Present. Supervisor peskin . Present. Supervisor ronen . Present. Supervisor sheehy . Present. Supervisor stephanie . Present. Supervisor tang . Present. Supervisor yee . Present. Madame president , all members are present. President breed please join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisiblindivisibl and justice for all. Any communications . None to report. President breed colleagues, today were approving the minutes from january 29, 2018. Are there amendments to those minutes . Seeing none, motion to approve . Moved by supervisor tang. Seconded by supervisor yee. Can we take that without observation . Those minute meetings approved after public comment. Madame clerk please call the first item. The first item is the special order at 2 p. M. , the appearance by the honorable mayor mark farrell, there being no questions submitted by the districts, the mayor may address the board for up to five minutes. President breed the floor is yours. Good afternoon, i appreciate the opportunity to address the first question time as mayor. For seven years, i served in this chamber as supervisor, proudly representing the residents of district 2, while i have been sad to walk away with those duties, i do it with full faith knowing district 2 is in great hands with the new supervisor, catherine stephanie. I look forward to working with you on district 2 and the city. I want to say for our former colleagues that supported me in the vote, i am honored by your support and the trust you placed in me. And for the supervisors who didnt support that vote, i understand very much and respect that decision. And please know that regardless of how anyone voted on that day, im looking forward to working with each and every one of you to address the issues of the city over the next half year. Were all acutely aware of the Public Safety and homeless issues facing the city of San Francisco, these are issues i focused on as supervisor and will focus on as mayor. Were confronted with the scenes of drug addiction, Mental Health challenges and homelessness near feet from where you conduct business here in city hall. When tourists visit, they return to a car that has been burglarized. We cant have this as the new norm. Not running for office is a unique opportunity. We dont have to conduct business as usual because the Mayors Office is not campaigning and we can do what is needed and what is right and what should happen and you have my commitment to do so. In terms of priorities to focus on, first and foremost are the conditions on the street. Now is the time to double down on measures that are successful and have been proven to work in the city, such as the homeward bound program. We increased the budget and i will continue to do this year. The people who took part, have been reconnected families. There are elements of controversy with the plan, but you cant argue with a measure that reunites people with their loved ones and keeps people housed over a year later. Im working to prevent homelessness in programs, provided resources that prevent people from becoming homeless to begin with. We know when a person is left without home or shelter, a whole new set of problems have to be dealt with. Weve created 700,000 Supportive Housing units, which is more capita than any other u. S. City, but weve not seen a reduction in the homeless population. Im confident we can reduce the number of people on the streets, as we double homeward bound and other initiatives. Second of all is the issue of property crimes. While were going to work to address homelessness, i am committed to reduce property crimes that are plaguing every neighborhood that we serve. As i said before, car breakins should not be the price to pay to live or work in San Francisco. Assuming office a few weeks ago, ive had numerous conversations with police chief bill scott. Ive been encouraged. Ive asked him to conduct a staffing analysis as to the true needs of the officers on the streets. And other city agencies. The men and women of the San Francisco Police Department are the finest Police Officers in the country, but we need more of them. We should not be hemmed in the archaic officercharter commitment. Its a false summit. And its not representative of the everchanging city. These are major commitments and i know i have a limited time to accomplish the goals, but theyre what is right for the city of San Francisco and i promise to work to see them through. I hope everyone will join me in those efforts and i look forward to working together. Thank you, everyone. President breed returning to our agenda. Madame clerk. Items 1 through 11, consent. These items are considered to be routine unless a member objects, an item may be removed and considered separately. President breed madame clerk, call the roll. On items 1 through 11. Safai aye. Sheehy aye. Stefani aye. Tang aye. Yee aye. Breed aye. Cohen aye. Fewer aye. Kim aye. Peskin aye. Ronen aye. There are 11 ayes. Those items are adopted unanimously. Next item, please. Item 12, ordinance to create Second Street from bryant street and see ceqa. Item 13 is Charter Amendment third draft to amend the chart other of the city and county of San Francisco to issue Revenue Bonds for Power Facilities when approved by ordinance when receiving twothirds vote and clarify the scope of the commissions Bond Authority with regard to the citys water and clean Water Utilities and election to be held june 5, 2018. President breed supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin i want to thank my cosponsors on that Charter Amendment. Supervisors tang and safai, as well as the general manager of the Public Utility Commission and his staff for this long overdue change to public policy. For those of you who do not know, in 2002, the board of supervisors passed very similar legislation to allow the Public Utilities commission to issue Revenue Bonds for water delivery facilities and