reimbursement rates for certain nursing facilities. nursing facilities have been facing reduced medi-cal reimbursement rates in the last few years and this could severely limit the breadth and scope of services that are offered in san francisco including services by the laguna honda hospital and rehabilitation center as well as the jewish home in san francisco which provide post-acute care and community reintegration services for many san francisco residents. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor cohen. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you very much. i have one in memoriam today that i'd like to submit for this body to consider. this is an in memoriam of robert chris man. robert chris man was born in 1938 and is the founding publisher and recently retired editor in chief of the black scholar. he died on march 10, 2013 after a lengthy illness in his home in san francisco.

mr. chris man and his family moved to the bay area in the 1950s where he immediately became involved in the lively and diverse cultural scene of our city. he entered into u.c. berkeley english department to study literature and quickly discovered the works of frederic douglas, w.e.dubois. [speaker not understood]. the black scholar journal is devote today black studies and research and serves as an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to unite activists and academic intellectuals in common advocacy for the needs of the black community. more than 200 issues later, the journal is still publishing and has become the leading independent journal of african americans intellectual inquiry and has shaped many

universities' ethnic studies african-american studies including women's program including those of san francisco state university. mr. chris man was not only a scholar and a journalist, but an accomplished writer and poet. his works gained recognition from the credit and other poets including alice walker. he published three volumes of poetry in numerous books. mr. chris man was a tremendous advocate for the african-american community and his journal has inspired thousands of students to find reflections, strength, activism and solidarity and the history and continued efforts in the african-american community. he survived by his brother philip and his daughter laura. and then i have one more brief remarks. i'm also saddened by the passing of former berkeley city councilmember -- city council person ma dell shirk. she passed away recently at the ripe old age of 100 years old. ma dell was truly the court

godmother to be quoting [speaker not understood] godmother of east bay politics. the former city of berkeley vice mayor and [speaker not understood] was born and raised in jefferson arkansas as the granddaughter of slaves, she was passionate about justice and civil rights. during her tenure as the berkeley elected official she was instrumental in creating multiple city commissions including the berkeley commission on labor. when she retired she was 92 years old. she was the oldest elected official in california at that time. in 2007 berkeley city council renamed city hall in her honor. ma dell was commit today educating seniors and the entire community on the benefits of healthy living. she loved shopping for fruits and vegetables and you can often find her cooking nutritious meals at the west berkeley senior center. she leaves behind a tremendous legacy of over 70 years of public service and she's inspired countless others to do the same, including myself. as an elected legislator -- as

elected legislators i think we can uniquely identify with this tremendous woman. this is a loss to the entire bay area and my thoughts are with her and her family. thank you. and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor cohenedthv supervisor farrell. supervisor kim. ~. supervisor mar. >> thank you. colleagues, today in light of the devastating events at the boston marathon, i'm calling for a hearing on how our city is prepared to prevent similar occurrences from happening here at our numerous marathons, large open public events, and other civic activities. as you're aware, san francisco is host to dozens of world class events, some large scale concerts in golden gate park, yacht races. many of these events occur in district 1, but all of our districts are impacted by some way. the purpose of the hearing is to ensure that our residents -- to ensure our residents that we

have adequate safety and emergency response measures in place and plan as well, and to allay any fears that may have arisen as a result of the bombings in boston. and again, condolances and -- condolances to the families and many that were injured as well. i have complete confidence in our law enforcement agencies and yet it is always a good idea to review and refine our strategies and raise public awareness and confidence as well. and like supervisor breed, i'll be out there for the cherry blossom festival on a more happier note. and it was very windy out there this past weekend. it looks like it's going to be beautiful on saturday and sunday. and sunday's parade should be amazing as it always is, but look for me in the little red convertible with my kid jace as well, and lots of hula dancing and other activities as well this weekend. also i wanted to acknowledge, too, that supervisor breed and president chiu are joining me today in asking for support for

our community arts groups and funding for the art. and we're introducing a resolution jointly to support assembly bill 580 authored by assemblyman adrian na sariian which would increase funding to our california arts council and many of our arts organizations. since the arts council budget was cut in 2002, almost to nothing, california has sunk almost to the bottom, number 50 of arts funding in the u.s. has placed undue burden to communities with arts. counterparts, l.a., san diego and oakland is joining us in also hopefully supporting this important assembly bill and refunding of our arts council. more specifically, in 2001, san francisco artists and arts organizations received 305 grants totaling $6 million. in 2012 in contrast, those amounts were reduced to approximately 50 grants

