>> mayor london breed: good afternoon, i'm san francisco mayor london breed. and thank you so much for joining us here today to provide some good news for a change as it relates to just the rough year that we've been having as a result of this global pandemic. as of today in san francisco, our case rate is at 261 cases per day, and that's down from a high of 372 cases per day. our hospitalizations are at 194, and, sadly, 293 people in our city have lost their lives due to covid. our infection rate is below 1. we're at .95, and our i.c.u. capacity is stable at about 26%. the good news is that we are in a better place than we've been in a long time.

and today we got some even better news from our governor who announced the lifting of the stay-at-home order in the bay area. and in the state of california -- but more importantly in the bay area, because that pertains to us -- we anticipate that tomorrow we will be told that we will be in the purple tier, which provides us an opportunity to do so much more than we have been doing. the fact is that we got here because after the thanksgiving day holiday, we saw the numbers begin to creep up aggressively. and we shut down early because we were very concerned as to what this would do to our i.c.u. capacity in the city. if we had continued along the pace that we were going and did absolutely nothing, at this time the end of january we would be out of i.c.u. beds.

and because we acted quickly, and because i followed the health care orders that were provided by the department of public health, we did so early, even before the state required us to do so. because we did that in san francisco, we are in a better place. but we're still in the midst of this pandemic. we still have a responsibility. yes, this is good news that we are finally seeing a difference with our numbers. but there's still work to be done. it still means that we have to wear masks and we have to socially distance ourselves from one another. you have to just use common sense and continue to just accept that we are going to be living with this for some time, even as we see the numbers decline, even as we reopen, and even as we start to administer even more of the vaccine than we already have. so what does this mean? what does this mean in terms of our reopening?

well, as i said, it's good news. so outdoor dining can resume. personal services can resume as long as you can wear a mask. so you can get your hair done, you can get your nails done. a number of things with personal services, as long as you're able to wear a mask. this will start on thursday. outdoor museums and zoos -- outdoor entertainment, like skate parks and mini-golf, indoor fitness limited to one-on-one. indoor funerals for up to 12 people. so these are things that were not happening before, and they will be in effect as of this thursday again, thanks to all of the hard work that we have all been doing to stay safe. we'll also see capacity increases in our grocery stores and in retail. and in outdoor fitness and outdoor religious and political events. outdoor recreation and some low

contact youth sports can continue as well. and golf and tennis with people outside of your household, and small gatherings of up to three people, no more than three households per group, and what we're saying, again, because we remember not this past weekend but the weekend before, we saw so many people at the delores park and at alamo square park and at parks across san francisco. and we saw them gathered with large groups. there were, of course, a lot of people who were just following the rules and keeping their distance. but we did have some real challenges. today is a beautiful day. yes, it's cold outside, but the sun is out. just keep in mind that this is just not an open door for us to all of a sudden to let our hair down and to do whatever we want to do. let's keep doing what we're doing. let's keep being smart about wearing our masks and who we interact with. let's limit the number of people that we interact with so that we

can make sure that we don't see another surge and see this virus continue to get out of control. today is, of course, a day of celebration but it's also a day to just remind ourselves of the importance of how much more work we have to do to get to a better place. now i want to talk a little bit about the vaccine. we in the city have developed a capacity to ramp up to up to 10,000 doses a day. now, of course, we want to do more than 10,000 doses a day if we have the vaccine. this past friday, i was at city college, where they first started to administer the doses there and they've been able to administer over 1,600 doses so far and that site alone has the capacity to deliver up to 3,000 doses per day. we also have a site that we're opening up at musconi and in community where there's large

sites in partnership with our private health care providers so that we can get to people sooner rather than later. our goal is to also to make sure that we're doing pop-up sites in neighborhoods and communities that have been most impacted by the virus. we want to meet people where they are. we want them to feel comfortable when they get the vaccine. so as soon as we get the number of doses that we need to start to administer, we will do just that. i will say that there's been a lot of misinformation, there's been a lot of criticism that has surfaced over the course of the rollout of delivering the vaccine to people. and i just want to take a moment to talk a little bit about what we've been doing here in san francisco. in fact, when we first found out about what we would need to administer the vaccine, including the freezers and all of the other technical stuff, we learned that information back in august. and we instantly prepared for

