don't believe that sf mta that they only want this issue solely in their purview and don't believe this say policy issue. this say permit issue. if you take a way the right to appeal this issue the sf mta will use it to take individual's rights away to appeal. drivers don't have the money to go to superior court and sf mta knows it. if you respect the process of government as you clearly do by serving on this board don't left sf mta hold itself broof that process. take jurisdiction, please. and if sf mta was really serious about none of this being under the jurisdiction of the board of appeals they wouldn't of charging each category driver for supporting the board of appeals every year for the past

three or four years, so please take jurisdiction. this is in your wheel house and if not you then we have no one else to turn to other than the superior court and we can't afford that. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> some taxi drivers -- nobody is exposed to extra cabs on the street. we have been telling them for three years that we need more taxis. there is kick back. you just go enter into hotel and come out the doorman is going to ask you "where are you going?" and as soon as you say "airport" they're calling their buddies. they're pocketing money everyday. the doorman at one hotel has a house next to robert williams house of millions of dollars, so it is

not that -- everything is not rosy for these permits people are offering twice as much that would go to the general fund of the city, twice as much. that is millions and millions. they don't want to do that. they want to give it to the cab companies. we have no problem. they want a strong taxi industry. fine want but the thing is the people. see i talked to an attorney and brought me an tamp and me as a taxi driver could understand. if an old woman illegal working in a household for 15, 20 years and that lady doesn't have a contract and they can't kick her out. there is a binding contract there. it's the same as us. if i could work for mcdonald's minimum wage and vacation and medical and

everything and come up to 15, 16 hours. after a few years i could be a manager of the store. after another five years i could be manager of the street and then the city and could move up. they promised us if you come and work as a cab driver without medical, without vacation, without sick leave, without anything then our bones, our backs hurt. we cannot push us old age over 60 years old and then we get a medallion to help pay our bills. that is what it's for. they are on breach of contract. if you have no jurisdictions then when are you going to stop? if they say we're going to pale the skins like indians. are you going to say that's wrong? at some point you stop. it is wrong. they

pass the proposition 26. why did they pass it? because department and commissioners were abusing their positions. they passed it. they say you can only collect the money that is allocated to the cost of implementing the regulations. they are collecting millions and millions of dollars. they say it's extra and has to go to the voters. >> >> >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good evening. i am marvin and i'm the living proof that you're hearing the cases of cab driver benefits people. three years ago i had a issue with the taxi commission which refused me a permit and i appealed to you and you granted that permit assuming that certain things -- i'm going to comply with certain requirements, so as you can see that if i wouldn't have had

that opportunity of appealing to you, but going to the court i don't think i will be able to have a permit, and the way i see it is basically the sf mta wants carte blanche for anything they do. they can run a red light. they can speed. they don't want to see policemen out there. they think what they do is correct, and i hope that you going to continue to be a policemen and when there is a problem, an issue, we can come to you and with a modest fee we can have that issue heard in front of you. it reminds me -- the situation they would like to have reminds me of a bully in a school which shakes people for lunch money everyday, and when i go to a custodian and say "what should i do?" . the cus

dodeian says "go to the bully number two to remedy the situation. if they're going to be correcting themselves it's just one of -- one floor higher than the other, and you cannot expect that whatever they're going to they try to remedy the issue if i go to them with my problem it's impartial. that's why you need to be an impartial body in the situation of check and balances, and this is the way the system works here. nobody wants to checks and balances because they always think that they know the best. they know everything. they don't have to check with anybody or keep in mind that somebody might be challenging whatever they do. they all just, you know -- there are no checks and balances and we cannot have a situation like that. the system must provide for checks and

balances. i cannot go to superior court, a small taxi issue, and try to explain to the judge and revoke my a card and why did it happen, so you are the plane who are going to stop them from running a red light and speeding on the road, and just to let you know i have been watching them for three years and the words are empty words and i wish mr. wiener would be here and i do have a family and i do work, and i feel insulted by him what he said. i make an effort to come to speak to you. i hope you're going to keep hearing the taxi issues. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >> brad newsom. a previous speaker said that he was passionate about providing

taxicab service in san francisco. i am one of thousands of cab drivers who have been passionate about providing cab service to the people of san francisco in my case for 27 years. i was distressed after the last hearing that the city attorney's office was here, and we had a discussion about a note that had gone from the sf mta to this body with some back door reassurances that cab drivers would get some sort of fair back door justice that might not fit the general description of the what everybody else gets. the city attorney -- how does this thing work? >> [inaudible] >> there you go. this is i letter from the city attorney -- drafted by the mayor and mayor new sum and peskin

