People down to about six. Its insane. The studies of the facility showed in the past they added two and a half floor and talked about doing this selfpark many years ago. It was unfeasible to do this. Weve gone from 14,65 0 to 500 Parking Spaces and with the subway, sure, business is down. Weve always taken a hit when they asked us to and said were not making any money. We took freezes and freezes in our pension and stood behind the city and when the Nonprofit Corporation left the garage has gone. Its nasty. Its terrible what has happened. Commissioner which Nonprofit Corporation is that . The Nonprofit Corporation. Commissioner thank you. Next speaker. Im a business agent for teamsters local 665. Laura durant wanted to be here so ill read her statement. Dear supervisors im from doleby laboratories on market street. We were parking at the Civic Center Garage and happy with the services however once they cut staff and valet our employees no longer saw garage personnel and had to walk by Homeless Individuals who at times were shooting up or defecating on the ground in the stairwells. For this very reason of lack of safety and cleanliness we decided to cancel our account and took our business elsewhere. Thank you from laura durant. Commissioner thank you. Next speaker. I want to talk with the ambassador thing being discussed here. I work at the downtown 5th and Mission Parking garage. We only have one ambassador in the middle of our parking garage. We do need more ambassadors for each lobby. A couple recently retired arent being replaced. Eventually [multiple voices] and they need to be fixed and more ambassadors is needed. I want to mention that point. Commissioner thank you. Next speaker, please. Mark gleeson with Teamsters Joint Council 7. I thank you for the interest youre taking and something weve been work on now well over a year has to do with the staff cuts you heard about today. I also appreciate working recently with the staff of the mta has been pole polite but unproductive. Theres a model used in some areas in the United States but i think the people of San Francisco should know what that really is and you can see it in the close nearby in san jose if you visit their parking invests. Theres screens and cameras and human beings theres blocks and for the community at large around the facilities they should be aware what we believe is in the scheme here are the prospect of empty caverns that will be in our community with nobody staffing them at all one of these days and this again is something that is not vet the by certainly this body until today and perhaps the voters of San Francisco that awarded autonomy to the mta some years ago. I submit to the voters in the city should reconsider what that economy is and give it confines going forward. Thats just my humble idea. Theres apparently 300 customers that have supplied signatures being submitted to your offices today. Theyre also very concerned about this. So again i appreciate everybody whos been concerned with this. We hope therell be something proactive for our members and for the community at large. Commissioner thank you, mr. Gleeson. More and more until eventually nobodys going to do everything. Next speaker, please. Im a Business Owner i own a hair salon on grant avenue. Im in support of keeping the Valet Service in the garage. I dont think its fair that myself or other customers and speak forg myself walking speaking for myself have to walk by people smoking crystal meth and shooting heroin with my kids is not okay and the guy with the graphs and charts of numbers, youre talking about breakins in the thousands. Youre talking about things happening that are crimes in the thousands. And at some point all that is is a data point on whats acceptable. A few thousand crimes if youre having 1,000 less is not acceptsable or okay to have any crime if it can be prevent the just by people present in the garage. On where they were parking previously i bet theres fewer if not any crimes. Just by presence of the people there youre deterring it. With they showed you with statistic and graphs and charts is theres an acceptability to crime i dont think is okay. I want that on the record. Commissioner thank you, sir. Next speaker. If theres any other speakers after this gentleman if you line up to my left, your right, go ahead, sir. First, i saw a loose diamond and i saw people getting married outside. Im also getting engaged soon so my fiancee would kill me. Commissioner we wont count that toward the time. And to official came to retrieve that. It was city staff. Some guys going to be in a lot trouble. Seriously. Yeah. Commissioner its an engagement ring. If youre watching tv right now it will be at the lost and found. Thank you, sir. I dont know how many carr carats. Those who are tenants and monthly members at the ye old garage it summed up the frustration weve gone through since january of 2018 the first time the post was made in the ye old garage the valet staff would be eliminated. Just to add to that, yes, we support the staff staying from basement sto to the roof. I met with members of the mta along with another member at the Flood Building and i think we need them to stay. Thats what i wanted to say up here. Commissioner thank you, any other members of the public wish to comment on this item . Seeing none, Public Comments closed. Ms. Graph, can you come back up. I think we have a series of questions for you. I think have been in an ongoing conversation the past two years and a situation where this is a situation with an