word out, and i also see, in the audience. he is the executive director of liveable cities, whose major nonprofit partner. lastly, i want to find all the partners from our city sister agency -- agencies. and last of all but not least, the sfmta staff for getting this program together. i want to thank every one of them for their contribution. so we will see you this sunday, and looking forward to biking, walking, and if you can make it, get there by transit. [applause] >> this concludes the press conference, but i did want to invite you -- we have the

president of the north beach merchants. president chiu:

midafternoon. welcome to the supervisors' meeting of april 12th, 2011. >> [roll-call] mr. president, there is a quorum. president chiu: thank you, ladies and gentlemen, could you please join me in the pledge of allegiance?

i want to take a quick moment to well, -- i understand there is a classroom, the berkeley school of law. want to welcome our future lawyers and interpreters of the law. colleagues, we have been provided meeting minutes for the march 8th and march 9, 2011 meetings. can i have a motion to approve at the minutes? without objection, as minutes are approved. are there any communications? >> i have no communications, mr. president. president chiu: could you please call the special order, the mayor's appearance before the board? >> the first item is for the mayor to engage in formal policy discussions with members of the board by answering eligible questions submitted from supervisors representing the odd districts. the mayor may address the board for up to five minutes. the president will recognize supervisor from -- supervisors from districts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and

11. discussions shall not exceed five minutes per supervisor. >> thank you madam clark and mr. mayor, on behalf of the legislative body of san francisco, i want to welcome you to the chamber for this historic occasion. when the idea of their regular appearance by the mayor was first proposed some years back, i think we would all agree it was in the context of more challenged relations between the executive and legislative branches. we are now, fortunately, i think in a more amicable era. that does not mean we will always agree, but i think our colleagues will share my perspective that the lines of communication between the mayor and the boards of supervisors is much more open. as the voters have asked us to

do, why don't we began our public discussion of some of the policy issues now facing the city. as the clerk laid out did procedures today -- , we have questions previously submitted by the supervisors representing the odd numbered districts. i would first like to call upon our supervisor from district 1 to read your questions. -- my apologies. i realize i did not give the mayor and opportunity to make opening comments. >> thank you very much for inviting me to your chambers. i look forward to a meaningful monthly dialogue with all of you in this setting. since i became mayor, i believe we have continuous meaningful discussions about policy both in one-on-one meetings and at town halls we have held in a

number of your districts. it is my sincere belief that the best path forward must include substantive policy based conversations about issues facing our city. while we may not always start with the same approach to solving important policy issues like pension costs, budget cuts and job growth strategies, i am confident we all share the same goals of creating jobs and balancing the budget. it is no secret that city government needs to control the increasing cost of entitlements. we must do this because if we do not, the core function of government, health services, parks and public safety will suffer. we have a serious budget deficits. we have a mandate to create jobs for the people of san francisco. it is our responsibility to keep the city beautiful and livable for all people of all incomes and in all neighborhoods.

whatever it takes to accomplish these goals, sessions like this question time or town hall meetings in your district, i'm eager to show up for those discussions. with that said, i appreciate the thoughtful questions you sent last week. i look forward to this discussion. president chiu: thank you, mr. mayor. for our first question, i will call on our supervisor from district 1. supervisor mar: thank you for your leadership. what policies the recommend for a citywide from work or all of our -- where we get advantages for community benefits. additionally, how will you ensure the greatest possible community participation and engagement in the creation of a community benefits agreement in the mid market area and any other community are realized? mayor lee: thank you for that

question. we have a variety of different support services for all our commercial districts around the city. they all contribute to job creation and improving neighborhood conditions for all residents and business owners. we have a very small amount of general fund dollars and community development block grants to do this work. however, we have stretched it to launch programs around the city, we tend to focus our resources and staff time on business districts in low-income neighborhoods that need the most support. the neighborhood marketplace initiative is active in 12 neighborhoods, serving business districts that are most in need of support, like third street and the bayview, mission street and excelsior, and we just expanded to fillmore street in the western district. city staff and our nonprofit partners are providing direct support services to merchants, bringing merchants and neighbors together to come up with an action plan for how want to improve their community.

