>> madam chair, members of the committee, monique zmuda. i have been looking at these requests over the next five years. there is a pent-up demand for a number of infrastructure operating systems. the number of departments that have been forced, because there is insufficient money to take a look at their existing practices, existing operations within the i.t. area, and make trade-offs, we know a number of departments have fresh projects where all of their computers and software must begin to be replaced. there are a number of infrastructure requirements. i can tell you that what a number of departments have done, particularly large departments, they have found existing

savings within their own organization and applied those savings to meet new needs rather than request general fund money. whether or not there is a cost savings that can be used towards the deficit is another question. i do know that there is a tremendous effort to reallocate in every appropriate resources and to prioritize those resources. with respect to a partial reserve, certainly, this board has the authority and capability to do it. i also think that with all of the hearings taking place in all of the departments, there will be ample opportunity to question the department and for the department to provide information on what their i.t. budget is and how it is changing from year to year. by that time, the board of supervisors will have access to the five-year i.t. plan and you will have the entire picture.

what the financial strategies might be to meet those needs and what sacrifices the department and city needs to taken on in order to accomplish many of these. supervisor chiu: i hear that. i appreciate the information that has been done. it does make me think that what the supervisor has proposed in terms of withholding some of the i.t. reserves in this area would be a good thing. we are asking departments right now to come up with 10% cuts, plus 10% contingency cuts. even if we get caught in the general fund in department, we are still $100 million away from where we need to be. what are different groups within these departments doing and are the things that we can do throughout the apartment of

technology that will result in greater efficiencies? supervisor mirkarimi: something that has been festering for almost three to four years now, related to the west of consolidating services, and i appreciate the sidebar conversation we just, it is that 3.5 years ago we passed legislation for all the city commissions. we want streaming audio. people that can get off their computers. the ongoing proceedings and deliberations of the number of

commission task force that the general public should have complete access for, it has not happened. the budget item that was for that particular endeavor that we passed was literally under $60,000. at most, to date, from what i understand is the progress report has seen only five departments out of the huge network of departments and agencies represented by advisory group interests have been able to get signed on. the reason for bringing this uppe, the fact that if we are nt having the hearing today about the realizing of financial savings or efficiencies have been enhanced internally, i would like to think that the outgoing benefits would be

something that benefits the public directly. i am not feeling that yet, although i hear that that is happening, that it is in the making, and when we see the gift presented and unwrapped it will be in standing. but as it is now, this is problematic for me that this legislation 3.5 years later has not been realized, something that was so simple and, surely, affordable, wiring in everyone through streaming audio. access to deliberations that are not covered by sunshine in an ongoing proceedings disclosure and sf tv. that is not happening. so, i will make an alternative motion. i would suggest pepper, and it is ok if we have friendly disagreement here, i suggest that my motion that we release half of the reserves today and

we ask for a condition of report to come back within six weeks, by six weeks, to hear what the progress is. of course, i think we would be poised to release the remainder amount. supervisor chu: thank you. i am hearing a motion to release half of the reserve and to bring the item back in six weeks? correct? supervisor mirkarimi: yes. whenever the period of time, but i am trying to give you, instead of two months, three months. supervisor chu: call of the chair, you are saying. i do not support releasing only half of it. i truly think that this budget committee needs to focus on savings and other ideas from the department. it is time to ask the part of technology to come to us and

say, where else are we going to get the savings from? i do not see how i am going to squeeze this or more from i.t. consolidation. i would hate for us to spend all of this time on an issue that we are making good progress on. i think that it would be more worth our time to get cost saving alternatives in the near term, that would be a better use of our time. the other thing that i want you to understand before we take this vote, if we say that we will take a 50% released in reserves, what we are saying is that we will only release $750,000. meaning that you have a cap or a shortfall in your budget, roughly. if we come back in one month, the department but have no ability to deal with it. let of noticing provisions would kick in and he would not be able

to realize a savings. we're with the department code to figure out how to realize the shortfall? they would go directly to contracts. they are not going to reduce the rent. they will not have savings in the other categories. i want to impress upon all of us here, the reason i will not be supporting partial release, frankly, we have exhausted this item. we need to come back and monitor it, focusing on the future and other opportunities. second of all, i think apple you will be leading the department in a bad situation. contracts and other things to close the gap. making a decision later on in the process. that is just my thought on it. i will not be supporting that motion. ok, so there is a motion to release 50% income -- continue

the item to a call of the chair. could we do a role called? supervisor chiu: the supervisors have just articulated my own ambivalence. it is my hope that if he were to come back in six weeks and provide a report, that it would give us a road map of the savings that we could expect to see in the next year. i would be worried that if we simply released to the reserve, there will be no incentive for departments to work together to compose the solutions that help us to deal with our budget situation and make us stronger as a city. i think that what the supervisor is proposing makes some sense. i understand that the departments are assuming this money is coming in, but in my mind that is part of the problem. we should have been assuming all

along that we had to find cost savings and it has not happened. people have assumed that they will be able to live within the budget they have set. framing everyone's priorities and how they will find cost savings as opposed to assuming that this committee is going to not press forward with the need for overall i.t. consolidation. i think that what the supervisor has proposed makes sense and i look forward, i hope, too good answers and solutions in the coming weeks. supervisor chu: i know that supervisor mirkarimi is looking to make a point, but one thing that i would ask to be specific, given that all of us do not intend to force the departments to cut contracts, a month other things -- the ph, where will they go with contract cuts?

