president chiu: good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting -- meeting of it tuesday, march 13. could you please call the roll? >> [roll-call]

mr. president, there is a quorum. president chiu: thank you. ladies and gentleman, could you please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. colleagues, we need to approve our recent meeting minutes. we have meeting minutes from january 31 and february 2 board meetings. but i have a motion to approve it those minutes? without objection, those minutes are approved. are there any communications? >> i have no communications. >> if you could read our to o'clock special order. >> the first item of business is the formal policy discussions

between the mayor and representatives of the odd it districts. the mayor may talk to the board for up to five minutes the supervisors will present their own questions to the mayor and discussions will not exceed five minutes per supervisor. president chiu: mr. mayer, welcome back. if you like to say few words, i would like to give you that opportunity. mayor lee: thank you and thank you to be of public for being here today. we have some exciting initiatives happening in san francisco and before we dive into the important questions, please permit me a moment to discuss some of the more impact fall programs we have lunch and expanded in recent weeks. we announce the completion of the first round of the electric vehicle charging stations. we have been making progress greening our city and making it easier for residents to charge electric vehicles.

i should mention these vehicles run on 100% a renewable energy generated from our hetch hetchy dem. we also received a $5 million grant for the technical schools training grant to jump start to work force training program in san francisco. together, we have launched the invest in neighborhood investment program to revitalize the city's neighborhood, commercial corridors, strengthen the bread small businesses and boost job creation. finally, we have laid out an extensive calendar of community engagement around our cities budget and i look forward to joining you as we tackle the difficult financial discussions facing us in the next two years. thank you for the opportunity to join you today and i look for to continue holding our monthly policy discussions. president chiu: we have four

questions to ask today and i will ask the first question. in november 2007, the voters of the san francisco passed proposition, which created the office of small business to support the small businesses, among other things, in complying with a loss of and regulations administered by the 14 city departments that impact small business. as drafted by the small business commission, it specifically states within four months of the offices opening, the office shall issue a report that analyzes existing laws, regulations, rules, procedures and responsibilities of all city departments that impact small businesses and make recommendations regarding the streamlining and consolidation of such department of functions to the office of small business. as of today, four years later, the office has not issued that report nor made any such recommendations and executive branches not yet engaged in efforts to streamline or consolidate the functions of

the 14 city departments from which 80,000 small businesses must seek approval to do business in san francisco. will you commit to carry out the mandates of the proposition to streamline the city government? mayor lee: i know that you share the belief that small-business is an economic corner store -- cornerstone of our city and creates thousands of neighborhood jobs. you and i should be the first to agree we have a lot of work to do when it comes to making it easier for our small businessmen and women and entrepreneurs to open up new businesses or interact with the government. as of this moment, knowing proposition i was passed in 2007, i will commit to you that by july this year we will commit to the report. but i think that many people would agree with us that we need more than just this report. we need to make sure we have

real innovation and streamlining and real action to help our small businesses. i'm proud that in just a first 60 days of this year, my administration has taken several serious steps toward supporting our small business community and taking real action toward streamlining and easing the regulations and bureaucracy we force are small business people and entrepreneurs to navigate. as part of my innovative portfolio, we are developing an on-line business one-stop service that will make it easier for businesses to identify necessary permits. in addition to the on-line business tools, three significant objectives are currently underway. first, starting in march of 2013, businesses will receive one bill containing an itemized list of the licenses to be renewed for the year instead of for mailings for different forms to fill out. businesses will be able to pay

bills online and i want to think you for your commitment in this effort by sponsoring legislation needed to change the billing cycle. second, the department of the lid -- building inspection, fire department and police department developing online tracking system to go on line in the fall of 2013. this will be transparent to the public and city staff. other department can join this online system over time. third, we have all seen the youtube video on how difficult it is to navigate the 13 definitions for eating and drinking uses. it would be amusing were it not. as supervisor olague has said, it is truly a horror show. we want to distill the 13 definitions into three while maintaining the controls.

thank you, supervisor wiener, for maintaining that legislation. we're working to increase the number of applications that can be submitted on-line. small business people simply don't have the time for that. i know that you have proposed many other good ideas to support our small businesses and make it easier to do business in this city. i look forward to continue working with you on this and the rest of the members of the board. our small bullet -- small business commission and business leaders on these issues and in the future. president chiu: thank you. our next question is from supervisor olague. supervisor olague: i will have to ask my staff -- if you could come back to me for my question.

i will just go ahead. with the dissolution of the separate discovery development agency on february 1, 2012, and the new formation of the redevelop meese -- redevelopment successor agency oversight board, what are your plans to ensure that community voices will be heard through the commis advisory committee any meaningful way, despite the lack of staffing and a shortage of resources? >mayor lee: thank you. as you know, this profoundly affects local jurisdictions to serve communities in need. that said, i'm proud of our city's responsibility of solving this problem in spite of the state. in spite of the work already done along with committee numbers of the existing redevelopment projects, we have moved decisively to transfer all the agency's affordable housing assets and functions to the mayor's office of housing. this was the first priority for

me. to insure future resources for affordable housing in the absence of the agency, i have directed the office of housing to lead a group to explore the creation of a housing trust fund. second, we have created a successor agency under the city administrator and have appointed an oversight board to ensure we can seamlessly move forward with major project areas in mission bay, hunters point shipyard, and portions of the transkei. by moving quickly and decisively, we have maintained the -- portions of the transit bay. these project areas are the future of san francisco and were all created with significant community input. to answer your question directly, i have prioritized the comedic -- the continuation of the neighborhoods trading

functions of local higher and workforce programs the agency's use to carry out. our transition team is exploring numerous funding programs. um, but we are up to the task of keeping these neighborhood workforce functions going. throughout the implementation of this transition, community input is critical. toward that end, the former redevelopment agency's staff has contacted every citizen's advisory commission to discuss the transition. in mission bay, hunters point ship yard, and trans bay, they will continue to play a critical role to your citizens concerns and provide recommendations to the city. this was important to me as it was to you as it was to supervisors cannot and -- supervisors kim and cohen.