totaling about $600,000 which is a cut of about 90% or a cut of about $5 million. and organizations that lost their funding are from every supervisorial district and a broad representation of san francisco's population. some examples are the fine arts museums and california poets in the schools in my district, lilly cai chinese dance company and the magic theater in district 2. district 3, [speaker not understood] 42nd street moon in district 3. chamber music s.f. in district 4, cultural odyssey in district 5. counter posts in district 6. i think you get the picture. every single district is impacted. so, we urge you to join us in passing this important assembly bill with this resolution. also i'm very pleased that we have a number of poets with us in the chambers today and arts lovers. and i'm glad that supervisor avalos talked about thursday's [speaker not understood] under the dome.

i see [speaker not understood] bobby coleman and many other poets. but we recently lost a great community poet, and supervisor campos is also going to make some remarks. but i'd like to ask us to close the meeting in memory of carlos ramirez. he was -- he spent lots of his life in the richmond district. but let me talk a little bit about his colorful and full life. mr. ramirez was a san francisco native who moved to el salvador as a three-year old child with his parents and two siblings in 1941. they returned to the u.s. four years later when a revolution forced them to flee their country. he grew up in san francisco's richmond district for the next 10 years and moved with his family to other districts as well. he studied poetry at new college of california which is my alma matre as well in san francisco. there his teacher, the passionate artist and activist nina sorono emboldened him to

create poetic statements [speaker not understood]. he later took a course in poetry at city college of san francisco. i believe with poetry for the people and many different collectives with michael [speaker not understood] in 1984 and he won a prize in the academy of american poets, city college of san francisco poetry competition as well. he was a member of [speaker not understood], an organization which he traveled to el salvador with in november 2012 to take part in the third annual international festival of children's poetry. his poems have been published in various bay area poetry biologies. mr. ramirez was a fixture in the mission district. he was always at cafe bethlehem and i'm sure that supervisor campos would want to say a few words about him as well. but i'd like to ask us to close our meeting in his honor. also i wanted to alert you that this coming saturday will be our first budget meeting for the city. it's in district 1 at

washington high school's auditorium. and i'm very proud that my office has been working with mayor ed lee's office and supervisor katy tang's staff and her that this is going to be a great town hall saturday morning 10:00 a.m. to noon. our office has reached out to many of our community paced organizations and community and neighborhood groups to make sure they are coming to give their vision of what the richmond and the sunset in our districts represent. a number of the department heads as always will be there with their staff to listen to the needs of our neighborhoods. i wanted to thank kate howard, the director of the mayor's budget office and the office of neighborhood services and the staff that supervisor tang and myself as well for the outreach work. the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs will be providing simultaneous translation to the many chinese and maybe russian speaking people from our neighborhoods and other languages if needed.

so, if you want information about the first of a series of our districts town halls, please let my staff now. also later today on our imperative agenda is an item, i'd like to ask you to join me in honoring a great business in the richmond celebrating 50 years, tia margarita. there are some in the audience that love it there as i do as well. we're going to be voting on declaring april 20th saturday, 2013 as tia margarita day in san francisco. its was founded by virginia and alex hobbs and it's been in business since 1963 at the corner of 19th and clement street in the richmond district. 50 years of continuous service is an example of a great responsible family business and an overwhelming amount of support from the richmond district community. the restaurant's friendly atmosphere has brought in many from the neighborhood and

brought people together. lots of dates go on in the restaurant and there's a really great bar there as well, but lots of lasting friendships are really thriving because of the restaurant. also their authentic mexican food and drinks are awesome, and tia margarita has become integral to our city's history and small business culture. so, joining me this saturday and i ask for your support. it is also in honoring the original founders virginia and alex hobbs and remembering also and supporting the current owners, the daughter and current owner helen hobbs. and lastly, i'll be moderating a panel on thursday as our general assembly for the association of bay area governments meets in oakland. but our former laborer secretary for the u.s. robert reich will be speaking specifically on how local areas can address the needs of the population given the huge

