Took on one of the hardest projects and you made it happen and you are all in my book heroes. I cannot thank you enough. I could not have more respect for you and i salute you all. You are amazing. Congratulations and thank you. [applause] before everybody speaks, supervisor walton, would like to say a few words. Thank you so much for honoring these amazing people. It is always great to see when Community Comes together and takes their own destiny by the horns and all of you made this happen together with the entire Mission Community and everything i am definitely not going to forget her. But nothing makes me prouder then to see my friends, my colleague in the fight, my own legislative aide, and of course, Work Together with all of you to make this possible for communities. I want to congratulate you all and appreciate these. Thank you so much and congratulations. Thank you. I will be real brief. I wanted to say thank you to mirna, louise, santiago, and tracy from the bottom of my heart. This is one of the first places i ever came to in San Francisco. I think of it as a second home. My motherinlaw, may she rest in peace, was the lady who found this building. She convinced the board to buy this building and to think about having Community Assets and community leadership. It truly broke my heart to think that we might lose this and that rosario would have given all that she had gave to the city and gave to the community and some of it would have gone in vain. So when you all stepped in in the work that you did, it truly saved the spirit of the neighborhood. You really and truly did. I know you all did it voluntarily. We had that celebration in the mission that day and it was amazing. I just want to thank you on behalf of our family and everyone that was involved. Truly, thank you so much. Okay. Mirna . I wanted to say thank you to supervisor ronen. Also thank you to rosario. May she rest in peace releasing those leaving us with this legacy. And to my four compadres because it wasnt easy to do this, but in the neighborhood that often gets defined by its deficits and not its assets, it is really great a great way to celebrate our assets and our leadership. I think the mission is strong and it has strong leadership. [speaking spanish] it means we are here and we are staying and i think that its because of the folks in this room and to the organizations that they built who will still be here as this building will be here in Community Hands after we are gone. Thank you so much. Supervisor ronen, thank you for this recognition. For me this is an urgency of preserving place for tenants, a place for community organizations, and a place for small businesses. We are carrying out a strategy in the mission around that specifically and we are supported. What you see here and in the mission is community that is together and is leading on this issue so i would ask you for your continued support of those strategies. The other thing i will say is that earlier today there was a conversation about bill 50. It would incentivize the conversion of this kind of facility into something else. I really appreciate the vote earlier today and we are right there with you. Good afternoon, supervisors. Supervisor ronen, thank you for this recognition. I think the only thing i can say at this point is Mission Neighborhood centers is proud to have been able to access is limited assets, real estate assets to move this process forward and ensure that what is a Community Institution remains intact, not just physically, but in terms of programs that it offers at the site. And none of this would have been possible if you were not for ongoing support on behalf of previous mirrors, as well as the current mayor, and all of you collectively. With that being said, thank you very much for being our partner throughout this process. Thank you. Thank you for this award. Is very humbling to be up here in front of you all to receive this. I am the board chair of Mission Language vocational school. It has been a continuant continues to be challenging, and so i want to thank everyone for their support, but i stand here only because i am driven by what community wanted and what Community Asked for. So this is just doing our job of delivering for community. Thank you. [applause] [applause] thank you. Next commendation is from supervisor mandelman. Firefighters, come on up. [applause] that does deserve applause. I did not want to let 2020 go by without acknowledging the extraordinary work that the firefighters did in the castro on november 16th. I was woken up that morning around 5 00 a. M. By the fire chief who was letting me know that a four alarm fire was happening on castro street between 18th and market and, colleagues, i hope that that is not a call that you get. I know some of you have. By the time i got there, the firefighters were doing what the firefighters do. They blocked off castro street between 18th and market. Water was everywhere, firefighters were everywhere. More than 100 San Francisco firefighters responded that day with multiple stations working together in the neighborhood. They entered the burning building. They were two at 454 and 456 castro street. They checked out the buildings that were on either side of the building. They identified smoke on the upper floors and made an aggressive interior attack to stop the fire from spreading and by 6 00 a. M. , crews had gained control of the fire. By 10 00 a. M. , the fire was fully contained. The two buildings were devastated. The ground floor businesses are going to be not operational for a good while. Thirteen residents were evacuated. One resident was taken to a burn center with serious injuries and one resident was hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and one firefighter was also hospitalized with minor injuries it could have been a whole lot worse. So i just want to say, on behalf of district eight and the board of supervisors, and certainly the castro community, i want to express our heartfelt gratitude to you all for