All right. Hello, sunny day. [cheers. ] so, so excited to be here with each and every one of you. I am sorry for those we dont have chairs for. We didnt expect a big crowd, but when you talk about the city budget, i guess everyone shows up. I am so glad to see the residents here. Thank you to everyone who joined us on the tours earlier of the unit. Today we, of course, through the tours saw the challenging conditions that people are living right in this neighborhood, just a few miles from our thriving downtown, and yet a world apart. As someone who grew up in Public Housing, i have lived these conditions. I know these conditions. I dont expect everyone to understand the challenges of Public Housing the way that i do or the way the residents of sunny dale do, but i do expect everyone to put in the time to understand. I wanted department heading and elected officials to come see for yourselves the hard work that we have to do. Thank you to everyone who joined me today, especially the members of the board of supervisors and we have the president with us, norman yee, thank you so much. [applause. ] thank you for being with us. Supervissupervisor per visor gor and earlier we had supervisor safai, and he had to take off. Why arent you in your seat . You know, today is not just about the investments we are making in our up coming budget, it is about the commitment behind those investments. Commitments to communities like s un nydale for those who have been left behind. San francisco is a city with a heart but we also have to be a city with a memory. A memory not only for the commitments we have kept but also the ones we have failed to keep. For too long our Public Housing communities were one of those failed commitments. We are changing that with our programs where we have rehabilitated over 2500 Public Housing units. [applause. ] and through hope sf, which is revitalizing and france forming communities in hunters view and right here in sunny dale and with the reconstruction of the long overdue transformation of the San FranciscoHousing Authority. We are building and rehabbing housing, creating stronger and healthier communities and investing in the people who live there. We owe it to them to keep our commitment and make a difference for this community and those across the city. With every decision we make, i want to make sure that equity and accountability are at the forefront of our minds. We have to be focused on people in all neighborhoods, like the people who live here, who for too long have been living with broken pipes, mold, infestations, dilapidated conditions. People like breanna, a Third Generation resident. She and her Three Sisters have lived through the conditions you saw today. Despite these challenges, breanna is a leader in her community, and she is fighting for the next generation. She has not given up on this community and we will not give up on you. We have to be accountable to the thousands of residents across the city living in Public Housing and our low income communities. Our budget would be accountable to them both by continuing our work to improve the conditions here and our continued commitment to provide funding to keep thousands of Housing Authority residents secure in their homes. Yes, Joyce Armstrong and happy birthday. Also by recognizing that we need to do more to keep people in these neighborhoods safe and supported. For too long this was not a safe community. Families were torn apart by violence, gunfire, crime, tragedy, frustration. This community has lived with that. That is why i wanted to come here to acknowledge the past, yes, but also to make a commitment to a better and brighter future. To make communities like this safer. It is not just about enforcing the laws to make sure we have more officers on the streets. It is about giving people opportunities and investing in changing peoples lives. [applause. ] it is about interrupting the cycle of violence and despair. That starts with doing more for our young people and so that the next generation can transform their futures. Offering stipends to teachers who commit to teach in Public Schools facing those challenges. And fully funding Free City College so that everyone has a path to higher education. [applause. ] we are expanding Public Health recreation and nutrition programs for kids, including Mental Health services to provide support for kids experiencing trauma so that he can build up their lives and thrive. All of our young people, no matter where they live should have access to the amazing opportunities that this city has to offer. applause . And as we work to support the next generation, we also must do more to help those who sadly are living on our streets. In this budget, we are following through on our commitment to add 1,000 new shelter beds by 2020. We are also using our funding to create 820 new units of permanently supported housing over the next two years. However, reducing homelessness means more than just creating places for people to go. We need to do more to prevent homelessness and keep people housed. That is why we are adding 5 million to increase Homelessness Prevention and diversion efforts. We are fully funding our tenants right to counsel so they have a right to Legal Defense when they are threatened with eviction. We are providing housing for transgender who are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population. We are creating a new five Year Pilot Program to provide rental subsidies subsidies for seniors to keep them secure in housing so that rising rents dont force them out of their home in the first place. With these commitments, we can keep people stable, keep them housed and prevent homeless necessary for ever becoming a part of their live. We are helping those with Mental Illness and Substance Use disorder by adding 10 new