sb 1045 is a bad piece of legislation and we should not be implementing it. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am jessica layman, the executive director of senior and disability action. i want to thank you for having this hearing and taking the time to look at these issues. we all agree their issues around mental health and housing and services in our city right now. i know you've heard from other people that sb 1045 is the wrong approach. people overwhelmingly oppose the approach taken on sb 1045. at the same time, when we talked about our priorities for the year, mental health services, the need for expanding mental health services for seniors and people with disabilities was at the top of the list. so people know that we need services, and people are saying

i'm having trouble accessing services. we have start there to make sure any time somebody needs services that they can get it, that there's follow up, intensive case services to make sure that people aren't falling through the cracks that we know they are. today, we're talking about income, and it's almost impossible to find housing in our city for that amount of money. we have a lot of knowledge in the city, right, between city staff, between the supervisors, and perhaps most importantly, people who have lived here, people who have been traumatized by 5150, people who have needed mental health services, people who have had substance use. we've got to bring those folks to the table, and i feel confident with all of us, if we

back up and really look at what do we need to do, we can come up with some good solutions that work for everyone. thank you. >> hi. good afternoon. jennifer friedebach, coalition on homelessness. thank you for having this hearing. it is an incredibly important issue. we have so many people out on the streets suffering from mental illness that we all see all the time. i think what we all do as a city and policy makers is oftentimes we look at the person and not ask what happened to them. maybe think what's wrong with them, but most often blame them for being out there, and very rarely do we say our system is failing, and the reason that they're out there is our system

failed them. we have -- i know we have proposals in front of us, and people are talking about 1045, the coalition on homelessness is opposing that. we do not think that's going to solve the issue that we're looking at. we think it's coming from a political perspective. we do not think it's centered around people with experiences, with psychiatric crises, and that's what we have to do. we have to bring them back in, figure out exactly what's going to work for them, instead of putting them in a system that's incredibly expensive and in the end doesn't add any capacity to our system, doesn't get us any further than where we are now. conservatorships, there's an organization across the state that have weighed in and said

listen, the reason we're not bringing people in in a conservatorship process doesn't change anything. i urge you to continue this conversation to really bring -- >> chair mandelman: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am peter, and i am here speaking truth and power, free of all fear. so i got to wonder, what's the thinking here today? the homeless man on the street that talks to god, that talks to the creator, he's the one that's a 5150? or is it those in the system that are trying to work something out that never seems to happen, the same system that

did the very same thing from the native americans from that time to this moment? a system that's run by bankers, a system that has the bar association of lawyers -- liars -- lawyers, that have taken overall three branchs of government a long time ago. a very, very corrupt system that places even law enforcement in a tough position because they have spirit and souls, as well, but they're controlled by this corrupt system, and it's time for them to arise and take it over. it's time for us all to arise and take this over. why aren't the churches being charged with false advertisement? love one another, do unto one another. there's plenty of ways to take care of the homeless issue. i've talked to plenty of students. i said walk out of school and

see how fast they find an answer because it's a financial leverage if the students were to do that. as you are surely as the -- as su surely as the fires were commanded, a breath away will be the earthquakes, will be the explosions in the economic and corporate sectors, and the fire from beyond and down under as -- >> chair mandelman: thank you. [inaudible] >> clerk: next speaker, please. >> chair mandelman: are there any other members of the public who wish to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. supervisor -- vice chair stefani? >> supervisor stefani: thank you, chair mandelman. first, i want to thank everybody from public comment

who came out to speak. i know this is a very emotional topic for everybody. we all come at it with our own experiences, whether it's personal or family or the work that we do. and i want to thank you all for sharing your thoughts with us here today and especially, you know, to the woman who said about those going into treatment programs, you're right. becoming sober is mentally, physically exhausting experience. for people who go into 90-day treatment programs, they should have housing. they should not go into the streets. that's one of the reasons i cosponsored legislation to prioritize those who are coming out of treatments. because why invest somebody for 90 days when they're getting sober, and putting them back out on the street? i think it's something we need to understand about addiction and the disease of addiction.

if you don't understand what it's like to have that living inside your head, about wanting to take the next drink, and you can't. jennifer friedenbach was right. you don't hate the person, you hate the disease. the reason why i called this hearing is because i hear over and over again, and i see over and over again people suffering in our hospitals, going in and out on 5150 holds. whether you like it or not, they're going in on 5150 holds because what they're doing on the street is causing them to be taken to the hospital, and they need that care and my point in calling is not about sb 1045, it's not about locking people up. that's not what this hearing is about.

