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captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- supervisor chu: good morning. welcome to the regular meeting of the city operations neighborhood services committee. madam clerk, are there any

announcements today? >> yes. all persons attending this meeting are requested to turn off all cell phones and pagers. if you wish to submit speaker cards, please place them in the container by the rail to your left. if you wish to submit copies of material for members of the committee, please submit an extra copy for the file. i will actually be calling items out of order. madam clerk, please call this item. item #4. >> item #4. ordinance amending the san francisco health code by adding section 114.1 and section 114.2 to require that the health department and department of aging and adult services adopt a pilot project to provide further care for mentally ill community members. supervisor chu: thank you very much. this item was provided by our sponsor, and she has requested

that we tabled this item. do we have a motion to table it? let's go to public comment first. are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item? >> thank you. my name is douglas [unintelligible] and i have lived in san francisco for 28 years. i would like to speak in favor of this item. in my daily activities around san francisco, it is unfortunate that there are so many obviously mentally ill community members by their living in san francisco or passing through. something like this is urgently needed and i think that the supervisor is justified in

proposing this item. also i would like to take this opportunity to urge the department of public health to use their money efficiently to help the obviously need, rather than going after whistle- blower's like myself, with in my opinion, fake charges of mandatory sick leave and being mentally ill. as many people have noted in my basement here at city hall for the past year, if douglas is mentally ill, it says a lot about all of the other people here at city hall. thank you. supervisor chu: are there any other members of the public that wish to speak on item number four? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. bill, did you want to say a few words? do we have a motion to table the item? without objection.

madam clerk, please call item no. 1. >> item #one. hearing to consider that the transfer of a type 48 on-sale general public premises liquor license from 730-732 broadway street to 163 jessie street (district 6) to jon gasparini for jessie street cafe will serve the convenience of the people of the city and county of san francisco. supervisor chu: thank you very much. we have the chief inspector here. you might want to turn on the microphone. in speaking to it. -- and to speak into it. >> beer, wine, distilled spirits for consumption. also offering food service. no letters of protest.

no letters of support. the department recommendation is as follows -- approval with conditions recommended by be liaison unit. proposed condition, number one, the sale and service consumption of alcoholic beverages provided between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. each day of the week. the sale of these beverages for off sale consumption is strictly prohibited. the petitioners shall not make structural changes without prior written approval from the department. four, no eyes. any sound produced in such a manner or degree as to disturb the peace, quiet, and comfort of the persons in the neighborhood. no. 5, loitering. those found to be standing idly by or lingering without business, prohibited on any of the sidewalks under the control

of the licensee. thank you. supervisor chu: let's open this item to public comment. are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item? seeing no one, public comment is closed. we have a motion to approve this item with the condition provided. without objection. madam clerk, please read item #2. >> item #2, resolution authorizing the san francisco arts commission to retroactively accept and expend a grant in the amount of $70,000 from the national endowment for the arts for the installation of zhang huan's three heads, six arms at the civic center plaza. >> -- supervisor chu: thank you very much. jill [unintelligible] from the art commission is here.

>> good morning, supervisors. if you have any questions, i would be more than happy to answer them supervisor chu:chu please provide -- answer them. supervisor chu: please provide a brief presentation. >> certainly. to celebrate our sister city could with shanghai we sought the work of an artist from shanghai to bring to the civic center. we knew that it would be costly. one of the first hurdles that we overcame was a local company in san francisco called waterfront containers stepped up to say that they would provide the containers and would arrange for the free shipping. we knew that bulk of the costs would be covered privately through donations. at the same time, we have the application submitted to the

national endowment for the arts. everything went seamlessly. we got the sculpture here in time for the dedication. we needed a little bit of intervention from senator feinstein to have customs lived be agricultural inspection hole that they placed when it arrived. at this point, we are planning to return the sculpture a little bit earlier than the expected duration in the city. we have been informed by customs officials in china that they will not issue another extension for the sculpture. we have attempted to involve, through our various connections, to try to address this issue. it seems like it is a very big hurdle to overcome. the sculpture has been

tremendously popular. between the grant and the money provided by the huntington hotel to put up the artist, i would have to say more than 50% was provided from other city sources. >> so, the $70,000 covers about half of the cost? >> no, it probably covers about one-quarter of the cost or one- third of the cost. about $100,000 worth of private funds was provided by waterfront leasing and shipping. supervisor chu: all right. this is a resolution from the national endowment of arts in the amount of $40,000 to primarily helped to fund the monument sculpture in shanghai. this is retroactive, no new

