benefits district and a small town in the san joaquin valley that has added benefits district for over 15 years, and i have seen their downtown area go from a ghost town to a thriving place where everybody within to i urge you to support this benefits district. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am the owner of a carpet store, and a property owner. i urge you to support this. west portal is one of the best family oriented neighborhoods in san francisco, and this is a catalyst that can make this community even better. it is a little village. this is something that has been needed for a long, long time, and i urge you to approve it. thank you.

president chiu: next speaker. >> ♪ well, i look to the east, and i look to the west, and west portal is the place i like best they fix your abilities and your shoes, and they have movies, and for elsbernd, they have foodies. they fix your shoes, and they have food for foodies, and supervisor elsbernd's favorite restaurant for foodies yes, they know how to help you, yes, indeed, and i know they are going to take the lead. they have got ice cream.

they have got free -- fruities, fix it up, and i think you -- thank you ♪ president chiu: thank you. are there any other speakers in support of the establishment of this district? now, if there are any individuals who wish to speak in opposition of this assessment district, this is the time for you to speak. police stepped up. >> my name is mark, and i am over on the boulevard. i have nothing against this

community benefit districts program in its inception, but i do have a problem with the 13- year trial period that it has. i thing -- thing that is entirely too long. i think a 4 or 5-year trial period would be more apropos. there are issues. parking. when people come to shop in west portal, if they do not live by to what to it, they start putting quarters in there, and after about $2, if they are in a shop having something done or eating, they come back and get that, what is it, a $60 ticket? i fortune to have not gotten one and a long time because i do not drive much anymore, but anyway, the only opposition i have is the 13-year trial period. but basically, it is a very good

idea. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. sir, if you could please speak into the microphone. >> i am definitely opposed. number one, i own a residential building on west portal and a 35-year member. i live just around the corner, so i have seen everything happen on that block. number one, i was never notified at the inception of this thing, so i felt very insulting. number two, as the gentleman said, 13 years or 15 years is too darn long. three or five years makes sense. the amount of money seems exceptionally high. they say it is low. i say it is high. if you take the complete 13 years added up at a 3% per annum increase, it is over $3 million,

and that is -- the thing i oppose is the increase each year, according to the records they gave me, 3% or there about. well, if we put a bunch of trees or benches or what ever you do the first second or third year, why is the cost going to be that high the fourth or fifth year? it just does not make sense. having run a billing for over 40 years, it just does not make sense. one year, high expense. six or seven years. you put in trees. you print it. not every year, three to five years. i do not know if i am getting to you, but the whole thing, and leaving a lot of us out, and i have spoken to at least four merchants, never even heard about it.

of course, it goes to the owner. i am an odor. had my neighbor not clued me and, i would not know -- i am and owner. i do not care for computers. my white candles in all, so i do not always ask her to get this stuff, and a lot of information, i know this gentleman back here, i consider friends. [bell] that is it, i guess. i am outnumbered. president chiu: thank you. are there any other members of the public who wish to speak on this item? police stepped up. >> hi, i am elliott wagner. i have a store on west portal. i have been there about 30 years, and i am really strongly opposed to this current version of the west portal dbd.

i can think about my opposition. one, i believe it was developed with insufficient community outreach. to the local merchants, property owners, and residents. basically, west portal had one landlord meeting and one merchant meeting, and it was presented to us almost like a fennel -- final document, not really with input to either of those cribs at that time. the othercbd's had five, six, or seven meetings. the others did multiple surveys of both merchants, people on the street, and lambeau boards. i believe the yearly costs are really disproportional compared to the size of others. the number of blocks and number

of parcels, the valley is twice the size of west portal, and yet its budget is only 17% or 18% greater. i have asked numerous times, i came up with a magical figure of to wonder thousand dollars, but we have not been able to do it. i am in favor of this. i think it could be great. i do not believe in this one, and i pledge no matter which way it goes that i will work towards getting one that is successful, be this one or a better version. thank you. president chiu: thank you. any other members of the public wish to speak on this? please step up. ok, it seems that there are no other members of the public who wish to speak on this, speaking on the topic of the westport a community benefit districts. we will have general public, and

later, so if you wish -- you have been listening to it. if you want to speak to the westboro community benefit districts, otherwise we will have a general comment, and you can speak then. >> i disagree. president chiu: thank you. any others? supervisor cohen? supervisor coehn: -- cohen: i have a question. who pays into this, and how is the budget derived? >> well, in the west portal, the property owners are assessed. lisa pagan, and the property owners are assessed. the assessments go out on the property tax bill, and they are due at the same time the

