication for our parent-teacher communications and to work to ensure we are bringing bilingual staff to the schools and to keep our students in our communities ensuring safety transfers and working on not expeling kids. and the group is working on a plan to improve pedestrian safety and cleany -- cleanliness in our parks. they are very strong, outspoken women who not only work full time and raise families but dedicate their hours outside to take leadership roles in their communities, to fight for integrated and successful and affordable housing, transit and

jobs. i also wanted to acknowledge today a woman that has been a huge part of holding up this program. it's a woman that i have worked very closely with, a colleague and friend who has dedicated her life to serve and organize as a tenant rights activist and organizer for the tenner lyon affordable housing clinic and s.e.i.u., barbara "bobby" lopez. [applause] bobby, as many of us know, is ending a five-year-long stint as a community organizer for la voz to work on to actually organizing for the school district, creating stronger partnerships between our communities and schools and our teachers. latinos make um roughly 25% of the tenderloin, mainly of mayan descent and they are highly

organized in a neighborhood that's worked hard to create coalesce around improvements. bobby's an asset to the organization and i know that there are a lot of people here today that want to acknowledge her and thank her for her have. she's officially morvinging on to a new job as community liaison for bryant elementary and i know she will continue to be a rock star advocate for our community and our office looks forward to continuing to work with the inspiring mothers of la voz latina. i am most inspired by her work to write the first draft of the bed bug law and to work on racial profiling, car con fisscation -- confiscation, detention, and i don't know how

boib does what she does. she has many extracurricular activities but she's someone i look forward to working with. so we want to bring up the mothers. and bobby lopess. -- lopez. and as a resident of district six thank you so much for you all the work you do to help improve our communities. >> [speaking spanish] before i girnings i just want

to say good afternoon and i want to thank you for this recognition. [speaking spanish] [translater:so i'm just going to mention a few changes we've worked on in the tender loin. obviously the housing rental subsidies, the foot patrols making police walk the streets. making sure people's cars weren't confiscated if they

were illegal immigrants. and now the biggest is safe passable -- passage because if you live in the tender loin you know it's not safe going to and from schools and we want our kids to are safe. i guess i'll say a few words. as jane said, i've switched jobs and i'm not very comfortable but i've got to get used to it. it's been a wonderful journey in the tenderloin the last five years because we've had an amazing group. [speaking spanish] . jane said it, a lot of the moms work during the day and even the ones that don't have children they take care of, they're active in the schools, all of them are active on the tenant councils and generally in community involvement. when i first started i was shocked not only by the amount not latinos in the district but

also by the lack of resources. five years later it's a little bit better abouts it's tougher. with the ymca moving out, boys and girls clubs getting cut, it's deeply impacted us because sometimes we don't know where to de -- refer a child. oh, and the rec center closing. but we've had a much tighter group of youth providers and i think it's integral to consider that particularly working families are constantly shifting in the city of san francisco to go where there is possibility of housing and affordability. so i just hope that all the supervisors representing traditional households acknowledge that no a.p.i. community is now in the valley. the latinos are in the bay view and the t.l. well, everybody is in the excelsior who say working family at this point. i think it's good just to recognize that populations

shift and change and to make sure that communities are being served. these moms are going to continue the work but i just want to say it's crucial. i was thinking of what to say on the way over. i don't have a timer so i don't know if i've gone over but a lot of times when we work with our attorney partners or the aclu, they always call us if they have exals of course human rights abuses. i think to myself, well, that says a lot about our program but also a lot about the community we're in, that families are in constant crisis, whether for deportation, i just had a family deported for taking a nail at home depot. or family crisis. a lot of folks are part of the restaurant or hotel industry and that's been in crisis and we see it when people are unemployed and disemployed and underemployed and it affects the family. so thank you for the

recognition. we're going to continue the work. [speaking spanish] >> [speaking spanish]

