consultant in the city who were marked at the calibre of organizers on campaigns and the city has been transformed. if you look at the room of the folks who were elected in november, many of us benefited from the work that he has done with so many folks, and those folks are in campaigns throughout the city. many of them are coming into city hall to work here. many of them are going to run for office themselves. that is a gift that will pay dividends for san francisco for decades. i want to thank the folks at stacy owens and co. and keeping me out of trouble. and as always, i want to thank bernie and eleanor burke. they didn't quite make it, which is probably good for me, because when they are here injured not just july the being in a place that they needed to be with one.

i will always be so grateful to have them in my life. also here earlier was my aunt carol who was also always there for me. -- to get through the last six months to joe atkins and stephanie rodriguez and jeff steinberger and nancy young and

diane sidd-champion and berdy bruhard and mitch ensinger. and jesse anacoa, and diane surf and beth ross. and i want to thank the voters. like any decent supervisor i'm convinced that my district is the best in san francisco from glen canyon to mission delores to diamond heights, where harvey milk made civil rights history and the neighborhood that gave proposition c more votes than any other district in san francisco. [applause] my people, my voters, are liberal and they are very liberal, in fact, but they're relentlessly pragmatic and they're my north star. it's an honor to represent them. thank you to each of my colleagues on the board, the board that i joined back in july and the mayor. everyone has been so -- was so

incredibly gracious to us. clerk calvillo, you and your team are a gift to the city. [applause] yeah. john givner, you are amazing and the folks from the city attorney's office do great work for the city as well. [applause] our sheriffs keep us safe, thank you. and harvey rose and severn and the folks with the budget analysts that help us to make sense of this complicated job that we have. and all of those folks in so many departments which i cannot name all of them, my staff warned me against that, but we have been a pain in the neck over the last six months and meeting with everyone and trying to understand what works with the city and what these departments need to do with their job and to serve the residents of san francisco better. and so thank you for your patience with us. i believe so strongly in

district elections and that belief is reconfirmed each time that we go through -- we have gone through one of these cycles. but it's been really reconfirmed with this class that we have here. as i look at my colleagues in the class of 2019, my confidence is stronger than ever and cathy and stephanie you had a challenger with seemingly endless resources that was infinite, but you had a district who knew you and your history and tenacity and your intelligence and your passion. and you had gigi and dominic and thank you all for giving us this extraordinary colleague. gord an marr, you are decades in the trenches leading social and economic justice fights from living wage to budget crisis and to free city college made you the only choice in your district. thank you for running. and matt haney, you have been a superstar the entire time that i

have known you. and you inhabit your own skin with ease and confidence but that does not stop you from recognizing the injustices that affect our world and that cause pain all around us and do not stop you from your relentless desire and intent to root out injustice and to make this a fairer world. i'm looking forward to serving with you. and shaman walton in a political environment that has small differences, you brought everyone across the city together. you have a track record of community involvement and service to our schools and our city and you're going to do great things under this dome and i'm very excited to work with you. and so i do -- i really believe in district elections, but as my other colleagues have said we have tremendous challenges in this city and they transcend district or neighborhood or tribe. we all know that we live in a city of glaring inquality, a city that is not yet figured out how to channel the extraordinary private wealth that's being accumulated and to channel that

to create and to make sure that we deliver effective and efficient and robust public services for all and establish a safety net that can be the model for the rest of the country. i believe that we can do it, i believe that we must do it. there are going to be moments along the way where we feel some frustration perhaps with each other, but i believe that this group, in this group that i believe that we can transcend that. i believe in our mayor and the folks who work with her as well. i do not love the phrase "city family," i think that it's a little creepy, but i do love this city and i believe in the city. i have faith in all of you. and i have even more faith in the neighborhoods and the communities that we represent. we are the resistance and now let's show the rest of america how it can be done. [applause] >> now representing district 10, simon walton.