an independent analysis just completed a five-year evaluation of that neighborhood marketplace initiatives program and found it is very effective at creating jobs in neighborhoods and produces a variety of other outcomes like improved safety, cleanliness, and access to goods and services. that valuation will be published within a few weeks and i will make sure every member of the board of supervisors gets a copy. we also have 11 community benefit districts you all know of. the mayor's office works closely with over a dozen different organizations that provide direct assistance to any small businesses in the city that need help, such as meta, the bayview research center and the small business assistance center right here at city hall. we have a number of different loan programs that enable small businesses to get access to capital. that allows them to expand or

strengthen their businesses. these services absolutely create jobs. our offices able to make a limited number of office sought improvement grants to business and they can use this money to attract customers so they can create more jobs. there is a lot of demand for the program and we wish we could expand it all over the city, but right now is targeted toward our neediest neighborhoods. of course, it is going to be a candidate for many -- for any major corporation i talk with to expand that program. i commit that to you. i join the board president this week in announcing the jobs2 program, which is targeted at small businesses to take advantage of are still available funds so that we can increase up to 300 new jobs in our neighborhoods.

regarding the mid market area and the community benefits agreement, as you know, community engagement is a central part of what we do in our neighborhood economic development work around the city. we were directly with community directors, merchants and stakeholders to create neighborhood action plans where committee members advertise the most important things their community needs. most recently, we finish this project on lower 24th street in the mission. we are now working closely with community members to implement that plan. we will be conducting an even more in depth community planning process in central market. over the course of the next two months, we plan to talk to a wide variety of community stakeholders' by conducting at least 30 interviews, five focus groups, for community meetings,

a survey of local merchants and other surveys of people on the streets. we are kicking this off to marmite at a community meeting. you are all welcome to attend. at the end of this process, we will have a list of the strategies for neighborhood improvements that are most important to residents and nonprofit organizations on central market. i understand the specifics of the community-based agreement, the community benefits agreement are still being worked out. [tone] i can ignore that for a second. i know that twitter and burning man and other businesses that locate to central market are excited about the revitalization process. i'm confident we will work hard to respond to the needs identified by community members by that process. president chiu: thank you. i will then ask and ask question

representing my district, district 3. as you prepare your june some metal, could you please describe how you would reduce the relative global of cuts that will be required in major areas of city government, for example -- public health, public safety, social services and parks and the extent to which you plan to ratify new revenues to close our significant deficit? mayor lee: thank you for that question. we're trying to do everything to balance the budget while minimizing impact on direct services to the public. as you know and as many of you have heard, the three principles i share with the departments and the commission is that i want to make sure the city is safe, not only in the public safety cents but safe with respect to the core level of services we need to provide. we need this city to be solvent so that we make sure we can pay for all of the services we provide.

that means we also take care of the pension challenge and we want the city to be successful and we continue doing those things in our neighborhoods and our areas where we attract people to come and maintain their interest in this great city. to address the current deficit, which is $306 million, we asked the departments to propose reductions of their discretionary general fund support. these reductions total only $100 million, one-third of our original budget deficit. an additional 10% would yield a maximum of an additional $100 million, leaving a large remaining gap, even if we were to decide a number of the proposals were acceptable. there is no magic formula for deciding the best way to balance the budget. the reason we give production targets to them is to see what they come up with.

we not believe in across-the- board cuts. some departments can do their targets with relatively little disruption to the services. others may have more difficulty. we need to look at all the proposals and make judgments about which ones make most sense for our city. for example: our largest department, the department of public health, was able to meet its 10% target by using only revenues without reducing existing services. at the end of the day, our options are limited there are five departments that make up over 75% of our discretionary general fund. public health, police, human services, fire department and sheriff. this is no surprise as these departments are the core responsibilities of the city and county. that is why our budget discussions tend to focus on these departments.

