this specific item? okay. this hearing has been opened and is now closed. supervisor ross mirkarimi. and we're on item 48. consideration of the charter amendment. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, mr. president. thank you for your co-sponsorship as i would like to thank supervisors david campos, eric mar and chris daly. i can see that i think the sensibility of us moving this charter amendment might be spoken by the absence of the public comment. we can take the cue from eight states in the united states, these are eight states that adopted same day election voter registration and they have all seen a bump of upwards to 7% of voter participation. if you compare san francisco in the last 10 municipal elections

that we have held, the average voting turnout is approximately 35%, 36% of voter turnout from municipal-only elections in san francisco. yes, five of those states who had the highest voting turnout in 2008 were five states who adopted same day election voter registration. i think it's time that san francisco helps lead the state of california in adopting this particular element because technology has now enabled us to provide the service that i think a lot of people feel excluded from. for a city like ours that certainly likes to see itself as engaged and sophisticated on so many levels, having that level of deficiency of voter turnout belies that particular reputation. i believe that the rest of california will follow. i would like to thank the senator for his efforts in

sacramento of trying to get same day voter registration. it's passed the state senate but it's very unlikely that governor schwarzenegger will sign this into law. this idea had been attempted in 2002 by state proposition 52 and it passed in san francisco by nearly 60% of the vote, even though it did not pass in california. it came close. we're poised to make this happen and do well and quite a few good government organizations, neighborhood groups certainly support this. colleagues, i'm more than happy to answer any questions. i would like to thank the department of election for all of their expertise and insight in this particular charter amendment and i think it's where our day has come to implement this level of performance. thank you. president chiu: any further discussion? if we could take a roll call vote on the charter amendment. (roll call vote was taken.)

president chiu: this charter amendment is submitted. colleagues, we have several 3:30 special accommodations and i would like to go to that at this time. the first -- actually, i believe supervisor sophie maxwell is the first person up and i will rerefer you. supervisor bevan dufty are you prepared for your 3:30 accommodation? supervisor dufty: i would like to welcome up doug grimes.

president chiu: you can proceed to the microphone. we want to be able to honor you as you stand at the podium. supervisor dufty: i'm going to share a little bit. it's bob's own biothat he considers himself almost a celebrity. in the early 1990s long time san francisco resident, bob grimes ordered a cd. when he identified himself to the sales clerk she said you're almost a celebrity. and far from being insulted, bob was flattered. as he said, they can take celebrity away from you but who would take almost away from you? he was born in 1922 and grew up in long view, texas amid the oil fields in east texas, went to dallas in 1941, joined the army in 1943 and was based in reno for two years. he visited san francisco on a day remembered for being the initial run of the song of

norway. after the army, bob returned to dallas, determined to live in california. the deciding factor in this relocation to san francisco in the summer of 1947 turned out to be the texan friends already in san francisco and california. bob started collecting photographs of movie stars and sheet music while still just a young man in long view. his first purchase being "all my life" from "laughing irish eyes" and that would lead to bob's compiling and cataloging over 32,000 pieces of sheet music. what distinguished bob's collection was not just his size and magnitude but his truly en psych low peedic knowledge and the movies that brought the songs to life. it often seeps there's nothing he does not know about often forgotten music no matter how unheralded from hollywood's golden age.

his freely sharing his sheet music with performers all over the world eventually made him a much collected resource. along the way, bob's enthusiasm to life has endeared him to just about everyone. he was a regular guest on radio shows and for bob's 80 birthday celebrated in 2002, performers included sharon mcknight and paula west. his affection for old movies and stars made him featured in a documentary. now 88 and with his vast sheet music collection recental quierd by the michael feinstein foundation, bob grimes continues to be honored. in october he will receive an award from chicago cabaret professionals, over 200 singers at the 2010 gala. not least among his

accomplishments has been his successful campaign with warren hinkle to reestablish the song "san francisco" in 1984. i'm not living in the past but i'm trying to bring the past into the future because it was a great past. as bob continues to prove with irrepressible charm, the past isn't even passed. i have a certificate here signed by my colleagues on the board of supervisors i would like to present. >> how did you find out all of that? [applause] thank you. i had forgotten a lot of that. but one thing about the song that came up fairly recently was that in 1936, i think it was mayor rossey made the song

the official song of the city and it was never rescinded. and i can never find it. i thought it was. but i'm happy that a friend of mine found it and all of those times that george was threatening to sue me, every time it came up. he just knew mgm was behind me. they never heard of me. but i love san francisco. i arrived here august 29, 1947. i've loved every moment. i've lived downtown where i could walk a lot. well, i can't walk anymore, but i certainly enjoyed walking all over the hills all these years and i love the city. and thank you so much! [applause] thank you.

