has a considerable number of public housing units and while i was at senior action networks, i had the opportunity to work with many of the elderly residents about issues they face in public housing. i can tell you from my own work that one of the biggest complaints voiced over and over regards basic maintenance, response times and the ongoing if a silts' improvement schedule. and -- facilities' improvement schedule. and here we're talking about basic repairs to the sewer system, elevators, broken windows and lighting, the kind of repairs that have the greatest affect on the safety, security and health of residents. from a governmental point of view and to put this into proper context, i do note our city's efforts to designate $2 million annually to establish a public housing repairs program in 2007 and we got an even bigger boost in 2009 when $17.9 million in federal stimulus moneys were awarded to repair the city's public housing stock. in that light i am calling for a

hearing to explore the status of our city's public housing repairs program and how federal moneys are being used and may be leveraged in the future. in addition, we will be discussing repair response times for residents as they need assistance with their units. again i want to thank supervisor cohen for really kind of highlighting that issue in my mind and we both -- i believe there are several public housing units in district 10. four, yeah. and in district five. i think it's important that we will hopefully work -- have the opportunity to work together on this issue. and also i just hope to -- that the planning commission would make it a point of treating each other civily. there were a lot of disagreements sometimes on issues but we tried to disagree in a civil manner and to not forgot each other's humanity. so, i hope that i'm able to

engage in similar i guess civil discussions with my colleagues here at the board. so i'm sure we will have our differences of opinion but that doesn't mean that benefit to be disrespectful -- doesn't mean we have to be disrespectful in how we engage with each other. i may not always meet my own intentions but certainly i hope to. and i'm proud to be serving the residents in district five. >> thank you. supervisor mar: thank you to our new colleague, i just wanted to say i really appreciate the warmth and the spirit you bring to the board of supervisors and i look forward to riding the five fulton with you. i'll be getting on earlier than you but hopefully one of these days without violating the brown act. supervisor olague: at least you'll have the seat.

supervisor mar: i'll give you my seat. but i just wanted to say that we have worked together since mission agenda days on many campaigns but i respect your wisdom and experience so much and even just watching you here today, your willingness to engage all of us and to be open to new ideas and to really always put our communities and our city first. but really it's that kind of spirit that you bring that i'm really looking forward to. i really see you as a tremendously wise person that really will look at specific neighborhood issues but always the citywide perspective as well. i'm really looking forward to working with you on the board. i have a couple of items. the first is in memoriam for a tremendous arts leader in the city, john buchanan. i'm sad to say that john buchanan, our director of the fine arts museums of san francisco, since 2006 has passed away. he passed away on friday at his san francisco home of cancer.

he was only 58 years old. also i had the pleasure of working with him because the museum are within my district but also he just brought such joy to the amazing programs that he and his staff brought to our museums. really beautiful and amazing exhibits. mr. buchanan was born in nashville in 1953, the sun of a schooled a minute -- the son of a school administrator. he was fascinated by arch from -- art from an early age and earned his bachelor's degree in english then a master's in art history from vanderbilt university. mr. buchanan entered the museum world as a development officer at the tennessee state museum in nashville. and went on to join the staff of the american association of museums in washington, d.c. he spent nine years as director of dickson museum and gardens in memphis and then ran the portland art museum for 11 years

before leaving in 2006 to become the director of the fine arts museum in san francisco. during his six years at the fine arts museums, comprising d. young museum in golden gate park and one in lincoln park, mr. buchanan was responsible for the grand resurgence of interest in the museums and a 70% increase in membership. combined attendance at the fine arts museums in 2010 ranked fourth among museums in the u.s. and 16th in the world. i think a lot of it is because of his vision and his tremendous energy as well. mr. buchanan procured such crowd-pleasing exhibits as the king tut exhibit, the birth of impressionism, masterpieces from paris and the current masters of venice show. i'll just say that some of my favorites were the colorful glass sculptures and the punk kind of fashion one which was awesome as well. his attention to presentation

and assistance on high artist quality and the way in which all his exhibitions included an important educational element have set a new high mark for anyone's museum experience. i'll just say that renee, one of his staff that puts together the free fridays evening at the museum for many families and kids and everyone wanting to be an artist from tiny little kids to older folks, is wonderful and it brings the whole neighborhood and community into the museum. but i see that as part of mr. buchanan's vision as well. mr. buchanan is survived by his wife, lucy matthews buchanan, and an uncle lewis buchanan and aunt of nashville. private funeral services will take place in nashville, a memorial event in san francisco will be announced later. the family requests that donations in mr. buchanan's memory be made to the director's discretionary fund at the fine arts museums of san francisco. the phone number is

