again? thank you, ed. ed is not the only person that we need to thank, but we love that you're here and this is amazing. i want to talk a little bit about the effort that it took to get us here. this was a 13-month campaign and it was led from and came from the chinese american community. i want to say thank you to all of the supporters who came on board to push for this. i want to call out some individuals and groups in particular, and i know we will do that more later. there were some folks who stepped-up. first and foremost i want to acknowledge annie chung. annie was on the naming committee. annie was the moral compass of this effort, but also i want to thank you for stepping out early. your leadership in this community and this effort really i think lent the credibility that we needed to make sure that

this is something that everybody got behind. thank you so much, annie. annie just got back from hong kong yesterday, so we're glad you're here. i want to call out and thank guretta louis. i want to thank you for getting this rolling. when she called us, we thought she was inviting us for a free lunch. it turns out she was setting out our work plan for the next 13 months. i also want to acknowledge walter wong. i know that losing ed was very important. your leadership also lent an incredible amount of effort to this and we want to thank you. your leadership to the chinese chamber of commerce, so many

leaders from these organizations were there every step of the way. i see ringo in the back. pitman, eddie, everybody who showed up at hearing after hearing. and the same is true for our ccba president. don't take that kind of commitment lightly or for granted. thank you so much. the ed lee democratic club. you guys gave the best testimony, but you also had the best stickers hands down when we were in the testimony room. many of you worked hard with and for ed during his years as mayor and that came out when you gave your public testimony. thank you. also to our grassroots leaders to the community associations. our non-profit community leaders from a.p.i. council. your coming out really showed that this campaign was something special to real people and not just us political types or quoks

out the there and i thought that was meaningful. jan sey, you came out, wayne lee. the sisters of cities communities, you came out. you clearly relished ed's relishment. that will be my only bad joke. individual friends of ed lee came out. you guys were really amazing and you were there all the time. ed's city family was incredibly helpful, the johnsons who aren't here. those who are here. cava and steve is here. also, i just want to really give a thank you to the numerous

airport staff who were cheering us from the sidelines and figuring out how to make this happen really effectively and expeditiously. this is meant as a complement. you guys sound like a bunch of ed lee bureaucrats. i want to thank jason shaminard. i think everybody got to know your name because you sent out so many e-mails and you got to know this well. kimson wong. when we started this campaign, you were running r.n.g. lounge and you let us meet there. thank you so much for your support along the way. bill lee who is here. bill has always been a leader in this community. we want to thank the mayor's family. you being there at our community meetings was really wind behind

our backs and thank you so much for motivating us. i'm going to end on a bit of a personal note. not so many people know that i was head of the asian-american association. president chu was president 25 years before me. [ laughter ]. >> you know, i was planning for my installation dinner and i thought long and hard about who i wanted to be keynote speaker. one answer emerged which was the one person whose career i wanted to capture as a person i wanted to emulate and it was ed lee. he was a community-based civil rights leader who went on to serve this city. and he exemplified the service that i wanted to impress on my fellow colleagues. when i got to work for mayor lee

early on in his administration, it really was with great pride that i did so. i want to say it's with pride that when i come to the international terminal from now on i can say to myself or my wife that i got to work for that guy. thank you. [ applause ]. >> thanks, commissioner. it is our pleasure to have such a wonderful showing and the family and we're so appreciative of everyone being here. with that, we want to welcome representing the family. if you would come on up daughter tonia speaking on behalf of the family. [ applause ]. >> hello, everyone.

this is truly such an incredible honor. on behalf of my mom, anita lee, and the entire lee family, many of which are here today, we would like to thank mayor london breed, the airport director, members of the airport commission, and of course the wonderful community who pushed this initiative forward and who were really the heart of this amazing dedication today. thank you so much. this dedication, like many have said, feels quite fitting. you know, people have talked about how as a first chinese american mayor, how significant that is in the place where in 1882 there was the exclusion act and now his name is on the international airport. my mom and dad raised my sister

and i to be global citizens and to appreciate the interconnectedness of us all. you know, i also know that when my dad was mayor, he helped us strengthen so many international relationships with the city. all the times he was on those trips, he would text us about the things he was experiencing. this international terminal is such a beautiful and a significant kind of place, whether it's travellers about to embark on an exciting adventure or a place to reunite with your loved ones or a place for those returning home, this is a place of coming and going that centers human connection and human possibility. what an amazing honor to have the departures hall of this international terminal dedicated to my father who was the son of chinese immigrants and who truly believed in our ability to raise

