mr. sullivan philips. >> [ringing bells] >> sullivan philips, ladies and gentlemen! ars. he's been on the cable car for six years. ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. they're doctor they're not booing you, they're woo-ing you. ok. now if you weren't driving a cable car what would you be doing every day? >> fishing every day the >> excellent fishing off the coast here. what advice would you give to new operators of cable cars? >> new operators? stay out of buses. >> ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. give us your practice ring and the real thing. howard woo. [ringing bells] >> howard woo, ladies and gentlemen. fantastic. all right. our fourth contestant, ladies and gentlemen, is a grip and a conductor. he's been with muni for 35 years. he's been on the cable car for 18 years. 1999 champion to ring in the millennium and 2004 champion. ladies and gentlemen, mr. frankware. -- mr. frank wear. how's it going today? >> great. >> if you weren't driving the cable car what would you be doing? >> i'd be bar-hopping. >> start at one end of clement street and go all the way d

mr. sullivan, could you please start to summarize more succinctly so we can get to public comment? >> ok. the remedies introduced today include termination rights for against reneging owners and developers. if it happens at all, there would be a termination of the development agreement. if it happens after substantial construction, so we're in the middle of construction, developers have an option of either continuing to abide by rent control or pay the liquidation amount. like i said, we also have the right of first resultrefusal. i'm happy to answer further questions on that. supervisor mar: we have the 14 page document and a summary. we also have mr. yarne's summary of the different amendments. thank you for that. my understanding is there's a puc recommendation, as well, which i think is on our desks, too. my aide has distributed copies. if anybody wants them, please raise your hand. there are two documents you should be able to receive. one is a summary document that summarizes all the amendments i am proposing. the others are the 14 pages of the actual language of the amendmen

mr. sullivan the intents of the changes i made were to strengthen rent-controlled for the attendants. if you could summarize for everyone, what those protections are that are laid out currently in the development agreement that would insure in force -- enforcability. i want you to give an idea of how strong you think the enforcement is and what protections exist in case this happens. >> thank you, president chiu. i spoke this morning. i am going to summarize some of my words. i will first talk about what is in the development agreements. we will have to answer additional questions about any specifics. he generally does not allow cities to impose rent control. there are three exceptions to that rule. one of them is when rent control is included in a contract with a public agency. that language has banned in the development agreement for a long time. we have cited all of the reasons we believe we fall within that exemption. we have the developer a greeting in a separate letter that they are providing. it would not be possible to develop this project. it would not be financially feasible

mr. sullivan makes a good argument that the density bonus exception is something slightly less than that based on the language. it is not a bad argument. the problem is there's an argument to the contrary based on the legislative history, which is equally strong, if not stronger. one final point to those of you here today. it seems pretty clear that this board of supervisors, one way or another, is going to approve this development. i would just say that you really need to clean up the process at this point. twice, the development agreement in recent history has been amended by a web master at 5:00 p.m. on friday afternoon and we find ourselves in the position of not being able to give you the kind of input you have come to rely upon. to this this morning, i tried to get a copy of one of the exhibits and i did succeed in finally getting it finally from mr. yarne. i do not think it says what they think it says. i was in the position of talking to your aid, supervisor chiu, on a cell phone during the meeting, trying to figure out what it said. i do not want to be disingenuous with you. we

mr. sullivan? >> good afternoon, mr. chairman and members of the subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity to discuss management of veterans affairs property. in particular ongoing efforts to reduce or eliminated and needed and vacant properties across the country. it is a privilege to represent the more than 300,000 employees of the department of veteran affairs working tirelessly on behalf of vet--veterans everyday. and would like to highlight successs on disposal of assets especially when they have resulted in providing housing for homeless veterans. before i begin imus emphasize our primary mission is to care for veterans and everything we do every day must put veterans first. i would like to begin with a brief overview of our portfolio. the owner of one of the largest portfolios in the country and over 1 sixty million square feet and 70 one hundred buildings on thirty-one thousand acres. v a is one of the first agencies to develop a highly structured methodology to assess construction needs. most recently reflected in the issuance of the a strategic capit

mr. sullivan, any thoughts? >> mr. chairman, i believe in the va, our moral imperative is to ensure that no matter what real property action we take, that has a positive direct benefit on veterans and their families. number one. number two, that we fulfill our mission in terms of medical, cemetery and benefit services to veterans. and that we are compatible with the local community that we live in an operating with our va medical centers and cemeteries. but throughout that process is the secondary factor of trying to do in the most economical way. there are cases where we can use current a three to make sure we hit those three criteria into an economic way and save money which is reinvested in the back for veterans or back towards the debt. the we -- don't have cases where the hard things to do. a tool like a brac like process would be helpful where we can't get that benefit for veterans because of the existing real property configurations we have. >> thanks. mr. wise? >> senator carper, at gao generally at the request

