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.

>> i am not a big speech-maker, but i relish the idea of coming here today to share with you a very special graduation. i want to begin by saying it has been a wonderful, exciting time being the mayor of san francisco for these first seven months. i have had the privilege of working with the chief and his wonderful staff and the fire commissioners. i know they're here to celebrate this unique opportunity. we're joined by supervisor carmen chiu.

the last time there was a firefighters graduation class was 2005. it has been a long time. i understand that over 5000 people applied for these positions. those 5000 people along with you know that these jobs are precious, meaningful to our city, and hard-bofought jobs. i am here to congratulate those of you who have been part of this class. i want to recognize and thank the trainers. each and everyone of you have now departed and in printed -- imprinted on these recruits, skill, attitude, commitment. i want to thank you for the

professional hand-off in training. i know that is not easy to do. i want to say to your recruits that you are joining a world- class department. i know that having been part of the city for 22 years. i know that right after this event, you will be sent to your fire houses and engine companies. but for a moment right now, and visualize that you are joining a world-class department, a department that has served the city so well and has its own history. it is a department has provided the city with its own heroes. i want to congratulate you for working really hard getting to this point. i know that you come from so

many diverse backgrounds and disciplines. i understand there is a bartender among you. there is an accountant. there are people who worked in 911, people from all walks of life. now you get to work as a team. you have gone through this 14 weeks of rigorous training so that you can be part of a world- class firefighting team call the san francisco fire department. i also want to let you know that you are also joining me and 26,000 other people who serve the city well. you are part of delivering a world-class city of services. whether or not he will be jumping into a fire, rescuing a cat from a tree, or maybe being with me when disaster hits the city, i want you to know that

you have my personal appreciation as you begin your careers. every day on the job, we serve the public and do the best the weekend. everything you do by way of sacrifice is worth it all for this great city of san francisco. no they will be backed up by this mayor and administration, -- know that you will be backed up by this mayor and administration and board of supervisors. your friends, family, the residents of san francisco hold you number one in the appreciation that we have and the wealth -- love of the city family. you are joining a great department.

we want to make sure we do our best. you are joining a world-class department of firefighters, paramedics, and all the other wonderful things that we do. i want to impart that i am personally appreciative of the sacrifices you have made thus far. i will also appreciate everything you do from here on. i will do my best to continue leading this city and making sure we recognize all of the contributions made. we want to keep this city family close so that we can depend on each other whenever we have times of need. i want to signal to the public and your families that this is a day we want to remember as one

where we celebrate your entry to this department, how you got here, all of the sacrifices, and make sure that you know that you are serving the best city in the world. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. [applause] >> good morning. thank you all for coming today. this is a beautiful looking group of people. give them a hand. they have been through so much in this training facility. i am so happy to be here today. it has been a long time coming. i am hoping we can make this an annual thing where we are bringing on even more

firefighters for this great city. we have people retiring, leaving the department in large numbers. we are truly going to need them and more to come. i am hoping that is something we can start talking about. this is such an amazing city. every single day when you hear the fire trucks and see the firefighters saving lives, i cannot be more proud to be a fire commissioner then i am when i see this great department saving lives. you are coming into a wonderful department. there are people here representing the department whether you are in or out of uniform, you are always a representative of this great city. i am so proud to be here on behalf of the commissioners who are here and those who cannot be

here. we're here to serve and work with the city. we are here for you. thank you so much for being part of this great department. we're looking forward to meeting you and working with you in the future. [applause] >> thank you, fire commissioner. the chief of the department, joanne hayes-white, would now like to say a few words. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. welcome to our beautiful division of training 21 years ago, i sat in those seats and was a proud member of the 1978 recruit class. we're here to celebrate your hard work and successful completion of the rigorous 14- week recruit academy. this the first recruit academy

we've had in nearly six years. you now have the skills and ability to enter the field on your assignments and provide firefighting and emergency medical services to our community to fulfil our mission. i remember your first day here on may 2, 2011. i spoke about the importance of teamwork, getting to know one another, and working together to build on strengths to help those who might be struggling. teamwork serve you well throughout our careers. your ability to do that and be successful has paid off. the staff at the division of trading has provided you with an excellent foundation -- at the division of training has provided you with an excellent foundation. each day, you will gain new insights and experiences you will carry with you throughout your career. hopefully someday you will train other firefighters like

yourselves today. whether it is responding to restructure fire, medical,, making a presentation to the community, you are now part of the official san francisco fire department family. i am very proud of each and everyone of you. [applause] the profession you have entered is more than just a job. it is a vocation. it is an honorable and noble vocation. there are tremendous rewards and satisfaction that go along with a career in the san francisco fire department. along with this comes great risk and responsibility. as firefighters and medical service providers, we put our lives on the line daily to carry out a very important mission. this is painfully present in our

