supervisor campos: i understand. i will. i will. supervisor chiu: good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, july 12, 2011.

please call the roll. >> avalos present. campos present. chiu present. chu present. cohen present. elsbernd present. farrell present. kim present. mar present. mirkarimi present. wiener present. mr. president, all members are present. supervisor chiu: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? colleagues, you should have copies of our may 27 and may 24,

2011, board meeting minutes. without objection, this meeting minutes will be approved. madam clerk, are there any communications? >> i have no communications, mr. president. supervisor chiu: if you could read our 2:00 special order. >> the first item is the opportunity for the mayor to engage in formal policy discussions with members of the board by answering eligible questions submitted from supervisors representing the even district this month. the mayor may address the board initially for of to 5 minutes. the mayor may recognize members of the board from districts two, four, six, and 10, who will present their own questions, and discuss and shall not exceed five minutes per supervisor. supervisor chiu: thank you, and i want to welcome our mayor. thank you, and welcome back to our fourth session of our formal policy discussions. i would like to give you the opportunity to make any opening remarks. mayor lee: thank you.

members of the board of supervisors, thank you very much. it is my pleasure to be here again to answer the questions you have presented and to know again my thanks for working with me on the budget and balancing that. i look forward to working with each and every one of you on a number of different aspects as we meet both individually as well as as a group. there's so much to accomplish, and i appreciate the invitations to be in your district every time we are able to signal to the public and to your constituents the things we are getting done to make the city safe and solvent and successful. supervisor chiu: 90. we have five questions that will be provided by our colleagues that represent our even-numbered districts. the first question will be provided by supervisor farrell from district two. supervisor farrell: thank you. beyond what we have accomplished in city hall in 2011, i wanted to understand whether you have any other specific plans you plan to

implement before leaving office? >> thank you. that, for me, is a very important question when it comes to stimulating our economy. as you know, i have worked very hard to do that. i see so many other cities and counties around our bay area as well as in the nation that are very challenge by the economics of the country, the state, and the area. for me, it is very important, and it has been a topic that i have taken very seriously from the very first day of taking the oath of office. as far as plans for continuing our work on development issues, we will continue to focus on sector-based strategies, and i think these will be the most effective ways to attract and maintain high-growth industries in san francisco. this includes our targeted efforts on biotech, clean tech, manufacturing, and our international initiatives. with the passage of the central market payroll tax exclusion, we have focused effort on promoting opportunities in central market,

and we continue to promote a valuable tax incentives like the enterprise zone, workforce programs, green incentives, and other business assistance programs for current and prospective businesses. i want to thank the supervisors as a whole for working with me on everything from the mid- market payroll tax exemption to the stock options exemptions for new businesses, and i look forward further to working with everyone on the advice we are getting from the clean tech advisory council for more ideas to help sustain the growth in our new industries. at the neighborhood level, we will continue to operate on our existing economic development program, such as the neighborhood marketplace initiative, the revolving loan program, the community deficit district support, and the san francisco shines facade improvement program. funding for the sf shines facade

improvement program was slightly increase in the upcoming fiscal year, which will allow us to do an expansion of that program. that means that in addition to about 10 for saw the improvement projects that will assist existing businesses, we will have the resources to undertake between three and five larger scales project to upgrade long vacant properties around the city -- in addition to about 10 facade improvement projects. our neighborhood commercial corridors are the economic engines of this city, and getting people to shop there, creating jobs and economic activity -- that is essential and integral to our strategy. also, the office of small businesses is able to increase its one on one services to small businesses, resulting in more businesses participating in a wage subsidy programs and providing proactive solutions to improve the business plan -- business climate. supervisor farrell, a continual

