our mayor's budget director kate howard who in the midst of budget season continued to spend a ton of time on this issue. and the dozens of labor and business leaders who have been part of our conversation over the past six months. today, colleagues, i'm asking you for your support of this charter amendment and ultimately i am confident that the voters of san francisco will support us in our efforts to solve our $4.4 billion liability and wipe it off our books. thanks very much. >> thank you. colleagues, it's my understanding this item has to sit for at least a week. so, supervisor farrell, are you making a motion that we do that? >> [inaudible]. >> okay. so, this item will be continued to the 16th. is there a second on that? second by supervisor breed. this item will be continued for one week. [gavel] >> item 45, madam clerk. >> item 45 is a motion reappointing supervisor eric mar to the association of bay area government's executive board for a term tending june 20th, 2015.

>> colleagues, can we have a motion to excuse supervisor mar? motion by campos seconded by supervisor kim. without objection he shall be excused. [gavel] >> roll call. >> item 45, supervisor wiener? wiener aye. supervisor yee? yee aye. supervisor avalos? avalos aye. supervisor breed? breed aye. supervisor campos? campos aye. supervisor chiu? chiu aye. supervisor cohen? cohen aye. supervisor farrell? farrell aye. supervisor kim? kim aye. supervisor tang? tang aye. there are 10 ayes. >> the motion is approved. [gavel]. >> item 46. >> item 46 is a motion appointing supervisor jane kim to bay area executive board ending june 20th, 2015. >> colleagues, can we have a motion excusing supervisor kim? [speaker not understood]. without objection she shall be excused. roll call. [gavel] >> item 46, supervisor wiener? wiener aye. supervisor yee?

yee aye. supervisor avalos? avalos aye. supervisor breed? brie aye. supervisor campos? campos aye. supervisor chiu? chiu aye. supervisor cohen? cohen aye. supervisor farrell? farrell aye. supervisor mar? mar aye. supervisor tang? tang aye. there are 10 ayes. >> the motion is approved. [gavel] >> colleagues, why don't we know go to roll call. >> supervisor wiener, you're first on roll call for introductions. >> thank you, madam clerk. first today i'm introducing a resolution authorizing the municipal transportation agency to purchase 60 electric trolley vehicles. not the most glamorous resolution, it is a very important step for the agency. ~ at a hearing that i had convened a month or two ago, we learned a lot about the challenges that the mta has in terms of muni's incredible

backlog of deferred maintenance and service problems with the vehicle fleet. one of the problems was with the electric trolley fleet. on only 50% of weekdays does muni have enough electric trolleys to operate on the service level that it is expected to provide. so, half the time there is an inadequate number of electric trolley coaches. muni will be starting on the path of changing that by purchasing these electric trolleys. i also have a very sad and tragic in memoriam today for joe fera who passed away on june 30th early in the morning of pride sunday. some of you may have met joe. he was a dedicated volunteer in my office. he was a friend of mine, a personal friend for a number of years. a dedicated campaign volunteer and someone came into my office several days a week.

he was a natural to the office because he loved talking to people, even the most difficult people who would call the office. even though i met joe socially and got to know him more and more through my campaign and in the office, i learned a lot about joe in his long-time work in the community over time. joe was born and grew up in san francisco back to 1959 when he was a cushion boy at seal stadium when the giants first came to town. he went to si and graduated in 1965 and then to uc davis. joe was one of the people who was involved early on in the hiv/aids epidemic before we even had a name for the disease. he was back in 1982 at the original san francisco aids foundation location at 18th and castro working the phones, taking calls from people in the

community ho were terrified about why they were getting sick and other people they knew were getting sick with this new disease. ~ he worked at the aids foundation as the communications director starting in 1989 for a number of years. later in life he free-lanced as a deejay including at mobey dick in the castro, had a drag persona, carmen miranda. joe is survived by his brother patrick, his aunt agnes, and his long-time close friend christopher he is poe zito and many of us who will miss him deeply. ~ not only are these in memoriams for people you didn't know is that well or didn't know at all. it's very hard to do it for someone who is a personal friend and someone who worked with you so closely. so, joe, we'll miss you a lot. we know you're looking down on high, and we miss you.