that because we knew that in a place like san francisco, with the number of people that we have both living and working here, that we would need to make sure that we had the capacity so that when the vaccine was delivered to us that we had the refrigeration necessary to basically to keep those vaccines ready to go for people before they were distributed. the work that went into the infrastructure, working with our private health care providers, and just understanding what needed to be done in terms of traffic coordination, in terms of distribution, in terms of checking information, it is a process. in fact, when i was at the site at city college this past friday, one of the conversations that i had with a doctor is that these vaccines, they have to stay refrigerated at least until the hour before they're actually used. so just imagine the coordination that goes into that alone. this is a complicated process.

and i want to be clear -- that had we waited to start more recently, like some people had said that we did, we wouldn't be where we are now -- opening up large sites. opening up and setting up pop-up sites and distributing the vaccine at some of our community clinics where many of our elderly live and are able to walk to. we wouldn't be in this position had we waited to start. we started last year in the summer as information came, and we adjusted. and we stepped up to the challenge to meet the need. in fact, the department of public health specifically based on the number of vaccines that we have received, we've already have distributed over two-thirds of those vaccines to individuals and the remaining batch that we have are mostly for people for their second dose and are scheduled to be given to others for their first. those vaccines are coming in the door and they're going out the

door as quickly as we can make that possible. so i want to be clear that it is complicated, it is challenging. but this same department of public health is the department of public health that had advised me as the mayor in the beginning of this pandemic that we had to shut this city down so that we could save lives. it's the same department of public health that led the efforts during the aids crisis where san francisco was left on its own. it's the same department of public health that i am working with to roll out the vaccine distribution. because not only do they know and understand the importance of what this means to save lives in san francisco, i understand the importance of what this means to save the lives in san francisco, to get our city reopened, and to get our economy going again. nothing is more important. i trust and support and work

closely with the department of public health to make the hard decisions to get this vaccine out to the public as quickly as possible. so i want you to understand that we are in a better place, we are not where i want us to be, because we don't have sufficient supply of vaccines to distribute to the public. but i will guarantee you that as soon as we get them, they will be out on the streets in someone's arm so that we can get things rolling again. and i appreciate the patience and the understanding of so many san franciscans as we go through this process. keep in mind san francisco has done an amazing job through this pandemic. i know that we're tired of being indoors. i know that we're tired of the schools being closed and not being able to connect with our friends and family. i'm tired of this too. i understand how important it is to get back to our lives. i understand that more than

anyone, because i feel the responsibility, the weight of this entire city, and every single resident. i feel that on my shoulders every single day. but i'm asking for more patience and understanding and trust that we will continue to do everything that we can to get these vaccines out the door. in fact, tomorrow i'll be having a conversation at 1:15 online with dr. susan philip and dr. naveena baba, who are two incredible women who have helped to lead this effort from the beginning so that we can ask questions about some of the concerns that i've been seeing from people who are wondering, well, why is this happening and that's not happening. why is this going on and that not going on. well, tomorrow your questions about the vaccine will be answered. and i hope that it will instill

just really an understanding and also a clear guide for what we are doing here in san francisco and what we need to continue to do to get the vaccines out as quickly as possible. and i am excited today. i'm excited today because the vaccine rollout -- i'm excited today because many of our small businesses will begin to open. i'm excited because i know that people in san francisco, although this is a great day, they realize the importance of still following safety guidelines around covid and understanding that the virus is still out there and that we still have more work to do. but today still is a day of celebration. and i'm, again, grateful for all of you for everything that you've done to get us to this point. now, the last thing they want to touch upon is we have a new president. i love saying that -- we have a new president, we have a new

