How To Save San Francisco | Mayoral Candidate Mark Farrell
42:37 Share

We need someone in the weeds. And this mayor has just been very kind of absentee governing by press release. And we're seeing unfortunate the results on our streets.

Our city population is decrease seven percent. At the same time, our city government head counts increased eight percent. Cut up the corruption, make earth spending much more efficient, much more effective.

I will be a mayor that is incredibly proactive with our technology community. What can we do to make your life Better? And we want to get out of the way.

What's up, guys? Welcome back to the pod. We have A A special guest today, mayor mark feral, soon to be in the chart with us and sanford cisco. I'm super excited about this one. Obviously, we are taking a break this week from the regular pod.

As we mentioned last week, we all at heretic on, but we were recording this one and try to get our sues became because we are voting in just a few days. We a pie wires endorsed mark for the mayor are just a full disclosure. So you guys know where our biases.

I think that you are the right man for the job. Cardiff thinks you the right man for the job. Cardiff actually works with me on the our voter guide um and also collected us together for uh this podcast today. So I wanted to bring him on and have to do this with with us. Thank you very much for being here today, sir mike.

thanks for having me artic, thanks. Uh thanks for h suggesting this and look forward our conversation today and very much appreciate the endorsement for sure you got IT.

Um I think the where I want to start is this really interesting guardian peace that talked about a sort of breath sly, the uniformity of the anti crime position now in the mayors race. So everyone is now crime has been something that I focus s on the pie wires in the context of service to school from the very beginning, the a that crime felt sort of the fact, the illegal, uh, the scandalous and crazy to me alt surreal in twenty twenty. Especially as I think what I first started Crystalized all the stuff into writing and becoming more focused on IT. I would like to know from you, first of all, if you agree with the characteristic that there is a uniformity now opinion this issue um and then what do you think shift IT like what what brought you guys all about is you what brought the city together on this issue of just agreement that crime .

should be illegal first, while crime should be little. That's always been the case here in our country everywhere want to have a long order in a civil society. Um I think it's simply because the last years have been so bad in service ago under this mayor you know when I was in office before as a supervisor and during my short time as mayor before we grow a police department to record staffing levels.

Crime always exist in urban environments like savant cisco, but IT wasn't a main issue. And when our current mayor or defended, the department allowed our police staffing levels to decline over twenty five percent, i'll, the sudden crime started happening in every single neighborhood, and IT is happening every single day in our city. Literally yesterday went to pick up a prescription at the local all Greens and the woman said, mister feral, good luck in the campaign um we're rooting for you.

You have you have a plan for shop listing I said, of course and I said, let me ask you those this happening as much as I continue to here. He said, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mark IT is happening every single day, all day.

And that has to stop because that affects how we live on our neighborhoods, as human beings, as individuals. IT affects our small business community and whether stores, you know, restaurants, are open later at night or just closing early because they don't have customers. And then think about a reputational effects as a city, when we had the lily von videos the other year, the forty nine, or shooting the other week, those have real effects on our seas, reputation and tourism. And that has to stop.

What do you think IT is that? I mean, what we are leading to the wall Greens, it's clearly, I mean, we've all seen the videos and lived there in benee's stores. First of all, everything boded up now have to call for a systems to open up things for two pace and things like this. But also, I mean, it's that that begins with people coming into the store and acting IT and walking out.

That is like a crazy kind of just against scandalous degree of crime that is open and Normalized that I don't understand and I think a lot of other people don't understand, like how is IT this bad? How are you going to fix that first? Well, maybe how is that this bad? And and then what is your plan to to stop that? Well, again.

look at this current mayor, you in summer three years ago, defended at the police department, one hundred twenty million dollars. That year, I was twenty percent of the Operating budget of our police department has allowed staffing levels to decline twenty five percent, which means in in all of our neighbors od stations, please, staffing done about forty percent in our neighbor ds. And so we just don't have enough officer is to respond to calls our service, let alone actually, I think we think about police and we all I want to get to as there's enough officers there to be a deterrent effect.

So crime doesn't happen to begin with. Is IT true that people, the cops, are reluctant to police because the crime? Is that prosecutor as much? Or was that true? Is that no longer true?

I think it's different when we had our prior district oral excessive begin and when he was not prosecuting crimes. But I, going after our officers themselves doing their jobs on our current disco, are turning on a big support of of an a fan of brick jinkins. I think that has that tied to stem a quite a bit.