each other up and to raise new heights. i will quos with a quote of my dad's "live your life boldly and keep the door open for others." dad's "live your life boldly and keep the door open for others." >> that concludes our speaking portion. i do want to recognize so many important people. all of you are important. i want to call all of you out. the board of supervisors, norman yee. thank you for being here. mayor wayne lee. our airport commissions and vice president, linda cradon, commissioner young, and our

president couldn't make it today, but sends his well wishes to everyone. members of the board of equalization, leah cone. former airport commissioner karol lito. the t.s.a. director for s.f.o., fred lau. police chief bill scott. and former fire chief joanne hays white. thank you for being here and steve cava. thank you for coming. do we have some department heads, phil ginsburg, office of civic engagement, adrienne pawn.

thank you for being here. wonderful to have you all here. so with that, what we want to do is move to the center of the terminal and do the unveiling by the mayor.

>> for joining us here today. we all know that our public transportation system in san francisco is important to our present and it is definitely critical to the future of our city. as our city grows, as our economy grows, as we build more housing, as more people work here, we know that we can't continue to grow in those areas without thinking about improvements to our public transportation system.

as someone who grew up in this city, i relied on muni, the 31, the 22 philmore, the 44, you name it, i was on those buses. the 19, i know the routes by heart. but the fact is, you know, we need to do better. we need to make sure that people, especially people who rely on muni to get to work, school, doctors appointments, so many of our seniors who can't drive and need to pick up their medications and other things, we need to make sure that our public transportation system is reliable for all of our communities, in all parts of san francisco, especially on those communities that have consistently been neglected. it means safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists and

all of its users. we know over the years the city is a lot more congested than it has ever been, but we also know to make it a better city and to reach our climate goals, we have to leave it less congested. we have a lot of work to do and we are doing the work. in june we created a working group with city leaders and staff and industry leaders with the goal of making this better. i am looking forward to seeing the recommendations coming out. over the past few years we have made some significant investments. we committed to doubling the pace of building more protected bike lanes. we established a quick build program to increase the delivery of low-cost units.

and we expanded our focus on traffic safety. thankfully the voters gave us one more tool to improve streets with the passage of proposition v. this will allow us to invest $30 million in light rail vehicles anduses as well as street safety improvements. so the work continues and we will continue to do the work that we can to move these objectives forward as quickly as possible. these objectives are the responsibility of the san francisco municipal transportation agency. the m.t.a. managing our streets, public transportation, other mobility options like bike shares and e-scooters, and a lot of public infrastructure projects, like the central subway and van neessb.r.t.

this is a system that looks at day-to-day operations as well as looking at the future and how we make sure that the challenges that existed now don't continue to exist in the future. this requires a strong vision and strong leadership. so today i'm proud to announce that the s.f. board will be recommending -- the s.f. m.t.a. board will be recommending jeffry tumlin as the next director of s.f. m.t.a. this is jeffry. you can clap. [ laughter ]. >> mayor breed: jeff is an international transportation expert who brings over 25 years of experience of improving transportation in cities. he was recently the interim director at the oakland department of transportation, where he laid the foundation for

the agency's future success with a lens on environmental benefits and equality. i believe jeffry will do the same at s.f. m.t.a. throughout his career, he has been known for bringing a visionary perspective on transportation in cities and helping to implement innovative ideas that are desperately needed. he will be joining the city as a long-time resident of noey valley and will be the first lgbtq director in s.f.'s history. i look forward to working with jeffry to help us deliver a great transportation system in san francisco, and i want to thank the board, including the president of the board who is here today, malcolm heinikie and gweneth borden, thank you for your leadership and coordinating the interview process and

everything that you did, to make sure that we found the best person possible to do the job to make our public transportation and infrastructure and all that we need to do to improve mobility in san francisco in a safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly way to choosing that person who could do just that. ladies and gentlemen, jeffry tumlin. >> good morning. my name is jeff tumlin, and i have been in the transportation industry for a long time, for 25 years, advising cities and transit agencies how to clarify their values and then use transportation investments to make those values manifest. i like asking questions about what is most important, what does success look like, and more

importantly how would we measure whether we were actually successful or not. that's where my technical work comes into play, trying to use tools to be able to measure social equity and environmental outcomes and to align our transportation spending in order to best achieve the public good. i ended up in this industry against my better judgment. i discovered very early in my career and sort of by accident that we in transport have a bigger impact on public health outcomes than the medical industry does. we have a bigger impact on economic development, than economic development programs do. and more importantly, we are arguably the biggest driver of opportunity. we decide how many jobs people can get to in a reasonable commute time. we determine whether children can get safely to school, which

