welcome to city hall, your city hall. i wanted to make sure -- i know supervisor mirkarimi is here. supervisor jane kim is also here. they are both here because i know both have a strong commitment to our youth in san francisco. i want to welcome all of you here tonight for two reasons. one, i know we are going to give some awards out for our youth leaders, but the other reason i wanted to make sure you had a good invitation to come to city hall tonight was because we have been waiting for one of you to register, wondering if you are going to run for mayor or not. there is a vacant seat for youth to lead the city. i think you can take this job and run with it. this city needs to be more kid- friendly, more youth-oriented. i think you could have a big input to make sure that what we are doing will be there for you to raise families as well. i want to congratulate all the nominees tonight. all of you who have been participating in this competition for the fellowship have been doing great work. i have been reading through some of the accomplishments that you are a part of. i got to mee

and who has brought peace and calm to the city, to city hall in the past few months he has been chief of the city. ladies and gentlemen, my dear friend, please join me in welcoming the 43rd mayor of city and county of san francisco, mr. edwin lee. [applause] mayor lee: thank you. thank you very much. welcome to the people's hall in san francisco. i want to first of all say -- i have always wanted to say this. the commissioner is such a wonderful person, and she has been our commissioner on immigrant rights commission, but you could see her when we walked in. she was hustling around getting everybody settled, doing what we needed to do to have a successful event, but she has been a wonderful adviser to me for so many years and a great asset to the city. i want to give you a round of a free shares applause. -- appreciative applause. thank you so much. it is my personal pleasure to welcome all of you here to celebrate nowruz. this has been something that supervisor mirkarimi and i talked about for so many years, to make sure we on this day and make sure all of you feel so warm and welcom

it is a big part of what i look forward to doing in city hall. >> what are the specific thoughts you have on how the city can deal with budget issues? >> i think of two things. i'm not one the things that we can raise revenue and that is going to solve out of our problems -- i'm not one who thinks that we can raise revenue, and that will solve all our problems. we need to look at what we do as a city and was services we offer. we have 26,000 city employees. our payroll and fringe benefits for city employees accounts for over 60% of our budget. if we are not willing to look at that issue, i do not think we are going to solve -- i know we will not solve our long-term financial issues. that, to me, is the biggest deal. second, it is about job creation. jobs are not just putting people back to work, which i think is the highest priority, but it is all the ancillary benefits we received, whether it be payroll taxes, an increase in property taxes. people who live and work in san francisco also shop at local restaurants, so shop at the local retail stores. it is a huge economic impact in san

-- what will hopefully be forever -- arab heritage month celebration at city hall, so thank you all for coming. [applause] as you probably know, tonight is a difficult night for many people. the world series is going on, and i'm here to report to you aid is 0-0 so far, in the second inning. we will have it on during the reception. before we get started, i wanted to recognize and bring up two elected officials to speak briefly, supervisors avalos and mayor, who have always stood with the community -- supervisors avalos and mirkarimi, who have always stood with the community. they have consistently had their offices open when we had an issue. they're being here means a lot to us -- their being here means a lot to us. now more than ever, we need to be friends with government, and knowing their door is open to us is appreciated. [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: good evening. i'm ross mirkarimi. i represent the fifth district, and i'm delighted to be standing up here with my colleague who will speak in a moment. i want to thank mike farrah for his leadership and mayor newsom for helping

now i stand at city hall with all of you. i have come a long way. it is a matter of me reaching out and the city reaching back. it is a two-way street. i love the city. i will love the music performed now by the san francisco gay men's chorus. [applause] ♪ ♪

now i stand at city hall with all of you. i have come a long way. it is a matter of me reaching out and the city reaching back. it is a two-way street. i love the city. i will love the music performed now by the san francisco gay men's chorus. [applause] ♪ ♪ please tell me somebody didn't just drop th there? ...it's like a foot away from the trash can. man, i'm like this close to throwing it away myself. i don't blame you. i mean who would... announcer: don't just take a stand, act. the most powerful way is to simply register to vot [older man speaking foreign language] richie! richie! [speaking foreign language]

in city hall nights, you were looking soberride -- soberride, in your diamonds -- and you were lookingo right. president chiu, you looked so great, riding your bicycle up all of those hills. big city nights and those big city bills you were looking so right. making all of the budget come back, big city home nights and those big city bills and you were looking so right bring the budget bat b -- ack ♪ [bell] president chiu: thank you. next speaker is not. >> thank you -- next speakers. >> you may hear the seriousness in my voice because i am been victimized. many just give you one example over there. i want to make this clear to the city and county on record. i have been here in city hall for 20 years. i was upstairs in the media room before the earthquake, ok? now, i done made history. i made history, and now, they are trying to get rid of me. one thing is sure, i'm going to stand my ground. i am asking for a public hearing of what goes on in the press room. right now, i think you all know. the press room, that is part of city hall, and that is expensive real estate. back when real -- w

now i stand at city hall with all of you. i have come a long way. it is a matter of me reaching out and the city reaching back. it is a two-way street. i love the city. i will love the music performed now by the san francisco gay men's chorus. [applause] ♪ ♪ the biggest issue in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one...

