i am with yellow cab. i have been with yellow cab since the beginning in various capacities, manager, and i am here to address the restrictive provisions. what this cab industry needs is stability. these restrictive provisions do not give us the kind of assurance, the kind of time to consider, to evaluate things in a manner. they do not need to be there. i would urge you to find a policy whereby the individuals who have medallions are allowed to require transferability rights. individuals and can become qualified to sell, they should have the same rights, and i think this would be very helpful to the industry for the comfort level of all that we need.

thank you. chairman nolan: thank you, sir. next speaker, please. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> i have to agree with the previous speaker, and i would also like to add the fact that i believe we need more time to go to the feasibility. the current program is expired. the profit the sfmta is making selling the dalliance is unacceptable. to read agency control of the business and at the same time make a profit out of it, it is a conflict of interest. i think it has got to be stopped, ok?

thank you for your time. chairman nolan: thank you, sir. next speaker. who is next? secretary boomer: [reading names] chairman nolan: good afternoon. >> good afternoon, a board of directors. from the very beginning, there are several repeating concerns, cash -- repeating concerns, including the non responsiveness of the mta as well as the failure to disseminate information, as to when the meetings are, access to the notes from the nygaard study. the pair transit program, which

your scheduled to vote on today. these issues were identified years ago and most recently five months ago. ban still, what is difficult to accept is one of the mta has not address these very real concerns, it is nonetheless proceeding with its vote as scheduled. we were actually advised that our concerns would be addressed next year, which is an exercise in futility. the wheelchair minimum pickup will be voted on today. now, earlier, there was a boat in a bond issue, pending your review of additional information. you can do the same with wheelchair minimum pickups. [bell] we are requesting if you could please delay this particular vote until the proposed changes

and the problems that we have identified have been reviewed. those issues were brought to you by a long-term member of the taxicab industry. the question is, why hire an outside consultant when you have access to relevant information provided to you for free. chairman nolan: thank you. director: excuse me, miss. who do you represent? >> arrow checker cab. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> hello. i am glad your first speaker brought us back to what this business is. it is a bunch of cabdrivers that got together 30 years ago and bought a cab company and medallions and have been operating and have been a leader in the industry in

providing services and features and things like that. we will continue to do that. we are cabdrivers. however, the city streets taxes and generally considers this a medallion. and yet, your committee has passed on a report to you that takes out a specific group of people and deprived them of a privilege offered others. it is discrimination. it will go to court if it is presented that you are depriving the civil rights of people who have been treated by a city government equally, and yet when it comes time for an opportunity, it has been denied them.

chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker, please. secretary boomer: [reading names] chairman nolan: miss? >> bafta years of doing back seat work, i teach new drivers and a tax the class, and all of these things contribute to our industry. the only part of it that is really disturbing is that you are excluding people if they want to sell their medallion. anybody, anybody should be able to sell their medallion. i understand that it is important to try to restrict the age, but there are drivers that

are 60 and older that would prefer to get out, i am sure. yellow cab is cabdriver-owner operated. it is not one guy. it is 300 guys and girls that out and operate the company. we are all here for you guys. thanks. chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker, please. secretary boomer: [reading names] chairman nolan: good afternoon. >> my name is richard. i am with yellow cab. i have said several jobs and duties over the past 40 years, so i have some experience. i want to reiterate that yellow cab is a driver-owned, driver-

managed company. we do not do the whole city. we need a permanent medallion sales program. one that includes all of the medallion holders and one that is ongoing. not one that starts, stops, and includes some, excludes some. but a niggardly excluding the pre-k medallion holders, when they knew there is going to be a proposal to make them nontransferable. at the time they bought their medallions, they were transferable. i urge you not to exclude the pre-k medallions from being able to sell. you want to sell? this is what you have to do. you want to buy? this is what you have to do. determining the price of

medallions, the city can use the money, and it is part of our system. at least tempering medallions for the next four years, which would cover the people buying cars, began whenever your study comes out, i do not think anybody in the industry would be against the issuance of 100 more cabs. i am sure we need way more than that. but 100 with least relieve some of the pressure. chairman nolan: thank you. secretary boomer: [reading names] chairman nolan: i do not see that one man. secretary boomer: ok. larry toronto.

