san francisco. they listened to having a wide sidewalk on noe street and a facility that encourages walking to public transit, which personally i feel very strong about. as an individual in the neighborhood, i encourage you to support the rebuild plan cpmc has presented to you. thank you. >> the next speaker after this will be michael daniels and marc anthony. >> good evening. thank you, members of the health and planning commissions. my name is dr. sam michaels. i appreciate this opportunity to address you. over my 18 years at st. luke's,

staff leadership positions, including chair of anesthesia, chief of the medical staff, and medical director of the st. luke's campus. as an emissary envoys of the physicians of saint luke, i wish to acknowledge and thank cpmc and the city of san francisco for saving some lives. the blue-ribbon panel achieve by and from all interested parties, medical, political, community, and a remarkable result. over the last two years, the department chairs have been working with architects and planners on our new facility. the medical staff from a supports the proposed plans. as this plan has crystallized, we see it does what it was supposed to do. it preserves critical service lines to a state of the art facility through tertiary distribution of services. st. luke's can access and a bill itself of incredible support from the other campuses, which

is already happening. lastly, while maintaining critical inpatient service lines, it also includes a robust plan for the direction medicine is taking, which is an outpatient and preventative care. in all my time, i have never seen the quality of care better than it is today. i am glad to play a role in -- play a role in partnering with cpmc to achieve this safety. i am optimistic we can continue to serve the needs of our community. respectfully request to give your full support to this plan and that you shepherd it expeditiously through the permit process. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is mike daniels. i am the president of the merrimack academy.

we serve 115 students, along with 116 alumni in high school and college. i am here to stress cpmc's commitment to the needy in the tenderloin. it is built upon a strong foundation of a long partnership with the academy, providing comprehensive counseling and help programming -- health programming that includes a nine-person team of counselors that provide in-kind services that make possible for over 50% of our student body to receive counseling support. for the kids of the tenderloin, to have an opportunity to speak with professional, dedicated counselors about the situation they are experiencing, about the challenges that are facing makes a tremendous difference. i have no doubt it is in direct correlation to the success we are able to have with our kids. we have 70% of our college-aged

students in a four-year university. it is because of partnerships like that which we have with cpmc which make possible the work we do. the partnership also includes a faculty member that is donated by cpmc that does health and nutrition program in with our students and their families, reminding them the importance of healthy eating and healthy living. i am happy to be here for these reasons in support of rebuilding cpmc, and asked to do the same. along with other community partners you have heard from, especially in this last portion of the evening, i think cpmc -- i thank cpmc for their commitment to our neighborhood. thank you. >> [reading names] >> my name is mark antony.

i in the community organizer with community housing partnership. i am in a unique situation. i used to cook for california pacific medical center. i also worked for cathedral hill as well. i am sharing some highlights on recapping -- steve wool made statements earlier, and we are basically working on the same team. we want open doors to the community, an increase in charity care, at stopping price gouging, and have access to high-level care and support for the community. i believe we have a potential world class hospital coming to the neighborhood. we need to be treated and served as world class. that is all i am going to say.

>> [speaking chinese] >> good evening. i am a san francisco resident. in 2006, i was stricken with an eye disease of cataracts. i was admitted into cpmc and was

given an operation which eventually gave back my sight. >> [speaking chinese] >> i was a low-income person with no qualifying medical insurance, but with the help of the program, along with cpmc and the lions club, i was given the opportunity to have service for free. >> [speaking chinese] >> for all my gratitude, i truly

believe that cpmc's dedication to social responsibility is genuine and voluntary. in this age of increasing demand for medical services, i believe the extension that cpmc is seeking will do much good for the public for a long time to come. >> [speaking chinese] >> please give cpmc your favorable consideration. thank you. [applause] >> please come up towards the front. >> good evening, commissioners. i am the chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at cpmc for the

last 12 years. i have been in charge of maternity care for about the half the births in this city for 17 years. as we have grown to 6000 births, as our services have become so attractive, what has kept me up late at night worrying is our lack of an intensive care unit on the california campus, so that we have to transfer very ill mothers to the pacific campus, should that arise in labor and delivery. we are back and forth if the pregnant mother is on the pacific and. last year, we had a crisis with h1n1 in our maternal area. somehow we avoided deaths. but that scared the heck out of us. we really need to be able to combine maternity services and intensive care support at one hospital, which is why despite having the women's and children's hospital equivalent

at the california campus i now feel strongly we need to combine those services so that we can have the backup for our mothers. secondly, in a point that was sort of brought out tonight, much of general care, including maternity care, is very local. you go to the hospital that is near where you live. we are in presidio heights. we have a lot of patience from that area. as we move our facilities to the tenderloin, i think we will naturally become the site of service for most of that community. that has happened throughout the city. thank you very much. president olague: i am going to call some more names. [names are called] if a culture name, please come to the microphone. -- if we called your name,

please come to the microphone. >> my name is duane spears of community housing partnership. i am concerned about them wanting to build this hospital. i have a personal interest. my brother had died at st. luke's five months ago due to the medical services that could not provide him. i cannot see building another hospital and not being able to make st. luke's have more medical equipment and what not in order to help the community. i have been in that area for about 30 years. i just can't see that building this hospital in that area for any reason at all. thank you. president tierney: thank you. we are sorry for your loss. >> thank you, commissioners. my name is penny straud.