So it's no longer that, but it's really about police staffing and having the officers again, to have a deterrent effect in our neighs to arrest people as they need to, but then to prevent crime from happening in the first place. And what do we do about IT? Look, we need a new police chief. I've been very clear about that to inspire the rank and file uh on our in our police department on our everyday basis, we need to refund and fully fund our police department once again. Um since I left officers mayor and twenty eighteen, our overall budget in city hall has grown over forty percent and our police department budget grown about fifteen percent .

yeah where is that money going, by the way? I mean that i've cover this a bit. Think you're like thirteen billion dollars .

a year now I believe fifty okay.

So that is more than when I moved to seven years to go in IT was two thousand and eleven IT was like six billion or so. That's an insect increase for what seems like a deteriorated level of service in almost every aspect. Like literally, where did to go?

Where is that money? Well, i'll give you more pointing example. So I left the office as mayor and twenty eighteen, and the budget that I put to go was an eleven billion dollar budget for the city of services.

Go IT is grown close to five billion dollars over the last six years. Asked any single services or resident in that way. This is annual. So ask any single service to a resident over the last twelve months.

Have you seen five billion dollars of additional spent on our streets in our city government compared to secure ago? And most people articulate is it's completely worse as a city. So we have a lot of justification to for the resent assistance to go how we're spending the money. And as I say always, we do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem inside the city home, and that's what need to get fixed. And why you know, when I talk about having a finance background and coming from the business and finance sector, coming from the tech sector, having that background to lead on the budget in city hall over the next four years and is going to be more important than any other time in our city's history, given the state of our budget and given the fact that under this current mayor now we're projected have a billion and a half dollar deficit in five years.

what do you have a sense of? I mean, again, like it's do you have a sense of where they bw IT? Or is IT just I mean to there be investigation or something IT seems crazy to me that you seems like people don't .

know where IT is. No, i'll give you two two buckets to think about because I get asked off, you know, okay, you want to fund more police officers. You want to actually get people off the streets of rites, the homeless and the drug crisis.

You want to invest tax and sentence for our economy. How are you going to pay for that? Number one, since cove in our city populations decrease seven percent, at the same time, our city government headcounts increased eight percent.

That just doesn't make sense. I mean, that's insanity, right? Nobody would Operate their own household, small business, big business that way. But the bear bucket of that five billion approx. Ment, five billion dollars of growth, over two billion of that, is going to a big bucket called community health and welfare. And again, ask anybody in serum, cisco, the five million, million bigger number, but around community health and welfare.

And you think about those, I think about that inherently, the homeless, the drug issues on our streets, those suffering that, that are less well off, no one sees that type of increase. And the reality is it's going mostly to these nonprofits down in sentences to go. Day one, when I launched my campaign, I said the day I become here, i'm going to initiate a full audit of our entire non profit industrial complex that the city of services go funds, which we desperately need to do um it's LED to a lot of corruption and inefficient and effective spending.

I mean, to give you a quick example, last year alone, for homeless services, only the mayor funded two hundred and forty eight different nonprofits. That's number one. And the worst part is, in most almost two and a half.

I thought I was something like I had no idea was that .

here's the worst part. Multiple instance. Ces, up to six different city departments were funding the same nonprofit was six different city contracts. But they didn't realize that or know about IT.

And that's what i've been very clear as soon as I come and off as one of the major structural policy differences this is born from having been there done that, i'm going to cut off every department's ability to issue their own third party contracts, bring another one roof, cut up the corruption, meg arf. Spending much more efficient, much more effective and then ultimately be able to truly tell these nonprofits and for profit in these that we fund out of city hall. These are performance contracts.

These are not anuwa ties to pay salaries. You we're going to put in KPI, we're going to put put in true performance metrics. And if you don't hit them, you're funding over. Um and we have to be very dogmatic about that because this is not to fund their salaries, this is to fund services for service or presence. If we're not get the back for a bug, there are gone.

Carter, you have a related question about homelessness. You are up for sure for homeless.

And in the first question actually have, uh, mark based. What you just said is, do you think the bigger problem is corruption or simply incompetent?

That sounds sicks stupidity is what you were saying before.

Yeah, the crop exists. It's a big problem. It's a big problem because the roads, faith in our city government, right? Um hey, if you think certain people are stealing or doing what have you or we ve seen you going to lovers state dinners and limos and to ahoo on on our city fund um kind of on the base of our city government yeah that a roads s faith on our city government and that's the problem.

