because we were noticed, and it is sort of a formality, or do we have substantive issues that we want to bring forward? >> yes, over the years, there have been a lot of substantive issues. when they come up with alternatives -- like one station that was not in the same location at all, the beale street alignment. obviously, we did a lot of engineering to show that that was not a practical solution, and high-speed rail accepted that. we are in a good position now where the engineers all know what we're doing, and the confidence level -- they are totally different companies. progress has been very good in the last year. >> that is good to hear. years ago, they were -- they

made specifications that everybody would scratch their heads at an ask what a country that high-speed rail runs in. >> that is why we have been doing that. some of the specifications were unnecessary, and we have been reaching agreements. sometimes, they are only arguing over 20 seconds difference in travel time, depending on the link of your buffer at the end of the platform for the radius you approach on, and i think common sense is now coming to the forefront. >> i also sit on the alameda county transportation commission, and every once in awhile, over my objections, up comes the ultimate pass variation and things like that. kind of tried to play that down and say that it really is not productive and we really should not be getting involved, but it is alameda county, so i do not

prevail in that. but there are issues that come up here where the alternative really needs to be addressed in some sort of -- i am just thinking that it just needs to die, but at some point, it looks like that is getting threatening, i would like to know. i know that it does not work in alameda county. it just seems to have a life of its own, i'm afraid. >> we will keep you posted. the tjpa has not taken a position. director harper: and i do not know what if it needs to. >> our main discussion has been what happens at the county line. i attend all the meetings. parsons assist me in writing background information, cost

estimates, and layouts.

motion? -- all in favor? >> item 12 is approved. we move to item 13, approving the recommend applicants to the transbay joint powers authority citizens' advisory committee. >> i just wanted to say that at the last board meeting, ortiz vice, and director -- vice chair ortiz and director kim asked that we do a little more outreach, and we did. with the further out -- it, we have some new members to recommend to the board, and bob will give more information on that -- with the further out reach we did. >> we do have eight positions on

our cac up for appointment or reappointment. we have 15 total members of our citizens advisory committee. as maria mentioned, after bringing an initial slate for recommendation to the board, we did go back and do additional outreach , including advertising to a number of different publications, and re- circulation to our partners. the solicitation resulted in an additional six applications. after reviewing all of the applications, the various constituencies that they represented, we have incorporated three of those additional applications in the group that is being brought forward for recommendation, so with the current recommendations, we have five new members coming to the cac

and three members of for reappointment. i can answer any questions you have on applications for the process. director harper: thank you. director kim: could you go over the increased diversity of these applicants? >> yes, the three additional applicants being brought forward for recommendation -- one of them is african-american. one is korean-american, and one is biracial african-american and caucasian. director harper: members of the public wish to speak on this item? >> [inaudible] director harper: ok, is there a motion for approval of the appointments as submitted? second? any objection? all in favor? >> aye.

>> item 13 is approved. director harper: that is the meeting. all right, thank you all. >> thank you very much. >> good afternoon. thanks so much for joining us. we are excited to could be here today. the assessor recorder cost of this is excited to announce it again that we have come to the

rescue of the city budget. over the years, we have been able to continue to bring in more money than expected. this year was no exception. even given the huge hurricane of appeals, we are able to bring in about $50 million above our projection for the city budget. that will help this year's city budget and also next year's budget. behind me are some of the people who will talk about the very important things that the money will go to. just to give you a sense of what we are talking about, the $50 million is almost 20% of the $300 million budget deficit. we also want you to know, $24 million of that will go to the general fund. if it were allocated exactly as general fund was broken up, then it would be $9.5 million for public safety, $6.5 million for

human services, $5.2 million for health services, $4.5 million for the seven credit of five school district. we are using these numbers as illustrations, if there were exactly broken up into the dollar amounts that the general fund is allocated. what is so exciting is that just by making sure we do a better job and making sure that everybody pays their fair share that we are able to make a pretty huge impact on the city budget. what is critical as i know that when you hear the dollars, it is hard to comprehend what that means. i have a few folks here to join me who will be here to explain that in a much more detailed fashion. i also wanted to say we have been able to bring in extra money while at the same time dealing with over 12,000 appeals in the last two years and at the same time, down about 17,000

reductions in property last year, which we also will be reviewing. at the same time we have had to reduce money for some, it shows that even after making people pay their fair share on the downside, we have still been able to bring in 50 million extra dollars. we promised the city almost $47 million, and we are able to bring almost $97 million in this year in what we call supplementals, and that is the additional revenue of property tax dollars. with me are a couple of friends. one is linda from united educators. she is going to talk. and then we have guadeloupe from ace. and then elizabeth from seiu 1021, and they will be able to share with you the real nuts and bolts. >> good afternoon, everybody. i am the executive vice

president of the united educators of san francisco. as executive vice president of united educators of san francisco, we represent the teachers and classified staff who work in our early childhood education program and our k-12 program. i have seen the devastation to the schools as the education budgets have been cut. you are all weary of stories of children without teachers, of classrooms without supplies, of schools dropping programs, and paraprofessionals and teachers being laid off. although at this point, 92 teachers and 10 paraprofessionals have been recalled from layoffs just this year. we still have nearly 200 fewer key school personnel with us for next year. that is our great concern. the difficult work done by our

