>> good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, july the ninth, 2013. madam clerk, could you please call the roll? >> supervisor avalos? avalos present. supervisor breed? breed present. supervisor campos? campos present. supervisor chiu? chiu present. supervisor cohen? cohen present. supervisor farrell? farrell present.

supervisor kim? kim present. supervisor mar? mar present. supervisor tang? tang present. supervisor wiener? wiener present. supervisor yee? yee present. mr. president, all members are present. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

>> thank you very much. with that, we have board meeting minutes from our june 4th, 2013 board meeting. could i have a motion to approve those minutes? motion by supervisor kim, seconded by supervisor campos. without objection, those meeting minutes will be approved. [gavel] >> madam clerk are there any communications? >> i have no communications, mr. president. >> if we could go to our 2:00 p.m. special order. >> the first item of business is the policy discussion between mayor edwin lee and the board of supervisors specifically representing district 10. the board may address the mayor up to 5 minutes. the president will recognize the supervisor who will present their own question to the mayor and follow-up questions are in order as long as the entire discussion does not exceed five minutes per supervisor. >> like to welcome back our mayor to the board chamber for power july question time. mr. mayor, do you have any opening comments? >> thank you.

thank you, president chiu, and board of supervisors. thank you to the audience for being here today. due to the tragic crash that happened this weekend, i'd like to take a moment again to offer our city's thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims who died and offer continued support for those that are seriously injured and continuing to recover at our various bay area hospitals, particularly sf general. welcome to lunch. welcome to lunch at city hall well, as you all know your food trucks are here there are here every friday. we're welcoming them and we are just welcoming all the other business the brick and mortar for one area were there are here

to join supervisor wiener and ion some good piece of legislation. there's been a movement that we welcomed in the city and, of course, the incredible investments that people have made when we started their restaurants from the brick and mortar and over the couple of past couple of years we want this to work for everybody. one of the supervisors who always has former colleague, supervisor willie b. kennedy. she was a stalwart at the board and impacted the lives of so many san franciscans.

was certainly a personal mentor to me. those of you who were around those years, you know that supervisor kennedy was one of the biggest leaders in our women and minority business enterprise program, and i fought with her to improve that ordinance to make sure we did the right things. i know laws have changed since that time, but the spirit of the sdi has not. and we'll remember willie's life this thursday and friday and i've ordered the flags of the city to be at half staff on friday in recognition of her life and contributions to our city. finally, we're also grateful that we are also able to celebrate here at city hall. since our last meeting the u.s. supreme court made a historic decision that opened the doors for marriage equality here in california. and now all loving couples can once again share in the celebration of marriage in our state. it was a pleasure to join all of you on that historic day. so, with that, let's get to the

first question. >> thank you, mr. mayor. our first question will be provided by our district 10 colleague, supervisor malia cohen. >> thank you. good afternoon, san franciscans, mr. mayor, welcome back. thank you for your leadership in this difficult time. i think both you and chief hayes white and chief suhr have been outstanding. i've been working as you know with many of my neighbors on expanding the increasing need for lighting infrastructure in district 10 which is largely formally the industrial part of san francisco. areas that are near dark, free ways, unaccepted streets which are now becoming residential. but the city has not been keeping up pace with the changing infrastructure and the needs of these new neighborhoods. lack of adequate light -- lighting has contributed to a number of public safety issues such as illegal dumping, car

break ins and graffiti. additionally the overlapping jurisdictions of state and private entities prevent [speaker not understood] lighting leads to an insufficient process for those looking to make improvements. what can you do -- what can you commit to doing as mayor to prioritize and speed up the permitting, funding and installation of new lighting infrastructure in the neighborhood? and also, what -- would you support efforts by the city to install lighting on property that is currently owned by caltrans or on streets that are unincorporated areas of san francisco? thank you. >> thank you, supervisor cohen, and thank you for your very apt description of areas of your district and other parts of the city that might offer -- also suffer the same consequences. this public safety and quality of life issue is very important. as you mentioned, there are multiple agencies with authority over street lights.

