year, i applied to get one of the spots at alemany. i was here last year complaining bitterly that my business plan received daa zero. since then, we have done tons of wine and art festivals. we have been invited to the north street festival, union festival. i just want to make you aware that when i resubmit my proposal, i want to give a copy to you for my participation in alameda -- alemany. as a side bar, the health department. yes, they are overburdened, like everyone else, but in the year and a half that i have been in part of the city, no one has come to inspect me, not once. the firemen have been there

three times. they were very nice. as far as the conditions of food vendors at alemany market, deplorable is the way i would characterize it. it is clear when you go through the county's what the standards are for health. you are supposed to have clean water with soap, rinse water, and water to sanitize. i only saw one stall that had those. i only saw one person wearing gloves. of all the festival that we have done, when the health inspectors show up, they shut people down because that is just not the right way to do things. the licenses that people have to take -- you need to take a food safety course. i took it and passed. it is not difficult.

basically, you want to treat the public the way you treat your family and friends. make sure you do not sit in anybody. most of the festival's we have done, a health inspector has been our first customer. many have taken pictures of our set up for trading purposes. i would like to offer my services to the vendors down there to comply with state and county and city regulations. as far as the nutrition programs that we are talking about. in my santa rosa market, we are involved in reaching out to schools, trying to bring slow food to the public. show them that this is what you need to do to be healthy. you need your fruits, vegetables, meats. everything that we do is local, sustainable, and organic. it does not always need to be organic but it should be local and sustainable. that is pretty much our mission

statement. supervisor maxwell: thank you very much. is there anyone else who would like to speak? >> my name is john. i am an organic mushroom farmer. my family has been with the farmers' market -- i have been at the farmers' market all my life. i am just here to thank everybody. the real-estate office as well as your concerns with the farmers' market. just the importance that it is, not only to the city, but to my family. so thank you. supervisor maxwell: ok, let's close public comment. i would like to ask ms. brown to come back up. public comment is closed.

>> i fail to address something that you asked me. that was how we went about using the competitive rfp process. because there were not specific requirements the way there are in 9a for the farmers' stalls, we opted to do it under chapter 23 which encourages a competitive process, competitive selection for agreements on permitting city property. we went with that type of process to put out requests for proposals, rank them according to the criteria that the budget analyst highlighted for you, and with respect to whether one vendor is paying more to one next to them, we determined it was better to allow the market to determine that both because of chapter 23's encouragement of that as a policy, but also, in

our view, we wanted to have a robust offering their. we realize someone who sells cups of coffee will not make as much as someone who sells enchiladas or some of the more robust -- some people are buying lunch there, taking things home with them in greater quantity. but we want to make sure that a coffee vendor, somebody who sold patrice -- pastries, could also be there. we decided to let them tell us what's they thought they could pay based on what they anticipated their business would make, basically allow the market to set those fees. if it is the direction of the board, we are happy to consider a flat rate. i would suggest that we may want to consider different tiers for

different types of offenders, as i suggested. -- vendors, as i suggested. we have had a few vendors decide they cannot do business there and they left. we do not necessarily think that is a bad thing. we still have a robust offering their. --- there. we did not move to replace those who left because we still felt like we had a robust offering. we did not feel like we needed to rush out and get more people there.

i have one more point. that is with respect to the use of the stalls in the winter months. please correct me if i am wrong, but i believe one of the things we have been told from an enforcement perspective, that we have to separate the non- certified farmers selling their products from the certified farmers'. . that is part of why we located the food and beverage vendors to where they are now. i do not know if we could do that without some additional break between them and the farmers. supervisor maxwell: so certified farmers' have to be segregated from the food vendors? >> and any other type of vendor. >> in the market rules, there has to be a boundary between

certified agricultural and non- certified products. that is why it needs to be separated. supervisor maxwell: what if you are not a farmer? what if you are selling popcorn? >> yes, that is a non-certified product, so it is separated from the agricultural part of the market. you may be able to address that in the rules somehow -- i understood the gentleman to say that if it is raining in the winter, you could use astall. this is in the certified agricultural part of the market, you cannot do that. supervisor maxwell: but if it is not, you could. ok.

