decisions from the top. so as we go forward, i ask you continue with this leadership them provide that type of understanding. [tone] >> thank you. >> [, reading names. if there are others who wish to address the board, if you could please come into the room and line up along the wall. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am a 20-year cabdriver in san francisco. i have been on the list for 15 years and the list is not moving because of the selling of medallions. my name has not moved hardly at all in the last couple of years. i believe this whole thing is about in direct racism.

i believe people suddenly think they are all immigrants, who cares. that is where the bottom line comes from. if you really think about this, you would understand that is what the truth is. since i have been driving, there has been nothing but a conflict between cabdrivers and city hall and it is always the same. they never get nothing. you should show your face in the city and san francisco to keep drivers like myself driving, that there is none of this underhanded racism going on. thank you very much. [applause] >> electronic waybills -- i hope you push back the deadline so

you can further study this issue. my concern, i will talk about more in public comment, said gps tracking utilizes the same microwave radiation as cellphone towers and increases radiation inside the car. it traps the radiation inside the car and does not allow to dissipate so the car becomes a cage of radiation. i know you are all nice people and you don't want to harm people, so you need to further study the issue and it needs to be kept inside the cab, not just inside the unit, but all of this you are putting in the cab needs to be tested inside the car. he to address the cyber security standard. the mishandling which could be highly in basis.

you need to reevaluate it and the importance of these policies. it seems clear the entire industry is united against it. the phrase pick your battles carefully would apply here. what about the cash customers? are we increasing the meter due to credit card charges? is it fair to cash customers to pay more because some people want to use credit cards? i don't know. protections to the drivers have against the rates going up immediately after the increase? that has been the tradition in that industry. thank you. [applause] >> we come here every meeting

and you guys always look at the ceiling and listen to us and you always vote for the favor of the people in suits sitting in the back of this room here. i just don't understand. you're trying to keep us quiet by raising that meter and keep us away from the issue of the electronic bills and 5% credit- card charges illegally. the question is not -- you approve to increase the meter -- they are waiting now. those people in the suits are waiting for you to prove that so

they can increase the case for the drivers. [applause] i will be coming here next meeting to remind that the gauge is going to go up once you approve this increase. regarding be a electronic waybills -- she explained to us regarding the radiation, the cab driver will be in the middle, in front of electronic in front of him and behind him. she explained there is a very small percentage of radiation. we do not know if that is true or not. please do something about those electronic waybills. thank you. >> some -- i should make it

clear that the president put the -- [unintelligible] second, i love her more than my sister, she is intelligent and hard working and anyone should be policed to have these entities, but there are these issues -- we understand the only resources you can tap into for the cabdrivers for the-imbalance you have. i don't understand how can anybody claim electronic waybill is useful for statistics and improving the service while it is going to cost a lot more to put these devices inside the cab

to gather statistics. the cab drivers can provide you with the statistics you need to verify the billowed -- the dollar ended -- you can just have a random poll to see if it is valued. i heard claims these a electronic waybills are going to be safe. i don't know how anybody can claim such a thing. in the history of mankind, and has been proving that man is not perfect and the pentagon could not provide personal information and the largest cab industries, the microsoft could not provided. they just recently found they have said their vulnerability and it cannot be protected. [tone]

[applause] >> thank you. i am a cabdriver. one time, the homeless guy so drunk -- digest stop by the red light and he was so drunk he spit on my windshield. i a just can't do anything because i'm just a cabdriver. maybe he beat me or maybe he broke my window and i can do nothing. we're not challenging any rule or regulation, you are powerful and the budget people are making big decisions. but sometimes we come here to ask you, planes of people

getting into it taxi is a like to be in the taxi exclusively and privately. most of the taxi rider's have an iphone. i just took the muni to come here. maybe they could put a good size television and they are happy to see a year advertising the muni because there are people all the time but not in the taxi because people are watching their e-mail with very busy people. i think this meter increase, you can do a little more imagination. you can [unintelligible] that is regularly going to

increase to $2.48. that means an increase of about 11%. [tone] thank you. >> for the record, if there is any other member of the public who wishes to address the board on this matter, if you could please come forward now. >> i'm an owner and a driver. i just had a simple question. >> could you speak into the microphone? >> i have a simple question i asked it last time. i do not know what status we have as cabdrivers anymore. are we businessmen?