more than half of our street lights in the city are owned by our own san francisco public utilities commission with a remainder owned by pg&e. property ownership also matters, and a number of street lights in district 10 are also on caltrans property and caltrans is responsible for the upkeep of their fixtures. but for residents it shouldn't matter who owns the light. and this is your point, supervisor. i agree with you. residents should be able to report a problem and have it fixed in a timely fashion. today when street light outages occur, customers can either call 311, report the outage via pg&e's online application or use san francisco public utilities commission's new mobile app. in all of these cases, customers receive a confirmation of a report and the issue is forwarded to the responsible party. pg&e, 311, and the sf public utilities commission have been working together to refine the

assignment process to more quickly and accurately direct the request to the responsible party. in fact, pg&e is working to digitize their maps of all the street light assets that they have in san francisco to support this effort and we'd like to join them in this effort. i'm committed to supporting it and i know it's hard to believe that in 2013 we're still using hard copies to verify street light ownership. having accurate digitized maps of those who own these assets on the street is a good first step to fixing the larger problem and getting better efficient responses. so, we'll be working on that with you. and while that isn't enough, there is also a modest investment in our street light infrastructure. the san francisco public utilities commission has already investing $380,000 in recon street light improvements in district 10. some that have already been completed include new lights on

26th street between kansas and rhode island, and on the west side of wisconsin street in front of the star king elementary school. the puc has also designed new street lights for the intersection of 22nd and 23rd and iowa street and has plans for additional street lights on 15th street. for the lights on caltrans property, which is often underneath the dark freeway overpasses that you have identified, i commit to you, supervisor, that i will partner with you to communicate with caltrans about this issue. in fact, to answer directly to your question, the answer is yes, we will make that investment and i've done that before as your previous public works director that when it comes to public safety, we can't wait for bureaucracy to catch up. i'll commit to you that we've give them adequate notice. we'll let them know where things have to be done. and then if we need to, you and i and public works and the puc

will move forward to put lights where they're needed to keep people safe. and then we'll argue afterwards about who maintains them and who pays for it. but when it comes to public safety, the answer should be yes first, and then let's deal with the bureaucracy and all the other challenges at a later time. that is my commitment. i'll continue working with you on these programs. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. mayor. i'd like to recognize supervisor avalos. >> thank you, mr. mayor, for being here. according to our admin code, we actually can bring up old motions if we have a question from an eligible supervisor. this month the supervisor from an even numbered district to talk about things that happened since our agenda are large in nature. since last wednesday when our agenda was set, the [speaker not understood] commission for community and junior colleges has made a determination about city college that is a great concern to people across san francisco and i'd like to propose that we have a question

for this question time period on that subject. >> accepted. >> thank you. >> supervisor avalos has made a motion. is there a second to that motion? seconded by supervisor campos. colleagues, can we take that motion without objection or do we need a roll call? without objection motion passes. [gavel] >> with that i understand supervisor kim from an even numbered district which is an eligible district for this month will pose the question. >> thank you, mr. mayor. and i also along with my colleague supervisor cohen want to acknowledge your work, your office's work, the san francisco fire department and police department on the incident that happened over this weekend with asia airlines. certainly our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends and as passengers of that flight. so, thank you for all of your work. as supervisor avalos mentioned, ~ after [speaker not understood] deadline, acjc handed down [speaker not understood]. and i want to acknowledge the collective concern amongst the board of supervisors regarding the future of city college of san francisco. as i know, you are deeply

concerned as well. since the news was announced the board wanted the opportunity to discuss this matter given its timeliness but also the widespread anxiety that many of our offices are fielding amongst our constituents. e-mails and calls expressing deep concern about the future of this institution. there are currently roughly 85,000 students enrolled in city college of san francisco with almost 20% of its undergraduate students transferring to 4 year colleges. and their concerns about solutions to what we might do including the potential downsizing of city college or the selling off of public assets. we are curious as to what your position is on these potential solutions and what reassurances can you give based on your ongoing coordination with the state chancellor about maintaining the critical scope of educational services such as classes for students pursuing their associates degree or transferring to four-year university, those that are taking esl classes or vocational training programs that this vital public