behavioral 100 new Behavioral Health beds including 50 at San Francisco general for homeless residents with Mental Health challenges and 50 beds for those suffering both Mental Health and Substance Use disorder. [applause. ] combined with the 100 beds we announced earlier this year, that means we are committing to 200 new beds for our most vulnerable residents. There is the most significant expansion of Behavioral Health beds in a generation. And, chief nicholson, we are expanding the emx Emergency Response crew helping those on the streets suffering Mental Health and substance disorder issues. This will provide coverage 24 7 so the city can help people every day of every minute. These are some of the investments we are making to help our residents today. We have to be accountable to the next generation. We have to have vision and not lose sight of what is going to happen to San Francisco 10 and 20 years down the line. We know the crisis on the street is not just about a place for indoors or Mental Healthcare. It is about housing. The costs of housing are too high. We know these challenges did not develop overnight. It wont be fixed overnight. It is going to take fundamental change. Lets start increasing funding for Affordable Housing. I am proud to be working with so many members of the board of supervisors to place a 6 million Affordable Housing bond on this years 600 million Affordable Housing. Thank you, president yee, for working with me on this. It will be on this years ballot. This is the largest Affordable Housing bond in the citys history without raising property taxes. [applause. ] we are providing support not just for low income households and seniors but also for middle income residents. We are increasing investments in the budget to add over 140 million for the production and preservation of Affordable Housing so we can buy moreland, fully fund more projects and preserve our much greater rent control housing stock. [applause. ] all land through this bond our current budget, our previous spending and other efforts over the first year since i have been in office, we have identified 1 billion in new funding to build, preserve and support Affordable Housing. [applause. ] thank you for your help in building housing. This builds on top of the over 900 million that we already have committed to build and support Affordable Housing throughout our city. However, our support for housing cant just be about funding. If we are ever going to make a difference on housing, we have to make changes to how we build housing. We cant fear solutions that make it easier and faster to build housing. If we say we support Affordable Housing, our actions have to follow our values. We have to cut the red tape to barriers not just for some Affordable Housing and not just for some homeless shelters but for all housing for everyone. [applause. ] and was we build we must expandr transportation and infrastructure to support outer neighborhood goes like here in the southwest. Every neighborhood in our city needs better and more reliable access to public transit, and they need better and safer streets. This budget adds 30 million to fund transit operations, including speeding up the purchase of new light rail trains and modernizing the train control system so we see fewer delays in the subways and so that we know that we can get to where we need to more faster and more reliable. applause . We have also added 2. 5 million for vision zero improvement projects to make our streets safer. We have seen too many traffic related deaths on the streets. This funding will help double the pace of the protected bike lane and make the streets safe are for pedestrians on the most dangerous corridors through the capital plan we will spend 130 million over the next two years to improve our roads. This will get you excited. That means fewer potholes. [applause. ] and smoother rides for buses and bicycles and drivers. You are the one who have given us the potholes. We will invest in strengthening the support for cultural centers, libraries, health centers, Public Safety facilities and improving parks and open space. We will also continue to support improvements to making neighborhoods cleaner, safer and more vibrant. We are adding 12 million to our existing cleaning budget to expand our street cleaning in the tenderloin and soma and chinatown. We are fund being 80 more big belly trash cans and adding new pit stops including expanding the hours so people can use the bathroom with dignity. This is on top of 74 million that we spend every year to keep our streets clean and not only are we going to invest money in keeping San Francisco clean, we are all going to make sure people know we wont tolerate dirtying up our streets. We are supporting our plan to hire more Police Officers to get more officers out walking the beats in the neighborhoods and we are going to continue the work to reduce violent crime, property crime and auto breakins in the city. We are committed to 9 million to support Small Businesses and commercial corridors which builds on the work to streamline the bureaucracy that gets in the way of growing businesses. Our Small Business owners should focus on serving customers not navigating the bureaucracy of city hall. These are just some of the priorities we are funding in this budget. I am proud of the investments we are making and proud of the city we are working to build. I really want to thank everyone who put time into helping with this budget including the budget team and budget option director kelly. Thank you for your hard work and thank you to ben from the Controllers Office and your work. Thank you to harvey rose and the budget afternoon r analyst analyst team who is not going to touch the money i am proposing in the budget. You know, so many people have been working