self-serving. the sponsor is instead indicating his reliance on anecdotal experiences, such as a show of hands at political gatherings of light-minded supporters. the sponsor has refused to meet with industry members to substantively discussed in good faith, though his staff has attended to create an e-mail trail that would suggest the opposite. it process is flawed cannot results in clear and effective legislation. as ned said, there is broad consensus by everyone involved in this issue that no one who does not want to receive a phone book should ever receive one, but opt-in is the worst possible of all of the considerations that could be considered. it will result in scores of unintended victims and posting

vacancy signs in store windows. no one has more skin in the game than our industry. we are committed to doing it right, and i ask you to either vote no on this proposal or to continue it so that we can begin a dialogue that will result in a favorable effort for everyone. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, jim lazarus, san francisco chamber of commerce. obviously, no one supports ways, materials not used, extra materials into the waste stream, but the exaggeration we have heard today is really to the extreme. to talk about 1.6 million folks to 800,000 residents, you forget a large part of your district supervisors in downtown san francisco with half a million other people working and business locations with phones and phone books. you are also for getting multiple -- there is, because it is a free first amendment right

-- we are seeing multiple books distributed by at&t, the valley yellow pages, hispanic, asian, the gay and lesbian community is that obviously tried that count up. what we have not heard today is how this will make the playing field level for small businesses and all businesses in san francisco by basically cutting the legs out from under the print advertising option in favor of the internet. all you have to do is go to google and see who is paying for the top of that google search. it is not your small businesses. the legality question has been touched on. let's hear from the city attorney. why is the opinion that you can provide, when asked by a supervisor to draft legislation similar to what is before you today, the opinion was it is illegal. it violates the first amendment of the united states constitution. it is not content neutral. we hear nothing on that point

from the sponsor or anyone else at the board. opt-out is the way to go. let's have a policy that says if this is truly a fair program, let's have the department work opt out. you have uc professors saying how difficult that is. what the professor was not asked was what will be the dropout rate of people that we truly want and would use the yellow pages but have not figured out opt-in. let's go to the department of the environment for getting these books that are not used back into circulation where they need to be used, reducing overall printing. that is obviously in everybody's interests, but preventing wide distribution of phone books is not in the best interest of the businesses in san francisco or the city, many the materials for city government phone numbers and most especially, for emergency response that is in the phone book. i will wrap it up right now.

i heard anything, i would be a little bit afraid in the next disaster that the average san franciscan apparently does not have the book that you heard today and does not look to the emergency provisions that we are really focused on after the 1989 earthquake. supervisor chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> last time i had to follow a singing guide. following jim lazarus is almost as bad. i am here on behalf of the sierra club. i want to thank you for putting forth this legislation and also supervisor wiener for being a code-sponsored. melanie said it best when she talked about reduce, reuse, recycle. waste is waste. there is no other excuse for it. i think this program would help the city achieve its zero with goals sooner rather than later, and if one has been made about the costs involved that are either born by the city or the rate payers in terms of recycling that are important. the other thing that has not been touched on very much is --

very much as the impact on the paper industry. i did a little bit of research, and apparently, we use more water per ton of product than any other industry in the world. i have seen some pretty horrific pictures. also, i thing we need to think about the destruction of trees, the deforestation that is going around. maybe these trees are not all going for yellow pages, but there is destruction of forests in south america, in the southeast area, canada, and alaska. i think it is really important that we look at the total environment picture. the other thing that has not been mentioned is how many cars and trucks it takes to distribute these around the city. i think that it is an important issue, and i'm glad that it is here, and i hope you can support it. i also have a revised letter for the clerk. i sent an e-mail yesterday, but i changed some of the numbers, so i will leave that with the clerk. supervisor chiu: 90.

