therefore, i'm calling on you to find out exactly how much we lost from the libor fraud and take legal action to get our money back for san francisco. if it takes an extra hour on the computer, it is your job to investigate. as a mother with a daughter entering public high school this fall, i also want you to make sure our schools and other public entities investigate their losses and get that money back. again, i say, whether it's five cents or five million, we want our money back. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. elizabeth -- vice president of politics for sau local 21 and i work at the tenderloin clinic. over the last six years we have been sustaining terrible budget cuts. you're the budget committee. you will be looking at this again. we have sustained terrible cuts to rec and park services,

children sss, homeless services, muni routes, bus routes, having cut healthcare, and health clinics have emerged and mental health have almost been decimated. in terms of workers their paychecks have been cut, we've restructured pension payments to deal with the losses. currently, our union is being attacked. it's 45 classifications are being asked to take wage cuts. and these are classifications that are mostly held by women and people of color. we were here talking to you before about this. workers haven't blamed, services have been blamed. we've been cut and it hasn't fixed the problem. witbut here we have in front ofs the people who caused the crisis and it's time we have to go after them. we have to go after the people who caused this crisis. we have to look at what is the structure of public debt. we know that interest rates can

be renegotiated. we always -- you always look at our side of the house as if we're the negotiable side but the public debt isn't the negotiable side. we need to go back to the people who hold our public debt, hold them accountable, renegotiate to a fair level. we did with the asian art museum. we got the money they owed us back. we have renegotiated some of those fo swaps. because they know that they're unfair and they've renegotiated them other places, in oakland, our union has joined with religious leaders and with other community organizations to go after the sachs swap. there is unanimous council went after goldman sachs for the swap deal. this is something being done throughout the bay area, throughout california and throughout the country. we need to lead on this. it's our obligation. it's our obligation as financial leaders. it is our obligation as civic leaders. and, you know, we're coming into

a budget season where we're being asked to cut again. i would actually, instead of having to be in front of here for the next several months what are we going to cut, what are we not going to cut, what services are we going to cut, i would much rather join together and look at the public debt and go after the people who can actually solve this problem. thank you 16r7b8g9sz thank you very much. next speaker. i will call more speakers. rebecca more row, ber neta adolf, david fleming, christy aceem, chris daly, brenda baros. and seanie zin. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is jesse mitchell. i'm an acce member, action committee for community empowerment and a resident of district 11. i've lived in san francisco for

many years and am frustrated by recent cuts to violates services and increased fees on residents. when i learned that the banks have been cheating us out of our tax dollars i felt we needed to prosecute them and demand they return the money. as a small business owner in it san francisco, i understand the importance of honest financial practices. once again, major international financial institutions have shown that they can't be trusted. we must hold them accountable for every penny they cheated from us, to speak from the heart here. my first encounter with financial bullying was in junior high school. and it was about my lunch money. and i didn't really know what to do about it then. but i'm getting a similar feeling here that no one -- people are seeking a way to find out what to do about this financial bullying and i wholeheartedly encourage you to get every nickel back. we woke up recently to parking

meters on sundays. so somebody could get $2 million more a year. well we've already talked about more than that, as a potential gain. so i think the impact of a little bit of money goes a long ways here. and thank you very much. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> hello, committee. ross rhodes, a member of ais, and i don't have a paper to read off. i'm going to talk from the heart. you know, i appreciate what you guys are sitting here, trying to do. and i really think a lot of you, avalos, for stepping up, and really speaking out and doing what you're doing. that's why one reason, even though you're not a supervisor in my district i got out to get you reelected. so i commend you on this. but i'd like to say that, you

know, this city is cash-strapped, and we have these bankers and libor and the rest making these dollars off of us. and we're here losing our programs that are essential to the city. our aids programs, our youth programs, our park programs, all have to do with your constituents in each district. and when we're cash-strapped the way we are and we see there is money out there that has been taken from us we can see in the analysis that every department here in the city was, you know, hit by this. we can't take that attitude of wait and see. we have to step up and be leaders. and that's why we voted for some of the people that have won their reelections, because we looked at them as leaders. and it tells you that you don't have to have money to be a supervisor. and eric mar, you can -- to that

