in this room to make it possible. my first phone call in this project was to cal trans. in cal trans working together with the bay area with the mayor's office here in the county of san francisco and coast guard, official wild life, all of these came together to find a way when typically the system is designed to say no, people found a way to say yes to this project. the arts commission, this collusion support from the san franciscmuseum of modern art. i apologize for the folks i will be missing because this is a cast of a thousand that made this happen. we certainly love our lawyers in this

process. morrison who helped it become a very established and professional way in getting the contract involved in getting this project to an amazing legal footing. the technology network in san jose who made this a crucial project. i want to call out a thanks to or tactical team. we know how to make it small, not over 150 feet in the air. we have a studio, zone engineering and i have to say thanks to hmr who has been a rock star and directly one of the reasons this is happening. an extremely talented project. thank you all. i also want to just take a

moment to really acknowledge that while leo and i have done a lot of things m in this world, we would not be able to do it alone. there is only one person responsible for this project and that is executive director of the arts. luminarias. i can go on and on. i think i will throughout the night. do know that she's a special person and this entire community owes her a debt of gratitude. i want to thank leo and his family for bringing the level of artistic integrity for this work that somehow slipped

through the progress of a work of contemporary art parallel in art history. it has everything to do with leo and our interpretations with our discussion and that one minute that transformed how people will be receiving this project and how i can make this happen and lieutenant governor will join us at the ceremony at the bay light.org. i really want to thank our mayor who is a visionary in his own right and common good and who i had the pleasure of working with other projects and he's making this city better every single day. people should know that mayor embraced this team, this project ma way that had nothing

to do with really -- even, it was a matter of passion, a personal desire to see the work of art radiant and shine in our community it was an amazing gift. mayor lee, we owe you a great debt of gratitude. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> thank you. welcome everybody to the building in san francisco. gosh, your vision, i have been living with this vision for almost two years now ever since our city engineer said, come with me to this event and you are going to be surprised how we can turn infrastructure to a piece of

art. i have worked with so many projects with roads and buildings that we oftentimes cannot lift this heavy piece of metal or holes in the ground an construction and not be able to see the work of art that contributes to this city and future. amy, thank you for your incredible leadership on this. i met you first at this event here but was immediately sold on the possibility that we can unleash art in the most creative way. this is in fact a beacon for our arts community, for a world class city and it has the ability to attract some $50 million of contributions to our economic vitality a huge

base of fans that will visit our city. there is going to be 150 million visitors, i think it's going to be $97 million contribution to our committee already scaled by our travel association. so part of it is economics, but i actual, without even having those numbers in front of me knew that this was going to excite us. i actually know that when we unveil this tonight, the feeling that i'm going to be having, is we just won another world series because it's going to bring that kind of excitement into city. and to have this timed in a way in which we have just finished the 75th anniversary of the celebration of the bay bridge, we have opened the auditorium

and on our bay for the first time we have just finished the world series and the 55 sealing on our bay is a celebration for san francisco and this incredible rebounds that this city is experiencing can really only be complimented by the arts, because allows the arts to celebrate all the other things that we are trying to do economically to be covered, i think is an incredible cap on our future on what we can experience and exemplify to the rest of the world. this leaves me to an appreciation to the artist that he has not only visualized what 25,000 led lights can do but discovered a fashion in which will not see the same pattern at any time experience. this is kind that

have innovation that we are experiencing in san francisco that creativeness, that we've always wanted to have from our arts community to us with all the other things that we are doing in struggling everyday and sometimes there are good stories but art has always been an inspiration to me. you can imagine anything you want in these lights. the artist will say that leo has always said it and documented in so many other interviews to give yourself a chance to work with these 25,000 light is. to me it's the mustache. it will be for every child in us, the ability to celebrate, to see what's good and what we have done here, but i think it will be the beacon

for world class to happen here in san francisco. i look forward to -- we talked about this being a 2-year commitment. but we all know with the success this has, we are already and i will predict that people, including myself will want this to be on going certainly during my lifetime. [ applause ] >> so i have every expectation we'll about be right there hand in hand celebrating with you to create even more art in the city. by the way, it's budget time, so tom in the art commission, you have done very well with the opening of this timing with everybody else that we have the proper level of art to be creative, to bless us with all the things that are so positive and to exemplify the

arts community for what it's done. with that, i would like to introduce our artist leo villa real. >> thank you so much. i'm beyond thrilled to be here today. this has been an incredible 2-and-a-half years from the initial idea when ben davis asked me to consider the bridge and how it can be turned into a canvas and having thought about it and created an assimilation on the computer, animation that so many people saw and were inspired to get behind and enabled to happen. so many people to thank, but certainly folks at cal trans and mayor's office, governors office. there were so many hoops we had to jump through.