it's wonderful. president chiu: thank you. congratulations. i would like to ask our colleague sophie maxwell to present the next commendation. supervisor maxwell: who is behind the big red cranes? i would like to recognize richard patani. he is the co-president of the dreyage company. he is carrying on the business started by his father in 1925. richard is participant of the trade entrepreneurship program. he has given freely of his time and energy to help hundreds of apprentices to learn the schools of the trades and take

pride in the hard work and craftsmanship. he was awarded for his participation in the trade unions apprenticeship program and as chairman of the committee. because of his dedication and efforts on maintaining his business in san francisco, the family has become an integral part of the city of san francisco. he was not able to be here today, that somebody else is coming to take his place. thank you. >> thank you. i want to thank you for the staff working on this. as a representative of labor, i come here and i ask for something and it's a pleasure to be here today to recognize one of the real assets of this city. and to recognize somebody who

really personifies the values to which i believe the city stands. if there was an inventory to be taken of the city, of its residents and business owners, i believe the name of richard patani would be written there boldly in black ink. fors a participation in our apprenticeship program and of the iron workers for over 26 years and being a responsible employer. it's an honor to accept this recognition on richard's behalf. thank you. [applause] president chiu: congratulations. that concludes our special commendations for today. please call 49 through 51. the board of supervisors sitding as a company of the whole for a public hearing on amendments made last week to

the resolution determining and declaring public interest and necessity for seismic retro fitting for earthquake safety funded by general obligation bonds and the ordinance pertaining to the seismic upgrade general obligation bonds. president chiu: if we could now open this hearing to hear from individuals that wish to speak either for or against the amendments that we made last week to the proposed resolution and ordinance regarding the proposed earthquake safety retro fit and general obligation bonds. if i did not call your name and you wish to speak on this topic of the amendments, please step up to the microphone and if we could ask individuals, please step up. and each speaker will have up to two minutes. first speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i'm the chair of the caps

program. it's a program in the department of building inspection. as i said, i'm a seismologist. i chair this public advisory committee. it's comprised of more than 50 members of the public that come monthly to a two-hour meeting, volunteer their time. we have representatives of building owners, tenants, neighborhood landlords, small businesses that come to the meetings. the advisory -- public advisory committee has been apprised of the seismic vulnerability of san francisco and san francisco's buildings. and as a result, the committee has unanimously recommended that we need, here in san francisco, a mandatory retro fit ordinance. we think this is the only way to preserve housing, particularly for vulnerable

populations in the city. to keep housing affordable and available. the committee believes that meaningful incentives like the proposed bond measure for the seismic retro fit program are absolutely necessary. this is the only way to keep san francisco safe and protect housing and to keep people in their homes after earthquakes. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker, please. please step up if you wish to speak to this item. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm heidi seek. i coordinate the citiwide post disaster resilience initiative which is a citiwide initiative under the direction of the general services agency, the department of emergency management and the office of the controller in collaboration with the harvard kennedy school of government. i'm merely going to give you very simple comments that will quantify and hopefully insight a sense of urgency about all of the work that we're going to be doing in the next few years

regarding seismic safety. i will outline that in 2002, the usgs, the united states geological survey presented our earthquake prediction and that is there's a 99.7% likelihood of a 6.7 or greater earthquake hitting california but the key statistic is that 63% chance of that earthquake hitting northern california. that means that we are in the zone of the 30-year time frame for the earthquake to be hitting northern california. and again, a specific piece of data that i would like you to keep in mind is there's a 30% probability on the highward fault. what does that mean? we've not had an earthquake on the hayward fault for years and we hit our rupture interval in