tirelessly day in and day out to get the budget done, and i am so excited about this. I want to end by talking about a young man named wallace pullet. We are so proud of wallace. You know, life hasnt been easy for him. He grew up with the violence i talked about earlier. He faced challenging times, including his own challenges with the law. Unlike so many others, we lost to violence or the criminal justice system, wallace worked through all of those challenges. He is now focusing on doing what is right including raising his daughter right here in sunnyda sunnydale. Now, just down the hill from here is a construction site. It is the first new building being constructed here at sunnydale as part of hope sf. It is a bright sign for the future of this incredible community. Wallace is a member of this construction team. He is building up this Beautiful New Community with his hands and with his heart. He is being accountable to himself, his daughter and his community. He is being accountability to the next generation so they have a sunnydale to grow, live and thrive and building a better San Francisco. I am committed to this community. I am committed to this community because people likua like wallae committed. Let us remember our job is to be accountable to everyone in the city, not just those who have time to show up and advocate at city hall. We have to be there for those who have hope, those who need hope, this budget is part of the commitment and represents is very best of our values in this city. By keeping those commitments, we can and we will build a stronger, more resilient San Francisco, a city not just for some, but for all of those in San Francisco. Thank you all so much for being here today. The goal is simple. Its to raise womens voices. Learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. We had own over 300 over 300 people who signed up for the oneonone counseling today. I think in the world of leading, people sometimes discount the ability to lead quietly and effectively. The Assessors Office is a big one. There are 58 counties in the state of california and every single county has one elected assessor in the county. Our job is to look at property taxes and make sure that we are fairly taxing every single property in San Francisco. One of the big things that we do is as a result of our work, we bring in a lot of revenue, about 2. 6 billion worth of revenue to the city. Often, people will say, what do you do with that money, and i like to share what we do with property taxes. For every dollar we collect in property taxes, about 68 cents of it goes to support public sstss, our Police Officers, our fire departments, our streets, our cleaning that happens in the city. But i think what most people dont know is 34 cents of the dollar goes to public education. So it goes to the state of california and in turn gets allocated back to our local school districts. So this is an incredibly important part of what we do in this office. Its an interesting place to be, i have to say. My colleagues across the state have been wonderful and have been very welcoming and share their knowledge with me. In my daytoday life, i dont think about that role, being the only Asian American assessor in the state, i just focus on being the best i can be, representing my city very well, representing the county of San Francisco well. By being the only Asian American assessor, i think you have a job to try to lift up and bring as many people on board, as well. I hope by doing the best that you can as an individual, people will start to see that your assessor is your elected leaders, the people that are making important decisions can look like you, can be like you, can be from your background. I grew up with a family where most of my relatives, my aunties, my uncles, my parents, were immigrants to the united states. When my parents first came here, they came without any relatives or friends in the united states. They had very little money, and they didnt know how to speak english very well. They came to a place that was completely foreign, a place where they had absolutely nobody here to help them, and i cant imagine what that must have been like, how brave it was for them to take that step because they were doing this in order to create an opportunity for their family. So my parents had odd jobs, my dad worked in the kitchens, my mom worked as a seamstress sewing. As we grew up, we eventually had a Small Business. I very much grew up in a family of immigrants, where we helped to translate. We went to the restaurant every weekend helping out, rolling egg rolls, eating egg rolls, and doing whatever we need to do to help the family out. It really was an experience growing up that helped me be the person that i am and viewing Public Service the way that i do. One of the events that really stuck with me when i was growing up was actually the rodney king riots. We lived in Southern California at the time, and my parents had a restaurant in inglewood, california. I can remember smelling smoke, seeing ashes where we lived. It was incredibly scary because we didnt know if we were going to lose that restaurant, if it was going to be burned down, if it was going to be damaged, and it was our entire livelihood. And i remember there were a lot of conversations at that time around what it was that government to do to create more opportunities or help people be more successful, and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because i remain believe government has a role, government has a responsibility to change the outcomes for communities, to create opportunities, to help people go to school, to help people open businesses and be successful. Make sure to be safe, and of course to have fun. And then, i think as you continue to serve in government, you realize that those convictions