that program over the last 15 years has allowed us to rebuild our water Delivery System not only or San Francisco, but 29 other communities around the bay area. And make it earthquake resilient and seismically sound. It is time to do the same thing with the power infrastructure. I commend this to you colleagues and look forward to a Robust Campaign to get this passed in june. Colleagues, can we take this item . Same house same call. Without objection, its submitted unanimously. Ordinance to authorize public works. To enter into contracts by suspending portions of the administrative code or the environment code that pertains to Competitive Bidding and other requirements for construction work procurement and work related to specified shelter crisis sites, to provide additional housing and the director of property to amend leases or licensees for shelter crisis sites. I am suspending provisions of the administrative code to add sites to the list of shelter crisis sites, subject to expedited processing with conditions related to Environmental Review, neighborhood notice and approval by resolution of the board of supervisors and to affirm the ceqa determination. President breed same house same call . Roll call. Sorry. Madame supervisor peskin, if you can put your name on the roster, if anyone has comments or questions about an issue, that would be appreciated. My apologies, i would like to make amendment at page 7, line 21 and 22, which reads the board of supervisors approves for resolution the shelter crisis site. I would like to add to that, provided however that no resolution shall be required if the additional shelter crisis site identifies under subsection 4a is located in a district that does not already have a crisis site within its boundary. I believe the amendment is acceptable to the author of the ordinance. Supervisor cohen . Supervisor cohen thank you, i definitely support and accept the amendment being proposed here. President breed does that mean you second the amendment . Colleagues, can we take the amendment without objection . Without objection can, the amendment passes and the item amended, same house same call . The amendment passes unanimously on the First Reading. Item 15, resolution to approve the license of building within 25, the equipment room at zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center with at t mobility at the base rent of 5,000 to be waived and providing Cellular Services to the staff, patients and visitors. President breed same house same call. Without objection, passes unanimously. To accept up to 500,000 of inkind grant from the trust for public land for the sgt. John mcauley play area for the project term, december 30 through july 1, 2018. President breed same house same call . With that objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously. Please call item 17 and 18 together. Item 17 and 18, two resolutions to approve second mod aifications to two separate leases for the exchange of certain land at plat 40 of the super bay hangar to accommodate the demand for the contractor parking at the San Francisco International Airport for item 17, its between American Airlines and the city, and reduction in the annual rent by 20,000. Item 18, lease between United Airlines and the city and reduction in annual rent from 3. 78 million to 3. 86 million with no change to the length of the term for either contract. President breed same house same call . Without objection the resolutions are adopted unanimously. Next item. Item 19, which is a resolution to approve a Second Amendment to the contract between the city and allied universal security for the provision of security services, extending the term for five months through june 302018 and for revised total contract amount not to exceed 26 million. Same house same call . Without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously. Items 20 and 21, two ordinances that authorize the settlement of two lawsuits. It was filed by donald spadinay for 121,000. This involves alleged negligence of doctors, nurses and staff. And item 21, the lawsuit was filed by david zeller against the city for 290,000, the lawsuit involves alleged medical malpractice and plaintiffs acceptance of the probate allocation of funds, the California Department of Health Care Services to disgorge 65,000 paid for medical lien to be paid to the plaintiff. The university of california is a party to the two settlement agreements. I was employed at aids research institute. Because i continue to receive pension and Retirement Benefits through uc, i must make this Public Disclosure on the record before the vote. President breed same house same call . Without objection, the ordinances pass unanimously. Item 22, ordinance to amend the public works code to update provisions on street encroachment to waive the right of way in lieu of the waiver for permit, modify the street encroachment process, and to create a temporary street permit for maximum period of 30 months, to establish encroachment Maintenance Fund for the permits where the permittee is not adjacent Property Owner and to affirm the ceqa determination. Supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin last july this went from committee to the board, it was amended at the board and actually passed on the First Reading before all heck broke loose and it was rereferred to committee. I want to thank the Mayors Office and office of economic, that will allow members of the public to have a route to appeal major encroachment permits. I want to thank tang and safai for their support and recommend this to all of you and hope we pass it unanimously. President breed thank you. Colleagues, can we take this item, same house same call. Without objection, the ordinance passes unanimously. Nexttime. 