within these departments, we face constraints on our options. public health and human services is used to leverage state and federal dollars. if we make expenditure reductions to certain programs, we feel a disproportionate impact. police and fire departments have voter-approved staffing requirements. general expenses are driven by na populations. on the revenue question, we have been very aggressive about using revenues to help with the budget deficit. our deficit has gone from $380 million in november to $306 million today, and that is most entirely due to revenue. the single biggest thing we can do to bring in new revenue is make sure we have a stable, growing economy. our departments are being aggressive about pursuing revenue. the department of public health has been able to secure $30 million in additional revenue for next year's budget which will prevent the need for

reductions. the recreation and park department has been working hard to increase its revenue collections, which has been instrumental in protecting services our parks. the board will consider whether to extend the botanical garden which would bring the $250,000 next year from tourists. if we do not approve this the, it will mean poor conditions in the garden and neighborhood parks. we are planning a general obligation bonds for and the november ballot that would bring in much-needed funding to reduce the backlog of repairs to our streets. as we consider new revenues, we must keep in mind the significant reductions, restrictions we face. [tone] under state law, any notice that goes before the public in november would require two- thirds vote. we are more limited in how we can use fees given the voter approval of proposition 26 last year. that said, i welcome an open,

responsible conversation about new revenues. lastly, we need to begin thinking about our budget issues beyond what we do to balance the budget in june. next month, we will release the first draft of [tone] of our first financial plan. we have a structural problem where costs are growing faster than our revenues and this will remain the case even after the economy begins to recover. much of this cost growth is driven by employee benefits. if we do not address pension and benefit costs growth, we will be in the same position every year, reducing services to balance the budget. if we do not take action, our deficit will grow and there will not be any revenues to grow fast enough to reverse this problem. i look forward to continued cooperation in the months ahead. we can and will solve this budget. i truly appreciated hearing from each one of you about your

priorities for this budget. we're working in good faith to incorporate your feedback. i want the city to be safe, solvent and to be successful. thank you. president chiu: let's recognize our colleague from district 5. supervisor mirkarimi: welcome, mayor, it's good to see you here. as you know, governor brown recently signed a bill 109 in the effort to redistribute the inmates prisoner population on the state level back to california cities, minutes polities throughout california. their goal is to redistribute this population in the near future, but predicator on the goal is the question of funds that remain from the state that would hopefully escort that population back to cities like san francisco. but as we know, those funds, frankly, do not exist.

what is our approach from the city side in anticipating either these negotiations or this expectation? mayor lee: thank you for that question. as you know, i have that very strong skepticism about so- called funds that might come with this realignment. while this bill is expected to shift tens of thousands of inmates back to municipalities here in san francisco, the state's estimates are predicting less than 700 inmates and parolees will be returning to the city facilities. that is according to state estimates. the city has been meeting for the past few months to make sure key stakeholders associated with this development is to address the incoming population before the expected release this summer, which is likely to be in july. additionally, we have convened public safety clusters combined of the sheriff's department, the

police department, the d.a., the public defender, the juvenile probation department and the adult probation department and superior court representatives. we're working together to make sure the existing resources will be ready to absorbent the returning population. as the budget process moves forward, we are cognizant of the fact lead to potentially make budget adjustments during the fiscal year to respond to this. we do not have enough certainty yet about the realignment details to a fixed and exact cost number to this. it's also important to note that san francisco does not send as many people to state prison as other counties per-capita. instead, we fund preventative and pre-trial criminal-justice programs outside the traditional state prison options. examples include the community justice court, the back on track program, and are drug and mental

health courts and community courts. furthermore, we are already head of other cities in dealing with the juvenile issues because we said so few of our children to state custody already. as you know, assembly bill 109 returns all juvenile to count the jurisdictions. most other counties have hundreds of juvenile that they have sent to the california youth authority and we have relatively few. in other words, the budget impact of 109 on san francisco are not as severe as they are for other places in california because we have been proactive in years past about managing our prison population. president chiu: our next question will be asked by our colleague from district 7. supervisor elsbernd: mr. mayor, can you share with us on the need for pension reform and the need for benefit reform? mayor lee: thank you,