it's about how do we get our departments, our city departments, to coordinate better. how do we think about coordinated exit? how do we help the person that's leaving p.e.s.? how many more type of beds do we need? how many beds? that's what this hearing is about, because if we don't look at that -- at those investments, we're just going to keep doing this over and over again, which is the definition of insanity if we don't make any changes. so that's why i called this hearing. we need to understand what the departments are doing better. we are doing good work. i want to thank you four coming. there is a lot of work going on at s.f. general, a lot of good work going on.

i know all of my colleagues here want to do better. we are in charge of the budget. we want to know how to spend your dollars to get at this problem to help the people who are suffering on our streets. that's what i want to do and that's why i called this hearing. i want to thank those who presented, i want to thank my colleagues for their thoughtful questions because we're going to keep at this. this is not the end of this discussion for me. i'm going to keep at it, i'm going to keep asking questions, demanding answers, and i'm going to keep hearing from you. come to my office. follow up with your comments. let me know what you think, what you think we can do better. i want to know. so again, i want to thank chair mandelman for having this hearing, for scheduling, and thank you to the department heads and everyone who spoke. we have a lot of work to do, and thank you for the good work

that you do. >> chair mandelman: thank you. do you want to have this continued or filed? okay. so i'll continue this to the call of the chair. we can take that without objection. mr. clerk, please call the next item. >> clerk: agenda item number four is a hearing to identify the scope of illegal dumping in district ten. current resources public work has devoted to curb illegal dumping and long-term plans to reduce ildeal dumping. >> chair mandelman: supervisor walton, this is your hearing, and the floor is yours. >> supervisor walton: thank you, chair mandelman, and i want to thank everyone for coming out this morning -- or i should say this afternoon. as i go throughout the -- my community. as we drive, walk, jog and spend time in the streets here

in san francisco, we see trash and debris being left on our streets and sidewalks on the daily. and illegal dumping is really proportionate in this area in san francisco. we are he here to hear from public works, recology about the problem and here some of the things that they're doing about the issues. i want to thank d.p.w. and recology for coming out and presenting as we discuss solutions. the teams at d.p.w. and recology have been responsive when we ask them questions about people who dump trash. this is not just about how our streets look, but it's also about the resources that we take away from addressing other issues in the cities because we have to address illegal dumping

which is costing up to $10 million a year as a city. in addition to recology and d.p.w., we have sergeant james pacini from the san francisco police department's bayview station and representatives from recology on-site for wes, and there may be other staff members here. but with that said, i want to first turn this over to hear from mr. larry stringer who's a deputy over at the department of public works. thank you so much for being here, and mr. stringer, it's on you. >> thank you, supervisor walton and supervisors. illegal dumping is a huge problem in san francisco. kind of all over, but it is extremely probably at its worst in the bayview. there are a number of reasons why we have illegal dumping.

one of them starts with inadequate garbage service. we find out from people that they either have insufficient garbage service and what happens is it ended up on the sidewalk, on a corner or in an abandoned area in the city. one of the second areas that we struggle with drastically is with construction debris. as the picture depicts, this was not somebody just cleaning out their household bar gagarb this is somebody that has done some sentence stiextensive rec and instead of take transgender to recology, they dumped on the

street. this looks like a tenant, and in any case, they put it on the sidewalk and unfortunately for us, we do respond within 24 to 48 hours and we clean it up. however, there's a better way of disposing it. and then, the other challenge that we face when we have illegal dumping is we try and find out who's the pull prit, and if we can -- culprit, and if we can find them, then, we go after them kind of aggressively. we're looking for i.d.s, anyone who might be bumpidumping the material, and then, we go after them. however, there are cases that

we found where someone else cleaned out a house, and the first person took it upon themselves to dump it somewhere else. a couple of slides, just give you an idea here within the period of the rest of the city, we had a total of, wow, 75,000 total requests for that, of which 10,000 were in the bayview. of which in a month, we had 6800 service requests for illegal dumping.