23 is ordinance to amend building code, 107 a and table 1 ab of section 110 a to allow recovery of costs of Third Party Experts and other permit related expenses and affirming the Planning Department determination and make other findings. Supervisor peskin thank you, madame president. This is outgrowth of the hearings that have been held with regard to the millennium tower, where one of the things we learned was that we should have independent Third Party Experts who do not work for the developer, but work for the department of building inspection. I want to thank tom, the head of dbi and his staff, bill strong, for working with the office to produce this piece of legislation that will allow independence where theyll be able to contract directly with Third Party Experts. President breed thank you, colleagues, can we take this same house same call . Without objection, the ordinance passes unanimously on the First Reading. Madame clerk, lets go to. The next item we can go to. Roll call for introductions. President breed all right, roll call introductions and at 2 30 well be able to call the commendations. Supervisor safai, first to introduce new business. Supervisor safai thank you, colleagues, im going to do two in memoriams, we had our clean team meeting kick off in district 11 on saturday. We had some very sad news. For those of you that see the workers and the teamsters on the front lines doing our waste in the city, it is a job that they put their lives on the line. In this 24year veteran of the teamsters died. So supervisor cohen will talk about that, but i wanted to highlight that and that was really sad. The other person id like to end in memoriam is dr. Jack mcconnell. On tuesday, february 6th, he passed away at 93 years of age in north carolina. He grew up modestly, one of seven children to a minister whose father said, what have you done for someone today . After achieving the height of success directing the development of tylenol and inventing the first commercial mri, he founded volunteers in medicine, recruiting retired doctors, nurses and medical individuals to insure the uninsured. Today, they operate 93 free medical clinics in 27 states. Clinic by the bay, which was helped to be founded by janet reilly is one of the things that he operated and helped to begin in San Francisco. Operating under this model. Clinic by the bay has served over 2000 patients during the past eight years. Many of whom do not qualify for medicare and medical due to immigration status. May we have eyes to see those rendered and excluded and in the process heal ourselves. Jack was a wonderful individual and our district in the excelsior and the city is at a great loss. But his memory will live on in the free clinic and the clinic by the bay and all those they continue to serve as they were just awarded the house, which is a city site and theyll have a permanent home for many years to come. Thank you. President breed thank you, supervisor. Supervisor sheehy. Supervisor sheehy submit. Supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani thank you, madame clerk. Colleagues, its no secret that Public Safety is one of my number one concerns. Today, i am introducing legislation to make it clear that when you are in San Francisco, you are free to exercise your First Amendment rights without intimidation or fear from those carrying concealed firearms. Last august, a proposed demonstration in my district, by a far right wing group, wreaked havoc through this entire city. Coming off the heels of violence in charlottesville, there were concerns about concealed handguns at this rally due to a 2010 federal firearm law that allows guns in our national parks. Many officials went on record at that time expressing their concern about the potential for violence. The United States gun homicide rate is 25 times higher than other developed nations. Over 90 americans are shot dead in this country every day and hundreds more are injured. Let me be very clear. It does not feel like a free country when our children and our loved ones can be shot dead at a concert, in church, at a movie theater, a nightclub, at a rally, at work, or anywhere else. It doesnt feel like a free country when our children huddle beneath their desks as they practice lockdown drills for mass shootings. San francisco is a beacon and has led the way on many issues. Like the right to marry whomever you love. I saw that every day as the county clerk. Our First Amendment rights, the freedom of speech, and the right to peacefully assemble to protest should not be infringed or suppressed by the presence of guns at public events. There can be no peace when the threat of concealed weapons are present. To make matters worse, the house of representatives approved and the senate is now considering what is called the concealed carry reciprocity act. The nra number one priority bill that would allow people with out of state tt permits to carry a concealed gun if San Francisco which could dramatically increase the number of people carrying concealed guns in our city. Imagine the Chilling Effect that would have on events like the rally we had in the castro, after the pulse nightclub shooting or unite against hate rally we had in august. And most recently our womens march. Not only did the Patriot Prayer rally send our city into chaos, costing millions, it struck the fear of violence in many and that must end. The entire presidio practically shut down. Museums were closed. My sons camping trip was cancelled. Sporting leagues had to cancel games. It is time for San Francisco to lead the way, again, and protect our residents and visitors from the threat of gun violence in our publicly owned spaces at public gatherings and other First Amendment related events in our beautiful city. Thanks. The rest i submit. Thank you. Supervisor tang. Supervisor tang thank you very much, today im introducing request to our Controller Office to provide staffing analysis over the last 15 years, this is designed to build upon the work that supervisor safai and peskin have begun, but i know