Do I think that happens all over the place? Probably not the real issue here as I talk, as I think about driving experiences for we have to root that corruption. Now let's be super clear about that and hard stop on that.

But the real issue is in competence and a lack of leadership inside of city hall. We need a mayor who's gna come in. I tell everyone, the least sex part about being mayor is that you need to be in there and timely manage your city government.

You need to be in the weeds with every department. I mean, the next may's going to inherit what close to a sixteen billion hour budget, thirty five thousand plus city employs and over fifty direct department head reports. When I was mayor, before I was at eight fifteen of my desk, we brought the White boards.

Crick had lunch, brought in crunk with department head policy vision, brought back the next week of IT wasn't working. We need someone in the weeds and this mayor has just been very kind of absented governing by press release. That doesn't work. And we're seeing unfortunate the results on our streets as we live our daily lives and seems to school, and that has to change. We need a leader with not only a backbone on in a vision for where we going to go to the city, but can't wait to get in the weeds with our different city departments and run our city government effectively because I don't care it's in the public sector or a private sector in organization that large you have to be a leader in a manager of that entire organization is simply not happening today.

And then the follow up on that mark um basically for a whole since when I know talk to any group of friends is going to vote in the city love you realized we have more money than almost any other city, even for non profits. Last year alone, we spent one point seven billion and we sent over nonprofits. About twenty percent of that has gone to now known and corrupt on profits.

And so if that's true, you know we could do crazy things, you could build a tower, you could build an island, you could have a nurse per homeless person, you know I mean like with that kind of money ah, especially you run a company. I've never working government, so know that might be a different problem when that doesn't mean I can be solved. The money is physically there.

That's what we all know. And so I can just want to hear your opinion on that. And like, how can we actually get this done? And because more money is clearly not the answer.

no couldn't go with you more. Um a few things point to number one, we have had a housing first approach for a homeless situation for since of the nineties, says martials homeless on the streets of our city. The best outcome for me is a permanent subsidized unit of .

housing just back up. So to define for people who may be understand what that means, we're talking about the idea that every almost person in this city is entitled to like a free one, Better apartment or something.

Well, that's the policy approach. I mean, robs y not there yet. But I think are you hinting to as well as the bottom as we don't have enough taxpayer dollars to on that when we're building units at eight hundred and one hundred thousand dollars a clip, little little if we did that, everybody would move to same scope because they were promised lifetime of free housing, if you will.

So we need to move. I've been very clear from my housing first approach to a shelter first approach, where we get people off the streets on mass, have the ability to get people off the streets of roof, over their heads, almost trios at that point time, right? Different services available, what they have, mental health, drug issues, and not everyone is gona be alike, but get them off the streets and give a chance at a different life.

We can do that and clean up our nights hoods the same time, feel great about what we're doing the same from sikh and have a ic impact on our streets. But I also think we have to think outside the box and so many ways in our city government. And that's why I think have been in the private sector for over twenty years makes a big difference right now.

The city often times we encounter somebody who has a drug issue and our solution is rent them in sr room, the tender line, leave him alone and basically think you're going to get Better. That's the definition of insanity, you know. But we own, for instance, facilities outside of our own city limits that might be more conducive or someone wouldn't want to go.

Now we want to place of a law cabinet ranch, twenty two accs, close to half moon bay, used to be part of juvenile. Our probation department has beds, plumbing. You reopen.

It's been shutdown for five years. Let's reopen that facility, have services attached to IT, a place where people might want to go to recover, get off the streets of syrian co. Clean up our city and helped them out individually. That's a win win for everybody where does not even talking about is a city.

My question would be so I don my question I guess it's the the question is why do they want to be in the city? And its related to our first bucket, which was crime. It's because that's what the drugs are, right? So I mean, if you don't have like an OpenAIr d rug m arket d owntown i n t he t ender l aw i n, then already there is less of an incentive for for someone to be in the city, I think, and maybe more than incentive to go to a facility like you're talking me about.

Look, one hundred percent on the drug supplies, a major problem in experience. Cisco, I would, you would know, border walls and eco, never will. So the question is, what do we do? And from my perspective, i've been very clear about declaring a fatal state of emergency.