2008. we should expect an earthquake on the hayward fault any day now. so all the work we do on seismic safety is very important. i will say that both haiti and chile had similar predictions and they were generally ignored. so we have our prediction. it is time to act urgently. any work that we do with the community actioplan for seismic safety and all of the seismic safety legislation that comes forward, i would just encourage you to act with urgency and move the sum forward as quickly as possible. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i feel the earth move under my city feet. i feel the sky tumbling down. i think it's time that you fix it up and represent it all

around. city, when i want to fix it up, i want to have you make it safe. oh, city board, when you fix it, it always makes it always better that way. i feel the city earth move under my city feet. i feel the city earthquake sky tumbling down, tumbling down. time to fix it up all around town. [applause] president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm with the department of emergency management. as you know, we're the agency that runs the emergency operation center and we coordinate our first responders and other citiwide agencies that would be responding during an earthquake or other major

disaster. we urge to you accept the amendments and move this very important legislation forward to the ballot in november. from the perspective of the emergency management department, we see two specific benefits of the legislation. one, the more buildings that are retro fitted, the more folks will be able to stay in their homes following an earthquake which means fewer folks needing shelter, fewer folks being displaced in san francisco. not only does that mean fewer shelters that we need to open but less misery and difficulty for san francisco januaries who need to find an alternate place to live. this is particularly important for folks who are disadvanced in our community, folks who are not native english speakers. the more we can keep those folks in their home and prevent them from being displaced, the better that is for san fan sis cans. the more we can do to provide life safety for folks by having them live in a safe building, the less injuries we'll have, the fewer locations that the first responders need to go to

during an incident and the best service that everybody will get. we're strongly in favor of the amendments in the legislation and we urge to you move it forward to the ballot. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. ?r good afternoon, supervisors. i'm a practicing structural engineer and i'm here on behalf of myself and chris pollan, co-chair of the lifelines council. and i can speak having been to the sites of major earthquakes and seeing what happens when people are displaced. people being displaced from their home is second only to a failure of emergency response facilities and causing disruption and preventing a community from recovering after major seismic events such as earthquakes. you can tie it in with what we observed after hurricane katrina with the failure to allow people to come into their homes and the extent that it took to -- and is still taking new orleans to recover. we have an opportunity, especially for the vulnerable populations which this bond measure specifically deals with

to allow the vulnerable populations, people who can't afford a hotel in sacramento after a major earthquake, to be able to return to their home and to be at least able to shelter in place and so we don't have to put a greater demand on the city shelter. we don't have to cause the injuries that happen and the fatalities that happen due to the buildings collapsing. we have an opportunity before us to make san francisco a model of what a disaster resilient city is and the bond measure and amendments are a great way to do that. i urge you to consider this. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm from spur. i'm here to speak in favor of the amendment. we have made a lot of progress in the last 10 years on certain aspects of seismic safety. with the bart retro fit, some of the infrastructure getting fixed, same thing with the new bay bridge. the bond measure that we're

talking about today is dealing with one of the most hardest pieces of the problem which is affordable housing. there's no other revenue stream to pay for it. i think this is going to appear in hindsight as one of the most farsighted bond measures that the voters pass to make it to the ballot. thank you very much. president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have the pleasure of serving on the mayor's task force looking at the legislation. i'll make this quick. you've already heard the arguments how important it is for us to return to our homes in the event of an earthquake. the bond that is before you, and its amendments really gives those who live in low and affordable housing units the ability to access these funds to make the buildings safe and again, make them a part of our community by returning to our homes after an earthquake. so in support of it, please think about it. thank you. president chiu: next speaker.

