now be celebrating his 27th anniversary as a proprietor says -- of racella's jazz club. the uniqueness is found in the combination of the jazz house and ethiopian cuisine. anyone can come into the club and enjoy cuisine and live jazz any night of the week with no cover charge. carmen johnson. carmen johnson came to san francisco in 1962 to finish high school and went on to attend city college and san francisco state university. as a new resident, carmen quickly became involved with the local poverty program which further sparked interest in giving back to the community. carmen's interest led her to work with a group are residents

and community leaders in the community who successfully fought to preserve the section 8 housing subsidy on the property where she lived. they met with a late george mosconi and hud officials to obtain a contract for the marcus garvey square apartments. at the same time, hud agreed to work with residents to cover this existing -- convert this existing housing complex into a housing cooperative. she was asked to but -- except the position of property manager for the property. carmen was influential in her work on numerous boards. audrey ellsmith delmon the -- dabel nunnedevelopmental centerd many others. she was an advocate for the san

francisco unified school district special-education disability department. she continued on to found the a copy of a great center working with owners and residents who lived in hud's 236 properties that had expiring section 8 project. the program assisted with counseling and referrals. in 1985, ms. johnson received her evangelicals calling and began her christian event -- evangelist our reach to the committee. i believe this shows her true hard as a christian. she worked with a community to begin a tradition of feeding the poor and needy before thanksgiving at the property where she lived. carmen has worked hard to continue this tradition which has taken place for more than 22 years. she has done work in community violence and has raised ostrich -- foster care children as well. she is a true example of someone

who has followed the christian lessons of compassion. i am proud today to present both of you with these commendations for african-american history month. [applause] >> thank you. i am so honored on today. kind of a blessing and an honor to be part of this celebration of black history month. it is long time coming. i have been here before the supervisors board on many occasions fighting for housing and asking you to support which is supported us when we were about to lose our housing critic supported this recently when we

were getting into rehabilitated. we just want to thank you for the many things that you did for our community. district 5, i started working district 5 and i had mentors like mrs. mary rodgers, mrs. espanola jackson, all over san francisco. maxine hall, louise harvey. many of those women. many have gone home to be with the lord but they did tremendous work and they were mentors. they stayed on me to get involved. i see something in you. and pushed me to go on to school to get my education. i had three children, my own biological children and had many other children in the community.

that i service. i have a heart beat for the children and youth in our community as well as our seniors. one of the things that has bothered me, we have had -- went to renovations. we have a state of the art computer learning center. we do not have any money to pay someone to come and teach the children and youth and have that center opened. i will ask the board of supervisors again if you could assist us in that area. to sum up here today. our children need that center. they need to be taught and they need to come up there after school. we do not have the funds and someone professionally to come

and to teach them in including the seniors. i am going to lean on your support to come and help us out in that area. i would like to thank you again. you have been so good in supporting us, former supervisor ross mirkarimi. hud was going to take our property from us. we did not have the money. there was a lot of politics. when you are dealing with board to have a lot of politics going on. some of the residence over there and 20 people got involved and wanted to sell the property. we said no. we did not want to sell it. we wanted to preserve it. we wanted to make sure we got section 8 for the next 20 years and we wanted to fix that property of. which was 40 years old. we were able to come out with the help of view, the supervisors and the help of the

former mayor, also the help of the speaker of the house, and hud, we were able to preserve and renovate the property and get an additional 20 years of project based section 8. [applause] i thank and praise the lord for that. i ask you, i think you for today. i will shut my mouth -- i think you today. i will shut my mouth. i would want to thank supervisor christina olague. i want to thank you and also, members of the community for recognizing that evangelist carmen johnson needed to be appreciated. thank you again. [applause] >> thank you.

she is our community leader. that is where she spoke first. it is a great honor and i am honored and humbled by this recognition. it now, beyond our business environment and business activities, i am very involved with the community and the community affairs and development issues and so on. sometimes we are -- we wonder are we doing the right thing? our people noticing what we're seeing and what we're trying to do, to accomplish certain goals and to realize there are people who see and watch and say, he has an agenda. he has an issue. he is promoting, he is pushing for fairness and economic equity and housing issues. and opportunities and so on. it is important and i am humbled by and honored by this

recognition and i think you very much. i wanted to organize my little family. -- recognize my little family. [applause] my brother and his daughter. i was quite young when i came four years ago to live with them. he probably never dreamed i would be standing here but he is the person who i first came to visit in san francisco. i want to say, this is the black history nomonth. there is the black experience universally. there is an international issue. if you take it from africa to the caribbean and to the experience of colonialism and neocolonialism and in all parts of the latin american countries, there is the experience.