i am not trying to fight city hall.y are trying to question my -- i do not care if it is through the birds and bees. i do what i do, and i do it good. but now since we have this, a lot of people in city hall are asking. i am asking for this. there is racism going on in city hall. [bell] >> my name is john, and this is probably my 50th time. each time, i have the same message to try to get you to exercise your oath and to stop mass murder in an unconstitutional wars of congressional choice, never a necessity, against cia- fabricated enemies. i left each of your offices the following message. do not put week, the people, further into debt, a cease-fire on it unconstitutional wars of troy's not necessity, stop the lack of due process of law, cut to two billion per day for defense, and do -- face disqualification from office or treason. and then it shows in there where i am holding a local reporter boat accountable for treason and felony for keeping this information secret. i think they're going to fix this thing. this is g

i'm manager of the tour program as well as i am the historyian of city hall. is building is multifaceted to say the very least it's a municipal building that operates the city and county of san francisco. this building was a dream that became a reality of a man by the name of james junior elected mayor of san francisco in 1912. he didn't have a city hall because it was destroyed in the earth wake of 1906. construction began in april of 1913. in december 1915, the building was complete. it opened it's doors in january 1916. >> it's a wonderful experience to come to a building built like this. the building is built as a palace. not for a king or queen. it's built for all people. this building is beautiful art. those are architecture at the time when city hall was built, san francisco had an enormous french population. therefore building a palace in the art tradition is not unusual. >> jimmie was an incredible individual he knew that san francisco had to regain it's place in the world. he decided to have the tallest dome built in the united states. it's now stands

>> welcome to city hall. i will be in see today for the formal raising of the plight -- pride flag over san francisco. that was exciting. [applause] i never know what to wear. today, i thought i was going to be of the building, look like the building. some say i look like the first lady. i am not sure what that meant. i will take that job because it is less responsibility and get to travel around. i love dressing up and coming to city hall knowing where part of the city just as we are apart of city hall. this is a great crowd today. i have seen great improvements. the flag this year is new and crisp. the crowd is beautiful. everybody is organized. some of you dressed up and some of you did not. [laughter] that is okay. you are all welcome at city hall. before we do the formal program, i want to acknowledge that this is the same suit i wore years ago when nancy pelosi walked into the room and have the same suit on -- had the same suit on. i do not think she is wearing the same suit, but i am. [laughter] sandra

you are all welcome at city hall. before we do the formal program, i want to acknowledge that this is the same suit i wore years ago when nancy pelosi walked into the room and have the same suit on -- had the same suit on. i do not think she is wearing the same suit, but i am. [laughter] sandra, thank you for being here to represent her. [applause] this is a treacherous thing to do at city hall. it is full of protocol and eggshells. it is not easy to walk on egg shells with these issues. [laughter] i will try. if i make a mistake, forgive me. the most important thing is to wreck a bias -- recognize that we are represented by people who want to celebrate pride. to kick things off, i give you the mayor of san francisco, mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you very much. happy pride month in san francisco. that is wonderful to hear. this is our city. this is our culture. this is the way we live. we want everybody to live in equity as well. thank you for being here. i want to welcome our supervisors who are joining me today

now i stand at city hall with all of you. i have come a long way. it is a matter of me reaching out and the city reaching back. it is a two-way street. i love the city. i will love the music performed now by the san francisco gay men's chorus. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalist

lost sight of the fact that we do represent san francisco as a whole and we need to make sure in city halle are enacting policies, laws and legislation that move the city forward as a whole. these are the neighborhoods i grew up in, so for me it is fun to be in them to really understand what is going on and be able it fundamentals some of the thinking and some of the people that are making decisions. >> right here we played football. flag football right here every year. we hung out right in the gym. directors looked after us. parents used to check in but not only one parent, they checked on all the kids. that is what is great about this district, the community. the family base of everything. >> exactly. and look how you turned out. you are doing ok. >> doing all right. two local city guys. >> there you go. >> i get really concerned one ip -- hear people say the payroll tax is a job killer. maybe in some industries the payroll tax might be a disincentive on business going forward, but i would not be surprised if we came out of the whole discussion about remaking our tax for next year that i

everybody in city hall. they are very excited and behind the whole change going into affect. >> i just got an email. i work for the san francisco public library. they needed volunteers. it was something i wanted to do. i have friends who have been married. i wanted to help out. >> i am a summer intern. i am working on gender equality in the private sector. the theme is equality for the summer. it's pretty exciting. people are really nervous. we have to ask them for id. >> we and have an appointment and allow them to proceed >> once you are ready, you and your husband to be need to check in with me here. that's process you one by one. get your license here and re-enter. >> city hall is going to take care of you today. >> don't worry about the time line. >> we are greeting people here and directing them to the services they need, which is licensing or getting the ceremony performed. we are making sure nobody else jumps the line. >> the marriage license process is defined by the court space. >> okay. are we goo

those warnings are also posted here are around city hall. yet here we all are, presenting testimony. in closing i would like to say that we oppose this ordinance and request your no vote because it places a huge burden on retailers at a time when they can least afford it and has no measurable public benefit. supervisor avalos: may i ask you a question? i share some of your concerns about the accuracy and reliability. the prop 65 argument is almost an argument for it. no one is going to pay attention to it. it must be limited in size. 11 by 17 is not that big. the piece of paper that has to go, you make copies and you stick it underneath the cash register, you stick it under the advertisements in the bag that try to get me to come back and buy something else. i absolutely appreciate that point, but in terms of the burden? is it really that burdensome? >> in many cases, it is. there are a number of requirements depending on the type of store the to our. depending on the type of retail establishments that you are you may not have the wall space