next speaker please. >> good morning. i am executive director. thank you for taking on the extraordinary task of the city budget. i have been managing our budget for that year. we have in a hundred thousand dollar budget now, and i am gear to request your support. we have lost about 40% of our mayor's office of housing funding, which is about 5% of our budget. that is a dire cut. as you know, we are one of the only agencies in san francisco, if not the only in the bay area, that provides legal services to the low-income immigrants modeling will spanish-speaking community. we have staff who are of the same population, so we are culturally and linguistically competent. safety net services is what we do provide to make sure people receive their immigration status, receive their wages, and that the seniors also receive

their side benefits and do not become homeless. we are requesting your support. we are also part of collaborations with the san francisco democrat network, and we are requesting that the 15% loss from of a year ago also be reinstated. we have worked with the progress of work for alliance, and we are having trouble paying our workers, so we are requesting your support to increase the funding. also, we partner with our union. we request the 2% cost-of-living increase. we have been working also with flat budgets for as many years. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. a speaker. >> i am the coordinator of the immigration program at la raza. i am born and raised in the

mission district, first- generation latina. i am one of the nonprofit workers that is just struggling. i do this because i love serving my community. i love being able to provide that competent, quality service to our low income, modeling will community. we lost an attorney in our apartment, so we are down to one person per team doing legal services for our community. not reducing any of our requirements. we are meeting all of our contract requirements. yet, we ask that have taken a 10% cut. we are taking furlough days. and more cuts to our agency budget means we will not be able to complete our services. we will have less days to complete those services that we pride ourselves and giving our community. it is truly a dire thing when you cannot pay rent. that is the basic reality of nonprofit workers. it is a big struggle. we are the working force, serving the extremely poor --

we're the working poor. i hope you think about the cuts you're making for non-profit workers. we do this because we love what we do, and to make the decision to leave the work we love because it pays more is just heartbreaking. i hope you think about that. thank you for your time. >> good morning. i am the workers' rights raza. i want to recognize the overwhelming need in san francisco caused by federal and state cuts in human services while we witness an ever- increasing disparity in wealth. in these times of austerity, we must protect the core structures in our community. i am here to testify to a longstanding and essential partnership between the city of san francisco and la raza

central legal. we parted with the district attorney's office to rent a car trip -- fraudulent contractor to justice. partnered with the city attorney's office to prosecute wage theft committed against carwash workers. by way of example, these cases have the potential to reform entire industries. our partnership was forged over 40 years of struggle. we have become the place of first and last resort for our community. with the funding we receive from the city, we are able to represent a mother forced to testify in her daughter's work place rate case when she would otherwise not have counsel. we were able to represent a 90- year-old immigrant, was employed a threatened to kill him because he finally complained about his fate of $7 per hour with no overtime. we need this funding during this difficult budgetary year in order to continue to partner

with the city for the next 40 years. thank you. >> hello. i am a senior law legal assistant at la raza centro legal. we have much casey years on the rights about housing issues, consumer law, the state claiming, and benefits, and mr. gonzales is one of my clients. >> [speaking spanish]

>> i am very grateful to la raza centro legal for the help it has given me. it also helps young people, old people, women, men, and i am very grateful. thank you very much, on behalf of elderly people in san francisco and spanish speakers. thank you very much. supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i am a volunteer member of the emergency response team. i know you worked very hard to work with a difficult budget for years and years and years, and i appreciate your past support and ongoing support for the fire

department and neighborhood emergency response team. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am a native san franciscan and a nert-train from the san francisco fire department. the thought of getting prepared for disasters like earthquakes can overwhelm many people, so i suggest they start with just the very basics -- a whistle and a flashlight. this is something i learned in my training. keep them handy. it is just like this key chain i have here. that is all you have to do is slip them in your pocket, and you can be pretty well prepared. the san francisco fire department neighborhood emergency response team model is -- to the most good for the most people. i ask each of you to do the most good.

to continue your support for nert and the millions of people that live in san francisco and call it home. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning. thank you for having the nert program here this morning. i have come just to take a few minutes. i would like to state for the record back nert force multiplier and 100% volunteer organization has a positive cost-benefit ratio here to train 2000 people per year, the cost is approximately $11.75 per person trained, and i can supply you with information to support that. the benefit to the city and county of san francisco is priceless, serving all of san francisco in the neighborhood

and providing community resilience. thank you so much for your support. supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. good morning. i am an operator at laguna honda hospital. i come before you today on behalf of our residents and staff to urge you to return the money is allocated to our department. we as operators work as one to ensure the safety of our residents and staff 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. we are the first point of contact for all emergency services. to this point, on the night shift alone, we have 26 emergency calls.