education institution has provided to generations of san franciscans? >> thank you, supervisor kim, and supervisor avalos, for this very important question. as i've said earlier and i know you all agree, that our city college is one of the most important educational institutions for working class folks, for returning veterans, for immigrants, for all the different classes of people that we want to have a degree of success and better educate and put themselves in a position to obtain the jobs that we want them to succeed in. so, with that, let me offer by saying that it's been a very difficult situation and we certainly hope, hope that the decision of the accreditation commission would have been different. based on the stakeholder conversations and commission findings and the latest financial management report, there's no question that more work needs to be done before city college can once again stand on its own. i have worked with both interim

chancellors, special trustee bob pagrela and state chancellor vice harris over the last year and i've kept a close eye on all the progress that has been made. i want to say that good progress was achieved over a short period of time. however, it just wasn't enough. i have full confidence that in the next year with the support of the state and the hard working faculty and staff, city college will make sufficient progress to restore the institution to unsanctioned accreditation status. under the commission's process, city college can and will appeal and the college remains accredited during this time. and the closer plan is paused until the appeal is exhausted. so, now more than ever, we need to accelerate the progress to ensure that the 85,000 students that are currently attending city college will continue to have an affordable place to go to pursue their degree or

receive work force training. i have lent expertise of my own city staff, kate howard, ben rosenfield, micky callahan, nadia, [speaker not understood], i want to personally thank all of them for stepping up. and i've lent them to the interim chancellor to provide advice on the very complex governance and financial issues that they face. i have brought in my education leadership council members that include our unified school district superintendent, our presidents of the universities here in san francisco, our chancellors, sf state, uc san francisco, university of san francisco, and golden state university. to seek their professional advice and request their help to support the students at city college ~. superintendent caranza will reach out to san francisco unified school district students of which 60% attend city college, to inform them of

the status and reassure them that their credits count. additionally, president wong from san francisco state has met with his own trustees to see if classes can be increased to accommodate any city college students that are ready to come over to san francisco state. he is also setting up a hotline to ease the concern of students. but we need to deal with the problems that are in front of us. rather than let city college fail, chancellor harris has commitved to a rescue effort to save city college through a state intervention to save the college, and i agree to work closely with him to see this through. yesterday the california community college board of governors voted unanimously to appoint bob who has been the special trustee without the requisite authority this past year. mr. agrela will lead city college [speaker not understood] decision and address the challenges which

include implementing necessary fiscal controls and other improvements to business operations, making necessary ongoing budget decisions, working to address other accreditation deficiencies, and hiring an exceptional permanent chancellor. now, i'm not looking at this situation as downsizing the college. rather, we need to allocate resources in the most impactful way possible to maintain and grow the student population in coming years. this includes fully assessing all of the classes and all of the campuses. regarding the disposition of property as you know, public assets cannot simply be sold off. in fact, we found that out very quickly working with our own unified school district. there is a robust process and it's doubtful mass properties sales will be the first order of priority in this strategy. ultimately we believe this is not about dollars. as we found out, there are many

ways in which school districts that have property can increase their revenues by looking at their assets in a different way. this is why lending city staff to them might be helpful as it was helpful as it has been helpful to our own unified school district. we need to fundamentally stabilize the foundation of the college, strengthening the areas that will help it run on a day-to-day basis. the academic house of the college remains strong and i'm grateful for the high quality of instruction offered to the students. but we also know that we're not just talking about people degrees. we want vocational training. we want the credits to go with it so that people can transfer to higher levels of learning. and we also need them to have enough support for their language assistance as we noted earlier that many immigrants depend upon city college as well. i also want to encourage all of

you to show your support and remain hopeful for our students at city college. i invite you and this board to collaborate with our education leaders and me to unite behind the college and prioritize above all else our students. our students at city college are today concerned. they're anxious, and they're a bit confused. and we need to be responsible with the information we together provide. we have an opportunity to partner with the state chancellor and the special trustee to maintain accreditation for city college and keep this invaluable institution alive for the benefit of current and future students and i challenge you to join me in doing so. thank you. >> thank you, mr. mayor. that concludes our question time for today. we look forward to seeing you soon. all right, colleagues, can we get to our consent agenda? madam clerk. >> items 2 through 23, the consent calendar are considered routine. if a member objects, an item