employees have been hired. this is simply a contractual cost? >> that is true. it is simply a formality to formally accept the funds. supervisor chu: are there any members of the public debt would wish to speak on item number two? seeing no one, public comment is closed. >> [inaudible] supervisor chu: we have the motion and it will be moved to the full board without objection. >> thank you, supervisors. supervisor chu: thank you. item #3. >> item #3. ordinance amending public works code section 184.78 to allow city neighborhood banners, as defined in section 184.78, to be posted on the path of gold lamp posts lining market street, and adopting environmental findings. supervisor chu: thank you. i know [unintelligible] that] is there and has -- i know that nick is here to provide

comments. >> my understanding is that this item needs to be referred to the historic preservation commission. this item needs to be referred to the historic preservation commission for a 30 day review. i would like to make that motion. supervisor chu: all right. let's open this item for public comment. and members of the public? >> good morning, supervisors. my name is douglas. i have lived here for my entire life. i would like to speak out on behalf of this idea. publicizing worthy causes along market street is going to make market street more interesting. if we are lucky, it will attract more tourists. one of the suggestions i would like to put on the banner is to advertise the city's

controversial whistleblower program. i know the pros and cons of the program and i know that doctors [unintelligible] are attempting to rectify the laguna honda hospital once and for all. supervisor chu: thank you. any other members of the public that would wish to speak on item number three? seeing no one, public comment is closed. there is a motion to refer this item to the historic preservation committee and continue to the call of the chair. without objection. all right, item number five. >> item #5, ordinance amending the san francisco public works code by amending sections 184.2, 184.6, 184.8, and 184.12 thereof, relating to newsracks, to provide for: (1) the use of electronic mail for notices of violations; (2) removal of

abandoned newsracks or newsracks maintained in violation of the public works code within 7 calendar days of notice of violation sent by electronic mail; (3) imposition of administrative fines for violations resulting in newsrack seizures; (4) consolidation and/or reduction in size of fixed pedestal newsracks at under-used locations; (5) allocation of space in newsrack boxes on a first-come-first- served basis under certain circumstances; and (6) reduction of the fixed pedestal permit fee from $60 to $50. supervisor chu: thank you. this item is brought to us by supervisor alieoto-pier. >> this is an example of real teamwork, there was a pedestal where smaller publishers wanted to know how they could get space when there were vacancies. the supervisor tried to figure out how to do an informal

procedure rather than waiting for the entire year. we learned that the mayor's office and department of public works had other additions that they wanted to make to make the program run much better. with that i wanted to introduce [unintelligible] the director of the program from the department of public works on the various features of this ordinance. supervisor chu: thank you. use the other microphone? if you are doing a presentation. >> any questions? supervisor chu: let's just go quickly through the changes being proposed for the members of the public that might need

the information. >> thank you. primarily, as the supervisor's office has noticed, this came to us under our community as well as some of the publishers. housekeeping issues, for example. the allowing of public works to use electronic mail as a primary source of communications. it brings everything up to the 20th-century -- 21st century, essentially. publishers can receive notification for citation violations against the code must faster -- much faster, enabling dpw to correct the action from seven business days to 10 calendar days. there is no need for that extra four days in the mail.

it also imposes penalties that can be increased from $50 to $250 for fees regarding non- compliance to the code. excuse me, i am sorry. the codes are meant to recover the cost of transport to the yard and storage temporarily. to address the needs of smaller publications and those that do not distribute the news in traditional wax, we have added an informal allocation process whereby anyone that wants to participate in the program can get an empty box space that is

available through a very informal process. it is a first-come, first-served basis. fees are reserved from $60 to $50 per year, per box. hopefully that is more affordable, not only for smaller publications, but those who have to pay a fee. supervisor chu: thank you. i know that you have passed out to was a slide presentation. is that something that you wanted to share? >> i was going to share it, but i do not have a [inaudible] supervisor chu: all right. >> if you have any questions for me? supervisor chu: just a question on the feet. i know that the proposal proposes to reduce the annual fee from $60 to $50. a $10 difference. is this adequate to cover the cost from the view of dpw?