khnum so what we need to do is figure out if those are certified vendor -- ok, so what we need to do is figure out if those certified vonendors are coming. >> [unintelligible] supervisor maxwell: it might be confusing for them while -- >> that is what i mean. once we set it up, it would be difficult to change [inaudible] they would be out of compliance if they allowed a non-certified to go into a certified part. supervisor maxwell: but if you have an idea of who you serve,

who is certified and who is not, perhaps you could already have that boundary. sometimes the other people do not come who are not certified. are all the agricultural products certified? that means, anybody who's sells agricultural product -- who sells agricultural product in our market is certified. >> in the certified markets. supervisor maxwell: so since ours is that, all are certified. thank you. >> we had actual beencited for that, -- been cited for that, having non-food vendors next to

certified stalls. because we use of fixed stalls, it would have taken a lot of stalls out of use in order to achieve that required separation. that is why we cannot do that on the spot. i understand, i am sympathetic. i know the wind can be challenging, but our understanding, it is a state requirement. because we had been cited earlier, we are vigilant on making sure that we comply with it. supervisor maxwell: i have another question for you be. regarding fees, you have access to what is going on in the

market. some of the markets that are mentioned in the report have flat fees, from my understanding, and they managed to do ok. my concern is, do all the coffee vendors pay the same amount? is there a staggered fee in the folks that sell pastries and coffee? >> i am sure there is not. we allow the markets to determine that. we took their bids. what they thought they could pay, to be the fees that they paid. we did not do any standardization. supervisor maxwell: and you

based that on what you all thought was best. is that what is happening in other markets, is that just what san francisco does? >> we work closely with the rec and park department in many of their offerings. this is a constant challenge, rate setting. i think we share the velocity of allowing the market to speak. the intent was to create a market floor that we thought was reasonable, and then individual vendors could decide, i could bit more than that because this is my anticipated share of the market. it was always set as a floor. i think maybe what the director is getting at is maybe there is a possibility for a tiered system that would recognize the difference of what they are

selling, the likely profit margins they may have. i think we can move to that system in 2011 in our next bid call. supervisor maxwell: i guess you will discuss it with your cac. >> that is right. i would also like to state court made it with rec and parks. it can be confusing for vendors who go to the market but are also tried to get opportunities where rec/park is offering them. supervisor maxwell: through the chair -- when of the dominaone n -- with a black care -- when you are going from market

to market, are you finding that ours is set up in any way like other ones in other cities? >> no, it is actually confusing and pretty different. there are two things. there are three tiers of fees. it depends on the size of your stall. you have your farmers who pay the lowest fee. then you have your food vendors who usually [inaudible] everybody pays the samefee per stall. as far as coffee -- the profit margins on food, they are pretty much the same across the board. [no audio] then you should not be in the business. [inaudible]

not flexible. there might be rainy day specials in some markets [inaudible] maybe there is inclement weather. there is a set fee. my bid was $100 [no audio] that begs the question why. supervisor maxwell: there might be the balance of who and what -- i do not want to get into that. >> there is a board that usually meets in each market, and they decide -- [no audio] try to keep a balance between citrus [no audio] do not ruined somebody's livelihood. supervisor maxwell: thank you.

i do have a question for you. could you come up? supervisor mar: could you state your name again? >> john akiens. supervisor maxwell: you mentioned the rainy day, being able to -- understanding that we need to have that separation. one of the issues, when they moved the food vendors, that was huge. do you have a better understanding, is this what you have found to be the case? has someone mentioned this to you before? >> yes, i have an understanding based on what was stated. for example, -- first of all, i did not hear what the space was between the certified and non- certified farmers, food vendors.

if it is 20 feet, and the distance of an empty stall is 20 feet, then it seems to me that is the separation, so if there are 10 stalls on the other side that are empty, or if there is only one farmer in those stalls, can that one farmer not be moved closer to the other certified farmers' so you still have the other side available for the food vendors? if we are talking about numbers and you have 12 empty stalls because of the rainy season, and farmers do not come all year round -- so it seems like there could be some accommodation. if that is the case, i do not understand why there cannot be an accommodation. supervisor maxwell: how soon in advance how do you have to notify people that you are going to be there, not going to be there? >> in terms of the food vendors

not showing up, if you are not going to be there that day, the protocol is to call that morning and leave a message on the machine, or if you can get a hold of someone in the office. supervisor maxwell: so it is basically within 12 hours or less. >> as i said, the thing that concerns me in raising this question is, when you look at the rainy season, there are quite a few empty stalls. many farmers do not come during that time. i am still not sure what that space will be. supervisor maxwell: i will ask. thank you. yes? >> supervisors, if i may comment for clarification purposes. when you speak about distances between the agricultural certified market portion and

non-certified, those boundaries are drawn up and submitted for the certificate, when they apply for renewal. supervisor maxwell: submitted when who applies? the market? >> yes. when alemany applied for their renewal, they submit a boundary. in the case of alemany, i have not looked at that map. i am sorry, i cannot tell you what the boundaries are. but there is a boundary that identifies agricultural certified and non-certified. supervisor maxwell: thank you. ms. brown? yes, another question. have you looked at the boundary lately, has it changed --