As soon as I in office, you can get state and federal funds with that most important pieces that you can get state and federal law force and help, I believe, in our sAnitary city in san Francesco. But when we bring the federal long for into the equation, they are the risk actual deportation. The risk deportation for the foreign nationals, which account for ninety five percent plus of the drug dealing insurances, go right now, especially as related to feat.

Nal has to be on the table. If it's not, it's a joke. I was with a police officer about two months ago, or because he found somebody with a backpack, no dealing, fetch al small amounts on him the way they organized this.

And his only solution was to write the guy a ticket. And I watched this guy look at the ticket, look up at the officer, smile prompted the ticket up, throw down the street and walk away. And you, first of all, that means it's an effective.

But second will, do you realize how to moralizing? That is, to the police officers on our streets when they realized they are essentially neuter. And so we need federal law for cement to coming on the drug dealing side of the equation, to your point, cut off the supply and we're going to get big a long step towards really solving this issue and .

servants to go yeah the honduran drug dealer saying that has been, I mean, about sort of accusing people of racism for talking about that. But IT seems to me like quite an important thing that there are fires in the city selling drugs, and when they are apprehended, they cannot be deported. I know you're saying the sanctuary sy thing, you know your process to a city. Probably most people think that is something like there's like a little little lady here who's been living here for decades and we're not going to let ice to pour her. How do you navigate like how do you make sure that she's fine, but honor and drug dealers are being deported.

and that's where you have the federal government coming from a long enforcement perspective around drug dealing, that's the targeted area. That's the issue that matters the most to seven cities in the drug crisis right now. That's how you do IT.

And look, you know, we don't take any joy, but i'm a data guy. We've got be honest about where we sit as a city right now. I love our city. I'm born, raised here, raising our children here. There's no bigger cheerleader for something to good than I am, but I don't care with that.

The drug crisis or economy, if we want to move our city forward in a sustainable fashion, really turn the age on the last years of complete failed leadership and city hall, and chart a different course, write a new chapter for experiences. Co, we have to be honest about where we sit. And if that means that ninety five percent of the drug dealers, plus are you from out of the country, let's be honest about that and let's deal with that way.

It's data. You have to have a data driven approach. Similarly with our economy, if we are pushing forty percent plus commercial vacancy rates downtown, I talk to guy the other day.

He owns a commercial building on power street in between union square and the cable car turnaround. That kind of four block used to be massive commercial tourist stretch, he said. As of december last year, he had attended paying of two hundred thousand dollars a month in rent.

He just wrapped up negotiations with three major real tailors and global brands offering three years of free rent. And they also know they didn't want to take the inventory and employee risk. That's where we sit. So let's be honest about where we sit and let's move for and let's give policies to step and start to make a difference.

One sort of related another on the topic of homeless ness, obvious ly related. That is the question of housing. I think some people sort of incorrectly characterize the homes problem as a housing problem entirely when I think problem most of its drugs.

But but on housing, that is something that everybody in the city thinks about. You know how IT seems like we can build, do housing? IT seems like the housing.

And in my mind, and maybe you disagree, maybe you agree, IT seems like we need to build more housing to get the costs down. What is going on there and what is your plan to fix? IT? Yeah, look.

we have to be incredibly proposing here. Insurance go. I want to build housing across our city. And i've been very clear about about that during the campaign when I was a supervisor in mayor before, I was always incredible pro housing inside of city hall.

And the reality is this, we're on our state Mandate to build about ten thousand units a year of housing last year. We built two thousand this year on pace to build three hundred and fifty units. And as of two months ago, year to date, our planning department, we had approved sixteen new units of housing, not sixteen hundred and sixty thousand sixteen.

I mean, scary how bad we are fAiling. To me, housing policy has to be number one zoning, number two legislation and number of three mayor directors to our playing department to stream line zoning. Happy to talk through details there.

We need, we need. We need increase zoning in every neighbourhood. To me, the biggest opportunity for new um and massive zoning exists in the financial kind of downtown areas, software market, mission bay along transit cords and soft legislation.

We have to reduce the provisionary from sixteen percent to ten percent. One simple thing alone because i've SAT down with real state P E firms. I've looked at their financial models with them.

We have doubled as a city government the other year that transfer attacks on buildings from three to six percent. That is about us, seven percent I R R hit on every single real state commercial real state investment insurances co. That's dramatic.

I mean, that makes professional, real state folks say, i'm not going to put my equity in my dead and sances go. I'm going on elsewhere. But we need someone who understands and says comes in.