what you do and what you did that day. For having saved lives, prevented greater damage, and your courage and talent reflects the very best of San Francisco and im just very pleased to have this opportunity to honor you today. I think we have achieved. To speak speak on behalf of the department. Good afternoon. I am San FranciscoFire Department deputy chief of operations. Thank you for the op thank you for the commendation. A little bit more detail and approximately at 4 32 a. M. At 456 castro, a working fire was declared. Due to the time of the call, the rapid fire spread, the dense construction and the zero property lines, the fire quickly escalated to a fourth alarm. Aggressive interior and exterior cavities were made. A total of 15 engines, six trucks, his two rescue trucks, five battalion chiefs, three ambulances, two rescue captains and a division chief. The chief of department and her command staff were present and responded along with other specialized units. During this incident, a total of four structures were affected. Two civilians were injured and one was transported to davies and the other was treated at the scene and released. Both will be okay. The fire resulted in eight occupants in four businesses being displaced. Red cross and City Services are assisting. The departments p. I. O. Worked with the media, the board of supervisors and city agencies with messaging and recovery during and after this incident. Obviously the location of the fire was in district eight and we thank supervisor mandelman for the acknowledgement. On behalf of our members of our Proud Department the battle displays, thank you for the acknowledgement for those who responded. We thank all the supervisors for all the support and we are very honored. Behind me, i think i have everybody here. Lieutenant jackson, firefighter strickland, firefighter chung, firefighter cody, firefighter oneill, paramedic hair, firefighter leonard, firefighter lee, firefighter gabriel, firefighter abella, firefighter zimmerman, firefighter cortez, firefighter forney, did i miss anybody . I think we are all there. These are just a few of the members that responded. Again, we are very honored that you are giving us this. Thank you. [applause] [applause] okay, thank you. That concludes our commendations for today. Except, we actually have a special commendation today. I think it is fair to say that it is shared with all my colleagues on the board of supervisors. So i wonder what that could be . We are here today to appreciate and thank an individual who i think we can all agree has been one of the most dedicated Public Servants to the board of supervisors in the city. John given her john. Gibner it is not an easy job that you have had dealing with not only the 11 of us in here, by through the years, many, many other individuals that are very demanding. Feuding fielding dozens of legal requests, sometimes all within the same day, if not the same hour, providing Legal Council during sometimes excruciating board meetings, never making any of us, including our staff, feel as though we were asking dumb questions when we probably were doing that, stepping in and helping us craft legislation when you barely had any sunlight at all on your own overflowing plate, and through it all, with the utmost professionalism. Your call him, collected, and allknowing Legal Council has benefited so many of us through the years and people that we serve. Theres no way to thank you enough for giving us the benefit of your expertise, which seems to be endless and most importantly, i think your time. Because we all know that how much time this board can demand. That is the time away from your loved ones and your family. You will be missed by all of us, but we count ourselves extremely fortunate to have our steady hand still with us in the City Attorneys Office in your new role. No one could really fill shoes, but i think she is pretty happy right now knowing that you are the one accepting the baton that will be handed over to you soon. On a more personal note, you have been the only deputy City Attorney that ive interacted with on this board and i feel very fortunate to have had the seven years with you. I will sorely miss you individually. Thank you for your service and your friendship and you dont get to talk yet because as a lot of people that want to talk before you. How about that . Supervisor peskin . Thank you. Colleagues, i think that the president just said everything just right. I am not a real big fan of goodbyes, and unlike my president , i have had two incarnations. Earlier ted lakey and cheryl adams, both of whom were fantastic council to department one, but you far exceeded those expectations and you have a very providing service to this board and this city and to try to explain to me, and i never understood that we were not his client, the city was his client, which means that he could make it up as he went along, and you have done an extraordinary job of doing the exact same thing. I say that with all due respect. City attorney herrera, why are you looking at me like that . [laughter] City Attorney herrera had a profoundly hard decision to make in determining who would replace back because the City Attorneys Office, which has it is the largest Attorneys Office in the city and county of San Francisco , has a number of remarkable potential people to fill buckets seat, and i think that dennis made the right decision in appointing you. The only thing that you and buck do not have in common is that you are not a resident of the city and county of San Francisco , but that can be corrected. I would like to present to you the janky us to going away card that has ever been presented. It is very board like. It has been signed by every member of the board except for our newest member, supervisor preston. And dean was never your client, so its got 10 members, but more importantly, it has all of the staff and all of our staff who are profoundly grateful for the council that you have given us. Whether we were asking