with de property owner to resolve the concern. they are still welcome to file a complaint with us. if they file a complaint, we tried to go out within seven days. sometimes sooner depending on the circumstances. in an issue like bedbugs, we would have to physically verify that the bedbugs exist. mold, we would physically verify the substantial amount of mol low wall. physically they're applying the presence of rodent droppings. we will get a notice of violation to the responsible party. once we give the notice of violation, we have a time. for collecting the violation. we have education and advice on who to go to to correct it. typically it is between seven days and 30 days. past issues actually take quite

a bit longer, because they involve pest control and multiple treatments. we give people the time. we follow up with them. if things are not progressing, we might do the inspections. we asked people to come in for an informal conference or hearing to discuss their concerns and why they are not able to make the changes. after all of that if they are still not responding we say that if you do not respond we will refer you to a hearing of the director. the director is someone not part of environmental health and he hears both sides of the story, producing a judgment. he orders the responsible party and the tenant in some cases to take certain actions. he gives them a time period. at this point he can simply say

that if you do not take action within this time. we will refer the case to the city attorney. because of the complexity of the issues, it is very hard to get a judge to hear these issues, is really not encouraging us to make these referrals. really, nothing happens and things get delayed. what this law would do, once we get to that point, away after 90 days, we would be able to say that you have seven more days to fix this problem. if you do not fix this problem, you will be subject to fines and penalties. we would then set the amount. for some cases, fines and penalties will not be appropriate. in other cases we may need civil action. sometimes there is a mental health issue at stake. each situation is different and

complex. we would try to use the appropriate tools. supervisor avalos: that was great. thank you. supervisor chiu: i have been getting some e-mails about potential private causes of action. my reading is that these actions can only come out with a recommendation is made to the city attorney's office with a referral and the follow up, right? >> correct. the attorneys' fees will either be rewarded to the plaintiff, us, or the responsible party. supervisor chiu: this is not about thousands of lawsuits that will be brought by tenants in a private setting? >> it does not enable that. supervisor avalos: we have two small amendments? can you describe those? i think they are related to refuse and property owners.

>> correct. i think that almost everything here, it does not change the substantive rule for what a nuisance is or how it needs to be corrected. making one incidental change to a different section of the code relates to a problem we have heard about for many years. in some multi-family buildings, collection of refuse by the refuse collector is in the middle of the night in the upper floors of the buildings from rooms. we are for having nighttime collection by the collector from upper floors of rooms. this is both hazardous for the collectors as an occupational health perspective, typically destructive to the building, creating a lot of noise. it wakes people up in this

stressful. supervisor avalos: today's amendment, how would that change it? >> it makes it clear that the prohibition of going upstairs at night is really only on the collector. they could have been interpreted before that no one can move garbage between 11:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning, but we have removed the line to clarify that. the other issue is that in more than a minority of cases, some difficulty reaching property owners. to that we be giving notice through the mail, which can take days or weeks if the owner lives outside san francisco. we already have most of the information we are requesting in

this provision. we are asking for a contact for the manager, as well as a phone number for the owner. this is so that we can have more timely communication when there is a complaint or nuisance. i think that the first person that wants to know about a complaint is the landlord or property owner. they want a chance to get in there and fix it in all cases. >> typically, what is the range of? >> usually with more of it -- ordinary mail, we will send a

notice and it will be there within a week. in some cases the male is returned. that is why we want this confirmed. we communicate with landlords on an annual basis. this would not be new communication. we would simply ask them to verify on an annual basis. the contact number for emergencies is new. we think that by contacting the responsible party to let them know that this is in contest, they will appreciate that. and that we are making this change so that contact is not 1 per unit, but rather for every building. supervisor chiu: let's go into

up -- public comment at this time. if other individuals wish to testify, each speaker has up to two minutes to provide comments. supervisor avalos: i have a few cards. [reads names] please come forward. >> hello. i am a resident of the bayview hunters point district.