think about who they contract with. can we be specific about what it is we want the department to deliver so that we can be more specific? supervisor mirkarimi: i gave you the soft pitch. i have done this every year. representatives, my concern is that what i thought was an easy to do item that has become so convoluted, it is creating doubt in liability towards consolidation altogether. within six weeks i want to hear, specifically, not only about this work order process back to department, but if there is commissioned interested business or advisory task force business that realizes the legislation passed so that you can do streaming audio to the general public of these departments.

the fact that there has been no leadership on this and the bill of originally brought back to us was for $58,000, yet we are talking about tens of millions of dollars in savings that cannot begin to be realized is beginning to fester out in a way that makes me wonder in which direction you guys are going. i believe that there are efficiencies and greater efforts to seize that are being achieved on this process on the inside. i do not know what the public is feeling on the outside. to me, this is a soft, soft pitch. try to accomplish this in six weeks. do not talk about which departments wish to that -- wish to participate. they are legislated to participate. dp is now facilitated over the

administration of this. your savings, now and in the future, for $58,000, could have been realized to pick up the slack, and it never did. meanwhile, the general public is divorced from getting the streaming audio the legislated would happen. that is one example. on the bigger ticket items, the question relates to what the supervisor was talking about. how are you going to achieve these consolidations and savings in a way where we will be able to conceive -- perceive the tangibles. whether they in kind or direct dollars savings. that is the way i would answer it. supervisor chu: supervisor chiu? supervisor chiu: i will

articulate quickly. the mayor has asked for top -- 20% cut proposals from every department. i would like to know what the 20% cost savings we are expecting to see from a $200 million i.t. budget for 2012. supervisor chu: in actually, if, being on the committee, i am confused as to what it is we are asking. let's be very clear. the reserve was originally placed on a pending update. now we want to see something else. now we want to see how the savings will be realized from the budget submission? supervisor chiu: the whole point of i.t. reserve was to figure out if there would be savings in the city. from my perspective, we have not done a good job in that.

we have figured out a plan over the course of the year to figure out data consolidation, but we are not seeing savings. where are we going to find savings? we have been talking about this for years. we are still looking grantors. the problem is that if we do not come up with answers, here on the board we are forced to make budget cuts. hundreds of us will be making cuts to the parks department. if we could find consolidation in the budget, i would prefer to spend that money providing services back-to-back and park. for several years we have been asking for this work to be -- services- two -- services back to rec and park. for several years we have been asking for this work to be done. supervisor chu: we are looking for information from the apartments, probably bardee i.t.

departments. we want them to share with us as a part of their budget commission de i.t. reductions? supervisor chiu: i want to know the specific cost savings, within departments, but did i.t. budgets. but certainly i am open to understanding alternative ways to do this -- >> certainly i am open to understand and alternative ways to do this. within the department and myself , ofdt and president chui, as you know the budget is still in development. we could take a look at the ideas on the table. it would be worthwhile to have a discussion on this so that we

could get into some concrete proposals. i think that that is going to be the trick, understanding in a much more substantial level what types of savings initiatives we are talking about. supervisor chu: we are in agreement about what is required for the release of reserves? information pending from coyt and a list of where departments had issued cuts? is that clear? we have that motion. can we take will call on that item? supervisor mirkarimi: aye. supervisor kim: aye. supervisor chu: no. >> the motion passes. supervisor chu: that item is dispensed with. do we have many other items before us? >> there are no other items on the subcommittee agenda.

supervisor chu: thank you very much. we are adjourned. we will be reconvening as a full budget and finance committee at 1:00. we will be back in chambers at 1:00. thank you. >> i'm your host of "culturewire," and today, here

at electric works in san francisco. nice to see you today. thanks for inviting us in and showing us your amazing facility today. >> my pleasure. >> how long has electric works been around? >> electric works has been in san francisco since the beginning of 2007. we moved here from brisbane from our old innovation. we do printmaking, gallery shows, and we have a fabulous retail store where there are lots of fun things to find. >> we will look at all of that as we walk around. it is incredible to me how many different things you do. how is it you identify that san francisco was in need of all these different services? >> it came from stepping out of graduate school in 1972. i wrote a little thing about how this is an idea, how our world should work. it should have printmaking, archiving, a gallery.

