>> 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. >> ladies and gentlemen, before we proceed, i'd like to ask if we could have a moment of

silence for the victims in the asiana air crash is the sfo a few days ago. [moment of silence] >> 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. i'd also like to recognize our city's first responders from our police and fire and the nurses and doctors at our sf general hospital and our own airport staff and many others,

including the hundreds of volunteers that showed up at the hospital and at the airport. and also want to give a personal thanks to volunteers from city hall that came to help translate and do as much as they can to assist the passengers and the airlines and the airport staff. i was proud to witness all of their work firsthand over the weekend and just want to thank everybody for their courage and fine work in saving so many lives. there are many lives that are still on the brink. we've had a chance to visit some of them in the hospital and we'll get through it, but i just want to continue thanking all the volunteers appearing at the hospital. i also want to give a shout out to the international community. i've received quite a number of both calls and letters of concern and condolances from many consul generals throughout the world expressing their

sympathies to the tragedy and hoping we recover quickly including all our consul generals. this past week we also lost a 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 may be removed and considered separately. >> colleagues, would anyone like to sever any item? supervisor wiener. >> item 9. >> item 9. can we take a roll call on the rest of the consent agenda? >> item number 22 as well actually. >> if we could exempt that, item 9 and 22. and, madam clerk, if you could please call the roll for the rest of the items. >> supervisor wiener? wiener aye. supervisor yee? yee aye. supervisor avalos? avalos aye. supervisor breed some breed aye. supervisor campos? campos aye. supervisor chiu? chiu aye. supervisor cohen? cohen aye. supervisor farrell?

farrell aye. supervisor kim? kim aye. supervisor mar? mar aye. supervisor tang? tang aye. there are 11 ayes. >> these ordinances are finally passed. [gavel] >> colleagues, it is 2:30, and because we have seven commendations that are going to be offered by five colleagues, i would like to go straight to commendations and they we will then consider the balance of our calendar. and i would like to be the first to present commendations today to someone who i think all our colleagues know and many members of the public know as a real hero, particularly today. we've just passed with items 10 through 20 the final approvals for the cpmc project. and i would like to invite up to the podium a man who was absolutely instrumental in getting this done, a real hero, lou girardo, where are you? come on up. (applause)

>> for those of you who may not know who this individual is, you may have heard about him as the owner of budine bakery, the oldest operating business of its kind in san francisco and symbol for our city. you may have also heard of him as an incredible civic leader who has served on city on many boards and commissions over the years. but for many of us, lou is really the reason why we were able to get the cpmc project done. about a year ago in july 2012, many will remember that project was at a significant impasse, and i think it's fair to say that parties were not happy with each other and we had really hit a bit of a dead end. and the only idea that we could agree on at that time between the mayor and the board of supervisors and cpmc was that we needed to find a third-party mediator to come in and figure

out how to move things forward. and all the parties threw out a number of names and there was one name that bubbled up to the top of everyone's list as a man who was at the podium today. of course, we're here in part to thank lou for the countless, countless hours that you spent over a six-month period. colleagues, as i think you know, several times a week, early morning for many hours, each of these mornings for many months, lou convened cpmc officials, ken rich represented the mayor, supervisors campos and farrell to conference >>xv in a number of locations around the city, and worked with all of us over what were incredibly complex and difficult negotiations. lou had tremendous business and other personal commitments during that time period and we were all amazed at how he truly went above and beyond what is required to serve our city. he was able over this time period to achieve a consensus

that frankly i did not expect i think many of us were pessimistic it when we walked into this process on what we were able to do. and, so, because of that in addition to a resolution that we're going to pass to honor lou's work, we have a proclamation signed by all 11 of my colleagues. i wish that this proclamation was in the form of a bat sign because what i would like to do if we have trouble in the future, lou, is put up the bat sign and call you back into service if you so choose. but in all seriousness, i cannot thank you enough. i know that we have our colleagues who also want to thank you, but you truly were a hero to me, to mayor lee, i know to all of us who worked on this project. i want to recognize the cpmc leadership officials who are here to thank them for their participation and for also frankly thanking them for agreeing to allow lou girardo to help mediate over this process. so, with that, lou, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

(applause) >> and i'd like to recognize the two colleagues of what with supervisor campos has referred to, the three amigos, starting first with supervisor farrell. >> thanks, president chiu. it's going to be the new voting box here at the board of supervisors. lou, i can't thank you enough. david chiu talked about it. colleagues, i've gotten to know lou -- i've known lou's family for a long, long time dating back to high school. there are certain families you grow up in san francisco that are truly gems of the community. from your children and your grandchildren that i've gotten to know, my children and your grandchildren have been in preschool together a few years. just such an incredible family. we all know lou now because he has budine and been involved in this process. i want everyone to know what an

incredible individual lou is and incredible family he has. i'll never forget the hours we spent together. ken and i were talking about sunday morning, over the holidays. i mean we spent obviously countless hours together. nights, weekends, long times. i think there's only one slammed door that i recall hearing at one point in time during the process, but you -- you are simply the reason we're here today. without a doubt we wouldn't be here without you. you have the city of san francisco owes you so much, not only your decades being involved in city government, and this process. i want to say thank you so much. it's been great working with you. i want to say fun. it was a long process, but incredibly rewarding to get to know you better. i really want to thank you for all that you did. colleagues, we would not be here without lou girardo, so, thank you. >> thank you, supervisor farrell. (applause) >> and to round it out i'd like

to acknowledge supervisor campos. >> thank you, mr. president. i'll try to keep it short. you know, when i first heard about lou girardo and i knew a little bit about him, the way that it was described to me by some of the members of the coalition was, you know, this is a person that we think might be a good fit to play this role and i had the opportunity to talk to lou because i wanted to, you know, see what he was about. and i have to say that after speaking to him, it was clear to me that the coalition got it wrong. i don't think he was a good choice. i think he was the only choice that we really could have made in terms of making this deal happen. you have a very complicated project that has a lot of different players, including four elected officials, you know, the three supervisors that were in the room and the mayor's office as well as the rest of the board of supervisors. each of us, not that we're

prima donnas, of course, with our own conflicting interests and concerns, and you had a very broad coalition that reflects the diversity of san francisco, and you have sutter and cpmc. and i don't know about anyone really but lou girardo would have the talent, the ability and the integrity to really bring it all together. i do think that the idea of a bat sign is something that makes a lot of sense, but i do think that we have to be careful when we use that because i think that one of the things that is clear to me about lou is that you have someone who gives and i am very appreciative of that. in thinking about what i would say, i thought of something that margaret mead said in terms of how you measure the true success of an individual, and this is something that i

would guide and how i measure my own level of success, which is i personally measure success in terms of the contributions that an individual and a human being makes to his or her fellow human beings. and by that measure, lou girardo, you're one of the most successful people i know and it's been an honor to know you. thank you. (applause) >> [speaker not understood]. you always got the final word in mediation, we would like to give you that final word. >> thank you for this honor. thank you for allowing me the opportunity to learn what i learned about san francisco through the eyes of you 11 and the administrators of cpmc. but i would tell you that when