next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a resident of the richmond district, and i'm here to speak out in favor of this proposal. true that i have used the yellow pages in the past, and use it only as a paperweight, really. honestly, when i need to find something online, i go online, and that is my main instinct. i have grown up just seeing pretty much in my part of complex just books being left out on the street, just backs, as we have already seen before hand. this would be, i think, a step in the right direction. talking to some of my other friends about this issue, they say the same thing, that they do not use yellow pages. their first initial reaction is to go to yelp or google. as our communities get more

internet savvy, their initial reaction is going to go to our online resources. we have public libraries that are accessible to get this information, and also the yellow pages, if you do want them, at these places. i do not have any fear, really, about the loss of any consumer notification. really, i think this is a great step in the right direction, and i would be glad to see some of the waste eliminated from all of this. if i want to opt in for an annual paper rate, i will do so in the future -- for an annual paperweight, i will do so in the future. supervisor chiu: thank you. as the next speaker comes to the podium, let me call up -- [reading names] >> good afternoon, supervisors. i m here on the behalf of san

francisco beautiful. we are a nonprofit community benefit organization with a wide membership throughout the city of san francisco. our mission is to ensure that the city retains and enhances its unique and memorable sense of place, ballots, and diversity of its beautiful, verdant, and vibrant urban center. we are extremely concerned with the esthetic issue of letters piled up in our streets -- [bell rings] supervisor chiu: sorry about that. i think that was a little early. [laughter] >> no problems. we are concerned about the amount of paper left unused and eventually hold off recycling. we believe that the yellow pages pilot program is an excellent response to the issues of literary abatements and sustainability. does not limit the delivery when personally accepted, but is designed to prevent a steady light from being left in doorways.

by a vote of the executive committee of san francisco beautiful on march 2, 2011, it is the official position of san francisco beautiful to support this legislation. thank you, supervisors, for sponsoring this forward-looking and contemporary legislation. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. we publish a directory seen directly at one of the most important, diverse communities in the city -- spanish-speaking residents. not only is our directory published in spanish, but our version of the yellow pages case to the specific needs of our community. has the information they are looking for and the listings and ads from businesses that serve their community. both the residents we serve any businesses to advertise with us depend on our product, and they depend on it being freely distributed to their doorstep.

being that the spanish-speaking community sees the phone book as a trusted connection between small businesses and the consumer, should this ordinance be allowed to pass, the distribution would be diminished immensely. without a printed directories, both spanish-speaking residents and businesses and cater to them loose, and the economic fallout would be very harmful to this community, which is already suffering more than others. i'm glad there were individuals who did mention the use their internet. they use their smartphones, and they use broadband. however, it is not free. they are very fortunate to have that luxury. most spanish-speaking consumers do not have the disposable income to be able to afford that. so where will they go? if they are going to look for something on google search and go to the library, it will not be anything local. so i urge you, on behalf of the

diverse ethnic communities in san francisco, to table this proposal that would be so harmful to many. also, i have a statement from the rainbow yellow pages. it reads, "we have no pride in a city that would deny small businesses the right to market themselves however they feel is best for their business. there is a misperception that everyone today finds businesses online. that simply is not true, especially if you are a business that wants to reach a targeted audience." supervisor chiu: 5 you very much. >> good afternoon. thank you so much. i am the president of the green chamber of commerce, and we fully support this measure. this ordinance is ultimately good for business and the environment in significant ways that outweigh possible downside spirit it was the reason that in the small business commission

they voted to support the ordinance unanimously. that is why we urge their support. we urge you to support it as well. having reviewed the yellow pages association's sustainability report, we concluded that requiring this possible distribution practices of the yellow pages phone book in the city is the most sustainable thing that this industry could do. as everyone has said before and board members have spoken today from the green chamber, it is low hanging fruit. we have not talked about the average person receiving 41 pounds of gelled mail in the city every year. the yellow pages phone book is the biggest piece of junk mail we receive and weighs around 5 pounds. most people receive at least two copies, meaning 10 pounds. that is 25% of the total weight of all gel mail we receive each year. we are eliminating unwanted phone books that can immediately is the equivalent wait until we receive by 21%.

in the free market, the consumer has a choice. here we have no choice. people receive multiple copies of five counts of phone books every year because of the advertising industry. there are better ways, and we urge you to support this ordinance. supervisor chiu: i have one comment on the letter that you had submitted about niche yellow page manufacturers. you said in your testimony that there are many non-english- language and other niche yellow page manufacturers who have proven that door to door distribution is not necessary for successful yellow pages. they pay higher labor costs, and they are so successful in part because there are better permanent local jobs that do not rely on one-time yearly seasonable distribution patterns. could you comment on that? >> a couple of things on that. one of the terms of sustainability is localization, and improving a local work force does definitely help with that. there was also a march 3/--

march 3, 2011 letter to the board of supervisors from the chinese yellow pages, noting that, but " we are unable to deliver door-to-door, especially in the bay area, where chinese readers and writers are more dispersed than any other market." i think that also bolsters that point. does that answer your question? supervisor chiu: it does. i know a number of smaller publishers spoke to our offices off the record. it or not interested in entering the yellow pages association, but they told us that there model, which is different from the model we have been talking about today, has been great for business, and that is the way they think the industry ought to go. thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, supervisors. i am financial secretary of the ibw 1269.