-- i continually welcome any questions you have. i also want to commit to working with all supervisors on the technology council because it think they represent the new industries, and they are giving us very good advice. we will be forthcoming in presenting this to the rest of the board. i also announced this morning at the into solar conference yet another major solar company opening its north american headquarters in san francisco just today. that is china's sun energy -- china sun energy. they decided to locate here as a result of years of work from our office with the china sf program. we have five or six of the world's top 10 solar manufacturers in san francisco, and i think we are getting even more. the advent of solar as its response to energy challenges of the world, not just our region,

signals that we are one of the best regions to really attract this kind of industry. so we will keep working on those things that make us successful, and i am glad to report that to the board. thank you. supervisor chiu: our second question will be provided by supervisor chu from district four. supervisor chu: 90. the municipal transportation agency board will soon have the task of appointing a new director for the mta. how will you help ensure that the new director will steer our city's transit agency in a direction that leads to service improvements and increase reliability for riders? how will you ensure that the new director will have a broad vision for transportation in our city? mayor lee: thank you, supervisor. that is probably one of the most challenging questions that we receive, and it is certainly one that i have been carefully considering in response to this. as you know, it is the responsibility of the mta board to select a new director, but i

also know our role, and our role is to review with them in the goals of the agency and all of its aspects. first, the new director must implement the new labor agreement with twu local 250a, the operators' union, said the agency can continue to put the public first in everything they do. of central importance to our

riders, one of our new directors made tasks is to improve reliability and on-time performance. muni is only there when you expect it 71% of the time. this needs to increase with a voter mandate 85% on-time performance. mta has already made some important safety improvements, but much more needs to be done to improve the safety system. on-time performance and safety are important operational priorities, but we also have a number of capital projects as well. high-speed rail, the transbay terminal, the electrification of caltrain, the subway, and the van ness and geary bus projects. in addition, we need to improve taxi availability, especially during peak times and for people who live in our neighborhoods and for disabled populations.

we must do everything in our power to address pedestrian injuries and fatalities. making our streets and sidewalks safer and more enjoyable for everyone is a priority. i would also like the mta to continue making bike improvements. we have seen nearly a 60% increase in the number of people riding their bikes over the past a few years, and the new director should continue the positive trend. finally, the mta should encourage adoption of electric vehicles. as you may have already heard, i myself am now writing in a wonderful chevy -- riding in a wonderful chevy volt. i hope the mta will stay focused on increasing the ev infrastructure for this city. that is quite a bit for an mta board and directed to do, and i want to share with you that as i assist in my role to review with the mta board who they will

select, there are a couple of very strong themes that, across -- that come across. we need to have not only a visionary, but we also need to make sure that there is a team approach. there is not just one person that can lead the mta. it has got to be a very dedicated team. i also want to make sure that the person exhibits a high level of collaboration. even the on-time performance is not just muni alone. it has to do with so many other entities that affect the streets. and the ability of a leader in muni has that ability to collaborate with all the other agencies, all the different aspects of people and entities who use the streets. it will be critical to their success of implementing good leadership. we also want to make sure that someone has the ability and willingness to develop strong relationships. muni could never be seen as an

isolated agency. it has to build relationships with everybody. it also must build stronger relationships with its own work force. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. our next question will be provided by supervisor kim from district 6. supervisor kim: good afternoon. as you know, there have been a number of shootings recently in district 6. a recent newspaper article noted that this increase -- that there has been an increase in suspected gang violence along these corridors. of the five listed shooting incidents that occurred just within the last month and a half, four of them were youth- related. i think included is a vision for the city's youth and family infrastructure. what policies and investments are would prioritizing that focuses on our city's youth and families? what is our city doing to ensure

they have access to violence prevention programs and economic opportunities that are pathways to economic self-sufficiency in the future? specifically within that, what is the city strategy for youth and access to job opportunities with companies we are trying to partner with such as twitter? mayor lee: thank you, supervisor. as you know, you and i have been working closely on the mid- market. every time there is violence, it is something that i worry about constantly. i am not just troubled by it. i am actually kept up every night wondering where the violence is coming from and how we can stem it. i want to assure you that i would never think that just simply creating a substation is the answer. i agree with you and with so many of our colleagues here and i'm sure with the public that we have got to get to the root of what our youth are doing, what they are motivated with, and how we can steer that motivation

in the most positive ways. that will begin with our signaling a programs in addition to the traditional public safety programs. even with the establishment of the substation, i want to make sure that you know that i am totally committed to funding and implementing programs that focus on youth, their ability to be self-sufficient financially, and the ability to allow them to see alternatives to the street life. we are committed to protecting key programs in our budget, and you know that was one of the signature reasons why we met with so many groups across the whole city, to protect that budget and particularly the job opportunities for youth. working with the board, we prioritize over $5.6 million for youth programs, programs that provide vital after-school services, youth work force

development and leadership development. these programs all contribute to improving the lives of youth throughout san francisco, while also keeping them safe. the two key examples -- and they are just merely examples -- the camp matehr summer program -- the camp mather summer program. and experience for young people involved in the juvenile justice system. we have got to turn their minds around. in august, we are serving over 80 youth. we are getting them out of our community so they can have a greater and perhaps have a vision to see each other and their communities in a different light, by teaching leadership development and giving them job training. another example is the program la tierra. a dpw workforce program. it provides jobs for high risk use.

