that all of you come together and do something for the seniors. [bell] thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> can i use the overhead? president chiu: if we can get the overhead, please? thank you. >> concerning my son, since 2006, still, a case not solved. i am here to speak to you guys, and the world is watching this. my son's case number is -- sio -- sorry, i need my glasses.

060962039. 060862039. the weber can help me solve my son's case, -- whoever can help me solve my son's case, i would really appreciate it. i will be doing this until the day i die. i have other children. who i am trying to raise also. but i cannot forget my son. there are other mothers who are in this movement with me, and they are feeling the same way that i am feeling so i will see you next week. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, supervisors.

my name is -- i am sad in my heart as an african-american here in san francisco. unfortunately, my supervisor is not here. but as you go to the screen here -- can you go to the screen for a moment? take it down? up, right there. ok, i am sorry. stay with me. as you see there, the black population is going down here in san francisco. what i am saying to you all, ladies and gentlemen, is that there is a state of emergency here in san francisco. african americans seem to be insignificant right here in san

francisco for whatever reasons. i am not blaming anyone in this chamber. i definitely see my leaders here. ♪ blacks are leaving this town, and i want to know, where is willie brown? i need to talk to jerry brown need to know what is going on me to know who is in control right here in san francisco -- need to know ♪ most of the time, you all do not hear me. i have 17 seconds. why do we not have a hearing on why african-americans are leaving this down? african americans leading san francisco. i want to note who is in control -- african americans

leave st. -- leaving san francisco. -- i want to know. president chiu: anymore public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. clerk calvillo: these items will begin acted upon by a single roll call vote. president chiu: colleagues, would anyone like to sever any of the items? if we could take a roll-call vote on items 31 through 34? clerk calvillo: [reading roll] there are 8 ayes.

president chiu: those are approved, and the motion is adopted. [coll -- gavel] what i would like to propose is that we come back at 3:15, so we can take our 3:00 special order and hope for the role into our 3:30 special orders, so unless there is any objection, why do we not recess supervisor chiu: good afternoon. welcome back to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday march 15,

2011. i would like to move to our 3:00 special order. please call items 24 and 25. >> item 24 is a hearing of persons interested in the proposed emergency ordinance authorizing the director of emergency elections to extend deadlines in the municipal elections code by no more than 15 days for a possible special in this collection to be held in june 2011. 25 is an emergency ordinance authorizing the director of elections to extend deadlines in the municipal elections code for a possible special a lesson to be held in june 2011. supervisor chiu: our director of elections has proposed an emergency ordinance to help deal with the management of issues related to a potential special election in san francisco. i would like to invite him up if you want to give a brief presentation and then hear from

members of the public that wish to comment on this item. >> thank you. we are in a situation, trying to plan for an election that has not been called yet. the first step for an election in san francisco is it get the ballot simplification committee organized to schedule meetings to write what is called short digests for the local measures that go on the ballot. as soon as the members can meet, which is after the deadline, which is this monday, we would like to use next tuesday as the base for extending the deadline is for other items such as drawing the letters of the ballot measures from a hat, the financial items that will come from the comptroller's office and other items like that. i want to thank you very much for holding this item for us.

i can answer any questions you might have on this matter. supervisor chiu: colleagues, and questions? thank you for your presentation. let me ask if there are members of the public that wish to comment on this item. if there are, if you could please step up to the microphone. seeing none, public comment is closed on this item. colleagues, unless there are any other comments you would like to make, i would like to consider this hearing as having been held and close. if we could move to item 25, colleagues, can we take a roll- call vote on this item? >> on item 25, bee[roll call] there are 8 ayes. supervisor chiu: this ordinance

is finally passed. it is a few minutes before 3:30 when we would typically do special commendations. i would like to see if we could wave our role -- waived our role to start at 3:30 and start at 3:25. that shall be the case. before we start with our commendations around women's history month, supervisor elsbernd has a commendation he would like to offer. supervisor elsbernd: thank you for your indulgence. i know we have a number of accommodations, but this week is a very special week for those of us in the irish community. as you know, a little over a week ago, we raised the flag outside the building. this past saturday, we celebrated with the st. patrick's parade. this thursday, of course, is st. patrick's day. this year in san francisco, we have been graced with the presence of wild swan theater company, which comes to us from county galway on the west coast of ireland.

