also another subject, i read the census problems they are having a pilot problem next year, i heard, with 15 citizens who will be on an on-call basis. i would like to put my name in the hat for thafment you -- in the hat for that. we have a lot of car vandalisms in our area. i have been after these guys for years, and i have some scars to prove it. i think an on-call police that are citizens would be helpful to san francisco would be helpful because of the staffing ricks and so on. >> next speaker, please. >> are we talking prop 19 or what? it seemed like the biggest opponents of the medical

marijuana is the prop 19 people. i think the assistant chief knows that that is one of the lowest priorities on sfpd's radar is marijuana. i walk down market street every day. i see them. i've seen cops right by a guy smoking a joint. come on, we have bigger things to worry about, we have bigger fish to friday. i had a guy on crack. he had 28 murders. that's 50%. actually he's got a 51.4 perforate. --% rate. correct? president marshall: no comment. >> we're doing a great job out

here. joe garritty, the best appointment we ever had. thanks, jeff? president marshall: anymore speakers on this particular issue? yes, sir. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is david owen. thank you for addressing this issue. i spent number of years coming in and out of this room in a different role at the board of supervisors. at the time we were regulating supervisors. there was one commission i have never spoken before. thank you for the staff in your department who are working so closely with various folks in this community. it is laudable. i work in a slightly different capacity. it is the same collect yiffs of various sizes and various parts of california. one year in san francisco and elsewhere. i want to stress there are many areas of cultivation which fit in the structure legally for how this should occur.

i want to encourage you as this process goes forward to consider what some other juries dicks have already done. san francisco in 2005, when we led in this area, were leaders. san francisco and oakland were inventing the idea. the determine "dispensary" didn't exist. now there are many areas that have addressed dispension -- napa, and many other places. they have bifurcated between individual cultivation in homes, for example, in napa where it can't exceed 25% of the residential facility, and then they are defined differently anywhere, to cultivate on larger scales and regulating those uses and creating land use for them. i know it is a lot to bite off,

and it was als a complicated topic. but thank you for initiating this conversation and encourage you to involve more people in it who are approaching this issue from a variety of ways, especially from the small patient collect yiffs to the dispensaries. we have 2 of them in "san francisco chronicle." thank you very much. bell bell [bell] >> good evening commissioners, my name is david aldridge. i was one of the sponsors of the 1982 medical marijuana initiative. i wanted to butt in a historic note. the first time the citizens of san francisco voted for consult vation of marijuana was in november 1972 when 54% supported the california medical marijuana initiative. our vote has gone up every time we have had an opportunity to vote on it in san francisco.

we have now come to the time that we are finally, after more than 30 years of being interested in having cultivation and marijuana in san francisco, we are finally working out the actual politics of doing that. i applaud you, commissioners. i applaud you and everyone who has been working on this for a long time. what we need is, first of all, something i said in 1972, what we want is free legal back yard marijuana, which is the right of every person to grow their own in their own small states without violating city codes. secondly, please do not go the oakland route. we need the diversity and the different qualities that individuals grow and when they have some excess, they put it on the market for the clubs.

that is a good thing. we do not want to have four producers of marijuana in san francisco. we need many producers. and the point s. we need regulations to show us how to do that. i thank you very much. [applause] >> good evening. my name is david goldman. i am sitting on the medical marijuana task force. i also headline the meetings for americans for safe access in san francisco. i want to thank you for this time tonight to discuss such an important issue and to continue san francisco's leadership on the issue. i also want to reiterate what was said about oakland with regard to taxation. currently all dispensing collects yiffs must be run on a nonprofit basis, which means they are suddenly saddled with extra taxes -- taxation.

what happens is already we've heard from harborside in oakland where he's saddled with gross receipts tax which may go up to 5% if the oakland initiative passes in the fall, and the problem with that is already, he is cutting back patient services and raising patient prizes because all of a sudden he's out with the new tax, and since he's a not-for-profit where does he have to get the money from? i want to let you know the demographic of patients is primarily people 40 to 60 years old who are low to moderate income. i have a moderate income myself, and i am a patient and i am in that 40% to 60% demographic. i could be that picture exactly. right now medical marijuana patients have to pay sales tax. no other prescription medication in california pays a sales tax

whereas medical canibus does mple i hope the commission will be mindful of that when wremming polings. thank you. [applause] president marshall: if there are no more speakers, then this item is closed. go right ahead. >> i didn't have to take these pills this month. i was able to make food. canibus is a medicine, and i can't lose it.