i am here today to speak on the moisture and mildew of the bayview hunters point district and some of the conditions that some of the residents are having to deal with that are causing a health risk and hazard. i am speaking on behalf of myself because i last few years i have developed asthma, dealing with bronchial infections because of the moisture and mildew in the district. today i am acting for your support. if you could please support the nuisance penalty ordinance, it would help the residents so much. so many of them would like to be here today and they cannot be here. thank you. supervisor chiu: next speaker,

please. >> good morning. i am a resident of bayview, hunters point. i have worked in san francisco and lived there for 25 years. recently i had some analysts', including breast cancer there are a lot of toxins in the air. with my immune system being low, people with asthma having to bring -- breve toxins in their home, this is making their health workers. if we approve this ordinance, it would help and clean place to live. by a joke yes on this ordinance.

thank you -- i urge you to vote yes on this ordinance. thank you. >> i am a resident in the bayview hunters point area of. i witnessed a lot of things that when boards were not doing. i have children. you know? they have as much. thank you, have a nice day. thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you in a market served in san francisco, i see the need for strengthening the existing ordinances to regulate the behavior of landlords in san

francisco. a few days before i became aware of this proposed strengthening, i participated in the meaning of tenants without any prompting coming to a consensus that there needed to be a lot that made landlords, as spike lee would say, do the right thing. not a day goes by that i do not get phone calls from tenants about landlords ignoring requests for repairs and treatment of past and in station. the really disturbing aspect to these complaints and i had conducted a survey of clients whose health problems were directly related to their housing. over 75% of the survey households, there was at least one minor offspring present in the household.

personally, i know of one instance involving a single mother and her child where the mold and mildew were so president that this young mother and after this declaimed that was not his responsibility. adding insult to injury, vilifying the victim by suggesting that tenant was at fault because of the length of for showers and the practice of leaving the bathroom door open. thank you. supervisor chiu: next speaker. >> my name is beneath johnson [inaudible]

>> please poll your microphone closer. >> last year i was going through issues with fire damage, the electrical hazards, and mold, with no acknowledgment from my landlord, deeming my issues cosmetic and unimportant and i ask you to support the movement and would be able to help the health apartment thank you. supervisor chiu: next speaker. >> in my property owner. i do support the mission it is

trickier. i do not think it is fair to have it $1,000 per day fine for bedbug violations placed on a landlord, or to make the landlords for reliable. even though the most common way they are brought into the home is by tenants, i agreed that landlords should be responsible for paying for the past treatment. but those treatments don't -- do not always take care of things if the tenants do not clean things up properly and follow the instruction of the landlord or pesticide company. it becomes more complicated and it is rhonda to hold land board 100% liable and give them a

fine for bedbugs, which are always, almost always, brought in by the tenant. myself, i have apartments with multiple roommates. so far, something changes and they move out to go to a different college, city, something happens, a new roommate moves in, and i allow for a change in the setting. what this does now is every time there is a change in roommates, i am now open to $1,000 per day fine if this tenant happens to have bedbugs they're bringing with them. i do not think it is here. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i just wanted to address two points. first, the legislation is shortsighted because bedbugs are

different from roaches. those kinds of pests usually accumulate on buildings or units where there is a lack of maintenance, they are dirty, it can be fixed and remedied by the owner. bedbugs are an entirely different story. they come into the cleanest of buildings. movie theaters, offices, luggage. it is an impossible situation to control. our membership has since traveled with huge costs of remediation. my second point, while the doctors has testified that the fines for attorney fees will only be opposed -- impose on the agreed his landlords, that is not what the legislation says. it says that we have the authority to assess fines, make you pay for the fees occurred,

and any situation where there is a violation or ongoing violation -- i can tell you, firsthand experience, bedbug problems do not go away overnight. we spend a ton of money each month just to have these into stations repeat themselves. something i need the scientific community on. supervisor chiu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i appreciate the doctor's comments the legislative died this peddling of garbage by property owners so i did not see