agency with little if any oversight by the board of supervisors because this is an agency overseen by commission appointed by the mayor. This body and the board of supervisors does not have a direct authority. We have the thumb up or down vote on the overall budget at sfmta and more and more its becoming apparent were going to have to exercise that authority in a very aggressive manner because this is not the only issue thats risen to the attention of this body in the last few weeks. Its very important. I want to say that for the record. To that point, mr. Graph, so seems as though theres been a significant investment you said over the last number of years, Capital Investment in automating the system. Can you quantify what that Capital Investment has been . Yeah, i might defer to rob who oversee the budget but about 32 million in capital and local funds. Commissioner so 32 million in Capital Investment and in that time has revenue increased . No, it has not . Not at all. We hope see a return on investment in five years 37 commissioner no, my question is when did you spart making Capital Investments of the magnitude of 32 million. 2017. Commissioner youve seen no increase in revenue. Its flattened out. Commissioner so its flat. In terms of staffing you said the cut is about 38 positions youve cut thane period of time . Cut in that period of time . We removed Aliso Ferrell commissioner youll have to clarify for the public. A typical Valet Program is more as you go to a hotel and you leave your car at the curb and in a stack Parking Program in the case of the Aliso Ferrell program you drive into a level of the garage and they stack your car in the garage to maximize space in that facility. Commissioner it looks like from 2016 to now to present its about 38, 40 positions. How many are valet positions youve cut . I believe i listed thane here as well. Listed that in here as well. 30. Commissioner so of the 38, 30 are valet youve cut . Almost 90 of the positions . That have been removed have been the stack car valet. And it says from First Quarter 2018 to First Quarter 2019 youve gone from 20 to 25 to 10 . Thats just the fixed post. The numbers dont add up. 30 valets removed and another fixed posts. Zbhoo that goes to ambassadors as well. Commissioner what are responses from the folks here, the staff and front line staff and longtime customers and having been avalet yourself. Something if we had started cutting valets at the beginning of your industry. How would you have felt . You may not be standing here today . As you teed up earlier your points are valid and were trying to be responsible stewards of our assets. Weve seen occupancies de crease decrease and weve cut shifts however, we worked with operators who are the Major Players in this arena and the staff cut have been relocated to other facilities. Some within city portfolio and some not. Commissioner supervisor peskin. Commissioner folks, for the decorum of the body, we dont allow questions to be yelled out from the public. Public comment is closed. Well continue to ask questions. You can show your approval by waving your hands and displeasure by pointing fingers down. Thats what we do. Supervisor peskin. Im trying to articulate commissioner i got it. So essentially the Decision Making for valet does it take into consideration many of the things that were talked about today . The issue of providing an additional added service, contributing to the world class environment of our shopping area, providing for the security, en hangs and encouraging enhancing and encouraging the movie industry which is an integral and commercial industry. These are all things really important to San Franciscos economy and i have to tell you the Aliso Ferrell, i was shocked when i went there two weeks ago to see this Automated System yelling out nonstop. If i were across the street in a restaurant that would absolutely ruin my experience as a customer in that place and i asked the owner of the restaurant, i said how is this impacting your business he said my customers complain all the time. And he happened to be a longterm monthly pass holder. He said were seeing all the things you said today, dirt, graffiti, drug use, increased homelessness, smells of urine. Its on and on. He said we have people getting their cars broken in to. I dont understand the philosophy of moving to this 100 i understand you made the decision to go into a completely automate the system but were losing a significant value that cant be measured by the bottom line. Whats your response to that . I think its finding the right balance. To be clear we know theres fear but ive been clear and we worked collaboratively with the teamsters, we wont take the facilities down to no operators. Commissioner Aliso Ferrell is down to two people. One at one time of day and a gap in the shift. If theres demands for additional staff this is flexible. Commissioner sounds like you have a petition of 300 customers. And we have been meeting with stakeholders throughout the process long before i arrived at the m. T. A. I cant get a clear idea of how many more cuts you have planned. Theres one slide. The majority of changes have been made. Theres been a few facilities that have not gone through the upgrades yet. Commissioner so these cuts are all based on your overall Capital Development to automating the system . So everywhere you put in the Automated System you intend to cut more staff. Thats not always the case. Its case by case but its been the stacked Parking Program which is the majority of the