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Pursuant to Charter, Sections 2.103 and 3.100(7), and Administrative Code, Section 2.11, the Mayor shall answer the following eligible questions submitted from Supervisors representing Districts 3, 5, 9, and 11. The Mayor may address the Board initially for up to five minutes. Discussion shall not exceed five minutes per Supervisor.
1. Mr. Mayor, to address the affordability crisis, you have pledged in your State of the City address to facilitate the construction of 30,000 units of housing by 2020 to meet the needs of the City’s growing population. As you know, even as we build more housing we must do more to prevent the displacement of residents who are currently grappling with being priced out of San Francisco. I believe that our City’s housing policy must include the preservation of existing, affordable rent controlled housing in addition to new development - a more cost effective way to provide affordable housing and stabilize communities. Two initiatives I’ve worked on to preserve our affordable housing stock are to: 1) create a pathway for the tens of thousands of existing in-law units to become legalized; and 2) establish a right for tenants to make an offer to buy their buildings when their property is up for sale. Will you support both initiatives, and can you pledge to invest in housing preservation by identifying funding for in-law units to be rehabbed and brought up code and for tenants to acquire their buildings and keep them affordable through the Small Site Acquisition Fund? (Supervisor Chiu, District 3)
2. San Francisco does not have enough ambulances. According to the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s recent audit, “Medic to Follow” calls-the term used to describe when someone calls for an ambulance and the Fire Department does not have one available to send-have increased over 500% since 2008. They are happening an average of eight times each day. I have heard reports of patients being forced to wait 15, 25, even 40 minutes for an ambulance to transport them to the hospital. And the Fire Department is well below the service level it is obligated to provide under its “Exclusive Operating Area” with the state. Remaining out of compliance could seriously jeopardize jobs within the Fire Department, revenue to the Fire Department, and overall public safety.
The Fire Department estimates that it will need $9.8 million to provide new ambulances and personnel in order to meet its state regulations. This figure is likely high, as it does not account for the new revenue that increased emergency medical services capacity will generate. I have asked the Budget and Legislative Analyst to assess the net-net figure. Nonetheless, whether it is $4 million or $9 million, I think San Franciscans deserve a reliable emergency medical system.
Will you provide sufficient funding in this year’s budget to bring the Fire Department’s emergency medical services into compliance with its “Exclusive Operating Area” with the state? (Supervisor Breed, District 5)
3. As you know, Supervisor Avalos is in his second term. Very soon, he will be an unemployed former Supervisor over the age of fifty with no transferable skills whatsoever. Since you have such great relationships with our City’s burgeoning technology sector, could you help Supervisor Avalos get a job?
Clearly, being a San Francisco Supervisor doesn’t prepare anyone for the real world and Supervisor Avalos’ advanced age is an additional handicap in the modern job market. Supervisor Avalos still asks lobbyists to make dittos instead of photocopy documents. He has no idea what Zynga means. He thinks Zynga is what Tom Ammiano calls a witty insult. He uses a flip phone. A flip phone.
So please use your considerable clout to help Supervisor Avalos get a job lined up for after he leaves office that can make use of his limited skills but generally affable temperament. Maybe as a greeter at Twitter HQ. Does Twitter have greeters? (Supervisor Campos, District 9)
4. In your letter of introduction to the 2013 Climate Action Strategy (CAS), you wrote that "the need for immediate action has never been more evident, and we know that cities are leading the way." However the urgency of that statement is belied by the fact that the letter was dated October 21, 2013, and the Climate Action Strategy was not released until February 12, 2014.
The Climate Action Strategy goes on to state that "moving to 100% renewable electricity is the single biggest step the City can take to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions." And yet there was an attempt to scrub all mentions of CleanPowerSF--the City's program to actually deliver 100% renewable electricity--from the Climate Action Strategy. The version of the CAS released on February 12th included a "whited-out" table of projected participation rates in CleanPowerSF. But that table was unceremoniously removed in a new version that was posted two days later.
Unless we quickly implement 100% renewable electricity, we will fail to meet our legislated Greenhouse Gas Emission reduction requirements in the next few years.
As a birthday present to me, will you work with the Department of the Environment to reinstate CleanPowerSF in the Climate Action Strategy?
And as a present to the 87% of San Franciscans who believe global warming is happening, will you commit to launch CleanPowerSF this year? (Supervisor Avalos, District 11)
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