in a prison-type environment. i designed the pharmacy to be open and to service the people in the tenderloin. i do know the business plan of mom's pharmacy and they are specifically especially promising. i do have a lot of specialty experience but my promise you will be a general pharmacy open to the families. i will carry antibiotics for the kids. i will take care of senior citizens, diabetics, people with handicaps. it is a general pharmacy. i truly believe that the tenderloin has nothing like i will offer them. i am here to serve. that block was depicted as being a bad place for drug dealers. i think actually we will clean up the block. we are going to get a lot of

police attention. captain garrity made a vow at one of the meetings saying if he has to stand at a corner himself he will protect that area. i think that especially the residents of the immediate area up will have a tremendous benefit. that behavior that is going on now will not be tolerated. through the experience i have as a pharmacist, i know exactly what i am dealing with. i think i could add -- i am not doing this lightly. i am doing this very knowledgeably. >commissioner garcia: you brought up the issue of captain guarantee. it was mentioned there was some letter with specific requests that he would like having to do with security. can we get a copy? do you have it with you today? >> we do not have a copy but we

can get it to you. commissioner garcia: it was stated that if these conditions are met he is in support of that? >> he is saying he is neutral. he is obviously not against it. he is not saying it is bad for the neighborhood. he is maintaining a neutral position. he realizes that we are a legitimate business and trying to bring a community pharmacy to the area. commissioner garcia: i think you answered my question. thank you. there was an allegation that is started this work prior to obtaining a permit. >> that is not accurate. i have been called a liar several times. we specifically followed every rule the city put in front of us. obviously, the reason for not notifying is no one required it. we planned on getting the place ready and then going out and

presenting it to the community. commissioner garcia: thank you, mr. forte. vice president goh: just along the lines of the police presence, i was wondering how this could be accomplished in a city where police officers are stressed so thinly and have not managed to clean up the block yet. i do not see how having a pharmacy there would help them do that. >> you mentioned mom's pharmacy several times in this meeting in the situation there. they have a guard. they keep that area clear. captain charity did make a pledge at a meeting saying that he will keep that corner clean. we were thinking of actually extending our reach to protect the area at even more, but he said it is not necessary. he will take care of that area. today, which i was surprised,

there was a police person standing on the corner. sure enough, the whole area was cleared out. vice president goh: you mentioned that mom's has glass and things that keep the pharmacist from the people. you do not intend to do that. >> again, many people do not agree with this, but i think that you should -- i would like -- when a customer comes into a pharmacy i own, i would like to shake their hand, welcome them to my pharmacy. vice president goh: how will you then protect your business from people who might rub it at gunpoint? >> if someone brandishes a gun, like every other business in the world, we cooperate. vice president goh: there is a

reason the other pharmacies have certain protections. i think there is a reason they have those things in place. thank you. president peterson: can you just walk me through what you do plan to sell? >> what we do plan to sell is we plan to be a general community pharmacy. president peterson: what does that mean? >> that means the whole community, we will serve as those needs. if a woman comes in with birth control pills, we will have birth control in stock. if someone comes in for diabetics applies we will have that. if someone comes in for a kid's antibiotics, we will have that. president peterson: you must have some business plan or intention in mind now, right? >> we are going to be a general

community pharmacies serving the needs of the area. president peterson: are you selling anything besides pharmaceuticals? >> i do not think we will. i mean, over the counter things like cough and cold -- i consider that a pharmacy item. vitamins. president peterson: nothing like tissues or the sort of items? >> will probably have tissues. we will not have a lawn chairs, but we will probably have some basic needs. president peterson: we have talked a little bit about credibility. if the permit is granted on may 24 and worked is completed june 25, and final inspection is approved -- the department issues a permit on may 24, 2010, work commences immediately and

was completed on june 25, 2010, with all final inspections approved. acsc was issued the same day. it is hard to think that all worked. it was done in a month and a day. did i read it incorrectly? >> i want to answer my experience with pharmacies. there is not much to it. i completed a pharmacy in the seattle area. a week and a half. you coordinate everything. everyone is ready to go. everything is pre made. things are delivered. you get the crew in there working. it was seven to 10 days. everything was coordinated. it is expensive to have people hanging around for a month, you know? commissioner fung: last question from me is how do you validate prescriptions. >> how do i validate the

prescriptions? what type of prescription? i mean, if you brought in a prescription for prenatal vitamins -- commissioner fung: a general question. >> it really depends. usually, i will know the provider and will recognize the signature. usually, i will know from how the prescription is written out whether it makes sense or not. i have seen a forged prescriptions in the past. i am pretty good at figuring out when something does not make sense. ok. it is a term called professional judgment. in other words, 35 years of experience, if you hand me a piece of paper i can tell you whether it comes from a doctor. the valid prescription we all know is part of the picture. i am charged with only dispensing medicine that is for

legitimate medical use. selling your drugs on the sidewalk is not a legitimate use. i will use everything in my power not to do that, including contacting physicians, contacting police departments, or whatever. i have gone to court in the past where people have tried to pull things and tried to complain about it and sold it. president peterson: thank you. commissioner garcia: if i could just go one quick item with you, sir. >> i have one more thing. real-time data base. california is unique in that dealing with a controlled drug prescription there is something -- a program where i can go online to look up the prescription.

