the historic nature of today. i -- my first experience at city hall, in this amazing building, was when i was a summer after my freshman year of high school and i got myself an internship in doris ward's office, which was one over from where i am now. and that was a time when san francisco's african american population was large enough to elect not one african american supervisor, but two african american supervisors, to the board of supervisors at the time. it was willie kennedy and doris ward. and, of course, doris ward would go on to be the first black president of our board, the first african american woman president of our -- of this board. and today we are joined by two extraordinary women, connie chae representation matters. it is not everything about these people, but it is worth noting

that connie chan i think is going to be the first native cantonese speaker in many, many, many years on this board. i think that we'd have to go back to mable tim, and it should be that we should have a native chinese speaker on this board. so that is exciting, in addition to all of her accomplishments behind her and ahead of her. and myrna melgar's election as my neighbor to the east -- or to the west, rather, in district 7. it addresses another historic wrong on this board that we -- that for the first two years i was on this board and even prior to that we had no latin x representation on this board. and that is insane in san francisco. and so, again, myrna melgar is

much more than a latino woman. but that is one thing about her, and it is worth noting, and it is important to have that representation on this board. and we are going to elect the first black man to be president of the board of supervisors. and that is a huge deal. and supervisor walton is much, much more than the first black man to be the president of the board of supervisors, but it's worth noting that. i have not known president -- soon-to-be president walton, as long and as deeply as some of the other folks on this board. but i have did have the honor of supporting him two years ago in his run, and i have had the honor and privilege of serving with him in the last two years. and i have seen some of his great strengths. he has a backbone of steel. he is not afraid to challenge some of the most powerful interests, not just in san

francisco, but in the world. and i have stood by him in one of those fights around our healthy airport ordinance. and that -- and it was a privilege to do that. and i note that he's been doing it in a number of other areas as well. his commitment to afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted is unmatched. and -- and he is kind and respectful. so i, as i said when i traded voicemails and spoke with him earlier today, i think that these are going to be a rough couple of years ahead, but i'm happy to support -- to support supervisor walton as the board president and i would provide any help that i could provide during his term. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor mandelman. next on the roster is supervisor preston. >> supervisor preston: thank you, madam clerk.

and, madam clerk, thank you and your whole team as we're starting a couple months to a year of these remote meetings and all of you and your team doing incredible work to keep us all together, even though we can't be physically together. i want to join with my colleagues in welcoming supervisors chan and melgar to the board. very excited to serve with you both, and congratulations on your victories. i will be casting my vote today for supervisor walton for board president. and i'm excited to do so. i believe that supervisor walton has the integrity, and the independence, the skill, the dedication, and the staff, and the relationships with his board colleagues to be an excellent board president. and i believe that he'll bring an incredible amount to this position. you know, a lot of folks who are watching us, colleagues, are very familiar with what a board

president does and the importance of this role. but just for the benefit of the public who may be watching -- the board presidency is a very important leadership role in san francisco city and county government. including such things as making appointments to committees, to commissions, to task forces, presiding over our board meetings, acting -- serving as acting mayor if -- if the mayor no longer served. and really being the leader of this 11-member body. and i believe that supervisor walton will provide the leadership that we need during what is going to be a really tough couple years as we get through this pandemic and recover. i also want to say, you know, my district includes the philmore and western edition, one of the last remaining african american neighborhoods in san francisco.

and supervisor walton and i have partnered on many efforts to really center black lives in city policy. and our work together -- i know that it will continue. and from a lot of african american residents of my district who i have spoken with in recent weeks, i know that -- that a lot of folks are excited, as am i, for such an outstanding black leader to be selected for board president here in san francisco. i didn't really know supervisor walton. i hear some of you talking about your years and decades and i have always heard great things about you. but we didn't really know each other before 2019. so my very deep respect for supervisor walton has emerged from working together over the last year during this unspeakably difficult time in a pandemic on this board. we agree a lot.

we don't always agree, but there's one thing that i know and have learned and that is that supervisor walton makes his decisions always based on what he thinks is right. and what he thinks will help the people of san francisco. the person of enormous integrity and i'm very, very proud to support you today, supervisor walton. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor preston. supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: thank you so much, madam clerk, for convening this inaugural meeting and for all of your incredible work as well as the clerk's office during the past challenging year especially. i want to start, like others, by saying to my friends supervisor melgar and supervisor chan, welcome. the voters of district 7 and district 1 chose wisely and in many ways district 4 is a sister

district to both of yours. and i can't wait to get to work with you both in close collaboration and to listen and to learn from your depths of experiences and insights. and i do want to add my enthusiastic support for supervisor walton, as the best to lead this board in the coming two challenging years. i'm very grateful to supervisor walton for his willingness to step into this role in service to the board of supervisors and the entire city and in just two years, supervisor walton has build effective working relationships with all of us and distinguished himself as a powerful voice for justice and compassion and equity. so we're in very good hands and i'm thrilled to work with supervisor walton and this entire body to push for solutions that center the most vulnerable and that meet the scale of the problems that we face. thank you.