i am with a local consulting firm that has been planning for a healthcare organizations throughout northern california since 1978. we have worked with many of the hospitals in san francisco, as well as northern california. we worked with cpmc for many years in the analysis of patience and communities, including development of the new citywide plan. although this plan is exempt from the new master planning process, i am confident that if you had a plan today, you would approve it. cpmc's proposal would be consistent with that plan because it is based on the same principles included in the ordinance. this is efficient designed to enhance quality and cost and enhancement of public safety and disaster preparedness. the proposed plan takes into account social, economic and

environmental factors. it is based on analysis of historical roles cpmc has played in the city. the plan is based around a citywide system that includes home and community-based services distributed throughout the city, in addition to more efficient and modern emergency and the services. cpmc cares for more than 30% of san francisco residents. the plan to rebuild it will result in more centrally- located inpatient facilities and better designed and distributed a patient and emergency services. the plan is comprehensive, dealing not just with rebuilding one or two buildings to replace seismically at risk hospitals. it is based on a thorough assessment of all cpmc services and sites. it is an opportunity to develop a coordinated system of care

from a full spectrum of services. president olague: i am sorry. your time is up. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> good evening. i appreciate you all being here so late. this is a topic that is very important to us and we really appreciate your attention. deena hillyard, director of the north of market community benefit the district and a 12- year resident of the tenderloin. a month to be clear that nobody is arguing that cpmc is not providing charity care. it happens to be less than 1% of their overall revenue, but they are. i just want to be clear. we do feel like we can challenge cpmc to do a better job. i also feel like before cpmc was

going through this process of wanting to have their projects approved, their charity care was a lot worse. since this project has begun, they have dramatically increased their charity care. i just hope that this commission and the health commission -- if you approve this project, there is a way to kind of memorialize the levels of charity care and have them maintain or increase those levels for decades to come, not just during the time that this process is before the city family. also, i really hope that both commissions insist that cpmc enter into a binding and enforceable community benefits agreement. that agreement should adequately address the community's concerns

around care and access. thank you very much. >> good evening, members of the health and planning commissions. i am a trauma surgeon at san francisco general hospital, assistant professor [unintelligible] i strongly support rebuilding st. luke's. our group provides all the tractor care and much of the orthopedic care. st. luke's provides the key resources, capacity, and services to provide care for all the people of san francisco. we know the burden placed by services. without st. luke's, it will be less capable in delivering care for those of in need. at st. luke's orthopedic group alone, there have been over 200

surgical procedures since the beginning of 2010. we are also able to treat many injured -- many self-insured patients. many in the community could not access other hospitals. as a result, we feel it is vital to remain to hospitals and to emergency departments in the south of market area. thank you. >> hello. [unintelligible] cpmc has a wide range of in our mental impact that must be mitigated under law. there are mitigation requirements that must be implemented through ceqa and

cpmc's master plan. cpmc lacks significant implementation enforcement for mitigation by enforceable agreements or localized institutional assurances, for example performance bonds to underwrite those agreements have not been called for. mitigation is ignored, especially community impact. they are not recognized as they should. you have $800 million of funds to be implemented into the tenderloin and japan town areas, with no means to mitigate except, show we say, the good wishes of the planning staff, which track record is not very good. safety issues such as the 30- inch gas line, aluminum

volatility contiguous to the franklin street site, must be resolved as an imminent public safety danger. if he would like to have a look at that, this issue makes the city and this commission complicit in promoting public safety liability. we could get sued for ignoring the issue. additionally, the master plan lacks emergency and disaster relief. the efforts of all city health providers need to pull sustainable resources. president tierney: thank you very much. we have your written testimony. >> thank you. >> i am lewis got -- lois scott.