annually, as you can see, it's 82,605 between recology and us that we respond to on a yearly basis for abandoned waste and illegal dumping, and this kind of just highlights illegal dumping in the bayview. and we get all types, from commercial, residential, household, and -- large and small. in our current summary for dumping for the period of time, since december, we've picked up 858,050 pounds of dumped material, and that was with the

help of recology packers. the graph kind of indicates we've been cutting down on it. however, we're not able -- it's not sustainable because we're actually using heavy equipment, and that's been on a weekly basis. we are conducting two illegal dumping proactive runs in the bayview with recology two times a week. we added one in the last couple of months. we were doing it once a week, and we were not keeping up. so recology kindly added to work with us and add a second packer, so they're now running two days a week. we also during the last months did some outreach and enforcement in the bayview area where we were having targeted problems. so i think jennings and i think

wi i -- ingle were two of the worst areas. we found that 252 of the properties audited, 90 of them were found to be with insufficient service or no service at all. over the past 15 years, we've tried a number of different things. none of them have been, like, what would you call it? the magic bullet to help stop the problem? so one of the things we're looking at, we did some targeted outreach about potential residents that would be willing to do cameras within the area and we did find -- we canvassed and found 15 businesses and residents that were actually willing to deploy cameras. another strategy that we're looking at, and it's going to take some minor tweaks of legislation. so you saw a lot of

construction debris, large and small, were looking at trying to have a mechanism in place before permits are signed off by d.b.i. that they produce a receipt for the debris and where it was dumped so that we can verify that it actually made it to where it was supposed to go, and that would be a requirement of the permit. we found that philadelphia and l.a. had legislation that allowed ticketing if there was illegal dumping. and then, the last one is a dumping strategy, a dumping

task force which will involve several city agencies. one of the challenges that we have currently with illegal dumping is there aren't sufficient laws to effectively go after in great deal when you catch an illegal dumper, okay? and the last thing i'll talk about briefly is we recognize illegal dumping being a problem not just in d-10 but throughout the city. we're getting ready to embark on a public awareness campaign to get ready for that. we're looki we're -- i think it's time for us to go on a public awareness and marketing campaign to change the behavior.

it's something that everybody will remember but also everybody will embrace and help. so in a nutshell, that is it. i'm very happy that supervisor walton is taking this up. we need some help in the enforcement area, and i think we're looking at better solutions on how we can tackle the problem. >> supervisor walton: thank you, mr. stringer. before you come up, do you -- do either of my colleagues have any questions for d.p.w. at this time? just a few questions, mr. stringer. you said 79 people were contacted on jennings and

ingalls. what do you mean by contacted? >> no, we have an outreach and enforcement team. they knocked on the door or they engaged the business about garbage service, about proper containerization, about the potential for adding more service, but also, some of those were about adding cameras. so we just counted all the contacts that we actually made. >> supervisor walton: i know we talked about cameras, and you said 15 businesses so far agreed to ad cameras. did they give any timeline on that? >> no, and there's the win issue that we have to talk about. funding, where that's coming from. we do have quotes from two different systems, the most expensive one being 1,000 and the other one being 500, and we're still looking at if there

may be an incentive or program that we can help them with. >> supervisor walton: you talked about a program in l.a. that is a reconfiscatetion of cars. >> they were businesses that actually got caught and sounded like it was vehicle forfeiture, not necessarily returning. >> supervisor walton: i'll definitely follow up with you about that after the visit. thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisor walton: mr. giusti is here to present on behalf of recology. >> thank you, supervisor walton, supervisors. illegal dumping is a big issue for recology. our regional manager is here, so if we have some questions,

we can direct them to him, as well. i just wanted to remind you what recology does on a daily basis and the resources we put to illegal dumping. we work at the direction of public works on this and through the city's 311 reporting system. in addition to the 311, we also have reports that are made by our field supervisors, the calls that come into our customer service center and calls that come into the radio room from the chavez street yard. so the numbers are bigger than eve what director stringer reported. it's probably closer 11,000 calls. monday through friday, we have ten crews out there, working together with a packer truck,

which is one of the big traditional trash trucks. and then, we have a panel truck that we can collect things on, washers, dryers, refrigerators that are highly recyclable. so the crews work together, they help each other load the materials in the trucks and they're split into two shift. one shift of two crews started at 3:00 a.m. and works until around 11:00 a.m. or noon, and then, the second is from 4:00 p.m. until midnight. we have eight drivers on saturday and six drivers on

sunday because we don't do the on call bulky items on the weekend. that's purely for the waste. we have an on board routing system so the drivers will get their requests on the systems in their trucks. so that is really in a nutshell what we do on a daily basis seven days a week, to try and keep up with the abandoned waste and then the illegal dumping in san francisco, and then, we can answer any questions you might have, as well. >> supervisor walton: thank you, mr. giusti.

