connie moye to the podium. [applaus [applause] >> supervisor kim: connie is one of our residents in the tenderloin neighborhood. she was born in 1930 and immigrated to the united states from hong kong right after the world war, world war ii in 1947. because at the time the u.s. had a law that mandated that gis could only marry and sponsor wives from outside the united states who were at least 19 years old, connie was, quote/unquote, 19 when she entered our country and married her first husband. this was an arranges marriage. she had six children with her husband. after 12 years, connie divorced her husband and met and fell in love with her second and last husband in reno, nevada, who she had her seventh child with, a daughter named lavita. connie has lived all over the united states. she was a black jack dealer in reno, nevada for over 30 years. [laughter] >> supervisor kim: she eventually came to san francisco where she made the city her home. she's the president of the tenderloin chinese organization twice. t

also want to say a quick note to connie chan. the chinese newspapers, a great resource and i've enjoyed her tenure here and she, too, will be sorely missed and hopefully you will also come back for the ground breaking of portsmouth square. >> president buell: dawn and connie come forward. >> thank you very much, commissioners. i wanted to have an opportunity to come and say farewell after all this time working together. some of us have been working together actually longer than 12 years when i started in the mayor's budget office as the analyst for the recreation and park department and recruited by the deputy director at that time, katy, and this job has been an amazing experience. it is the job i never knew i always wanted and that as a policy person who had been reading design magazines since she was 15 to finally have an opportunity to do both things in one job, and has really been amazing, and i really, we worked on hundreds of projects at this point and i wanted to say my favorite project is my team that i built, and please

michael and connie, as i mentioned, have lived there over 29 years. and we are very concerned that rather than trying to reach an appropriate agreement, the project developmenter went ahead and played an ellis act card on them when they refused to take his buy-out offer. recently, there has been some progress in that the project developer has been willing to agree to mediation as a way of hopefully settling this. but if michael and connie are out of their house on april 28, it is obvious that the mediation is going to take a much different form. so it's very important that the parameters that the commission establish via discretionary review hearing be held before that session. and we would like to ask the commission to please help give some direction to the planning department staff, to schedule that discretionary review in march so that the project developer really has an understanding of what will be possible as well as hopefully reaching an accommodation with michael and connie so that they can continue to live on the project -- at 79 28th street.

. >> so i'm honored to present connie chu. this will be an hour when i talk about connie.superstar. she began a career in august of 2016 with us. almost 25 years of accounting and finance experience of which 20 years of the city controllers' office. she has an incredible creative person. she's the one who single-handedly helping us with the financial. she helps how to address issues. she brings invaluable guidance and directions to everybody who is in the accounting end. her technical knowledge is unparalleled. so she has an ability to communicate the technical parts of the accounting system, to figure out a creative solution. she handles multiple competing projects at the same time. she's assumed the role of cleaning up all of our accounting for the new financial systems. so you can imagine decades and decades of data that connie has been needing to clean up. she's a priority resourcer reporting. i want to ask everybody in the audience here to stand up and support connie. how many people depend on connie. [applause] and i hear there's other folks that are also watching th

conny ford. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is conny ford. i'm vice president of the san francisco labor council and happy to be here. i've been waiting for this commission for several years now to be in this status. just a little bit about me. i am not native to san francisco, but i raised my children here, who both went to public school. my son ended up graduating from city college. my daughter took some of her first nursing vocational classes at city college and that was a nurse practitioner for planned parenthood. i'm a strong advocate of city college and have always talked about, we have k through 12 as a free public education system, and i was always looking forward the day we can extend that for two more years. that came about three or four years ago as you probably remember. city college was in crisis back then, but we worked hard to get it reestablished and then i was a part of a great, great, great team, committed to making it and extending it to free for all san franciscans. took four years to do that, but we passed the legislation

connie ford and cynthia gomez. others are welcome to speak also.line up on the screen side of the room. miss ford. >> good afternoon, commissioners. connie ford, i happen to be one of the vice presidents of the san francisco labor council, but today representing the good jobs coalition. i'm here to talk about this project and that they have sat down with us and negotiated what we consider a very good m.o.u., giving people in the neighborhoods and people who need extra help in terms of taking access to our jobs, access to that. they have given us, they'll give us some money for work force development and then some procedures on how to get some of these people, if qualified, to get the jobs. so, we are very excited about this. we really strongly endorse the project. you have seen our letter i think in your packet. i want to also mention that this is not in central soma, but talking about it with you for a while, and as the plan moves forward and going into the city we are still, great enough to include language about good jobs in central soma, now wo

some of them are behind me like lisa messer behind me and connie ford from the labor council. they know how to coordinate, connect the dots, build coalitions of strong allies in community and labor and even here at city hall that made city college free again, which has been one of my dreams for the kids -- kids. young people. everybody is kids now. you've really shown that compassion really belongs in public policy and it deeply affects individual lives. i can't tell you how happy that makes me. in d-1, we're seeing how we want to see compassion and inclusivity manifested. it makes me really happy. it's down right inspiring. we're ready to do outrageous things like knocking on doors, phone banking, gathering signatures, rallying, marching, even singing and dancing for things that have heart and meaning. thanks for recognizing our passion for a world with more compassion. because it makes me nervous when everybody sits still, because i'm a dance teacher, i want to invite everyone, including the gentlemen, to be honorary members of the loud lady's foot patrol for the next 30 sec