i have attended a number of the good neighbor coalition meetings. the tenderloin is adjacent to cathedral hill. both commissions face a challenging multi-location project. it is not just a regional destination new mega-hospital with a health marketing strategy. it also comprises a major health care institutional presence in our city. with the proposed shift of this resources, there are issues that must be addressed in your policy decisions and approvals, including hospital care needs of residents of all incomes, and building the capacity of our city to meet a seismic emergency. the economics of the project are important. the city give this cpmc tax

exemptions worth millions, and has been asked to create a windfall in increased land the use by amending the general plan and the height and bulk requirements for the site. in turn, they need to give back to the city and the neighborhoods of import -- the neighborhoods of impact charity care, fair share, and strong leadership. one approach would be to have them deed back lands to the city and pay ground rent back to the city to ensure funding of health care access. the project would be much improved if rather than one big hospital the beds would be more

geographically dispersed, especially to guarantee the sustainability of st. luke's for the southeast and southwest neighborhood of san francisco. thank you. >> good evening. my name is rev. arnold townsend. tonight, i am representing the san francisco naacp amongst others, as its first vice president, dr. amos brown, the president, could not be here tonight. a long night. i will brief as -- i will be brief as possible, but i have to be since i only have two minutes. let me say to you we are 100% supportive of this project. we know cpmc, and we know them because of the work they do in our community, the outstanding work. the wart dr. carolyn dyson has done with black women's breast

health program has gained national recognition. this is tremendous work they do. we are talking about saving people's lives. i keep hearing people talk about how they do not take poor patients. i cannot tell you how much and how often i am up at cpmc. in fact, we need clergy parking. [laughter] i didn't want to forget that. i am there all the time visiting members of my community. trust me, we do not have a while the church. if we did, i would not have to work. it is working people, poor people. we go up to cpmc. i also want to remind you something someone -- something no one has talked about tonight, the potential for jobs. i know we always talk about that. but now we have the mandatory local hiring law.

the other thing we are talking to cpmc is we want some training. we know they are amenable to that. so by the time this place opens and many people have retired and they need new help, we can get some of the young people, especially of color, especially african-americans, who are no longer in the health-care industry, back into it. president olague: thank you. [names are called] >> my name is build -- bill stack. i am in support of cpmc building. i have received excellent care in all my visits and time there. i am concerned the process is taking a long time. san francisco does not have enough hospital bill certification beds -- does not

have enough hospital beds to prepare for a man-made or natural disaster that i believe is going to happen. each day we are not building is one more day closer to a potential natural disaster. this is unfortunate, because san francisco has one of the highest doctor to patient ratios of any city, and there will not be a place for patients to be treated, should this happen. i drive across the san francisco bay bridge every day, and i am reminded of the fact that the inception of getting a man to the moon and the time it took to get the bay bridge built were shorter. i am worried every day that i am on that bridge that there could be a new earthquake. if there could be any way of expediting this, it will improve the quality of life for all patients. someone had mentioned being a client of unemployment program

for people with epilepsy. i work with the epilepsy program in northern california, and it is the only employment service for people with epilepsy in the entire state, hosted through cpmc. i hope you guys will consider this. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is dr. morris santiago. i am on the faculty of the university and an executive director of family support services. our agency started at san francisco general hospital over 20 years ago to ensure healthy outcomes for immigrant, asian, and pacific island women with newborns through in -- to in- home case management. would provide a broad spectrum of services for families and children. we are partners with the bayview health center that is operated by cpmc. may ho was apa's former

executive director. she supported the panel's recommendation and cpmc's plans to rebuild st. luke's hospital. the thing i want to emphasize is that health care is approaching 20% of our economy. we need to be concerned about the availability of the best of care to our residents and say, state of the art environments. san francisco can't afford to let this large part of the city's economy risk liability. in fact, this rebuild will likely be a key economic generator, a tide that will lift all boats. in fact, the recent affordable care act means much of the nation's 50 million uninsured will have access to affordable care, and means we will have facilities to care for them.

we believe the plan before you will help meet the needs of our clients and san francisco residents. it will create jobs, provide benefits that will be felt in the nearby neighborhood and throughout the city. thank you. >> [names are read] >> my name is stephen cavanaugh. i am a certified rehabilitation registered nurse at the cpmc rehabilitation center at babies hospital. i have been there almost 10 years. when i first worked at the cpmc center, i was amazed at the challenges patient's face. people came in after all kinds of accidents, losing arms, legs, strokes, brain tumors, all kinds of things. many patients come in on gurneys. the cannot walk or talk. many cannot lift a finger.

we have to deal with them and their families. sometimes i would go see patients in the morning and ask how they are doing. sometimes they would tell me they were not well because the could not sleep at night. parents were three or four in a room. in 2009, the transition to a rebuilt facility. we now have a world-class facility. the patients can get the rest they need. the can move around with an incredible track system we have in the ceiling. they and their families face very difficult challenges. my first experience with davies hospital was in 1994. i was a volunteer to the aids patients. i gave up obstacles. i give up videos for the patients to look at. i distributed toiletries.