property tax is due. in other districts, not this one, businesses could be directly assessed. we do have one in the fisherman's wharf area on the port side, but this is a property based district, some property owners are assessed, so -- supervisor cohen: all property owners, whether you are a commercial space or in residential >> within the boundaries of the management plan, yes. >> but just to clarify, alisa, some of the tenants have passthroughs, and the property owners will be passing through their costs. that is not a universal thing. some of the leases prohibit a pastor, but in many cases, it will be the retailers who will be paying the cost. supervisor cohen: ok, lisa,

could you describe the outreach? >> lisa, if i could take that one? this mini benefit district has been discussed at pretty much every community meeting in emergency meeting i have attended since 2009. i think even the concept of it was discussed prior to that. more importantly, and i do not want to put too much on this on one individual, but the first speaker we had, matt rodgers, i think he has spent more time talking to merchants over the past year note -- two years than running his own business. there has been a tremendous amount of outreach, far surpassing our which i have seen on just about every other issue. a lot of community discussion, important not just with the emergence but with the neighbors, and that is why you see neighbors here who are speaking out on behalf of the issue. supervisor cohen: thank you. no further questions. president chiu: thank you.

any further? this is closed. it will begin. the board will continue with our agenda, and we will await the department of elections for the tabulation of the ballot, and when that ballot is tabulated, we will call that item and announce what the results are, so at this time, it is 3:30, and i would like to go to our 3:30 special orders with regards to commendations. we have several today. the first two will be presented by supervisor chu. supervisor chu: thank you, president chiu. if i can ask mr. scott -- to show up? i have served with him on a board as a board appointee to that body, but today, i just want to recognize scott for all of his work on the health service board.

he has taught me a thing or two about the work there. in addition to those accomplishments, i do want to speak a little bit about the person behind that. in addition to his role there, he also served formally as the council and general for the republic of rwanda. he was a board member of a company, the director of the nasdaq insurance group, a managing partner, a former director, with several other companies he was at, and he has served on the health service board as an appointee. he has served under many mayoral administrations, under mayor jordan, brown, mayor newsom, and mayor lee, and, of course, he served on that board wellcome as not only vice chair but as chair in many years. he brought with him a significant business experience and really understood what it meant to have to deal with

significant budget challenges over the years, and, of course, the one thing i always like to say about scott, even though he had such business acumen, and people thought he could vote a certain way, he always found consensus, worked with members of the board, and always cared for the health service system members, so i do want to take time to recognize his contribution to the health service's board and to say thank you on behalf of the board of supervisors for your many years of service, and we hope you will serve the city again in a different capacity. i know it supervisor elsbernd, who also served on the board, would also like to say something. supervisor elsbernd: we have served together. it may be appropriate that we are redoing this up here. you know it can sometimes be a pain to be a providing officer

-- presiding officer with me in the body. he handed me perfectly. you are a fantastic share. you handled all of us well. you handled the issue well. i really learned a great deal from working with you, and you really epitomized for me what a public servant is. it was a true honor to serve with you, and i hope i get that opportunity again, and truly on behalf of all of the members of the system and all the residents of san francisco, thank you for all of the great work you did for the city on the health service board. supervisor chu: thank you, supervisor elsbernd. \ -- another one into the year, but she is stuck on another board, but she wanted to say something. would you like to say something? >> i will say a few words, knowing how time is spread out and that we look down from the podium.

my kids should be sitting here, listening to their ears burned about their dad. [laughter] one thing i encourage every citizen to do is to take time out of whenever they are doing to work in the place they live. they can think globally, but they have to act locally, so it was just a pleasure to do that, and i recommend it. thank you very much. president chiu: i do seem ms. dodd here. did you want to say something? >> catherine.. health services. i am so pleased that this formal city and county body is recognizing scots service. scott stands out in my memory as having been around politics for a long time as someone who works with all sides to make sure they get things done for the people

of san francisco and for the employees and retirees. i could always count on his advice, his honesty, and on him working with the other members of the board. i'm just grateful he is being acknowledged for his years of service, and i hope we can count on him serving on other important boards and commissions in the city and county. thank you. [applause] >> i am going to add one thing, that the best thing i did was to hire her. [laughter] president chiu: i know that supervisor chu has another commendation, which she is rushing here to present.

>> thank you. i would like to invite someone from the recreation and parks department. as a district four supervisor, i have had such pleasure to work with terry. terry has been with the recreation and parks department since 1971, in nearly all of his 40 years of service with our sunset district parks. he started out at an ocean beach. he spent some time at golden gate park. then another place. for the last 17 years, he has been working at the playground area as a groundskeeper, and he made sure to keep that area always very well maintained, not only the soccer field but also the baseball diamond, and we have seen from many of our residents and the different little leagues that have come out to play, they have always had such satisfaction playing on those fields. he used to have the assistance of many other gardeners, but