all of my colleagues here share frustration when it comes to customer service, transit system. So this request will ask our Controllers Office to include information on growth, and any major shift that occurred in staffing within each division of sfmta. We hope to have the information by the 23rd. I want to thank the Controller Office and the sfmta on working together and i hope it will feed into the work other colleagues are doing to improve internally our sfmta. President breed thank you, supervisor tang. Supervisor yee . Supervisor yee colleagues, today i am introducing resolution accepting the findings contained in the fiscal feasibility report for the proposed Housing Project at the balboa reservoir. Since 2014 when mayor ed lee announced the public lands for housing program, the balboa reservoir site has been the focus of much hope as well as concern in our community. Some view it as a critical opportunity to utilize public land to help address the citys housing crisis. And others are concerned about the impacts that a large scale Housing Project will have on our district. We are now at a critical juncture. We have had years of Community Discussions and input, created a detailed set of Development Principles and parameters, which serve as a Guiding Principles for the selection of the development team. And have seen the preliminary designs from the developers. During this time, i am proud to say that even though it requires 33 of the housing in such developments to be made permanently affordable to low and moderate income households, i was able to push this project to 50 affordability. I would like to thank the members of the balboa reservoir, avalon bay communities and Bridge Housing corporation, Mission Housing development corporation, Pacific Union Development Company and habitat for humanity for the hard work of getting us to this point. As part of the project, review process, the city hired a Third Party Consultant to produce a fiscal Feasibility Analysis to provide the board of supervisors with information for its consideration and evaluating the fiscal feasibility of the project. In accordance with San Francisco administrative code chapter 29. This is a necessary step before we can do an even deeper analysis of the project through the state mandated Environmental Review and the project entitlement process. The feasibility findings do not commit the board of supervisors. Or any other Public Agency with jurisdiction over any part of the project to approve the terms of any transaction or grant any entitlement to developer. It will have to undergo Environmental Review under the ceqa act and be subject to public review in accordance with the processes of the city and the other Government Agencies with approval rights over the project before any binding agreements, entitlements or Regulatory Approvals required for the project will be considered. This means that all components of this project, including the one 1100unit that was analyzed in the report, can be changed as the process moves forward and as we continue to refine the project and its mitigation. As a matter of fact, as a matter of transparency, we had a Community Meeting yesterday, attended by almost a hundred people to present these findings. So i look forward to your support on this item. The rest i submit. President breed thank you. President breed. President breed colleagues, today im introducing legislation and submitting a drafting request on the topic that has been plaguing our city for far too long. Mental Health Substance abuse and chronic homelessness. At any given moment you could walk from the steps of city hall to civic center bar and encounter an individual who is experiencing a psychiatric episode or grappling with drug abuse. You likely encounter someone arrested multiple times and hospitalized multiple times, but has been unwilling or unable to receive the help they truly need. Individuals who cannot care for themselves and their basic needs. In these cases, we must do more as a city. What we need is to comprehensive an individualized approach to support these individuals. One that is consistent and compassionate and focus on ensuring theyre stabilized, healthy and housed for the longterm. Not one organization or City Department or Family Member will achieve this goal alone and no one policy change will be able to account for every personal struggle. But we must do more and we must be creative. We as a city have so many amazing resources and programs to help those with Mental Health issues, but there are too many hurdles to get people the help they need quickly and consistently. I personally tried to help individuals in my district and its been incredibly frustrating to run into the limit of the state laws and city system. For example, there is an elderly homeless man who resides in t for privacy purposes i wont use his real name, lets call him bobby. He is schizophrenic and suffer was severe trauma issues. When he cashes his paycheck, he gets robbed afterwards, a beat up and harassed on a regular basis and he becomes mentally unstable. When he gets like this, he becomes a harm to himself, his rage festers and he is uncontrollable. Hes unable sadly to take care of his basic needs and what he really needs is support services and someone to look after him. To make sure that his basic needs are being met and hes on a regiment and a plan toward stabilization. He just cant do it alone. I personally tried to help him and when getting him into a navigation center, he refused to stay. Weve had numerous conversations about why this was important, but it is definitely been very difficult. I want bobby to basically get the help that he needs and the help he deserves. And we need a longterm plan that will actually stick. Despite my attempts of working with him for the past almost three years, he still out on our streets. And how can we expect him to navigate the system . We have