>> if i may. i think we have relatively simple solution. in our next some middle for application, that we provide a seasonal boundaries so that we have a winter season and summer season boundary. that would give us the flexibility to assign certain spaces for non-certified uses when we know we are going to have those vacancies, so we can be in compliance. we can work with the agricultural commissioner. i think there is a solution we can work to worward. supervisor maxwell: ok, thank you. i would like to continue this. i want to ask our real estate department -- i want to have day a check-in -- hopefully, they

have a number of items that they would like to have completed or are working to complete by december 31. i would ask that maybe the meeting before, if they could come back in and check in with us to let us know where you are. we will have a talk. i will meet with ed lee and ed harrison on the parcels that you are talking about that could help us with parking. supervisor mar: i just want to thank ms. brown and mr. updike for being here, also a time line for setting up the cac. i feel strongly committed the- based people should be at on that committee in addition to small farmers. i know the history of the farmer's market is a grass-roots effort. it is challenging for us to have a people's farmers market. also for small farmers to have a

chance versus the big grocery industry, who was opposing this. i hope that comes from the cac and this remains the people's farmers market. supervisor maxwell: in discussing the cac, they plan to have farmers and people who live around the area, maybe beyond. it needs to be bigger than nine. this is a huge city, historical place, people really love and are dedicated to farmers' markets. it will probably be bigger than what we talked about. we definitely need people who live around, maybe beyond. thank you very much. we will talk again at our continued meeting. supervisor mar: we are continuing this item until -- what was the date? to the call of the chair. we will make sure it happens.

ms. stokes are there any other items before us? supervisor mar: with no other item before us, the meeting is adjourned. thank you.

>> thank you all very much for taking the time to be here. as chief gascon promised, we're

keeping you abreast of our changing crime statistics on a quarterly basis. of course, as you knew with the new model of policing, we do that more often and technology and data is really driving so much of our deployment and strategies in terms of crime fighting and crime prevention in our city. the good news is we were audacious in our goal setting earlier this year. we had some stretch goals. we raised the bar in terms of our expectation. we came into the year with among the lowest homicide rates we had seen in a generation. in fact, till the early 1960's, we had no seen homicide rates as low as they were last year. there were some that felt it was inappropriate to set the goal of continuing that trend downward in terms of the homicide rates in particular since lastior some had suggested was an anomaly. we felt differently, not only in terms of the goal setting, but we felt that last year was

an extension of a trend that we saw happening occurring in the middle part of 2008 and the summer of 2008. that trend continues now into the new year. while the statistics, you will see in the presentation the chief will provide very shortly, shows that homicide are up by one homicide, 3% the actual numbers today if they were adjusted show that homicides are down by 3%. the new numbers that we just brought in today actually shows them lower than last year. nonetheless and to the point, we are seeing part one crime continuing to decrease in the city. it was double digits last year and it's down as you'll see in a moment 9% this year. we're making progress. the work that the police department is doing in concert and partnership with the district attorney's office continue to show very positive gains in terms of reduction in crime. the stats, as always, mean

nothing to the people of this city. behind the stats are real human beings, real narratives and real lives. we recognize we can do more. we recognize we can do better. we recognize good enough never is. but i just want to compliment before i ask the chief to make the presentation and the district attorney, to complete our presentation and answer any questions, i want to compliment the men and women in uniform, the men and women of law enforcement in this city. i want to compliment the partnerships with the district attorney's office and the courts. we are making tremendous progress. we are seeing stats that we haven't seen in decades in san francisco. we're seeing a reduction in violent crime and property crimes, the likes of which we haven't seen in decades in this city and we're doing it longwindedly with this point. we're doing it with less resources, that money has not been our excuse. we're doing it with substantially less resources than we have had in the last few decades. that, i think, is a remarkable testament to leadership and

with that, let me give you leader of our police department, our police chief, george gascon. >> thank you, mr. mayor, and thank you everyone. as the mayor indicated, this is really about people working together. it's about the police department, the mayor's office, the district attorney's office, our chief probation office and her department who happens to be here and the community. certainly our federal partners. what we're going to do very quickly is walk you through a powerpoint that will illustrate what the numbers are. i think it's important as the mayor indicated, there are lives, there are real people behind the numbers. i think that is what we should be focusing on. while the numbers tell a story, the numbers really are meaningless unless we put the context to the numbers. the fact that there are less people being victimized in our city. as a matter of fact, we were looking at a study that was published a few months ago, actually at the end of 2009 where they took three different assessments of the cost of