it should have a retail store. in 1972, i wanted to have art sales, point-of-sale at the grocery store. >> so you go through the manifesto. with the bay area should have. you are making art incredibly accessible in so many different ways, so that is a good segue. let's take a walk around the facilities. here we are in your gallery space. can you tell me about the current show? >> the current show is jeff chadsey. he is working on mylar velum, a smooth, beautiful drawing surface. i do not know anyone that draws as well as he does. it is perfect, following the contours and making the shape of the body. >> your gallery represents artists from all over, not just the bay area, an artist that

work in a lot of different media. how to use some of what you look for in artists you represent? >> it is dependent on people are confident with their materials. that is a really important thing. there is enough stuff in the world already. >> you also have in his current show an artist who makes sculpture out of some really interesting types of materials. let's go over and take a look at that. here we are in a smaller space. project gallery. >> artists used the parameters of this space to find relationships between the work that is not out in the big gallery. >> i noticed a lot of artists doing really site-specific work. >> this is a pile of balloons, something that is so familiar, like a child's balloon. in this proportion, suddenly, it becomes something out of a dream.

>> or a nightmare. >> may be a nightmare. >> this one over here is even harder to figure out what the initial material is. >> this is made out of puffy paint. often, kids use it to decorate their clothes. she has made all these lines of paint. >> for the pieces we are looking at, is there a core of foam or something in the middle of these pieces that she built on top of? >> i'm not telling. >> ah, a secret. >> this silver is aluminum foil, crumbled of aluminum foil. her aesthetic is very much that quiet, japanese spatial thing that i really admire. their attention to the materiality of the things of the world. >> this is a nice juxtaposition you have going on right now. you have a more established

artists alongside and emerging artists. is that something important to you as well? >> very important in this space, to have artists who really have not shown much. now let's look at other aspects of electric works operation. let's go to the bookstore. >> ok. >> in all seriousness, here we are in your store. this is the first space you encounter when you come in off the street. it has evolved since you open here into the most amazingly curious selection of things. >> this was the project for the berkeley art museum. it was -- this is from william wiley's retrospective, when he got up onstage to sing a song, 270 people put on the cat. >> it is not just a bookstore. it is a store. can you talk us through some of your favorites? >> these are made in china, but

they are made out of cattails. >> these pieces of here, you have a whale head and various animals and their health over there, and they are jewelry. >> we do fund raisers for nonprofits, so we are doing a project for the magic theater, so there are some pretty funny cartoons. they are probably not for prime time. >> you sort of have a kind of holistic relationship where you might do merchandise in the store that promotes their work and practice, and also, prince for them. maybe we should go back and look at the print operation now. >> let's go. >> before we go into the print shop, i noticed some incredible items you have talked back here. what are we standing in front of? >> this is william wiley, only

one earth. this is a print edition. there are only eight total, and what we wanted to do was expand the idea of printmaking. this is really an art object. there we go. >> besides the punball machine, what do you produce in limited edition? >> there is the slot machine. if you win the super jackpot, you have saved the world. >> what about work? >> the right design, it was three volumes with lithographs in each volume. the cab of count dracula with 20 lithographs inside and lined with beaver fur. really special.

>> let's move on to the print shop. >> ok. the core of what we do is making things. this is an example. this is a print project that will be a fund-raiser for the contemporary music players. we decided to put it in the portfolio so you could either frame at or have it on your bookshelf. >> so nonprofits can come to you, not just visual are nonprofits, but just nonprofits can come to you, and you will produce prints for them to sell, and the profits, they can keep. >> the return on investment is usually four times to 10 times the amount of investment. this is for the bio reserve in mexico, and this is one of the artists we represent. >> you also make prints for the artists that you represent. over here are some large prints by a phenomenal artist.

>> he writes these beautiful things. anyone who has told you paradise is a book of rules is -- has only appeared through the windows. this is from all over coffee. we are contract printers for all kinds of organizations all across the country. >> thank you very much for showing us around today. i really appreciate you taking the time to let me get better acquainted with the operation and also to share with our "culturewire" team. >> i have been a cable car grip for 21 years. i am a third generation. my grand farther and my dad

worked over in green division for 27. i guess you could say it's blood. >> come on in. have a seat. hold on. i like it because i am standing up. i am outside without a roof over my head and i see all kinds of people. >> you catch up to people you know from the past. you know. went to school with. people that you work with at other jobs. military or something. kind of weird. it's a small word, you be. like i said, what do people do when they come to san francisco? they ride a cable car. >> california line starts in the financial district. people are coming down

knobbhill. the cable car picks people up. takes them to work. >> there still is no other device to conquer these hills better than a cable car. nobody wanted to live up here because you had to climb up here. with the invention of the cable car, these hills became accessible. he watched horses be dragged to death. cable cars were invent in san francisco to solve the problem with it's unique, vertically challenged terrain. we are still using cars a century old >> the old cable