to look at the issues differently. We have to go beyond the status quo. When our systems arent working for people like bobby, we cant blame bobby for it, we have to take a hard look at systems and identify what is not working and figure out thousand restructure how to restructure our services. Its our job to make it work for them. And thats precisely what im proposing today. First, im introducing legislation that will decriminalize Mental Health issues. It is a Mental Health issue. Not a criminal issue. By transferring the responsibility of our current conservativeship program from the District Attorneys Office to the City Attorneys office, these cases will be treated more as a civil manner, rather than a criminal issue. The same way we treat child and conservatorship cases. Secondly, im submitting a drafting request to our City Attorney that will codfy and serve the highest risk individuals, those people like bobby. Those departments including the department of public health, the department of homelessness and supported services, the department of aging and adult services. San Francisco Police department, and bart police. Its a focused effort by five agencies to identify and treat and monitor our citys highest risk individuals who are struggling with Mental Health issues. This wraparound approach will provide a full complement of services with a goal of getting individuals stabilized, healthy, and housed for the long term. This pilot has already begun moving forward a few months ago and something i worked on with mayor lee as supervisor, and during my time as acting mayor. This legislation will simply add structure, accountability, and metrics to the program. So we can ensure its actually working for the people its intended to help. We also know that there are serious limitations to scaling this impact without changes to our state conservatorship laws. Senate bill 1045, authored by senator scott weiner and henry stern will expand the definition of what it means to be gravely disabled, providing an additional tool to assist us with our Mental Health crisis. I support this legislation and glad to see its sponsored by the city and county of San Francisco. These state and local efficients are legislative efforts are legislative, and administrative reforms ive been working on for the last year and im happy to see them finally come to fruition. I would like to thank the district attorney, the City Attorney for his willingness to take on this responsibility, barbara garcia, for spearheading the Mental Health Wraparound Program and the department of aging and adult services. The department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. The San Francisco Police Department and bart police for being a part of had this multiagency effort and finally, mayor ed lee who was committed to addressing the Mental Health issues in our city and worked hard with me and hand in hand on this particular issue. The rest i submit. Thank you. And madame president , its after 2 30 so, well return to the item later. President breed thank you, madame clerk. It is not past 2 30. Were going to do three commendations starting with supervisor kim. Im very excited about this one. I want to bring up tran to the podium. Come on up. [applause] supervisor kim so many of you have probably already read about din, but were so proud to have you in chamber today and im grateful to stuart hall, your school, for letting you come during the school day. To receive this commendation from the board of supervisors, that as many of us are excitingly watching the Winter Olympics, and seeing those representing the American Team winning, on behalf of the country, we have our own champion here in San Francisco. Born and raised in the tenderloin neighborhood that i represent. Din tran is a sophomore at Stuart High School and lives in the tenderloin with his mother and three brothers. And recently, won our local championship down in san jose, the silver medal in the 2018 u. S. Figure skating championships with a total score of 199. 95 in the 4day competition, which is extraordinary. Both din and his younger brother currently train at the Center Ice Skating rink in the south of market. And his coach, jeffrey crandell, said that din has taken a lot of responsibility as he grows in his career and you even choose your own music and coordinate your own choreography which is amazing. So not only is he athlete and super skilled, but also an artist and that combination in our athletics athletes we see is malgz. He left our judges in awe with series of six triple jumps and a clean triple axel. This was the first time thaw nailed this tricky move in public in a competition. Were so proud of you. The city and county of San Francisco wants to acknowledge you for the dedicated concentration on making the city and hometown so proud. And were looking forward to you growing as an athlete. I know you hope to join our team in the 2022 beijing Winter Olympics and well be cheering for our home grown san franciscan. So thank you so much for being here today. I want to give you an opportunity to speak. But you know, he was most recently quoted i talk about this because you hail from our neighborhood and you know, people think so many things about it, but i appreciate you love the neighborhood and you said youre not afraid of where you live and you can do anything you want given concentration, effort and leadership. And i just want to thank you, at such a young age, for being such a role model for all of us here. Thank you, thank you. [applause] hi, everyone, thank you for coming. Im din tran, im 16. I go to high school. Ive been skating for 12 years. Im a national and international competitor. And i would hike to take you through my journey of figure skating. So i started when i was 4. My mom took me to the rink. And i skated with my friends and my mom, she kept taking me and i just really enjoyed it and had lots of fun