>> and have been actually in many films. i wish i had it set up before hand [speaker not understood], but you were actually cute when you were a kid. you were in a disney film. you also were in jim cramer of the giant peach or [speaker not understood] robin williams movie. i haven't seen it yet. i'm going to make sure i see them later on today. congratulations on everything you've done. i'm super proud of your work and i look forward to what you do at sf rising. i know the empowerment model you have brought to the youth commission will be exceptional in this new setting and look forward to working with you. >> thank you for el us that, supervisor avalos. i have the pictures of mario as a young child actor on my computer right now. [laughter] ~ >> supervisor campos. >> yeah, mario, i don't know if i should be asking for your autograph or if i should commenting on your accomplishments. not many people can say, by the way, that they work under

francis [speaker not understood], so that's pretty, pretty impressive. you know, i don't want to repeat what's been said. i simply want to say for my own personal experience, i've had the opportunity to work with many, many city staffers and i just think that you are an incredible individual and you are really top notch in term of how you have performed your duties. for me specifically in my office, working with the youth commission has been just such a full filling experience. and many of the policies that we have worked on, our policies where we worked so closely with you as a commission, some of those are issues that were brought to us by you and the commission. and there are so many examples where you have empowered youth to believe in themselves and to really make a difference in the

world, whether it's the undocumented youth policy where the youth commission was instrumental, to the free muni for youth program which just started a few days ago, to the historic first meeting between the youth commission and the police commission that for the first time in this chamber had police officers and young people talking to each other, listening to each other. you helped to make that happen. and, you know, i know that this is just the beginning, that there's a lot more that you will accomplish. and i look forward to seeing that because i know that the city is very lucky to have someone of your talent and dedication and passion living here and involved in san francisco. and i know this is not a good-bye, and i look forward to the next phase in your brilliant career. >> supervisor wiener.

>> thank you. well, mario, we're going to definitely miss you, although obviously you're not going to be going far. you know, the way i got to know you or we got to know each other, i think the most was through the free muni for youth debate and we were obviously on opposite sides of that debate. [speaker not understood]. we were obviously on opposite sides of that debate and that was difficult debate. and i know you were very, very passionate about the proposal and i had my own strong view. and the one thing that always struck me about you is that you, whatever the disagreement, you were always just so professional and kind and courteous and very persistent in pushing what you thought was right.

but just incredibly professional. i always really appreciated that. i'll tell you and this is i guess advice to a lot of different advocates that engaging with someone you disagree with in a professional and productive way is usually more effective than some of the other ways that people in this building sometimes engage when they have disagreements. and, so, i think it speaks volumes that your effectiveness and your passion as an advocate, but also you as a person. and, so, i also saw through my own appointee to the youth commission, a high school student, just saw how you mentored the members of the commission because some of them are quite young and really, need a lot of help and guidance and you were always there to provide that. that didn't go unnoticed. congratulations and best of luck in your new endeavor. >> president chiu, i just

wanted to add -- >> supervisor mar. >> -- a few points. mario goes way back with peter water born. aside from child acting i hear a lot of stories about you from your younger days as well, but they're really great stories about [laughter] >> -- in some ways an example about how you're going to be such a great person for sf rising. i know when we've had challenges with district 1, richmond district youth commissioners, you really mentored them and tried to support them but i also appreciated your approach to expressing at times concerns, but also being so supportive of the young people. i think you're a great community organizer because you understand that social change happens, not just from inside this building, but it really happens with one foot in and one foot out. and i think that you're going to continue that approach. and in organizing, you really give information and education to young people, but also in understanding about how power

operates in a building like this really supporting their leadership and stepping back when you need to, but also really promoting young people to speak for themselves and to empower themselves as well. as supervisor avalos and others said, i think you bring a sense of community organizing and movement building to whatever you do. and i'm going to miss you on the inside of this building, but it will be wonderful to work with you on the outside. but thank you so much for empowering so many young people. and i think for the youth and the families and the diverse communities that you'll be working with, good luck. and i hope to see you even more in the future. so, thank you, mario. >> thank you. >> supervisor yee. >> yes, thank you. mario, congratulations and best wishes in your next sort of period in your life. i have to say that through the years i received a lot of compliments about you. and i think the ultimate compliments have been really from the youth commissioners

