D10 Budget Town Hall with Mayor Lee & Supervisor Cohen

Last night's D10 Budget Town Hall with Supervisor Cohen was not quite what I expected, and ended up being rather farcical.  First, questions were solicited from the audience on confusing, color-coded cards meant to identify the theme of each question.  Those cards were then submitted to handlers, who presumably sorted them and picked questions to be asked later.  The problems that ensued stemmed from organizers then asking the questioner to go up to a microphone to ask their question.  What happened was that people were suddenly given a forum to prattle-on at length (no time limits!!), not actually ask a question, and often not offer suggestions to the city's department heads and the mayor, which was supposedly why we were there.  The meeting devolved into diatribes by visibly angry people and our supervisor shouting at a resident to try to get him to end his outburst.  His outburst, by the way, was about trying to get a straight answer from Supervisor Cohen about whether she supported the city's local-hire law or not.  Her response left us all wondering if maybe she didn't, saying, "As a legislator, it is my duty to uphold the laws of the city, and this is one of those laws that I will uphold."  She never said that she supported the law, only that she would uphold it.  The audience member immediately caught this, and tried to press her on it.  The mayor took over from that point to assure the resident that the city is behind the law.

My suggestion to the organizers of the seven remaining budget town hall meetings: in a 10-minute segment, have the mayor explain what the city departments are already doing to reduce their budgets, and then have the moderator, presumably the supervisor for the district, READ the questions and suggestions that have been submitted by the audience and online.  DO NOT allow attendees to use the mic!!    Let the audience know that all their questions and comments will be compiled into a single document at the end of the forums and posted online for all to see.

Rec and Park Department Community Budget Presentation

For those of you interested in what goes on in our parks and how the Rec and Parks Department is planning on allocating its 2011-12 budget, mark Thursday, February 3rd on your calendars.  RPD will be hosting a series of four informational meetings around the city, with the last one at the Joseph Lee Recreation Center, 1395 Mendell St, near the Bayview Opera House.

A preview of the RPD presentation can be found online at the SF Rec and Parks website.

Also, there is also a group called 'Take Back Our Parks' that is organizing to ensure some oversight of the Rec and Parks Department, and folks may be interested in checking them out if they have concerns about clubhouse closings, budget allocation issues, etc.