want to go like this, everything is better, it is not. this is part of the problem. there is a bigger problem that city hall is ignoring right now. if i could finish my sentence -- there are doctors who are not impacted -- it is not about jobs. it is about safety. supervisor mirkarimi: let me ask a question. if it is not about jobs, what is it about? >> it is about the safety. you put these people who are acute in non-acute beds. your friend, a nurse in that unit, could get popped because they're not getting the staffing they used to get. people are getting hurt. there has been an increase on

violence -- in violence on these floors because there is not enough staff thing to watch these people. that is the difference between acute and non-acute care. people are getting injured because there are no beds. it is challenging to come here and you're part of the problem, and everybody pretend like the other part of the problem does not exist, so you put money on the front and to train people to identify this person is a danger to themselves and others, but you do not have a bed to put them in because you cut them. [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you very much. you paint the vicious cycle quite well. any other public comments? public comment is closed. i want to thank everybody who participated in two very

thorough, comprehensive hearings, both related to each other, on the question of re- entering in san francisco and in us dealing with those requiring mental health attention by police and public safety. again, to everybody who participated, thank you, especially to all those that have been waiting. colleagues, why don't we filed this particular hearing? we will do so without objection. this hearing is now final. we will be following up with specific action, learned from these hearings come in the near future. we would like to return back to the last item of the regular agenda. it has already been called. thank you to those people who have showed up and have been patiently waiting. we appreciate your indulgence of our time. bank appeared >> good afternoon.

i am deputy director of taxi services for the san francisco municipal transportation agency. let me apologize for not being here when you first called the item. i wanted to offer the consideration of changing the order in order to accommodate the members who have been here. i would be happy to live there take public comment first and then make a presentation -- supervisor mirkarimi: why don't we do that? we will take public comment. i have cards. there are not that many. ethan, paul, john, charles, chris, please come up one after the other. anyone else,, right on up after each other. -- anyone else, come right on up

after each other. >> good afternoon, supervisors. mining's charles. -- my name is charles. i want to ask you to pass this item, the result of many hours of testimony at open meetings. it was an inclusive process that led to exhaustive discussion. this item would protect licensed operators from illegal operators. it would lead to an expansion of cab service in san francisco by getting rid of the illegal operators. it would get -- make room for expansion of licensed operators. from the industry. of view, this direct money from our fees to activities that would give us a lot of bang for our bucks.

i remind you that this enforcement enhancement is completely funded out of the fees of the taxicab industry. there are no general fund fees involved. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you very much. thank you for waiting. >> my name is john. i am a taxi driver. i have done other things. i have been a driver for over nine years. this is good. i think there will be unanimous support on this. i wanted to make mention that the reason why there is a market for illegal taxis and limousines is because there are areas that are under-served neighborhoods, and there is the problem with not enough taxi's during certain times. if you go forward this -- with

this, you have to address the problem of how come the bayview hunters point, out permission excelsior, outer richmond and sunset district, are not able to have the same access to taxi services? the answer usually for managers is, you need more medallions. i will only partially agree with that. i want this city to start to consider what i hope to propose very soon and what some other people think is kind of a controversial issue, but to consider the existence of municipal medallions. the problem is that right now, under the program, san francisco is collecting revenue from our industry and diverting that to muni. when you take revenue and then give it to muni, but don't take

some of that revenue and invest it back into the industry, it is hard to come up with solutions on how to better serve the communities with our taxi service. if you can figure out a way to generate revenue from our industry and invest that revenue back into the industry, i think we can come up with all kinds of ways to offer things like neighborhood taxis. i want to have the city consider the idea of a single operator medallion that would allow individual taxis to purchase their own cabs. [tone] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. supervisor cohen: could you tell me, what company do you drive for? >> i drive for yellow cap. supervisor cohen: when you meet your customers, do you hand out a card, by chance? >> no, not a personal business

card. i give them a yellow cab receipt. supervisor cohen: ok. thank you for your comments. supervisor mirkarimi: other cards have come forward. please feel free to come on up. >> my name is chris and i am here as the chair of the taxi advisory council. as general manager of the dot have here in the city. we have an item here -- one is safety and the other is service. the safety side, we are involved in picking up passengers at any time, in any place. we are very open to safety

concerns. if anyone is allowed to pick up anybody, there is a lot of potential harm to the public. we are highly regulated. who can become a driver is under a lot of scrutiny. that protect the public safety. in terms of service, there is a newer generation of people involved in the industry. these people hold leadership positions in the industry. there is a push for providing better service to the city. we realize that is somewhat lacking. we are taking vigorous steps to improve that. the challenges we face include dealing with the legacy system. we need to address the service and safety concerns we hear so much about. it can be a long and tough road. i am passing this on to the