assessor and the dedicated men and women who serve in his office have made a dent in the juggernaut that is bearing down on the schools. the $4.5 million that will go to san francisco unified school district banks to the collection of the nearly $50 million surplus, will poke a hole in the juggernaut of the gathering clouds and shine a little light on the school district. the children of san francisco, the members of the united educators of san francisco, and the school community of what phil and his office for the work that they have done in san francisco. because here, we see the san francisco values are more than just lip service. but our real and mean providing the resources to take care of our children. this is why we are pleased to be here. we thank filled for his efforts. -- we thank phil for his

efforts. >> [speaking spanish] >> my name is chris martinez. i am translating. she said good afternoon. -- my name is grace martinez. she said she is a child at the heart and a member of days. -- child at brett hart and member of grace. "my concern are all the cuts that have affected our schools." >> [speaking spanish]

>> it is necessary that we find funds for education and to improve services for our families. we need to be able to work and have the capacity to have good working jobs. thank you very much. >> good afternoon. i am the political action share for seiu local 1021 and a nonprofit worker here in san francisco. we represent workers, rn's and other health-care providers in community clinics and in general hospitals. we represent the classified nutrition workers and the school

secretaries and the folks that keep your schools clean. we also represent many of the nonprofits, especially supportive housing and mental health care. this is, for us, the third year of straight cuts in a row. we see things in san francisco that we have not seen before. we see recreation programs close, parks locked up during the day, basic city services take longer. lines are longer. and because of layoffs and freezing of front-line positions. workers in both nonprofit and the public sector have given out of their paycheck over and over again to try to help close these deficits, and it has been devastating. our family programs, youth violence prevention, aid services, and supportive housing. it is exciting to think that there is other ways of dealing with the budget deficit, not just cuts. there is actually weighs, and thanks to phil tin's leadership

and the hard work of this office, we are able to see that being aggressive in a collection of existing revenues is also a way that we can look at the budget, and it has given a lot of hope to our workers. it has given a lot of hope to people who are very concerned and scared in these times of budget. it proves that the good work and education of this office has brought a lot of hope to education workers and people who rely on these services. we hope to continue to work together. thank you. >> thank you. i think you heard that the money that we bring is so critical to make sure that classroom sizes can still be maintained, that teachers can stay in classrooms instead of being sent to the streets, that health glasses can continue to be open, and parents relying on these critical city

dollars can really read some of the benefit. one thing we do -- i do want to make sure you all know -- is going into next year's budget, which we hope will be approved by the board is we are asking -- we got from the mayor and additional 15 people on a temporary basis to come in and help to continue to clear up the rest of our backlog. we were hoping that by bringing in this team that we were able to do an additional $30 million that is already in the budget, so it is additional from when we first started our budget discussions a few months ago, and by bringing in this team, we will hopefully be able to reap significant benefits. all these numbers are already factored into the budget, so it -- there is no additional money that the mayor released, but instead of cutting that $30 million, instead of laying off people, we are able to keep those services whole and keep

going. i think it is so critical. i think the people who should be thanked are the hard work and staff of this office. let me just stop here for a second and see if we have any questions. >> [inaudible] >> great question. this year, we went in with a conservative number, given the fact that we thought the market was really not in a very good place. we also anticipated that we were going to spend almost all of our time doing appeals. part of it is as we were doing appeals, we looked at what types of revenue we were leaving on the table. about halfway through, i redirected the office and said even if it means pushing off some of the appeals to next year, we have to make sure we're bringing this money for the city budget. part of it was a slight redirection of staff this year and also the fact that there was

actually more stuff anticipated in back -- in that. >> [inaudible] >> the way it goes is just what any city and county, with the county brings in money, part of it will go into all the different cities, and part of it goes to the state. we get roughly about 57% of the money, and the rest goes to the state. san francisco unified -- their money is part of that state part of money. even though in theory it is going to the state, it is coming back to the city. the cost of the additional workers, my recollection -- i think it is under $1 million. the city spends $1 million to go get $30 million. it is a pretty good return. even wall street would think that.

>> [inaudible] >> the beginning of the year, yes, that is right. >> [inaudible] >> i think the nine-month report was -- i will have to go back and double check, but i think it was, like, $55 million. but we can get that. yes. we are very happy because part of the reason there's a little bit of lag time is we do the assessments, and the other side is the one who collects the money. part of it is making sure we are constantly seeking up, and we are ecstatic that we can help

cut out almost 20% of the $300 million deficit, save a lot of jobs. great. the only thing i was going to say was [inaudible] oh, yes. the only thing i would hold out is obviously, we have worked about 12,000 appeals this year, but we did hand out a chart of all the appeal still remaining. i think we still have about 6000 appeals still left. that is going to require a lot of time. the reason why this is important to note is that if we do not challenge the appeals, then the city would automatically lose all that money. it is tens of hundreds of -- potentially millions of dollars of tax revenue that we could be losing. we always make sure that we are constantly looking at that and making sure that everybody turn in their fair share to make sure that assessment is accurate. we still have about 6000 appeals left right now. >> [inaudible] >> we have two years to work the

appeals. we anticipate getting most of these done this year, but there will still be more to get the next year. great. thank you so much for being here, and thank you for [inaudible]