you about how to conquer poverty, how to clean our streets, how to make childcare universal, which we are which were all easy tasks that came with very easy legal advice, and so john, i hate saying goodbye, but dont worry, we will peel every piece of advice that our incoming City Attorney gives us to you as the head of the legal team so you will be hearing from each and every member of department to one, the board of supervisors, and madame clerk, if you could present this to the deputy City Attorney on behalf of the board and all of our staff, we appreciate your service. Supervisor ronen . Thank you. I forgot how i found out that you were no longer going to be our lead or general counsel, but i screamed out, no that was my immediate response. I dont even know how you have done this job the way that you have done it. We are 11 characters of the highest order with strange personalities, constant demands, have the time scheming against each other or scheming against the Mayors Office and you have been privy to it all, and yet somehow, or at least to me, of never betrayed anyones confidence. I knew you would never betray mine. And how you managed to do that and keep that all straight and demand such respect from so many different people, with such a wide range of politics is just extraordinary. I honestly dont know how youve done it. I hope that you feel really good about yourself because i dont know anyone else who can and i do see at least one other general counsel of the board before you came on. I will miss you so much. My staff several times have they have so much respect for you as well. As do all of our staff. They have said to me at times, do you think john likes us, i think he likes s. I think he likes as more than he likes other offices. We all wanted you to like us so much because we like you so much we have no idea because you are so even keeled and so equal to everyone that you never let on what you really are actually thinking other than your legal opinion. But your personal thoughts about people or about what they are doing, you dont you never let down your shield. That is a pretty high degree of professionalism. Something i very much admire about you. Thank you so much, john, for everything. We will miss you. Supervisor mandelman . I feel profoundly cheated and that i have i think other than supervisor preston, i have had the least opportunity to work with you as a member of this board of supervisors, but i take solace in the fact that i think i have known you longer than any of the members of the board of supervisors, since we were in law school and spending summers at the east Bay Community law center. And john, aside from being a fantastic lawyer, is a profoundly excellent human being and as a gay man, i was astounded back then that there was this straight guy, and john is straight, this straight guy who wanted to do h. I. V. Benefit advocacy in law school and would go on to work at a legal studio after law school and would spend all the time working on the civil rights and benefits for a community of which he was not apart. I think when we were back in law school we had great hopes and ambitions for what the practice of law would be and that the very best and brightest in law schools would go into Public Service and would go into nonprofit. John, in your case, that has absolutely happened. I am so thrilled for you and thrilled for our city, although i am bummed you will not be here in this chamber, i will also say that you are exemplary. You are an exemplar of an office that i think reflects the very best of what lawyers can be. Im so proud of your whole department. Anyway, i will miss you, but im glad you will still be around in the city. Supervisor walton . Thank you. Supervisor mandelman, if you feel you have had the least amount of time to work with him, then i would actually be sitting in your seat right now. That is another story. That is another story. [laughter] john, i want to say how much i appreciate how you are able to work with several different personalities and remain professional. There are times when i would try to draw things out of you to get , maybe you could think a little bit like me or come to that side, and you remain professional the whole time and really stuck to giving quality legal advice. I really appreciate that 100 . I know there are times when my colleagues and i have tried i am always up for a bout, not necessarily always been concerned about breaking the law if i think it is the right thing to do. But that is your job to tell us when we are going overboard. I do appreciate you being able to do that in a professional way , i think the hardest part is having to deal with all of our personalities and our aids. It takes someone who has a certain amount of charisma and a certain amount of heart to make that happen. I appreciate that. Good luck in your next role and a look forward to working with you. Supervisor fewer . Thank you. John, i just wanted to say that, you know, city hall can sometimes be a very lonely place you just dont know who to trust , but i just want to say, that i always felt i could trust to you. I thank you have seen a lot, but you know a lot, and you have always been so generous and gracious and kind, and i just wanted to say that, you know, i know one time i felt harsh with you and i called you into my office and i felt horrible. I felt like i have to apologize to john because he is so steady and so generous and so kind and so nice that it is so unwarranted that i would say anything harsh to him at all. I remember when i apologized you just said, know, its okay. I just felt terrible but you were so generous and forgiving me. It is so indicative of you. I just think so kind. Any time i got a text from you that was a kind word, i knew you meant it. I so valued it. I hope that we have entertained and amused you as much as we have driven you crazy with our personalities and shenanigans. My staff would sometimes say just out of the blue, can i just say, i love john. And so i think ever