that we ought to be acting on. i know i'm going to be at the side of the dreamers and other immigrants fighting like hell in the next few months. i just want to thank you all for honoring my father and i want to especially single out mini sill bert who wanted to be here with all her heart today. with all her heart. i talked to her for 15 minutes. my father and i worked with [speaker not understood] for the last 40 years. i want to thank [speaker not understood]. (applause) >> [speaker not understood], say a few words for de lancy street. >> i am a member of the de lancy street foundation. it is just so great to be up here to see the name roth being honored in this fashion. we've had an association and a very close relationship with the roth family, both senior and junior and it thrills my heart because i came in as a crazy drug addict, didn't know anything about anything. and through their efforts i found out that there was really, real issues going on in life besides drugs and crime and prison that we were all involved with.

and our minds were opened. we were able to support, learn, and be educated in how to stand up for the right things in life. one thing that i can say about the roth family, they didn't stand up for bull s., that whenever an issue was right, that's what they stood for. whether it was popular or not popular. a lot of times they caught a lot of heat for it but it didn't matter to them because they believed in doing what was right for the people that were in need of that. it was just again great to see that that name is being honored today. >> thank you. (applause) >> fred, let me just say that we have a number of african-american or black history month honor aloees in a month coming up in ray moment. * i want to acknowledge labor president mike casey in the audience. (applause) >> i want to thank you for [speaker not understood] to our doors. we have this coming up on our -- for a vote. >> your oscar time is up. a [laughter]

>> i want to say supervisor avalos and campos are co-sponsoring this commendation with me and i wondered if they wanted to say a few words. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor mar. i think you said it all. i actually had the honor of working with fred ross junior when i was with the [speaker not understood] campaign. learned a lot from that effort and was able to realize that a lot of the work we did, the techniques we used as union organizers came from his father, fred roth. that contribution is huge was of the work that he did bring science to how we organize. that's actually changed the nation. that's the impact that fred roth senior has had on the world and i just want to all be here in your presence. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. i don't want to repeat what's been said. but, you know, i was meeting with dolores huerta just a

couple days ago and i was really surprised that someone like her would be supporting our effort to add harvey milk's name to the airport. (applause) >> what she talked to me about was how she learned about the enter connection of every human being and that every cause for justice and equality is one that concerns all of us regardless of where you come from and where you are. * and i think that's the lesson, that people like dolores learned from your father. not only did he influence leaders like dolores and cesar chavez, but to this day, after years of his passing, influencing so many generations, it's really a legacy that will last forever. and just very grateful that i have benefited from it. thank you. (applause) >> we just wanted to take a

quick photo and move on. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor mar, for honoring the house of labor who honors us by being in the house of the people. supervisor mar, do you have one additional commendation for today? >> let me be brief on this one. it's another very important institution that's celebrating 40 years. and i'd just like to ask if dr. laura schmidt, [speaker not understood], and the great folks from ucsf, philip arly

institute for health policy can come forward. i think many of you know that childhood obesity, the fight against childhood obesity is a growing national movement that takes community activism and organizing, but it takes great action-based researchers to really engage in our communities and really integrate them self-to support community organizing to address large food companies that are in many ways poisoning our children and our families as well. and today i'm asking my colleagues to join me in honoring the 40th anniversary of an incredible institution. again, it's the lee institute for health policy studies. and we're going to be declaring later in the meeting, hopefully with a unanimous vote, the february 27th, 2013 as philip r. lee institute day in san francisco. i wanted to also say quickly that the work of the institute is amazing in integrating with

community-based organizations and connecting some of the top -- world's top researchers in obesity, not only sugar and fat and how it impacts our brains, but also how children are targeted whether it's through ads or through chemicals that are in the food and super processed foods. but they're doing incredible research and are world renounced institution that many other cities look up to. the institute also really is about the future generations of our neighborhoods and i'm really proud to say that they're training health serves and researchers and really come from benefiting our neighborhoods in their research. i wanted to say that they partner quite a bit not only with the schools of medicine, denttry, nursing, pharmacy, but also countless other universities, government entities and especially community-based organizations. the partnerships with the institute and other ucsf groups

includes clinical and translational service or science institute or ctsi whose mission is to ensure the rapid transition from medical studies to medical aid. and additionally, the ctsi san francisco health improvement partnerships or sf hip program ensures that the knowledge gained from their research will touch the lives of many throughout our vibrant communities. and i've been in the different meetings that roberto vargas and others have convened where it's about empowerment and about really treating respectfully the grassroots community groups that work with new relationships, researchers to improve the lives of our communities. tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. an important dinner is happening. i know that supervisor avalos and councilman ritter man from richmond, california, who championed the soda tax that unfortunately didn't pass, but i know that there's a lot of great people that will be there joining and celebrating in the 40th anniversary for the institute's impact in our communities.