And as you know what, that is literally hampering ing our ability to build new housing here in cement. Cco, we need to reverse that out. We need to give developers and send us to actually start building.

So tear point, we can build more housing. We can reduce afford, we can increase affordability by reducing costs, reducing rental Price differences. That's where we need to get to mark.

Even you know moderate groups like go sf have kind of just endorsed you know three candidates basically in everybody but passing approach and they say, hey, if you want clean street conditions and safety, vote for mark and if you want housing, you know, a vote for, you know, the combat mere breed. And so I kind of how do you feel about that can accusation and you think it's true because most people like, you know can .

we have both uh yeah thanks very much. Um yeah look, I don't just speak them on crime and clean streets and you growing our economy for sure but the gross have just stood a poll about our different housing policies. Mine was the most popular and you can see if they just really sone twitter earlier today.

So you from my perspective, we are striking the right baLance between being incredibly profound sing but not saying every single neighbor od currencies who needs to look the same and to be up on the same we can do with a big scalp, one instead of a blunt instrument. And at the end of the day, you know what we need to do. We need to throw idio logy out the door inside the city hall because I don't think it's helping the yb ni debate, progressive monter debate.

Forget about that. Let's have a mayor focus on results. That's what I want to be a held accountable to.

I want to put a KPI page up on the up on the landing page of our government website. Here's what's mark feral cares about. Here's what he's targeting.

You know what if I succeeded? I didn't even need a pat on the back, not your head. Go ahead. Criticize me if i'm not mean, but let's be held accountable.

That's an interesting question or an interesting point in resting idea. The KPI on your page.

what are your kp s look at around the main topic area, right? It's around public safety, the number of officers on our streets, right? It's about the funding of our police department with the homelessness. Sure enough, it's amount of ten and tits out on the streets of service.

Cisco, the amt of people we gin to shelter, the amt of people that we send home to loved ones that will take them in and house them in different parts of of the country as a race to the drug crisis. Mt, of over those dats on our streets, we're breaking own record every single year. We need to stop that.

You know, this harm reduction approach as a relates to fatalis like oil and water, I mean, literally witnessing every single day non profit workers funded by our city government right now, running through the tender line with shopping carts, handing out free packets of tinfoil on straws, and those suffering from final addiction, just enabling the drug abuse on the streets, enabling them to slowly kill themselves and crushing our nights hoods. I just don't get that approach and is not working. We need to get people off the streets.

I I said before, give a chance of a different life, clean up our neighbors at the same time. That's what's important. And then our economy, let's cut the commercial vacancy rate in half. Let's talk about units that were converting from commercial to residential.

Let's talk about our unemployment rate insurance to go our convention business insurance is go our sales tax um that we receive downtown insurances go about three months ago year over a year we were done forty two percent and sales tax and downs. It's a real problem and we need to have our mayor is going to aggressively address that and also have the background of the drops to actually make that happen. And that's why i'm incredibly excited about the impact that we can have as mayor experience ago, just starting literally less than three months from now.

Well, certain. Ly, there's a sense of what's wrong and what needs to be fixed to psycho sh, at this point. I think a big part of the problem is bureaucracy in terms of solving our problems. And one of the more interesting um .

propositions i've .

ever seen as property carded, why did you talk a little bit about or asked the question related to property? Because I would love to your mark take on this.

Yeah sure. I mean, you brought up earlier, there's tons of commissions. You ve brought up that multiple people in government are paying the same non profit. You know, the big blob that is bureaucracy.

And so at a high level, as far as I know, property is going to cut those commissions and also cap them, which is really interesting IT IT feels like it's a crowd breaking proposition. So like to hear like I know you have a lot of support behind that. Um kind of how it's going. Do you think it's going to pass? And you know what is going to do for now, how you going affect us in our daily life, not just kind of at that one I level?

No, not fair enough. I think is when the more important propositions on the ballot in years, insurances go as a related to the structure of our city government. So the level set now we have one hundred thirty commissions inside of city hall to help kind of Operate city government by order of magnus de L.

A. Has forty eight. Seven goes forty nine. We do not need one hundred and thirty commissions that comes with twelve hundred city commissioner's IT IT makes no sense in terms of them.

Very, very costly. So property is a few things. Number one, IT reduces the imani commissions, caps them at sixty five total, so cut them them in half essentially. The second part, what I think is probably the most interesting is that takes them from being policy bodies.

