captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- supervisor avalos: army on? good morning. welcome to the city operations and neighborhood services committee. could you share the announcements bill -- been of >> all persons attending this meeting are requested to turn of cell phones and pagers, please submit copies of materials for the file and items recommended out of committee

today may be recommended by the full board tuesday of next week. supervisor avalos: please call item no. 1. >> item #one. resolution authorizing the san francisco public utilities commission to accept and expend a u.s. environmental protection agency administered grant in the amount of $669,000 for the cesar chavez sewer system improvement project. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good morning. members of the committee, in the project manager for the cesar chavez sewer improvement project. this resolution before you authorizes the acceptance and expansion of the $659,000 issued from the u.s. environmental protection agency to assist us in funding the cesar chavez sewer improvement project.

we were successful in obtaining a previous grant for this project of $477,900. for this additional grant we were given a total of $1,146,000 in federal support for the project. the caesars shot as improvement project is a very important improvement project as it provides more capacity for this area that has experienced historical flooding. we are very excited about this project, excited that we were able to win both of the grants for the project, which will help to provide local support. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. where is that located?

between 1 01 and mission? what is the length of that will be covered? >> this is phase one of the project, sewers system improvement. phase two would be streetscape improvements. the street scape goats from hampshire to burrow. supervisor avalos: it is not all being done concurrently? >> basically they are doing the plumbing first before the service improvement. the streetscape will start at hampshire and we will keep ahead of them so that they can fix this or first before the street improvements.

supervisor avalos: the timeline that we are talking about? >> for this project we are expecting to break ground in june or july but about nine months behind us. supervisor avalos: the experience with the length, partially funded by mtc and the funding sources, transportation authority, we had major sewer improvements that were done along their. i saw destruction along that line as a psychologist for two years. i was wondering what we should do to make it concise, so that there were not too many gaps in the length, so that people did not experience a lengthy disruptions.

>> the two projects are consolidated into 24 months. we are working closely with dtw to minimize the disruption to the businesses and we are committed to holding a public meeting every three months to address any issues and see what kinds of issues we need to handle in the field as quickly as possible. supervisor avalos: we will move on to public comment for this item. there is no one else but city staff, so we will close public comment. we can move this item forward with recommendation? thank you. madam clerk, please call the next item.

>> item #two. resolution authorizing the san francisco public utilities commission to retroactively accept and expend a u.s. department of energy administered grant in the amount of $951,500 to conduct a brown grease recovery and biofuel demonstration project. supervisor avalos: very good. >> good morning. my name is terry leigh. i have been the project manager for the biodiesel demonstration. the resolution before you would allow the city to retroactively except and expand approximately $951,500 in department of energy funds for demonstrations. awarded in 2009, the department of energy became very busy in awarding and expanding the

american recovery and investment act funds to route 2002. which is why we are now able to accept this grant. these funds would allow for boundaries, restaurant trap ways, to be converted into clean burning biodiesel. it is important for the city because the san francisco public utilities commission sewer department spent $3.5 million each year addressing greece blockage in the sewers. in addition, fed and cisco has successfully transitioned its vehicle fleet from diesel to cleaner burning biodiesel. this demonstration furnishes technology that would allow the city to recover what is

considered waste greased out of the city, converting it into a clean biodiesel. we are excited to once again get grant funds. we would appreciate your support. thank you. supervisor avalos: we will open this item for public comment. seeing no one else, we will close public comment. moving forward with recommendations. supervisor, you have worked on the ordinance? supervisor mar: thank you for this great work, making ground greece into biodiesel. i hope that other cities adopt this model as well. thank you. supervisor avalos: moving

forward without recommendation -- without objection. that is our last item? >> yes, mr. chairman. supervisor avalos: we are adjourned. thank you very much. >> we're going to get started now. thank you. good afternoon, everyone. welcome. we have commissioner maufas with us. supervisor avalos.

[inaudible] thank you. madam clerk, could you read the agenda for today? yes. can you speak into the microphone? we can [inaudible] >> it is 110443 [inaudible] >> thank you. i think we have city staff that is going to present for us today. our city librarian. >> good afternoon. first and foremost, you are probably wondering what this is all about. i am very proud of the fact that today, i spent part of my day at argon elementary school to read poetry to youngsters from first graders through fourth graders, and i had the pleasure of having

the general manager of the recreation and park department join me for that, so it was terrific. i mention that because it emphasizes the relationship that we established with the school district in terms of forging a very strong relationship, but today, i'm also here to ask for your support and endorsement of our literacy -- information literacy program that we have. in a nutshell, we are wanting to have 100% participation and ownership of a san francisco public library card for all kindergarten and first grade children. we have begun that effort by having the great collaboration of all the 500 classroom teachers literally issue out the applications. we will be reporting that back to our library and staff so that we begin by emphasizing the importance of having every

youngster had a library card. we went before the library commission. they endorsed it unanimously. also had the pleasure of having great support at the school district. they also passed a resolution, but i am really excited about being here today because it emphasizes that relationship between a school district board as well as the board of supervisors. i wanted thank the great support we have had from the school district from superintendent garcia. they have worked with our staff, and i want to introduce our lead staffers from the library side. our deputy city librarian, our chief of children and youth services, so again, i just ask for your support of this. it really is important to have the policy -- policy makers and stakeholders understand how important it is for us to serve our youth.