>> the cost has never been recovered by the use of the program. it is meant more to address the needs of the publisher in this case. it becomes less and less affordable to participate in the programs. dpw does not recover the cost of running the program. supervisor chu: on a side note, i know that there were a number of news racks stalled in much of the downtown area and other neighborhoods across the city. there was also a plan to have clear channel continued to provide news racks in other parts of the city over time. every year a certain amount was to be added. how is that program going? >> they have been meeting their goals. basically, 100 units per year that we provide quotations for. hopefully, one of the changes is

to downsize and consolidate existing units in the downtown area. union square, for example. there might be an abundance of patteson amounts per intersection. by allowing this proposal, in the residential corridor areas we have 100 per year. supervisor chu: how many? >> 702. supervisor chu: this is headed into the third year of that program? >> no, supervisor. the clock started during the first five years. the sixth year started when there were 585 units in the downtown area.

so that we were able to start in seoul -- installations into the neighborhoods. supervisor chu: we met 5852 years ago? >> december of 2007. supervisor chu: great. any other questions from the committee? are there any members of the public that wish to speak on item number five? i do not have any speaker cards in front of me. go ahead and line up in the middle. >> good morning, supervisors. i wanted to say over the years that we have watched songs and poetry, these sorts of things, more on that spirit but a serious issue for city operations and neighborhood services. i am very concerned that this city is not prepared for a disaster. we had a fire where the smoke

was that some sort of recycling place and the smoke engulfed hunters point. which should have required a shelter in your own home notification from knocking on doors. i called the san francisco health department and was told to call bay area air quality management without receiving a response. i went over there this morning and spoke to the executive committee. now they are working on it. the inspector at bayview hunters point, there has been no follow- up to find out if anyone had any asthma attacks related to the toxic smoke. i understand that there is a report but no one got back to my e-mail. i was told that first responders are supposed to be responsible, but on that day the police and the fire department told people they did not know. this was a miniature disaster in

terms of people possibly having had asthma attacks, as you already know, knocking on doors and in that area, there are too many doors that have oxygen tanks on warnings. even a plume of toxicity vetting goals for 30 minutes or an hour can kill someone in that area. it is just shameful. i cannot imagine what would happen if there was some kind of toxic event in the city. i would really like to see some kind of hearing with all of the different agencies coming together. first responders, the health department, determining what to do in a real disaster. supervisor chu: thank you so much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> good morning. my name is alexander [unintelligible] i am one of the san francisco bay distributors of free

publications in san francisco. part of a company takes graffiti from news racks especially. i have also served on the advisory committee for over 11 years. basically, i am here representing myself and speaking for the publishing community at large with regards to this new amendment. the only concern that i want to bring with regards to the fines that are going to be imposed on the news rack being seized by non-compliance after a notification is given, it is because of the logistical situation in many areas and locations in the city. there are more racks then would legally fit in one area.

many times, when a publisher distributes information out there to correct the violation, after that is done, subsequent publisher distributors come to move the rack that was put in compliance out of compliance. i am proposing that whenever we go out there, we take photographs of the citation been taking care of so that we are not incurring the $250 fee. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> my name is francisco [unintelligible] the clarification given by the dpw was not clear. i would like to go over those issues. number one, if there are so many racks and we want to be in the 21st century, we need the

ability to go on the internet and find out where these racks are. just like what was said earlier. arbitrary things, people using computers and everyone has access to them. the first thing that we, constituents want to know, is where these racks are. if we have so many, why are they not maintained? right now if you go to powell street and open the iraq, you will find a sleeping bags and other types of things right where the tourists go. do those racks provide a certain surface? if they do not provide a certain surface, who is responsible for that? none of you asked these questions because you presuppose

when clear channel is given some contract like that. they do a good job. you might think they do a good job, but those of them at ground zero in observations, of we find that we need to have our news racks like they have in every city, but maintain them. so, we also need news racks in the other parts of our district. where there are more astute citizens and the old fashioned racks. with those racks we also need the garbage, whenever they call them, guards. dpw has been interchanging after putting good garbage in, taking them away. supervisor chu: thank you.

>> our neighborhood should reflect region supervisor chu: -- reflect -- supervisor chu: thank you. are there any other members of the public that wish to speak on item number five? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. could i ask a question of grace? one of the comments made was about the empty news racks and how they sometimes contributed to blight. i know that the legislation's attempts to deal with those issues, can you speak to that? >> this is something to the credit of the mayor around the reform allocation. the mayor saw that there were a number of bacon boxes. sometimes it is because the publications have been taken. they're very popular. in other cases, they are just empty boxes.

they become an area where blight fills the city. allowing people on a first-come, first-served basis to fill those boxes. we think that many of those smaller publishers that may not have distributed, like your neighborhood newspapers, there may not be able pedestal for rack in place. there may be fewer opportunities for misuse of the boxes. we all looking forward to those informal changes. [unintelligible] thank you. i have a follow-up question for grace. i think that one of the things i am interested in in terms of public comments that we heard about the current location of the news racks, that is something that would be beneficial. i know that legislation includes providing information online about where nt