minds with the tragic loss of firefighters in june, heroes who made the old and sacrifice in fulfilling the mission of the san francisco fire department. i know vince and tony are looking down and giving you the thumbs up today. you are to be commended for the work over the last 14 weeks. you have formed a strong team. the bond will always be with you. each and every member of the class i graduated with is a lifelong friend because of the experience, bond, and teamwork reform here at the division of training many years ago. i encourage you to continue those relationships as you move into the field. always challenge yourself. be a sponge when it comes to learning and knowledge.

ask a lot of questions. treat everyone the same way that you would want every member of your family to be treated each and every day, even when you have been up for hours and hours. always wear the uniform with pride as you are today. nothing is worth doing unless you do it 100% all the time. i am proud of the diverse makeup of our class. it truly reflects the community we are serving. all of you came very well- prepared. you were all emergency medical technicians. this is the first time we have had a class that we made that a requirement. it is great to have real estate appraisers, people who have worked in construction, personal trainers, people will have worked retail, 911 dispatchers. that is all important. each of you bring something to the team. i am also proud that collectively, there are many languages that you speak in

addition to english. we have speakers fluent in spanish, cantonese, italian, french, russian, and vietnamese. all of that is value added for an employee of the san francisco fire department to serve our diverse city. many of you have advanced or bachelor's degrees. with history majors, sociology, i.t., psychology, civil engineering. all that is impressive and important as you build a team and contribute to the san francisco fire department. to the family and friends of our recruits, thank you very much. it has been a sacrifice for the recruits and family members. it has not been an easy 14 weeks. you will find that there will be missed holidays because they are serving the city.

we're so proud to have them. we're thankful to you for your continued support throughout their careers. i will also like to acknowledge the division of training staff. it is challenging and rewarding. it was one of my favorite positions. we're able to impart our knowledge and experience and make our imprint on the new recruits. under the direction of frank costa, they are all to be commended for the work in building the foundation upon which the class will continue to grow. we have many new faces. we had some tiretirements last month. i could not do my job without a good team of people to work

with. i would like to acknowledge each and everyone of you chiefs recommend -- representing the department today. i want to thank the commissioners for your support. we're very proud to work with the commission that challenges us, works with us, and expects us to be our best. we appreciate your presence today. of like to acknowledge local 798. thank you for continuing to advocate for our department, to give the recruits over our class working. supervisor chiu, i would like technology. -- i would like to acknowledge you. i really appreciate your presence and support of the san

francisco fire department. the supervisor was chair of the budget committee. it was not an easy task. we appreciate her diligence in that role and how she understands the importance of continued funding for public safety. last but not least, to mayor lee. he is -- i am proud to be achieved for almost eight years. i am so proud to be working under the direction of mayor lee. he is a colleague and friend. i am so proud he is with us in good times like promotional ceremonies and graduations and in difficult times like in june

with a loss of vincent and tony. thank you so much for being here. i will be back to give you your oath of allegiance to officially welcome you into the department. i look forward to seeing you grow. congratulations. you have our support 100%. all i ask is that you give your 100% each and every day you come to work. [applause] ♪ hello, and welcome to the department of elections ranked-choice voting instructional video. this video is part of the department of elections' ranked-choice voting outreach campaign and is designed to educate san francisco voters

about ranked-choice voting. today we will learn what ranked-choice voting is, and who is elected using this new voting method. we will also talk about what the ranked-choice ballot looks like and how to mark it correctly. finally, we'll see how the ranked-choice voting process works and show you an example of an election using ranked-choice voting. so, what is ranked-choice voting? in march of 2002, san francisco voters adopted a charter amendment to implement ranked-choice voting, also known as the instant run-off voting. san francisco voters will use ranked-choice voting to elect most local officials by selecting a first-choice candidate in the first column on the ballot, and different second- and third-choice candidates in the second and third columns respectively. this makes it possible to elect

local officials with a majority of votes, more than 50%, without the need for a separate run-off election. in san francisco, ranked-choice voting applies to the election of members of the board of supervisors, the mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney, treasurer, assessor-recorder, and public defender. ranked-choice voting does not apply to elections for local school board and community college board members, nor the election of state or federal officials. ranked-choice voting does not affect the adoption of ballot measures. when voters receive their ballot, either at a polling place or as an absentee ballot in the mail, it will consist of multiple cards. voters will receive cards that contain contests for federal and state offices, as well as for state propositions and local ballot measures.