i can see a person pick history of controlled substances. any pharmacy can do that. i hope they are. i plan on doing that. commissioner garcia: as has been mentioned, we have supervisor daly. it is his district. he said he was asking us to uphold the appeal and see whether the proper permits have been filed prior to the construction of the pharmacy, which is an undesirable used in this area. for the record, all permits are in order. everything has been done. >> scott sanchez, planning department's staff. the answer to that question is yes. commissioner garcia: thank you. >> mr. morgan, is in response to

the commissioner's question? >> i would like to reiterate first of all that there are those stated e-mails that say most of the construction was done by may 25. that cannot be ignored. i cannot think of any other reason for them not to apply for a permit other than it would go up on mthe dbi website. they did not do any of reach until the jurisdiction request was filed. commissioner garcia: they already responded. vice president goh: i thought she was answering commissioner fun. -- fung. commissioner garcia: i think we have had enough discussion. president peterson: thank you. >> the matter is submitted. commissioner garcia: i wish we

had captain verity's letter. -- captain garrity's letter. there have been times -- i am not saying this to discredit ms. morgan. there have been times when the police sent representatives to our board to weigh in on issues that affect the community. they have done it with certain massage parlors. they have done it with mcd's. they have done it in uniform and i think the captain has come himself. why they have chosen to not be here tonight i could only speculate if i were to say anything about that. the reason i wish i had the letter is because i think we have the ability to nsr a permit even if a cfc has been issued.

we would want something greater than assurance we would be able to codify. in the absence of that, and maybe we will deal with that later, it does seem unfortunate that someone would choose to open a business at pill hill that might exacerbate a crime problem. but it might go the other way. you hate to tell in neighborhood what is going to happen and how you feel about it when you do not live in that neighborhood. there is a certain amount of hubris to that. but i will make a comment that in the past it has been shown that good businesses in an area will push crime out and will approve an area. i intend to uphold this permit and i am hoping that is what would happen. i am very sympathetic to this neighborhood. i do not want to direct what the opposition should do with their

time and i do not want to direct how some other commissioners should deal with this. but if i were the appellants and the people behind this appeal i would go before two other commissions on a regular basis until something was done. the first would be before the planning commission to see if some sort of restriction can be placed on businesses that are bad for the area and might represent over saturation of a given type of business. it has been suggested there are tea 00 many pharmacies in this area. that might be the oversaturation issue. -- it has been suggested there are too many pharmacies in this area. that might be over saturation issue. crime is worse in the tenderloin. i understand it is worse. i would appeal regularly, if i was this neighborhood, before the police commission. say these are horrible circumstances.

we are families. we are trying to raise children here. we care about our neighborhood. we care about the safety of our neighborhood. we cannot solve this problem. you want to worry about community standards. you want to worry about the fact that people in the neighborhood may be concerned about a project. you want to pay some attention to that. but there are also writes. i think mr. forte seems to be a genuine person who hopefully will come to care about, if he does not already, this neighborhood. he has a business he wants to thrive. hopefully, over time, it will do exactly that. it will help the area. those for the moment are my comments. commissioner fung: actually, this case is quite difficult. it is difficult for a number of

reasons. the community and certain organizations are asking this commission to take a policy position, and there is a supervisor who writes a letter. we do not know what he has been doing in response to the same issue. it is not a small issue, and the question is that it is not also an issue of maintaining community planning when i ask that question. it is a question of what the will is and the organizing that supports that will to create a policy position that most of the people want. what makes it difficult for me is the fact that nobody here has

brought forward why this particular permit was either issued in error or was issued based upon problems by either the reviewing departments -- either of the reviewing departments. that creates a problem for us in terms of how do we adjudicate. i support the concept that there can be an over proponents -- prepondancácy=ó=twf;=djte there are reasons why certain uses congregate in certain areas. there is a profit margin there. in this case, there is no doubt there are way too many pharmacies. considering the other types of uses that can be inferred, i am faced with a decision i have no legal basis, potentially, to do.