>> good afternoon. larry toronto. some of this was not invented at town hall meetings, but some of this has been changed from the extent where you see so many people speaking, there is a reason. we did not have a chance to review it. i spent maybe two or three hours reviewing it, and since there are changes to the code, it should be 10 days. you should really said and then send an email out. everyone should be told that this is a link to this document so we can review it. we should get a chance to do it. i believe there is a 10-day requirement for certain codes, and we were not given a 10-day notice, and that is not fair. but there is some stuff in here that should probably be done. there is the reamp taxi stuff.

the only problem is that the onus should be more on those who are not being irresponsible in fulfilling the requirements to pick up people in wheelchairs'. the medallion holders should be part of the process. the medallion owners are responsible. they are to participate in the operation. the next issue that chris explained very clearly, the reasoning for some of these changes she made, and they are very well done. about the pre-k, they cost less than 10,000 dollars, and they do not have to drive the cab. they make a lot of money without even driving. the post k have to give up the medallion if they do not want to drive anymore. sfmta taxi services.

mta staff. that is wrong. i think that has to be discussed. we never discussed this issue. chairman nolan: thank you. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> good afternoon. my name is -- i am with yellow cab. as the previous speaker said, yellow cab is owner operated. we have our own managers through the secret ballot, and it is an excellent company. the reason it looks like people complain about yellow cab, the influence in the cab discussion, a lot of medallion holders of with yellow cab because it is excellent. that is also documented by the

fact that a lot of drivers -- i urge you to support the sale of medallions, regardless of age and regardless of pre or post k. please give us transfer rights for our families. we have no benefits. we have no pensions. everything we do, we live from day to day. if something happens, our families have nothing. i urge you to consider the transfer rights so that our families can sell the medallions if something happens. i think you very much. -- thank you very much. chairman nolan: thank you.

next speaker. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> in the first years, there was regulatory neglect, and the lack of foresight and oversight in particular led to where the medallion permitting mechanism had been integrated so badly it was sort of vague kafka-esque. at retirement age when their name came up, and yet there is a full-time driving requirement. in the consequence of this malfeasance policy, it led to major accidents, big insurance liability payouts. general industry dysfunction. we had a couple of suicides are even more by k medallion holders and did not want to go through the humiliation to get the

medallions back, and there have been many lawsuits in state court. i mention this because there are people in the room who want to glorify and romanticize this, but there is a willful denial that it is a failed experiment. the medallion sales program has created entry and exit opportunities and has been very successful. i want to thank director oka in advance, and you have the nicest hat of anyone up there, but i think it will make amendments to include two groups of people. they bought the medallions with the idea that they could sell them. i have sent you a couple of emails. it would be better to let people willing to sell to be matched up with people who are willing.

chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker. secretary boomer: [reading names] >> i am a native san franciscan and proud to be a native san franciscan. i started driving a taxi cab, and that enabled me to put myself through college and get a college degree. that made the members of my family very happy and proud. in the 1970's, i took my life savings and borrowed an additional $20,000 to purchase a medallion and a bead of taxi from the bank regular cab company of san francisco. now, i am 63 years of age. on have a daughter that is approaching college age, and the

fact that i am a pre k medallion older, i am too to sell it, too old to sell my medallion. i am a prek, not a post k, and i am another class of medallion holder, and it is that the city is just waiting for me to die, and i have nothing to show to my family for my hard work? when i purchased my medallion in 1978, i looked at it as an investment for some time in the future getting my investment back, a return on my investment. thank you. chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker, please. secretary boomer: reading names]

chairman nolan: hello. >> i have had mine for about 12 years. i had a ramp medallion. it is a very tiring job. -- training and job. i never would have stayed in this occupation if i felt it was just an accident or illness or disability that would wipe out the 25 plus years.

