problems could be solved on the spot. i'm glad to see you are working on solutions and that there are recommendations, and you are willing to help. >> good evening. thank you for putting this on. i am the director of the fund that supports a 17 a-area memsa communities. there were earlier comments about the trust we should put in the u.s. attorney general. as a community member and someone who works with community members, i can tell you the actions the fbi have taken have eroded the trust. the men and women are supposed to protect us. instead, the community, community-base organizations as

well as individuals, feel pro failed and -- profiled and surveillance. this will spread even more in terms of relations and perceptions of the sfpd. i encourage you to strongly consider the resolution options and burn our community's trust back. you can protect our civil rights and keep us safe. if you ignore the resolution option, you will be sending the community a message that you don't take seriously our lives and concerns. i would also like to respond to comments about many members of the community's coming from countries that have different standards and laws. actually, some of these community members have shared that they have come to the u.s. in the hopes of seeking a different circumstance and in the hopes of seeking more protection, and an ability to speak up for themselves and their rights. however, are people say they're

surprised, especially in san francisco that they continue to feel they are not able to speak openly and that they're being profiled and surveiled. thank you so much. [applause] >> good evening. police chief, i want to congratulate you and welcome you to our community. commissioners, this topic looks kind of very deep. in looking at the law, i want to thank a good gentleman, jean,

and i think you should consult with him. he's knowledgeable and it seems like there is a fight here, and administrative fight, outside the law itself, concerning our communities. how the commission will deal with it, it seems very complicated, something that we, the subjects, we probably, we don't understand all of this, but i am sure the police chief, and you guys, you will get into some understanding. i am nobody, you know?

i am just here, very interested. not doing well. but this issue of profiling and deeper to people has been the same as immigration, federal immigration asks the police department to look to the immigrants. one police chief told me, i don't care where you come from. you do your job. also, you have to remember that in our community, it is a self- censorship.

before anybody wants to do bad things for our safety, there are -- >> all right, sir. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i am the executive director of the san francisco bay area office of the council on american islamic relations. we're the largest american civil rights advocacy group. before i speak about our perspective, a pope of clarification. there have been questions about the fbi's present. it is my understanding, just so everyone knows, the fbi was invited to participate in today's hearing, and they declined. that goes to the question of trust and openness. if they are not willing to have these conversations in the open, the way they are in portland, the question comes to people's minds is, what are they hiding? why can't we have these

discussions with them? that is that issue. in my line of work, i represent dozens of clients who have been visited by the fbi. what i usually share some examples of what we see. they highlight the reason for openness, accountability and trust. there's a reason we need these things. some of the things we have seen with the fbi in the last year and a half is people being questioned on their views about osama bin laden. their question about the uprisings in the middle east, whether or not they know rebels in libya, tunisia, and egypt. african community members are questioned about the uprising in egypt and other parts of the middle east. we also find agents not willing to share their names, last names, affiliations, business cards, so all we get is mitch, george, and john saying they

want to protect us. it does not work. i am urging this body to take up the recommendations that have been put forth to move us toward a resolution model so there is concrete, clear, and transparent accountability for the way law enforcement interact with this community. we need trust. we must move forward together. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i am with the advocate for human rights. we work with iranian immigrants, iranian asylees. i don't want to repeat anything anyone said. in our line of work, we have also seen our community organizations being harassed by the fbi. i want to underscore the importance of community organizations, security in knowing they are not being

surveiled when they are providing services to the community. thank you. president mazzucco: thank you very much. any further public comment? >> good evening. i am going to be helping with translation. >> i am a tunisian american. she will try to translate my story. >> i have lived in san francisco for 10 years. i work as a cabdriver. the fbi has come to my home and my work multiple times. i have been interrogated. in san francisco, the fbi has asked me about my religion, where i pray, my family's name, the names of my roommates, and how many times i pray, and very personal questions. in 2009, i was delivering to

someone without pulled over by various sfpd cars and a van, including a red crown victoria. it stayed behind and there was a man that was walking. the officers told me to step out of my car. they handcuffed me and put me on the sidewalk while they searched my car. they went back and reported to the man in the crown victoria, who then left while the officers spoke to themselves and seemed to be discussing what to give me a ticket on. i found out that i received a ticket for an unsafe right turn, which i did not do. i am saddened that this type of harassment happens to me. i'm not here today to speak about myself. i am here to speak about my family that i wish to reunite with. i have a daughter and a wife i want to bring here in the next few months. i don't want this to happen to my daughter when i bring her here and i don't want this to happen to my wife. help stop the abuses.

[applause] president mazzucco: is there further public comment? public comment is now closed. item three? item three is adjournment. >> i want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their hard work. i want to thank the audience. very compelling to hear your story. we as a commission, we are all individual commissioners with equal power and authority. i think it is fair to say that we the commission will not tolerate any form of discrimination, any form of profiling come in this city. that is not acceptable. i know that chief suhr will not tolerate or allow that. we will make great strides to clear up some of the perceptions this evening. i want to thank john crew from the aclu for presenting these

issues and bring in the audience forward. the folks we heard from, especially those individuals who have been affected, it is important that we send a message that we are not born to tolerate this, and that we will protect civil rights. again, this is an unprecedented hearing. i want to thank the human rights commission. we're sending a strong message to night. no one should feel threatened by anybody. commissioner dejesus: i want to thank everyone for their participation. i want to say that i think we should have some next steps. on the commission level, we should follow up on the resolution aspect of this and continue to meet and discuss that and see whether it is feasible and how to proceed. i want to thank everyone for bringing this to our attention. i look forward to continuing to work with you to move forward. thank you. >> on behalf of the human rights commission, i would also like to

say thank you and thank president mazzucco and his commission for sharing their meeting with us. i am sure i speak on behalf of everyone involved in sang thank you to theresa spar santazoey polk, -- theresa sparks and zoey polk, who have worked on this issue. i'm proud of the work the commission does in san francisco. i'm proud we will continue to be on the cutting edge of issues like this to make sure that matters are dealt with and human rights are protected, and there is full view of these issues in public in san francisco. want to thank everyone. i want to thank everyone for coming tonight and we look forward to seeing you at our future meetings. >> do we have a motion? >> i want to say thank you. i will make a motion.