federal cuts and sequestration cuts. and the panel that i'm moderating will be on planning for people and places, highlighting a lot of the great planning that's been going on in san francisco. the other panelists are a community oriented architect david baker, also u.c. davis professor michael rios and others how we in san francisco are planning for complete streets and better more sustainable future as well. thanks for listening. the rest i'll submit. >> thank you, supervisor. supervisor wiener. >> thank you, madam clerk. today i am introducing legislation to authorize the purchase of the noe valley town square site on 24th street from our recreation and park open space acquisition fund. colleagues, as i know that you will recall from recent commendation that i did, the noe valley town square is a long plan and desired project

on 24th street at the location of the noe valley farmers market. the noe valley farmers market is one of the very best farmers market street in the city and it is one of the very few that is operated independently without an outside vendor. ~ markets it is created and operated by people who are in the neighborhood. it is an amazing institution. the parking lot that is used for the farmers market will be sold. the noe valley ministries which owns the market, which owns the parking lot needs to sell the property in order to finance its earthquake retrofit. so, it will be sold either to a developer, to probably put condominiums there or we can keep it as really the only open space in the 24th street commerce corridor and create a permanent town square which will host a farmers market as well as provide permanent open space for the neighborhood. this is a very, very high

priority in the neighborhood. i think it would be a very positive thing. the neighborhood has already raised $500,000 to help with the build out. once the acquisition is complete. ~ and i am very, very optimistic that we'll be able to get this done and move forward and have a wonderful plaza at 4 24th street. i look forward to moving this forward and the rest i'll submit. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. my apologies, supervisor mar. supervisor yee. >> it is with heavy hearty would like to adjourn today's meeting in memory of becky lee. becky was tragically killed by a car last week while walking through the sunnyside neighborhood where she lived and worked. this is the third vic telemundo

-- victim of traffic fatality, so it's very difficult. becky worked at sunny said elementary school where she was treasured by students and staff alike. this is where i over the years while i was visiting sunnyside elementary school that i had been able to get to know becky. so, she's a very nice woman that i could see why the students and the staff loved her. becky leaves behind her husband and two sons and two daughters in law. i would like to extend my heart felt sympathy to becky's family and friends. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor yee. supervisor campos asked to be re-referred. >> thank you very much, madam clerk. i just wanted to add to the comments by supervisor mar with respect to carlos ramirez. it is really hard to imagine

the mission without carlos around. he truly was a beloved fixture for the arts, for the poetry community in the mission, and, you know, he was a really sweet person. i always enjoyed having conversations with him. he was prone to bursting into song spontaneously and has been translating the poetry of lang aston hughes into song. he will always be remembered for his work as a substitute teacher in our schools where his bright smile, his love of storytelling and, of course, the notorious long white beard earned them the nickname of santa claus. so, carlos ramirez will be missed and our condolances to his family. but thank you, carlos, for your contributions to our community. >> thank you, supervisor campos. mr. president, that concludes roll call for introductions. >> thank you, madam clerk.

ladies and gentlemen, why don't we now go to general public comment. >> the comment may comment generally for items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board including items without reference to committee calendar. please note that public comment is not allowed on those items which have already been subject to public comment by a board committee and pursuant to board rule 4.22, please direct your remarks to the board as a whole and not to individual supervisors and not to the audience. speakers using translation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify. and if you would like a document to be displayed on the overhead projector, please clearly state such to sfgtv and then remove the document when the screen should return to live coverage of the meeting. >> thank you. let's hear from our first speaker.

[speaking in nayedth i have language] ~ native language] ladies and gentlemen, my name abdullah miguel and i am here to support our president obama

and apbi and [speaker not understood] to get the criminal who killed that mass yesterday in boston. ladies and gentlemen, i have three matches, [speaker not understood] matches to my supervisor kim. kim, you have another three ladies working with you. you're going to be the leader in this time to show me how you can collect money from 49ers and the giants and [speaker not understood]. to give our lovely people who has been -- died in boston yesterday. second message, i would like to give each one of you, supervisor, you must agree with me that if you see the

newspaper talk about the people has been killed, chinese, english, [speaker not understood], any language, i'm sorry, now, i ask all of you to have [speaker not understood] which you have, but show me your [speaker not understood] when you support this lovely lady who needs to be equally [speaker not understood] to have discrimination from any lady she work in this city. we can't live without them. they give us hard time, but we can't live without them. then is our time to support them and support kim from now on with london and the other two lovely supervisor to make some money to give the boston victim people who have lost their own child and who lost any one of their own family. god bless you, and god bless you, kim. i know you can do that.