it is a tiresome job. it is true. you must be -- maybe not highly intelligent, but it does take a toll on you. there are fluctuations in its blood pressure from driving. starter responses. chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker, please. secretary boomer: [reading

names] >> i am here to urge you to do a really simple thing. some of the other speakers set spoken. there needs to be a permanent program to take the intra program, the pilot program we have right now, and almost as an afterthought, because your original program was elaborated after i think 150 hours of town hall meetings. six or seven hearings at this board, and it has come to its conclusion, which everybody to apply to sell has had the opportunity to sell, they have had the opportunity to buy. and now, a permanent program needs to be in place. that needs to be a elaborated, but if you take the huge number of medallions right now off of

the table by allowing people to sell, a lot of the ideas that have come up will come up in the discussion. they are going to be foresh limited and pre-empted, so i am urging you not to approve any expansion of the program except to people who have become disabled since the pro ramp started or another reason that was part of the pilot program and get on with the business of a permanent program. my own take on this, and everybody is going to have their own, but people who have been on the waiting list, waiting around for 15 or 16 years and are now being orphaned by the system, the cannot afford to buy a medallion or find it impractical to do so, space has to be made for them. i do not want to see them cut

short by this action. thank you. chairman nolan: thank you. secretary boomer: [reading names] last speaker, martin smith. >> it is my request -- the pre k medallion, i have posed k. -- post k. please laura lee age to 60 or whatever. thank you. -- please lower the age to 60 or whenever. chairman nolan: thank you.

>> good afternoon. i am a member of yellow cab. how we started. we were a small group of new immigrants in this country. mostly minorities. we heard we had the opportunity to have a yellow cab business. we had our $6,000 as a down payment. everything that we had. we were thinking this would be our nest egg in the future. then, for some reason, we alienated politicians. we cannot give it to our kids anymore. this was already established. and then you gave us hope. that was the greatest hope, but

our nest egg and our confidence and trust in the city, we are not going to be betrayed anymore again. and then, please, do not taken away from us. you gave us the hope. how many are there? few. give them the dignity, please, to live their lives without being burdened, without being a burden to their family. whenever we have here. medicare, welfare. secretary boomer: [reading names] chairman nolan: hello again. >> it is a very complicated

business, and i think many, like bruce oka, have done a good job. let me bring you up to speed. she already started. the older pre k's and post k's, i mean the pre k people beg or borrow to start a yellow cab co- op, and at the end of their lives after giving their whole lives to an industry, to cut them out is just wrong, so i object. i agree that these should be treated the same, the pre k and the post k. you are the body that makes decisions. the idea of lowering the age of the pilot program, which i very much believe should be continued, to those people who are 60, 64, it was really

debated. it may just be an error in transcription. what you received truck that out. i think that error in transcription, if it was not deliberate, should be corrected, and then let's see. i think the program should be continued. something has to happen with the people on the list for those who have been waiting for a certain number of years, some sort of graduated program. i was something like 99, and they did away with my list, and did. there can be some balance, but please continue the pilot program, and please do not hurt these senior citizens who have high costs in maintenance now, and they are the ones who really took the risk and had an illegal

taking of their property to begin with. chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker. secretary boomer: reading names] chairman nolan: good afternoon, mr. smith. >> good afternoon. i am here to speak out about keeping the sales of the medallions open. for enabling legislation to -- and we are able to send this thing forward. my colleague a few minutes ago spoke of adding even 100 more cabs. i do not believe that. i believe and adding 500 more cabs. we need them. we need to keep this open. the city needs money. drivers need work. two event happened over the past 50 years. one was the yellow cab, the

costs. that enabled about 204300 people to buy medallions. now, a new event happens, where we have a another program, a pilot program. this enabled a plethora of drivers to get in there, and people were saying, "no, no one is ever going to do that." but we ran out of cabs. we can sell them. we can sell the rights the medallion holders. we can put 500 medallions on the street. we could sell 200 of them out there. they will sell like hotcakes. it will solve a lot of problems for everybody. it is a win-win situation. please keep this going. thank you very much. chairman nolan: thank you. secretary boomer: [reading names]

chairman nolan: mr. corngold. >> if we were starting from scratch, i would not mind if everyone sold their medallions, except there are some high on the list that will not be able to purchase a medallion, and they have been filling the driving requirement for many years. in many cases, like mine, they have given up other opportunities because of their position on the list. i was initially against selling medallions, but after a bunch of town hall meetings, i have begun to see a value for some people to purchase a medallion and for some senior or disabled drivers to sell their medallion. however, pre k medallion holders do not have a driving requirement. the original idea was for safety and to give them a way out. i do not