vice president. and one of the first announcements that the president made last week is the fact that our shelter-in-place hotels that have been provided to many of our homeless people who are a part of this vulnerable population, that they would not only just reimburse the 75% that they agreed to reimburse at the beginning of this pandemic, but this president has committed fema to reimbursing us at 100%. what that does for our budget is incredible. we're still facing a significant deficit, we still have a lot of financial challenges, but what this means is that we have a level of certainty. no, this is not going to be forever, but it will be long enough that as we start to transition some of the people that we have in hotels in san francisco into permanent housing situations we can now backfill those hotel rooms with people

who fit the guidelines under the fema requirements for reimbursement. that is really great news. and i'm excited to continue to work towards trying to get our most vulnerable off the streets. but i want to be clear about something. if you were not on our list to receive support and care in our homeless system as of april last year, and you basically came to san francisco thinking that there's an opportunity for you to get help in some capacity, unfortunately, we will not be able to help you. and the people that we'll be able to serve are people who were part of our system of care before april of 2020. they're already on the list, they're already waiting. they're sleeping outside. they're sleeping in tents. and we are not going to jump the line for someone who just decided to come to san francisco yesterday. there are people who are waiting

and they will be prioritized and they are the only people that we can help at this time. so i want to make that clear that that is what is going to happen moving forward, with the good news of receiving reimbursement 100% from fema. so i want to thank each and every one of you again. today is a good day. today is not a day to go outside and to throw up your mask in the air and to celebrate in that way. you can go out and celebrate and throw your hands in the air and just keep your mask on. make sure that you're continuing to comply with this health order and doing everything that you can. when you go to restaurants, just be mindful. when you visit friends or family, just follow the health orders. we're not out of this partner p, but we're better today than we have been in a very long time. it gives me hope that we are finally getting to a better place -- the place that we continue to talk about. the place where we say that

we're the light at the end of the tunnel. well, we're seeing a crack of that light come through bright. and that's because of your work and your efforts and everything that you've done. so, thank you. and the better our numbers get, the more we will be able to open, the more that we will be able to get back to a place where we can see one another in person again. thank you again. and now i'm happy to open it up to questions. >> thank you, mayor breed, for your remarks. before we begin, the question and the answer portion, we're going to take a moment to allow reporters to submit any final questions they may have on webex.

thank you, mayor breed. at this time we'll start with dr. colfax. >> mayor london breed: okay. thank you again. dr. colfax, i'll let you do the white gown. >> good afternoon.

>> thank you for your patience. dr. colfax, your first question comes from various media outlets. why are people from out of the county getting vaccinated at city college? >> thank you so much for the question. i think that city college has been a great partnership with ucsff, and if we had enough vaccine we could get you 3,000 vaccines there a day easily right now. but i think that key issues to understand right now is that for the vaccine, the focus has been eligibility for vaccine has been for health care providers and for people 65 and over. many health care providers work in san francisco, but outside of san francisco. so many of the health care providers will be vaccinated here because it's a place of work. similarly, people who are 65 and over who are eligible for the vaccine, they may live in oakland but they may have their health care provider here in san

francisco. so they would be getting vaccinated here. vice versa, if you live in san francisco but you have a health care provider in oakland, you could go to oakland to get vaccinated. the issue is that the bay area is porous and we're all interconnected and we need to get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from various media outlets. why are we reopening with new virus variants circulating? how will the city deal with new variants and avoid shutdowns? >> so we are opening at a high level of case diagnosis. we're at about 30 per 100,000 right now, which as the mayor mentioned, is substantially lower than we were just a few weeks ago. so this is very good news. we know that the rate of the virus spread in the city is slowing right now, which is also good news. we will continue to monitor the rate of spread and hopefully

that will continue to go down. with regard to the variants, we are concerned about that. but there's no reason to panic. we know that wearing masks, social distancing, and using the good hygiene practices, we believe that it's also effective with regard to reducing the variant's spread. so right now, even with this relatively high rate of cases, because things are moving in the right direction, because our hospital capacity -- even through this third surge -- remained relatively good in san francisco, compared to other jurisdictions, and the fact that san franciscans had now beaten back three surges -- look, we have been in this for nearly a year right now. it's time for to us take this approach of gradually reopening and we're reopening, and let's see where we are and do the right thing so that we could even get to that next step and open up more. >> thank you, dr. colfax.