for ranked-choice voting contests, voters will receive a separate ranked-choice ballot card. the design of the ranked-choice ballot card and the instructions to rank three choices are new. the ranked-choice ballot is designed in a side-by-side column format that lists the names of all candidates in each of the three columns. when marking the ranked-choice ballot, voters select their first-choice candidate in the first column by completing the arrow pointing to their choice. for their second-choice, voters select a different candidate in the second column by completing the arrow pointing to their choice. for their third-choice, voters select a different candidate in the third column by completing the arrow pointing to their choice. voters wishing to vote for a qualified write-in candidate for any of their three choices can write in a candidate's name on the line provided and they must complete the arrow pointing to their choice.

keep in mind a voter should select a different candidate for each of the three columns of the ranked-choice ballot card. if a voter selects the same candidate in more than one column, his or her vote for that candidate will count only once. also, a voter's second choice will be counted only if his or her first-choice candidate has been eliminated and a voter's third choice will be counted only if both his or her first- and second-choice candidates have been eliminated. we have talked about how to mark the ranked-choice ballot. now let's look at how ranked-choice voting works. initially every first-choice vote is counted. any candidate who receives a majority, more than 50% of the first-choice votes, is determined to be the winner. if no candidate receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, a process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes begins.

first, the candidate who received the fewest number of first-choice votes is eliminated from the race. second, voters who selected the eliminated candidate as their first choice will have their vote transferred to their second choice. third, all the votes are recounted. fourth, if any candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, he or she is declared the winner. if no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes is repeated until one candidate has a winning majority. in this example, we have three candidates: candidate a, candidate b and candidate c. in this example, we have three

candidates: candidate a, candidate b., and candidate c. after all the first-choice votes are counted, none of the three candidates has received more than 50%, or a majority of the first-choice votes cast. candidate a has received 25% of the votes, candidate b has received 40% of the votes, and candidate c has received 35% of the votes. . because no candidate received a majority, the candidate who received the fewest number of first-choice votes, candidate a, is eliminated from the race. voters who picked candidate a as their first-choice candidate will have their vote transferred to their second-choice candidate. of the voters who picked candidate a as their first choice candidate, 15% chose candidate b as their second-choice candidate and 10% chose candidate c as their second-choice candidate. these votes are then applied to candidates b and candidate c and the votes are recounted. we see now that candidate b has 55% of the votes and candidate c has 45% of the vote. candidate b now has more than 50% of the votes and is determined to be the winner.

thank you for watching. we hope that you have learned more about ranked-choice voting and who is elected using this method. you have seen the ranked-choice ballot, learned how to correctly mark it, and learned how the ranked-choice voting process works. if you have any further questions about ranked-choice voting, please contact us at: department of elections, city hall, room 48, 1 dr. carlton b. goodlett place, san francisco, california 94102. call us at: 415-554-4375. visit our web site at: ww >> i am not a big speech-maker,

but i relish the idea of coming here today to share with you a very special graduation. i want to begin by saying it has been a wonderful, exciting time being the mayor of san francisco for these first seven months. i have had the privilege of working with the chief and his wonderful staff and the fire commissioners. i know they're here to celebrate this unique opportunity. we're joined by supervisor carmen chiu. the last time there was a firefighters graduation class was 2005. it has been a long time. i understand that over 5000 people applied for these positions. those 5000 people along with you know that these jobs are

precious, meaningful to our city, and hard-bofought jobs. i am here to congratulate those of you who have been part of this class. i want to recognize and thank the trainers. each and everyone of you have now departed and in printed -- imprinted on these recruits, skill, attitude, commitment. i want to thank you for the professional hand-off in training. i know that is not easy to do. i want to say to your recruits that you are joining a world- class department. i know that having been part of the city for 22 years.

i know that right after this event, you will be sent to your fire houses and engine companies. but for a moment right now, and visualize that you are joining a world-class department, a department that has served the city so well and has its own history. it is a department has provided the city with its own heroes. i want to congratulate you for working really hard getting to this point. i know that you come from so many diverse backgrounds and disciplines. i understand there is a bartender among you. there is an accountant. there are people who worked in 911, people from all walks of life. now you get to work as a team. you have gone through this 14

weeks of rigorous training so that you can be part of a world- class firefighting team call the san francisco fire department. i also want to let you know that you are also joining me and 26,000 other people who serve the city well. you are part of delivering a world-class city of services. whether or not he will be jumping into a fire, rescuing a cat from a tree, or maybe being with me when disaster hits the city, i want you to know that you have my personal appreciation as you begin your careers. every day on the job, we serve the public and do the best the weekend. everything you do by way of