we used to get a little receipt when we paid our card from the tax collector that said this gives you permission to see your business license to operate in various locations in the city. we have not gotten that this year. i.t. need to know what status we have as businessmen because if we have status as independent businessmen, i'm not sure a lot of these things like electronic waybills are forcing me to take a discount on my credit card operations are legal. if i'm an independent businessman, you cannot force me to take a discount on my work and sales and that is effectively what you are doing. i think is pretty important that we get straightened out where we stand. up until this year, we would get this receipt and it would say you are a businessman, you are running a business, this is from

the tax collector, you have paid your permission to operate in various locations around the city. i don't know where we stand now and i think it's worthwhile for the sfmta to think about that and give us a description. right now, it is a vague and ambiguous situation. thank you. [applause] >> is that it, madam secretary? >> if there is anybody else who wishes to address the board, they should make their way into the room now or to the microphone, please. [tone] >> i would like to speak about

the electronic waybills. when we pick up the customer and we are just dropping the customer, we need a ride and the passenger coming in the cab says he is not giving the time to write down the way bills. he just asks us to go and we cannot write exactly how much the fare is and how much he gives for the tip. we have -- we are already examined by the way bills and everything we have, so wheel we are already -- though waybills are scanned and we are the same

way, we are scanned by the way bills, but with how is it to maintain the waybills -- we try to keep it but it is very stressful -- you are keeping each and every for their exactly as it is. the taxicab industry is big and i think we will lose good drivers, pushing the drivers like this, so please consider this matter. i am driving for eight years and there are senior drivers and there are younger drivers and the coming into the industry to drive, so please make a note of that. thank you very much for giving him the time. [tone] >> mr. chairman, seeing no one else approaching you, i think

there is no one else seems to be coming forward, i think you have heard all of the people who wish to address you today. >> that will conclude the public comment on items 11 and 12. i just had a comment i want to make. i know staff is working hard concerning the industry, but these last minute changes to staff recommendations and not vetting the items with the group's most impacted by the items creates unnecessary and undue destruction and that said to the general public. in the future, make sure you get in good from the affected communities well in advance of presenting items to the board. with that, i would like to open it for discussion. >> thank you very much. we have two items before us. item 11 is a small fare increase proposal and item 12 was a recommendation to propose implementation of the way bill deadline so this can be further

looked at. i would like to take up item 12 first and move the item. credit goes to the deputy director. we have heard about how the town hall process is working. we cannot always expected to reach consensus, but at least it produces information. the proposal addresses the comment you just raised procedurally, which is, i believe there are reasons to go forward with electronic waybills and i believe there are reasons to do it with further input from the industry. as i understand item 12, it is essentially a lifting of the current deadline for implementation so we can have exactly the advanced process you just urge. we have heard from the industry and i think it's a good idea. with that, i would move item 12 today. >> is there any other further comment? can we move on that one, first? >> he can. it requires a second.

>> i will second. >> all those in favor? opposed? that item passes. item 11, we are only dealing with the way time on the meager increase. -- the meter increase. not the flag drop. >> on this one, it has been eight years since the fare increase. there have been fuel increases, standard inflation, and i just want to say to the cab drivers and other members of the industry you have come to speak with us coming have represented yourself very well and yet made the case eloquently and passionately. i am in favor of a fare increase and also in favor of changing the system so we don't have to deal with this ad hoc and we don't have to do other things to deal with this and more

systematic fashion. there is a small part of the proposal we have, procedurally, just to be clear, we are not looking on the entire fare increase nor can we vote on it for sunshine reasons. nor can we as a board consider the entire package as one so we can consider how much of an increase is being given to drivers and how much of the total is being imposed on the public. i think our friend from the division of weights and measures may ak procedural -- made a key procedural point. it doesn't matter when we vote on this because it doesn't have to be for fairness sake and for the color schemes. there are issues with voting on one piece of the proposal. there is also a significant issue, which is that we are asking through a fare increase which i support, our writers and members of the public to

