SPRING 2011 NEWSLETTER It is an honor to be your new representative on the Board of Supervisors and represent District 2 - the neighborhood where I grew up and the neighborhood where my wife Liz and I are raising our children. As I stated throughout my campaign, it is in the neighborhoods where I truly believe we see the heart and soul of our great City and I vow to be a steward of our District 2 neighborhoods in City Hall and to report back to you on a regular basis. These first few months in City Hall have been an amazing experience – eye-opening, challenging, frustrating and inspiring all at once. I have been spending long hours at City Hall to ensure that our office hits the ground running, and we have made an incredible amount of progress already. In my first meeting at the Board of Supervisors alone we voted to appoint Ed Lee as Interim Mayor, and Mayor Lee has been a great partner in City Hall and I believe a large part of the reason the tone of City Hall has changed from last year. My priorities in 2011 include three main components: (1) focusing on local issues in the neighborhoods of District 2, (2) cutting government waste in City Hall and (3) creating jobs and promoting economic development. I have a number of specific policy goals under each bucket, and will be focusing on implementing them throughout the year. I‟ll be sending out this newsletter quarterly so that you‟re updated on my work, community issues and ways that you can get involved. For more regular updates, visit my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter (@MarkFarrellSF). Feel free to contact my office at (415) 554-7752, or you can email me ([email protected]) or my aides Catherine Stefani (catherine.stefani@sfgov,org) and Margaux Kelly ([email protected]) My Office and Volunteer Opportunities My office is #280 on the second floor of City Hall. Always feel free to stop by and say hello. If you are interested in volunteering in our office anytime Monday-Friday 9-5pm, please contact my Legislative Aide Margaux Kelly at (415) 554-7752 or [email protected] My Committee Assignments I have been assigned to the Government, Audit and Oversight Committee (GAO) and the Rules Committee. I am also serving on the Mayor‟s Disaster Council and the America‟s Cup Organizing Committee. LEGISLATION AND POLICY UPDATE Upper Fillmore Neighborhood Commercial District – Lifting the Ban on New Restaurants I am pleased to announce that my first piece of legislation to lift the restaurant ban in the Upper Fillmore Neighborhood Commercial District passed unanimously at the Board of Supervisors and became law on March 22, 2011. The restrictions on restaurants were put in place more than 20 years ago and clearly have become outdated, making it difficult to cater to the needs of the community. This legislation also provides that formula-retail restaurants (i.e. chain restaurants) cannot be permitted in the Neighborhood Commercial District. Currently, there are about ten vacant storefronts in the Upper Fillmore NCD - this legislation will help to stimulate more economic activity on the street while balancing both neighborhood and merchant concerns. Thank you to the Fillmore Merchants Association and the Pacific Heights Residents Association for your collaboration and support on this effort. Links to Recent News Articles on the Upper Fillmore Legislation: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/05/MNOR1HIU07.DTL http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/under-dome/2011/01/supervisor-mark-farrell-aims-lift- restaurant-ban-upper-fillmore http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/01/28/tide-turns-in-favor-of-more-restaurants-in-san- francisco-commercial-districts/ Hearing on San Francisco’s Debt Structure One of the reasons I ran for District 2 Supervisor was to confront the financial mess at City Hall. As I began my briefings in City Hall on our City‟s current budget deficit, I started to take a hard look at our City‟s debt structure, and become particularly concerned with the nearly $1.36 billion of non-voter approved debt which currently sits on our City‟s books in the form of Certificates of Participation (COPs). Over the past decade, $100+ million in COPs have been issued by City Hall (again, without voter approval) to inappropriately fund both voter-rejected bond measures as well as routine maintenance city operations, such as filling our potholes and paving our streets. Simply put, it is financially irresponsible to issue long-term debt to fund these projects and masks the true cost of our City‟s government. Despite the City‟s current economic problems, the use of COPs is bad public policy and fraught with potential for abuse. We are now paying over $5 million each year in interest payments alone on the $100 million portion of COP debt, which means less money is going towards key economic development programs and infrastructure projects that need funding. Bottom line: City Hall has been using COPs to kick the preverbal financial can down the road. Through this practice, City Hall not only burdens future generations of San Franciscans, but we undermine confidence citizens have in City government and how we manage your money. That is why I have called for a hearing on San Francisco‟s debt structure which will take place on April 28th in City Hall. I have requested that the City Attorney‟s Office, the Controller‟s Office, the Mayor‟s Budget Office and the Board of Supervisors‟ Budget Analyst to appear before the Government, Audit and Oversight Committee to discuss the City‟s overall debt structure - we need to have a clear transparent dialogue with the public about what we are doing. My goal is to create a secure financial future for San Francisco and setting a clear debt policy is an important step in that direction. The focus of this hearing will be on the legal basis for issuing non- voter approved COPs, the Board of Supervisors‟ past policy practice of issuing COPs, a comparative analysis on other large California cities and their practice of issuing non-voter approved debt and a discussion on San Francisco‟s future debt policy. After this hearing, I will look to introduce legislation to ensure City Hall can no longer issue non- voter approved debt to fund ongoing City maintenance operations. Links to News Articles: http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/under-dome/2011/02/mark-farrell-zeroes-san-francisco-debt http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/02/supe-calls-for-hearing-on-non-voter-approved-debt.php COMMUNITY UPDATE California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) The California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), which provides health care for more than 40% of San Francisco patients, plans to build a new hospital on the corner of Van Ness and Geary at the old Cathedral Hill Hotel site. The current hospital design will consist of 555 beds combining both the California and Pacific campuses, which are also located in District 2. Plans for the Pacific campus include transforming it into an outpatient care center, and CPMC plans to sell the California campus in a few years. I am working to schedule community forums on CPMC‟s plans regarding the Pacific and California campuses and have been working to address concerns regarding CPMC‟s plans to build the new hospital. There are two informational hearings coming up at the Planning Commission. The first is on April 28, 2011 to discuss the physical design of the proposed hospital at Van Ness and Geary. The second hearing is on May 12, 2011 to address the impacts on housing, workforce development issues and the development agreement that CPMC will enter into with the City to address concerns of all stakeholders. Finally, there will be a hearing at the Planning Commission on June 9, 2011 regarding certification of the DEIR (Draft Environmental Impact Report) and overall project approval. I will continue to keep everyone updates on the progress of CPMC‟s plans and welcome all community input on these developments. www.RebuildCPMC.org America’s Cup On December 31, 2010, District 2‟s Golden Gate Yacht Club and the America‟s Cup Event Authority announced that the 34th America‟s Cup would be held in the San Francisco Bay. Besides an exciting world- class event for San Franciscans, this event provides an opportunity to boost our City‟s economy – it is estimated the event will create nearly 9,000 jobs and generate an estimated $1.4 billion in direct economic impact to our City and region. This will be the first time the America's Cup has been hosted in the United States since 1995. The America‟s Cup is not just one race. It will consist of several races to be held in the San Francisco Bay in Summer-Fall of 2012 and Summer-Fall of 2013. The first set of races will take place in the summer of 2012 – known as the America‟s Cup (AC) World Series. This event will be the first time that the AC teams will be racing their new 72 foot catamarans. The following summer in 2013, the Louis Vuitton Cup will be held from June through August. The winner of this regatta will then go on to compete against the Golden Gate Yacht Club‟s Oracle Racing Team for the America's Cup starting in September 2013 and lasting through October 2013. Planning and preparation for all of these events are underway and public input is necessary to ensure that neighborhood impacts are vetted and properly handled.