the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor breed. >> thank you. i have an in memoriam for a dear friend of mine, vernon [speaker not understood] and junior and his mom carol and dad [speaker not understood]. he was a member of third baptist church here in san francisco. he was born and raised in san francisco. he attended lincoln high school, ivan hoe ran against him. we were friends anyway. we would often joke about just the rivalries of our schools. but when he went to lincoln high school, he was an amazing football player. he was a hard core on the field, but he was a teddy bear and that's what we refer to him. he was gentle, [speaker not

understood], and he passed away on saturday, july 6, and we will miss him dearly. his quiet hour will be held on monday at third baptist church at 7 o'clock and funeral services will be at third baptist church on tuesday at 11:00 a.m. and two more things i wanted to mention about vernon. he actually graduated from morehouse college in atlanta, georgia and he worked at city college and just loved san francisco, loved football, and just loved people. and, so, a lot of people will truly miss him. i know that supervisor cohen will be introducing the in memoriam for our former supervisor kennedy. i did want to say a few words about ms. kennedy. i first met her when i interviewed her in her office when she was a member of the san francisco board of supervisors. i was in high school and i had all these questions and i

thought i was walking into the office of a man because her name was [speaker not understood]. and it was kind of interesting to change my questions in the middle of our interview, but she was very pleasant. she had a commanding presence, and she was pretty amazing. and i felt like right then and there i wanted to be that kind of person with this amazing presence. she had this overwhelming voice and over the years we definitely had become friends and she's definitely someone that i had truly admired. as a former director of the african-american ardthtion and cultural complex, i am really quick to remind people of why this very important art institution exists as an amazing asset for the african-american community. it was supervisor kennedy who led the charge, making sure that this asset remained a part of the african-american community, a true cultural arts

destination for the african-american community. and she fought here in this chamber to make that so. so, she was an honorary board member. she regularly attended meetings and participated in events at the african-american art and culture complex. and she was just so proud of the development of seeing it come to a place where it deserved to be after the renovations right there at the forefront every single time there was a development. after walking away from the board of supervisors, we all know that she continued to be involved, whether the hunters point shipyard, the bart board, the southeast community facility, this was truly a woman who made public service a natural part of her life and she will truly be missed. and i remember talking to her about her plans or at least her family's plans that they thought she didn't know about

for her upcoming 90th birthday party. and she was very excited about that. still driving around, still talking, still making the phone calls, still just really doing exactly what she loved to do and that is talk and engage people and do everything she can to give back to the city she loved. and, so, she is definitely truly going to be missed and i just wanted to make sure that i said a few words about her because she was an amazing inspiration in my life and the city is so much better off because she was a part of making so many amazing things happen. so, the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor breed. supervisor cohen. >> thank you. colleagues, with your permission, i'm going to go a little bit out of turn just to speak to supervisor kennedy. i just would like a moment to

talk about her wonderful career, if i may. so, as we discussed from supervisor breed, ruby kennedy was a former member of this body. she was born november 5ing, 1923 to hard working parents in carol, texas. as you know she passed away on june 28th, very suddenly i might add. she graduated from high school in dallas in 1941 and married a man named paul hooney in brown wood, texas in 1942 and from this union they had a daughter named paul heth huey who was born in january of '43. ~ shortly after this, paul and [speaker not understood] divorced and she moved to california where she spent -- where she made it her home for over 65 years. and in 1954 she became a member of jones methodist church. that is where she still remained a member of the church all the way up until her passing. here she met a strong and