>> we're here to serve the good people of the city of san francisco. it's an honor to be joining you today. >> thank you, madam clerk. thank you for leading us an moving us forward through all of our work for the board of supervisors with grace and efficiency. i appreciate you and your entire team. i want to say one thank you so much to supervisor melgar for nominating me. i was supporting both of you in your elections and through the campaign. i'm excited to have two women of

color serving alongside all of us. to all of my colleagues for one, speaking up. i appreciate all of our relationships and all of the work we've done together. i won't speak long because if things go the way i think they will, we'll be coming back and making comments again. i graciously and humbly accept. >> the board president i'll just ask are there any further nominations. i'm looking at the roster. i doan see any names on the roster. nominations are now closed. before any further discussion or

the vote is taken. let's call for public comment. >> we welcome your public comments. please turn down your tv. as there is a delay. when you hear the prompt please enter the meeting id. press pound and pound again. you will hear that you joined the meeting as a listener. to get into the queue to provide public comment, press star three

and listen carefully to the prompt that you have been unmuted. when you hear that prompt, that is your prompt to begin speaking. just a quick word about what is eligible for public comment today. you may speak for items on the agenda. this will be your only opportunity to provide comments on the nominations. you may make comments on items four through seven. you have two minutes to provide your testimony. address your comments to the legislative bodies as a whole . the office of civic engagement have provided three interpreters

who are available to jump in and assist. (speaking foreign language).

>> thank you for being with us here today. for person's who may be experiencing any connections issues. we have a live person in the office answering phones to assist you. if you are having trouble with the public comment line.

can you please bring forward the first speaker. >> caller, are you on line? circle back to them. hello caller. >> i'm a part of district five under supervisor preston. i'm echoing support for supervisor walton for board president. thank you. >> thank you for your comments.

may we have the next caller. >> hi. good afternoon supervisors. i wanted to say a great shout out to the board. i am a d10 resident. i want to congratulation supervisor chan. my community is very pleased by the nomination. i have known supervisor walton for decades. we have worked together on committee and city wide agents. i wanted to give a kudos to mayor, an excellent mayor by all measures during this pandemic. a lot of san franciscans.

now is the time for everyone to work together. i agree that supervisor walken has what it takes to help the businesses and citizens of san francisco regardless of gender and sexual orientation. congratulations to you. it's an honor to speak with you all of you today. thank you for your time and services to the city. >> thank you for your comments. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, legislative

affairs officer. i want to congratulate all the returning and new supervisors. congratulations on your elections . just want to call in to remind you that the youth commission exists. we have just approved our preliminary budget priorities. the budget is one of the most important value documents that the city produces every year. we're tasked that what is in the budget and laws that we are meeting the unmet needs of san francisco. i believe that we will be presenting to budget and finance committee sometime in the near future. they have been forwarded to all

of your e-mails. we look forward to working with all of you over the next year and beyond on the issues that are facing youth across our city. once again, congratulations and look forward to working with you. thank you. >> thank you. do we have a next caller? >> hello. i live and work in district eight. i want to congratulate the supervisors today. i'm mostly calling because i want the board of supervisors to know we're still watching and want to see 100% defunding of pd at every -- it's past time to

divest from these harmful -- sfpd have proved again and again that they show anti black bias and despite the progress, no matter how many black lives posters there are they put up on their precinct. the board did not cut the budget by any significant amount. the board also -- meanwhile the sfpd shot and killed vargas, they shot twice and taized

another -- they do not protect our communities during these vulnerable times. >> we have thirty one people litsenning and 14 in the queue. >> i live in district five. i'm calling to defund the sfpd. twept twenty was exhausting. it was exhausting to get the attention of our public

officials. we need change now. even after last year's protest, the board did not cut sfpd's budget by any significant amount.

>> thank you for your comments. next caller, please. >> my name is eddie. when i've been pulled over by police here is what is running through my mind. why is their hand on their gun, why do we continue to let police terrorize like this. cops don't need guns to kill people. how many people need to lose their lives to consider that it hasn't made us any safer today. we will never be