so, i'm urging you to join me in declaring february 27th ucsf philip r. lee institute day in the city and county of san francisco. and i'd just like to ask dr. schmidt, if you could introduce who is here with us, too. >> yes. we have here dr. [speaker not understood]. she is the director of the institute for health policy studies. roberta vargas as you already mentioned, and ms. paula fleichser who is one of our experts. i wanted to make a very brief statement. it's a real honor to be here to speak to this commendation on behalf of our staff. we have over a hundred faculty and staff at the institute for health policy studies. ucsf is by far one of san francisco's many, many treasures. but the newest discovery for medicine and population health

often get locked up in the ivory tower and they don't make their way out onto the streets to actually help the population very quickly. so, our institute's core mission is to translate advances in science as they come forward within the university and translate them into policies that help people live longer and live healthier lives. we work directly with people, with leadership at the global level, at the national level, at the state level, and at the local level. but nowhere are we more committed to helping, helping out than in our hometown in san francisco. and that's why we instituted the san francisco health improvement partnerships, to help our own. you board members, a number of you have been directly and intimately involved in our efforts and have really become

valued partners in our efforts to improve health, particularly as supervisor mar mentioned, around efforts to combat childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes throughout san francisco, especially in its poorest and ethnically diverse communities. but also our initiative to prevent the spread of hepatitis b throughout the city's asian american population, our work on preventing dental disease among low-income kids throughout the city, and a very novel effort to make the infamous streets of san francisco just a little bit safer from alcohol related crime. so, we are deeply, deeply grateful for your support, for the direct involvement by supervisors avalos and mar and campos in our efforts to improve health and to promote a

real meaningful partnership between our policy makers he, our community-based organizations, and one of the top medical universities in the country. and we look forward to 40 more years of helping improve the lives and health of san franciscans. (applause) >> thank you. supervisor mar. >> i want to welcome all of our guests who are here for our presentations related to black history month. and i'd like to ask supervisor cohen if you'd actually like to take my gavel and preside over the proceedings of today's commendations. supervisor.

>> yes, mr. president. i'll gladly take your gavel. [laughter] >> all right. are you guys excited? because now is the time we're going to actually take a moment and honor many outstanding african americans who have contributed greatly to the city and county of san francisco. and as we begin to close out our black history month, we'll have an opportunity to reflect not only what we've done this entire month, but also what we did last year and in previous years standing on the shoulders of rosa parkses, dr. martin luther king, sojourner truth, those are leaders from a historical perspective. i and supervisor breed stand ort shoulders of more recent

giants, like espinola jackson, like ms. westbrook, ella hill hutch, doris ward, willie b. kennedy, just to name a few. anyhow, i welcome you and i'm looking forward to -- [laughter] (applause) >> thank you very much. look forward to having a spirited conversation and i'd like to give supervisor breed an opportunity to welcome you as well. >> thank you, supervisor cohen. i just want to start by just thanking you all so much for your patience. i know many of you have been here for a very long time waiting for this opportunity. i'm looking forward to hearing the stories. i'm looking forward to the folks here being honored for the great work that they've done in the comunity. i, of course, had a really challenging time choosing who i would honor. i settled it at careen mayfield and pat scott who are here today and i'm looking so forward to honoring them and seeing some of the -- my other

colleagues on the board who they plan to honor. african-american history month is a really important month to me, but what i would tell kids when i ran the african-american art and culture complex, this is african-american month 360. 3 61 on leap year because every single day we need to remember the struggles. we need to remember the good times and the bad times so that we are pushing forward and not pushing backwards. so that we are moving our community together as a whole, forward, and making sure that the mistakes of the past that this city has made does not continue to impact the african-american community, which includes the rapid decline. with myself and supervisor cohen have been working extremely hard on this board and we are going to be looking to members of the african-american community to help us continue to find creative options so that we can begin to repopulate this city with the african-american community that is so deserved. thank you so much.