great to have you all here. a little bit about them -- we have 20 members of the theater group with us, came all the way out to not just perform, but really, to spend a week in san francisco celebrating with the san francisco irish-american community. i was able to meet some of them over the past week. commissioner mccarty hosted a number of bus at his home for a great party. tonight is really the culmination of their trip. there is a sold-out performance at the irish cultural center where they are all going to perform here typically, if i've got somebody i like this, i would extend an invitation to each of you to come, but i'm not because there's no room. they are so popular and this had such great publicity that this event tonight is going to be a sellout, and i know so many people are so excited about the

opportunity to view the performance, and on behalf of all of those folks and probably be many more who are not going to be able to get in the door, on behalf of the city, i would like to welcome you all to san francisco, and if i could ask, from the director of the group, to come forward, so i can give you a certificate. [applause] >> on behalf of the wild swan theater company, i would like to thank you all for this wonderful honor. we have been here for the last week, and san francisco has treated us royally, and we hope

to return the favor tonight and treat all of you roily with our performance of "a week in the west -- treat all of you really -- treat all of you royall with our performance of "awake in the west." thank you so much for your honor. [applause] supervisor elsbernd: mr. president and all the future honorees, please excuse them. they have to go out to the center and get ready to perform tonight. thank you for coming. [applause] supervisor chiu: i wish we had enough room for their presentation and dance in front of us today, but go forth. ok.

ladies and gentlemen, i want to welcome all of you who are here to help honor the many women from our respective districts in recognition of women's history month. i am pleased that this is part of the celebration we have for women's history month to recognize the efforts of women in our great city. it is time to appreciate the tremendous contributions of our women leaders who have been courageous and steadfast in working to improve the quality of life for all san franciscans. since 1996, the san francisco commission and department on the status of women have recognized the vital work and contributions of women in our community through a women's history month program, and i would like to invite the commission president. do i see her? where are you? if i could invite you up to the podium.

good to see you back. >> thank you. i feel it appropriate that we would be here when we are recognizing people of ireland because the president of ireland is a woman and her previous president was a woman, said it is appropriate that we are following that commendation. i'm grateful to be here today to recognize the women that each of you have chosen. today, we pause to celebrate women's history month and recognize women in our community who are working to improve the lives of all san franciscans. the national team for this is "our history is our strength" -- the national team. we take a moment to recognize the rich and varied contributions of women into the rich culture of san francisco. i'm honored to be a part of such an important celebration and recognize the efforts of women in our city. congratulations to all men and women who continue working every

day to inspire dreams and visions of our youth. thank you in advance for your support of our status of women and continuing to fight the issues and needs of women in san francisco. thank you. [applause] supervisor chiu: colleagues, what i would like to propose today is obviously, each of us will be making presentations to some of our amazing women leaders in the community. we usually start with different orders by which we do the introduction, and today, i would like to propose that we go in reverse alphabetical order. what that would mean would be that we would start today with supervisor wiener, who often has to go last. supervisor. supervisor wiener: well, i'm -- i'm honored. [laughter] you get trained a certain way

from childhood, and it is nice to do it in reverse. president chiu, colleagues, i am honored today to be able to recognize one of our great district 8 community leaders of our district a woman of the year, deborah neiman. dead -- deb, do you want to come on up? i will talk first. [laughter] see, she is tough. she became a community activist in 1998 after leaving the private sector and deciding to dedicate herself to improving our community. her progression as a neighborhood activist and leader has been just tremendous. she became a passionate advocate

for remodeling the library. she in typical fashion convinced the branch library improvement program to hire an architectural preservationists and really make sure that we respected the historic integrity of that beautiful building. she was elected president of the local neighborhood association in 2001. she then took on the mammoth task of moving nearly valley towards having a community benefit district. for those of you have community benefit districts in your district, you will understand the importance of our cbd's de neighborhood improvement, pedestrian safety, to making our neighborhood as vibrant as possible. from -- under her dynamic leadership, residents and merchants came together to convince the property owners to raise their property taxes.

she then stepped in to be the executive director of the association, which she has led for six years. through her leadership and tenacity and grit -- those are words that are frequently used to describe deb -- the association develop a long-term plan for 24th street, which was created by the community, by the merchants, by the residents, and continues to be the blueprint for the future of the neighborhood. under her leadership, the association has received awards and grants for major improvements on the right of way on 24th street, ranging from planting to street trees to park lifts to all sorts of improvements to make 24 st. a more walkable and livable and

shuffle -- shopable area. she was responsible for the crosswalk at 24th and caster, which is an innovative kind of crosswalk. very prominent and very visible and a model for other crosswalks in the city in terms of enhance pedestrian safety. it really was an example of her willingness and the association's willingness to be innovative and to try new things, even if they might be a little controversial. deb is never one to shy away from controversy is that controversy is going to lead to improvement in the neighborhood. as we know in san francisco, very rarely do you improve anything without there being controversy. it is important to have readers who are not always just going to take the easy way out. deb has in a lot of ways been a

mentor to me in terms of teaching me what it means to get things done in the neighborhood, and i'm just so proud to know you, to call you a friend and to honor you as the district a woman of the year. so congratulations. [applause] -- district 8 woman of the year. >> ok. all right. did i win the miss america contest here? [laughter] all right. wow. [applause] thank you for this award and recognition of our accomplishments and the rest of