415-750-3687. or in support of the research of dr. andrew coe research fund, 2098, 415-502-1899. thank you, colleagues, for joining me in closing the meeting in honor of mr. buchanan. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor mar. president chiu. president chiu: thank you. i want to echo supervisser mar's comment about john buchanan. i was wondering if we could do a memoriam for the entire board for him. that being the case, i have two items. first of all, i'm introducing a resolution related to the 2010 united supreme court case citizens united which ruled in favor of unlimited corporate spending to influence elections and policy decisions which essentially granted corporations the same free speech protections as human beings. there have been dozens of cities

across the country including new york city, oakland and los angeles that have passed resolutions to call on congress to limit corporate influence and members of both houses of congress have proposed amendments to the constitution. today my resolution would propose that we support this nationwide movement in asking for a constitutional amendment related to the rights of corporations in relation to campaigns and elections and essentially to overturn the citizens united decision. i also of course want to take a moment to welcome our newest colleague, supervisor olague. as obviously you and i know, we've worked together on many occasions over the years and i know i'm very excited personally that you're joining us and i'm excited for your expertise when it comes to land use and advocating for seniors, for communities that need advocacy and i know that you will reflect the values of your district and i look forward to working with you on district five issues as well as on citywide issues. the last thing i want to mention, colleagues that i've just circulated, the new

committee assignments, i appreciate the feedback that all of you have provided me this and i hope that this committee does reflect the diversity of perspectives on this board of supervisors as well as on the city. i look forward to working together with you al and all the committees to move forward our respective legislative agendas. just to highlight, let me go through the committee assignments for budget and finance. supervisor chu will remain as chair. supervisor avalos will join her as vice chair and supervisor kim will join the two of them as members of the three-person committee and then when it comes time for budget season which will begin in the early part of april, supervisors cohen and wiener will join indemnify. at our citi operations committee, supervisor elsbernd will chair that committee. the vice chair will be supervisor chu and supervisor olague will be a member of that. supervisor owe laly will be vice

chair that have committee -- olague will be vice chair of that committee. supervisor elsbernd will serve as vice chair. at land use, the composition will remain the same. chaired by supervisor mar, with our vice chair, supervisor cohen and supervisor wiener. for public safety, supervisor avalos will chair that coe.mmitte supervisor olague will serve as vice chair and supervisor mar. and then at rules, supervisor kim will serve as chair, supervisor farrell will be the vice chair and campos. and i know we will be making decisions next week on the transportation authority. so, all that being said, colleagues, again, happy new year and unless there's any further announcements as part of roll call, why don't we move to general public comment. >> next item on the agenda is the opportunity for the public to address the board for up to

two minutes on items that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board, to include items -- excuse me, to include the formal policy discussion by the mayor and the boorpped and those items on the adoption without committee reference pours of the agenda. yet excluding those items which have been considered by the board committee. speakers using translators will get twice the time. please clearly state a projector and remove the document when the screen should return to live coverage of the committee. president chiu: we have a couple of folks for public comment. first speaker, please. welcome back to the board. >> [speaking foreign language]

happy if you year for every one of you guys. i hope and i wish that year 2012 can be better for all of us. this week we going to have a nice and a grateful mayor. his name, as you know here, his name is ed lee. ed lee and after ed lee we have also new sheriff, his name is ross markrymy as you see him but -- mark rimmy as you see him -- mirkarimi as you see him. and olague. christina, she learn a lot from

