why don't we open these items up for public comment. are there any members of the public that wish to speak on items 1 or 2? or on the update of the state budget? >> first, let me say that i am heartened by the questions coming from the chairperson of this committee. it shows a much better understanding of the budget process. i am optimistic about the future of this committee. i did not see any fred blackwell presentation. perhaps you see a nexus. i did not see anything abou this -- about his sales pitch.

i would just say to mr. blackwell that if it is funding projects like yoshi's, perhaps there be a different position. thirdly, i would like to see the projected deficit by the mayor's office, i would like to know what assumptions he made regarding the june ballot initiatives. are they based on the initiatives passing? and we can have a clear understanding of the validity of the deficit. supervisor chu: next speaker, please. >> i'm a district 6 voter as well as the chapter organizer for californians for disability

rights. the proposals coming down to eliminate in-house services for individuals will bring a lot of people into nursing homes and possibly the hospital system's at laguna honda. one of the reasons i got up to speak was because i believe that despite the fact that there is a large group of people that are retiring, there are also huge amounts of money being spent in the city for pensions, i believe that there is opportunities for generating and come. and a necessity to look at what

it's of parking areas to produce funds for road repair. or the potential of, i believe i read in one of the amendments, the possibility of a san francisco store the market is san francisco -- that market ied san francisco. basically, i believe that there needs to be a really vigorous attention to opportunity hto pass this budget. [chime] supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker, pelase.

-- please. >> we are a statewide organization. and we are really concerned about the cuts to social services. they won't heal at all from providers. they follow the senate's proposal, 10% of the fall of the assembly's proposal -- if they fall of the assembly's proposal. -- if they follow the assembly's proposal. i think we really should, as a city, do something so we can

somehow make up for some of the differences. we know we can't totally make up for it, but incidentally, he is the chair of the senate budget committee. the proposal of the senate is less progressive than the assembly. we hope that supervisors would also do some advocacy with the senate. we hope that the budget is possible and the revenue solutions that are not idealistic, we hope they do public education around the issue of revenue proposals. otherwise, there will be deeper cuts. >> i have two minutes to speak,

so i will speak faster. i have sympathy and empathy for redevelopment agencies. i am a product of the western addition. this is what our community feels redevelopment has done to us. the only thing that they have really done is the negro removal. i am going to ask the mayor and the board of supervisors to do a two were -- tour. what redevelopment has done to the community, i am not here to stomp on a dead horse. what redevelopment has done to my black community, most of us a

call it negro removal. i ask you to come to the western addition and i invite some of you to come and tour what they did. they might have done some good parts. where they started in 1948, it has been despicable economically. i'm 56 years old, i can't eat in the fillmore, i can't stay there. i don't hear mention of san francisco. i'm inviting you and have the mayor come down and do a tour. you will see that redevelopment agency is something that when it comes to your head will be monitored by something better than what they have.

[chime] supervisor chu: are there other members of the public that wish to speak? public comment is closed. to close, we have comments from the city comptroller. >> as you wrap up your first hearing, the process that leads to the budget office working to close the budget, some general observations on some of the ground rules and can textual changes that might make his budget -- contextual changes that might make this budget. it has been marginal that is certainly good news. for the first time in three years, we see some stability in the local economic picture.

there are signs for optimism in the future. these are positive features heading into the fiscal year. there is a host of other challenges that might make this a very challenging budget season. as we have heard today, the state budget picture is as dire as it has been. it appears there is the political current to make productions in a way that might bring the state budget in balance. it means much more significant reductions facing local governments than we have actually ended up at the close of recent state budgets. we did not talk about it much here today. it is worse versus the last couple of years in terms of states and local governments.

labor contracts that we will be discussing in coming months are almost entirely closed for the coming fiscal year. it was a significant part of last year's budget solution. the savings will continue. additionally, we are working in a year where if a tax measure is part of the solution for the budget picture, those measures will be higher in the electorate. unless an emergency is declared by the city. this is the constitutional amendment that creates various new restrictions on the ability of the mayor and the board of supervisors to increase or adopt new fees.

it should -- a solution. lastly, this year, it is clear there is a need for ongoing changes and ongoing expenses and revenues. approximately, just north of 1/3 of the deficit is due to the loss of one-time solutions. the cash position continues to deteriorated. we continue to spend through reserves. this will make balancing more challenging and will require real discipline. this time next year, for the first time, the city will be

shifting to a two-year budget process. we will be in the process of preparing a two-year balanced budget. cahoon some general observations as -- so some general observations. supervisor chu: thank you for that gloomy picture. supervisor chiu? supervisor chiu: thank you. i appreciate the comments you have just made. i think you have made clear how many of the tools we have used in the past are not available to us this year. this is my first time on the budget committee. in prior years, i have been

intimately involved with the former chairperson, i am hopeful we ill hav -- will have a bit of a different budget process this year. i hope over the next couple of months is that rather than going through a typical kabuki style process, we don't have a good sense of the options and we will be able to have much more open and transparent conversations about that before the budget is presented on june 1. once we get to a budget, we will have a clear sense of what the hard choices are. i am hopeful that given what i think of as a bit of a difference in the relationship between the legislative branch and the executive-branch, we will be able to do that. one question about the presentation, on page 14, you

talked about the one-time solutions that will be in the same place next year. you referred to fees, federal stimulus funds. we know that we will not be able to rely on these next year. it is the intent that you are looking for multi-tiered solutions. -- multi-year solutions. >> excellent question. im not -- i'm not necessarily suggesting that it is the way we will have to handle this. it is essentially an observation of a fact that has confronted us for many years.