was being drafted and has them to draft legislation that respects the will of the voters on taxi issues. please keep our desire not to tamper with the intent of proposition k in mind as you draft the legislation. there was only one principle in prop k and that was that permits go to cab drivers, not to cab companies, not to anybody else, and those senior cab drivers earned the permits by working years as a driver. this was defended -- talking about the will of the voters, from the people from the sf mta keep reminding us about. the voters went eight times to the polls to knock aside challenges to prop k which said permits to cab drivers and which this prop k went through in 2007 it was in

the dead of night figuratively speaking, and i would like to point out one thing -- i looked at it again today and 10,000 words long and many pages in the pamphlet and 67 words were relevant to this. they hit it in the middle in the tiny print but it does say had should a transfer to the sf mta occur it should have the same exclusive authority. i would like to emphasize the same. it doesn't say stripping drivers of their basic human rights. if the board of appeals doesn't have jurisdiction in this honestly i don't know what its purpose is. please help us. please take this case. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> and good evening board. my

name is benjamin balace and a cab driver here in san francisco. i would like to give you a little background of who i am and why i am here to speak today. i started driving a car here in san francisco about nine years ago in 23. and i went to cab school and you should sign up for a medallion under proposition k so i thought about it. i started driver a cab. i enjoyed it. i made a little money. obviously i'm not wealthy but i enjoy today and a year and a half later i went and said i am ben and want to sign up for a medallion. and i paid my money and have been waiting since. in the interim friends have gone off to graduate school and other jobs and i'm still here driving

a cab because i signed up on the waiting list for a medallion. and that was my life plan. here i am eight years ago and the rug is being pulled out from under me and many others. this plan to issue the permits directly to the cab companies forces a driver like me to have to reevaluate our whole life and what we're doing. this is a golden opportunity for the mta to keep their word and say that any new permits we're going to give 50% for the waiting list for seniority and the pilot program and how it was sold to us and here are the medallions and they're going straight to the cab companies and that's not what we were told, so that's why i am at, and i hope that you

guys can hear my story and the stories of others, and realize that your job as a system -- as functioning in a system of checks and balances and the spirit of democracy is to up hold our stories and listen and do what is right. it's an ethical issue in my mind and frankly the system of sf mta is a corporation and for profit. they're making rules they profit from, and we need somebody to interdistrict on our behalf. thank you for your time. i appreciate you listening to us. i know there are a lot more speakers. have a good evening. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi i am edwin santiago. i am a driver here in san francisco

and for 33 years. i work for yellow cab. i was one of the people that got my medallion by putting my name on a applicant's list and of course i waited 10 years but i did do it. i am at 63 years now and at a cross roads and talking about selling the medallion, or excuse me surrounding it and there is no future in this industry. >> >> there is a lot of illegal limo activity going on out there. there is a lot of illegal taxis running around, doormen have their hands in our pockets, companies have their hands in our pockets. the sf mta is taking control of this industry and of course for them the cab industry is nothing but a cash cow and it's affecting everybody in the industry, and all i see is them wanting to

take, take, take, and i'm sure that it's within your jurisdiction when somebody steps out of line, and they do something wrong -- if a customer jumps in the cab and accuses me of raping them i'm at your mercy or the police department or whatever, but i am sure you are strong enough to step into the picture and do something for the cab industry or for all these individuals. everybody's got a different reason for being here, and i am here because i have a lot of friends who are on that list. they can't speak english so i am speaking for them and there is 150 medallions you're letting out to the cab companies, leasing to the cab companies and the sf mta is leasing to the cab companies i think those medallions should go to the people on the list, or

at least 50-50, and i know the sf mta is not looking out for my best interests. i am looking out for my best interests and i just hope that something gets resolved here tonight, and i am sure that you're smart enough to know what is going on in this industry, and if not you will learn tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> i am steven humaney and i am a taxi driver and not much of a public speaker so i will try to do this without having a heart attack. i lived here for 12 years and drive a taxi. i went to college and i did and finished. i started driving a taxi and there is nothing absolutely like -- i love my job. i love serving the public. i was para-transit of the door.

i help little old lady to the door, put wheel chairs in the back of my car. i started working again at night and somebody needs to wait until the 22 year old girl gets into her house and it's two okay in the morning and she lives at 18th and cap and that's the way i look at my job. it's more than transit but the issue today is one of fairness. we're asking that you take a look at how things have been going. my understanding from what i have seen from 10 years in the industry the sf mta has no authority to who what they have been doing. san francisco the medallions always go to drivers and not companies and there are millions of dollars being made by a part the

government -- like we're expecting them to regulate will themselves but they're gaining millions of dollars on our behalf. there are people on the list and i have waited eight and now just because no one wants to do anything we're have to rethink what we're doing. everybody points to new york city as an example of what is right with the cab industry. you have an area half of the size of san francisco. you have 10 times the number of cabs. i was there in may and i took a lot of cabs and i always talk to the drivers and they average about $27,000 a year because the medallions are out of the range of them afford one. they work long hours. it's a great town to get a cab in but a bad town to drive a taxi in. i was

