randall, linda chapman, -- >> good afternoon. i am brenda keaton-randall, the coordinator of k-12 operations at costa school district in richmond, california. we cover san pablo, hercules, and richmond. my intention is to give you a picture of the impact that the academy has had in this district. last year and the year before, many students receive scholarships, and the students went, i believe six weeks with 95% attendance rates. this is 20 miles to san francisco. and 20 miles back every day. and using these cards -- this was 95%. they took everything from home video games, to the computer games, and for the first time many of them told me that they connected art with a viable career. and each student brought three or four of their parents to the exhibit this was at the end of the term, the six-week period. when i look at the faces of their parents, and how proud that they were, i felt very satisfied with what we had accomplished. and that is my story to you about the affects of this program, and the generosity. thank you. >> i

>> pardon me, linda chapman. i mentioned before how much i appreciate your deliberations, and that includes even the times when i do not get the vote the way that i would want. i see that a lot of attention is being paid >> i'm very concerned when i see things happen which in fact last time -- you know, it wasn't your responsibility, but it has to be stopped. and that is the dealing that is happening in some cases between the developer's representative and people who say they represent the neighborhood and maybe even think they do. i refer to 1645 pacific recently, which i know concerns some of you. i refer to live nations as another example. where instead of really paying attention to what does the planning code say, what does the zone code say? what are the rules of a variance, there is a lot of dealings that happen between naive people who live in the neighborhood, the very experienced development attorneys like steve vettle, doing a good job, and the people in the neighborhood who opposed this and maybe thoug