the thing about lafco is lafco in san francisco is a unique entity, is a unique agency and it's interesting how life works because at some point as a deputy city attorney i actually did legal work around issues involving lafco. but one of the things that is clear about lafco in san francisco is that it would not be an existence but for the work of pretty amazing leaders beginning with now assembly member ammiano, then supervisor tom ammiano and including especially commissioner ross mirkarimi. i want to thank you for the leadership that you have provided this agency for more than four years as chair but also the many years that you have been an advocate for consumers and for clean energy in san francisco and throughout the state of california and the country. we have a real opportunity to build upon the amazing work of tom ammiano, of ross mirkarimi and so many advocates and members of the community. and the only thing i can promise you as chair of this body i will do everything that i can to make sure that we work collectively in making community choice aggregate today a reality in san fra

lafco's reach is considerable. the range of issues before lafco is really expensive, land use, housing, transit, and in other counties that exercise statutory authority in lafco, many counties, some of them are very rural and some are very urban, still exercise a great amount of their own authority on issues that we just have not entertained, though we considered this back in 2006 and 2007. the attention has been so demanding of us to stick to the question on cca's public policy, but i recommend that in the future, we begin to calendar what those other areas may look like, especially because there is such great demand coming from the regional cooperation plan on housing and transit tolls and land use the man's -- i think lafco would have something to say. commissioner campos: think you come a commissioner. just to add my comments to it, i do think a lot of excellent points have been raised. vice chair mirkarimi indicated that lafco provides a tool wrote -- a tool to explore a number of issues. it really can be a go

and lafco's staff i think is obligated to do the exact same thing. that's why i think that this next six-month period is going to be an absolutely critical period about locking in what the plan is going to look like based on what the potential vendor, service provider, is going to be able to do to implement that plan. and the city government, especially p.u.c., going to be able to feel that relaxation on the question of risk liability since it seems to be a high bar for the city government to be comfortable about this particular transaction and venture. so i'm hoping that, that happens soon enough. people from the environmental community, et cetera, need to be at the able and there needs to be i think that thoughtful discussion. and until we get that i think that support from sacramento in terms of strengthening our municipality's ability to stave off the predatory tactics of the private utilities industries to underminus and to constantly keep changing the rules of what it means to try to meet or beat or even try to i think subvert our ability of pr

we clerked both the lafco and puc revenue oversight committee. we had citywide labor concessions, a package that equals 4.6%. we downgraded and reassigned positions in the clerk's office to provide more entry-level career ladder positions and reduced costs by shifting resources from the corpse of this to other divisions, like the -- from the park -- from the clerk's office to other divisions, like aab and sunshine. the "low hanging fruit" has already been taken. the next slide reviews the mayor's instructions. the mayor is projecting a 8 $378 million shortfall next year and is requesting a 2.5% reduction in the current year, and a 10% contingency. the budget instructions serve as a starting point for the mayor's office to work with city departments to balance the overall budget. some departments grew differently under the last decade and have been better able to reduce the others. it is the board's practice to treat these instructions as advisory, applying protection where they can while still being party to the solution to the city would budget

this assumes that lafco will have sufficient carry forward funds. will find out in april or march if that will occur. the board will need to determine if they intend to adjust for cost-of-living prior to exercising are considering the exercising of the first option on the budget analyst contract. the current contract expires december 31, 2011, but may be extended through december 31, 2013. the budget will be adjusted accordingly, following the board's determination. now, the proposed budget by division. the chart above provides an overview of the preliminary budget proposal by department division, and shows the result on department growth over time. the proposed budget does increase the general fund allocation by $361,000, off 3.1%. more than 80% of this increase is fringe benefits. the proposed budget is still 3.9% lower than the board's general fund budget of three years ago. notably, we have reviewed the division changes. that also reflects a modest new bit of resources from the aab, and increases the clerk's budget to address equipment and softw

chairperson chu: i will ask you to work with supervisor mirkarimi on lafco and other issues. we have a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair without objection. do we have any other items before us? thank you. we are adjourned. >> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everythi

next year, we have the department of the environment working on energy reduction programs, we have lafco, community choice. i would love to see, under a new administration, consolidation of those efforts. we waste a lot of time, money, citizen time, and we don't move forward very fast. if we have a pile of money, we can solve all of these issues. but we have to be practical. sophie, thank you so much. supervisor maxwell: public comment is closed. we will continue this item to the call of the chair. supervisor mar: i was just going to say before i have to leave, it has been such a great pleasure to work with you on the land use committee. i have learned so much from you and i think your the sharpest dresser on the board. i have learned a lot about how to address community concerns, criticisms, and how to bring people together from your leadership. we butted heads on a couple of different things, but it has been an honor to serve with you. i want to thank you for sharing the land use committee. supervisor maxwell: it has been great working with supervisor maxwell: you. -- working with you.

duties to the department and minister, including the sun side ordinance task force, use commission, lafco, and others.

and it's because he's been in the lafco. along with ross mirkarimi.g the motivation of the san francisco public utilities commission when it has failed raoestedly to move forward -- repeatedly to move forward, clean power that will give us 50% clean energy in 10 years if we ever start the project. so -- and david as an attorney that's worked on contracts, knows how to drill into this and knows how to hole the sfpc accountable. the world cannot wait any longer for clean power. we need to set the example and we need somebody that can get in there and do that and that's david campos. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is christopher cook. i'm with the grassroots democratic club and the budget justice coalition although i'm here speaking as an individual. and first, i do want to really urge this board to make this decision and to move forward with whatever discussion is necessary and really begin moving. because we only have a couple more shots at this before the new board will come in. and we only have about a month before a new mayor wou

chairperson chu: i will ask you to work with supervisor mirkarimi on lafco and other issues. we have a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair without objection. do we have any other items before us? thank you. we are adjourned. >> thanks for coming today. we are announcing are temporary homeowner's property tax reduction program. this is what most assessor's up and down the state are doing. homeowners are reliable -- of all property owners are eligible for a temporary, 1-year property-tax assessment reduction if they believe or if we believe dave -- the assess the value has fallen above their market value, which means that the value would be lower than the market value. in general, homeowners who are eligible, chances are, they purchased homes after 2003. we do get applicants who have owned homes since 1995 or earlier. in general, anybody who is owned their home prior to 2003, they are doing well, which is good news. chances are the market value is higher than the assessed value, meaning the property appreciate it. people we are able to offer little relief for,

it is crucial that the department of environmental affairs it starts in gauging closely with sfpuc, lafco, and advocates such as myself, and a company called local power that created community choice aggregation. they could integrate with clean power sf to use revenue bonds to help create the ability to pay for this stuff up threats of the business owner does not have to come up with the money -- to pay for the stock -- pay for this stuff up front so the business owner does not have to come up with the money. chairperson maxwell: public comment is closed. supervisor chiu: i hear from the business industry some of the problems that might affect some of the small and medium- sized businesses. in the legislation itself is a specific exception for buildings that are financially distressed. if a building manager or owner is having financial difficulties, they do not need to comply with this until their financial issues are dealt with. in my mind, that has been a reasonable way of getting at some of the economic challenges that might be facing a building. we also know that the study that this w