any questions for my colleagues in recology? just a couple of questions. i know there's been a couple of remarks about abandoned trash, what do you do? >> we'll also work alongside public works and we'll do what we call corridor walks, where i'll actually print out ledgers of customers and see what kind of service, who doesn't have service, who may not have adequate service, and walk the streets with public works. when we find something like that, we let them know that this person might not have adequate service, or they don't

have service. public works also has the ability to require commercial businesses to either put locks on their containers or to subscribe to inside service if it seems to be they're a nuisance with people spreading the trash out, also. >> supervisor walton: so i know there was a point in time where you had investigators out that would try to catch people that were illegally dumping. >> right. so we actually hired a private investigation firm to help us with security issues around our site, and we had a contract with them. and so as part of that contract, we had their services, so we said hey, we've got a little side job for you to do as part of this, and we knew some spots in district ten that just get hammered all the time. we said hey, would you do a

stakeout for us? what's doing the dumping, and what does it look like? they did that for us. they did the van with the blacked out windows and staked out a couple of locations in the bayview. then, to exasperate the project, individuals and homeless individuals know it's going to happen. they congregate in the area, and when it's dumps, they're swarming over it, trying to find something that would help their situation. it's not something we planned to do, it's side thing to a contract that they were already working for with us, and we took that material that they did for the investigation, and we gave it to public works. >> supervisor walton: how can we work on something to possibly get something that happens more consistently in terms of working to get

investigators out to catch people that are illegally dumping on our streets. >> i think we would be glad to sit down with you and people from the police department. we've met with catherine brown from the bayview. maybe together we could find out some sort of task force or strategy to figure out who is the illegal dumping and doing that cause a deterrent to it in the first place. >> supervisor walton: thank you, mr. giusti. i did have a question for, i believe, nancy -- and affirmative me if i pronounce your last name wrong. [inaudible] >> supervisor walton: thank

you. >> i have about 2200 or so requests. i'll have the exact number in a second. from january 1st to march 10, we had 2318 reports to 311. >> supervisor walton: and that was just in district ten? >> district ten. >> supervisor walton: do you know how that compares to the rest of the city? >> i don't have that information, no. >> supervisor walton: okay. i'll follow up with you. >> yes. i'll get that to you. >> supervisor walton: any of my colleagues want to follow up? okay. want to make sure we have a conversation around one of the major concerns is quality of life particularly in our

district. as someone who lives close to industrial areas, as we talk about ingalls, as we talk about jennings, and everything along the way as you go down jennings and ingalls, trash is just more imperative every single day. our office is going to send out letters to the residents in the district primarily in high dumping concentrations in district ten and viz valley. the reality of it is, too, that we're going to work on some

very aggressive legislation that will combat people dumping on our streets. i was having some conversations with the city attorney about how high we can go up in terms of fines. we can go very high. also about taking their vehicles away and licenses for contractors that are caught dumping. and also penalties and building permits, etc., as we catch some of these perpetrators, particularly people who operate businesses in our city. we know there's some bad actors, so we're going to be hard to address this. i do want to thank recology, d.p.w. and sfpd for the work that you do. when we reach out to have places clean, you're

responsive, but the reality is we just need it to stop. we live in the area where the dumping's located, too, and i do know that's a problem, as well. i do have one more question for d.p.w. before we continue this hearing to the call of the chair. i know we have overnight crews that go out in certain areas of the city. where are we in terms of having one dedicated to bayview and to district ten? >> we are -- we have crews that are dedicated to go all over the city. there's a truck assigned to the bayview in the city. that's it. as far as what we have during the day, it's nowhere near the same. that's kind of where -- where it's at. >> can we get some of that in

bayview? >> what i'll say is i'll be happy to sit down and talk to you about it. there's a resource thing and the responsibilities we have citywide, we can sit down and talk about how we can look at that. >> supervisor walton: do you know what the cost would be? >> no. we'll have to sit down and talk about that. >> supervisor walton: okay. >> chair mandelman: thank you, supervisor walton. i believe i heard a motion to have this item continues to the wall of the chair -- continued to the call of the chair. >> clerk: we can take that after we hear public comment. >> chair mandelman: oh, you are right. is there any public comment on this item? very good. public comment is now closed. thank you for that. we will take the motion to continue this to the call of the chair without objection, and mr. clerk, are there anymore items before us today?