And to me, I say I always it's the police commission over the last two years really exposed the glitch in the matrix here because our current mayor point two commissioners without betting them and they had no long forcing background and they basically voted against how you thought they were gona vote and behave. And you can't remove them because they are pointed to four year terms. And so right now you have the majority of police commission with no laender cement background dicing policy literally to the police officers on the street.

It's insane. And so IT takes probe d, makes all these commissions, takes them from policy bodies to advisory only in nature. Invest all the authority to run those departments from a policy perspective with the department head.

So in the case of the police, that would be the police chief department of public works, the head of the department public works, and then at the end, IT also allows the mayor to hire and fire each department head. So at the end of the day, if you want a truly accountable city government, the people like the mayor, the mayor, a points of department head, the department head sets the policy. That's where you want to be right now.

This is unfortunate, again, matrix um of who can hire and fire who. The different policy bodies, there are way too many of them. We got to cut up eurex c rrh y, cut the this function, and let's get experiences.

Good to be in a camp. Lsa government IT could have a real dramatic effect in the city of services. go.

This takes me to an a topic that I really wanted to discuss with you, but just what the mayor can do, because I do think a lot of people have this idea of a the mayor as almost like I can, you know, just coming and fix this.

But over the last however many ten years or whatever of just in sanity, this increasingly worse, obviously, I was really bad to one was bad um there was just a question of who's who's actually in charge like to me, where are decisions actually being made? I would like to know just, you know, what can the mayor do right now and then what if you take this election? Are you going to be able to do you day one?

yeah. And let's be clear, having been mayor before, the mayor of santiago is incredibly powerful and incredible powerful structural position. And for a current mayor, anybody else to say otherwise is just an excuse for not getting things done.

Know when I was mayor, and I decided to clear out the large tenant camps and servants go at the time we had these tenant camp cities growing thirty, forty, fifty strong. I didn't ask the board of supervisors. I've brought my department heads together.

The six of them, the gun, kind of touched on the homeless issue. I said, we're changing our policy. We're going to offer shelter and housing tree people the right way. But if they say no, we're taking tense way. Because I believe the sidewalks of our city belonged to everybody, Young families, professionals, the elderly, not people that choose to come in service to school and choose a life style on the streets of our city. And within six months, because we are consistent with that policy.

We saw people coming at the shelter with greater velocity or just leaving experiences go and you know what, i'd like to help people, but if they're leaving because we're making that lifestyle convenient, okay, that success as well for the mayor experiences go. That to me has to be where we go. So that's number one.

But second of all, let's talk about the budget. You know to me, the budget of any given mayor across our country is the number one policy document. In important way, they can affect the city of here and cisco or any city.

It's how you spend your money. This year's budget was fifteen point billion dollars. And the way he works as the mayor puts the budget together, proposes IT to the board supervisors.

They analyze IT, I mean, through the congress, to the White house, right? They're legislator body, they analyzed IT make a few tweet, comes up with the compromise. This year of the fifty point eight billion dollars, the board of supervisors analyzed less than half a percentage point of the entire budget. So put another way, over ninety, ninety half percent of the mayors budget wasn't .

even looked at by .

the best stamp. yes. So this is a ridiculously powerful position inside of city home.

But I think that what we're also missing, you have to find common ground to work together. I don't care from the private sector or in the public sector. And right now, if you disagree with somebody, this tony starts with the mayor. You disagree right now to bigger blame game and only that, you know I can can you guys, you're bad people for disagreeing with me.

And i'm going to say, and just so as no way to build relationships, you can disagree on a policy, disagree on a law, you know, talk poor about each other in the press, policy wise, but maintain that relationships, that working relationships. On the next issue, you can find common ground, move ford, make a difference for the city of services, go and our residents. And that doesn't happen right now. This mayors totally failed, created a toxic atmosphere inside of city hall, that those types of working relationships have to be brought back if we're going move our city forward and something I just can't wait to do because IT, we'll have a tremendous impact moving forward.

So that sounds like my budget is the is the big one where you see that you're going to have power. And then there are some kind of a lateral action possible that you could take in terms of clearing up testing campus is the stuff like that. Is there are anything else that this is like low hanging fruit, that as the mayor, you can take care of day one in differences. Oh, look.

a hundred percent. You know, we be here for a long time talking about that. But the reality is the fifty two departments that exist in city government are mayoral departments so they're under the mayors control um so for instance, you know I said they won fire the police chief bringing a new police chief that's under my control, right?