and the persons that you are really help to inform you, and so long as you go back to your core, and you remember why youre doing what youre doing, you know, i think you cant go wrong. Its funny, because, you know, i never had thought i would do this. I became a supervisor first for the city under very unusual circumstances, and i can remember one day, im shopping with friends and really not having a care in the world about politics or running for office or being in a public position, and the next day, im sworn in and serving on the board of supervisors. For many of us who are going through our Public Service, its very interesting, i think, what people view as a leader. Sometimes people say, well, maybe the person who is most outspoken, the person who yells the loudest or who speaks the loudest is going to be the best leader. And i think how i was raised, i like to listen first, and i like to try to figure outweighs to work with out ways to work with people to get things done. I hope that time goes on, you can see that you can have all sorts of different leaders whether at the top of City Government or leading organizations or leading teams, that there are really different kinds of leadership styles that we should really foster because it makes us stronger as organizations. Take advantage of all the wonderful information that you have here, at the vendor booth, at our seminars and also the oneonone counseling. I wouldnt be where i was if i didnt have very strong people who believed in me. And even at times when i didnt believe in my own abilities or my own skills, i had a lot of people who trusted and believed i either had the passion or skills to accomplish and do what i did. If there was one thing that i can tell young women, girls, who are thinking about and dreaming about the things they want to be, whether its being a doctor or being in politics, running an organization, being in business, whatever it is, i think its really to just trust yourself and believe that who you are is enough, that you are enough to make it work and to make things successful. Good evening, everybody, we want to get your attention, please. I like it, i like it, good evening, everybody, and welcome to the city build graduation ceremony. We are here to honor our graduates for City Build Academy , cycle 30, and let me see this one, Construction Administration and professional Services Academy for 2019. [cheers and applause] im gladys, i am joined by stella, im sorry, i am so nervous, we have been waiting so long. I am joined by alanna, and we, together, we will be your m. C. Tonight. We are very excited. We promise it to be a wonderful graduation. We are doing everything from our graduates from cycle 30 and cycle 19. We are going to acknowledge the supervisor of district eight, Rafael Mandelman if he was here, we also want to recognize someone from Assembly Member david tos office, also, in spirit, we have senator scott weiner in here was here in spirit. And also, we will do a lot of shout outs later. So, please help me welcome our city build director. [cheers and applause] good evening, we apologize for running late. My name is ken name, i am the acting city build director. Before we start the celebrations , we wanted to acknowledge a Community Member that we lost dearly earlier this year. I would like to ask that Sherry Andrews who has worked with her from the beginning of the program to come up and have a little moment of silence for her welcome. This is real rough for me. How do you say goodbye to your partner . Someone who has been with you from the beginning . We will open it with a moment of silence. Thank you. Mindy, i want you to see her as who she was. She was a fighter. There was no doubt about it. I am a 30 year ironworker from local 377, i am retired, i used to always say that mindy was from uptown and i was from across town, but we worked together, we had the understanding of working with disadvantaged communities, people from the projects, women who had a real difficult time getting into the trades, and ex offenders in and out of prison so we had a special population that we worked with, and we didnt leave a rock unturned for them to get to where they were trying to go. We always had an expression that we would say with each other, everybody deserves the right to work who want to work, and San Francisco being the unique cosmetology and cosmopolitan place it is, theres a vast array of people, but yet there was pockets of poverty, and pockets of people who were being denied, so mindy being the kind of fighter she was, and me being the kind of fighter that i was, we made a perfect team. Even though she is not with us physically, she is here with us spiritually. I appreciate everybody being able to acknowledge her, city build, you know, this was a real good challenge for us, and like i say, being here from cycle one , and now you are at cycle 30 , there were a lot of challenges. We were also creating a memorial , a living trust later on this fall, we will deal with the unions, we will deal with the contractors, but there is a lot of people who didnt have money, and that was always a barrier, so we wanted to be able to make certain that thats not the reason, so we would have a living trust that we can always be able to provide for those who want to get into the trace. [applause] get into the trades. [applause] thank you for giving us a moment to share our memories with mindy. Her picture is on the side of the room and we have a slideshow again, thank you for being here with us. Now, at this time, we are here for the special day to celebrate the graduation of City Build Academy cycle 30, and castro cycle 19. What we would like to do is to welcome supervisor fewer to come up and share a word with us to open us open up the event. [applause] good evening, everyone. I