i urge you to convey these concerns directly to my staff, the mayor's office of housing, and the successor agency. president chiu: our next question is from supervisor campos. supervisor campos: i know the media would never blow anything out of proportion, but there have been news articles on a rainy day fund and the issue that has a rose is the issue of strings be attached to the rainy day fund of the san francisco school district. some of these articles claim you will not release those funds unless the district sells surplus property. those of us to have been supportive of the rainy day fund, and i know many people have worked on that for the last few years, wanted to simply get a sense of what you actually

meant and if you could just clarify your statement and position. mayor lee: thank you. as you have said, and i agree with you and all the supervisors, improving education is possibly the greatest challenge and opportunity we have as public servants. how we improve education will directly impact hours to since prospects to get the jobs and lives all of us know we need. you're asking me my position regarding the rainy day fund and how we provide resources to improve our schools. let me be clear -- i opinion as we have to look all options when looking at how to improve our schools. i do not see it as strings attached. we agree our schools are facing a fiscal crisis and have been for some time. i recently met with the

superintendent, carlos garcia, to discuss the state's budget. for several years, the state has slashed per people funding. it will be flat this year but could decrease blowpipe thousand dollars per student. by way of comparison, new york and connecticut spent nearly $15,000 per student. currently, california is the last in a cut tree on spending per student. 50 at 50. -- last in the country on spending per student. 50 out of 50. we handed 485 pinks lips to our teachers. in the past, ready date funds have been used to help offset some of these difficult cuts, but they are quickly diminishing. at one point, the school district received $24 million for married a funds.

this year, but they will get just over $6 million. in the long term, he to find a more consistent and steady source of income for our schools. in the short term, we need to explore all options for raising revenues for our students. some people have been concerned about my comments on exploring additional funding sources, including examination at used property at the school district. to those that are concerned with my comments, let me ask the following question. are you happy with the resources we have to educate our children in san francisco? are you satisfied with these shorter school years and limited after-school and summer school? are you ok with your school supplies, out of date textbooks, classrooms that lack

technology? are you happy with teacher layoffs? if your answer is yes, the status quo is ok. no additional funding opportunities are needed. if, however, you think we can do better, as i do, if you want to raise the expectations of our students, teachers and principals and provide the resources necessary to strengthen our schools, then we have got to explore all our options. it would be irresponsible not to consider all our assets and the available resources when we talk about how to improve our schools. superintendent garcia agrees we must explore all of our options and i look forward to working with the school district and you to ensure a better future for our students. president chiu: our final question is from our colleague in district 11.

supervisor avalos: thank you, mr. mayor, for being here and thank you for coming out to the arbor day celebration on saturday. we had a great turnout and a lot of great work was done. the change we have seen on brother headway in district 11 has been remarkable over the past five years. i know the community clean team helped initiate that. in 2006, there was part that was screened up along the median and it has been really great in terms of creating a new presence for the street. our issue is around pedestrian safety where the views are blocked, but for the most part it is a great and most of the residents want to see it finished from niagara to daly city. there was some talk about that

happening from the past supervisor and a lot of interest to see how we could complete the project at hoping your office can make that happen this year. what are your thoughts? mayor lee: thank you. it was my pleasure to work with you along brother away. was arbor day and part of the beautification process. we did a first in a supervisor avalos'district. they did the first flash dance -- it was a lot of fun to begin that way. when i was a city administrator, dpw improved the avenue along that way, planting the trees and shrubs -- planting trees and shrubs to call traffic and but i the corridor. at the time, those medians were

approved with one time dollars for the board of supervisors and dpw improved as many medians as possible but that funding. the end result looks great and i would like to continue to work along that avenue and many others look in san francisco. but as with all the programs, there are constraints. we're still facing a large general fund deficit. streetscape design and greeting projects often come straight out of the general fund. while we have received good news, we're still facing a two- year deficits of $170 million and $312 million. we've had a successful street bond which will provide us with meaningful resources to do projects like this in districts across the city. i thank all of you for your support on the bond campaign. when it comes to urban forests, we face the same general fund

constraints. our city simply does not have the resources to maintain all of the street trees we already have. there is already an effort underway in which dpw is working to restore the tree maintenance finance possibilities. this study is scheduled to be completed later this spring and i would welcome your assistance in identifying dedicating -- dedicated fund to maintaining and a growing the urban forest. supervisor weaner has supported the planning department in this study and i would encourage you to work with him on this important task. what we need is a strategy that would allow dpw and the recreation and park department to care for an expanding urban forests and expand the vacation projects at which point continuing debt greening of the median would be one of my top projects we would implement and i would support doing it.

thank you, supervisors. president chiu: that concludes our question time for today. thank you, mr. mayor. madame clerk, why don't we proceed to our consent agenda. >> items 2 through 8 comprise the consent agenda. these will be acted upon by single roll call vote. if a member request discussion of a matter, it will be removed and considered separately. on items 2 through 8 -- [roll call] there