impacts their academic performance. we are fundamental drivers of economic opportunity or destroyers of economic opportunity. we have resources. if we use those resources wisely, we can correct the ways in which my industry has historically destroyed opportunity and wealth for people of color. early in my industry's history, if you wanted to build a highway project, you got extra points for removing light. light of course being defined as african-american and latino ownership. the city and county of san francisco did not escape that dark period in our industry, and we have a key responsibility to correct for the past and to equalize opportunity for

everyone. we can also do what some mobility tech companies want us to do, which is to provide more exquisite convenience for the privilege. i'm committed to doing the former, and using transportation as a tool to make san francisco achieve its potential. that includes addressing problems like the fact that 25 people have died in our streets this year and were on track to injure nearly 3,000. we lose in injuries and fatalities about 647 people in san francisco. i want to change that. you can see from my social media presence that i've long been an outspoken proponent of changing core practices in my industry and using the power that we have in transportation to reduce

climate change, improve quality of life, foster small business success, and advance equity. i've reached the point in my cle career, however, where it's time to stop advising and start doing. i've worked all over the world, and san francisco remains the only city that i felt was my home. san francisco has assembled all of the pieces that we need in order to create dramatic and progressive change. we've got a visionary m.t.a. board that i cannot wait to work for. we have the most talented agency staff in the industry. we have a tenacious and hard-driving mayor who i know will make a great partner. we also have a progressive board of supervisors ready to ask the tough questions. i am ready to serve all of them.

i don't have a 30 or 100-day plan. my first task is to listen carefully to staff. we do have the most incredible assembly of talent of any city in the country. i trust their professional expertise. it is my job first to listen and then secondly, and more importantly, to remove obstacles so that they can do their good and productive work. i do not know all of the answers yet. it's going to take me a while to learn from staff what the best answers are. i want to close by saying that we have talent, resources and some clarity about what our resources are in san francisco, but there remains a gap between san francisco's potential and its current reality. i am deeply excited to do the hard work to close that gap.

we have the tools and all of the resources that we need, unlike really any city in the world. i can't wait to get started, particularly with the help of all of you in this room, the press. with that, i'm happy to take questions. malcolm, did you have words to say? >> absolutely. i know i stand between you and the questions for our new director of transportation. i am the chair of the new m.t.a. board. if i seem excited, it's because i am. we are in the process of hiring a star for san francisco. we are very excited here today. the first person i want to thank is is the mayor, not just because of her commitment and support, but also i want to thank the mayor for not just her support and partnership in this, but the fact that you challenged

us you were the result of a challenge to get a bold leader to take this agency forward. i'm grateful for that challenge. that challenge led us to an international search. we searched far and wide. i want to thank the search committee for the wonderful job that was done to conduct a truly international search that led us to someone in our backyard, a san franciscan to run our agency. what has struck us about jeff more than his expertise, dedication, and his experience is his passion. you just heard it. he recognizes how transportation affects people's lives, making it better when it goes well and worse when it doesn't. with that, we are very excited. i wish jeff the absolute best. i know he won't need luck because he's a true professional

and i'm excited to see him be a star and a partner. in my closing comments, i would like to say this, the last few months have been tumultuous at the agency, but not as much as without a director. the acting director kept the ship steady, was professional, calm, and an absolute pleasure to work with. thank you for your service. with that, i will turn the podium back to the super staff to answer our questions. thank you for the questions. >> what questions do you have? >> [ indiscernible ].

>> the bicycle coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. i was happy to receive one of them. >> the community bike build program is the san francisco coalition's way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable

transportation. the city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the san francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. the partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. we ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. we make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. >> bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. it is not only a form of recreation. it is also a means of getting connected with the community

through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. i really appreciate it. i am very thankful. >> we teach a class. they have to attend a one hour class. things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. after that class, then we would give everyone a test chance -- chance to test ride. >> we are giving them as a way to get around the city. >> just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. i guess enjoyable is a word i could use. that doesn't describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in

your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they haven't ridden a bike in years. these folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. take my picture on my bike. that was a great experience. there were smiles all around. the recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. at the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. >> if someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike.org/volunteer you can sign up for both events. we have given away 855 bicycles,