your next question comes from heather knight, san francisco "chronicle." how many vaccine doses has san francisco received and how many has it given to people? >> so right now, heather, we have received as a city 127,000 vaccines. that's across the whole city. that's across the health care systems, across the city. and we've administered as a city, we estimate just over 59,000 vaccines have been administered. at the health department, we've received 34,500 vaccines to date. and we've vaccinated more than 23,000 people. now in those numbers i want to stress a couple of things -- we are ready to go with mass vaccine sites right now. we need to get to 10,000 vaccines a day. the numbers that i gave you alst

with regard to the vaccine that is remaining that those vaccines have been scheduled for second doses or appointments that have been made for first doses for most part. and with the d.p.h. supply, even with the 10,000, our total that we'll get this week, we will be scheduled to basically to exhaust our vaccine supply by as early as wednesday or thursday. we need more vaccine right now so that we can get those shots into arms. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next set of questions come from alex fererria, san francisco business times. in what ways will the restrictions in place in san francisco be on thursday differ from what the state is allowing in the purple tier counties? or, is the county reopening to the full extent of the purple tier? >> so just to be clear right nod

that the counties are coming out as the shelter-in-place order, we will be told what tier we're in tomorrow. we'll look at that very carefully. and with regard to the orders, those will be -- be released accordingly. and that those will be released on thursday at this time. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from holly striker of kqed. what amount is the expected next shipment of vaccine in san francisco? >> so, remember, we have visibility only to the vaccine that the health department will be getting because the other health care systems in the county, the kaiser and the sutter and the dignity, they get pulled from their regional counterparts what vaccine they'll be getting. what i can tell you right now because this is what we have insay the into -- is that the health department is scheduled to get 10,575 doses this week.

that number could change. and we will know that number when they tell us that that number has actually been shipped to us. but, again, that's ready to go out the door right now. we need more vaccine. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next question comes from eve batty theatre s.f. can we hear more about the thinking behind the decision to leave the 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. stay-at-home order in place? >> so, what we're doing right now is working to gradually to reopen the city. we're taking the initial steps in a situation where the rate of the virus is still relatively high. we want to see that number continue to go down before we release that 10:00 to 5:00 order. so let's just give us a little more time and see how those numbers do to ensure that we don't have to reverse again.

nobody wants to go backwards again, so let's take the first step. we have beaten back three surges. let's prevent a fourth surge as much as possible. >> thank you. the next question comes from christian kaftan, channel 2 news. how will this work county-by-county, when the entire bay area was covered under the state's previous order? could there be surges in other counties that could impact san francisco? >> well, i think that has been really great about the local county collaboration -- actually, a year now -- is that the bay area health officers have been coordinating and working together. and for the most part the region has been well coordinated. so, again, we will see what tier the counties are assigned to by the state tomorrow. and i expect that in general that the county orders will be

aligned for the most part. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next set of questions come from dan curman. who is getting vaccinated at city college? those in the san francisco health network? those in the ucsff health network? or anyone over 65? >> so people who are eligible for vaccine right now are health care workers and people over the age of 65. right now that site -- those patients -- are ucsff patients who by the most case meet the 65 and over criteria, and, again, once we get more vaccine we're ready to go and give up to 3,000 vaccines at that site alone. >> and a poll question, do you feel as if the feds are sending less vaccine to the bay area region compared to southern california due to the massive

outbreak there? >> i'm not going to speculate on what the feds may or may not be doing. i think that the bottom line is that across the state regionally and locally we need more vaccine as soon as possible. san francisco is ready for the vaccine. our goal is to be able to inoculate at least 10,000 people a day. as you just heard, the health department is getting just over 10,000 doses this week. so we need to get that vaccine here so that we can get it into arms as quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. and we will now continue questions with mayor breed.