we look at the joint projections, especially last year's the joint report when we do a projection of budget deficits. you can see that the reality is that the gap grows. the goal of that statement, i think it will be a statement that i will be reemphasized in continually -- reemphasizing continually, we have a multi- year picture. it will be a discipline that we truly enforced starting next year when we go to the budget cycle where the one-time solutions will only help us for the first part of the budget process. it is something that i think we

will all have to confront when we address in the five-year financial plan over the next couple of months. it is essentially the same picture, when you look out into the future, assuming the economy recovers, there is no realistic scenario under which revenue can grow fast enough to keep pace with expenditures. we will face substantial deficits for the foreseeable future driven by growth. to the extent that we are going to want to and have to begin to plan for long term and deficits, we will keep reminding ourselves to the extent that we can balance the budget with

ongoing solutions, it doesn't add a problem in the future. i think it will be a very important one and a very important policy discussion that we will have to deal with fundamentally as part of the budget over the longer term. supervisor chiu: there was referenced two-to theyear -- to the two-year budget ting. are you participating to proposed new financial policies to consider as we move into this prop a world? i think having these controls in place a are important for long-term physical health. i was wondering what your

thoughts are in that area. >> last year, the board of supervisors adopted the city's reserve policy. the board unanimously adopted a reserve policy last year. proposition a creates a window that we will bring forward policies for your consideration. i am certain we will bring some forward. i will discuss this as we get deeper into the financial best practices. the city and the county doesn't have an official adopted a policy. supervisor chiu: i look forward to that conversation. supervisor chu: 80 to my

colleagues for sitting through the first meeting. i appreciate the controller's office comments. we are in a situation where many of the tools that the president talked about has been exhausted. we will likely see significant cuts. one of the things i am committed to help make sure that we fully understand the options before us is to bring information to this committee. some of the other components really help the driver costs. other things that really helped add to that picture, i am hoping those topics will be of interest so that we will have a full understanding. i do ask for the support of this committee to work together to talk about what your options are and what your best ideas are going forward.

to the best extent that we want to evaluate options when the budget comes, we need to engage in those conversations now. to my committee members, if you have things you think can be done better, let's start hearing them. with that, we have these items that are before us. i would ask the committee if we could file item number one and continue to the call of the chair item number two. can we do that without objection? are there any other items before us? >> no items left on the budget and finance committee. supervisor chu: we are adjourned.

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richie! richie! [speaking foreign language] yo, tye! what-up? richie! what-up, player? how ya doing, son? all right, man. i'm chillin', of course. you gonna be there, right? click freedomcenter.org to find yours. >> meeting called to order. roll call. [roll call] item two, approval of minutes

for the january 11, 2011 meeting. >> so moves. commissioner crowley: second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> item 3, public comment on executive session. any public comment? the motion to >> move to disclose that the commission voted to -- in support of the settlement and move not to disclose any other items discussed in executive session. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> item six, please be advised that the ringing of and use of pagers and similar sound- producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. be advised that the chair may

order the removal from the meeting room of any persons responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic device. is that a member of the public has up to three minutes to make pertinent public comments on each agenda item unless the commission adopts a shorter time on any item. item 7a, executive directors report. >> good afternoon. thank you for joining us today. >> i have a very brief executive director's report, but it is laced with sad news. this young man here has decided to retire after 25 years as a city and county of san francisco employee, 23 and a half of which he spent at the port. i have to share a story about when john worked with dpw, he was the in house, for city hall,

and he became the mayor's personal plumber by fixing the shower in his personal office. so he could jog -- the mayor, that is -- at launch. john worked his magic and fixed it for the good mayor -- i hope the good mayor still jogs. do you happen to know? anyway, that is how he got his start, and from there, he moved up to the port and work on an old tugboat -- i did not know we had a tugboat, so that was news to me -- until it was the commission. -- until it was decommissione d. he worked at the port's for maintenance yard, which is now with a giant ball park sits. john worked on the old divers and cut the steam systems operating so that the files could be driven down.

remember how long -- how young he looks for some of this. it is pretty amazing. he was here when the embarcadero had a half-dozen railroad tracks and the sea wall lot still had cars on them. in the earthquake came and brought down the freeway, and john help the port get back on its feet. i love this part. john lived through the three transportation projects that transformed the embarcadero to its current palm tree-lined boulevard. he has worked on the big water main at pier 80, which we relocated for rail tracks out there. this is my absolute favorite part. john has worked underneath every pier that the port maintains, repairing broken water mains and sewer piping. sir john's retirement is very well deserved, but i'm loath to let him go, so congratulations,

and more importantly, we accept all our gratitude for having served us so well because everything is still working beautifully. please come back often. congratulations. [applause] >> we also have a beautiful plaque that says john, in appreciation of your 25 years of hard work and dedication at the port of san francisco, march 1986 to march 2011. >> congratulations, john. >> you get your picture taken. [laughter] >> [inaudible]

>> i think so. i think we have a few that would like to speak if that is okay. >> [inaudible] >> roshambo? >> [laughter] >> i'm superintendent for maintenance. john has worked with me for the last 23 and a half years. a few things that i do have to say is one, thank you for all the hard work and dedication. two, his expertise and knowledge -- his institutional knowledge is going to be sorely missed here at the port. we are losing a good man. much appreciate everything you have done. thank you. [applause] >> i'm the point for men at the port of sanford cisco. john has been with me for the last 18 and a half years. he has helped me out. he runs the shop when i'm not there. he has been a