>> general services agency and the department emergency management. i'm here to speak in favor of the bond and the amendments. this bond measure seeks to close a critical gap for some of the city's most vulnerable populations in the event of a disaster. as my colleague had mentioned, san francisco's likelihood of experiencing an earthquake that would result in potential housing loss is 63%. emergency management agencies actively advocate for sheltering in place following an earthquake. that means staying in your home if it's safe to do so, having access to medicine, paperwork, documents and all of your critical life support functions. that means those particular housing stocks need to be capable of sheltering in place. mitigating the effects of soft stories is a critical step in achieving this. this bond measure is an incredibly important step in

the continue disaster efforts undertaken by a city in order to support the citizen pole laition and we all appreciate your support. thank you so much. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. assistant deputy chief with the san francisco fire department and the city's fire marshall. while we can't prevent a large earthquake from occuring, we can mitigate the effects. the measures before you today will ensure when the big one hits that fewer people will be injured or die. and the property owners and renters in san francisco will have fewer losses and that the city of san francisco will recover more quickly. please support these measures. president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm chair of this task force and i would just like to point out that it was comprised of good 40 to 50 people

representing all factions and interests in the city. we all came together, worked and hammered out a compromise here that i think is fair, equitiable and more importantly will serve the most vulnerable in the city and ensure they all have a place to return to or stay in after the next earthquake. i was also here in 1989 as director of the rent board and saw firsthand what the damage that happened and most of that was in soft story structures. so this legislation will go a long way to keeping our citizens in place, returning the viability of our communities much quicker and allowing us to continue to be the great city it is. so thank you for your support on this matter. president chiu: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i'm a structural engineer.

i live and work in san francisco. i am extremely active on a number of committees and efforts involving soft story buildings and seismic safety in the city and around the state. i know you're all familiar with the hazards posed by certain soft story buildings and other buildings in the city. i know supervisor ross mirkarimi knows that there's one of these buildings on practically every corner on our neighborhood. president chu was gracious enough to be on a panel last december, together with the seismic safety commission and the former of director of emergency services so he knows very well the issues we're dealing with and the technical challenges and the political challenges faced by mitigation and the risks that we face. what you might not know so much about is how much technical consensus there is in the earthquake engineering community about this particular issue and this particular risk and this particular approach to

mitigating it. the engineering community, the earth science community, the technical community who looks at earthquakes and follows them around the world knows this is the vulnerable class of buildings in the city and it is easy to deal with. it hasn't been dealt with yet. it poses an enormous vulnerability and is also representing an incredible risk to the vulnerability of the city. it is the number one policy recommendation that we've worked on the past couple of years. the soft story buildings represent the primary policy recommendation from spurs. we urge you to support these amendments and this proposal. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> hi, president chiu. need to see you again. i think we should do all that we can to prepare for an earthquake and i'm glad to hear that we're trying to do that and it's your job, among other

things, to help protect us from things that might happen that are really bad for us. but you know what? i can't help but call that some day, whenever the last day occurs, there's going to be a great earthquake such as never was. this one, as much as we've prepared for it, we're not going to be able to stop it because god himself is going to send this earthquake on the last -- pardon me? you're right. i was hoping you wouldn't bring that up. i was wrong. what can i say? guilty as charged. but sometime, there will be -- president chiu: we're not supposed to be exchanges between the audience and the comments. >> some day there's certainly going to be an earthquake we can't prevent and that's going to be on the last day when jesus raises the dead. i'm telling you something, when that day comes, unless you're

righteousness matches the righteousness of jesus christ, you're not going to make it in. you're not going to be with god and god has made one way and that's through jesus. you know, he was righteous. he said look. when you've lifted up the son of man, then you're going to know that i don't do anything of myself. but as my father has sent me, i speak these things. he chose to go to the cross because he saw that god could only be just and the justifier, you know, of him that believes in jesus if he would go ahead and make the payment for our sin. you know, god can't overlook sin. we live in a day and age, particularly in san francisco where we just -- you know, we just want to go our own way. i was up here a few weeks ago for the gay parade and i thought, you know, saw some churches -- so-called churches m the gay parade and one guy was passing out literature saying it's okay to be a christian and be homosexual.

i just walked with him. i said two can play at that game. i passed out the word of god and maybe some people actually got saved. you know, when this earthquake comes, everyone who says they're a christian will be investigated as to whether they were one. and that's going to be a big, big earthquake. president chiu: are there any other members of the public that wish to speak on the topic of the amendments to the proposed resolution and ordinance referring to the ret yoe fit seismic grant? colleagues, i understand this is an item likely to be continued to the later part of the meeting but do you have any initial comments you want to make? i wanted to say thank you for the task force for all the work they have a dime. i do feel compelled to speak a little bit to this simply because i'm the supervisor that

represents the marina.