vibrant attorney by the name of joseph g. kennedy whom she -- whom he was heavily involved with the civil rights movement, not just here in san francisco, but all across the country. mrs. kennedy is a graduate of city college of san francisco and later graduated from san francisco state university. she received her first appointment from then mayor dianne feinstein to the human rights commission. her second appointment came later when a vacancy on the redevelopment agency commission allowed mayor feinstein to recommend mrs. kennedy for that seat. after the passing of supervisor hutch, mayor feinstein appointed ruby kennedy to that vacancy on the board of supervisors. mrs. kennedy accepted and embarked on her mission for change in the city and county of san francisco, particularly paying attention to bayview hunters point community. supervisor kennedy ran three campaigns for reelection on the board of supervisors and was

reelected each time. she spent over 15 years on the board. and while here she left quite a legacy. she authored several pieces of legislation some such as the city's affirmative action programs better known as the minority business enterprises, also affectionally known as mbe as well as wbe, many of which we still continue to used to in determining contracts. ~ and diversity. she also authored the south african apartheid legislation which is i think really telling when you think about the struggle that nelson mandela is going through. and this particular legislation for bad the city of san francisco from doing business with any company or individual that had business in south after. she fought hard for public and

affordable housing. she gave back to her community in many ways. her civic neighborhood and religious commitments. mrs. kennedy is survived by her sister gladia bell, [speaker not understood], also known as lulu [speaker not understood]. her daughter paulette huey. she left quite a legacy, 7 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, 11 great-great grandchildren, a whole host of foster grandchildren, as well as a host of nieces, nephews and cousins. we're talking about a legacy that spans from new york city to chicago to tulsa, oklahoma to los angeles and every single point in between. services are going to be held in her honor this thursday and friday at her church jones memorial united methodist. and the repast will be at the

southeast community center. mrs. kennedy was a champion for the people and she will be greatly missed by those who knew her personally as well as professionally. if she ever smiled at you or complimented you or gave you a gift or even disagreed with you, she had a way of doing it with class. she had a way of making you feel so very special. mrs. kennedy, your family, your friends, and community thank you for your dedicated years of service and trail blazing, but even more for your generosity, mentor ship, diligence, caring, many, many years of laughter, and most of all, the love that you shared. she was will be greatly missed. she was like a giant ~ in this city. so, colleagues, i ask that you join me collectively [speaker not understood] the board meeting in honor of her memory. thank you. >> thank you, colleagues. can we adopt this on behalf of

the full board? without objection, that shall be the case. [gavel] >> madam clerk? >> thank you, mr. president. thank you, supervisor cohen. supervisor campos. >> thank you, madam clerk, and thank you, supervisor breed, supervisor cohen, for your remarks about supervisor kennedy. it's really amazing individual and very classy and dignified. i think it's appropriate that we all adjourn in her memory today. i just want to make a couple of points. the first, i think it's been quite an amazing few days and a tragic few days because of the crash that happened on saturday. but as someone who has visiting family when this tragedy happened, one of the things that became very clear is that we have a lot to be proud of as a city. the tremendous work of the first responders who came to the scene and rescued so many people and saved so many lives,

you know, from people like officer cunningham who went into that plane without any gear to take people out, to lieutenant [speaker not understood], to the firefighters, nurses, doctors. it's been pretty incredible to hear about the stories. i know that our own deputy sheriffs made a point of going out of their way to make sure that they assisted the people who are taken to san francisco general hospital. so many different stories of heroism that we have here in san francisco, and i think that at some point it would be appropriate for us collectively as a board to make sure that we recognize that heroism and it's something that i'm certainly very proud of and something that i heard from, you know, people outside of san francisco who are watching those that san francisco was truly red and i doing an amazing job. makes me very proud.

