this is a successful city. the diversity and the strong neighborhoods in the different languages, things that we love about the city. those principles, of the same city and a successful city, that is what i wanted. now we have a difficult decision, how do we bridge the gap of the budget, and how do we make certain that this decision does not hurt people more, and maintain the level of services that they want and keeps you excited about the city, and keeps you committed to being here. i want to throw out to the civic engagement staff tonight, and through an agreement last with the board of supervisors, we funded part of the city administrator's office to make certain that we have language capabilities, not just in these capabilities by -- they have people on staff tonight to make certain, that english is not your first language, you can communicate your concerns to the city staff tonight. thank you very much for the civic engagement. i want to thank all of you for coming out and spending your time. i appreciate t

can get the culture and the arts, all the wonderful things we have invested in that make this city successful. jobs continue to be the thing i am trying to do in this city. it will resonate in all the decisions i make. it is the responsible thing to do for any major city now. whether or not we consider ourselves a local city, our regional city, an international city, it is job creation that makes the city run well. for all of us here, i know you have great hope that the city will be able to have decent jobs here that can maintain, that they can spend a good amount of their careers in, and that is why i spend a lot of time with chief adviser kim and supervisor david chiu and the other supervisors talking about how we can sustain the midmarket. that is why we passed a week ago the midmarket payroll tax exemption. we wanted to welcome new companies into the city and understand what it was blocking their ability to stay and to grow. to hear a company -- not just from the cfo, from the president. when i visited twitter, i closed the door and they allowed me to speak to their engineers, to their wo

a successful city means we can continue attracting people to be year, to have strong neighborhoods, resilient neighborhoods like district 8, make sure we are doing everything we can to make our neighborhoods successful, along with all the other attractions that we can afford to have. a safe city, a solvent city, and a successful city are the themes i have given our departments to work with. and as we go through the balancing our budget, i said at the outset, there is no magic to it. we have to make some tough decisions coming up. after we make those tough decisions, is like going to be any easier? nope. the governor has plans to realign things that going to hurt us. i do not believe for one second that realignment means it comes with any funding to realigning burdens that will come to us. then the federal government is going to get there. we have already seen the community block grant funds that were going to be heard in many different ways, so we are bracing for that, trying to come up with ideas to make sure our cities survives and survive as well. with that, no more speeches. i am all ears

schools and support where they need it so they can become successful individuals, successful members of their families. the city also needs to support families and support neighborhoods that make us successful. more and more, the people coming into this city -- they are not just going to fisherman's wharf any more. they want to come to the mission. they want to experience the cultural diversity we have and celebrate with us. so a safe city, a solvent city, successful city are the principles i am sharing with everyone while we make tough decisions that are bound to come up, and i want to make them with your concerns in mind. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. that was a brief introduction to some of the key figures in city government, department heads, and everyone else who is here who will just introduce themselves. >> my name is phil ginsberg. i am the general manager of recreation and parks. -- my name is phil ginsburg. [inaudible] thank you. >> [inaudible] i am mayor lee's budget director. it is my job to work with the mayor and board of supervisors to make sure we are going to balance our budget every

to continue to have us face -- a safe, soldan, and successful city. and i can do that in a non- political way. i think the unprecedented dialogue with the board of supervisors, that we can get agreements, not yell at each other, not take some much political positions that are for san francisco. i think you for this time and i would be very willing to answer questions tonight. [applause] >> thank you. before we talk policy and the city stuff, i want to talk a little bit more about growing up in seattle. the fourth of six kids. tell us about the way you grew up, hal is shaped who you are now? mayor lee: i do not talk much about it because it was a hard life. we grew up in housing projects in seattle. we struggled. we were a large family. my dad was a cook. my mom was a seamstress. so, kind of typical for a lot of asian immigrant families. i had the unfortunate episode of my dad dying when i was in high school. so we literally had to be on our own. six kids, one long, full time seamstress. we struggle and sacrifice and we learned how to enjoy life. that

we have had investments in education that made our city successful. i never want a city that abandons its education system again. we submit millions of dollars to our school district. we have seen other cities fail in that mission. they thought the school district was a state system and had nothing to do it. this city does it differently. that makes our city successful in different ways. i want our son to be safe, solvent, and successful -- ouone -- i want our city to be safe, solvent, and successful. i suggest to you that we have a new level of conversation at city hall. it is welcoming of a good business climate. weak balance that with the services we need to have. we will make sure -- we will balance that with the services we need. we will balance that with the services we need and the challenges we have. having said that, the three ended $6 million deficit is hard to fill when we do not have all of the economic solutions. -- the $306 million deficit is hard to fill when we do not have all of the economic solutions. we still have nervousness about t

i want the city to continue to be successful, to continue to attract the thousands of visitors that come every day to see us, be at our local shops. i want the city to be safe, solvent, and successful. that is the principle upon which i shared with the department heads, with commission directors, as we approach this daunting task as we fill in this gap. but there will be some hard decisions in front of us. there will be some programs that we are reviewing today with you that have to change the way they practice. there will be departments experiencing less in how they do their jobs, but will still be held accountable for doing the best job possible. i want to thank my colleagues from all the different departments because they are all working very hard. i have worked shoulder to shoulder with all of them. these are some of the best apartments that you can have for a city. they could be making more money in the private sector, but they have chosen a public service. i want to thank them from our dpw hence, rec and parks, children and family, aging, human services, they are all here spending

finally i want to make our city successful.uccessful means basically reaching back to what brought all of you here to san francisco, what made you come here whether you're immigrants or people who moved from another city, people who moved just across the bay to come to san francisco. what made you attracted to the city were things that attracted me. good housing, good schools, good events, good cultural institutions that are reflective of all of our diverse cultures. all of those things that made our city wonderful, including being part of an international city, a city that understands all of the diverse cultures that we represent. i know many of you came and struggled to be here because you know the city is a wonderful, wonderful city to raise our families in, to raise your kids in. your kids are like my kids. we're very proud of this city, because it is so great at all the cultural institutions, so wonderful in its support for its education. we want the city to continue being successful, so-so as the board of supervisors work

and we ultimately want to join you all tonight to make sure the city is successful. our city attracts you and so many other people to state and live here because we believe in the city. we believe in its multiculturalism. we believe in the neighborhoods , that it thrives, and that is what makes the city successful, but i want that city to continue being successful. with that, i am all ears tonight, and you also have my heart open to the issues that you are struggling with because i know there is a lot of issues that people struggle with. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. ok, i'm just going to briefly go down the names of the attending agencies and their representatives. we have farber garcia, director of the form of public health. maybe just wave. that is very nice, but let's hold our applause. let's just hold our applause so we can get through the business of tonight. jim, deputy director of human resources. fred blackwell, director of redevelopment agency. we have jeff go down, sfpd. sonali bose, sfmta. bob sitting in for phil ginsburg from iraq and park