would like to also acknowledge my colleague, president yi in the audience today. [applause] i am honored today to be addressing and congratulating the newest class of city build and Construction Administration and professional Services Academy graduates. You have now joined the ranks of our ranks of approximately other 9,900 city graduates. I have been a fan of city build since its conception in 2006. This program that trains and helps to place San Francisco residents into construction trades jobs is a winwin for everybody. It is a win for the students if they can earn College Credit during their 18 week training course, it is a win for the construction trades as it creates a pipeline of employees who are trained to answer the construction trades to succeed as new apprentices, it is a win for city college as it boosts its enrolment numbers and also provides real supports for student success. I want to commend the graduates, as i know this is not an easy program to pass, it requires diligence and commitment, but also selfdiscipline, and the courage to learn a new skill. You have graduated at a perfect time. We need your help to help build for the new incoming population of San Francisco. Lets build San Francisco together with solid union jobs. Congratulations, graduates, thank you to your families and friends who gave so much encouragement, and to the city build instructors. Graduates, use this opportunity and accomplishment to do well in life, but above all, do good. [applause] thank you, supervisor fewer. As ken mentioned earlier today, we have a very special guest this evening, special guest that im very excited to introduce, as a black woman born and raised in the heart of bayview hunters point, my communities very important to me. I know to this woman, also as well. It is important that she is working hard right now to make an equitable San Francisco for us all, and provide our communities with the opportunity and the access to wellpaying careers in construction and also in the skilled trades. She is here to celebrate his graduates this evening, and to help me welcome her, please put your hands together for the honorable london breed, mayor of synthesis go. [applause] hello, graduates. Mayor of San Francisco. [applause]. Hello, graduates. How exciting is this . When i think about how far we have come with the city build program, i think about what happened when i was growing up in the western edition, where we didnt have city build. We had the community center, and we had people like lefty gordon and others fighting for opportunities for so many people in the Western Addition to work in construction jobs, especially because, a some of you know, the history of the western edition, where there were a number of projects that were taken place, a number of buildings that were being built that werent but not a lot of access for Community Members to be a part of building in their own neighborhood, and so the fight started in the western edition, and lead us to what i think has been one of the most successful programs in creating an opportunity for people to basically participate in building the city that they were born and raised in. That is why im excited to be here today. Im excited because we have the graduates of the future, the ones who are going to continue to build the housing, to build the Public Safety buildings, to build the parks, to participate in making a difference in your city. Just imagine growing up and playing at haworth playground, and all of a sudden, you are the one who is installing the new swingset and other things that future generations are going to be able to play on for years to come. That is what this program represents. It represents an opportunity, yes for a career, yes, to help to make sure that you have a good paying job to support your family, but it also represents a place in history. This is your legacy, the work that you are going to do to build San Francisco and make the lives of others better in addition to yours and your families. It is really what this program is all about. I want to thank so many of the friends in the family who are joining us here today, because this journey to get here is only the beginning. This is the beginning of a great future for our graduates, but they still need your support. They still need your support in this process as they apply for jobs, as they have to wake up really early to get to those jobs. They need your support and encouragement on those days when they say, i dont think i want to wake up and go to work today. They need your support, because this is about a career, this is about the longterm, and this is about being able to have an amazing opportunity to participate in so many incredible projects in the city and county of San Francisco. I want to thank all of our labor organizations for being here with us today, because those are the folks who will make sure that you get hired, right . [cheers and applause] right, tony, right, vince . The folks at the Building Trades , and others, they will be the ones to make sure you have good paying jobs, with good benefits to support your families. It is so exciting that this program started in 2005, and it is it has not only lead to a number of classes of graduates who have had incredible opportunities to work in our city, it has also led to other Amazing Programs that we have launched. City drive, where people can go through a training to drive for munimobile here in San Francisco , our tech programs, and other industries. We have so many opportunities in San Francisco. Our economy is booming, and we have to make sure that we dont leave anyone behind in this process. Here in San Francisco, we are going to do more to prepare the people in these communities for the opportunities that exist. Yes, constructions to build our city, but