the last thing is that i like to make just a couple of points about what's happening with city college and i want to thank supervisor avalos and supervisor kim for their questions as well as mayor lee for his comments about city college. and i just want to speak as the supervisor for district 9 which includes the city college mission campus and i want to talk a little bit about what city college means to not only my community in district 9, but to the entire city. and my hope is that with the change in the situation where you have the future of that entity in the hands of trustee robert eduala, i think it's important for us as leaders in this city to help mr. arduela understand how important city

college as an institution is to our city. and when i say that we need to save city college, i'm not talking about just saving a, a community college system, but we are saving an institution that in many respects is the embodiment of the american dream for so many people. it is truly i think about saving san francisco values. and to me, city college to be saved, it requires that certain key programs that are integral part of city college and the service that it provides remain. first, we need to make sure that we protect the [speaker not understood] programs that have been essential to so many immigrants. if immigration reform passes, one of the pathways to citizenship would be to have fluency in english. it would be critical to so many communities to make sure that the programs surround language that are provided by city college continue.

the adult education classes that are provided in most of the state, adult learning actually happens at k to 12 schools, but many programs have been cut. we have seen that statewide and so we need to make sure that we preserve the non-credit classes that are serving more than 3,000 adult students right now alone. the job training programs that city college focuses on that support job placement with so many community-based organizations, i don't think that we would have a successful professional development initiative anywhere in this city without the work of city college. likewise, the work force development initiatives that are part of city college, many students attend city college directly from the work force to retool the skills to add skills, to make themselves competitive in this current job market. these are i-t graphic design, fire academy, police academy, home support nursing, you name

it. city college provides it. there is also the second chance program which is a program that works with formerly incarcerated youth that helps these people, these young people get a new start in life. there is the veteran center which not only provides academic counseling to veterans, but also provides therapy and other support services. there is the guardian scholars program which serves former foster care students not only helping them academically, but also providing nonacademic support. there is a program that addresses senior health. in fact, many seniors take classes at city college, classes that are essential for not only their physical, but actually their mental, emotional well-being. and these low-cost classes include yoga, pilates and swimming. they're programs that are helping students transfer to four-year colleges. in fact, 15 to 20% of city

college students transfer to four-year college which is a pretty high rate. and we want to preserve that. there are programs that are preserving -- that are helping people have an affordable way of getting an education. we have heard how student loan interest rates have more than doubled recently. and, so, for many students, city college provide the only affordable way to go and get a college education. i think it's really critical, especially in places like the mission, southeast quadrant, and chinatown where you're talking about thousands and thousands of students that are being served that we make sure that we keep those campuses open. i know that in the mission campuses 68, 7 out of 10 students are immigrants. and, so, the city college campus essentially becomes the

true embodiment of the american dream for so many people. that is what this trustee has been charged with saving and i don't think that it's enough to simply say we need to maintain the community college open. we need to have a college that has all of those components. and i know that every member of this board has indicated the importance of saving city college, but we need to make sure that we save city college in its present form in a way that truly serves the needs of these diverse communities. one thing that i would say is that all of us should be open to working closely with the new trustee. we also have to be mindful that in the past, the one time when something like this has happened and that happened in com ton with compton college a few years back when there was a trustee who had the same power and authority ~ that the current trustee has been provided with in city college

sadly in that case, that city college closed. so, we need to make sure that the track record of this entity does not come to fruition here in san francisco. it is unacceptable, unacceptable for this city, for the residents of this city in terms of what this institution means for city college as we have known it to close. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor chiu. >> thank you, madam clerk. first of all, i have an in memoriam for the two chinese students who tragically died in the crash of asiana airline flight at sfo saturday. you may have read about them in the press. the two students were 16 years old, students at one of the top schools in eastern china. they were coming to the united states for a summer exchange program to improve their english that they and their families were very excited about. [speaker not understood] excelled at the piano as she

did in her academics. ms. [speaker not understood] enjoyed calligraphy [speaker not understood]. they ate lunch together and no one was surprised to they chose to sit together on saturday's flight. we send our condolances to the families and best wishes to the other injured victims in the crash and their families. colleagues, i am introducing legislation in ordinance today to streamline the financial hardship application process at our rent board. as you may recall a few months ago, we passed legislation that supervisor wiener and i along with mayor lee had sponsored requiring certain substory buildings to be seismically retrofitted to protect our residents and workers in the event of a future earthquake. like all other capital improvements, landlords are allow today apply to the rent board to pass on the cost of the retrofit to rent increases to tenants. when we approved the legislation i commit today