>> clerk: there's no further business. >> chair mandelman: then we are adjourned. . >> shop and dine the 49 promotes loophole businesses and changes residents to do thirds shopping and diane within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services we help san francisco remain unique and successful where will you shop and dine shop and dine the 49. >> my name is neil the general manager for the book shop here

on west portal avenue if san francisco this is a neighborhood bookstore and it is a wonderful neighborhood but it is an interesting community because the residents the neighborhood muni loves the neighborhood it is community and we as a book sincerely we see the same people here the shop all the time and you know to a certain degree this is part of their this is created the neighborhood a place where people come and subcontract it is in recent years we see a drop off of a lot of bookstores both national chains and neighborhoods by the neighborhood stores where coming you don't want to - one of the great things of san francisco it

is neighborhood neighborhood have dentist corrosive are coffeehouses but 2, 3, 4 coffeehouses in month neighborhoods that are on their neighborhoods that are on their own- that's - working for the city and county of san francisco will immerse you in a vibrant and dynamic city that's on the forefront of economic growth, the arts, and social change. our city has always been on the edge of progress and innovation. after all, we're at the meeting of land and sea. - our city is famous for its iconic scenery, historic designs, and world- class style. it's the birthplace of blue jeans, and where "the rock" holds court over the largest natural harbor on the west coast. - the city's information technology professionals work on revolutionary projects, like providing free wifi to residents and visitors, developing new programs to keep sfo humming,

and ensuring patient safety at san francisco general. our it professionals make government accessible through award-winning mobile apps, and support vital infrastructure projects like the hetch hetchy regional water system. - our employees enjoy competitive salaries, as well as generous benefits programs. but most importantly, working for the city and county of san francisco gives employees an opportunity to contribute their ideas, energy, and commitment to shape the city's future. - thank you for considering a career with the city and county of san francisco. >> we take a lot of pride in what we do. the electric shop covers all of

waste water, so out of this location here, we cover everything from oceanside to southeast plant and all the computations including treasure island and yerba buena. we have all the preventative responsibility, maintaining maintenance and also keeping up with work orders from operations. i would say one of the things fortunately for me is the staff is incredibleably motivated. the staff here knows what to do, how to do the job safely, and it makes my job incredibly easy. >> they know the job, and they know the challenges, and i think it's all about personal pride. they want to do a good job. from our maintenance group to our i.n.c., dedication to the

people. when they're going home, and they're crossing the bay bridge, and they get a call that there's a problem with a pump station on treasure island, they return to work. they turnaround in westbound traffic and get back to work and get this pump back in line, and i can't tell you how much that means to me as a boss and the city and county of san francisco. >> as a group, if they didn't do what they do, the streets would be flooded with waste and gray water, and it could become a health hazard. we take a lot of pride in what we do, and we do the jobs right, and you walk away fulfilled that you've done the . >> thank you for coming today. my name is debbie mezlo,

and i commissioner near on the status of women. [applause] >> thank you, i'll take it. the women's rrs history month. i want to thank all of the people that are here today as we launch women's history month. it is an incredible thing to see elected officials, commissioners, community leaders, our male allies who are here, so thank you for coming to spend this time with us. i'd like to recognize my colleagues on the commission on the status of women, and if you will tanstand as i call your name. commissioner sonya melara. [applause] >> commissioner melara. [applause] >> they're celebrating, too. [laughter] >> i know. commissioner andrea shorter. [applause] >> commissioner cary

pomerance. [applause] >> i also -- if you'll indulge me, i wanted to introduce and recognize marge fillhour, who is on the commission with us. and introduce our director, dr. emily maraza. [applause] >> i wanted to say a couple quick things. i wanted to see what a privilege it is to serve on the commission on the status of women in san francisco. it is the strongest commission in the country. and there are a couple of reasons why: number one, we have a department that backs us up, as well as res sources dedicated to us per authority of the mayor to implement our mission, which is to uplift the quality of life for women and girls in san francisco. we have a particular focus on prevention of violence and economic equality. we also have a very unique history in san francisco, which is this: many decades ago the u.n.