i'm speaking in opposition of this ordinance on behalf of my union, the san francisco labor counsel, and the state aflcio. i represent over 800 workers. the design, sell, process, and fulfill all of the advertising that is placed in the at&t print yellow pages from cover to cover as well as the internet at&t capability product in conjunction with the yellow pages print, and we have been doing that for over 50 years. right now, those workers are on the streets talking to these business folks, trying to find out what their interests are in buying advertising this year in the san francisco directory that is going to publish in december.

these customers, these advertisers, these small business people are either going to renew their existing advertising, by additional advertising, or they are going to cancel whatever advertising is in the book now. depending on what they calculate is the value of whether or not there is even going to be a book. now, we have all these new customers and new businesses coming into town who have nothing in the yellow pages and are going to look forward to wanted to put something in those books. i want to stress that many of the businesses in this town are union employers. they all have advertising -- or many of them have advertising in this book. i am going to quote some of the businesses that our union employees with union workers. your plumbing contractors -- [bell rings] two minutes already? supervisor chiu: i will ask you

a follow-up question. i did speak to mr. stempel said this morning from the labor council, who relayed some of the issues you were talking about -- speak with mr. tim paul said. if we were to move to a model where you were to need to get permission from residents and businesses in order to receive yellow pages, there are many folks that believe that would create more jobs for your industry, that that will provide an opportunity for your workers to go door by door, to do more canvassing, and to also work year round, to insure that if you are going to leave yellow pages at supermarkets, libraries, restaurants, and we feel that something you will have to do more often. your thoughts on that? >> my thoughts are i would only be able to evaluate those comments if i knew who they came from. from my personal point of view, there is nobody in this room in this building in this city in this state in this country that knows more about yellow pages advertising than i do. i have been doing it for 50

years. i'm here to tell you i do not believe that. i do not know what he has articulated that could counter that, but i can tell you -- you did not cut me off, did you? supervisor chiu: no, i'm asking. feel free to answer the question. >> plumbing contractors, electrical contractors. we have signed hangars, general contractors, carpenters, sheet metal workers, roofing contractors, sign hangars, all the repair service people. many hotels and restaurants in this city, not to mention the number of truck drivers delivering products. i have heard an awful lot about no-brainers theory to me, that means you do not have a brain. if we are going to have a no- brainer, i would love to see you, the board of supervisors, these people in the industry sit down somewhere and i and common sense deliver it fashion work something out so that we can all

be happy. in the meantime, tinm -- tim paulson, the ibw -- we will do everything we can to see to it that we defeat this measure. supervisor chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i m a san francisco resident urging you to vote yes on this measure. honestly, hearing some of the other speakers, i realize i did not know all of what was involved, but i feel a yes vote is important here, due to the fact that i feel it is not limiting information, but encouraging those that need their information delivered in a specific manner to reach out and get it. i also feel as though it is incumbent upon the industry that has basically been littering our neighborhoods for years now to put their resources into figuring out ways to get these books to people that need them rather than bringing it to this point of forcing us to use our

resources to clean up after them. sadly, in my neighborhood alone in the outer richmond, which is primarily single-family residences, in the recent rain storms, i cannot tell you the piles of these things i have seen sitting out on the streets. and numbers of them have not been going down. they have been going up. personally, i am offended that i am paying for the cleanup of this through my taxes, to clean up the mess that is apparently creating these jobs, that i am subsidizing this waste of resources, waste of labor, waste of their legal efforts to fight it. perhaps there is a better way, and perhaps everybody needs to sit down and figure out something better. certainly what is going on now is not acceptable. i would like to say i have not opened up one of those for years. most of the people that i know send them straight to the recycle or pick them up off of

our neighborhood sidewalks and streets out of the debtors. this past rain that was flooding my neighborhood, it was piles of these phone books. the plastic covering them, and the mess that piles up afterwards. so please vote yes. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i am a resident and small business owner. i agree with much of what has been said today in favor of this proposal. i cannot think of the last time i actually use a phone book. i do think that people should have access if they want them, but i do not. i never have, and i do not forseen the in the future. that is pretty much all i have to say. please vote yes. thank you. supervisor chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am a resident of san