asked twice where are we going? we're going to tenth and 40th and you don't know how to get there. that's horrible and if they take the medallions and give them to the company over time this is a [inaudible] dollar an hour of job and 20 years from now when everyone is wondering what happened to the cab industry and you guys are our only hob at the moment and we're asking to you take a look at this. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> ladies and gentlemen, good evening. my name is ms. macary and have been driving 33 years in san francisco, and i have a question for you guys. this cab

industry is over 100 years for the city. you don't find any other business that goes through different kind of regulation, different kind of agency come and regulating them, and putting in different kind of rules. right now we are getting tickets for picking up passengers from hotels because all the limos are lined up. you have to double park to load the luggage and they come and pass and take your number, and they send you ticket for $110, and these are the regulations these three past years they put on us. there are hundreds of different regulations and on the other hand they put regulation if the luggage is over size of the trunk you have to get it back

inside the cab. you only allowed to charge 1 dollar. i mean they are like -- they making all the rules without inviting us, without sharing with us what kind of business is this? i am tired of doing this business anymore. i am trying to sell my medallion and find something else. there is no retirement here. there is no health care here. after 33 years i don't have health insurance because i can't afford it. i thought they started -- you know, we came to meetings and working with her but i see there is a lot -- hidden hands,

not letting her to do her job. pushing to just collect money from the cab industry for a different purpose. these monies collected they were supposed to work for the cab industry. . taxi driver fund to help the cab drivers, emergency problem. if our kids going to school to give us loan for school. i appreciate if you guys take a look at this industry. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good evening. my name is chris torfer folkelson and a cab driver for 41 years and i hold a medallion. i ask you that the

taxicab agree is -- find in favor of the letter for the resolution. in the previous meeting the representative from the city attorney's office focused on the question whether mta's alleged authority could release the medallionos the pretext they're not a taxi product previously regulated. such as regulatory sleight-of-hand of allowing something previously denied merely because it's different from what has been regulated before. please note the city attorney representative is denying the law. in the code which states that consideration of medallion issuance could not be made more than once a year. the mta authorized more than 100 in the last year. i will say it like a voters pamphlet. a vote

against this is meaning you're allowing the mta to break the law. this is epidemic in the board. they had -- when voted on it they did it without completing the report and the report it fill in the blank items missing on it. i brought these facts to complaint to the sunshine task force and voted against them. they realized none of the recommendations were heedd and the majority ofs members and the exception of those in sales of medallion sales resigned and thus a message to the mta board it was dissolved by its own members and given a stamp to community that could not with stand the light of day. one of the topics is

expected to be the topic of issuance but they want the medallions issue the right away and not do the google refix and the -- chosen and highly paid advisers. we ask you not to allow it. even board president nolan voted against the president question because he felt the study should be completed first. in this instance i think with the president of the board the wisdom lies. his vote is in the minority. we ask you to support that minority vote and coincides with the taxi drivers reality and all justice. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good evening. i am a taxi and limo driver. what you hear from the people around here.

there was a big conspiracy that was made a few years ago. i was part of that conspiracy. some cab company put the money together and went to a couple of people in the city hall and got one single with 60 words and proposition for muni. united taxicab workersies to be transfer to the mta and without any story besides that, just one page and muni charter so they got through with the benefit package. that was the game plan. after that on my right and left i saw money was flying like anything. tons of money was collected and distributed. and appointed christine olague

and i can't explain the details and was wrong to do. then the time came when a gentleman from a small town and walked into this town and goes to the democratic party club and hand over the checks. the guy got impressed from them and they were clapping and on the job. they were happy. they were screaming happy. so it went down. then they decided to give 150 medallions to the cab companies. but $1,900 each a month fee. $4 million for a year. i went to mta in writing. i say i gave you $8 million. you're giving for four. i give you eight. you want 15 yellow want i will keep 15 yellow. you want 15 luxor. whatever you want. the service issue,

whatever you want and keeping that company but i give you double the money. we don't want to give it, the medallion, to the drivers. this is a scam. this is a fraud, and then they came to you and don't want the rights of the people to appeal even at one time when i called the protester the devil and considered in their office to issue me an admonishment letter because i am organizing a protest of the taxi drivers. these people are wrong. this is a dictatorship. this is not the sadiam country. this is the united states of america and democracy is the top priority. please give these people rights. i don't have a penny interest in this medallion. i am fighting for all these people. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please.

>> good evening ladies and gentlemen. i would just to say iewf the bat prop k was designed to keep quality drivers in this business. prop a is keep drivers out of the business. i wrote a letter last night and it's addressed to the sf mta, and i never think they're going to listen to me but i hope you will. i am jerry and i am 270 on the list. i believe i have earned this medallion. i wore and tore from this job. i also have a recurring illness. regarding the list and the medallions that the sf mta issued themselves. this is the