any justification for the evidence proposed. it seems to me you'd be paying $5,000 per day for a single problem. recently i had a bed bug problem. it took several weeks to give this tenant to cooperate. even with the intervention of personnel, this tenant refused to wash his clothes, that you his unit, and get rid of the invested furniture. it took months to get the situation rectified. by the time that the problem had

split two other units, it was too late. new have a possible requirement were you provide special testing improve and in any case it should be sufficient and if you had a poor region requirement to provide contact information -- supervisor chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> supervisors, with ordnances

that are not being forced and even as some will reduce joseph, it bring it in and you speak to him about the comments that are being made. when it comes to bedbugs, it is very expensive to eradicate them. you can either freeze them i would like the health department to see how using and how and

expensive it is, reporting to you, supervisors. as far as nuisance cases are concerned, the san francisco housing authority is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to you know nothing about it because you as the swallows the of the this it disposition of agreement >> and it is fun on a

superfund site at this point. supervisors, please look at this in a holistic manner. is a of the educator >> i am i've our manager in the city, landlord should not be negligible as -- which penalize for the negligence of a few tenants. april, 2005, one tenant failed to notice the spread of the ball loose from her unit. since then it has cost of property. we use application as well as freezing and storing personal

ballot -- belongings. a pager was created for each tenant, advising them not to eliminate the bad bugs on their own, to go online for treatment. recently we experienced similar this -- relationships. heat treatment. k-9 units, they are extremely expensive. this landlord has done everything in their power to eliminate bedbugs when all it takes is for a tendon to bring in a used furniture and a used bed and we are back to square one. blame cannot be assigned as it is impossible to know where they come from. they are everywhere in the whole country, hotels, movie theaters, public transportation. i must ask what we can do with

regards to the new composting law. i have received numerous calls from residents who have flies because of the compost. thank you. >> next speaker? pedroia >> -- supervisor avalos: i have two more cards. >> good morning, supervisors. i have lived in san francisco for 58 years. i would like to thank the supervisor for bringing this proposed ordinance forward. i think it is relevant since garbage exists in every part of san francisco. i would like to direct my comments with regards to the issue of refuse collection some of my neighbors have been wondering why the city has not

been in forcing, more strictly, the requirement that every household is required to have refuse collection. it is funny when i drive around the city each day to see piles of garbage left there. i suspect it was left by someone who did not leave it brigitte livid that street. it is pop -- comical when you see these large bundles of gardening items left randomly on different streets. almost impossible to trace who leaves behind, especially the garden cuttings and things like that. i think that that should also be examined along with this item. i would urge favorable proposal. many people in a higher class neighborhoods tolerate the illegal dumping.

and it is almost impossible stop illegal dumping and if it is ok for them to do it, it continues on and on without stopping. i think that this item deserves to be examined more closely. >> for me the question before us here is really the, what price tag do we put on quality of life? what price tag on the health of tenants? of children? we saw about 124 cases of mild last year. that is the tip of the iceberg.

how many more cases were there in the city that were never brought to our door. we have seen many cases of people with asthma, like myself, living in conditions that are failing their health, as well as children are exposed daily. i have one tenant who has been living for over one year with a roach infestation that you would not believe. she has two young children. as a counselor, i have run to the health department crews enforcement is not strong enough. this legislation comes from a sense of frustration at the fact that the current enforcement does not work. we need more. we will council tenants, who try to advocate for tenants, we need help. help to help these tenants whose testimony you heard here today. what price tag do we put on a

human life? thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. reid, california, one of the founders of the san francisco task force, the residence that you heard earlier today, we have been linking health issues and health conditions, conducting a survey of the residence in one of the said codes. someone in the home had asthma, flooding problems, water stains, lack of heat, cracks in walls, windows that did not open. these problems were related to mold, mildew,