roof of our building for the last 14 years. when we were approached by at&t to upgrade and expand the antennas, it looked like a good opportunity for us. we did not see any controversy in at. -- in it. since that time, i have obviously been >> research and we have no interest in causing any health or safety risks -- we certainly have no interest in causing any health or safety risks to the children in our building, or the neighbors. we have been researching the issue. we have been in contact with the school. we have yet to come up with, for us, credible evidence of health or safety risks.

i have a meeting with a few parents the other night, and am continuing to research this, reaching out to independent experts in the field, because i understand their concerns and skepticism about the information presented to them. i still have not received any credible evidence to support their contention, but it has only been a few days. i am certainly -- i have spoken with the leadership of the school. i am willing to continue to speak with them, to find some accommodation. i have also spoken with at&t to receive assurances that they are not jeopardize in -- jeopardize in anybody's health and are in compliance with the fcc

regulations. if we find that is not the case, our position here would change. thank you. vice president miguel: i find myself in an unusual position. i am the only jewish member of this commission, although i did not receive an orthodox jewish education. i received what i considered, in san francisco, a very excellent education in judaism, as did my parents and grandparents. i am the third generation here. as have mike children and grandchildren, a jewish education. it is distinctly possible in san francisco. i am also very familiar with the basically two major waves of russian immigration in some francisco. my business was in the richmond

district. i interfaced with many of them, as well as with the orthodox community, for that matter, and worked with the jewish community center in their outreach to the russian immigrant population as it came to san francisco. what dismays me, and what i asked for someone from the bureau of jewish education to speak is when to institutions that are sitting side by side have basically everything in common, whether it be education or religion -- they have failed. this is not an all of a sudden deal. they have had a lot of time to get together. and they obviously are not talking.

and that bothers me greatly. i am not a scientist. i cannot tell you absolutely about anything. no one has proven to me it does or does not. to me, that is not an argument in this case. i do realize the uniqueness of the educational institution, and the length of time the rabbi has fostered it in san francisco.

i also understand why the russian population adheres to this school. my college -- my cousin, who is a college professor in new york state, used to spend his summer smuggling hebrew text into russia, followed by the kgb. he got to know them so well he would invite them out to dinner. i am not unaware of all of this. i am going to do something i do not do in these cases. i will do this before the other commissioners speak. i am going to give these institutions one last shot at getting together. more than anything else, as a san francisco do, that bothers me. it really grates on me. you have to get together and talk to each other.

you are physically and emotionally sitting side by side. i am going to move to continue until january. commissioner sugaya: second. president olague: what date in january? >> the 12th is the first available date. vice president miguel: the 19th of january. president olague: and the public hearing will remain open. commissioner antonini: can we comment in addition to the motion for a continuance? first of all, i really appreciated the testimony from the audience and people of all ages, with particular reference to the opportunities america affords us all. i really like to hear that and

appreciate it. i feel the same way. i had the same concerns that commissioner miguel had. we need this opportunity to figure out what can be done in this instance. this is somewhat an internal decision between the school and the bureau of jewish education to figure out what can be done to perhaps solve this. some of the concerns i have had mentioned is the actual distance of the antennas from the school , the students. what are we really talking about here? the other concern would be the better we generation and the plant that runs the antennas, and what risks there are in case of any seismic event. these are things that need to be discussed and answered. those are some legitimate concerns that have been raised.

the other thing that is very important, and this goes without saying, is there is already a perceived danger, be it real or not real. if it has an economic effect on this great institution that would cause it to be less viable, that is really important to do. i know it is a preference. i know there has been a search. perhaps at&t can also work with you and there may be a way they can find another site or grant assurances to those in the audience, as to the antennas that will be added. those are replacement antennas. i am in support of the continuance and public and find a solution. commissioner moore: i am in total support of the continuance and appreciate commissioner miguel summarizing

his perspective, pointing to where the discussion needs to be. i would like to ask all of you something else. what i am asking you is to empathize with where we are. we have the aging community of chinatown speaking to us in opposition to antennas being installed on top of a chinese hospital which is still to be built on pacific avenue. i am asking you -- these are older people. they barely speak english. they do not have the education and eloquence with which you presented your case. i would like you to take your discussion also and involve supervisor mar, who as you heard earlier today in the case which preceded years, brought it up in conjunction with another neighborhood. i asked you to involve him to really start to cast a wider net

around an issue to which we ourselves do not have the full answers. some of us have children. some of us are parents with children in schools in locations where they are exposed. you give us the opportunity, because you are very well organized and prepared to come to help us do with the question in an equitable way. commissioner sugaya: i would like to thank all the people who came out and testified. i think it was a demonstration of what democracy and everything

is supposed to be. you are the staff expert on antennas and cell phone systems. are their antennas in the city that have been erected in public rights of way? >> yes, there have. >> do you know the nature of those? are they on separate polls? are they on light standards? apart from the tower and the microwave towers -- the one i am thinking of on bernal heights. -- commissioner sugaya: >> recently, there has been a move to start mounting smaller antennas, called distributed antenna systems because they can carry more than one carrier. that are being erected on the utility poles. that are lower power, but they

are much closer to one another. commissioner sugaya: i have a question for at&t, someone that can answer a question about the mounting on a separate colorado system. -- poll system. -- pole system. is there anyone who can answer that? >> i know t-mobile installs their own antennas on utility poles. otherwise, they go to a third- party vendor. 40-x -- commissioner sugaya: can the antennas you are proposing be mounted on a pole?

>> i cannot. the frequencies put in the distributed antenna system do not afford us the ability to use the radio bands we serve our customers over, whether it is data or cellular. that is why we do not put up distributed antenna systems right now. we do not have a solution to be able to do that. we do buy pieces of the carrier network, but we do not have a solution that would allow us the capacity. commissioner sugaya: i was thinking, since this is adjacent to a huge landscape area, that if there was a possibility of correcting antennas in the public right of way -- i do not

who we do not know who is in charge of this. >> i think multiple agencies. commissioner sugaya: would that present the opportunity of more flexibility where these could be erected? if the kind of antenna does -- of the kind of -- if the kind of antenna would only need to be mounted on large polls -- poles, i will not consider that further. i think other sites are still in the cards, since we are continuing the item until january. president olague: i want to make sure the january date works for at&t. >> is there an opportunity to take a five minute recess?

president olague: we will take a five minute recess at this time. commissioner sugaya: i was not completely through. president olague: we should take a recess at this time. you will have time.