paramedics and firefighters alike have depended on operators to accurately pinpoint needs. due to the fact we are within the hospital, it gives us the advantage of knowing the full way out of our facility. operator responding from outside the facility would not have this advantage. one cannot base and operators work solely on statistical numbers. we go to work every day to ensure the safety of our residents and integrity of laguna honda hospital. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am an operator at laguna honda hospital. a few months ago, we were made aware that the administration

department submitted a budget proposal to eliminate the graveyard pbx shift. as you can imagine, we strongly disagree with this because it creates a serious safety issue for both our residents and our staff. to date, the hospital has 753 patients that depend on us for their safety, for their very lives in the event an emergency should happen. we as operators are the first point of contact. if a patient is having a heart attack or serious respiratory problems or the fire alarm goes off, we operators are the ones who are first contacted, and we are the ones who make the announcements over the overhead va system, and we are the ones to alert the appropriate personnel to the emergency. of the past year-and-a-half, a graveyard shift operators have handled 26 calls for code red and code blue. as you know, since i ninth time, there is less staff overall than during the day, the number of

patients still remain the same, which is vitally important y n operator should be on that night. supervisors, as you know, an emergency can happen at any time and at any place, and it is not solely compliant to code red and could live. in the past, we have had violent persons on the board, patients stuck in the elevator. when people dial 0 during the graveyard shift, they need to know that they are talked to the person they are talking to on the other end of the line is well-trained, well versed, someone who has had years of experience in handling emergencies. we have the training and experience and necessary equipment to do this. having any other entity perform such critical functions would put the lives of our staff and residents in jeopardy. so we ask that you read appropriate the funds to laguna honda for the graveyard shift.

supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i work for dph for 10 years. i represent the workers at laguna honda. a couple co-workers could not be here today. i believe they communicated with all of your offices, but we delivered hard copies to the clerk for you, and i hope you get a chance to review them because they illustrate that this document that the hospital put together for the program change request is not giving you the full picture. you simply cannot transfer calls to the nursing office and expect what they just described to happen. we know not only from the workers in the office that we represent, they do not have the equipment or the training. we had hoped to provide you today with a more comprehensive report demonstrating that, and include it in the papers we gave the clerk is our information request.

hospital responded, said they would give us the information by may 25, and we have not received it, but i think their testimony, and the other written testimony that you have demonstrates that point. i hope that you see -- i would like to suggest that the amount of money the house bill suggests they could save is really a gamble. they put a price tag on the gamble that during a time, if one of those calls goes through and somebody is in the nursing office and they can handle it, then it would be ok. that is not good enough. it does not meet the protocols that they have today in their policies and procedures. i suggest and hope that you will refund the money. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. i am the program manager for health insurance counseling and advocacy program. we provide crucial the medicare and medical counseling, specifically on medicare quarter nation.

i am here to ask for your help to restore $28,000 to our fiscal year 2013 budget. the state is requiring us to serve 8500 seniors. we normally serve 8000. with the cut, we will lose two part-time staff, and thousands of seniors need our services, especially around prescription drug plans. please help us restore the high cap budget to full funding. thank you. -- please help us restore the hicap budget to full funding. >> good morning. i am the executive director of positive resource center. i am here to speak about the job readiness initiative that was formerly part of the redevelopment agency.

as you very well know, the redevelopment agency took a three-pronged approach to addressing blight in particular areas of san francisco. we have significant capital projects, affordable housing, and workforce development. while i am very pleased that the city has taken the lead in making sure this capital projects continue and affordable housing continues, we have not paid as much attention to workforce development as we need -- needed to. it is important to continue full funding for these community- based workforce development services, as they are designed to address barriers and needs that are respected to their communities, like employment certificates, funding to pay for tools, for construction, union dues, driver's licenses, and computer training. on behalf of positive resource center, san francisco conservation corps, good will come again community developers,

mission hiring hall, hundreds when families, and the asian neighborhood design, we respectfully request that you fully fund the $1.8 million that is in the mayor's budget with an additional $645,000 over the next two years. thank you for your consideration. supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the executive director of the san francisco conservation corps, and we serve over 200 very low-income young adults ages 18 to 26. we provide job training, high- school diplomas, career development, case management, and post-program retention services. like my colleague who spoke before me, i am here to support the job readiness funding, which is unique because it funds services for which there is no other funding. these funds in our case provide

services to residents who live in district 10, who have multiple barriers to employment at a time of unprecedented competition for jobs. these funds helped to address years of economic inequities for these low-income individuals for whom unemployment is 28%. i strongly support my colleague was a request to add $645,000 to the mayor's budget to fully fund the services for two years. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. a speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. we provide supportive housing and employment services, mental health services for people living on ssi. i am here to speak in support of a full 3% cost of business increased.