following up with trailing legislation to help tenants who had financial hardships better access exemptions granted by the rent board. according to the rent board the current exemption process takes about five months, three months for a hearing to be scheduled and two months for a decision to be made. our legislation would streamline this process by directing the rent board to make an administrative decision in lieu of a hearing based on specific eligibility criteria. if a tenant can demonstrate he or she receives means tested public assistance like ssi or has a household earning of less than 80% of the area median income and pays more than one-third of their income to rent, or if a tenant faces exceptional financial circumstances due to circumstances such as significant medical bills, the rent board could approve a hardship exemption administratively. this legislation also requires that the rent board provide notification to tenants of the hardship exemption procedures and the physical application. the goal of the legislation is

to ensure the protection of our most vulnerable buildings -- i'm sawyer. the goal is to ensure that the protection of our most vulnerable buildings comes hand in hand with moe at thectiontionv of our most vulnerable tenants. with this legislation is a shared responsibility to keep our city resilient in the face of emergencies. i want to take a moment and thank mayor lee and supervisors kim, mar, and campos for also sponsoring this legislation and for jeff buckley in the mayor's office of housing, the san francisco's tenants union san francisco housing rights committee, just cause and the san francisco apartment association for working with my office and my aide amy chance crafting these policy changes. i look forward to working with you for this legislation. back to you, madam clerk. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor cohen, you wanted to introduce the rest of your items face >> thank you, madam clerk. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor cohen. supervisor farrell? supervisor kim? >> thank you.

i also want to thank the mayor's office and specifically jeff buckley for his work on this trailing legislation for the seismically retrofit program for soft wood frame buildings. at the time when this passed, many of you remember certificatev of us including myself were very concerned about the tenants' ability to pay for the increased capital cost which is 100% pass through. and my support for this legislation was conditioned on the trailing legislation which would assign the hardship application which as many of you know is an arduous and invasive process which many of our tenants have gone through to receive relief from capital cost pass throughs. while seismically retrofitting soft building is extremely important to the protection of represents making sure tenants who cannot afford this increase are not unduly burdened by this capital cost is very important. the average san francisco rent

for one bedroom apartment at 2700 tenants are extremely sensitive to any type of price increase and these increases can make a difference in a resident's ability to stay in their homes. this trailing legislation would clarify and streamline procedures for filing a hardship application and any tenant who can demonstrate that he or she is on some form of public assistance or making 80% ami or less will automatically be relieved for the pass through [speaker not understood] instead of publicly appearing before the rent board with a personal documents which are subject to cross-examination by landlord. land lords will still be able to request a hearing or appeal but this at least will help streamline the process for many residents that were worried about their future here in san francisco, but of course want to live safely in their buildings. so, i want to recognize president chiu's office for moving this forward and happy to co-sponsor this legislation today. second, i had mentioned two weeks ago that today i would be introducing legislation to

place interim formula retail controls on the market street corridor from sixth street to van ness avenue. this interim ordinance will acquire new formula retail in the targeted area to apply for conditional use permit while planning conducts an economic impact analysis prepared by independent consultant, application and directs planning to direct [speaker not understood] formula retail use over the area in the next 18 months. and continue to be an advocate for the economic revitalization of the mid-market corridor. and i believe that it has to be a balanced approach. prioritizing locally owned businesses is a key part of the central economic development plan and many residents are concerned about preserving the character of this neighborhood and want a say in its future growth. the legislation will be an additional tool towards importing small businesses and arts organizations that have long contributed to mid-market identity and economic vitality and which often serve as the levitt institutions for residents, workers and tourists alike. back in april 2004