because it was people power. it was people that seen the leadership in the individual and that's what made us come out and vote, and made us come out and walk the streets, even though he wasn't in our district, but he was a leader. and that goes for other supervisors that are in here. when you show leadership, you get people to really see and enhance what you can do for your community and your city. i'm a native san franciscan and i'd like to say that i'd like you to continue and go after these banks, the -- that's holding this money. do it and bring it back to the city, and see how we grow, inner city-wise. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. if you've heard your name called, if you could please line up by the windows, the tv over there, that would be great. >> my name is ber neta adolf,

i'm a member of aids. i'm also a resident of ditrict 11, and here in support of supervisor avalos. i'm also here to call on the board of supervisors and the city staff to recoup our money. i'm a retiree, a public employees retiree. and our retiree system has lost money. also, we've always had a system that was self-sufficient. but somehow i'm told that the city had to step in. so when i hear that, you know, gains and losses balance out, that's not good. because a loss is a loss. and i think we need to -- we need to fight for every penny that was lost. because these banks manipulate the rates, and we need our money back. so i'm just calling on you to do what's right. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please.

>> good afternoon. my name is david fleming, work with -- i'm a san francisco rep and work at san francisco general hospital as a registered nurse. born and raised in san francisco and worked for the city of san francisco for the last 20 years. since 2009 we have experienced multiple cuts in san francisco both in public healthcare and other services. as we look at what's going on with the financial system and the money they've taken out from us i urge the board of supervisors to investigate any form of fraud or any pleens by which we can recoup money taken from the city. it's a great city and we need to fund our services and not allow the banks to take money away from us ever again. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. >> i'm rebecca morrow, the public health nurse and i live in district 5. i think about this kind of in general terms, in family terms.

when you have small children, and they have done something inappropriate, they have a time out. when you have a kid in high school, and they're not making the grade, they're acting up, they're breaking the rules, their report cards, their sat scores and there are consequences for what they do. if you're an adult and u a dui and you hit somebody you don't just pay the fine but you need to be accountable to the family of the person you killed. what i'm seeing with the vague response from the city attorney's office is well we're going to kind of look at things. we need to follow through. we need to go forward. i'm really sort of disappointed that san francisco wasn't leading the way on this and that we're waiting to see if we want to join someone else. we've seen too many service cuts. if u been to a hearing and heard these people, whose lives depend on a program that are just windd

off the map it's heart breaking. now is the time to act. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker. >> my name is christy, and i'm a resident of bernal heights. i'm here to ask the supervisors to do everything they can to recover any money the city might have lost, due to the libor scandal or any other shenanigan the banks might have pulled off in the recent time period. we've seen an -- horrific financial crisis leading into a recession, based on fraud, first of all, it was fraud, high cost -- based on high cost predatory lending. that in turn was bundled into fraudulent mortgage-backed securities. there's been fraud at every step of the way and thus far we've seen hardly any accountability

against the banks. and it's really time, now, we have this opportunity to investigate any fraudulent lending at the local municipal level, and to recover that. it seems that a good bit of this money was perhaps in the interest rate swaps at the airport. i'm sure there are other areas where that has happened, and this is based on maybe those interest rate swaps help bring -- provide insurance, and stability, but nonetheless, there were losses there because it was based against a much lower -- the banks actually were based -- had a much lower rate. so i think there's opportunity there if we do study, that we can see that there are a -- a lot of money has been lost and it's really time for the city to take a stand, because it's

really at the local level where we can see -- finally have some accountability, some restitution, and we're only asking for what has been lost, what has been documented in our losses. we're not asking for compensation or other kinds of restitution. so i do hope you'll take action there. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> hello. i'm sherry zin from sciu1021. a long time ago when i was a little girl my grand papa told me don't loan people money because you're not a bank, you know. i still believe in that. i'm 51 years old today. so i find it pretty unjust when, you know, cities and counties, or even banks treat me as though

i am a bank. one of the supervisors, sean elsbernd came to the union hall with all of the retirement and everything, when it was thought to be in crisis and drew all this stuff all over the walls and everything, and how we needed to come through, and we needed to help out this crisis and everything. to the point that the city-county helped make this a law for us to pay. now, it's presented in our faces where we've been horribly, horribly lied to about our retirement system, and what was being done with the money. not only do i think it's your duty to research this area, and get this money back for us, but if you don't, i think it's a big shame on you. i love working for the city-county of san francisco. but to me, this is -- it's a huge slap in the face if we do not take care of this.