there are some things i could say about the process that i think may not necessarily be appropriate. that is that the planning department is charged with looking at things besides just over the counter review. they must also be looking at issues that relate to a neighborhood. this neighborhood has had a lot of resources thrown at it, but obviously there are still many problems there. and i think that the departments need to be conscious of that and not do something over the counter. i am in between right now. vice president goh: maybe i will jump in because i think i have the answer to the legal hook we

need. business and tax regulation code 26 grants us, the board of appeals, very broad discretion to consider what is in the best interest of the community and a broader discretion than the planning department, in that we are empowered to deny permits even if that our code compliant. the planning department has to perhaps grant a permit -- i see mr. sanchez nodding -- that is code compliant. we have broad discretion. the language of the code is that we can consider the effect of the proposed business upon surrounding property upon its residents. that is what i suggest we do this evening. as one of the speakers said, it seems to me that bringing more pills to pill hill to the

detriment of families and the elderly -- we heard from a senior woman that she was mugged. and to the detriment also of the child care center, the boys and girls club, and schools and other facilities. it does not make sense to me. the business did not do outreach. maybe they did not have to do outreach, but they did not do out reach until the neighbors brought it before us and we granted jurisdiction. there is precedent in mom's pharmacy and the upsurge of drug sales when it opened. we heard from the attorney that research suggests that the market would need a supermarket, a post office, or a pharmacy. with all the promises nearby, it

makes sense to me to try one of the other choices. i wonder if what commissioner fung said is true. there is a profit margin there. why would there be a profit margin in a pharmacy? it would not be for a good reason. i was troubled by the mom who said she was threatened by someone saying immigration might be there if you come to speak. that is not ok. we have to be here to hear people from the community. i do think this permit was issued in error. the construction was almost complete by the time you applied for the permit. the these are president petersons questions, and i found that very troubling -- president peterson's questions, so i would

support the appeal and denied this permit. -- and tonight -- deny this permit. president peterson: as you know, i am struggling with some of the credibility here. even some of the contractors' timelines, demolition occurring in early may, i do not know if credibility is grounds for denying a permit request, but the other thing is i do not know how we have met -- we really do not have a business plan. responding to the needs of the community, and it could be expanded to accessory items and on pharmaceutical items -- and non pharmaceutical items.

i do not see how this qualifies for rc-4 without further information. i am not saying an error, but i do not know if it was done properly to issue the permit at the moment. commissioner fung: i have come to a conclusion. i believe that the planning department, as they look at a number of different areas, they always apply a number of different overlays that address a lot of issues in those areas, and that is something they do consistently, especially areas

that deserve greater oversight, and, therefore, i am going to support the appeal in the denial of the permit -- and the denial of the permit the q2 and sufficient oversight for an over-the-counter review note -- due to insufficient oversight for an over-the-counter review. commissioner garcia: i going to vote against this. for us to decide that planning should have done more when planning was not required to do more, when the permit holder was not required to adhere to rules that do not exist, to me is unreasonable. at heart, at heart, i really

believe that this business would be beneficial to that neighborhood. i am going to vote against it. it does not mean that it is a day. -- it does not mean that it is dead. it will come back before us for another vote, and commissioner hwang, who is not here tonight, will be the deciding vote. within our package are some of the requirements that the captain wanted, and i do not think i am bolten the going to prevail, but if i were to prevail -- and i do not think i am ultimately going to prevail, but if i were to prevail, i would want this to be part of this permit. anyway, that is on page 3 of the permit holder's submission.

go ahead. vice president goh: i am going to make a motion to grant the appeal and overturned a permit. -- and overturn the permit. president peterson: if you could call the roll, please? secretary pacheco: the motion then is from the vice president to revoke the permit. on this motion, commissioner fung, commissioner garcia, president peterson, commissioner hwang is absent. the vote is 3-1. uh-uh for your votes are needed to overturn any department emotion -- four votes are needed to overturn any departmental nol motion.

commissioner garcia: if there is a commissioner that is absent, we hold it over to another person to vote, because we feel that is fair. we did not have a full complement tonight, so we will hold this over, and that date is -- vice president goh: october 20 in our memo, there are 20 addendum items? is that right? commissioner garcia: 22, right? vice president goh: of october 13, it looks like that has room. -- vice president goh: october

13, it looks like that has room. commissioner garcia: it is possibly probable that the commissioner who is not here tonight will watch this on streaming video, and she might well sit down and say, "i am ready to vote," without anything else, and everyone is welcome to come again and make comments, but i think it is probably not necessary. at least, i am not asking for any. secretary pacheco: the motion is from commissioner garcia to move this to october 13, closed, no additional briefing, and this is to allow commissioner hwang to vote. president peterson: can we

confirm with the parties that they will be available next week? >> if she is going to watch this on video, will she be able to see how many people are here? commissioner garcia: sure. >> and is it possible that we submit something further? commissioner garcia: we have requested that nothing further be submitted. president peterson: are your clients able to be here next week? >> i would like to make some clarification. one is that there is not a letter from -- commissioner garcia: the opportunity to discuss that has passed. >> the other, i would like to make is -- make is -- vice president -- the other