also in the tech sector, and also in the healthcare sent sector, and also our Public Infrastructure projects and businesses, and all the great things that life has to offer. I will tell you right now, by going through this program, you have demonstrated your commitment to really buckling down, going through a program, and also preparing yourself for an incredible job opportunity. If you can do this and make it through this program, there is nothing that you cant do to succeed in life. I know. [applause] i know that im so fortunate to be mayor of this incredible city, and i say this every single time, because i come from humble beginnings. I come from Public Housing, i have a brother whos incarcerated, i have a sister who i lost to a drug overdose, and when i think about the fact that i have this incredible opportunity, my goal as mayor is to make sure that what i had to go through, the challenges that i experienced growing up in poverty in this city, that we break those generational poverty and challenges that exist to make sure that this doesnt continue to happen to people growing up in our city. [applause] and i say that if i can come out of these challenging circumstances and be mayor of the best city in the world, then you can do anything you want to do. Congratulations, and thank you for having me here today. [cheers and applause] thank you. We want to recognize the president of the board of supervisors. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] okay. , we will continue with the program. Okay, he wants to speak. Okay. Thank you. Do i really want to follow the mayor . Wasnt she great . Wasnt my colleague, supervisor fewer great, also . I guess there is a whole lot i can add to this, because it has always been my dream that we have a program like this where we can have young people learned the trades and and up with very good jobs. A big secret here, i never said this before, there was where i tried to make a living doing handyman work. I couldnt make a living because i wasnt trained, i wish i had the opportunity to learn the things that you all learned. How do you wire something, how what do you mean you have to hit the nail only three times and it should go into the woods . When i hit it, it took like 20 times, and i barely get it in there, so congratulations to you all. I really think you are going to do a big favour in making sure we have skilled people for when you work on these projects, that is making San Francisco a great city. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. Please help me to welcome our friend, our partner, chancellor rogers. Thank you. Thank you very much. I came here to perform a very important official duty to what we call city college, the class of 2019. On behalf of the board of trustees and the authority invested in me by the board of trustees of city college of San Francisco, on behalf of the 2,000 employees of city college of San Francisco, most of them who work in the union, okay, on behalf of the over 60,000 students at city college of San Francisco, and you no longer are , okay, you are graduating today, and on behalf of the over 30,000 alumni of city college of San Francisco, i confer upon each one of you the status of alumnus of city college of San Francisco. [cheers and applause] [cheering] and now, it is my duty, and it is my pleasure. And that status, as important as it is, is a result of people like you, not just talk it, but you walk it, you have grabbed the opportunity. Im so grateful to the partnership that we have with the city of San Francisco, because people can talk, and people say, there are so many problems, but we and you are the solution. So you have these responsibilities. Number 1, when you get up and go to work tomorrow morning, and you will, you will not just be workers, you will be city college workers. Number 2, there are so many people in here who are looking at what you are doing, and they are going, oh, my god, if they can do it, i can do it. You keep going. You keep working, and we want you back to get your degree, and to keep moving on. And the third thing, and this is your last homework assignment in order to be official alumni of city college of San Francisco. I will teach it to you, go rams one, two, three, go rams. God bless you. [applause] just a couple of shout outs today. Weve got dpr construction in the house. [applause] we have ironworkers union. [applause] web core. [applause] we also want to acknowledge the president of local 261 who is here. [applause]. We see you. Next we will have our student representatives speak. We have nicole then halton from cycle nine, and nicolas carter, City Build Academy cycle 30. [applause] hello, good evening, everyone welcome, thank you for being with us all here today. My name is nicole, i am the newest graduate from this Years Program of spring 2019. This truly Amazing Program has been giving back to the residents of the community of San Francisco through educating, training, and helping those individuals looking for employment find jobs in the ever booming construction industry. By a show of hands, who here has ever had to make a Career Change in their lifetime . All right, lots of you. So most of you can understand just how challenging it is to begin again in unfamiliar territory. Around this time last year, i had recently quit my job in the service industry. I had reached a height of my serving career, and i realize that i wasnt being satisfied in the same ways that it was making me satisfied before. To say that i was scared about what my future held for me would be an understatement. By the grace of god, i ran into an old friend of mine who had graduated from a program that she said had changed her life forever. The passion she had behind explaining what the program was is what really had me intrigued about this