cuts. Therell be a lot going under construction. That lot goes away. Thats pretty straightforward. The mosconi garage will also have staff cut there. Aside from that, 90 plus and a large number of cuts. It will be minimal and we can provide a full picture of what that looks like. Commissioner thats why we called you here today trying to get a full picture. Commissioner i dont want to cut supervisor safai off. I want to thank him for scheduling this year and thank all members of the public for coming out and testifying today and a number of facilities are in the Northeast Corner of county of San Francisco i have the honor of representing. While i try to use the other side of your house as often as possible by which i am referring to the bus i have been known to park in those garages both within my district and in supervisor haneys district and its about jobs and the customers experience and the relationship but with customers who we directly or indirectly employee and i understand the world has changed with uber and congression and people arent commuting ways they historically have and that comes with demand and as someone in office for 20 years weve not made outageous demands on the city. Weve been pretty darn reasonable and have adjusted to things when adjustments need to happen. And i was part of proposition a 2017 and while supervisor safai and i share some same frustrations weve generally been able to work it out with the good old thing we call the telephone or inperson meetings. And im hopeful in the next few weeks it will resolve itself in the same manner with the teamsters at the table and the customers we heard from. I will say i have gotten fabulous emails from customers that arent teamsters and arent city employees. Im looking for one i got earlier today. I read one in the record. Commissioner if you want to talk about a human relationship is the relationship between the folks who its like going to the coffee shop. You love the person that serves you coffee every important and you love the person that valets your car or makes the place feel safe. Im bummed out because i go to port smith square a lot and we all get called to meetings and events usually that happen on the roof of that parking garage. We all jet in there. And can i tell you, i miss paying that person in person. I have do figure out the dang machine and im 55 years old and i missed the interaction with the person who was my neighbor and knew for years. Im happy to participate offline, online with the mta and teamsters and supervisor safai. I want to thank supervisor safai. I hope we can all come to the table and work something out that makes a lot of sense. And as i said last tuesday at the San Francisco county authority theres growing frustration by a majority of the board not with you, sir, but with your commission that inevitably in the cycle of Human Behavior will play itself out in some way and god only knows none of us want to wake up august 1 and not have cable cars, light rail or trollies or busses and this could be the one that breaks the camels back. With that supervisor haney. The city doesnt directly employ the teamsters. Were not part teamsters we have thirdparty operators that employ them directly. We have a number of facilities. We have the 20plus facilities. If there is a reduction of staff at another facility because of the way the cba works the opportunities have been particularly here the Staff Members have been offered positions depending on how that looks. I cant speak to it directly other than to say im not sitting in to make the decisions but they have assured me no one has lost a job. Commissioner netnet, Job Opportunities are being reduced. The human might bounce from one job to another job but there are less jobs overall. Can we stipulate to that . I cant speak to if theyve reduced other staff but my understanding is they had need for other facilities. Youre saying theyre growing their job demand as were shrinking hours . In this case thats my understanding, yes. Commissioner thats counterintuitive. Ill hand it back to you. Commissioner just for the record and the conversations weve had with teamsters if a position is eliminate order reduced through a city parking garage its been our understanding theres been a reduction in the staffing overall so i just want to say that for the record. I think theres be 100 straightforward in this conversation. This is about eliminating jobs and creating more efficiencies and trying to increase revenue and doing it on the backs of working people. Supervisor haney. Thank you. Also, it seems like theres significant reduction in the valet shifts in response to reduced parking demand. So are you saying that people are using Valet Parking less or overall parking is down and it spilled over to Valet Parking and measuring the number of Valet Parking shifts . Its significant in terms of the number or is it theres a move away from valet as a service that were providing . No, specific to the major area of concern is Aliso Ferrell and that area. Theres three different facilities and southern stockton and Aliso Ferrell and union square i can speak to those in that Geographic Area the demand has don gone down and at any given time theres 500 available spaces and there is plentyiful amount at the other facilities. Commissioner its overall reduction. For the garage ambassadors, can you speak a little bit more about what theyre role is and is that a new role . It is. Commissioner and are you seeing positive results from that . Yes, so we are seeing positive results