themselves that i've run into through the years. and they give you the highest praise. and when they do that, i know you're doing something right. so, thank you very much for serving our city. >> and our final speaker for today, supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much, mario. i remember you were one of the first department heads that i met with when i first came to city hall. and i share a very special place in my heart about the youth commission. i was part of the mayor's youth forum which was a predecessor to the youth commission and realized the impact that you have on a daily basis on the young people's lives that are going to be the future leaders of san francisco. and you yourself are an amazing organizer and an amazing human being and i look forward to continuing to work with you. thank you. >> actually, mario, one more speaker, and that would be our good clerk. >> thank you, mr. president. mr. yudidia, i want to four being part of my management team, specifically for the

youth commission, the efforts that you coordinated have been triumphant whether it's been your management of the staff in the department, your hiring, your administration in the division, and the very successful high profile projects that you and the commission and your team have worked on. but your most important work, as you heard today, is your youth leadership development with the commissioners. you've actually changed lives. your investment in the commissioners, their morale, established your work as someone that they could count on. and you've gained a lot of friends here at the board. i'm sure we'll see you soon. i want to also thank you for mentoring fimi [speaker not understood] the next director for the youth commission. i know she's going to fill your boots as the boots on the ground successfully and you'll leave knowing that the foundation that you poured here at the youth commission will move on, it will endure. want to congratulate you on your negate challenge.

we will miss you, but thank you very much for all of your service to the city and city and county. thank you. ~ >> and with that, mario. >> wow, thank you so much. what an honor, supervisor kim, honorable members of the board. you know, under charter section 4.123, the youth commission is under the jurisdiction of the board and your 11 offices and that of the mayor are my boss, were my boss for three years and seven months, so, thank you. and i know that this is an honor that is not just an honor for me but it really is an honor for this curious institution, the youth commission which, you know, i would argue and i don't think it takes too much theoretical imagination to say that the youth commission is a constituentively and i would say democratic institution, right? what a radical notion that by virtue of being 12 to 23 years old, not because of a

professional degree, not because of professional experience, but by virtue of this fact, and the desire of the supervisor and the mayor, you can serve as a policy advisor. now, we also definitely do a lot of training, right, but we do tons of training. that is part of the -- pardon me -- the cement that i hope i poured at the youth commission, that strong knowledge of the budget, legislative, and the myriad executive processes really can, with experiencial intelligence, lead to some positive policy change and hopefully some personal transformational change, too. you know, charter section 4.124 charges advising youth on unmet need, where i'm going san francisco [speaker not understood] alliance, [speaker not understood], they work with low-income communities of color. unmet needs will be front and center all day every day. and, so, to the city staff with

whom i worked, to you and all of your offices, to the most incredible mentor in clerk of the board angela i could have hoped for, to my parents who are here, a social worker and a man with a degree in public health, to peter lyle born, my next door neighbor growing up who got me this job straight up, to the youth commissioners and my colleagues. so, president of the youth commission mia shackle ford is here. mia, the current director [speaker not understood] is here. none of what you spoke so willingly about would have happened without this young people and without my colleagues. thanks. (applause)

>> thank you, mario yudidia. (applause) >> our final hep commendation of the day will be provided by district 9, supervisor david campos. >> thank you.

thank you very much, mr. president. wow, i have to say that it's been a pretty impressive group of honorees today. and to continue in that tradition, it is my great honor to call upon charles galt man to come up. and if i can also ask his family and as well as the executive director of the office of citizens complaints to please come forward. ~ it is truly, truly remarkable to see some incredible people who are about to retire from the city. we saw david chan and now charles galt man. i had the honor to first get to know mr. gault man when i was on the san francisco police commission. ~ and had an opportunity to work with him during the time that he was serving, and serves to this day, as the chief investigator for the office of

citizens he complaints. and before i ask mr. goldman to speak, i do want to also give the executive director at occ an opportunity to say a few words. ~ but let me tell you a little bit about charles and the kind of amazing person that he has been and why we're so lucky that we have had him serving the city at occ. charles attended local public schools, aptos middle kayo and mar borrow heights school where he graduatesed in 1966. in 1969 he what drafted into the u.s. army, trained as military police as a dog handler. and after serving in vietnam for 11 months he was honorably discharged and returned to san francisco in 1971. he attended san francisco state where he majored in journalism and government with the aspiration of becoming a lawyer. and from 1972 to 1974 charles was a dog trainer working with