the people today in today's world, the ones that can make a difference in terms of economic equity, in terms of justice, in terms of contributions are you in the position of policy-making and the policy of resource application. one of the major issues of san francisco that relates to the black community is an acceptable form of migration. more than black folks themselves, you are the policy makers, managers of the location, leaders and public leaders -- can do something about these issues. it is not a question of reversing history. but a question of balancing, making sure that -- this can happen through economic development initiatives. proper housing initiatives and so on.

i urge you in general that you take the initiative. you be the leaders to speak every day and think about it every day like other issues, the question of the increasing under development to and out migration of the african-american community. thank you very much. [applause]

[applause] president chiu: a would like to recognize our colleague from district 7, supervisor elsbernd. supervisor elsbernd: all of us who have been to the presidio, it would not be the same without him and the tremendous

recitation of the gettysburg address he gives every memorial day and he does it without notes. just a fantastic choice, great choice, supervisor mar. my selection is a gentleman who i have had the privilege of knowing and working with a little over 10 years but observing since i was playing in the cyo. not too h&m too much, but don collins is currently the commissioner of the athletically. the aaa san francisco section. -- not to age him too much. don has been in a position for 10 years. prior to that was involved in cyo basketball. he has been officiating youth sports for two decades. in figuring out who i wanted to

commemorate and celebrate today, don came to mind right away. what it is about for me with don , he is a true role model. to have him around our cities use every day with the integrity that he demonstrates each and every day in his work, the leadership skills he demonstrates, the kind as he demonstrates, -- kindness he demonstrates and the intelligence he demonstrates. i have seen this with a few other coaches. the lessons he is teaching is the life lessons that will allow them to be successful tour of their careers and no question, there are generation to have benefited from his leadership and hopefully with more generations he will do his work.

congratulations. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. i am kind of flattered and honored to be in front of everybody here. there were so many great, great honorees who were here prior to myself. i truly -- i do not know of i stand on the shoulders of giants, but i was preceded by some giants. i will not try to sing like one of them did. i have spent most of my career in addition to a fish eating and being the commissioner of centrally trying to do two things. first, we attempt to put people in the position to perform, especially young people. some of you know that i came out

here in 1988. i am old. i came out of the staff attorney at the ninth circuit court of appeals. i officiated basketball games and he proudly presents the calls. i did that in my spare time. when i was -- i am about to leave the court, i started seeing the schools were losing money. the first thing i saw there were losing it because there were back taxes and taxes being put upon the sports officials. there were considered employees by the edd. i wrote the model legislation that classified as independent contractors, saving schools a lot of money. some schools did not know there were being sent money. that became legislation in georgia, virginia, ariz., many

other places. in fact, i consulted a lot of smaller groups in sports officiating and ended up being the worst official to be on the board of directors of the national association of sports officials. when i sit back, everybody says oh, no, cannot downgrade yourself. everyone else in the room is nfl, nba, major league baseball. i will not deceive myself into thinking that someone who calls this young man's games belongs in that company on the floor. i belong in it because i facilitated it and help people. of course at the high school and middle school level. we help people get scholarships. we help people who are catholics get scholarships. jewish get scholarships, africa -- african-americans get scholarships. we do more than just roll ball out. i do not ruled out at all. i am the commissioner. i said at a desk. you had better do something.

we get them scholarships and we helped them. we have to million dollars for the community. and the community in the southeast side of town. i still help with san francisco parish baseball. it is about helping people, putting them in a position to perform. and helps them learn that in a time of adversity, and competitive adversity, it is when you are playing a game, you must learn how to deal with it. you must tell -- learn how to handle it with grace and dignity. to win properly and lose properly. it will have learned to play properly. before i leave, i want to tell you one thing. people have talked about the out-migration of american -- african americans. i talk to african-americans and tell them, i came from chicago.