[inaudible] president marshall: all right. this item is now closed. i want to thank commissioner dehey suse for bringing it -- dejesus for getting it to our attention and get tg approved. >> -- commissioner dejesus: i want to thank the department for everyone working together on this issue. thank you. president marshall: we will then move the agenda back to item number one. we'll go back to the regular agenda. the clerk: mr. president, item 1. sir, we'll give the room a moment to clear.

7:11 peam. that is public comment. this is where members of the public may address the commission for a period of time determined by the chair. subject matters that are within the jurisdiction of the commission but do not appear on the agenda. >> thank you, lieutenant. this is general public comment on issues that involve the san francisco police department. first speaker, please state your name. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is john templeton. i'm working on african merge

heritage regarding buildings in san francisco. one of those buildings is 4546 3rd street owned by clarence williams. it is caberet that dates before the earthquake. del is not a building like it that's owned by an african-american in the state of california. it has come to my attention that the permit officer in bay view and the captain are blocking him using his alcohol permit. the justification basically comes down to them not wanting african-americans to have a bar to drink in, which strikes me as the height of racial profiling. it is not as obvious as shooting someone in the back when they

are laying down, but it is no less a violation of civil rights. we sent a letter to chief gascon, also to fred blackwell, redevelopment agency, i just saw him in the hallway and they still baffle me as to why the police department is being counter to the out-migration task force, preventing someone from opening what would be the largest business on 3rd street. so we have waited. the permit officer is being arbitrary and capricious. he hasn't put anything in writing. he's done something that ksh -- such as only talk ong cell phones other than taking calls that raise questions about whether there is corruption involved. there is no justification for the continuation of this practice, and we regret we have to bring this to your attention. but i would like to bring this

forward and he can discuss it in further detail. >> thank you. >> for some particular reason. he never even gave me a reason why, other than there is concern of the residents. [inauddible] for some reason they don't want an african-american to do well on 3rd street. so i had to get additional assistance to talk to him because he never gives me a straight answer, he never gives

anything in writing, and he constantly changes his mind. i hope that you guys can talk to him. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is sally stevens. i'm the chair of the city of animal control for the commission. i'm also chair of the san francisco dog owner's group. last week we heard in the newspaper that the reassignment of officers involved in the vicious and dangerous dog unit and concerned about possible closure of the unit. the community was outraged. we were angry, we were worried, and upset. i have since spoken with the chief and commissioner hammer, and other people. it appeared there was some kind of misunderstanding over what was happening. i was very glad to hear from the chief that there is a lot of

support for the unit, the vicious and dangerous dogs unit. this is really a model for the community. it is one of the department's success stories and community leading at its best. at the first signs of tregs aggression, which this unit has largely pioneered, has been githe quite successful. there is a lot of community support for this unit, and that's crucial for this and other units. right now, if there arefully major changes, he might obviously lose that support. i wonder if everybody realizes the importance of the dog court and the unit. there are a lot of early intervention things that are done. i would be happy to talk to any and all of you about the community's highly innovative and successful unit.

there is a dog behaviorist who is an expert witness all at dog -- dangerous dog hearing around the entire state area. her experience is that the one in san francisco is by far the best. i urge you to butt an item on your agenda about all of this. it is really critically important in the commuent and there is huge community support for it, and it is one of your success stories, so i hope you can learn more about it. it is really an unsunning hero. i hope you will consider putting that on your agenda smed >> thank you. >> good evening commissioners. i wish to state my opposition to disband the dog court.

i have since learned that this was a misunderstanding. i have worked with the dogs in custody. countless dogs over the years have been custody due to complaints to be heard by the dog court hearing court also referred to as vicious and dangerous dog hearings. i would expect that due diligence from the people who made this decision to lower the unit into forethought, a transition period, and up-to-date knowledge about how exacting and complex a dog court is. i am investigationing this

operational decision and i will ask that officer herndon and officer denhi's reassignment be made. they will have some tough shoes to fill. i am not alone in my apprehensions about the lowering of the war of the san francisco police unit. among those is commissioner jim hammer. i hoach you hear from as many -- i hope you hear from as many concerned members in san francisco as i do. i hope you will put this as a general order on this unit on the agenda of the police commission and timely manner. 6 -- i also trust the public will have ample time to go on public record.