over the many mean years of the recreation and parks department, he has actually been single- handedly keeping an area well maintained, and i do want to thank him, because war is not for his dedication and all of his work, we really would not see that quality that we have for all of our kids. i do want to say thank you for all of your years. i know youare retiring. it is a big loss to the sunset district, but we hope that you'll come out and cheer on the teams that they play, and i do want to it knowledge that his brother eddie is your of the way from new jersey, and there are also a number of supporters here who have worked with him over the years. thank you very much for all of your service, and the sunset district will definitely miss you. [applause] >> hi, i would just like to say thanks very much for this show of appreciation. i feel i have to accept on behalf of a lot of people, a lot

of co-workers, members, but the carpenters, plumbers, ironworkers, teamsters, electricians, you name it. all of those guys help a person like me keep a site functional and up to snuff some people can appreciate it, and i am definitely going to miss it. it was a great privilege to work for the parks, and i have been through about eight mayors, about 14 general managers. we have been reorganized about 22 times, but it seems that day today, it is pretty much the same, and the one thing i would ask as a small favor in your future deliberations of the budget, police slice off a little bit for the parks, because we need it. some of us dogs need to get out of the way. that is so we can keep things function. thank you. [applause]

president chiu: our next accommodation will be from our colleague, supervisor avalos. supervisor avalos: from the excelsior district, please come forward to the podium, with your loved one, as well. collings, we have seen some really great changes and civic

participation in this district under the action group, and a lot of the people you see before us have been working with the action group neighborhood beautification, and is not just looking at our streetscapes and landscaping, but we have artists that have done wonderful work on our commercial corridor. altogether bleak 12 murals, and now we actually have a walking tour of this district, which, i confess, i have not taken yet, so part of this accommodation is setting a date for me to come and have a walking tour. i have seen a lot of murals, but i have not seen all of them like i would like to with your explanation. they have done wonderful work in really beautifying our neighborhoods. these have made a huge difference in preventing graffiti but also showcasing the

talents that we have in our midst. we have a wonderful portal over the 280 overpass, which showcases different cultures of our district, and there are many cultures from all over the world, represented by the number of streets and cities that we have, the names in the district, and these artists we have before us, i will list some of their names, and i hope i have this for everyone here. if i call your name, please raise your name. gabriel and ryan. gabriel has just raised his hand. ryan is not here. they have been americorps volunteers and basically single- handedly have been running this act -- action group over the past few months. i want to thank you for your work. because a new holding it down, so many involved in the work you are doing, and bringing in volunteers to do the mural work, all ages have been taking part.

these are americorps volunteers. there are also used volunteers and muralists. thank you for your work. max. a native art teacher for several years, and he has designed and worked on several murals and the district, with oversight of 100 volunteers. and i see him out there. it is amazing have been gets people involved and shows them how to work. he designed something for the upcoming festival, which i see he is wearing. we have another him as merrill's in san francisco and in tokyo, japan. she is the director of a department. thank you for your work in our district. another person is here. i am sorry if i did not get your name right. your project is on the corner of

mission street. del then, a painter and muralist. thank you for your work. he creates socially conscious works. i love the mural on the corner of francis and michigan's street. i just noticed it for the first time -- at the corner of one street. thank you for that. it is really a wonderful testament to what our neighborhood is about. eric, who i do not seen here with us, who has done an amazing work over the years across san francisco. he is a native of this area and has been a resident for many years. he highlights people's struggles and raising awareness for social consciousness. daron, thanks for being here. he has roots in social activism. he is a muralist and teacher, currently a lead instructor at a

youth based arts program in the mission. he has nearly all of the way throughout california and down into mexico. also, folks we may not have won four. dan, he woworked on another project. nico, your children? great. he has merrill's all over the world, including in gonna and west africa. there is an avid skateboarder and designer. thank you for your work in our district, and ethan is also a contributor to the project. i just want to say thank you so much for your work. we'll be showcasing many of these artists in my office today after the board meeting, and thank you so much for your work. if any of you want to have a few words with us, please come forward to the microphone.

[applause] >> well, hello, everybody. my name is gabriel. i just want to thank you, john, for giving us this opportunity today and to get some acknowledgement from the community and also citywide. i also wanted to thank the office of economic work force development for providing the funding to be able to do a lot of these murals and the action group also for imploringly for one year and basically giving me artistic freedom to put this project together and contact and work with all of these great people. thank you also for being here today. that is about it. supervisor avalos: i does want to add. it is just me talking at the microphone, but there are so

many people who are grateful for your work and for what you have done, and that is something you can take with you wherever you go. thank you so much. [applause] if we can get a picture? it is kind of tight, but -- i will be on the end.

president chiu: our last commendation of the day will be from our colleague from district 1, supervisor mar. supervisor mar: please come forward. it is really an honor to recognize one of the leaders, the chapter president, karen bishop. she has been a mentor to me and many other community in justice movements in the city. movements in the city. she has been a leader of the s