industry. From that moment on, i went home , i hopped online, i did some research, i filled out a little application, and i started my new path on this journey in an industry that has since welcomed me with open arms sharing this journey with my classmates has been the most report wording part for me personally, i just want you all to know that. We were a multicultural class of people from all walks of life, all their to accomplish one goal each of us taking on the challenge of giving oral presentations, writing speeches, learning our microsoft skills, and excel, my favorite one of them all. [laughter] all while encouraging each other and supporting each other every step of the way. You could tell that was a joke, right . [laughter]. These past five months have shown me just what the power of hard work and perseverance can do for people. I am so happy and grateful to the program for helping me out at a time when i was unsure of myself and ensure of my future. I finally regained the confidence that i had lost somewhere in the distance. The value that has been added to my life from everything that i learned in this program is unmeasurable, and the friendships that ive acquired along the way are worth everything to me. So its an absolute pleasure to be part of this experience, and i hope that this Program Continues to enhance the lives of as many individuals, for as long as possible. I would like to share a quote from one of my favorite authors and public speakers. Hornet name is mel robbins. She said, if you have the courage to start, you have the courage to succeed. To my fellow classmates that are here with me today, i just want to say that i am so proud to have started this journey with you all together, and i am even more proud to have reached the finish line with you here today. Before i leave the stage with you tonight, i would like to think if you people, and i would like to start by thinking mission hiring hall, especially, we have drew taylor standing over there in the back, and we have. [applause] [cheers and applause] i thank you for your passion, server. We have Martha Medina over here from mission hiring hall. [applause] [laughter] these people have been there with us day in and day out, coaching, training, loving, having patience with each and every one of us, and making sure we were all finishing together, and finishing strong. I thank you so much for everything. I would like to give a thank you to the Mayors Office for having us. And a thank you to the herero group for sponsoring our training on friday mornings, very early. I would like to say thank you to swint or ten for allowing us to give our presentation at their office. I would like to say thank you to our professors who are here tonight. They taught us with a lot of love and patience. Thank you so much. I want to say thank you to my classmates were here in the front row. Thank you for everything you have done and all the ways you have helped me. It has meant the world to me. I just want to say, thank you to my mom, and lastly, thank you to my wife who is here, who has been my rock through all of this [applause] [cheers and applause] now we have nick carter coming to the stage. [cheers and applause]. Thank you. All right. None of you all know, that man used to walk into class at 6 30 a. M. Every morning and do that same thing, so thats why it got us all excited, because that is how big al road. I had a speech, but i couldnt make it home, i came here right after work, so i guess i have to freestyle it. My name is nicholas carter, i am part of cycle 30. [cheers and applause] a little bit about myself, i am a San Francisco native, born and raised in hunters point, went to balboa, went to riordan, i have a child who is 14 now, 14 , going on 34. A little bit more about me, after high school, when i graduated, like a lot of us, i was lost, i didnt know what i wanted to do, i didnt know what trade i wanted to get in, i had dreams of being a baseball player, a football player, something making a whole bunch of money in athletics, and it didnt work out that way, so i found myself just doing lowend jobs, warehouse jobs, and i remember i got fired from my first warehouse job and i was real, real upset. I was upset at the fact that i had never been fired. I went home i talked my mom and she said, nicholas, those warehouse jobs, i dont thank you want to be doing those for the rest of your life, is that mom, i was feeling like i was boxed in and it was the only thing i could do, just working or going to mcdonalds or something else. I love your food,. I just found myself lost, i stayed lost for about ten years. I got into the trade a little bit. I worked for a family member. He was doing home maintenance, and i loved it. I loved it, but i found myself, if i didnt go to work, i really wasnt making any money at all, i didnt have a pension, no insurance, nothing, i wanted to do better for my son. So i found out about city build. I looked it up on the computer, i bring in, i said oh, man, they are having a class, i went down to the mission hiring hall, and i walk in, he is not here, i see chris, chris is here. That guy, chris. I walk in, and i said, hey, i am here to sign up, i have my papers all in my hand. I want to sign up, and he said to me, thats nice, but i dont think you can sign up because you look like you are late and i said oh, man, i was getting ready to cry ready in the mission hiring hall. Gilbert shows up. Gill is not here. Chris calls over gill, and i had already applied for the apprenticeship out there in pleasanton. He shows up, and he said, oh, you want to be a carpenter, i said, yeah, i want to be a carpenter, he said let me see that paper that you got. He signed it for the apprenticeship . I said, yeah, i sure did. He gets on his phone, takes it out, calls the preapprenticeship , okay