thank you vemp. -- thank you. >> thank president marshall: thank you very much. >> i am also here to speak in strong support of the vicious and dangerous dogs unit. there has been undse understanding about the issue. the unit is widely respected by the dog community, as well as the community at large. that's important. i am a very strong animal trust person. i think when there is a reason to -- ruling to youth nice a dog, -- euthenize a dog, it should be reviewed.

if there is traininging, there is the temptation for people to just send their dogs elsewhere and become another community's problem. i want to express strong support for the unit and second ideas to agendaize the issue. >> i just want to indicate that i add this to a future agenda item. that way they know if they have left, it is coming up later in the agenda ton. -- tonight. president marshall: any last speakers in general? fub comment -- public comment une -- closed. >> a couple years ago because we

lacked supervision the sergeant was given extra tasks. he was never taken awhich from the dog detail, he was never taken away from the assignment. if it was going to be shut down, i would be the one to do it. i did not do it. it will always be manned by personnel. it will always have the dog unit. the department's position that we had never, ever shut it down, we weren't going to shut it doufpblet -- down. somehow this information -- herndon is retiring in 11 months. weerdog going to bring new people in there. that unit will always be thrfment i will be -- there. we will not be shutting it down. i am giving my word. this unit will not be shut down.

it was never going to be shut down. the article in the paper happened before they asked us. this operation was never, ever going to be shut down. president marshall: we can't really engage in public comment about this. and tuling actually it probably should have under the chief's report. you can have dirl questions there. all right. ruent. we can move to item 2, please. >> item 2 is the consent calendar which as presented to the commission was the police commission's third-quarter closed session. disciplinary issues you used.

>> these are in your package. -- unless you have questions you want to asking on either of these, the second-quretter record clodse sessions the disciplinary items or the overseas quarterly report, there are no questions. we did approve the consent calendar. we need a motion. >> move to prove. >> good question. do we go over these in public at all? president marshall: we do not unless someone wants to. >> i just wanted to give it its two intentions. -- i wanted to give it its due attention.

>> we have it posted for members of the public that do want to read the o.c.c.'s quarterly report they can go to the o.c.c. web site. president marshall: without objection. so ordered. let's move then in the -- be kind to our c.c. director, because i think we will be closed for a while. less take 3-b next and then we will move to 9. >> we will move to 3-b which is the o.c.c.'s director's report. >> good evening, president marshall, and members of the commissioner. chief, and members of the

audience. i will give you brief update on recent activities of the o.c. c. on our statistics, a mediation update, as well as a training update. at a later police commission meeting, i will provide you with the yull -- with the july statistics in writing. since jump 30 eths was this past friday, there wasn't time to provide you the written prort, so i will give it to you orally. as of july 30, the occ opened 539 cases and we opened 31 more cases than we closed. it means that our backlog is growing somewhat. during the last period we opened 589 and closed 605. in terms of cases opened, there is a 7% decrease in cases opened during the same period.

last year. so the number of cases that are being filed with the o.c.c. has reduced by 7%. july 30 we had 4 p 32 -- as of july 30 we had 432 pending cases. this is more cases than we had at the same period last year. that means there are more cases per investigator than there were at this point last year. as of july 30th, the o.c.c. had a 40% increase in the number of cases o.c.c. investigators are sustaining. as of july 350 -- 30, moving on to mediation, the o.c.c. -- july

30th last year 45 complaints were meeated. however, july was an encouraging month, because eight queas cases were mediated in july. so far in august, so far this month we have already mediated one case. internal affairs tranges. chief gascon discussed internal training that was to be conducted by the l.a. police department on professional standards crigs division as well as their inspector general who is a civilian oversight component in l.a. the training was lelled for sfpd members. i attended the raining, and i believe that the training was instructive not only for

c.o.c.c. staff but also for the trainers from lapd. we recognize we have much in common in the way we conduct investigations, but that the lapd investigate ords have a much lower case load than the o.c.c. investigate -- investigators. it's really nothing new. when they did the audit, one thing they noticed was that o.c.c. investigators did not have a best practices case load. that the o.c.c. investigator's case load was 30 -- 33 per investigator as opposed to other agencies where the best practice was about 16 cases per investigator. in fact that is what we were told by the representatives from lapped. lapd.

president marshall: questions for the director? >> i want to commend you on the policy work you do. there are a number of department comblen general orders that you have worked on -- department general orders that you have worked on. in terms of o.c.c. investigators, i noticed there are two standing needs that would have given more information, and information about low the commission is addressing that need. >> there is a need for additional investigative staff. there just is not the budget. to address that need.