board of supervisors. i think he would be definitely helping us out. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you very much. supervisor cohen: i'm curious. you imply you've taken steps to do this. what are you doing? >> well, the core of it is the people involved in the industry. one thing is driver training. there are a lot of industry leaders that realize drivers need more stringent, more in- depth training on how to conduct the business and how to serve the public. it is not a focus right now. we are dealing with -- our main objective is to report how the pilot program is progressing and what changes we should make to that. we are trying to incorporate things like driver training,

like screening for certain individuals, to better serve the public. we are taking the steps to change safety all of the city. there are other initiatives, which i believe the deputy director will speak about, including universal taxi access, which would make calves' available -- make cabs available much easier. supervisor cohen: ordering taxis is not so much the issue. the issue is which neighborhoods get service and which do not. can you tell me the composition of the taxi advisory council? >> it is a group that was meant to have a cross-section of all the different parties in the industry. the deputy director can back me up on this one. there are 15 members total. three of them are cabdrivers. three of them are individuals on

the waiting list to receive their permits. three of them are from larger companies. supervisor cohen: is there anyone representing the southeast neighborhoods? >> no. supervisor cohen: it sounds like the process needs to be changed. we are talking from a historical perspective of communities that have been historically left out. i don't know how many of your taxi drivers are actually from the -- live in the southeast part of san francisco. the issue is -- i understand safety and i understand that you need to make the system more safe. what we have here is an opportunity to have an impact on the system, the process as to which calvbs get distributed. we have a systematic problem,

somewhat similar to what was talked about. the cabs have the ability to discern who they will service and who they will not service. that creates the problem we see today. there is a proliferation of these types of cabs, the most egregious in new york and on the east coast. i would like to make a recommendation that we really take concrete, manageable, attainable, and measurable goals. the taxi advisory council, the next time a person gets appointed, taking into consideration where that person lives, their geographical location in the city. we are talking about, from a -- what other bodies govern the taxi industry? we have the a geyser council.

>> the council advises the board of directors of the mta. the board of directors is the ultimate governing body of the industry. they make decisions as to what to do in the industry based on recommendations from office and from the staff. -- from us and from the staff. supervisor cohen: you piqued my interest when it comes to the training of a taxicab driver. what exactly is at? >> there is a certain level of -- because drivers are independent contractors, if they were employees, we would have -- as a company, we could direct them where to go. they are independent contractors. training them on better business practices to service the outlying areas, there are areas that are under-served.

most of the cabs spend their time in the northeast part of the city, the financial district, south of market, and mission. training them to in best business practices is to take care of other parts of the city, as well. one of the ways we are contemplating how to address the service issue problem we have in the city -- it is a problem we are aware of. we are in the process of figuring out the best way to address it. supervisor cohen: you believe that this agenda item is the best way to begin to address that? >> it is a step in the right direction. coupled with the safety issues, when you have limousines, taxicabs servicing the demand, the same demand we are trying to service, that also gives us --

it gives us a false sense of coming in basic terms, the number of cabs required in the city. we have a false statistics with which we cannot make proper decisions. supervisor cohen: thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. let's continue going to public comment. supervisor cohen brought up excellent points. the mta can speak to them. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for the opportunity to speak. my name is paul. i have been in the industry for 35 years here in san francisco, as a taxi driver and a dispatcher. i am disabled and retired now.

when i started driving, i started in oakland. i was trained where you had to drive in the cab with another trainer. oakland business is mostly from people who call in to receive service. here in san francisco, that is not the case in general. you have a lot of flags downtown. drivers that have difficulty speaking english also have difficulty knowing where things are, and they tend to stay downtown. they don't go to neighborhoods. that is an area we need to change in our training. i am here to speak in favor of this legislation. it is long overdue. it will keep -- it is a safety issue. it will keep illegal town cars

with inadequate or no insurance from picking up. one thing that i always prided myself on whenever i drove a cab is i knew my customers in the southeast section of san francisco. i picked them up all the time, and they were wonderful customers. i salute them even to this day because they helped my family to flourish. thank you very much. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> hello. i'm a ms.ed and i am a medallion -- my name is ed and i am a medallion older. you definitely need training, but there are two issues. one is the legislation. this is a very practical, innovative way to find people