I don't have to ask the border supervisors for that um clearing out ten and cams um treating people the right way with compassion, respect, but taking their tents off the streets, we can do that day one changing our approach from harm reduction, hanging out those packets of tinfoil in and straws they want and we can remove that I can remove that as mayor, former department of public health. So there's so much that we can do um inside the city hall that the mayor differences we can do right away to effective change. Look, we're going to need to lost past over time for sure.

You need to have working relationships with the board of supervisors. And they tell people all the time, ninety percent of what you do is mayor has nothing to do with the border supervisors. You're leading your city.

You're running your different departments. You can have a ridiculous impact on the city. IT just takes leadership, and that's me, is where experience matters through the attacker of success matters, but then a strong vision for where you need to go to.

So every department is very clear on kind of that. We're rolling on the same war on the same boat for a different cement. Cisco and I, again, I think the impact we can have a dramatic on the streets of our city.

You mentioned the private sector second ago, and that made me think of the tech industry. You also talked about the demonization of people and what not. I I think the government really demonized the technology industry over the last handful of years. Breed switched up recently because I think you have to SHE realized just how radically the vivit shifted in the city.

I would like to know just where in your vision for the future of service this could do you see the technology industry? And what are you planning to do to, um I guess, help bring that vision to prevision? Great one.

Yeah look. And let me be clear what you're talking about in the past action of years about the demonization of the technology is real. And IT happened.

And I was the first one to say that how incredible misplace that was. right? These are people that are coming in starting companies and services, go hiring people contributing to our local economy out of bars and restaurants.

And you know, when I was, whether was the google buses that people were protecting in front of a number of years ago, echo wrote the legislation that kept twitter inside of sciences go and started really revitalizing the middle area. Players were coming in. Small businesses were being created and starting to flash IT was working.

And so to me, that demonization of any industry is just simply wrong at the end of the day, where we over index to tack heading into cove IT, probably in the city of services go. And long term, the name of the game has to be a diversification of our economy for sure. Insurances go.

You know, the number one part of our economy has always been health care. People don't talk about that very much. Number two always been tourism.

Tech is going to be a leading player, plain and simple. And from my perspective, I will be a mayor that is incredibly proactive with our technology community, saying, thank you for being here. You are welcome to be here.

What can we do to make your life Better? What can we do to to be proactive with your industry? And we want to get out of the way.

So thanks for being here in severances. Go and you know we have A A seedling like know that a sapling of girl's here with some Green shoes. With the industry, we need to nurture that harness stop, and we need to let that flash and grow.

And we need to let every other part of our technology industry grow. Here, insurance go. We are really blessed to have a lot of investors here in the bay area know people like garrett and why commented here.

Insurance to go. Better of having their companies be insurances go, they don't get credit enough for actually contributing to our local economy. Being such positive influencers for cement is go. They need to get that credit. And we need to say thank you and what we do to partner with you together to continue to have this industry flourish.

It's just a complete departure from what our current mayors done, just again, having spent over twenty years in the private sector, you in and around the technology at every job and any every given time, having that background and understanding what motivates the capital markets, companies, investors, I think, is so critical as we see to rebuild our economy here. Insurances go and actually be able to talk to talk with ceos and exec and investors to say you what working makes sense to school place you want to come. You don't go Austin and anymore, don't go to miami, ea, Monica.

People, I mean people or people want to be in sympathy. go. They just need you to help. Like you give them the bare minimum we're talking about like deep bare minimum we're talking about like not hostile policies, uh, and we're talking about crime is illegal and you know like the housing is more affordable and it's like these these are the things Carol, do you have one last question that i've got one and there will be a quick one and will get you out here.

sure. Yeah, this could go longer. We can keep a quick.

I think it's important for people are listening to, haven't voted yet. Voting for mayor isn't so simple. We are ventures voting along as well.

But even the mayor selection itself as an entire page on the ballot, there is ten, fifteen people running, maybe four, five series once again. And so you kind of talk through, like how people should think about ring choice voting. And if you give a quick black, basically, you know, you have an lions, would surfy that you made recently? I think a lot of us were hoping maybe Better you know no bad blood tween you you and Larry but unfortunately kind of gone a different way uh, so if you could maybe talk about that very quickly, they're really, really you Larry. But then more importantly, how voters should think about rent choice voting um just very sport yeah look.

when I launched a campaign, there was definite some overlapping support with luri and the team there at the end of the day. unfortunate. What we seen out of him is just the complete lack of experience and and just total inexperience would be a real problem for experience of moving forward.