376 last year. we are growing each and every year. i hope to top that 376 this year. we frequently do events in bayview. the spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. >> for me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. most of the time the kids will be in the house. this is a fun way to do something. >> you get fresh air and you don't just stay in the house all day. iit is a good way to exercise. >> the bicycle coalition has a bicycle program for every community in san francisco. it is connecting the young, older community. it is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to

have some good clean fun. it has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. i have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. >> mayor breed: hello, everybody. i'm london breed. i'm mayor of the city and county of san francisco, and i am so excited to be here today. we all know that there is a real crisis in our city, and i know that we hear that word used on a regular basis. but in this particular case what we see happening with those who are struggling with mental illness and substance use disorder and chronic homelessness is something that we see every day and we need to

take aggressive action to address that issue. i am standing here with supervisor hillary ronen and mandelman to announce that even though we have had two competing measures, we have come together to do what is in the best interest of this city to introduce today at the board of supervisors a compromise that is going to help us address the most significant problem in our city. [ applause ]. >> mayor breed: i not only want to thank the supervisors, but i wanted to thank lou girardo. you remember lou has someone who worked with the board of supervisors back in 2012 and

2013 to help with a compromise for cpmc and the community benefits and the work that they needed to do to support san francisco. he's been an incredible advocate on this issue and we're grateful for the work that he has done to bring us to this place. [ applause ]. >> mayor breed: and i want to thank the labor council. kim taveloni is here representing the labor council. thank you so much. our community partners and advocates and so many people who care so deeply about this issue. you know, i think we need to recognize that everyone that is here today wants our city to get to a better place. we may have differences of opinion of how we get there, but we know that that is at the forefront of what we have to do as a city if we are going to make sure that we help those are

who are most in need. so everyone recognizes the importance of coming together today to do just that. i am so proud to be standing here to talk just a little bit about where our system is and where our system needs to go. in fact, san francisco does an incredible job. we serve over 30,000 people in our behavioral health system. but in that 30,000, we know that there are 4,000 that are dual diagnosed and are struggling with homelessness and we know that we have to do better. this is why so many people are frustrated. not only the people working in our public health system, but people who are the ones who are sadly out there and need our assistance and need us to do better. today with this compromise we are proposing to do better. mental health s.f. is going to

be a program that is going to be settled at the board of supervisors with a number of compromises to make the right kinds of investments in the people that serve those with behavioral health challenges and expanding our mental health beds and to work with the community to get community input on changes and making sure that we are collaborating every step of the way. and let me be clear, this will be an expensive program and we will know it. i have made a commitment along with the members of the board of supervisors to make sure that we are making better investments because it is necessary. those investments will be increasing the pay of some of the employees that are working in this system. it will be loan forgiveness and other programs that we need to do to incentivize people to want

to work in this industry and go to city. it will be to make sure that we expand the number of beds. it will be to make sure that we have an advisory committee of people who work in this industry to help advise on policies so that when we make decisions, we're not doing those decisions in isolation. we are working with the behavioral health system, and as i said time and time again there is a real issue around equity. around those 4,000 people that we know we are not serving properly, 35% of them are african-american. we need to call out the injustices in these systems and make deliberate investments in targeting the population that continue to get left out when we propose new solutions to support the communities that we know are most vulnerable. so we are going to be making deliberate investments around

making sure that african-americans are supported as we move this process forward. [ applause ]. >> mayor breed: i want to thank dr. nigusse bland and dr. colfax because you have been doing the difficult work of managing the system with the resources that you have and not necessarily getting the support that you need to do it and that change starts today. that change won't happen overnight. we will be working towards making this a more justice, equitable, fair system using

data, using data and resources, reforming our business tax system that we're working on to identify new revenues and making the hard decisions to revise our happy plan so that we can identify the capital resources needed. although we were looking at years later public health bond on the ballot, i have already sent a letter along with support from the supervisors to look at a way in which we can move that public health bond to november of next year so that we can expand our beds and we can acquire board and care facilities, and we can continue to make sure that we not only have the people in terms of resources, but we have the capital necessary to expand

outthis -- out this system. now, i know that time and time again people talked about what happened in the 1980s when our city was faced with a very still crisis, when we were faced with the aids crisis in our city, and how we were not supported by the federal government and so many people came together and san francisco and san francisco general in particular was the leader in the fight to really focus on addressing the challenges with aids and h.i.v. in our city. for the first time this year, we have less than a hundred new diagnosed h.i.v. patients in san francisco, which is truly historic. [ applause ]. >> mayor breed: that came with resources and us coming together