adopted human rights treaties specifically for women and girls. it is called the "convention to end the discrimination against women." it codifies us as equals in the law. now, the people of san francisco voted to adopt this locally. we were the first city to do this, and for many years the only city to do this. and we did it in the face of the federal government failing to do this, which i think speaks to history repeating itself now. but the people of san francisco adopted this, saying to the women and girls in our community, we see you, we respect you, and you deserve dignity. so i'm always proud to be a san franciscan when i think about that, so it is such a privilege to serve on the commission. march is my favorite month because it is women's history month, and it gives us a focus around highlighting women and really honoring these unsung heroins we which in our community every day. speaking of honoring heroines, i have the opportunity to introduce

our mayor, mayor london breed. this is our first opportunity to celebrate her during women's history month. i wanted to say a couple of things about her. i've known the mayor for many years. before she became a supervisor, before she answered the call and really led us through a difficult time in this city, before she answered the call to leadership and became our mayor, and i can tell you a couple of things about her. number one, she has always been a leader in this community around strength and grit and resilience and self-determination, so thank you for that, even before you were in an elected office. she has always been there for women. she has been a mentee on senator kamala harris, whom i've worked for for many years, and she was there through the good times and the bad. so when she supports you, she supports you, and i think that is rare. and she is a person of action. she is going to get stuff

done. since she has been the mayor, she has worked for strengthening protections for sexual assault survivors, and for sexual harassment guidelines here at the city, underscoring that all people have the right to work in their work places without violence. she has el held up our youth, making it a priority to give internships every summer, that economic pathway that is so important, as well as for girls in our community. i'm proud every time i get to say mayor london breed. [applause] [cheering] >> thank you commissioner mezlo, and thank you to everyone who is joining us here today. i also would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of our elected officials. our chair, vicki hennessey is here. thank you for joining us. and our treasurer, jose, is joining us as well. and thank you to our fire

chief, joanne white, for being here, as well as the director of emergency management, mary ellen carroll, thank you so much. some amazing women leaders in the city and county of san francisco. i'm just loving the crowd today. i am so excited. it is about time that we kick off women's history month with a woman mayor, isn't it? [applause] >> and oftentimes when you talk about women and you talk about incredible women, it's usually names that most of us recognize as important figures, like kamala harris, who is running for president, and nancy pelosi, who is the speaker of the house, and amazing woman, and all of these incredible women from san francisco and all over the country. today i chose to honor a number of women who are

also heros, who are heros in this city, who are heros in their respective communities, and they are doing things that are absolutely amazing, not because they're looking for recognition but because they love and care about their community. and they have spent their entire lives serving other people for the purposes of making sure that their communities and their cities thrive. and so the first person that i am recognizing is someone who have known my entire life. we know her as utey. and there is little utee rutherford has been an important figure in our community. let me tell you, this woman has done so many amazing things for so many

people. the list goes on and on and on. yes, we know in the filmore western community about the work that she has done around the turkey give-aways, the toy give-aways, the -- every time there is a funeral, she is the one who is cooking the food. every time someone comes home after serving time, her house is the house that they go to to get some support. and oftentimes she is doing this by pulling her own money out of her own pocket to help support people in the community. utey is there to uplift us, she is there to pray for us, she is there to support us, she is there to comfort us, especially during challenging times in the western addition community. she is this unifying support and voice. she is just a constant support. and even when we're going through oftentimes very challenging times, she is right there to lift us up. in a way that just makes

us feel better. we are so lucky to have her in the western addition community. we are so lucky to have had here in our lives for so long. whether it is feeding the seniors at queen ada, and they love to see you coming. they love to see you coming because you always give them a smile and a kind word. you don't just serve food. you give of yourself to people. you've been doing it for so long, you have raised two amazing kids. look at little rodney over there. i see you, big rodney, and your partner who has been there for you. you guys are like the first couple of filmore. they're like the first mom and the first daddy of filmore. we are just so blessed and lucky that, you know, you are such a kind person with a kind heart, who gives back to the community time and time again. and so when i was thinking about people to honor, all i can think about is utey,

utey, whether it is me calling and saying, i need some chicken, and you're like, big rodney, you've got to fry linda some chicken. or we need your help, utey, we need you to come and take up the mantel for whatever it takes, and you always say yes. you always answer the call. so many people are here today because you answered the call when they need you the most. [applause] [cheering] >> we're going to have to make some new rules around here. no, somebody is getting married. they're happy. but, you know, it just means so much to just know you and to have you as a part of my life and so many folks who are here today. so i just thought it was more appropriate than ever, as we celebrate the kickoff of women's history month, to honor a true phenomenal woman. ladies and gentlemen,

today we honor utey rutherford. thank you so much. come on up. [applause] [cheering] >> i would just like to start off by saying, thank you so much, mayor london breed, for recognizing me. i truly appreciate it. and to the beautiful city of san francisco. to my lovely family, to my lovely family, and to my wonderful friends, that always stand by me, always stand by me. for everything i ask for for the community, i call them, and they come.