>> [speaking spanish] >> thank you. it has been about building relationships with people. i really what folks in this room to a college that whether i am here are not, all these women are leaders in their own right. they know so much about what is happening at the street level and they care so much. i hope they continue to have the same level of respect and equality. thank you. >> i am randy shaw, director of

tenderloin housing. i remember interviewing bobby for a job five years ago and being impressed with her passion and commitment. those of you who have worked with bobby over the years have known that. you see the solidarity bobby has helped create in this community. when bobby started with elizabeth alexander, people did not even know latino families lived in the neighborhood. that is the mission district. i remember hearing the stories about bobby dealing with the principles. she is firm and stands up for what she believes. these principles -- principals, even at the tenderloin school, were not used to monitor-lingual families asserting their rights. people in tenderloin did not know we had these families. there were treated worse than second class citizens until

bobby showed up. bobby is humble and does not want to tout her accomplishments. but i think when the parents saw bobby showing that leadership, they became empowered. she showed them it could be done. now she is moving on, they have the power. they are going to hire a replacement, but bobby's model has worked for the entire community. all of san francisco is better because of bobby's years with us. thank you. [applause] >> i just wanted to explain this is our advisory parent council, not all but part of it.

[applause] president chiu: colleagues, we are at the end of our special commendations. why don't we go back to item 15? you now have results of the election regarding the special election for the ift. >> we have completed the official canvassing and statement of election results, which has been distributed to the board members. we are in receipt of 11 ballots, representing 14 votes. therefore, 100% of ballots are in favor of the ifd. the ballot measure has passed by the required percentage. president chiu: based on that information, we can consider item 15, declaring the results of the special election for the infrastructure financing district in the rincon hill

area. without objection, this resolution is adopted. next item is item 16. colleagues, can we take this item same call? without objection, this is passed on first read. item 17, same house, col. this resolution is adopted. this completes this afternoon's proceedings for the ifd. the board will consider final passage of the ordinance at a regular meeting on february 15, 2011. at this time, can we go to general public comment? >> the next item on the agenda is an opportunity for the public to address the board on items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board, including items on the adoption without committee reference portion of the agenda, and excluding items that have been considered by a board committee. speakers using translation

assistance will be allowed twice the time to testify. if a member of the public would like a document to be displayed , do so. president chiu: every speaker will have two minutes. >> mr. president, i would like to show you the chinese newspaper. [unintelligible] [speaking a foreign language]

ladies and gentleman, as you see here, that is [unintelligible] mubarak, the president, refused to leave. [speaking a foreign language]

i would like to show you that 5000 people in the city of san

francisco have supported us. and i would like to thank our supervisor, john avalos, for coming to support us too. he has courage. do not ask me why the arab people in this city love him. here you can see we always like to show you that my country has 7000 years of history. last one when he left, america tried to guess how much he had lined in his pockets. $1.50. last time was $1.50. mubarak today has escaped with

$90 million american. he said he fights for his country. he stole his country's money. i wish you understand. what he said after all that -- he said barack obama does not understand what happened in my country. mr. mubarak, how much are you calling to kill my people? people need to read what i write in america about that. people would like to know. egypt does not want mubarak. they want him to go. go away. go away. i ask each one of you. no corruption.

no war. does america support mubarak for? does anyone agree with me? god bless you. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. do not give money to the friends of the foundation. as i pointed out, there is a new report from the department of public works regarding the current state of the branch library improvement program. what does it show? there are different ways to look at it, but these are dpw figures. the private nonprofit claimed it would raise $6 million. the original bond program was $105.90 million. at its inception, the friends were making a commitment to raise 15.1% of the public share. the program is 60% complete, and

so far the public has extended it. the friends have contributed just zero points 7%. the state attorney general's office shows the raised $31.70 million during the same time. the program is so agreed to sleep over budget because they had to stretch out the time for these people to raise money. never mind the harm to the public of the library. never mind the damage to the public trust. never mind all the good this money could have done, extended for a useful purpose. what about misrepresentations to their own donors, who thought their millions were born to benefit the public library? the supervisors represent the people who ended up giving these people money.