chief financial officer who had worked with the city and county of san francisco for many years, fred clarke came on board after ed harrington. he has continued to be our chief financial officer and he created all of our finance controls, internal accounting procedures. he set up everything with us and has been working closely with sara over a number of years. fred is now getting ready to retire in two years or so, so we need to bring on board a chief financial officer that can take on those duties. sara has been leading a staff of four people working in the finance controls. as directors know that have been sitting on the board, we have excellent audit reports over the years. our budgets have increased from about $10 million when i started in 2001 to today over $363 million. she has done an excellent job as a our contrast -- contracts compliance manager. fred will continue in a more advisory role until everything is transitioned over. but given the complexity of our financial program, the largeness of the project -- and fred is recommending this, as you know from the letter in your packet

be on to something when you watch what happens when somebody late gets in whether wesley clark in 2003, whether fred thompson and rick perry has seen running for president is hard. i thought mark kirk made a great point on "morning joe," it's not a marathon, it's an "ironman" competition. in that case, that's where perry is still trying to get up to speed. he has to perform better, their team knows it at the next debate in the words of brit hume, not throw up all over yourself but he also has to start a conversation about mitt romney. the only thing perry's folks are taking solace in is mitt romney's not benefitting yet. >> it's not being called a campaign swing but president obama acting like a candidate. on the west coast for seven fund raisers in five cities over three days. he's throwing in other events but mostly campaign stuff. a chance to find his campaign voice with his base and sell his jobs plan. at 2:00, he participates in a jobs themed town hall followed by spammers linked in. so far all the good stuff has been off-camera. last night, at a fund-raiser, the president went after rick perry

this clothing chain has also dressed many movie stars, like clark gable and fred astaire. we are talking, of course, about brooks brothers-- founded in 1818 by henry sands brooks. so who oversees this iconic american brand now? it's italian billionaire claudio del vecchio. >> the benefit is that i come in, i participate in meetings and i have a little bit different perspective, sometimes, that companies that have only americans don't have. >> reporter: del vecchio's private holding company, retail brand alliance, bought brooks brothers from the british firm marks and spencer a decade ago. but some things haven't changed. brooks brothers has been headquartered out of this store on madison avenue for the past century. >> many people think of brooks brothers as offering traditional clothing, but the company has introduced many fashion innovations to the u.s. market throughout its history. it introduced the first ready- made suits as well as the silk foulard tie, which is what most men wear to the office today. and don't forget the button-down shirt. >> the people that really

candidate, we've seen this cycle after cycle, the longer you wait, it happened to fred thompson, it happened to wes clark, the expectations go up. and you have to then enter the race, and you have to be pitch perfect and ready to go. so part of what's happening is rick perry is sort of trying to catch up. at the same time, in the race, you have someone like mitt romney who has the benefit of having been through this before. so he knows how to pace himself for a debate. he knows how to not get tired. i guess rick perry's excuse was that he was tired. it just makes rick perry look less ready for primetime. at the same time, as you said, it's not about texas because this is a much broader scale, and this is a much deeper level of scrutiny than he's probably used to. >> karen, really quickly, i want to talk to you about what the president said at the congressional black caucus over the weekend. i want to play a quick bite and talk about it on the other side. >> put on your bedroom slippers. put on your marching shoes. shake it off! stop complaining! stop grumbling! stop crying! we are going to press on! we'v

runners and front runners in 2007 look at polls in 2007 where rudy guiliani and fred thompson and in 2003 howard dean and wesley clarkyou can have a nominee that is not a front runner. >> chris: why? >> this is not a good primary season and i am talk taking a quote. people who havability lack conviction and they are not on the stage. there is a hankering for someone to come in after perry made the pump. it was a bump in terms of republican confidence. that number is going back down. but the ippression they are giving to the nation as a hole. it is a limited conversation among the tea party element and far right of the republican party. not only three dollars for cut and one dollar for a tax hike. and immigration argument that held center with perry saying children of illegal irmglant should be qualified to get state aid. and that is important for the hispanic. and i am watching that show. gee. these people don't like immigrants of any stripe. >> chris: once again. bill kristol having his hopes dashed about ryan in the race. and now his heard is won to chris christie. two questions, are we overly harsh on rick peryewr

we've had people like howard dean and wesley clark named front-runners this early. hillary clinton, rudy giuliani, fredhompson, the list goes on. i don't know why we have to name front-runners so early. and this group here these last three days in talking to these delegates, howard, they are soft on perry and romney. that's what led the way for cain. they are very much taken aback by what they see as governor perry's liberal views on treating illegal immigrants. they are underwhelmed by romney's, what they see as his techno carr technocratic style and are tired of the bickering -- >> i want to bring this back to the media experience. david shuster, you worked at fox a long time ago. it's a news network with a lot of conservative anchors, obviously -- >> i still have friends there, too. >> conservative hosts, i should say, not anchors. isn't this the third debate where the fox moderators, megyn kelly, asked tough questions of the candidates? >> look, they did ask some tough questions. but there were also questions, howard, that were frankly incredibly silly and stupid. for megyn to ask mitt romney, oh,

clarke were the two frontrunners. when at this point in 2007, rudy giuliani and fred thompson were the republican frontrunners, so for the news media to decide they're going to pick who's going to be able to take advantage of things i think is pretty foolish. i'm talking to the americans at these tkae bait, at cpac in florida, we're getting a great response, i think that over time, we'll continue to gain ground. there have been three poll necessary florida that now show me running third 57d i think that's a long way from where people had me in june. skwr*pb skwr pb -- jon: so the conventional wisdom these days and this may be a media construct but the polls seem to say it's a 2-man race between romney and governor perry. what's your take on that? >> i think it's silly. there have been no votes taken by the american people newspaper reporters and tv reporters aren't the american people. the fact is it's more convenient to narrow it down, it makes it easier to cover. but it's not factually correct. at this stage in twoo at this stage in 1993 bill clinton would not have been in the final two, at this stage, as i said a