it only says to the rest of the world that, you know, we're a city that doesn't have any mocksy, and it's, you know what, we're a powerhouse. we're san francisco. we need to not see what other places are doing. we need to go out there and lead this, and say this is what happened to our citizens of san francisco, and we will not stand up for that behavior. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> hello. my name is brenda baros. i'm a -- member out in san francisco general hospital and i've been before you guys a lot of times before. and everybody knows how i feel about us having to pay more money towards our pension. and when i hear about things like this, it infuriates many of the city employees because, you know, what we were told, and what actually happened were two

different things. so we're still stuck paying all this money. so what we want to say to you is we hope that you guys will all get together and make sure that everybody, not just us, is paying their fair share. if the banks are ripping off money from the city, from our pension plan, which caused it to be in problems, abilityd then you have to come to us to get more money to cover the problems, then it needs to be fixed. and we insist upon that. because the city cannot come to us for more money, until you collect all the money that you haven't collected already. i know even for healthy san francisco, they're still not collecting all the money from the businesses. i mean where does it end. when do those other people have to pay. you hold us accountable all the time. but when you going to hold all those people accountable too. so we're hoping that you do that. i'm going to be doing everything i can to make sure that the banks don't get away with this.

i mean they've gotten away with it. too many of my coworkers have lost their homes behind those loans that they got, that they shouldn't have got. it's just outrageous that they keep getting away with this. the richest of the rich keep screwing the regular person. is we hope you stand up for the regular people and not the banks. and not the big businesses. we need somebody to stand up for us. so i really hope you do this. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i'm thanking you for your hearing. my name is ion hado, a resident of glenn park. i own a rental property. first blow, in 2008, generally regarded as due to malfeasance by the financial institutions, an economic collapse occurred

and many of us, millions of us, possibly some of you, were stripped of your wealth. i am in jeopardy of losing my home, the rental property, due to non-payment for my mortgage. thankfully due to ace, i'm a member of the alliance of californians for community empowerment, that hasn't happened, but it continues to be a risk. second blow, the -- we're learning the financial institutions conducted their businesses with municipalities in the same manner as they conducted their businesses with individuals. i learned recently about a program whereby money was provided to elderly people who had not been paying for the property tax. i'm in that situation.

i was informed, although i might be eligible, the fund has been eliminated. i believe it's a california program, and california doesn't have money for the program. third blow, now that i have not been paying for my property tax, i'm impacting san francisco's financial situation. meanwhile, so i understand, we all, the american public, are subsidizing the low interest rates at the benefit of the financial institutions. in my regard, we are either part of the problem, or we're part of the solution. i'm requesting of san francisco that it act to communicate to the financial institutions that

say there are consequences to their behaviors. i'm requesting if san francisco has lost money, however much, that you ask for its return. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much. i'm going to call a couple more cards before the next speaker. annie sims, elliott cats, and ian hadel. >> i'm elliott cats. i don't know what happened to the other person. 35 years ago, i founded an organization here in san francisco that currently produces the ethnic dance festival with the hotel tax fund. in those days, i was fighting for the cultures of the minorities. there was a very strong effort to keep the ethnic minorities down by hotel tax fund giving all their money to the, in

quotes, white cultures. that has been balanced out. now i see a similar kind of situation happening with the way the banks are treating the minorities, taking advantage of them and so forth. last week, i sat here and i saw people literally crying with tears in their eyes, people with hiv, people with the catholic charities of america, pleading, don't cut back their budgets, their lives depending on it. i'm here to basically say that you have an obligation for -- not to turn your backs on people in need. and if there is an opportunity here to have additional funds, you should not just simply say oh, we don't want to be bothered, let's wait and see. there's too much at stake here. the lives of people are at stake. the homes of people are at stake.