visually impaired persons as guide dogs for the blind. so, you really have had many interesting careers. from 1975 through 1983 he worked with the california department of veterans affairs and the veterans administration as an advocate for veterans that received other than honorable discharge. he also represented combat veterans suffering from ptsd. from 1988 through the present, charles gault man has serve the city and county of san francisco as a dedicated employee of the office of citizen complaints. ~ he has risen at that office from a line investigator to a senior investigator to now retiring as the chief investigator for the office of citizen complaints, a position that he has held for eight years. i can tell you this, that charles is one of the key people that has made civility

and oversight in our police department here in san francisco. he is recognized nationally and internationally as a subject matter oversight in the field of law enforcement. he has been the principal trainer of civilian oversight and accountability of law enforcement at the san francisco police department training academy for the last 14 years. he has been the primary responder for the office of citizen complaints to officer involved shootings and critical incidents within the city and county of san francisco. in other words, the most difficult cases involveding the occ go to the best person you have and that's charles. for 35 years charles has been married to his colleague sweetheart kathleen king. he and kathleen have raised two children, alex and wade king gault man both of whom are college graduates. alexis holds a master's degree and wade has a bachelor's degree in psychology. before i turn it over to you, charles, i want to give joyce

dixon the executive director of office of citizen complaints an opportunity to say a few words. ~ dix >> thank you very much, supervisor campos, and members of the board of supervisors. well, supervisor campos, you have said so much about chief investigator charles gall man who has served the office of citizen complaints ~ tirelessly. and when i think of words to describe charles gall man, i think of integrity, objectivity, and a commitment to get the job done. as you've pointed out in charles gall man's biography, his works has covered the gamut. he has gotten up in the middle of the night many times to respond to officer-involved shooting, often beating many members of the san francisco police department to the scene

of these critical incidents. and with that in mind, i'd also like to thank cathy, charles' partner of so many years, who has supported charles in his tireless commitment to follow the evidence, to get to the truth of the matter. and charles's objectivity was really reflected in the number of people from the san francisco police department and the command staff who attended charles' retirement party last week. and when they spoke about charles, and even though some time the occ is thought of as that other department where there could be conflicts between the police department and our office, the members of the command staff said that chief investigator gall man always operated with integrity. and, so, i'm taking this

opportunity again to publicly thank charles for his commitment to the goal, to the mission of the office of citizen complaint to promptly, impartially, and fairly investigate civilian complaints of police misconduct. thank you. (applause) >> before i turn it over to mr. gall man, i also want to recognize our chief of police. and again, it's a testament to mr. gall man as he's about to retire, we have our chief and deputy chief present. >> we couldn't leave because it's charles. so, 15 years, we've been together many, many nights. i, too, want to thank his wife for allowing him to be the investigator that he's been. he is so well regarded by all the officers. and these are the officers that have -- that are being

investigated by him. so, i mean, classy, fair, objective, getting to the truth of the matter as director hix said was what he was always about. and that's all a police officer ever asks for, is just -- we just want somebody to be fair. and charles has always been that guy. so, we will be forever grateful. we hope you can find somebody close because there's nobody that's going to be like this. we wish you all the best and thank you for 15 years of being fair. >> thank you, chief. (applause) >> mr. gall man, it is our honor to have you in this chamber. the floor is yours. >> david, i'm truly humbled by the kind words that you've said, director said, and chief has said. i just tried to be the best person i can be. i have respect for the great citizens of this city and county. you've allowed me to raise my children and for my wife and i

to have a relatively good life. i'm a bernal heights resident. that's where i see david sometimes at safeway. folks, i thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to serve you. and, chief, i wish you the best. god bless the citizens of the city and county of san francisco, san francisco police department, and those folks who serve to protect and defend us in our military. thank you so much. (applause)

>> thank you, and congratulations. colleagues, that concludes our commendations for today. why don't we go back to roll call and starting with supervisor farrell, supervisor farrell, you are finished with roll call. madam clerk, do you want to call on the next supervisor? >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor kim. >> thank you. today i am introducing the first in a series of ordinance that will finally kickoff the creation of two new parks in district 6 which as many of you noaa long with district 3 has the least amount of public open space per resident in the entire city. it's a result of organizing efforts that began over 12 years ago and i'm excited to finally see this project realized. because of organizing it began so long ago i thought it would be helpful to provide some historical context to understand the significance of this project to our residents in the market and the cop in, valencia, and stevenson neighborhood.