these young people will be working with gardeners' for the summer, acquire and job skills and positive role models. there are about 10 other programs as well, but i wanted to highlight two of the most impactual. furthermore, our companies with twitter and other companies we are trying to bring into the area will have an emphasis on economic self-sufficiency and youth employment as well. we will be working closely with your office as well as each and every one of the supervisors to make sure that everything we do in relationship to building the community benefits agreements that we are focused on will have some benefit for our youth employment. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you for your leadership on this issue. supervisor chiu: our next question will be provided by our colleague from district 8, supervisor wiener. supervisor wiener: thank you.

part of public works and recreation and park have seen significant reductions to their tree maintenance budgets in recent years, though i'm proud we were able to partially restore the cut to the street tree program. these cuts have led to an adequate maintenance of park trees, which causes public safety hazards when branches or entire trees fall down, and has also resulted in street tree maintenance responsibilities being shifted to property owners, resulting in spotty maintenance and unfair burdens on property owners to care for trees that they did not plan and that they may not even want. i am very interested in finding a sustainable funding source -- for example, a parcel tax or assessment district -- for dpw and rec and park to maintain their trees consistently and relieve owners of their obligation. what are your thoughts on the subject? >> -- mayor lee: thank you,

supervisor. i watched very closely and read a lot of the coverage about the very keen debates around the trees in the city. i know this to be a very difficult problem that we have. since our city has over 100,000 street trees and the department of public works, as the maintainers of our street trees, is responsible for maintaining about 35,000 of them, and property owners already are responsible for some 65,000. while these numbers may sound vague, reports show that our city ranks 21st out of 22 major u.s. cities in the street tree canopy, so we are pretty behind on our ability to do tree maintenance, and it is not going to get any better in the near future. the answers are not immediate. they are long-term, and they do have to incorporate the fact that the industry standards that

are recommended have to be improved. right now, the industry standards recommend that street trees have to be pruned every three to five years. in reality, for this fiscal year, dpw has about a nine-year maintenance cycle. by next year, with the diminution in bonds, it might be even longer, so we have a huge challenge in front of us. there may be a lot of ideas forthcoming. one of the areas we are looking for answers is when our planning department is recently assigned a grant from the strategic growth counsel to complete the city of the urban forest remaster program. as part of that, the consultant will have to help us evaluate the best management practices and financing mechanisms for street tree maintenance. we should consider those options when they are presented so that we can use them to protect and enhance the urban forest responsibilities that we have.

i want to thank you for helping to restore at least some of that funding in this year's funding cycle. i know there was a strong request for much more, and we were able to restore about $300,000 to the budget. clearly, that will not be enough. what we will have to do is to leverage its and make sure that we use it in a setting in which there could be more public and private cooperation in the maintenance of more trees as that challenge increases. i have to remind everybody here today -- san francisco is not the only city faced with declining services and the need to maintain street trees. for example, the city of los angeles no longer provides any scheduled maintenance of street trees. san jose limited the whole street tree crews over five years ago, and the city of davis has eliminated its tree maintenance contract for residential streets.

we are all around trying to find the most creative ways. our current situation is not satisfactory. our recreation and park department finds itself in a similar situation. all of our urban forest benefits benefit everyone in san francisco, and i look forward to finding those solutions with you and the rest of the board. thank you. supervisor chiu: our final question today will be provided by our colleague from district 10, supervisor cohen. supervisor cohen: thank you. good afternoon. mr. mirkarimi -- mr. mayor, will you provide us an update of improvements that cities have been working towards? specifically, what has been accomplished around a facade improvements and employment opportunities for community members? furthermore, what is the status of the redevelopment agency and