supervisor, for that question. i appreciate this question and the sustained question you have paid to this. the city cannot sustain its current workforce and benefits structure in light of the exponentially increasing benefit costs. we need to reform our benefit structure to provide pension and health care for employees and retirees that allow our workers to work and retire in dignity without unduly compromising important services we must provide to the public. to that end, building on the important work done by the coalition brought together, we have proposed legislation that reduces city costs of long-term and increasing cost sharing by employees in the short term. we are well into the required meet and confer process with our labor organizations. all of you on the board of supervisors will be hearing more about these details during are

closed session today. we anticipates submitting the legislation we develop in this process to the board by the may 24th deadline, if not before, for the inclusion on the november ballot later this year. president chiu: our final question today is from our supervisor of district 11. supervisor avalos: mr. mayer, welcome to the board chambers. it is great to see you here. recently, we took two trips to ballpark station and one was the unedited version -- to balboa park station. the other was with our city departments to had sprinted up a bit and had expedited some of the projects we need to make happen there. just wondering what your plans are for improving the site,

making it work as a transit hub first and foremost. i am concerned the mta looks at it as a maintenance facility and not a transit hub. we to have leadership from the board of supervisors and the mayor's office to make it was it should become a first and foremost, a transit hub. mayor lee: i also appreciate the question supervisor campos submitted. thank you for that question. the balboa park station is a very important asset to the city. it is the busiest transit hub in the southern part of san francisco and the busiest part station in the bay area outside of the market street stations. it also happens to be home to the most important made and yard for the light rail fleet. all of this is happening in a neighborhood, not an industrial

part of the city. that, i got a very clearly. it is clear the area is designed around a maintenance function. it is noisy and often unpleasant for people waiting for the bus, train or just walking through. there are few amenities nearby. when we had the tour on march 17th, it was clear to me there are serious safety concerns with the law walkway between this asian and maintenance yard as well as improvements that need to be made -- between the station and maintenance yard as well as improving the cleanliness of the station. the city has recognize the problems and the potential of this area. the bell ballpark station area plan developed by the plot -- the balboa park station area plan recommend the right variety of improvements ranging from creating safer, more attractive places to wait for the bus or train, restoring order reusing the historic geneva office building and reusing the yard

parcel for a development that will bring positive activity to that area. i must say i, that upper yard has to be preserved for the development, not additional space for the art. we will be working toward that goal together. i have asked city departments to take the following steps starting now -- install solar powered signs and improve other informational sign it. clean up the news rack areas. you've got the update on that already. improve the san jose avenue boarding platform that is already funded and will be constructed as part of the larger project. close off the unsafe walkway which will no longer be necessary when the new platform opens on san jose avenue. we are cleaning the area twice daily with heavy cleaning my regular basis.

we need a new class -- a crosswalk, countdown signals at ocean avenue and i 280 would be of the reach city college. this is scheduled to be completed by late 2012, but i have asked the mta to expedite this for earlier completion. i have spoken to the maintenance and safety issues, but we are also working hard on transforming the balboa park station into a mixed used project focused on development -- on affordable housing. it would further many regional goals related to affordable housing, smart growth and activation of critical public areas. accordingly, a residential development on the site is prioritized in the recent development area planned. i'm asking for a complete

report for results and next steps. those steps support a community- led study of potential development sites in the vicinity of the station. [tone] conduct an analysis of current real estate needs to determine which of those parcels are needed in the future for maintenance uses and pecan turnover to more neighborhood- oriented uses. conduct an analysis by the department of public health related to noise and air quality for development near the station and conduct an analysis of the cost of developing the up briard over the bart station. [tone] i think it is fair to say that in the spring of 2012, city staff and community stakeholders' should convene to look at the result of these studies. my office is ready to work closely with your office to make sure these issues are addressed in a timely