our former president mirkarimi and others. i wish to give her a chance to show you what she can do. i know her, i love her, i support her, i ask everyone of you to stand behind her and help her for any time she needs our help. ladies and gentlemen, god bless america. finally, as i know, my request, my hope coming through as you see, is going to kill the former president of egypt, mubarak, the man i sadly steal our money and we see. i send here my message. return our money back to my country before you die and before you go to hell and i sign

my name because my uncle used to be his director for his college. thank you. i hope every one of you have good year and you, you must understand. everyone in your district -- [inaudible] thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i hope our new supervisor will extend her umbrella of civility and humanity beyond just the limits of her fellow supervisors. stop the rape of the public library, don't accept money from the friends and foundation. since the citizens of san francisco approved a bond issue in 2000 for a branch library improvement program, all but two of the branches scheduled to be remodeled have now been completed. the friends of the library have been telling people that it would be raising $16 million for those branches.

in 10 years the friends of the library have expended $870,000 for the branches according to the department of public works. financial reports were required to be submitted to the california attorney general show that in the last decade the friends of the library have income of $35.7 million and the executive level employees made $6.1 million. required disclosure business the library itself show that in 10 years the friends spent $4.1 million to benefit the library in any form, most of it indirectly. the friends of the library have no agreement with this city because they would not answer questions about their finances before your budget and finance committee. i often close my comments with the lies cost more than the money. that means not only do the per visaers provide very little actual benefit to the public in terms of cash, but there is a tremendous amount of harm that

is done to prevent our institutions from being responsible and beneficial to the citizens. there is a direct relationship between that deference to private money and the necessary coverup of its influence that destroys our democracy, demeans our citizens and undermines the community values that make our society civil and humane. the repeated scandals and abuse are directly related to that abuse. the law costs more than the money. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> president chiu, members of the board. as i was going to put more money into the meter, i saw a gal from kto a-10 and my witness news channel 5 and i said, more and more citizens are not listening to you folks because we know we're not hearing the truth and we're going to infowars.com with alex jones or others or liberty.com or some reliable news source. i remember before when i used to

listen to the prostitute press and abc, on april 19, -- or 1995, they said, fundamentalist christians blew up the federal building in oklahoma city. we were told that timothy mcveigh with his bomb and the truck brought down the federal building, right? a few days ago i learned something that i never knew before from alex jones. on infowars.com. it turns out that "the new york times" bought the tv station in oklahoma city there and fired four people that were telling the truth. statements like this, i mean, i can't say for sure because i didn't hear what they said, but timothy mcveigh's bomb went off about 10 seconds after the federal building collapsed. there's no connection, in other words. well, the long and short of it was the cops, the local cops in the police department in oklahoma city were threatened by the f.b.i. agents. the second in command in the f.b.i. had the plot that helped

set the bombs on the columns, ok, to murder 186 people, including women and children, and the cops were threatened that if they didn't stop the investigation then their wives and kids would be killed. that officer should have repeat what had i was just told and popped in between the eyes with his gun. dead and sent him to hell. that is what happened, ok? that is a fact. you think i'm lying? go to infowars.com and get the eyewitness testimony from the folks that saw and heard this stuff. it's called the noble lie. $19. the noble lie. president chiu: next speaker. >> congratulations, mayor lee, on his second term. and inaugurated on the king's birthday. king of rock and roll. elvis presley.

♪ welcome to the supervisor wilmer christina owe laly -- olague won't you come on in from the planning commission where you have -- haven't been and we like you here take away our city fears and it's the new year time to get in gear wise men say only mayors rush in but we can't help falling in city love with you can you stay another four years for we can't help falling in city love with you like a riveer -- city river flows sure to the sea city you can see

mayor lee was meant to be take our districts take our whole city too because we can't help falling in city love with you ♪ ♪ thank you, supervisors, too, and you, president chiu. ♪ thank you good luck too ♪ president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, president chiu, and members of the board of supervisors. my name is john caldera and i'm one of your appointed supervisors to the veterans affairs commission. at last evening's election, i was honored by the elevation and the election of president of the commission. with that in mind, i wanted to