francisco. i would like to thank president chiu and the co-sponsors for putting this proposed pilot project out for boats. i am very happy that san francisco recycles the way we do, that we lead the nation, but the recycling, composting -- it is excellent. but over the years, i am increasingly upset by seeing piles and piles of old books that i am picking up from street corners, from my front porch, and dumping them straight to the recycling bin because, obviously, nobody is using them. what i did not know until the last couple of days was how much money we spend recycling them, that they need to be manually handled, that the plastic needs to be taken off. i cannot possibly see how this is sustainable, so i urge you to please vote for this. supervisor chiu: thank you. as the next speaker is setting up, if i could call -- [reading names]

>> thank you for letting me speak. i worked for verify audits circulation, and i would like to enter in some facts that we collected over the last six years. what you will see about these facts as they are a little different relative to how consumers are using and retaining the yellow pages, which i think may shed some sort of factual information on the yellow page issue. what we did for valley yellow pages was to see how many people

wanted the yellow pages, and the number was quite high. five weeks after that, we would conduct research to look at usage, preference, satisfaction of not only their yellow pages, but their competitors'. by comparing that information over the last six years, we have been able to see that on the order of 83% in 2005, 84% in 2007, and 82% in 2009, are the levels of retention in households, statistically, projected based on a telephone sample of households that keep their yellow pages. i think what you would conclude from that is that if people were not using them and did not want them, they would do what would be logical -- throw them away. but that is absolutely not what statistics is saying is occurring. i would view the right solution to go in a different path than

you are proposing with this particular ordinance. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i just wanted to speak to some of the things that the yellow pages industry has brought up. one thing that they consistently do is present themselves as the single option for small business, which is not true at all. there are any number of different options that a small business could use to get their message out, probably more efficiently than what -- then using the yellow pages. it is almost predatory in the way that they do it. costs have not reflected what you are actually getting and receiving. i was quoted this morning that a full page monthly cost full- color in the yellow pages is $3,877 a month. comes out of 46,000-odd dollars a year -- $46,000-a year.

which is a pretty good number. there is a lot of different options that anyone could use that are significantly cheaper and much more effective and not create all the ways, do not create all the environmental problems. that is all i had to say. thanks. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am from californians against waste, and in strong support of this proposal. i would like to address some of the arguments that the opposition has made, which is a cop out. the approach has been done. the puc has required publishers to have the number in the phone book, but the resource has been underutilized. a lot of consumers do not know about it. last year, californians against waste sponsored a bill which would have required publishers

to post on the front cover of the yellow pages opt-out number, but the industry lobbied against it and killed the bill. they said that opt-out is the way to go, but even when we tried to work with them, they tried to kill the bill. this is a common-sense approach that caters to consumer choice, respect the wishes of the residents who do not wish to receive these books. for those reasons, i would like to urge your support. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: could you repeat that piece of legislation that would have required the industry to publish the phone number on the front page? what was it called and when was it introduced? >> it was introduced last year as senate bill 920. supervisor chiu: thank you.

next speaker. >> hello, supervisors. i am a small business owner in san francisco, and i live in the mission district, and i have been dealing with the mess of phone books for many years, although i do appreciate having a phone book, and i do use it probably once a year. i urge you to move forward with this measure. i think is a good one, but i also think we can find some innovative measures to make sure people who rely on the phone book that need the phone book have access to those. to me, it seems like that would be the most win-win situation, to make sure that folks who use those to have access to them. the money that we would save on recycling -- i'm sure we could recycle that into making sure there are people who have jobs who can ensure that folks do have the resources and phone books that they need. again, i urge you to move forward with this measure. it is a good thing to do. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors.

i represent seniors and persons with disabilities from senior action network. i ask you to support the ordinance to reduce the environmental and financial impact of unused yellow pages in san francisco, even though there are only about 800,000 residents in the city, like joe mail and spam, many of the phone books are on wanted and never get used. please consider the but -- the benefit of this ordinance and send it to the full board of supervisors with our recommendations. seniors and persons with disabilities would benefit. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i am with chinese yellow pages. pages. i am the general manager.