>> are we on? [applause] well, first of all, thank you so much, and congratulations on being elected to represent us as board president. i think that you'll do knowa amazing job and i'm looking forward to working with you in that role. supervisor fewer gave us some good advice last night when we were recognized by the community in chinatown at an amazing event. and she said "never promise your significant other that you will be home in time for dinner. ". and i think that today's meeting is a -- [laughter]. is a testament to that. and you let us know and you made that true right away. so it's always good to have that on your first meeting, a reality check. i gave a three-part speech earlier today at our community swearing-in so i won't be long but i want to say thank you so

much to the entire district 10 community. we have strong resilient community, strong resilient neighborhoods in our district that worked very hard for us to get elected. so i want to thank all of them. and i want to thank our campaign consultant team, 50 plus one, for their amazing work and for their professionalism through this campaign. and making sure that they worked hard for us to run a professional campaign that turned into a victory. of course, i want to thank our campaign team and my legislative aides and our district 10 dream team. if you have not met them yet, they will be the people that you will see... [applause] also i just want to finish that out to gloria barry and chandler who ran in the race in district 10. thank you for stepping up. i know how hard it is to run in a district race and i appreciate

all of you pushing us to do better in the race. so thank you for being here as well this afternoon. to my family who was here, since 10:30, and stuck around for a while for the meeting, i wanted to just say thank you to them for being with me not only through the campaign but also for being with me throughout the years and all of our roles and all of our work throughout the community. when you work as hard as we do in the community you cannot do this without understanding family. you cannot do this without a family that has been an example of how to be a vessel to your community. and like supervisor stephanie said earlier, this is not about me, this is not about me as a district supervisor. it's really about the district that we serve and the people that we serve within the district. and i am here to serve you and work as that vessel. and i just want to say a couple more things as we close, but a lot of times we're focused on

the differences here in this city. and, by the way, there are some folks across this country, some folks in other cities, in the state of california who really have true differences they need to work through. but we need to focus on the commonalities that exist between us. and i'm talking about all 11 of us and i'm talking about with our mayor and our executive leadership, and i'm talking about with the communities that we serve. we have more in common in this city, we have more in common as leadership in the things that we want to accomplish. we all want to fight homelessness, fight affordability, and to make sure that people can live here in san francisco, first and foremost. we all want safe communities and we want to improve our schools and to address the gaps that exist in achievement. we all want equitable transportation and we want to make sure that san francisco is the best place and the best city for everyone. and so as we work together, the one thing -- and i said this earlier that i know that i can guarantee that we are going to

all disagree at some point in time. we're going to all disagree at some point in time and that's the only thing that i can promise. but how we work together and how we get over those disagreements and how we work with those differences is the most important and i'm excited about working with each and every one of you. i'm excited about -- and congratulations to all of my new colleagues who were elected with me in november. some of us twice last year. but thank you so much for all of your hard work. i want to thank all of my colleagues. id could not have been here -- i could not have been here without the support of the board of supervisors and like supervisor mendalmen pointed out, i tried to work to bring people together and to focus on those commonalities. because those differences are minor. if we can move together and get over a disagreement to get back out and fight for the next thing we'll do amazing work. i'm excited about that. thank you for being here today and thank you to the voters of district 10 and thank you to the leaders of this city. we have work to do.

it's game-time. thank you. [applause] >> so thank you for your comments. new colleagues and colleagues that were just here for a little while and came back. and right now before i make my closing remarks i would like to invite any other supervisors who would like to make some last comments, short last comments, if you would like to just put your name on the roster. i don't see any. so thank you very much. i think that everybody has had an opportunity to make some comments today. so this is a good thing. you know, i'm going to make my remarks now and you are going to hear how much we have in common. the thing is that people have been saying is that it's a common theme here -- we all want to work together. so that's what you are going to hear me talk about.

and here i go, because, you know, again, i want to thank my colleagues for the great honor and for allowing the opportunity for me to serve as the board president as i enter my seventh year of service on this board. and my 15th year of service as an elected public servant. i want to take this moment once again to really thank the three new people that just came in because i think you're going to make a wealth of difference on this board. i can see the potential there. and i want to be sure that you actualize your potential. the current president -- and this has been said already -- but the current president of a country spews the division and hate and trying to pit us against each other, fellow american to american and fellow human beings to human beings, but here in san francisco we have stood up and rejected these tactics. we will not stop. san francisco will continue to stand for justice, compassion

and tolerance. we will resist the dark cloud spewing from the white house that threatens our nation. we will resist the notion that kindness should be interpreted as weakness. instead we will move san francisco forward to show the nation and the world that what a 21st century city can be, both innovative in our ideas and progressive in our values. our city has many challenging issues to grapple with. too many of our residents are struggling. we have the largest income gap that continues to grow. we have families who are working one, two, and multiple jobs just to live hand-to-mouth. we have an unacceptable number of people that have nowhere to sleep at night except on the streets. we have immigrant communities who live with constant uncertainty and terror.