i say that because your department's go to an enormous effort to issue rfp's on which we did. when the contracts for those services are awarded, we get a five-year contract that is flat funded. we have been doing that now for the last five years. if you assume that the cost of doing business was going up by 3%, and we have not seen a cost of business increase compound of for the last five years, we have taken a 15.9% hit. we do that for the next five years. we will take another 15.9% hit, which is a 32% increase over 10 years. we actually know what our five- year costs for the future are going to be. we have been doing this for 52 years. we are asking you to consider

putting the five-year cost of doing business in place in the contract so we can enter into multi-year labor agreements with seiu, into in good faith contracts, like the city does. if you have a deficit in some future year, you could come back to us and negotiate a take back from us, but at least have the good faith effort made at the front end of a five-year agreement to recognize our future funding costs. we would love to see you match that antique, raise it 1%, and get it done. supervisor chu: thank you. a speaker. >> good morning, supervisors and city staff. i am the executive director of the in-home supportive services

consortium the consortium provides home care and case management to approximately 1400 consumers a year. my agency as well as others who have already spoken serve the most vulnerable and challenging of all of the consumers, enabling them to live in the community so they can exercise their rights under the americans with disabilities act. without us, they would end up -- many of them in some kind of facility. the program and administrative staff that serves these consumers and keeps them in the community have not had a salary increase in five years -- or six years. 65% of my staff make less than

$45,000 a year. while i very much appreciate the cost of doing business increase in the budget, this translates to only 400 or $450 for my staff. this is over six years. that will be all they have gotten. san francisco prides itself on its compassion and services that it provides for the most vulnerable citizens. it needs to also pride itself on caring for the staff as well. san francisco needs to walk the walk and give the additional 2% for its nonprofit partners. thank you very much. supervisor chu: thank appeared before the next speaker, if we could -- i know we have individuals with very young kids. could i ask you to speak here. -- sent you. before the next speaker, if we

could. thank you for your patience, for folks who have been waiting in line. >> [speaking spanish] >> good morning. i am a mother with la voce latina. in the year 2010, they cut our subsidies and said that there would not be any more cuts.

since then, we have seen increasing restrictions, and we work really hard as families in the tenderloin. we work to help it reduce red for families. the law helping with cars and undocumented people, and also with undocumented use -- youth and recently with safe passage. what we really want is the best for our kids who are the future of our community. please support us so we do not lose the only agency in the tenderloin for latino families. i have been a volunteer since 2005, and i am here with my

children. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you very much. any other families? >> [speak spaniing spanish] >> good morning. i am one of the mother leaders of la voce latina. as you all are already aware, we're the only organization for latino families here in the tenderloin. we have new projects and developing new projects for you and kids in the tenderloin who are our future.

as families, it is important that the organization continues to say and it is not cut for lost -- it is important that the organization continues to stay. we have done many things here in the community, had many successful events and outcomes, and we really need your support. so that our organization can continue to provide workshops and support for families.

and we are in the best position as families to fight for the tenderloin and the safety of our families and our community. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. any other families with young children? >> [speaking spanish] >> good morning. i have three daughters year. what is 8, 16, was 3. i have been an active member of la voce for seven years, and i have lived in the tenderloin for nine. i would really like to ask for your support today for la voce latina. it is the only organization for latino families here in the tenderloin.

as families and as an organization, we have a lot of projects going for kidsprojects ifyouth -- kids, youth, and children, and we are counting on having a center for adolescents said they can count on it growing up. that is why i am year to be heard, and to ask specifically for your support for the families of la voce latino, which we have come here to represent. it is really important for me to mention that they have helped us learn how to fight for our rights and to be better, stronger leaders for our future. today, there are -- they are children in, but tomorrow, they are adults.

thanks a lot, and we hope that we touched your heart and we hope that we can count on your support. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning. i have been part of la voce latina since i was 8, and i have been involved in many things. they have changed a lot and had success in the community. i hope we can still be part of the spirit right now, we are just kids, but we can make a better future for kids. supervisor chu: thank you very much. any other families with young kids? >> [speakingi am here represente