david de la torre, local 261. and on behalf of my father i want to thank you everybody present in support of this resolution. commissioner tom harrison opened up with being one of the fortunate ones under the mentorship of my father. i got to say, i too, have been fortunate to be mentored by my father. i had a certain indoctoration into the labor movement. as a previous board member of the bbc. we used to

david de la torre, local 261. and on behalf of my father i want to thank you everybody present in support of this resolution. commissioner tom harrison opened up with being one of the fortunate ones under the mentorship of my father. i got to say, i too, have been fortunate to be mentored by my father. i had a certain indoctoration into the labor movement. as a previous board member of the bbc. we used to meet monthly on a saturday at the village what they call the village. the board consisted of some of the residents, and the stories that they used to tell as far as the bloodshed and the violence within that community which made it a despondent community with such potential. it was not even newsworthy and that is what bothered me the most. i would heard this, but not on the news, and that is due to the lack of opportunities out there in the community. i am the current chair of the phillip institute center and through our efforts in the highly skilled workforce development and the opportunities that we're opening

. >> joan, then linda and i have david de la torre, jeff armstrong and michael karlin go ahead. >> i'm joan and i'm a retired gardener from the recreation and park department and also a co-founder of the assistant gardener apprentice program. that program is partnered with the department of public works and recreation and park department, along with local 261, it's a program that has helped to lay a foundation form foryoung men and women on a career path, but we need to do more and the pre-apprenticeship program that we have the resolution before you is important to continue to bridge that socioeconomic gap that seems to be widening over the years. the foundiation has been laid, but we need to keep it going. i urge the commissioners to adopt the resolution to reaffirm the support of the job-training academy gleneagles training and please name it mario de la torre. when i came into the rec and park in the 1970s, we were the first women to take the test. it was through a mentoring program and tom harrison was one of them at harden golf course and able to explain to small group of newly-h