you have courage to do that. >> thank you very much. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. stop the corporate rape of all public library. don't give money to the friends of the library. don't accept money from the friends of the library. most of my presentations are about current problems in the library, but the long history of graft and abuse is of the essence. tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, april 18, will be san francisco disaster day. it is the 107th anniversary of the great earthquake and fire and the 17th anniversary of the public private partnerships of the new main library. for 30 years they intentionally degraded library service in san francisco to ex tort the city [speaker not understood]. there were three separate distinguished city librarians who were let go because they couldn't stomach is. the a civil grand jury found claims to induce the bond issue for the new main library constituted fraud. the citizens were told that the

old library didn't have enough room for books and we ended up with less space for books than we had before. the new main library was designed to raise money for the friends [speaker not understood] found to be a disfunctional planning disaster. the friends were allowed to continue raising money without a renewal agreement from the city to prevent any public discussion or accountability for that crime. the branch library improvement program was only half finished when it was supposed to be complete to allow the friends more time to raise money for themselves. now the friends have provided to the library only a tiny sliver of the money that they actually raised. they are still protected from accountability. when members of the board of supervisors praise the people who rip us off, you are supporting a civic graph stretching kickback over several decades because the objective was the money itself.

david chiu having me arrested does not solve societies problems and the lies always cost more than the money. >> thank you. next speaker. i'd like the graphic to remain on until i remove it from the overhead. ray harte [speaker not understood] san francisco open government. again i am discussing a referral from the sunshine ordinance task force to the board of supervisors regarding city library luis herrera. for more than 20 months herrera has withheld public documents in his care and custody, documents which were fully disclosable under the sunshine ordinance and the california public records act. he has directed other city employees to participate in this unlawful action. herrera has acted knowingly and

willfully to conceal public records which he had a legal obligation to produce. herrera wants to conceal the fact that he and the san francisco public library commission have been lying to the public regarding their knowledge of the financial dealings between the library and the private group known as the friends. at the same time herrera has been accepting monthly payments from the friends which he has failed to report as required by law to any city agency. he has for years presented deceptive information to the public regarding tens of millions of dollars. the best i can figure right now it's somewhere between 50 and 60 million since 2000. and those funds were raised in the name of the citizens of san francisco. i have been dealing with mr. herrera and his constant effort

to abrogate and censor public comment. he has been found on four occasion to have done so by the sunshine ordinance task force, both the prior task force and your replace task force. and i have no problem at all calling luis herrera city librarian a con artist. >> thank you very much. next speaker. [speaker not understood] executive director of library users association. the library is planning a reduction in fines for so-called media, that is, cds and dvds, from $1 a day to 10 cents a day. and while that particular step is a step in the direction that we have advocated for a long

time, the library overall has policies that are all over the map and in many cases are contrary to patron -- good patron service and patron interests. library users association has advocated for not only lower fines, but a no-fine policy. not a rip-off policy, but a no fines. fines are a regressive tax on the poorest of san francisco citizens. let me tell you, recently i ran into a san francisco resident and citizen who hasn't been to a library in more than 7 years. and that's because this person lost a borrowed videotape. the bill for the replacement was more than this person could afford to pay and there was no payment plan offered, no reduction offered, and no

alternative to payment. or some way to work it out, for example, by volunteering to help the library or the public in some way. seven years of no library use because of one lost video. the point of the story is that fines and fees are a huge barrier to library use and the library in part recognizes that by giving kids free fines and seniors half off the usual adult 10 cents a fine. but those barriers should be removed entirely and that's something that you can [inaudible]. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. if you could please speak on the microphone. that's on the overhead. thank you. hi, my name is neil dahani.

i sit on the board of san francisco beautiful and also the neighborhood association noe valley. i also work with several of the neighborhood associations to propose to the board that we complete the job of undergrounding all the utility overhead lines in this city well before my lifetime, which i don't have very long. so, the next 20 years -- before 20 years are up. as you can see, this is just one block within my neighborhood. on the left it shows 28th street. on the right it is duncan. next to each other, one is underground, one isn't. and we have this throughout the entire city. we would like to see all of the city's overhead lines undergrounded so we can leave a legacy much beyond our lifetimes. several major cities have already done this.