Um if the some toll l of your career starting A A nonprofit which is almost like a fun of funds for other nonprofits um that is not the profile of someone that can be the mayor. Differences go to bring our city back IT just isn't. And you know, not only that, but IT really speaks to his his demining and who is as an individual spent over four million dollars personally attacking me on TV alone.

And that's one thing as politics. But when you started hitting my wife for being a volunteer in terms to school, I drew the line there. That's IT. Now that's not the profiled person that I want to see in office who they are, a human being. So that unfortunately came off the table because of his actions.

And just an inexperienced team and team is LED by everybody that worked for justice in, I mean, that the type of person you get office, and I think so dangerous for the city of servants, is go moving forward. The great choice, voting important. I don't like this system.

Let me be clear about IT. I have always said, if there's one thing that should be simple, our democracy, how to vote. And people are, as an educated electorate.

We have, in service to sco people, rampant confusion about IT, even twenty years in at being the voting system of record in our city. So what I ask everybody, please put mark feral. Number one, is your choice for mayor.

Know what? Put someone's second or third of somebody else, if you could envision in office, they might not be your first choice. Don't never put anybody on your ballot, you do not want to see or that you think would be no toxic to the .

long term healthy Sparking, not pass in. Please.

please.

please don't like I didn't rank him, but yeah, maybe remark fero first they will go .

and you know what, I don't get prescriptive beyond asking people to vote for me first because people who do have different points of view relationships, what have you on that fair? But it's really important. You know, I think the main thing that does not get talking about this race, but that is closing in on, and we see is now emerging here in the last two weeks, there is really only one moderate in this race.

Insurances go again. Danuta has his background having started in among profit. But you know what? The signature thing that they did was around homelessness, and he funded the coalition on homelessness there, which is the organization that actually gave out free tense.

And now they gave out free tense, but to the city of ceremony, isco, from actually being able to remove tenants on the streets of our city. That is just not a track record of somebody that you want as mayor of our city right now. And then london breed at the end of the day.

She's overseen the steepest decline in our city history, defended the police department, seen police staffing levels go down to twenty five percent, can't recruit. Our economy is literally rank dead last in the us. Right now, an economic recovery.

We talk about these commercial vacancy rates pushing forty percent. That has to change. We need somebody to come in this, really a motor that has a background and city government, but also a background in the private sector that can drive services.

Go ford with a real vision. I think the opportunity that exists is just incredible. And from us.

your this is the last question, and thank you so much for time here. I know you're busy four years from now. What is the city I would love? Like a lush description of what santa is.

Go looks like, you know, you win. You get to put your policies in place. You just tell me, describe that city to me.

Yeah, absolutely. Because it's exciting, right? okay? The vision for sync is go is a cereno scope that is once against safe, where the streets are clean. As you think about the homes and the drug Prices, we have effective policies getting people off the streets and fighting for neighbor ods, where economy is growing again.

And we once again regained the mental of the innovation capital of the world in the tech sector, where our neighborhoods are thriving, because I do believe the neighborhoods are what make up the heart and soul a center. Cisco, what makes us so unique as city, where housing is being built at a rapid clip and is becoming much more affordable. And then we have a focus on keeping Young professionals and families in our city that are leaving servant school and draws right now where they are because of our public school system, because of other policies.

We need that next generation of service to residents to raise their kids here, to be here for the long term. When we achieve that, I will tell you, we will have had probably one of the most dramatic impacts in the trajectory of something from cisco, again, in modern history is not why you do IT. It's really, in my opinion, this isn't about a career or ego, aside from my turn.

And the only thing that I will fight for with equal or greater vigor and passion is our city of services school. Because let's not forget, we are one of the most iconic cities of the world. We have this natural beauty. We have our parks whenever universities, we have more than anything, though, and ethos in a spirit about us that is, again, iconic in the world worth fighting for. I'm just incredibly excited about the impact we can have in the next few years.

awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. And I hope you win. Hope to be interviewing you once you win. So look.

anyone call thanks.

Bye, guys. so.