i could walk through a place in chicago, the south side, larger this -- then the city and see black people everywhere. you can see the young children sitting. they say, really, they cannot believe it. that speaks when they hear that and they start leaving for. speaking to desire we have. the need and desire to belong. i think to some extent when they hear that they say that was a place where you belong to. we have to explain to them many of them migrated or their relatives did from the south. they came from black communities. they came from black areas. while they are in a place that has an out migration, they have an opportunity i did not have. growing up in chicago i could only touch and be touched by african-americans. they have the opportunity to touch african-americans, to touch jewish people, to touch the chinese and gay people,

straight people, to touch all people and to be touched by them. our community, our community will keep going forward because of that. i thank you for having me here today. it was a pleasure. thank you. [applause] president chiu: supervisor campos from district 9 will make that next presentation. supervisor campos: let me begin by reiterating what was said by a number of supervisors. just a great gratitude that i have for all the amazing members of the african-american community who for so many years, strolled to make sure that -- struggled to make sure we had equal rights. it is all of us whether we are african-american or not, benefit

from. as a gay latino man, i am deeply appreciative of that. of those efforts and those accomplishments. i have the honor of recognizing a very special woman. we have her in front of us and that is mama georgia willette. let me say a few words before i turn it over to her. there are people in a neighborhood who are so remarkable that they essentially become the face of that neighborhood. when it comes to allegany, many know mama georgia as the mayor. as the supervisor of district

9, i know enough to know that the mayor otrumps the supervisor of district 9. when it comes to making sure that we understand what is happening in that community, you go to moll, ga. to know that. mama georgia to know that. she has been a resident of that neighborhood for 46 years, she has been a long time active member of the community with the entire vernal heights neighborhood and a longtime volunteer. you can see she has been the there for many years. she has been a participant at the neighborhood center, she has been a leader in the community that has been active on some many issues involving the rights of tenants. she has fought for so many years to make sure that we

bring the necessary resources for the housing community, and in particular, focusing on the needs of young people. there are some many young people whose lives have been touched by mama georgia. if you need to know what is happening in the neighborhood, she is the person to go to. you can sometimes run into her on the 67 bus line. if you are lucky enough to run in to her, you can enjoy a pleasant conversation, and you are always struck by the down to earth at the very real way that she interact with people. the list of attributes and goes on and on, we are proud that she is here, and you can see some members of the community are here with her. it is truly an honor for me to recognize on behalf of the board

of supervisors, for being a leader in the community for over 36 years, for the many hours of volunteer work, for being a steadfast senior program participants. for the constant advocacy and efforts to bring a first of the housing community, and for being the unofficial mayor. thank you for working in our community. [applause] >> firstly, i want to give honor to almighty for allowing me to see another day, another hour. he didn't have to do it, but he did. to let me live this long. i only asked to live to be 50. and have one kid. i ended up having four boys.

after i by past 50 and may 81 and a half, that didn't do. 82 1/2 didn't do. 83 1/2, that is what i am. who thought i would hang around this long? espinola, your face. it is nice to have my friends and family and the housing authority, the commission of people with me, and my sisters. my god-children, my baby son, would you come up here? i want you all to know that i do everything from my heart because my father was a preacher. there were seven of us, for boys

and three girls. my dad did not believe in laying around, but we had to saying. we traveled all across the country. it was just all over the world. after all the traveling, i ended up here in san francisco. and i love san francisco. when i first moved to alameda, [unintelligible] lt met me tell you something, love. where is alameda? you don't know alameda?

i said it as a girl. anyway, we went to the map . down 280. you want to do quality work for you, you have to come out there. they walked around and let everyone know. it is he that has made us that way ourself. you know better than that. the man is looking into booking.

the rest of that, the only way to hell. i taught them how to write their resume, and do something with their hands of a van carrying guns around. don't be ashamed if you don't know how to read and write. come to my house. we take time with the kids. we take time of the kids. kids these days are ashamed to let you know that they are just there. they are jack and jill, went up the hill. come on down to earth and to try to learn something. tried have your own business. you don't have to work for nobody to get the bucks.

i know you all know i am telling the truth. god loves you, and he said, this is everybody through the police. i said, that is right. i am the only black mayor, i can do that. i want to thank you all for listening to me. and and we need a place like recollection. you'll need to come out there. take them out there yourself. we try to improve, and it has everything quiet. we have a police station.