(applause) >> supervisor breed, you sound like the good reverend dr. breed. we were about to have church in here, folk. i hope you're ready. i want to start with district 1, supervisor 1 districtv, supervisor eric mar. >> thank you. colleagues, black history is so important to me as an asian american. as others have stated, in the past i do feel that a lot of the progress, civil rights and equalitfor many chinese americans and asian americans have been really the direct result from the struggles of african-american people historically in the united states. the first person that i'm honoring today, and we've chosen a richmond district poet and african scholar, dorothy randal saruda who is the chair of black studies or i should correct myself. we used to call it black studies when i taught at sf state. now it's africana studies. first i would like to ask if

professor saruda's brother bobby randal can come forward. and if there are other africana scholars that are in the room as well, please join us up here. dorothy saruda i first met decades ago when she taught at mills college and was in solidarity with one of my asian american faculty colleagues who was under attack by the administration there and dorothy, professor saruda always exhibited solidarity with other people of color. i always respected that as her work. she's been dedicated to up lifting young people in our communities through literature and poetry, but also teaching about women's rights and the history of struggleses in african-american, but also other communities of color as well. i wanted to say that she was born in detroit, michigan, but grew up in chicago and upon graduating from high school came to san francisco to attend

college. and she graduated from stanford university with her ph.d. in '78 and she and her husband kaz -- too bad they couldn't live here, they live in the inner richmond, but they met in san francisco and their entire adulthood is defined by living in the city they love. they have four adult children and dr. saruda's brother bobby randal who she has been close with, also moved to san francisco at about that same time. dr. saruda is an activist scholar who figures prominently in the field and served on the board of not only the national association of black studies, but also supporting poetry and arts and culture in our neighborhoods as a judge for the college language association and many other organizations, kpoo, kpu as well. she supports the village project which is an incredible after school program which she assigns many student interns

from or community service learning process to community institutions and schools and supporting our empowering organizations in the african-american community as well. so, she is being honored not only by recognition from in the past from our mayor and san francisco and the board of supervisors, but on this black history month 2013, it is my honor to recognize richmond district activist poet scholar dr. dorothy saruda. mr. randal? (applause) >> good afternoon. my name is bobby randal, and i am dorothy saruda's brother. i'm here to accept the award. it's very interesting because we were both raised in chicago and she chose to go to the right, i chose to go to the left, to the fringe. however, we both landed on our feet and i'm proud here to accept the award for her.

dorothy unfortunately is in chicago attending to her sick sister. unfortunate that she's not here, but very fortunate for my sick sister. however, she is honored and proud and she is humbled to get this award. she sends her special thanks to supervisor mar and all the re dents of the richmond district. and from me to you, happy black history. * re dents (applause) * residents >> next up we have supervisor mark farrell from district 2. >> actually, supervisor cohen, i actually had another institute that's connected to -- >> excuse me. eric mar has another award.

>> thank you, supervisor. [laughter] >> this is another important connection. i learned about black studies at sf state through this institute, and i'd like to share in honoring them with supervisor breed from district 5 who is kpoo or kpoo has a strong history. but i learned about black studies through a lot of leadership. i see that arnold townsend is back there and a number of kpoo community jj parsons, if you could come forward. it's my honor with supervisor breed to acknowledge kpoo radio 89.5. (applause) >> and i'm really hoping that in future airwaves we'll be hearing you're listening to kpoo radio, kpoo 89.5fm in san francisco. we could hear that broadcasting our san francisco board of supervisors meetings like they did historically for many, many

decades in our city. and i'm hoping to work with jj parsons, the general manager, supervisor breed, and others to make sure that we can continue that process where kpoo is a tremendous community institution that also broadcasts our board of supervisors meetings as well. so, poor people's radio as i used to call it, kpoo when i was a broadcaster in '84, learning quite a bit from j.j. parsons, the general manager, but also joe rudolph, i think donald, one of the broadcasters calls kpoo the house of [speaker not understood]. that is fair to many others that have built the station over 42-year history or longer history. i wanted to say that kpoo has always been my family and my mentors, learning about black studies leading to the third world strike at san francisco state and leaders like arnold and terry collins' leadership of kpoo building broader community and unity among other

low-income communities as well to give a stronger voice so kpoo is seen by some as black radio station or african-american radio station. i've always seen it as united people's radio station that really broadcasts the best of our arts and culture and histories of struggle in our neighborhoods as well. i wanted to also say that harrison [speaker not understood] and many of the broadcasters from larry chiu and others that i have trained with over the years in the '80s and donald lacy, they bring such quality broadcasting and the current list of people that are broadcasting from kpoo as a tremendous resource for our neighborhood supporting local and new and emerging artists in our communities to really the best music and culture not only improvisational blues, gospel, salsa from [speaker not understood] to the program, but amazing institution in our community. one of the most diverse radio stations that i can think of.