my work to build community. democracy starts with a park bench. it starts with a flower basket, and it starts with the simple basic things that allow and encourage people to slow down and talk to each other on the street. i believe in democracy, and i really like people. it has been an honor and privilege to bring those interests to help the community in san francisco. we have done quite a lot. scott talked about the crosswalks at 24th street, but you can really see the relief in the faces of the elderly who no longer have to raise their came to try to signify that they want to cross the street, or the new moms with strollers. when the cherry trees are in bloom, people's faces light up. during our street festivals, you can join people listening to all girl rock bands or watching live dancers. everyday, you see the joy in the faces of kids doing our work at the park with we just installed,

but none of this would have been possible without the help of many people over the past six years. i like first to thank the property owners. yes, the property owners, his generosity and civic minded this made the cbd possible. was the property owners and merchants who voted to pay more taxes, even though some of them at first had doubts about what they would get in return. i want to thank you for your support and trust in this endeavor. i also want to thank everyone his leadership on the association board provided crucial guidance. their willingness to roll up their sleeves allowed us to accomplish so much more than we otherwise could. thanks to scott wiener and his terrific staff. jillian is legendary in her greening engaging of community and knowledge of public policy. and although scott has only been in office three months, he walked 24 street and the

neighborhood weekly for two years prior issue his election. his tenacity is legendary, and i'm grateful for his acknowledgment today. i also want to give a special thanks to lisa and the staff at oewd for their unflagging support for, which was no small feat. getting people to increase their taxes is very difficult, but oewd and lisa did a terrific job and continued to do so. too busy train us in the art of street maintenance and place making to the community challenge grant program. we all know that ed and mohammad a great job, but i would like to give a shout out to carlos for helping us plan 135 new trees on tv will blocks, and to nick, who gives new meaning to public rights of way. and many other city department

heads and staff, too many to name them all, who helped mobilize to make great things happen on 24th street. finally, to my husband and daughter, whose love and support kept me sane in the most difficult moments. my husband's advice and coaching ranging from fund raising to handling difficult political situations was invaluable. my daughter's patients with my evening meetings and other commitments made it all possible. i love what i do, and although it is said that in public life, and you all know this very well, no good deed goes unpunished, i'm pleased to have had this opportunity to contribute to my community and work with many of you here today. thanks for this opportunity. i look forward to making our great city even better. [applause]

supervisor chiu: our next lottery will be celebrated by our supervisor from district 1, eric mar. supervisor mar: 90. it is my honor to recognize a truly inspiring woman activist, parent, and community leader, leticia alcanzar. letty has been a tremendous activist, giving a lifelong contribution to social and economic and environmental justice. not just in the richmond district, but throughout our country. i have known you for 20 years. i first met her in the early 1990's when we were both part of the emerging environmental justice movement. i was very active in the chinese progressive association, and she and others in the mission district and the south east neighborhood formed people organizing for environmental rights.

letty was born in st. luke's hospital, the second child of mexican immigrant parents. she and her sister yolanda grow in the neighborhood of 14th and mission street, and later, the move to the excelsior district. she attended st. charles go in the mission, noted a high school, san francisco state university, and the university of san francisco law school. she co-founded and served as board president of people organizing for environmental groups, a grass-roots organization based in the mission district, in powering residents around a variety of environmental and economic justice issues. their first campaign led to the successful implementation of the childhood lead poisoning information act in 1991. she represented low-income communities of color disproportionately affected by toxic waste and advocated on behalf of low-income communities

in the areas of health and environmental justice. she has got a tremendous record in the nonprofit social justice field as well. she was a senior program officer. she developed and managed various funding initiatives that led to millions of grand dollars being channelled towards youth development and organizing an empowerment, environmental and economic and racial justice initiatives, especially in poor neighborhoods, including and developing and providing funding. it is always a pleasure to see her in the neighborhood around 12th avenue, right near golden gate park with virgil, her partner, and retail we'll young sons. she is a tremendous person in the richmond district, but she represents so much more about empowerment and social justice, not just in our neighborhood, but throughout the country.

it is my honor to choose letty for the district one woman of the month, thank you. [applause] >> i want to first thank you, eric, and your staff or bestowing this honor upon me. as i thought about coming here today, i reflected on what motivated me to work towards social justice. i realized that at first, i was motivated by anger.

a lot of injustice is in my community. as time went on, i learned that in order to have long-lasting change, i needed to be motivated by love. not the sap the kind of love we see in movies, but love with meaning. in the words of dr. martin luther king, how were without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. power at its best is love and lamenting the demands of justice. i want to thank my husband, virgil, and my sons, who love me unconditionally every single day. and many thanks to my sister, yolanda, and to all my other sisters here who love encourage me to move towards this work, and lastly, to my parents who taught me all about love. thank you. [applause]