>> mayor london breed: all right. >> mayor breed, your first set of question comes from nbc bay area. what do you say to landlords who feel that they're being taken advantage of by tenants who continue to pay zero dollars in rent and intend to continue living rent-free during the eviction moratorium? >> mayor london breed: well, i appreciate the question. and, you know, san francisco since the beginning of this pandemic, through not only the rental subsidies that we had through the city and county of san francisco, that try to provide some additional rental assistance to make sure that when this is over that people are still responsible for that rent and will need to pay it. we just found out from the federal government that san francisco will be given $26

million in stimulus money to help with rental assistance. this will be significant. we know that it's not just the people who are struggling to pay their rent, but some of the small property owners and others who might be struggling because they're not receiving that additional income. there is hope with this new $26 million and i'm excited to see what that does to help to address some of the challenges that exist. because what we don't want to happen is that we don't want -- after this pandemic is over, we don't want to see a lot of people getting evicted and we also don't want to see a situation where so many small property owners who rely on this income to help to cover the expenses of maybe their in-home support services work, or the repairs on their home, we don't want to see them in a bad situation either. so right now, great announcement, $26 million in rental subsidies. that's a start. we know that there's more to do. but i think that we're going to continue to work towards the

goal of trying to make people as whole as we possibly can. >> thank you. and a follow-up question, should the future stimulus checks include a requirement that a portion of those funds go towards a person's rent? how can smaller landlords afford to keep allowing renters to live for free? >> mayor london breed: i think that something of that nature might be somewhat difficult to manage. i know that, for example, we have the ability through the resources that we provide for rent subsidy to make direct payments which ensures that these resource goes directly to cover the rent. on a federal level, i have no control over that, but i do think that it's important for us to do everything that we can to make sure that we get direct payments into the hands of landlords, to make sure that we avoid the evictions that could occur if these rents are not paid. >> thank you, mayor breed. your next question comes from ron lynn of the "los angeles times."

some restaurant owners have been very upset at the outdoor dining ban and have opposed the government orders to shut them down. do you think that san francisco's latest success vindicates your efforts to impose an outdoor dining ban and to implement stay-at-home orders, even ahead of the state's timeline? >> mayor london breed: well, i truly believe -- yes. if -- you've gotta understand that to close down a major city like san francisco, and then also when you see the numbers surging and to have to go backwards, those are some of the hardest decisions i've ever had to make, because i know what it means -- not just for the people who are supporting these restaurants -- i know what it means for the workers and the food and all of the things that these restaurants have to do to be open in the first place. but the fact is that we had to prioritize saving lives in every decision that we made. and what we're seeing are the impacts of those decisions

because our case rates, the deaths that have -- are the lowest death rates in the country of any major city in san francisco, the i.c.u. rates, i think that all of the numbers that we're seeing in san francisco demonstrate that we made the right decision and now that we are reopening outdoor dining, we want to continue to make sure that we are being very careful. because we don't want to go backwards. >> thank you, mayor breed. your final question comes from kathleen novak of kcbs. with the extra funding from the federal government, will san francisco be able to open up more hotel rooms to people who might not qualify for fema reimbursement and cover the costs out of the city's budget? >> mayor london breed: well, we are not certain that that's going to be possible because our goal is to provide permanent housing, not temporary housing. and what these hotels and these safe sleeps sites that we opened

up during this pandemic have done is provided temporary shelter for the people who, unfortunately, are homeless. and we're being reimbursed for that purpose. but our resources, the money that we have in available to assist with our homeless population need to be used for permanent housing options. and that's where our priority will be. >> thank you, mayor breed. there are no additional questions. >> mayor london breed: thank you. >> this concludes today's press conference. thank you, mayor breed and dr. colfax for your time. (♪♪♪) streets.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> i wanted to wish you a best wishes and congratulations the community has shifted a lot of when i was growing up in the 60s and 50's a good portion of chicano-american