and bold policy changes. that's what we're doing today. i am so excited for the future of mental health in san francisco because i know that this is the right way to do it. this is the right approach to develop the resources and make the kinds of changes that will help the people that we know need it the most. we have to start looking at mental health in a whole other way than we did in the past, because when you think about it, we have hospitals that deal with physical issues, right? cancer and if you break your arm or something that you can feel, but what happens when someone is a schizophrenic? what happens when someone develops dementia or these other things. what happens when we are helping those people and meeting them where they are? this is where we need to go as a

city and a country. i'm proud to be here to support mental health s.f. and achieving that goal with the members of the board of supervisors. [ applause ]. >> mayor breed: and i want to thank supervisor hillary ronen and supervisor matthew haney again for bringing great leaders in this process. i really, really want to thank supervisor rafael mandelman. we are going to work together to get this done. so without further ado at this time, i'd like to welcome to the podium supervisor hillary ronen. [ applause ]. >> thank you so much, madam mayor. matt and i are so happy to be leading on this issue together. yes, we did it. we came together and we're looking forward to continue with

the bond to lead and fix this crisis in our streets. before i make this comment, i want to acknowledge two people who changed their schedule to be here and might have to leave early, our null elected public defender and district attorney, minora aju and bodeen. [ applause ]. >> they were with us when we announced mental health s.f. and they are with us when we're announcing its introduction into law in its final form today. thank you for being with us every single step of the way. we really appreciate you and are so excited for your leadership. everyone, we just created the first universal mental health

and substance abuse system in the country. [ applause ]. >> if you are homelessness, uninsured, or on mediccal, we will treat you. we will create a plan and a path towards a stable and healthy life and guide you to stay on that path. if you have health insurance but you are not getting the care that you need or deserve, we will stand beside you and we will advocate with your provider until you get the care that you are legally entitled to. if we see any patterns of illegal behavior on behalf of private insurance companies, we will partner with our city attorney's office and we will hold those private companies accountable. [ applause ].

>> once mental health s.f. is fully up and running, no one in san francisco has to stand alone when they are battling these diseases of the mind. san franciscans, if you see someone suffer secretary-general on the street with mental illness or drug addiction, you're no longer going to have to walk by and feel guilty because you didn't know how to help them, you're no longer going to have to debate with yourself if you should call the police, is that a good or bad thing, you will have a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week team of mobile clinicians that will come out and assist that individual at any time. [ applause ]. >> guess what? when general hospital psych emergency services is on diversion, there is a new place to go, it's called the mental health s.f. service center. it will be open also 24 hours a

day, seven days a week. this mobile team will have a place to take people who will get immediate care from psychiatrists and psych nurses and social workers. guess what? we're no longer going to waste money, time, and the good will of patients and the rest of us, quite frankly, by watching people cycle from the streets to psych emergency services and residential treatment, and right back out on the street where it is almost impossible to get better because we're going to start the office of coordinated care that are going to help people get on a path to recovery and is going to expand services to ensure that there is availability at all level of treatment, including permanent, supportive housing. [ applause ].

>> mental health s.f. is visionary, universal, bold, comple complete. ladies and gentlemen, it is soon to be the law of san francisco. i want to join the mayor in a few thank yous especially to lou girardo who got us talking again and to the fabulous place we are today. i want to thank matt haney, my partner in health every step of the way. it is a pleasure working with you and it is so fun to team up. i want to thank you to the mental health committee because this was a team effort. we had incredibly brilliant representatives writing this law with us and serving the bridge

between the front-line medical workers, patients, and families, and our offices sciu 21. the national union of healthcare workers. [ applause ]. >> progress foundation. the treatment on demand coalition. and phil ting's office who has been there from day one and we'll hear from him in a moment. i want to thank our incredibly fabulous staff. we have been living and breathing mental health s.f. for a year. please give a hand to my chief of staff. so my form er aide, ms. morales and abigail moriante.

and the campaign team. and to nate albie our special strategist. and finally i wanted to thank all the supervisors who were really there with us from the beginning, all of our co-sponsors, supervisors yee, peskin, and walton and mar who didn't waiver and had our backs. they were along there right by our sides and we love you for it. finally, i want to thank all of the frontline health workers, including the peer workers, social workers, the therapists, psychiatrists, many of who i see in the audience who do the most incredible and amazing work

every day and don't get nearly enough appreciation, we see you and appreciate you and love you and we hope this is going to make your work more exciting and successful. finally, i wanted to thank the mayor and the mayor's staff who we started off with a different vision, but we did that hard work and we sat down. especially dr. colfa scprks -- colfax and dr. bland. thank you, ms. mayor. can you give a big round of plaza to supervisor matthew haney. >> thank you. i want to echo all of those thank yous that you already heard from supervisor ronen, but there's one that we left out which is supervisor hillary ronen, who did incredible and tremendous work.

