CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO'S $5.34 BILLION BUDGET

The City and County of San Francisco has been much too generous to thousands that love to work in San Francisco and leach on the generous constituents that pay taxes in this City and County of San Francisco. We have so many City workers that do not work but earn huge salaries over $100,000 and then leave the City of San Francisco to spend our tax money and their salaries elsewhere. Mayor Willie L. Brown saw to it that he placed too many cronies and most of them crooks without any expertise and fake Administrative Assistants working behind doors with Human Resources and making sure all was well by appointing Civil Service Commissioners that went with the flow with too many fake appointments. This nonsense must stop especially now that over 48.9% of the $5.34 billion goes to pay salaries and fringe benefits. No private industry could function with so much money going towards personnel - especially since many of these high paying jobs do not bring in the standard returns - meaning job performance and quality out put. Our City has a 25.2% non-personnel operating costs whatever that means. Our Debt Service is 9.8% and to give you an idea about $525,287,808 Capitol and Equipment is 5.6% of the $5.34 billion or $299,367,975 Aid assistance is about 4.9% and Grants 3.7% about $195,896,427 Reserves and Fund Balance make up 1.4% about $72,277,046 Facility Maintenance is about 0.5% about $26,725,206 Our grand total just in case some one is interest is $5,343,296,087 Our City brings in about $696,659,642 in Property taxes part of the General Fund about 28.4% of the General Fund. Our City brings in about $288,320,000 in Business Taxes 11.8% of the General Fund. Other local taxes about $413,712,000 about 16.9% of the General Fund all monies that this City needs to provide Quality of Life issues. I am not going to bore anyone by giving the detail budget details about the San Francisco Police Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). There are other Departments and other entities that do not get money from the General Fund that continue NOT to deliver. The most outrageous SFPUC and Susan Leal who has no clue about what is really happening with the Hetch Hetchy Program which is over $4.6 billion and the millions wasted on programs such as the placing of the Combustion Turbines in the Bayview that has nothing to do with Hetch Hetchy but very poor leadership. Our City would do well to inform the constituents how much money is collected in taxes from each District we have 11 Districts. We have 10 Police Districts and we should be able to find out why so much money is spent on over time and why? Our SF Police Department has a primitive data collecting system and a Records Keeping System that cannot be compared with any decent agency with the current computer software and hard ware available. The City of San Francisco has a very poor record addressing Quality of Life issues in the Southeast Sector. It is quick to collect taxes from about 4000 business and 60% of the homes in the Bayview Hunters Point but does not invest in the constituency and that is a crying shame. We have a Mayor that talks the talk but cannot walk the walk. The City Controller Office and the Budget Analyst have done a fair job and should be commended for giving us a pretty good picture. However, the time has come to cut the City jobs and especially those that make over $120,000 in salaries and benefits. The time has come to invest at least 25% of the taxes collected in a given area and I explained this to the Budget and Finance Committee on February 8, 2006. The City should invest in our youth the highest percentage of youth live in the Southeast Sector. We need to stop the killings and shooting and improve Quality of Life issues. We cannot pollute some areas because people of color live in these areas. Case in point the Combustion Turbines that the Mayor wants placed in the Bayview through the SFPUC and the inept Susan Leal. It is a shame that we have inept folks like Sophie Maxwell that has no clue about how much District 10 has fallen apart because of her ineptitude. Our City has no leadership when it comes to Community Policing because our leadership has no clue about real Quality of Life issues. Our City budget is over $5 billion and we continue in many City Departments to carry on business as usual - wasting money. City Department heads should be told that if they spend over their budget ­ especially before the fiscal year and after just a quarter - they have to go. We cannot give high salaries to City Department heads to do a lousy job. We have a $300 million back log when it comes to the repair of our roads. MUNI keeps wasting money on projects that has poor logistics and planning. The conduits at Islais Creek that cost millions and the 2 pending retrofitting of the bridges as part of MUNI 3rd Street Light rail one at Marin Street and the other at 4th and King Street. Our City Police cannot expect to carry on in the manner they have - there is no excuse not to have best practices with time lines and accountability. The recent article in the SF Chronicle may not be totally factual but it casts a light and reveals so much that should be changed for the better within the SF Police Department. Our City Budget is here is some draft manner and as the months go by there will be changes but the good thing is we have heads up and the will to make this City the best City in the world.

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