they stand by me and for me. and i would like to acknowledge my husband rodney, my god son jimmy, my brother sadik, my brother sean, and my brother wendell is not here. anything i ask them for to help me with the community, they help me. i love working for my community. it is something i love to do. and i have a briend, and she is here, stephanie jackson. we've been friends for 28 years. and she worked at raw aid, and they've been volunteering with seniors for over 10 years. and i just have this drive in my heart to help, to do. and i just want to make san francisco and my community the best i can. and i just want to thank you again, mayor, for this wonderful, wonderful award. [applause] [cheering]

>> we also have for each of our honorees -- as mayor, i get a scarf with my name on it. and, in fact, i wanted to take this opportunity to show you the scarf. each of the honorees will be getting one. of the city and county of san francisco. if you look close, you'll see the african-american on the culture complex, right there. [applause] [cheering] >> and courtesy of john's grill. they wanted to make sure you had a lovely romantic didinner for two for you and your husband. so her is a gift certificate for john's grill and a scarf. congratulations. [applause] >> and all of the friends and family that are here are going to treat her to dinner, right? [applause]

>> so the next honoree, i actually started working for back in, i think, kind of right out of college, back in 1997. anne-marie conroy was my former boss, and sometimes still believes she is my boss. but, she has not just been a great boss, she has been a great friend. you know, it was -- i was fresh out of college, working my first job, and didn't know everything i thought i knew. and she has been not only a friend and a great boss, but she has been a great mentor. someone who helped guide me in my political career. her work started early. she is a lawyer, but she served on the board of supervisors. she was the director of the treasure island development authority. she was the dreblght director of the department of emergency management, but what inspired me most

about her work was when she served as a board member for partners ending domestic abuse, and how she was committed to raising money to help provide support for women who were escaping some of the most challenging of circumstances. her work oftentimes was not always recognized. in fact, when i worked for her at the treasure island development authority, there was a lot of challenges around the housing there. and a percentage of that housing went to formerly homeless families. and anne-marie and i had this conversation about how we could make that work. i'm, like, how are we going to make it work for the families? she just basically said, we're going to make it work for the families. we have this housing and part of what we're going to do is make sure we improve the bus routes. there was a program that she and john stewart's company worked on to provide furniture and other opportunities for the families who were getting started, who had been formerly homeless.

the work that she did to not only make the housing work at that time, but in the future and to incorporate it into the agreement, so that families who can't afford to live on treasure island wouldn't be left out of the process, is work that i've always admired about what she has done. she is now working at the u.s. attorney's office, dealing with some of the most challenging of crimes, and continuing to bring innovative resources and plans to the job that she does. she is one of those persons who is very creative, and she is very fun. and she knows how to decorate a house or anything else, for that matter. she is oftentimes the person that i go to for advice and counsel on how to handle things. and in every single instance, every single time, in giving advice and talking about issues, it really comes from the heart. and it comes from her love of community. and it comes from her love in wanting to help and support people.

as a daughter of san francisco, she has made us all proud with her accomplishments and everything that she has done. and i wanted to take this opportunity to just acknowledge her work, and just to say thank you for being a great role model, a great friend, a great mentor. ladies and gentlemen, anne-marie conroy. [applause] [cheering] >> so thank you so much, mayor. you're an incredible mayor, and such an accomplished speaker and such an accomplished person. i couldn't be more proud. i know this is only a short stop on a long and incredible career. and we're very lucky for the years that we'll have you in san francisco, but i think there are some other cities, such as

sacramento and washington that may be having their time with london. as london said, she did work for me at the treasure island development authority. i'll never forget the first day she walked in the door. i could see this was a young woman full of smarts with a 10,000 watt smile, and she said, hi, i'm london breed, and i'm going to be your assistant. this is just an interview. if that gives you an insight into something can stop london. that was one example. i want to dedicate this honor today to my mother, maureen conroy, also known as "mighty mo." she went to u.c. berkeley at the age of 16. she skipped didn't grades and started berkeley at age 16. it was during world war ii, and there weren't many opportunities for women with great educations. you were pretty m