getting the permit was one of the miracles. i thank you for believing in public art and helping us get this done. amy has been amazing, our executive art director. [ applause ] amy was able to shepherd this impossible project through all the intricacies, i'm in incredibly grateful for her help, grateful for his efforts in another monumental task. he's raised $6 million of our $8 million. this project is an incredible gift by our pat

patrons through the city. this is an incredible piece. you don't have to buy a ticket. it's there and available. a very universal quality, it has some response to it. it's operating on a very primal level. i think we the technical team that put this piece up has been remarkable. zad and zoon has been a lifesaver. incredible individual who has never said no to me. everything is always been possible and bringing the team together to actually install this work. to make a photo shop simulation and 3d animation project. it

was in incredibly inspiring. i went out there on a cloudy day and it was incredible magic that was happening. i knew this was going to be fine if i can channel the interaction of all these systems into my work. so i'm very grateful for everyone who helps install this piece. we had lane closures. everything happened from 5 a.m. there were hundreds of thousands of cars and the contractors installing this 550 feet over the water. incredibly challenging work but here we are. i would like to thank my team and studio, everyone

helping, our lead programmer, transit for helping with all our networking, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes of help that nobody will know about, we have computers, wireless connections, i want to thank timothy child's who helps us invent this custom clip which we used to hang these lights on the bridge. there was a lot of behind-the-scenes that's it's taken to bring this work to a reality. i guess our patrons are also, that's a whole other -- unleashing generosity in the way that we have just really bologna way blown -- away.

incredible innovation at work and thankful to phillips for their equipment and standing behind they are technology and helping us achieve what we have done i guess we are here and ready to punch the button on the computer. we are using a laptop tonight and it's going to go on at 9:00. i'm just incredibly grateful and keep pinching myself that this is happening. i'm incredibly overwhelmed that this is happening and i'm eager to share this work with all of you. thank you.

>> i pledge allegiance to the flag to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> would you call the roll. >> please do. president mazzucco. >> present. >> vice president marshall -- excuse me vice president. >> present. >> commissioner marshall. >> present. >> commissioner chan. >> present. >> commissioner dejesus is in route. commissioner kingsley. >> present. >> and commissioner loftus is excused. you have a quorum and also with us is the chief of police gregory suhr and joyce hicks. >> thank you very much inspector monroe and welcome to a special night at the police commission

tonight. we have one quick agenda item which is the consent calendar and we will move into what i and the other commissioners consider a special presentation to four members of the san francisco police department who are san francisco's finest and heroes and with their work on the aircraft accident and please call item one. >> disciplinary action for the this time. >> commissioners you have a resolution for your review. are there any questions or concerns about the report? hearing none any public comment regarding this report? hearing none public comment is closed. can i have a motion? >> i move. >> second. >> thank you very much. it's

unanimous. please call item two. >> line item two certificate of appreciation. officer james cunningham lieutenant gaetano caltagirone officer antonette valenzuela officer derrick lee. >> thank you very much inspector monroe and i will -- why don't you please come forward officers, all four of you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, we invited these officers here tonight. ordinarily there will be another ceremony but the commission wanted to see these officers as soon as possible to recognize here hereoism and present them with a certificate of appreciation. it takes time to go through the medal of valor

process and we felt this was strongly to do for the members of the community to realize what these officers did and july 6 they went to san francisco international airport for a day watch watch nice clear day, not expecting much to go on. these were officers patrolling the streets of san francisco and now they're at the airport and do homeland security with other functions and these officers went to work and not expecting what happened that day and at 11:00 a.m. flight 214, a triple seven was landing coming in from korea and the plane crashed. there were 307 people aboard that flight that day with three fatalities. it could have been literally 100% worse. our