and smiled and right then she knew that i loved figure skating. I continued to train and she worked out time schedule with my coach. And ive been training with him for ten years. And then i switched coaches to jeffrey. And ive been working with him for two years. And ive been really pushing myself to try to get to the top. And sometimes its hard, but the thing that pushes me and tells me not to give up is that i have to understand that figure skating is hard. And that nothing is easy and if everything was easy, then everyone would be doing it. And so i tell myself to push harder. If you want to be better than everyone, you have to push yourself to train harder, faster and better. And that has really inspired me. And recently i competed in land to represent poland to represent team u. S. A. , that was a great experience because i got to compete against skaters from other countries. And nationals, i pushed myself to try to land the triple axel. And that has really been a huge goal for me. And just looking up to nathan chen, hes top skater right now, and competing at the olympics. That has inspired me. Sometimes i lack motivation and i watch the top skaters and that helps me a lot, one of my favorites is nathan chen. I try to be like him, but in my own way, so that really pushes me to attempt quads. And try to improve. And yeah, right now, my hope is to make it to the olympics and hopefully 2020. 2022 olympics. And yeah, i would like to thank everyone for coming. [applause] congratulations, again, well watch you on tv at the olympics. Congratulations. Next up, we have supervisor fewer. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Today, it is my honor Kate Williams yam and william and his family come up . President breed come on, you guys can do better than that. [applause] today, it is my honor to present a commendation to william, a 5yearold resident who has set an incredible example of leadership and caring for our neighborhood. William has adopted his corner drain, which he named dream robot and actively sweeps away leaves and debris to prevent flooding and water damage to the surrounding blocks, especially before large rainstorms. Adopting a drain is one of the the best ways the residents of richmond and San Francisco can protect environment, manage storm water and minimize flooding. Those hoping to follow williams leadership can sign up any time at adopt a drain. Now, if this wasnt enough, william has set an incredible example as a community leader, to participating 100 local beach cleanups and donating food, not only to homeless residents of golden gate park, but also for their dogs and cats. He hopes to open a store for Homeless People where they can access anything they want for free, including money, and a place to sleep. William, thank you for setting such an amazing example for the Richmond District residents to follow. We know you have a Bright Future and both the department of public works and Public Utilities commission would be thrilled to have you on their team. And i believe john is here to say a few words on behalf of the Public Utilities commission. Hello, william, the man of the hour here. As an agency, were always looking for our next generation of environmental stewards, and clearly we have that with william here today. Your work is unbelievable. And its really an inspiration, not only for all of us here, but the entire agency of 2300 people have heard your story and are so inspired by it. Im here to say thank you and there is clearly a job waiting for you. Youll probably be my boss, so remember this situation where i thank you for your work now. And again, we can not thank you enough and we look forward to supporting your great work in the community. Thank you. It is my honor today to present to william the golden broom of the Richmond District. In our appreciation and recognition of your Outstanding Service to the residents of district one. Thank you, william. [applause] william is man of few words, but we were at dinner and he came up with a few signs. If i could put them on the projector. This is a thank you sign to all of you for recognizing his work. He does it not for the thanks, but because hes passionate about it. He put animal stickers on there, they glow in the dark. You cant tell right now. Thank you very much. As hes 5, he doesnt quite know all of the words, but he wanted to let you know, i love the ocean. And [laughter]. Thank you very much. Congratulations, william and keep up the good work. Thank you. Our final commendation is given by supervisor peskin. Thank you, madame president , william for supervisor 2032, i just did the math on that. Hell be 18 then and eligible. Colleagues, today i am really honored and delighted to rise to honor one of the kindest, gentlest, more artistic souls that this town has. And this is actually the subject of item number 47 on our calendar today. Which will designate a San Francisco artist amare tus and nobody could be more deserving of that than a beautiful man named michael rios. Thank you for being here today, brother. [applause] his story is linked with the city and county of San Francisco where hes devoted half a century of his life creating beautiful artistic master works that reflect the vibrant characters and rich Cultural Heritage of San Francisco and san franciscans. Hes native of oakland, student and graduate of freemont high, where his teacher first noticed his exceptional talents. While we tangle from time to time with the academy of art and we set a little bit of litigation with them, michael got his first break at the academy of art with richard stevens, who actually gave him a scholarship can kind of a scholarship, in reality, in exchange for sweeping the place up, richard got michael got art lessons from richard. And he acknowledged the talent. And upon graduation from the academy, michael worked for the famous i dont know how many of you were around that