literally when i got elected, she pulled me in and asked, what do you think about doing a universal mental health care program for san francisco. i said i just got here. how does that work? we brought in an incredible coalition of frontline workers. everyone who was able to help us draft this legislation. so many folks with direct experience working in this system helped us draft what is in front of us today. i want to say this one more time which is that mental health s.f. will make san francisco the first city in the country to provide universal access to coordinated mental health care and substance use treatment. that is a huge accomplishment. what we know is that there is so many people in our communities, many of whom are living on the streets, others of who are suffering quietly who are not

receiving the care that they need. our system does amazing work, but we're not doing enough to recognize that mental health is recognized as a right in our city. if you are sick and have someone you need to talk to, you need to have a system that actually takes care of you, that coordinates your care, and that doesn't turn you away. mental health s.f. will create a 24/7 mental health services center where anyone can go for care. we will have intensive case management and an office of care coordination so people do not fall through the cracks. we will have a responsive stream so that responders are trained clinicians.

i want to echo and shout out the staff that are here because our jails right now should not be the place where people are getting mental health care. we need to have actual hospitals and community care and supportive housing where people are getting treatment. so our excitement to partner with the two of you and to create a system that works is so exciting. we're going to expand our system so we're not putting people out on the street because there is not a bed available. we need to have a private service for a system that supports people. people are abandoned on our streets, cycling in and out of our emergency rooms looking for residences. we need a system that looks out for them, takes care of them, and has a place for them to go

to get the care they deserve. i want to give a huge, huge thank you to mayor breed and her team, dr. colfax and dr. bland. this is the leadership that our residents are demanding. this is the leadership where we work together and we work out our differences, but we also make sure that we're leading in a bold and a truly san francisco way. we are done with the incrementalism. we are done with the tinkering. we need big changes and we need everyone to receive care. i want to recognize abbey from my chief of staff here. she has been working so hard. and thank you to everyone here with us, we could not have done this without all of you. thank you. [ applause ]. >> sometimes our assembly members go up to sacramento and

forget about these members. not phil tang. he has been with us dedicating his time and staff. >> i am so excited to be here today because it's just an acknowledgement of san francisco is that when we come together, we can solve major issues. today is a day when we can all celebrate where we had a variety of concerns, real concerns about how do we implement mental health s.f., how do we make this program a reality, real issues about how do we offer this in a universal way, how do we make sure that those who need it get this opportunity. i'm so proud of our city that we were able to come together, come together as a unified city, on

really what is one of the hardest issues out there. i have gone up and down the state to see what are the best practices of solving mental health. while many of them are here in san francisco, it's very clear if you look at our city. we're not doing enough. we're not doing it in the most efficient or radical or thoughtful way. oftentimes it's something that people ask you or people commonly talk about. when we talk about many of the problems, we all say mental health is one of the major issues. well, until today, we hadn't really been putting it forward in the most bold way. this is saying that not only is mental health one of the major issues, it is one of the major issues for our city. this is us coming together and saying that we are all going to work on this together and we know this is not an easy problem

to solve. this is the easy part. we know that dr. colfax has the hardest part because he is going to have to deliver on what we are discussing. let us own this together and come together as a city and say this is something that we need to solve together because it is something -- [ applause ]. >> -- because it's not about pointing finger s at each othe or who's doing what. it is an acknowledgement that we need to do more together and as a city enough is absolutely enough. my hope is that this could be a model for what's going to be done at the state and other cities will also take a look and see what we are doing here and seeing if they can replicate it. that's what happens. one of our crazy ideas is crazy

one year and five years later, it is the best practice across the state and the country. i believe once we get this right, the mayor is going to have other cities across the country say secretary-general h -- saying, how did you do that mental health program and we are going to make that a reality. thank you to the mayor and supervisors ronen and haney for leading the charge, but most of all coming together and solving this problem together. thank you. [ applause ]. >> thank you. we've got to give this next speaker, dr. grant colfax, a major round of applause. poor dr. colfax had to start his job in san francisco between a battle between the board of supervisors and the