chinese-american lived in north beach a nob hill community. >> as part the immigrant family is some of the recreation centers are making people have the ability to get together and meet 0 other people if communities in the 60s a 70s and 80s and 90s saw a move to the richmond the sunset district and more recently out to the excelsior the avenue community as well as the ensuring u bayview so chinese family living all over the city and when he grape it was in this area. >> we're united. >> and growing up in the area that was a big part of the my leave you know playing basketball and mycy took band lessons and grew up.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> allergies welcome to the community fair it kicks off three weeks of celebrations for the year and let's keep everybody safe and celebrate the biggest parade outside of china on february 11th go best wishes and congratulations and 3, 2, 1 happy enough is enough. >> i grew up volley ball

education and in media professional contrary as an educator he work with all skids whether or not caucasian hispanic and i african-american cumber a lot of arrest binge kids my philosophy to work with all kids but being here and griping in the chinese community being a chinese-american is important going to american school during the day but went to chinese school that is community is important working with all the kids and having them exposed to all culture it is important to me. >> it is a mask evening. >> i'd like to thank you a you all to celebrate an installation of the days here in the asian art museum. >> one time has become so many things in the past two centuries

because of the different did i licks the immigration officer didn't understand it became no standard chinese marine or cantonese sproupgs it became so many different sounds this is convenient for the immigration officer this okay your family name so this tells the generations of immigrants where they come from and also many stories behind it too. >> and what a better way to celebrate the enough is enough nuru with the light nothing is more important at an the hope the energy we.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> relative to the current administration it is, it is touching very worrisome for our immigrant frames you know and some of the stability in the country and i know how this new president is doing you know immigration as well as immigrants (fireworks) later than you think new year the largest holiday no asia and china those of us when my grandparents came over in the 19 hundreds and celebrated in the united states chinese nuru is traditional with a lot of

meaning. >> good afternoon my name is carmen chu assessor-recorder i want to wish everything a happy new year thank you for joining us i want to say. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i'm proud to be a native san franciscan i grew up in the chinatown, north beach community port commission important to come back and work with those that live in the community that i grew up in and that that very, very important to give back to continue to work with the

community and hope e help those who may not be as capable in under serving come back and give >> i'm san francisco mayor london breed. i'm so excite the to be here today to swear in the next assessor-recorder for the city and county of san francisco. joaquin torres. i want to say a few things about joaquin. i known him for so many years. we started off many years ago in city government in the mayor's office in neighborhood services, doing work to help support communities. he has really an incredible personality. he always focused on getting the job done for people who need it the most. it is not a surprise in he's been able to work his way up into numerous positions that has

helped steer the city in the right direction. let me just give you an example. when the san francisco housing authority was in trouble, we were having numerous challenges. the federal government threatened to intervene. joaquin torres was appointmented to serve on the commission. at that time, he became the president of the commission and he helped move us in a direction that has allowed for us to get investments to rehab 3400 units to get us off the red with the federal government and to get us back on track to support the families of the san francisco housing authority. it was very personal for me as someone who lived over 20 years of my life in public housing that we did something that didn't display the resident and that recognized that they needed to make sure that the. conditions of public housing

didn't continue down the wrong path. we appreciate his work. which was a volunteer job. not to mention his day job, when i became mayor, i appointed joaquin to be the director of the office of economic workforce development. i did it because my experience as a district supervisor and someone who worked in the community, he would always about the community. he could have sent staff members and his staff members were present and available. he was always on the ground facilitating conversation and making connections between what the community needed and what city hall needed to do to support them. his leadership style is really what helped to not only look at

some of the disparities and issues around equity that we were dealing in covid, he worked tirelessly to make sure that grant moneys were going to small businesses. he helped create the african-american resolving loan fund. he helped address lot of the disparities with the latino community when we saw surges of cases in that community and a need to provide financial support to a number of agencies including those small businesses. his understanding of finance, his understanding of how economic development works, his work with small businesses, big

businesses and all things san francisco, makes him just really the perfect candidate to be the next assessor-recorder for the city and county of san francisco. with that, i like to bring joaquin torres forward so i can swear him in and make it official. are you ready? >> okay. >> i, joaquin torres, do swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic that i bear true faith and

allegiance to the same. that i take this obligation freely. without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties which i'm about to enter and during such time, as i serve as the assessor-recorder for it city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause] >> congratulations.