and hearing responses from some folks here. I want to make sure we are getting it out better and many of the fixed cashier shifts should be roefg the garage. We roving the garage and i heard someone said were not told to stay near the pay machine but the folks should be roving the garage helping peep answering questions, giving directions, walking people to their car. The numbers listed go to the teamsters. If we dont have enough at a certain shift and that call is going nowhere, we need to make sure we have the proper staff to field those calls at a facility during busy times. Thats all good feedback to hear specifically at Aliso Ferrell maybe we need to manage that better and understand that with operators. Commissioner it does seem like theres a disconnect from the appearance people have having and what some of the sense of perspective from where you are around it so i recognize the position youre in so if theres a way to take the speedback and have it inform what is happening because i think its about people and the folks are out there and understand whats happening and want a great experience for the people visiting the garages and theres firsthand experience that can inform steps moving forward. I agree. We hope to have a firstclass parking system in the city of San Francisco. Ill take the information and take up chair peskins idea to have offline conversations and address all the issues. Commissioner thank you. Thank you. Commissioner i want to dive in a little deeper on Aliso Ferrell. When i look at the case study, its not clear to me. Are there Valet Parking happening at Aliso Ferrell anymore . How many were there prior to reducing it . It doesnt sound like the demand for valet disappeared sounds like the overall tickets were reduced at that. It seems like you made a unilateral decision to reduce service with significant demand at that location. To answer, it looked like we reduced staff by about six in quarter one and reduced it down from 19 to 10. About 16. So there were 16 valet and now zero. And how many people besides the valet are working at the facility that were nonvalet perhaps ticket takers or whatever positions there were. How many other people were there . Dont have a staffing schedule but theres managers and janitorial staff. Commissioner im talking about the fulltime staff involved. It sounds like major, major reduction. It sounds like theres very Little People left doing the job of a facility i have to say is one of the most prominent garages in the entire union square area. If you were to put a face on the sfmta Shopping System for a worldclass Shopping System having been to chicago, miami, dallas, austin, new york, boston, union square is one of the most firstclass shopping experiences in the entire United States. If all of a sudden jean people were used to having at least 16 valet and now down to zero, and its this Automated System, you reduced something that was part of a firstclass jewel to something it sounds like people hate it. To me this is a major flaw of the sfmta and the direction of where were going in our parking system. And i havent gotten a clear answer from you on how many more reductions therell be. I want to say this for the report as we have offline conversations would you be willing and i could is the sfmta to having a moratorium on more reductions of staff until we can get a real understanding of how this is impacting the Customer Experience because you werent even aware today that over 301 buildings the Flood Building, just one building, signed a petition to say theyre absolutely outraged you took away the valet system and thats just one building. I understand you made a decision to invest 32 million. But i have to tell you, my wife parks in an operated valet system and i can tell you right now, if there were not people in that garage i would not my wife parking in that garage. The first thing id say to her is be conscious of where you park. You heard people here today say they parked at the civic center and no longer want to. Were reducing a service on the backs of working people. It makes no sense to me. Are you guys committed to putting a stop to this and engaging with the people that represent this workforce . Because i know you say you dont directly engage in the collective bargaining but the Decision Making has been handed down to companies to give them the authority to make these staffing decisions. We want to make not just a world class shopping and parking destination and i feel we want to be that way. Id like to invite mr. Gleeson back to respond. Were talking about staffing and is there a clear idea how many more cuts will happen . Is there in your opinion 16 valets in one garage and they said a certain amount but the numbers keep getting bigger. Whats your experience in the number of cuts that have happened . Theyre coming without notice to us, first of all. And we found no pushback from laz and emco. They seem to be coming from decisions made at the sfmta and when we sit with them in a couple rounds the fast few months we asked whats the next batch of cuts to expect and we get no concrete answer. As i sit here it makes no sense to me everyones enjoying and participating in and you remove that service and people are paying customers for that service. Whats been your experience talking to the front line people and staff involved in going valet . Have may been netnet . Are they getting laid off . This is disruptive to their families because theyre expecting a normal routine of shift and routine of days off to participate