last year, we had 81,000 children receive library instruction at our neighborhood libraries. half of those are in the elementary area, so again, we want to continue the important portion, it does, to making sure that in san francisco, we have a policy-driven initiative to endorse everyone having a library card. thank you. and we are here answer any questions you may have on the program. >> colleagues, do you have any questions? commissioner norton, please. commissioner no.: i just wanted to thank the library -- commissioner norton: i just wanted to thank the library. my daughter was so excited to get her first library card through this program here also, a wanted to thank you for going

too far gone today. i was there as well. it was wonderful. -- a wanted to thank you for going to argon. supervisor avalos: i just wanted to apologize for not giving our books back in a timely manner. i guess i am wondering, how do we help families, let them know -- lessen the stigma they might sense. it could be a barrier that is there. >> absolutely. one of the things we take great pride in, we're still working on this, is eliminating barriers to access and checking out materials. i do not know if anyone is aware, but we do not have funds for children, so any of those can be returned readily, no questions asked.

but we want to encourage youngsters and families in particular to excess materials and books and borrow as many as they want. i think that it is an ongoing effort to make sure that we work with families as well to use different language, different approaches to folks that may not be familiar or have a tradition of the free public library we are so accustomed to in this country. i did not know if that answers your question. >> pretty much. we are well aware that there is no fine, but we are still late. >> you and i have to have a conversation about that. commissioner maufas: it is good to see you again. i just wanted to acknowledge that i have visited my local library at bartlett and 24 with my granddaughter, who is just an infant, but at my surprise, rediscovering the library myself, but also, when i pulled

up with a stroller, there was already a line of strollers for folks in my neighborhood who already know about the many activities that are available there for young families. i just think that this is such a great introduction to the library again, i have rediscovered my local library with my granddaughter, which i, sort of thought that she needed to be around kindergarten or first grade, but that introduction to reading and activities and visiting the library can happen much earlier, and i am very excited to be able to go with her on a saturday or thursday afternoon when they have those programs. i think that is a great addition the i had never experienced at the library, but i can also share that with my granddaughter and tell my own child that there are programs there for young the ones before they get to school, but it is the great introduction into the library as a supplement and to school activities.

so thank you very much. >> absolutely. to that point, we have a very engaged early literacy program. we have been working with child care providers, head start, and you are absolutely right. it is getting to them for those early literacy skills before they go in for the formal education program. we have met with wonderful response from the community, but also, it has been a proven program that has had success, so thank you for acknowledging that. the other piece i want to mention is that we also have ancillary programs. we have a free museum pass that provides access through the library to about 16 different museums throughout the city and that in its first year has seen almost 85% capacity, and that is free for families -- residents of san francisco, so we are very proud of playing a part in the

as well -- in that as well. >> thank you. i would like to now open up the floor for public comment. is there anyone who has any public comment? when any member of the public like to comment? ok, public comment is officially closed. will you read the second item for us? >> thank you. >> it is item 110-471, and that is the budget update for fiscal year 2011 [inaudible] >> thank you. i think we have a staff presentation.

welcome. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm the director of budget services for the san francisco unified school district, and we do have a presentation. this is my first time here, and i'm going to try to be at the microphone as well as try to get the slides moving forward. hopefully, we will give you a brief presentation. we have a powerpoint that was presented at our recent principles and administrative meeting for the school district, and it is an update of our [inaudible] very high-tech. on the budget situation, both for the state of california and how it impacts our school

district. as you may be aware, in january, usually, the governor comes out with a proposed budget for the year -- the upcoming fiscal year. which is what governor brown did sometime in january and projected a $26.7 billion budget deficit for the state and a proposal on how to bridge that gap. a crucial part of the proposal was to extend those temporary tax increases that have been put in place two years ago. if you recall, those were an increase to the state sales tax and the legal license fee and a couple of other items, as well as identify some cuts to be made outside of k-12 education.

so he acknowledged -- the government acknowledged that education in the past has borne the brunt of most of the cuts every time the state had a deficit, and he made a pretty valiant attempt to keep these cuts away from schools, k-12 education for the upcoming budget year, but a lot of it hinged on having these tax extensions approved, which would have meant having to slash three of the legislature approved to put the tax extension measure on the ballot in june and there being a majority of the voters approving the extension. as we now know, the legislature has fallen short of approving those tax extensions. time had run out on putting those extensions on the june ballot, and while