ladies and gentlemen, your assessor-recorder, joaquin torres, [applause]

>> thank you mayor breed. thank you very much. thank you to my family who was here with me today. to my mom, who's listening in from downtown south, to my two dads who i marry in this building to my sister, to my wife. to my aunt and uncle up north, to my friends aall of you who joining us online. the collection of billions of dollars, property tax dollars is essential to constantly and solvency of this city of san francisco. i'm honored, mayor breed, for the confidence you placed in me as i assume these responsibilities as the assessor-recorder for the city and county of san francisco.

all of these depend on the financial foundation built through the hard work of this office and that is a responsibility i take very seriously. in the western edition. you treated me with grace, with the respect and with bearing that told me you better do right.

from my grandfather, who has a butcher rose before work before dawn each day so he can buy a home for his family and help his three children become an artist, bilingual teacher and education leader and an amazing public servant. to my nana, who taught me the love of caring, that came in a file wrapped package that she packed for my flights back and forth between separated parents. to my grandmother, who has a

seamstress steadily towards the purchase of a beautiful home. to my father, who broke barriers for latino politicians at a time when being a mexican-american was a significant hurdle for leadership. to my mom, who after career writer and journalist taught me true courage meaning and strength. i'm very proud of my family my mexican-american family. a family of teachers, artist, writers, journalist, butchers, caretakers, cooks, seamstresses and soon to be lawyers for what they strive so achieve and what they continue to give back to

family and to society. i'm grateful for them raising me defined by resiliency and public service. i'm a very proud husband to an extraordinary artist. my wife, rebo who guide me through stresses of public service who shown what it means to be loved, to love to be wrong, to be compassionate and vulnerable. thank you for seeing me. thank you for seeing supporting my love for this work. i'm so fortunate to have these people in my life. who shaped my approach to public service, not all of us can be so lucky. not all of us can rest at night knowing that the love and care we hope for is part of successful life will be for us when we need it most. it's that awareness and those

values principles and ethics that my family has instilled in me, carried with me the toughest times through the hardest of life challenges. when i called out for help, not knowing if it existed for me, it was my family that heard my call. it's that care and our ethics that i work to infuse in my 11 years of public service to the city. they've given me the confidence and strength to know that every shred of my being that my community need to be listened to and heard. it's those values i will bring to this new role as assessor-recorder. these are the values we need always. but especially today, when people are hurting so badly, so deeply when they need to know there's a government caring for them with caring and doors open and not shut, a government that's accessible and be

accountable to you the people that we are proud to serve. i want to thank city administrator chu for her commitment to the professionals at the assessor-recorder's awesome. thank you for haig this -- makingthis transition a succl one. i joined a team of hard working and professionals that made carmen's vision for fair and efficient government, not only a reality but an envy of offices up and down the state. that's a legacy i'll strive to continue and excited to learn and work with all of you at the office to continue down that path. one of excellence, one of continuous improvement for the betterment of san francisco. to the team i part with today, the office of economic and workforce development, you have prepared me for this moment.

it's been long hard year for so many businesses and workers throughout this pandemic for the barbers, gyms, bars, the fears, the actors, the concessionaries, the tattoo artist and restaurants, hotel workers, janitors and office workers. nonprofits rising up and you all every single one of you rising up to meet these moments. to meet so many entrepreneurs determined to make it through this. for their workers, for themselves and for it city that they love. what you shown me, what all of you have taught me, those were the moral authority, those with the formal authority. the mayors, the assembly members, senators and controllers and supervisors, which you taught me once again is that there's always hope on the horizon. every storm eventually breaks

for the clear sky above. to the diverse communities that i serve with respect to gratitude during these 11 years of service, for the neighborhood leaders, coalitions of parity and equity for the public housing, merchant leaders, thank you for the confidence you placed in me. to serve you for many years more. to find new paths to build a better and more prosperous san francisco for all of us. i thank you mayor breed. all of you for your leadership and your trust. now i'm ready to go to work. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you all so much for joining us today. this concludes our program. stay safe and healthy. let's get our city open. [applause]