i am connie. i work at the behavioral health center for 20 years. i also come down to the arf to help when needed. so many clients in the arf are former clients of us. i come today to show my appreciation to your support to save the beds at the arf and save our clients from being moved away from their homes for many years. thank you, supervisor ronen and mandelman for coming to see what a great program we have at the arf and the buildings in general. thank you for taking time to listen to their stories as well as how the program works. i look forward to work to improve the working environment. i am eager to cooperate with management and staff and residents to form a safe and healthy working place as provide the best care for our residents. thank you for your support. >> i am amy wong. i am a mental health specialist and member of ifpte local 21. i have worked at the health center for 20 years. 18 of our clients were suddenly given eviction notices. many would have been put on the path to the streets at a time when the city is in the mental health an

it was incredible to be a colleague of hers because as connie alluded to the which, intelligence, the political knowledge, and practical instincts made her be so successful then and in her subsequent jobs, and i have the opportunity to interact with her at all three places at the san francisco parks and recreation department, at the county of san mateo, and in the county of sonoma. today i serve as the interim c.e.o. of the greenbelt alliance , and another giant, women's giant avenue park history was mentioned a little bit earlier. and under her tenure, dorothy was -- dorothy park was established, and phil has been nicellow the greenbelt alliance every quarter or so to be present to there. it a nice feeling to pull the whole circle together. i love you, and thank you so very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> is there anyone else who would like to speak. >> that will do it. >> that concludes one of the more pleasant president's reports. thank you, mary, for all you have done. let me ask commissioner harrison to wait in. i was blessed that i worked for the park department for mary burns

i am connie. i work at the behavioral health center for 20 years. i also come down to the arf to help when n

connie mentioned it when she was talking about the triangle. the fact that this is indexed on cbi is one of the most significant things i have seen happen in the 24 years that i have been doing this in san francisco. the reason it is important is because everybody locks into the idea that we could all survive on a two-point 5% cost of doing business increase. we always pass that through to employees, including having minimum wage workers. there's a whole organization wage scale based on 2.5%. let me tell you what that costs. the actual c.p.i. over the seven years is a locked figure, it has actually caused us, most of the staff reduction moving from the time where we had 212 employees, down to 155, so not doing indexing shrinks staff over time mine has been reduced by 25%, actually 27% over seven years. we can't continue to do business that way. indexing is part of the m.c.o. and the compaction. is absolutely an essential feature of this recommendation. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> hello, supervisors. thank you for holding

i'm connie best. i live in the house next door. the developer responded to your direction with still a huge, blocky, ungangly design that fails to address the neighborhood concerns. it has the same 5,400 square feet of units. the units are not comparable as required under rh2 zoning. one is 40% larger than the other. the building remains too long because of im permissible average the roof deck intrudes on the apartment building's top floor apartment and there are dozens of windows including very intrusive ones on the north side that look directly into our kitchen and deck. we call on you to require two comparable, 1,900 square foot units, two 3-bedroom flats that are big are than my whole house, and are affordable to the middle class. no roof deck. use the yard as shared open space, luke it -- like it was before. it's a big lot. the yard can accommodate that. and eliminate the intrusive windows. he's crazy with the windows. so 38 neighbors are still on the record against this project. don't approve this appropriaprp. stop luxury su

my name is connie mar. i own and have lived at 2 garfield street at merced heights for the past 20-plus years, and my purpose today here is to request the board of appeals -- [inaudible] >> -- monterey pine trees on my property. i think the biggest question is why remove the trees? i feel that they constitute an unacceptable risk to my property, occupants of my home and to the general public. the limbs have a high chance of failure, and the consequences of such failure can be catastrophic. just a little background. i want you to really know that i have an abiding respect for nature. i appreciate the contributions of the trees to the health and the aesthetic nature of the environment, and one of the reasons i purchased this property actually was the trees. there were five trees on this property originally. they were planted by the previous owner around the edge of the property. i don't know if you can see the picture of the -- i think i have a picture in here someplace -- yes, sorry -- of the property. the t

i see members of the public, fernando marti, connie ford walking up to the front. ace, you are welcome to go ahead. you walked up first. so -- >> could you put that in the memo? ace welcomed to city hall, and that would be the biggest secret and i can walk around here, anybody mess with me, i say check out the memo, leave ace alone. thank you. and they don't know that you know karate and i would be behind you. mission bay, you want to hear what i got to say. this is black history, i'm okking it, so i can be on track, so talking about the issue. my main concern all black history month up here in this city by the bay on that tv channel that i help created, i don't want the credit, give me some money. anyway -- be easy on me. i'm supporting this, with he have to find out what y'all are about and seek and get the information and you'll see what i'm all about. i'm all about asimulating the information to my black community, it's black history month. i wake up black, go to sleep black, so i can't take that back. so i'm the czar of outmigration, a member of waypack, read