who are violating the law. i believe that your idea that the gypsy cabs are springing up to service the outlying areas is not as a surly true. if they were doing a good job, you would not have a problem getting cab, would you? this is pacific legislation. the police are supposed to be stopping limos, but they're not very interested in the issue. the method that the deputy director has come up with is to have people full time dealing with this. this is getting illegal people off the street. they are harassing people on the street. i have had them start screaming at people who got in my taxicabs. one driver tried to run me off the road because he thought i stole his fair. i have seen them go up the

streets, stopping every woman. this is legislation to help stop this. this is also legislation to help stop giving the limos rides. they're making customers wait. this is an example of the -- different subject. it is a different subject. this is something we were working on for two years. the other part of the plan is how to serve the neighborhoods better. these electronic things, actually, they do improve service. people can get through on their smarthphones. -- smartphones. [tone] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you.

nec's speaker, please. >> i am president of national veterans cab company. i'm a member of the advisory council. this is a simple situation. we have a practice that has been going on for well over 20 years. basically, hotel operators send limos, legal limos, to pick up passengers who would normally take a legitimate cab. these limousines are not regulated. you have no idea who will be driving them. the people getting into these vehicles don't really appreciate the nuance of that situation. you have the legal taxicab's out there operating, picking up passengers, and their service in the northeast part of the city. they're not in the southeast part of the city. the proposal that has been brought forth by the director is

an excellent one. fines with more than cover the cost of enforcement. replacement medallions, by taking these vehicles off the street, if we replace them with legitimate medallions, that would produce millions of dollars in revenue for the city. i will take just a moment to address -- i'm sorry, a supervisor cohen's concerns. we make an effort to service the entire city. particularly, we have a regular customer in the bay view. we make an effort to stay in contact with that customer. we create incentives if we are having difficulty filling the order for a driver to go out there. we are installing a system in our company where the customer

and the driver can communicate directly. this helps to create reliability, which is important. [tone] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. appreciate that. next speaker, please. >> thank you. i am with one of the industry groups. i brought some written materials to your office. the first piece of paper showed from "the los angeles times" 10 years ago what happened in los angeles when the police failed to take action against the fate taxis -- fake taxis. it turned out these cars were servicing some neat, like picking up a supermarket. other people saw they could get the free money without the licenses. finally, it got to be where

there were 2000 cars that were illegal on the streets every day. it was a perfect cover for heinous crimes, including murder, robberies, and rapes. one offa theke drivers try to beat the train to the crossing. -- one of the fake driver's tried to beat the train to the crossing and six people were killed. this is the phone book in san francisco. there are 65 fake yello cab listings. if youc all 411, if a numberthau

very much. next speaker, please. >> my name is barry. i am with the san francisco cabdrivers association. i agree that these are two separate issues. they are somewhat related. illegal taxis have gotten out of hand. this is more about cracking

down on illegals and those that are not licensed. cabdrivers have to go through a screening process. the vehicles are inspected by the sfpd. i would like to use the overhead projector to show you photos of illegal cabs to give you an idea of how rampant this problem has become. it really needs to be addressed as a matter of public safety. can i get the overhead? i am pointing this out. this is an imitation of our realyellow cab. 333-3333 is a real phone number. these are 333-3633. these are very professionally done. here is another one. they all have 333-3633. here is an example of an illegal

taxicab that i took a picture of in san francisco. here is a picture of an illegal limo. there is no way of identifying these cars if somebody is a salted or loses something in the cab -- is assaulted or loses something in the cab. some of these people have been fired by other companies or cannot get tired. hiyashi and taxi services is implementing, or trying to implement, another plan to make it more bearable with open taxi access, which would allow people in under-served districts to look of their computer and see where the cabs are. [tone] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you very much. next speaker, please.

>> i am a yellow cab driver. i am a night driver. this is the very first proposed legislation i have seen. the best one i have seen that addresses many issues of our industry, 10 years at least, we have had town meetings, and meetings, and we are talking about the same issues. this addresses many of them. the obvious ones, corruption. doormen, i have not taken a ride to the airport out of many hotels. it is absolutely ridiculous. this also addresses public safety.

many other issues, like revenue for the driver. if you don't have the legal vehicles, revenue increases. for the safety, i had at least two female passengers that told me had been raped. think how many are out there. a black limousine, a taxi that did not know the city, i had a graphic description of two young males leaving a club that for taken to another location and beaten. this is horrifying. can you see a criminal running around in a taxi picking up people? we're talking about something really bad. i had at least three tourists