come and extend an olive branch to you in the hopes that we can do great things for veterans in the coming future. as you may or may not know, within the next 18 months, all veterans that are across the street in the veterans building will become homeless. every veterans organization that meets there, whether it's addressing the needs of our homeless veterans or veterans for peace or the american legion, one of the largest veterans organizations within san francisco, all those veterans groups will become homeless, including the san francisco veterans affairs commission, which meets there once a month. it is hoped that we will be able to be welcomed into city hall so that we will be able to have our monthly meetings here as well as address the needs of where these veterans are going to go in the future. there are other issues that i would like to address with each and every one of you publicly. supervisor wiener, you made a reference to the commission makeup. out of 17 seats on the veterans affairs commission, i am the only representative of the lgbt community. you mentioned african americans. i'm very pleased to say that

there are two african-american women and one african-american man composed in the commission. vietnam veteran. with that in mind, at the inauguration of sheriff mirkarimi, it was mentioned that one out of 15 african-americans in san francisco is incarcerated. we need to do better. we formed a women's caucus and we know that one in every three women that have served in the military has experienced some type of sexual trauma. we need to do better. i reach out to you and hope we can work together. thank you very much. >> president chiu and members of the board, good evening. my name is chris and i live and work in san francisco. i'm a six-year resident. i've also been a polling place inspector here. i've served 10 times over the past six years in san francisco. i'd like to speak about ring trace voting. it's a good system.

voter participation was highest last november. on a ring trace voting, san franciscans have elected one of the most representative city governments in the united states . since it began, racial and ethnic minority representation has doubled from four to eight members. a wide cross section of an streanfrean is well represented on the board, including the lgbt community, moderate, liberals, progressives and conservatives. there are many constructive things we can do to make this good system even better. for example, the department of elections currently takes an approach toward voter verification than it needs to. the department says not to answer questions even if we're not eligible. instead, we're asked to direct voters to a phone number. this is on page 30 of this year's poll worker training manual. why not instead train election officials and some poll workers to help voters understand not just what the but the why of ring trace voting.

in addition, when we replace voting equipment, we can replace it with ballots that have a better design and let voters use more than three rankings. we should also consider improvements to public financing that discourage -- [inaudible] from cluttering the field as in the ordinance introduced today. all of these steps will reach even better elections and more voters. finally, i encourage you not to put a repeal amendment on the ballot in june. in june, 40% of fewer voters participated on average than in november. the voting population will also be even more disproportion atly republican than the city at large because of the presidential primary. let's improve our elections. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> hi, supervisors, happy new

year to all of you. i'd like to address my comments to supervisor mar. this is called -- president chiu: excuse me, sir. i want to mention that under the rules of the chamber, you can address your comments to all of us here at the board. >> ok, great. to all the supervisors and especially to eric mar. recently, lady liberty found the hopes and aspirations of men and women in the service. paul, who numbered among the 12, was murdered by mayor lee. lee was inaugurated for a term on sunday. an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. who is paul? on february 16, i will finalize my plan to change my name to jesus christ. just to assist you in this

process i would like to make some comments about how my name might relate to the u.s. constitution and also to make a comment from another of the 12, brother and never again, there should always be a gay president in these united nations. how do you put a value or meaning to life? can your country put a value on life? the dollar, the one, vegetation, the five, you, union, the 10, t, twins. the 20, p, for pirates. the 50, e, god's house. the 100, a, offer a rainbo. can you read the music in the

air? revelations 22, versus six through 13. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, supervisors. my name's douglas knap. during the inauguration, one thought crossed my mind continually. in politics who do you trust? there was an advocacy of cooperation between the mayor and the board. in my opinion, who do you trust? in my opinion, the chinese nation, past, present and future, has done a great disservice. when your honor was lost, just for political expediency and

prominence. to me and to many other chinese that i've talked to who dare not say it publicly for obvious reasons, their goals are reputation. so i ask everyone sitting here, who are you going to trust? in the assignments i just heard for g.a.o., i learned a very interesting lesson, too. if you do your job well, you will be -- you can fill in the blank. also, i feel that in san francisco there is a suspicion way of solving problem -- suspicious way of solving problems. chris bailey is treated one way. ross mirkarimi is treated similarly and yet since 2008 i'm