the health of our children, the education of our children. so, please, stand behind your obligation. that's why you were voted in. people trusted you. please don't turn your back on them. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon. my name's annie, and i'm a member of seiu 2021 and a city worker for -- i'm disappointed the city took so long to notice this problem which have exist since 2007, and i have been sacrificed because as a city employee, i have been doing -- give taxes since 2007 and at that time my minor son that was in high school, second year into a private high school because of this crisis that the banks created, now i have to give back to the city, i have no choice

but to pull my son out from a private school because he's achieved scholarship was cut due to -- in order deficit. so at least if we're doing something i'm really wishing and hoamg that san francisco will take ownership and leadership of this project, and be the leader to -- up with other counties. so hopefully we'll get down to this and find out how much was due back to the city. because i'm tired of the continuing to pay back as i have nothing to give back to the city anymore. and also, want to know that the bank not double dipping. they have been triple dipping us. first is the interest from the loan, the swap. secondly as the foreclosers and also the bank has been charging us penalties for being late, and also the increasing our

interest, to -- interest rate and also late fee. so the banks are double dipping us for too many years. it is time to put a stop to it and get back what is due back to us. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. i recognize former supervisor chris daly. >> thank you, supervisors. my name is chris daly, i'm the political director of sciu local and a vested san francisco employee retirement system. when i was sitting here, hearing from that there were losses due to the libor fraud in the retirement system i couldn't help to think back all those times that i sat over there, listening to chamber of commerce talking points about how public pensions are breaking the bank. today, we definitively heard it's the other way around, it's actually the banks that have

broken the san francisco retirement system. you'll have to excuse me if i seem a bit incredulous, after a city presentation that was pretty much devoid of resolve to aggressively pursue the city's losses, due to bank fraud. but if you wade through the minutia of staff presentation you basically come out with this. the city lost millions of dollars, whether it be the airport, the retirement system, you know, the general fund investment pool, various places. san francisco lost millions of dollars due to libor fraud. and anything other than an aggressive response to get every nickel of that back is not worthy of the city and county of san francisco. colleagues, we were all here one month ago today to discuss the

city's efforts to cut wages for some of the city's lowest paid job classes, classes disproportion eely occupied by men and people of color. i think that we thoroughly addressed that issue a month ago, with the exception of the amount of city resources, staff time, and expenditures to pursue those cuts. and i'm talking about multiple staff at dhr, calling jurisdictions all over the region to get data on 45 classes, obviously discussions with the mayor's office, legal strategies in the city attorney's office, fighting, you know, the big, you know, sciu purple union, and to dut these wages. -- cut these wages. all of these resources and do you know what the san francisco examiner reported as the savings of the city's proposal to cut those 45 classifications was over the next two years?

$76,000. the city will save by going after some of the lowest paid workers in san francisco, and mickey and team had it together. they spent huge amount of resources. now we have a situation where we have millions of dollars in losses, due to bank fraud. and the city's presentation -- >> supervisor avalos: continue. >> thank you, supervisors. i appreciate it, supervisor avalos. you came here prepared, and have brought into the light a subject matter that is relatively complicated, but i think you presented it in a way that's very popular and easy to understand. so i thank you for your leadership on that. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. and we'll thank colbar for that. any other member of the public who would like to comment? please come forward.

>> just want to say -- my name is jurisa. i used to work at san francisco community college. i worked there 24 years. i was the lead custodian. ima proud custodian. imstill able to work but i had to leave because i could no longer do four, five buildings, you know, where the people are gone, you know, they've died or something's happened to them and they've not been replaced, staff has not been replaced. yes i know the college has had its fair share of problems. but the workers are still working. they're still doing their duties. and you know, mr. avalos, i tell you, we love you. we thought you were the best fit. and i'm usually never wrong. i'm glad that you are still what we thought you were. you know, i did a lot of walking. i've walked for everybody in

here at some point. walking the neighborhoods, being in it bayview, wherever. i had to move to oakland because i couldn't live here. i can't afford it. i got a one bedroom apartment. i forsake that, trying to have a home, because that wasn't going to work out. but you need to know that you can't serve two masters. you will either help one or you'll do the other. you can't do both. and there are people who deserve to, you know -- even if you can't get back but five cents or whatever it is you've got to get we need to look out for one another. that's why we were all put here. this is a town that, you know, is well advanced in terms of being diverse. you know, it's because we all are put here to help one another. we're not here to just be -- you know, just talking and looking around. and, you know, i guess since i moved to oakland i feel like, as the kids would say, iee