while we have our differences, even here in this chamber, those differences begin to look smaller against the backdrop of the polarization that we're seeing nationally. i believe that here in san francisco that there's more to bring us together than to tear us apart. we can find common ground, even across diverse perspectives, to address the problems of today and to ensure that we are better prepared for tomorrow. the people of san francisco are demanding action. and i know that with my 10 intelligent, dedicated colleagues that there are policy solutions that we can agree on without sacrificing any of our integrity as individuals. my whole life i have been dedicated to making the lives of children, youth and families better here in san francisco. my passion to build a better

city, especially for the most vulnerable communities, started long, long ago. even before my life as an elected official. i spent over 35 years working with the inner communities to strengthen and to expand not only child care but other children services and family services. that resulted in the operation of numerous civic organizations and initiatives. what led me to this work is perhaps the fact that i grew up in chinatown helping out in my family's small grocery store, back when business owners sold food on credit for customers who needed to eat before their next paycheck. i struggled in school, but all of that time i spent in my family's store made adding number comes easier to me than spouting poetry. and as a student working my way through city college it never occurred to me to reach for more until a counselor suggested that

maybe i should study engineering at cal. and that i did and so i finished my degree. after a few months working as an engineer i realized that it was not my calling. while i was in school i also had been working as a youth director at the chinatown ywca. that no longer exists now, but it was there. and as an educator for the north beach family planning organization. my passion and my life's work really is serving children and families of san francisco. i left the engineering field and never looked back. that was nearly 50 years ago. the role of president humbles me and it feels like -- i mean, it feels a little surreal to me, honestly. my career has never been an executed plot to obtain a specific title.

instead, i focused on how i have impact and how i can best serve my community. each time i take on a new role, or start a new initiative, it's because i see an opportunity to have a greater impact, to benefit vulnerable communities and families. during the 1980s and 1990s i grew a small non-profit organization with children's services and guiding it into a multimillion dollar organization that is now the city's largest early historic provider. i led coalitions to advocate for programs that today serve tens of thousands of san franciscoians and low-income san franciscoians and their families every single year. from the san francisco headstart program, the aging parent education network, to san francisco child care providers' association, and to chinatown beacon center and a well-known city-run preschool program,

these wins have never been about me, but always about the community. by fou 200 had i 2004 i found mo make more policy. and as a parent of public school kids, i ran and served two terms on the board of education. i am proud of the policies that were passed during my tenure, but i am perhaps most proud that i played a part in shifting the dynamics of the board from one of acrimony and politics to one of civility and student-centered policy discussions. this is going to be my seventh year as a supervisor. i am honored to serve my city and my district 7 neighbors. it is my privilege to be in a position that has the potential to lift up voices and to bring

people together to support san francisco's children and families. stepping into the presidency is another chance to have even greater impact. this is how i will approach the role to focus on collective, yes, collective impact over personal differences. i have been doing this work for a long time and i feel an urgency to respond to the crisis facing our city in a time of population growth and rising inequities. and i have an urgency to make as much impact as i can in my last two years as supervisor so i can make a difference in the lives of my children, of my grandchildren, and families throughout the city. colleagues, i know that every member of this board shares my urgency for action and i know that drawing upon our individual strengths will lead to a greater impact as a whole.