will remember ruse atkins, i think supervisor yee and fewer would. I remember ruse. And soon launched his own commercial art at 311 columbus avenue where you just furnished me the most awesome picture of the front door of that. You looked just about the same, but you have black hair in that picture. And there he created childrens books, billboards, paint ads and what michael refers to as high end commercial art. But after a few years, michael became tired of working for squares in a square business and fell in with a group of grassroots artists in the mission, where his work began to inspire and reflect the Mission District latino heritage and a lot of the murals that you see and love and also take for granted, michael was the guy who painted those. His first project helped paint the side of a Community Group building that was helping to pay rent at a supportive neighborhood gallery. He ditched the boring brown paint and created a mural that depicts everyday scenes of the time, people going to work, standing, going to the Welfare Office and Manning Court and in jail. Another infamous mural at 22nd, michael paid homage to Carlos Santana. It spans three buildings and it was santanas father who came to michael and said that does not look like my son. Furnished him a picture of carlos, which he then got right and that started a life long friendship between michael and Carlos Santana, which is why you see michaels beautiful work on the cover of supernatural, as well as other Carlos Santana albums. And within the city art community, michael is known for his soft spoken demeanor and advocacy to keep artists from being displaced in San Francisco. And his work continues. Today, he is actually in residence at pier 70, in one of the coolest funky art studios. And i want to thank supervisor cohen and the port of San Francisco, because as pier 70 is being redeveloped were taking care of michael rios and his studio and putting him in a lightfilled art studio at the noonan building. So i just wanted to if anybody wants to see his work, ive got a ton of it on my cell phone. I have three of his images in my office. It is all around the mission. And i love you, brother, and im happy to designate michael rios as artist in San Francisco for a lifetime of uplifting corrects to the arts contributions to the arts. His sister is here today. His wife couldnt be here. With that, the one and only michael v. Rios, come on up. [applause] i also want to say that michael, who has been having a little bit of difficulty talking, may have a little Translation Services from john. But he is putting an incredible wall mural up on the building south of market in supervisor kims district. Which is going to be an incredible addition to that area. The floor is yours. I want to thank the board of supervisors for this prestigious invitation to be in your chamber with all you beautiful people. I know you all care about people and work hard in City Government and turn the wheels to make the city a more livable and beautiful place. Ive always felt the same way in the work that i do, that art has the capability of enhancing the lives of us here in the city. Please stand by. By thanking aaron peskin and the esteemed board of supervisors for the prestigious honor, something i feel i have not earned or deserve, with all due respect, though i would say this honor is something i would accept on behalf of my fellow artists in the city and wherever they are working hard behind the scenes to follow their visions and dreams of making the world a more beautiful place with their art. Im also sincerely grateful to the friends and folks here today for the support you have all shown the artists in your life. Transcends ethnic labels and for me a more universal identity. Always be grateful to the city i love to be part of the fabric of life here and follow my dreams to become an artist. San francisco has always been a magical place from my childhood, although i was not born here, my two sons were. Im a kid of the 1960s, and those were for me formative years in art school, i give thanks to richard stevens, the director of the original academy of art for the working scholarship. He always encouraged me to never give up. San francisco has become the magical place for me like a lot of us feel. Its a unique place in the world. A mecca of culture and art. Im a kid of the 1960s, those were for me formative years. The years i started at the academy, the time i started my career in north beach, it was a time of renaissance. When the young people throughout thought they could change the world with our young enlightened values and principles, aspiring to make our community a more beautiful place to be enhanced with art and music. I still maintain the claim to these values and principles to this day. The world is always changing. Our lives are always changing. It seems to much like a dream, and when i look within, it will always be amazing and a mystery. I do thank god and the universe for being able to have a vision to be a witness to it all. Its amazing and infinite wonders. Sister wendy said one of the ways of looking at god is by looking at art. We all have different ways and how we experience the world in our lives, and the end, we will all come to the same conclusion. In the meantime, lets try to stay beautiful and continue to aspire. We will all become diamonds some day. Thank you all again for the love and support you show me with your divine and honorable presence here today, all my love to you all. Thank you, john. [applause] and in addition to actually having michael here in the flesh, there are a number of individuals who are wearing some of his signature unbelievable silk screen shirts. So, if you could just stand up, those who are wearing ive got one, my wife has one, they are there you go, all right. Michael, brother. [applause] its an honor to have you
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