i also want to thank members of the human rights commission for your detailed and thoughtful questions. i could tell there was a lot of work that went into it on your end, and i appreciate that. i also want to recognize the work of our president, president mazzucco, because i know that he has met with members of the committee. with that, i move to adjourn. >> second. president mazzucco: all in favor? this meeting is adjourned.

hello, i'm david, presiding judge of the superior court of san francisco. the court is now accepting applications for the civil grand jury. this investigative watchdog body is comprised of 19 public spirited citizens selected by my colleagues on the court. as a grand jury you will receive an extraordinary opportunity to investigation the -- investigate the workings of city government. you will meet city officials who run the city departments and agencies and be able to discuss current policies, issues that they're dealing with, and their

plans for addressing these issues. the grand jury is charged with conducting independent, confidential investigation of city departments of the grand jury's choice to ensure the agencies are operating effectively. so if you are interested in our local city government and would like to work with 18 other enthusiastic citizens, committed to improving its operation, i encourage you to consider applying for service on the civil grand jury. thank you for your time. for more information contact the grand jury office or visit the grand jury website.

>> good morning. today is wednesday, may 18, 2011. this is the meeting of the abatement appeals board. i like to remind everyone to please turn off all electronic devices. first item on the agenda is roll call. [roll call] we are expecting commissioner murphy. commissioner romero and commissioner hechanova are excused. we have a quorum. the next item on the agenda is the oath. will all those who will be giving testimony today please rise and raise your right hands? this is for the abatement of pills. do you swear that the testimony

you are about to give us the truth to the best of your knowledge? thank you. we can move on to item number c, which is new appeals. order of abatement case 1, case number 6748 1429 hyde street. the act it -- the action requested by the appellant is assessment of costs and fees imposed by the order abatement be waived. we will hear from the department first for seven minutes and then the appellant. then we will have discussion, and then there is a three-minute rebuttal for each side. if we could hear from the department representative first. >> good morning, commissioners. i work for the department of building inspection as a

plumbing and mechanical and specter. -- inspector. the original notice of violation was written by myself based on an actual physical inspection of the premises on 4/19/04. at which time, we observed several code violations, which are delineated on the report. we issued letters, followed procedure, and some of these code violations are pretty significant violations with back flow protection and boiler certification inspection and safety items on the book. the owner of the property has had a significant amount of time to contact us. we have sent letters explaining what he needs to do, how to go

about getting a precontracted to help -- appropriate contractors to help with the work, and today, we have had no inspections, no response. our recommendation is to uphold the order of abatement and impose assessment of costs. thank you. >> this is a significant amount of time, going on seven years. i mean, i guess i would ask how, it has taken so long to get to this point. >> i can only give you my response, which is beyond the scope of my expertise, other than if you look at the case history, we sent the code enforcement from one department somewhere in may. i cannot speak to what takes place up there and how come it took so long. >> ok, thank you.

>> has anybody gone back to visit the property since 2004? >> no, we have a response that says there were plumbing permits which were required cold, but it's coming from and in its description and scoke mentions nothing about the removal of the boiler, for which we require a permit an inspection, and that particular permit has no case history of any inspections being done. >> so it is enacted? >> it is long since expired. >> what led to the 2004 inspection? >> probably the city had some records either from the apartment, from the health club apartment, or we had records to indicate there was a boiler on the premises, and it did not have a valid or current permit to operate. at which time, when i was first hired on, that is primarily what

i did. go out and inspect various boiler rooms to see if they complied. >> are there usually routine inspections of boilers? >> the actual requirement to have a routine inspection and a permit to operate is the responsibility of the property owner, and it is up to them to hire a licensed contractor. they do the physical inspections, submit the report to our department, and we issue the permits to operate. but as far as enforcement goes, then that falls on our shoulders to do enforcement. >> no questions? ok, to the comment. >> [inaudible] >> seven minutes.

>> i am the son of the owner, and a lot has transpired. in 2004, when we get the notice -- i think it was late 2004 or 2005 -- the apartment caught fire, so there was fire damage, and everyone was out of the building for several years. at that time, when we remodeled or had to rebuild the whole thing, when we were examining the fire damage and everything else, the demote the boiler as well. i told one inspector when we first got the notice that it is not operational right now. i cannot give a permit inspection because the building is not occupied. no one is using it. there was no usage of the boiler at all. since then, my dad was in

charge and passed away, and my brother has passed away, so a lot has transpired since then. we just got the building back online. but the boiler was removed back in 2005. i talked to the inspector, i called, and he said to send an e-mail, and i did and did not hear a response, so when i got the first reviewed the court thing -- the first court thing, and said that the boiler was not there, and i talked to the inspector, and he said i just had to send in information saying the thing was gone, so i assumed i did not have to show up for this one. the boiler is not there. nobody bothered to call me up to get an inspection to see if it was there or not. it has not been there for fiber six years.

-- five or six years. i do not have a boiler left. there is nothing to abate. commissioner walker: but our department does not have any record that there was any inspection of whatever the permits for the funding was at that time. my question is, you have done a rebuild after the fire. what is the current heating source? >> it is a water heater. commissioner walker: ok. commissioner lee: any