again, 89.5fm, and i'll just say it's been an honor to be a part of the institution. i look forward to working closely to promoting kpoo's work not only in areas that it reaches, but broadening that expansion as the transmitter issues kind of we work on. accepting the certificate on behalf of kpoo radio is the general manager, j.j. parsons and i do see reverend townsend as well with us. j.j. (applause) >> thank you very much, thank you very much. first i would like to thank you, supervisor mar, for presenting -- for inspiring the wonderful words about kpoo. but on behalf of kpoo radio i'd like to thank you for this honor this afternoon. and i would also like to thank the san francisco board of supervisors, too. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you, president cohen, supervisor mar.

thank you very much, board, for this honor. let me just say to you real quick, been a part of kpoo since the beginning. i actually chaired the meetings that created kpoo as we know it now. and that was 40 some years ago. so, you can tell that i was very young when i chaired those meetings. by the way, supervisor campos, you might want to take into consideration that none of us have ever seen pope bennedict, hagen and carmen chu in the same room at the same time. [laughter] >> i'm just saying, i don't know. but this is a really important institution. kpoo carried the board of supervisors for 30 years free of charge. you didn't have channel 29 at that time. in fact, until kpoo, every board of supervisors meeting, all of your staff would have to come in here and sit and wait, hoping they would be called.

and no one has ever talked about the savings that kpoo brought to the city because they could sit in their office and work and tune in. and if they saw that there was a need for them to be in there, they'd grab their coat or their shoes, their show-off shoes, and walk over here and be available for the board at that time. so, whatever support you give kpoo, it's already been paid for by kpoo. so, don't ever feel -- (applause) >> i'm just keeping it real because this is an institution that we should not lose. and, supervisor breed, i'm grateful. i'm always reluctant to participate in black studies events when i'm asked to speak because it seems -- i mean black history month. we seem to do a great thing in february and then in this town african americans are kind of forgotten about for the next 11 months. (applause)

>> that's why about 60,000 of them can leave the city and nobody notices. (applause) >> so, and it's been institutions like kpoo who have stood against the tide of folk leaving, who have supported folk. we have had many people, many of them who are famous now, have been through kpoo and learning. sure, eric mar is a son of kpoo, and i look at him as a nephew. and like most sons and nephews, he goes astray every now and then. [laughter] >> but, no, eric was delightful as a young skinny kid who showed up one day and said he wanted to learn radio, and he did. so, thank you very much. we really appreciate it. don't forget about kpoo when this event is over. thank you. (applause)

>> our next presentation will be made by supervisor mark farrell. >> thank you, supervisor cohen. colleagues, members of the public, today i have the great honor of recognizing one of my good friends and someone that is just have incredible amount of admiration for. and it's one of my favorite constituents in district 2 and that's michael carr. michael, come on up. michael is joined by his wife christine here who is holding the camera up high along with margo. colleagues, michael was born in germany and has worked across the world in eastern central europe, was down in atlanta, houston, and chicago. he graduated from the university of august seta,

1982, b.a. in economics. he is a san francisco resident now. we are all very proud to call him a san francisco resident. has had a very long and very distinguished career. working for delta airlines, bp, and i think most importantly as i've gotten to know michael, it's been a real advocate and long-time dedication for nonprofit work here in san francisco. that's something, michael, i admire so much about you. michael is now the secretary of the board of directors of the olympic [speaker not understood] foundation which does an incredible amount of good work in our city. provides grants to various nonprofit groups for sports, under served children throughout our city. michael is also a member of the board of governors commonwealth club which is as we know the nation's longest and oldest public affairs forum. has 400 events annually, 16,000 members. more recently, as we start to work on our neighborhood school

yards project, there was really one couple to be quite honest with you, but also one person we were hoping would really play a leading role, and that's michael. and serving as a project manager for that. as we continue to open up more urban space for children, families to play here in san francisco, by opening up our public school yards on the weekend throughout the city, michael as well as christine is helped managing not only the funds we get through the ptas, but also managing the grant program for our activities for our schools and our kids. to promote really good health and activity on the weekends. * you know, michael has really had a big presence in our community. we have so many mutual, very, very good friends together. but really, i think your dedication, michael, to this project, i think what i admire so much about you is your dedication just generically to our community in san francisco and everything that you do, and you do it to selflessly. it comes so naturally. and we are all better for