mr. sullivan also served as deputy chief of staff for policy since january 2009. he also serves as deputy policy director on then senator clinton's presidential campaign and as a member of the debate preparation team for then senator obama's general election debates. in his past life before coming to these positions he also clerked for justice stephen breyer on the supreme court and was a rhodes scholar at oxford. he will talk to us on american foreign policies in age of uncertainties. for those of you who are here this morning this fits nicely with our conference theme on risks and rewards and i'm sure he will touch on topics related to middle east and afghanistan and tradeoffs involved we were talking about earlier. so please join me in welcoming jake sullivan. [applause] >> thanks, nora. good afternoon. at least one person said good afternoon. it's a privilege for me to be here to help celebrate the fifth anniversary for the center of new american security. i count myself as one many members of the obama administration an consumer of center's products. i worked

mr. james sullivan is the director of the office of asset enterprise management at the u.s. department of veterans affairs. he assumed this new leadership role in 2009 after serving as the deputy director since may come in 2002 -- may, 2002. he has over 25 years of experience, including the asset management. is that true? just checking. he plays a pivotal role in managing some of the largest properties in the federal government. mr. lepore is a director of defense debilities and management at -- defense capabilities and management at gao. mr. wise has a bachelor arts in n m.a. he is twice a panther. mr. lepore directs audits and reviews. he holds a masters in public administration from suffolk university in boston. he also holds a degree from elmhurst -- amherst. who do you root for when the red sox play the yankees? senator.n easy call, >> thank you. we'll ask you to take about five minutes to testify. if you go way over that, we will bring you in -- rein you in. your entire statements will be made part of the record. >> thank you for holding this hearing. given that our st

mr. mom. jack sullivan spent considerable time at home caring for his young sons to help boost his parenting skillsroup. well, that was 14 years ago. and the group is still meeting today. >> i've been having a lot of very chaotic feelings about being a father. my kids were only 4 years old, 5 years old at the time. i was approached and was asked if i was interested in being in the group and so i just said, i'm there. if you want to start this group, you've got one guy. >> so what should i have done in this situation? i say, what happened? >> reporter: father's group is a way for us to get feedback from each other, to talk about practical things, everything from changing diapers when our kids were little to now the college process. >> wives and children and parenting and jobs and -- >> meltdowns, kids coming home late at night, the internet. >> movies and entertainment and what we don't talk about here is sickness and sexual things. >> actually, i was a little jealous because i kept looking for mothers groups that were as good and i tried to but they didn't hold. >> i seem to always have something i

hilton comes out and ed sullivan turns to him as he would do, and he said mr.ican people one thing, what would you tell them? conrad hilton never hesitated, never flinched. he said put the shower curtain inside the tub. [laughter] >> now, there -- there's a man that knew what mattered to him. [laughter] >> and we got to be focused starting today through november of 2012 on what matters to us. and what matters to us is making sure that our children and grandchildren inherit the same country that we inherited. [applause] >> those are stakes of this election. those are the stakes of this election. the today you're going to hear from a lot of people who are going to run for president in 2012. they are going to offer themselves to be our party's nominee. and a lot of the great people i've had to honor and serve with a lot of them -- one of them is going to win our nomination, i suppose. and i'm going to tell you something. whoever wins our nomination, i'm not going to agree with him or her on everything. that's one thing i know for sure. you're not going to agree wi

hilton comes out and ed sullivan turns to him as he would do, and he said mr.hilton if you could only tell the american people one thing, what would you tell them? conrad hilton never hesitated, never flinched. he said put the shower curtain inside the tub. [laughter] >> now, there -- there's a man that knew what mattered to him. [laughter] >> and we got to be focused starting today through november of 2012 on what matters to us. and what matters to us is making sure that our children and grandchildren inherit the same country that we inherited. [applause] >> those are stakes of this election. those are the stakes of this election. the today you're going to hear from a lot of people who are going to run for president in 2012. they are going to offer themselves to be our party's nominee. and a lot of the great people i've had to honor and serve with a lot of them -- one of them is going to win our nomination, i suppose. and i'm going to tell you something. whoever wins our nomination, i'm not going to agree with him or her on everything. that's one thing i know

mr. trini whitaker. sullivan philips. ken lunardi. and joseph hsu. come up and get your trophies. ghter] now it's time for what you've been waiting for, third place, ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. howard woo. again, they're not booing you. all right. mr. ken mcdonald. chief of muni operations officer, please come forward to help me present the second place trophy. second place, ladies and gentlemen. mr. frank ware. and before we announce the winner i'm going to drag this out even longer. i'm going to take a moment to thank the kind people who made the 47th annual cable car bell ringing contest possible the the vice chair of the sfmt board of directors. and friends of the cable car music, union square association, trophy masters shanghai restaurant, ghirardelli chocolatesing, and the american automobile association and the $250 cash prize, deluxe sightseeing. let's bring up gilberto gad oy with the hand-crafted bell. and the winner is -- >> mr. leonard oates. congratulations. >> leonard oates. he retains the crown. [applause] that concludes the 47th annual cable car bell ring