support this fare increase. while they would be receptive to the fact it has been years since there has been a fair increase, they would say it has been a long time since we've had a service increase. that has nothing to do with the drivers. i accept that fact. there is no sense from anyone i talked to the problem with the service in this town is the drivers. they are professional, courteous, they know where they are going. that is not the issue. the fact is those drivers are so much in demand, we cannot get them. that has always been the issue. to go forward with the fare increase without offering some incremental, however small, benefit to the riding public in the increased service is to not couple be issues properly. what i would suggest is to hear

the request, that we continue this one piece of the item which we would not implement even if we passed today or until the rest had been heard, continue this one piece of the item until one of our to next meetings and no later. if it cannot get these other items before us, so be it, we will vote on a fare increase. but i think we can get a fair increase. we have a pilot already approved by the board and that's a pretty small proposal. several dozen cabs in that peak times. we have heard the main concern and we are looking at addressing availability. it would also be important to clarify how the credit card fee is going to be handled and that will not be imposed on the riding public. i'm concerned about whether it

should be 5% and who should bear it in the industry, but we should clarify it is not going to be the public picking up. i think there are some legal reasons we could not do that in the first place. there were parts of the proposal called for premiums for dispatch and other things. i have been a proponent of that on a voluntary basis. i do not think we should be mandating that on the industry. if some of the color schemes want to implement on a voluntary basis, it's up to them and that might be one way to encourage drivers to do that. that is something that's not far enough along the pipeline that i would want to hold of a meter increase for that. that said, in summary, i will favor a fare increase if it's coupled with even minimal service improvement. we had one very far along in the pipeline. even if we were to vote on it today, it would not be

implemented until we consider the flag drop and other issues because of weights and measures. with that, i would make a motion to continue this to either of our june meetings and no later.

there are no members of

the public on this body. no matter how we constitute anybody that oversees this, it's impossible to represent everybody in the industry, it's not going to happen. it's not something that i like but i do think that we need to be responsive to the taxi riding public. and as all of you know, i do not just ride special taxis, i ride the regular taxis too on

almost a daily basis. that's why i say to you that taxi drivers want proof that we care about them. one of the ways we do that is to put immediate money in their pockets. how do we do that? we to that by raising the meter. but i also believe that we can cannot do the meter increase without consulting the cab companies who also at the same time i believe need a gate increase also. i know that's a -- that's unpopular for many drivers who think that they're being overly charged by the companies anyway but i believe if we don't do both things together, then the

public has a right to be disgruntled and i for one do not want to hear complaints twice on the same couple of issues. i'd just like to take care of it all in one package. so i think about having this done within the next two meetings in june is an excellent one. i don't think we can wait much longer than that. so, you know, all of you, i know all of you have my phone number. continue to use it, please. i welcome your input. whether you yell at me or not, that's my job, ok. just be civil about it. >> thank you, director bridges. >> i think i need a point of

clarity to make sure i understand clearly, if, first of all, i support the increase but i'd like to know for sure, all the proposals before us for the increase and implementation, if we do this, it could not be done all at one time in the system or it would, i guess, cost additional money to do it incrementally. is that true? >> i think that was a question related to the meters and the annual, i guess, calibration that we would want to do anything related to the meters all at one time. if we do it in separate steps that would create additional cost, registration costs. >> so in moving it, doing it all at once, voting on it two meetings from now, one meeting

from now, would not make a difference. >> not as it relates to implementation. whatever point you make that decision, whether it's the fee increase now or the meter increase now and some subsequent time you did the drop, we would not have staff recommend to start any action until we get all that resolved in one shot. >> and in terms of having everything from staff by our next meeting, is it fair to say we will have everything we need to make a decision on everything in the next two meetings? >> in terms of the peak time medallions, it's my understanding we could have a recommendation to this board by the end of june. second meeting in june. so that's that item. we can also at the same time come back with a recommendation as it relates to the meter increase which you have before as it relates to the meter increase which you have before