made clear, but at least in terms of the general plan -- there is not an assumption you have to place facilities, and therefore here is the trade document. it is really a set of guidelines for saying how would you accomplish -- what kinds of good things would you haveand so, i e point and provides us with tools but it certainly tells us how to place them, but i think you still about the wet weather that plays and ultimately is a good thing for the street itself. i was also chuckling when dan weaver was here because the streetlight master plan, we were talking about that in 1997, but i will say, over the years, and i think primarily because of the result of the better streets plan, agencies really are talking to one another much more robustly than they used to, and

i think that is only a good thing, and i think it is getting stronger, and i am up here speaking for the better streets plan, but i will say the better streets plan was developed by all the agencies to gather, and they are taking this back to their agencies and working with the agencies to do that. that said, i think to your earlier point, a supervisor, we can always strength and coordination, and it can only be good for the quality that we get, it i think your point, it has to come as early in the process as we can possibly make it, but i think there should be some event in of just what is being proposed. i observed a couple of things or heard a couple of points that i thought were very interesting, too, if i might. the first, there was the point

about adding sidewalk widening into the tool kit that we might use if we are looking at the sighting of facilities. i think the idea as well, if we are putting a facilities in the street, to use them, to make better streets with the better streets plan, and as was said earlier, we may want to think about looking at, and one thing i did not do when i looked at the analysis of these documents, about looking at some of the minimum sidewalk standards and see if that might be reflected in future discussions we have, and i think in response to my point, i answered them. >> just one quick question. there was the issue of when you widen the sidewalk. i am sure i in the number of our colleagues would like to do that

in various areas of the district, and there are these unbelievably expensive to fire hydrants, so you end up leaving it, but there are other things, for example, the clear channel muni shelters or various utility boxes or where the clear channel news racks are. when we do widens sidewalks, and those types of things need to be moved, does the city pay for that, or does the person responsible pay for it? >> i do not know the answer to that question. i would assume that it would be a public project, and the public would pay for it. the public would pay for the public facilities. i'm going to guess that utilities would be made to move, but i think john could answer that.

>> supervisors, john, the city department. the city to provide a notice of intent for the companies to identify any potential conflicts for a city project. in some cases, it might be sidewalk widening. the utilities would be identified, and they would be relocated if necessary to service the facilities, and that would be at the utility company cost. supervisor wiener: what if the city wants to move it? it is not in the middle of the sidewalk, to pay for the relocation? >> these facilities, utility companies are normally controlled by the franchise agreement or their agreement with the city and pays for that, and those are always case specific as it relates to the utility company itself, so i really can only give you a

broader answer that typically it would be under the utilities cost. supervisor wiener: thank you. is there anything else you wanted to add? >> no, sir. supervisor wiener: thank you. colleagues? i want to thank everyone for coming out. making these decisions about our public rights of way, we are perhaps urged since we're taking a look at the surface mounted facilities or to see if there is any way to improve the coordination, to make it more consistent, and to make the perspective broader, so with that, i guess a motion to file. supervisor mar: ok, without objection. ms. somera, please call item no. 5.

clerk somera: biden mi5, the general plan amendment. supervisor mar: and i believe we have someone. >> good afternoon, supervisors. this is part of the general plan covering hazards and disasters, prevention, mitigation recovery, primarily earthquakes, which is our biggest disaster. the proposed amendment would add language to reference the most recent hazard mitigation plan, and the reason we are doing that is that in 2007, there was a california assembly bill that allowed agencies to receive additional funding above what they were able to receive before if they mark clear the reference the recent hazard mitigation plan. emergency management, which manages this plan, we realized that we just needed some language updated to make sure we did not miss out on any future funding, so a very simple update

to make sure we are in line with for any potential should something happen in the disaster scenario. thanks. supervisor mar: thank you. so, colleagues? but open this up to public comment for anyone in the public wants to speak. public comment is closed. colleagues, can we move this forward without objection? thank you. ms. somera, could you please read the last item? clerk somera: item number six, the planning code about signs. supervisor mar: we have already heard on this. colleagues, if there is nothing, it can we hear from the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, can we move this forward? thank you. ms. somera, is there any other

further business before us? clerk somera: no, there is no other business. supervisor mar: thank you, everyone. meeting adjourned.

>> san francisco is home to a renowned civic art collection that includes a comic works -- iconic works by local and national artists integrated into our public buildings and six basis. the arts commission has struggled to take care of the priceless collection because of limited resources. in an effort to gather more funding for the maintenance of the collection, the art commission has joined forces with the san francisco art dealers association to establish art care, a new initiative that provides a way for the public to get involved. the director of public affairs recently met with the founder and liquor -- local gallery owner to check out the first art care project. ♪

>> many san franciscans are not aware that there is a civic art collection of numbers almost 4000 works of art. preserving the collection and maintaining it is something being addressed by a new program called art care. it is a way for citizens to participate in the preservation of the civic art collection. with me is the creator of the art care program. welcome. the reason we wanted to interview you is that the artist in question is peter volkas. why is he so important to the history of san francisco art? >> he is a very famous ceramic

ist. knowing the limitations of clay, he got involved in bronze in around 1962. he was teaching at the university of california, berkeley. >> your gallery celebrated the 50th anniversary of continuous operation. you are a pioneer in introducing the work and representing him. >> i have represented him since 1966. i was not in business until 1961. he made a big deal out of working in clay. the things he was doing was something never seen before. >> it is a large scale bronze. it has been sitting here of the hall of justice since 1971. talk about what happens to the work of art out of the elements. >> the arts commission

commissioned the piece. they did not set aside money for repair. it has slowly changed color. it was black. it has been restored. >> it has been restored to the original patina. >> there was no damage done to its. i do not think there were any holes made in it. they have been working on it for six or eight weeks. it is practically ready to go. i am very excited to see it done. >> over the course of the arts in richmond program, we have added almost 800 works of art into the public space. maintaining that is not

something that the bond funds allow us to do. this is why you came up with the idea of art care. >> i hope we get the community going and get people who really like to be involved. we will give them a chance to be involved. if you are interested in art, this is a marvelous way to get involved. there is work all over the city where every year ago. -- there is artwork all over the city wherever you go. my idea was to get people in the neighborhood to take care of the pieces and let the art commission have the money for the bigger pieces. >> i was talking to the former president of the arts commission yesterday. the 2% ordnance is something he helped to champion. >> it is all over california and other states now.

we really were the forerunners. it is a wonderful thing to bring the community into this now. people have seen art being put into the community. this has not been touched by any graffiti. it just faded over time. it is so open here. there is nobody watching this. i think that is a plus to the community. i hope the graffiti people do not go out there now that i am opening of my mouth. >> i want to thank you for the 50 years you have already given to the city as an arts leader. >> i started in to briberon, i's only been 45.

>> you have championed his work over these years. >> it has been exciting working with him. it is one of the highlights of my life. >> thank you for being part of "culture wire" today. >> to learn more about the program and the list of public arts in need of maintenance, visit the website. thank you for >> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the

inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to

have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery

to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner --

oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think

of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.

>> 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