with their family on a regular basis but probably more important and this is absolutely the fact about whats going on in the parking industry, at least in for instance, as theres layoffs some high srnt seniority workers and they bounce around through the entire infrastructure of parking in San Francisco. We represent workers at over 300 garages and private sector all the merk office buildings, all the nearly all the class a hotels. When theres a layoff anywhere it has a Ripple Effect nearly the almost 1300, 1400 workers in this industry throughout the city. Its a direct effect. It affects the expectations the workers can have around the rest of their live, Educational Opportunities with their family and other things like that. Commissioner as the sfmta been a willing partner to have the conversation and how long has this been going on with the sfmta . Weve been concentrating on this the last year. Theyve been a willing partner. They were polite conversations. Commissioner not just facilitating a conversation for lip service. My perspective is theres not been any. Commissioner youve been in conversations for a year and in that time have there continued to be cuts . We had a conversation and then heard about new cuts and thats our recollection within the last 90 days. Thats where we find ourselves. Its been very frustrating. Commissioner i guess i can go on and on. Thank you mr. Gleeson. Im happy to continue this item to the call of the clair. And if its not a conflict im happy to lend assistance in getting this figured out for the time being. With that theres a motion to continue the item to the call of the chair and we will take that without objection. Thank you for your testimony. Im sorry that it got to the point where it to come here. Commissioner with that would you call item 4shgs, 4, our lat item. Clerk by order nan to streamline Small Business permitting by among other things amending the health code to align regulation of restaurant enclosures for Outdoor Food Service and restroom requirements with state standards amending the planning code to clarify that with type 23 Liquor License may be used in conjunction with bar or restaurants use. Commissioner i want to continue this for one week and thank you supervisor safai. Any members of the public that would like to comments on item 4. Seeing none its closed. Ill move this to be one week to be the first item on our meeting of june 24 which meeting will be held on the 4th floor because its going to be all day budget Public Comment on that day so without objection well continue item 4 one week. Clerk mr. Chair. Commissioner of course. Im sorry. I did not realize that. Please come forward. Take your time. Thank you, supervisor peskin. This legislation seeks to standardize neighborhood Business Districts and some would benefit from that. Neighborhood commercial districts wont. We have ncd regulations tailored so each neighborhood. Dont throw out our hard work. Its a mixture of homes, apartments and businesses. And we researched the legislation and the proposed changes in the Haight Ashbury and we heard on what changing the Liquor License hours could mean by allowing backyard businesses open to 10 00 p. M. Or 4 00 a. M. Would impact residences would live close to them and mixing Live Entertainment and games to backyards could be bad for working people. Ive been in the arcade in certain areas and never seen anything so noisy. The legislation may be trying to solve a problem of vacancies and businesses but this is not the way to go at it. Each neighborhood has unique needs and please hold neighborhood meetings to test support before thinking about changing even one of these. Thank you. Commissioner thank you for your testimony and well take this up next week. Are there any other members of the public who would like to testify on this item . Seeing none, we will continue this to our meeting of june 24 as item number 1 and we are adjourned. Working for the city and county of San Francisco will immerse you in a vibrant and dynamic city thats on the forefront of economic growth, the arts, and social change. Our city has always been on the edge of progress and innovation. After all, were at the meeting of land and sea. Our city is famous for its iconic scenery, historic designs, and world class style. Its the birthplace of blue jeans, and where the rock holds court over the largest natural harbor on the west coast. The citys Information Technology professionals work on revolutionary projects, like providing free wifi to residents and visitors, developing new programs to keep sfo humming, and ensuring Patient Safety at San Francisco general. Our it professionals make government accessible through awardwinning mobile apps, and support vital Infrastructure Projects like the hetch hetchy Regional Water system. Our employees enjoy competitive salaries, as well as generous benefits programs. But most importantly, working for the city and county of San Francisco gives employees an opportunity to contribute their ideas, energy, and commitment to shape the citys future. Thank you for considering a career with the city and county of San Francisco. Shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. By supporting local Services Within our neighborhoods, we help San Francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . My name is ray behr. I am the owner of chief plus. Its a destination Specialty Foods store, and its also a Corner Grocery store, as well. We call it cheese plus because theres a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. From fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. You can have a casual meeting if you want to. Its a Real Community gathering place. What makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, its a great pedestrian street. Theres people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. The businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned Small Businesses. It harkens back to supporting local. Polk street doesnt look like anywhere u. S. A. It has its own businesses and personality. We have Clothing Stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. Theres a music studio across the street. Its raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. I think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. Again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, its very important that you do so. As a society weve basically failed big portion of our population if you think about the basics of food, shelter safety a lot of people dont have any of those im mr. Cookie cant speak for all the things but i know say, i have ideas how we can address the food issue. Open the door and walk through that dont just stand looking out. As they grew up in in a how would that had access to good food and our parent cooked this is how you feed yours this is not happening in our country this is a huge pleasure im david one of the cofounder so about four year ago we worked with the serviced and got to know the kid one of the things we figured out was that they didnt know how to cook. I heard about the Cooking School through the Larkin Academy a. Their noting no way to feed themselves so theyre eating a lot of fast food and i usually eat whatever safeway is near my home a lot of hot food i was excited that i was eating lunch enough instead of what and eat. As i was inviting them over teaching them basic ways to fix good food they were so existed. Particle learning the skills and the food they were really go it it turned into the is Charity Foundation i ran into my friend we were talking about this this do you want to run this Charity Foundations and she said, yes. Im a cofound and executive director for the cooking project our best classes participation for 10 students are monday theyre really fun their chief driven classes we have a different guest around the city theyre our stand alone colas we had a series or series still city of Attorneys Office style of classes our final are night life diners. Santa barbara shall comes in and helps us show us things and this is one the owners they help us to socialize and ive been here about a year. We want to be sure to serve as many as we can. The San FranciscoCooking School is an amazing amazing partner. It is doing that in that space really elevates the space for the kids special for the chief that make it easy for them to come and it really makes the experience pretty special. Im sutro sue set im a chief 2, 3, 4 San Francisco. Thats what those classes afford me the opportunity it breakdown the barriers and is this is not scary this is our choice about you many times this is a feel good what it is that you give them is an opportunity you have to make it seem like its there for them for the taking show them it is their and they can do that. Hi, im antonio the chief in San Francisco. The majority of kids at that age in order to get them into food they need to see something simple and the evidence will show and easy to produce i want to make sure that people can do it with a bowl and spoon and burner and one pan. I like is the receipts that are simple and not feel like its a burden to make foods the cohesives show something eased. I go for vera toilet so someone cant do it or its way out of their range we only use 6 ingredients i can afford 6 ingredient what good is showing you them something they cant use but the sovereignties what are you going to do more me youre not successful. We made a vegetable stirfry indicators hed ginger and onion that is really affordable how to balance it was easy to make the food we present i loved it if i having had access to a kitchen id cook more. Some of us have never had a kitchen not taught how to cookie wasnt taught how to cook. I have a great appreciation for programs that teach kids food and cooking it is one of the healthiest positive things you can communicate to people that are very young. The more programs like the cooking project in general that can have a positive impact how our kids eat is really, really important i believe that everybody should venting to utilize the kitchen and meet other kids their age to identify theyre not alone and their ways in which to pick yours up and move forward that. It is really important to me the opportunity exists and so i do everything in my power to keep it that. Well have our new headquarters in the heart of the tenderloin at taylor and kushlg at the end of this summer 2014 were really excited. A lot of the of the conditions in San Francisco they have in the rest of the country so our goal to 257bd or expand out of the San Francisco in los angeles and then after that who know. Wed never want to tell people want to do or eat only provide the skills and the tools in case thats something people are 2rrd in doing. You cant buy a box of psyche you have to put them in the right vein and direction with the right kids with a right place address time those kids dont have this you have to instill they can do it theyre good enough now to finding out figure out and find the future for 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