take my colleague valle brown, who spent years before joining the board, to work with residents to make the neighborhoods more safe and planting frees and making connections all along the business corridors and residential areas in the western addition. or sandy fewer, who dedicated hundreds -- hundreds of hours -- not hours -- hundreds of days and hundreds of months -- formally as a family advocate and organizer. and now as a relentless fighter on the board to build and preserve diverse communities in richmond and beyond, she will always fight to ensure that regardless of culture and language that residents will have their voices heard with respect and dignity. and my new colleague matt haney who has spent the last few years

advocating for changes to the criminal justice system, and to end mass imprisonment. and rafael mandelman who has brought his own experience to pushing for stronger policies to expand mental health policies and residential care facilities to those who need it most. aaron peskin, a life-long environmentalist who has never been afraid to challenge corporations who are unwilling to do their part in this climate change crisis. and hillary ronen, who in only her second year successfully fought for one of the most significant issues facing households today -- the minimum compensation ordinance, and continues to be a champion for all workers and immigrants. asha safai, who has made sure

that we never forget about the needs of our moderate and middle-income families. whether it comes to open space or affordable housing policies. and catherine stephanie, the first as you already heard, is the first and the loudest to ensure that our children are safe from gun violence. and walton, who is coming from a youth work development organization but who even before that as one of his first jobs after graduating college was already serving children and families with his work at the boys and girls club. colleagues, i believe that my job as your board president is to help amplify your work, to help to bridge differences and

misunderstandings when needed. and to help each one of my fellow public servants to be the most effective leader for your district and together for our entire city. i want to thank all of the workers out there who have built and continue to build our city. you will make san francisco what it is and you are not appreciated enough. i also want to thank all of my community leaders i have worked with and learned from. i want to thank my past legislative staff, olivia scanlon and martinez ramino. and i want to dance -- dance? dance is on my mind -- i want to thank my current staff who has been with me for several years and have been the backbone that has made me successful in bringing policies and changes to san francisco. they are jen lowe, and eric

loebaum. and, yeah, i -- [applause] i have it down here and most importantly, yes, i'll keep it there -- and most importantly to my family, my wife who is sitting in front here for several hours waiting for me to say something. my wife kathy. and my daughter shaundra and her husband james and my younger daughter carissa and her husband, dan. and to my baby granddaughter nyla and my baby grandson jamieson, they're both 2, and they remind me every day of why i do what i do. so in conclusion, i see kindness to others not as weakness, but instead as our strength. so thank you, thank you, thank

you. now let's all work together to make this a better city for all of our residents by together taking bold action. thank you. [applause] madam clerk do we have anything else on the agenda? >> clerk: that concludes our business for today, mr. president. >> this is what you have been waiting for. meeting adjourned. [applause] .

>> my name is naomi kelly the single-story for the 775 i started with the city and county in 1996 working for the newly elected mayor willie brown, jr. not only the chief of staff a woman but many policy advisors that were advising him everyday their supportive and nourished and sponsored united states and excited about the future. >> my name is is jack listen

and the executive director of a phil randolph institution our goal to have two pathways to sustaining a family here in san francisco and your union jobs are stroen to do that i have this huge way to work with the community members and i think i found my calling i started in 1996 working for willie brown, jr. i worked in he's mayor's office of housing in the western edition and left 3 years went to law school of san francisco state university and mayor brown asked me to be the director of the taxicab commission and through the process i very much card by the contracting process and asked me townhouse the city purchaser and worked with me and i became the

deputy administrator and . >> having trouble struggling to make ends meet folks will not understand what importance of voting is so we decided to develop our workforce development services after a couple of years offering pathways to sustainable jobs. >> (clapping.) >> we've gotten to a place to have the folks come back and have the discussion even if participation and makes sense we do public services but we also really build strong communities when i started this job my sons were 2 and 5 now 9 and 6 i think so the need to be able to take a call from the principal of school i think that brings a whole new appreciation to being understanding of the work life balance. >> (clapping.) >> i have a very good team around me we're leader in the country when

it comes to paid and retail and furiously the affordable-care act passed by 3079 we were did leaders for the healthcare and we're in support of of the women and support. >> in my industry i feel that is male dominated a huge struggle to get my foot in the door and i feel as though that definitely needs to change this year needs to be more opportunities for i don't know women to do what tell me dream i feel that is important for us to create a in fact, network of support to young people young women can further their dreams and most interested in making sure they have the full and whatever they need to make that

achieveable. >> education is important i releases it at my time of san mateo high ii come back to the university of san francisco law school and the fact i passed the bar will open up many more doors because i feel a curve ball or an where you can in the way can't get down why is this in my way we have to figure out a solution how to move forward we can't let adversity throw in the