mr. parker and his team of the visionary architects, larry funk who is sitting over there. he is a hero. [applause] larrym, from the beginning you had a dream of what the new laguna honda should look like, and you stuck with the passion and dedication to make that dream a reality. the city hall family, the laguna honda staff, the department of health, the commission, the department of public works, the art commission, john thomas from the department of public works. i could go on forever. but the individuals who all made this the possibility are on the laguna honda honor roll. but i truly believe that the greatest degree of thanks and goes to the people of san francisco, who from the start, from our early beginning of history, have said yes. we want a laguna honda. other communities across this country and even in the world do not have a public hospital devoted to rehabilitation and skilled nursing care. we do. and when we talk about putting that bond issue, that great big bond issue -- there were people who said i do not think we can do it. but i always knew we could. and

mr. parker and his team of the visionary architects, larry funk who is sitting over there. he is a hero. [applause] larrym, from the beginning you had a dream of what the new laguna honda

mr. parker. >> host: you can speak to the music thing. you have a background. there's your clarinet? >> guest: yeah, it was -- but, you know, as i say it's a combination. it was a beautiful day. it's the vision of 250,000 plus people. it was the excitement, i mean, think about, you know, how he was randolph introduced martin luther king jr. you could feel it, and he says, now it comes to that time -- because he was the last speaker. >> host: okay. no one follows dr. king. >> guest: it's come to that time, brothers and sisters, and now it's my pleasure and privilege to introduce thee undisputed moral leader of this nation, the reverend dr. martin luther king jr. and the place just like boom. okay? now by the way, let me back. you know there was some discussion in the preplanning on the march on washington about who was going to speech. >> host: and how long. >> guest: and how long they were going to speak. those of us around martin, and martin himself really thought that he should be the last speaker. but he certainly felt and all of us around him it was not appropriate for him to say

mr. parker. this is about 15 minutes. [applause] [applause] >> i know it's been a long program. i appreciate everyone's patient out there. but i also know how important it is to all of us to receive the c.o.p.s. grant funding, and how that program has been able to make our cities safer. it's my pleasure to introduce to you now a very good friend of our cities, the director of the office of community oriented policing services at the justice department, barney melekian. i won't spend much time talking about that. but i will tell you the conference of mayors is committed to see the c.o.p.s. program adequately funded to be able to take advantage of the vital help that it provides. director melekian was the police chief for the city of pasadena for more than 13 years before assuming leadership of the c.o.p.s. office one year ago, and served with distinction in the santa monica police department in 23 years. he's also served as the acting fire chief and interim city manager for the city of pasadena. i met the director shortly after taking office last year to discuss with him the fact