officers were the first on the scene. our officers didn't have protective uniforms and i heard officer cunningham had a short sleeve shirt on and they went to the scene and instead of watching they ran into a burning aircraft and i am going to start with officer jim cunningham. officer jim cunningham joined the san francisco police department -- he was a aid in 1988 and became a police officer in 1997. we have lieutenant gaetano caltagirone which i have known since we were five years old. he is a native san franciscan and entered the police department in 1995 and became

sergeant and rank of lieutenant in 2010 and served in many of the district stations and then we have officer antonette also known as annie valenzuela and she's the lead of the san francisco police honor guard. officer valenzuela entered the police department 1988 and served in various assignments including the academy and officer derrick lee who joined the police department in 1998. he too served in many of the district stations and these officers have gone to the airport for a different assignment but they went there for a reason that day to save live and what we were told starting with officer cunningham that when firefighters went up to fight the fire he was on the plane and was pulling off. lieutenant caltagirone arrived and he with the other officers

were throwing knives up so passengers could cut themselves out of the seat belts and he went on the plane. officer valenzuela getting people off on of the plane and pulling them from the scene and officer lee doing the same thing. we don't really train our officer dos that, do we chief? but they did it and i will turn it over to the chief. >> i want to bring up one more person. i think deputy smith is missing and caltagirone was the original commander and the chief showed up and everyone did what they do and they train to board airplanes i don't think anybody planned it's going to happen the time it does and i couldn't be more proud of the actions and the other folks not at the

airport that day and it was unbelievable and seconds only to the fact that jim was in short sleeves the whole time and people were asking about protective gear, and what can't go across is the smell of the gasoline and the fire and damage you can see, but if anybody has been around the smell of strong gasoline you don't want to see fire and they saw it and they stayed and because of their actions none of the firefighters and the kree and many of the passengers it wasn't worse and god bless you for the action you took that day and the leadership to get it done. >> so on behalf of the san francisco police commission you are true heroes. i can't thank you enough. commissioners. commissioner truman.

>> well, i join both the chief and president mazzucco in my thanks. your actions speak more than anything that anyone up here could say. thank you so much for your service. officer cunningham, officer caltagirone, officer valenzuela, officer lee and of course my dear friend deputy chief smid td you are the shiny example you showed on that day and this day. thank you very much. >> thank you. commissioner kingsley. >> i would like also to add another deep thanks of gratitude for your heroism. we spoke a little bit out in the hallway but i'm also very happy to see you all standing here and able to continue doing your job that

you are safe as a result of this and we're all grateful for that as well. that you did go in. you did your job in a you supurlative heroic manner but you also did it in a manner where you came away okay as well and that is very important to the people of san francisco as well and thank you very much. >> commissioner chan. >> thank you officers, lieutenant, and chief for your bravery, your heroism, your selflessness and i was flying out of sfo that weekend and reading about what was happening there and i couldn't have been more proud of our department and what you did that day and helping so many people and it was sad that we had the

casualties and it could have been worse and you saved people of people you don't know and a huge thanks to your family for letting you do that and supporting you as you put your lives on the line for perfect strangers and people from abroad coming here and families and children and think about all the lives that you touched and they're going on because of what you did and i am extremely proud and grateful for your service and not just that day but everyday you're with the department. >> dr. marshall. >> great job. thank you. you must feel great. you have to feel great about what you did, and i know people on the plane were like wow -- i am sure they were glad to see you. i know i would have been. >> we're going to present you certificates. we're very proud of you and i see your family members and i want to thank

your family members and friends for sharing them with us and the san francisco police department and to all of you and the retired officers present and the current officers i can't thank you all enough for what you do. you're here here heroes and we have supervisor to say a few words. >> hello everyone. good evening commissioners, chief suhr and all the officers standing here. i wanted to thank you for all of your work and not just what happened at the airport and everything that you do and on behalf of the board of supervisors we wanted to thank you for that as a token of our appreciation we have signed by all members of the board a certificate of honor for you so thank you very much. [applause] >> officers chief suhr is going to appreciate