between 2000 and 2005 many of our residents initially united to halt the rebuild of the freeway ramp. and when they failed in doing that they mobilize today get themselves onto the central freeway highway advisory committee and lobbied for $5 million for the project itself to be spent within the immediate area. thousands of meetings later, the cac was able to come up with a plan for the funds and the transportation authority initiated the central freeway replacement and [speaker not understood] project study of 2005 which sought to identify and prioritize potential projects that would help improve the surrounding neighborhoods impacted by the new central freeway project. the proposed improvements developed in partnership with the community are collectively named the south of market west improvement project and will include a skate park and a dog park for this neighborhood. based on what we felt the recreation needs of the city and the neighborhood were, both parks are going to be built on the caltrans right-of-way

parcels underneath the central freeway between valencia and otis street in order to authorize the city to build and operate and maintain the sites and facilities, our office has been working with the mayor's office to negotiate a final lease agreement with caltrans. today's ordinance is an amendment to our park code just to define these right-of-way parcels as parks and also authorizing our pd's park patrol to patrol the leased area. it's really exciting to see these designs finally come through and to know that they're going to be recreational opportunities under the freeway similar to actually another part of our district, the south beach area where we have built basketball courts, volleyball courts and dog runs under the 2 80 freeway and making use of this normally dead area to be open space that enlivens the neighborhood and fulfill needs of our residents. i just want to give special recognition to robin havens, the former president of the mccoppin neighborhood

association now who works at the mayor's office of economic development for all of her work on this plan. and also recognize susan parker and lynn valente members of the mccoppin neighborhood association and were persistently tenacious ensuring this happened. thises was more complicated than we thought it might be and i want to recognize kelly pressler who is here, ken rich, [speaker not understood], we had multiple agencies to work with and that always makes things complicated but i'm glad we were able to secure the funding that was needed in order to pay for the lease which actually had to match its current value and it's currently a parking lotv so, replacing this parking lot with open space i think is a huge victory for this neighborhood and also for the market octavia area plan. and lastly, i just want to recognize sunny who attended countless meetings in the neighborhood working to happen. [speaker not understood]

lastly i want to recognize ~ -- i'm not sure if folks have seen the updates ayethctiontioner to their phones or the news, hugo chavez the president of convenient swale a did pass away today after his long battle with can certificatev he is 58 years old ~ and was the president of venezuela for the past 14 years and has been an incredible figure. depending on your perspective of his politics, but is someone i think is widely revered his country he has done around the most vulnerable. ~ and so, i did not prepare an in memoriam, but i thought just to recognize the passing of a leader in our world. and the rest i'll submit. >> thank you, supervisor kim. supervisor mar. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i'm introducing a resolution today that addresses a dire crisis for san francisco's city college and what they face this year with

their accreditation process. and as we look forward also to a hearing that will be coming up later this month at the board. my resolution that i urge support for would help us pass assembly bill 11 99 authored by assemblyman paul fong, but also sponsored by assemblyman bill ting and tom ammiano as well. city college, as you know, serves one in 10 san franciscans. it has one of our top nursing programs in the state and half of our public school graduates in san francisco start college in higher education there. it also is critical for the future of our work force in san francisco as it trains adult workers and gives them new skills that better their lives and to get better jobs. as we work together to protect and strengthen city college, this resolution is really important in allowing the city college to move forward with more flexibility in its funding. the sanctions that may be

placed against city college by the accrediting agency really is being promoted in many ways from efforts that are harmful to this institution and the many generations that have fought for the institution. i wanted to also say that the sanctions placed against city college has led to suffering of a drop of enrollment which in turn hurts its ability to fund its program. so, this legislation that i'm urging you to support would help create a smoothing formula for enrollment related losses for any community college, not just san francisco, but other institutions throughout the state that are under severe sanction from the accreditation agencies and are also suffering from a dramatic enrollment decline. supporting this bill is one step in helping city college. we need to do much more. i hope with the hearing we will hold we can look at strategies how our city can be more supportive of our city college system.

i urge you as you probably are already doing, to talk to students and teachers and faculty members and also others in the administration as well so that we can do our best to support city college in this dire time. also today is a critical day. i know that international women's day comes on friday, but at the california supreme court oral arguments began today on the murder convictions of richmond district resident claire joyce tempanco. she was the victim of killing -- a domestic violence killing october 22. a [speaker not understood] struggled to achieve justice for her children. she was killed in front of her young children 13 years ago after a major failing of our criminal justice system which failed to protect her from her batterer and abuser and ex-boyfriend. i know that many women's groups from gabrielle a to san francisco women against rape to