i would like to also bring a of if you look at an increase on the meter, without doing an economic impact on the income of taxi drivers, you're doing a disservice to the city and county of san francisco. most cabdrivers' a very big fees to cab companies have they get virtually nothing back except a taxi with four wheels, brakes, a radio, and that is is. if you want to increase the meter, you can start a pension fund medical fund and the union for taxi drivers. they will have the same rights that 29,000 other employees in the city have. as of right now, they have no rights of all. i thank you.

>> the next speaker? >> it is like christmas for the drivers today. they will be very happy, and you finally give them something that is a great tax to you. they would be really very happy from the bottom of their hearts. during the town hall meetings, the back seat terminals are so far and there. 150 cabs will be stocked in a determination will be made. it has proven to be false, and the statement of the cab company, they will sue.

we're saying to look into this matter. some inspectors want to a lemonade heehaw -- eliminate the limos from the city. thousands of these days and days out, we're standing there to distribute a violation. city employed people cannot go on and put any such thing as propaganda. these are the flyers for the board members, and they should stop distribution.

the last speaker, [unintelligible] >> dan hines. >> members of the board, once again, i am president of national veterans cabin, and the number of the taxi advisory council. i wanted to take this opportunity to give you my personal assessment of the program. the pilot program has more than met its goals. have a financially viable exit now. opportunities have opened up for drivers on the waiting list. there are more than a thousand that wish to purchase medallions. the city has generated substantial revenues through this program.

lived in fortunate enough to have competent and conscientious oversight. the work that both groups have done has been truly outstanding. has the opportunity to sell is currently closed to anyone not in the pilot, i would ask this board to formally request a specific recommenda way to transition from the pilot program to a continuation of medallion sales on an ongoing basis. this recommendation that is the one that chartered responsibility should be given priority over other items. other items are brought and i think this should be a primary issue. i think the representation, it

should be held by someone who has purchased a medallion. chairman nolan: that will conclude public comment. one more? you know how it works? you are supposed to indicate you want to speak. >> it would be helpful if you turn them at earlier. >> there is a lot to talk about, but i want to focus on a few things. before it purchased the cabinet earlier this year, i was very familiar with the taxi system here in san francisco and wanted to give you a couple observations as to why i think our system is flawed and why we have very bad availability to the public. first, let me give you the facts. right now, we have a cab company with major dispatch services,

and have about half of the medallions. we have different color schemes popping up, so we have about 31 different cap companies right now. half of them are at companies that have no dispatch service whatsoever. the burden of servicing the neighborhood call fallen half of the medallions we normally have. you have to meet service demands and neighborhoods, you have to pick up orders and that is the first thing you can do. you have to make sure that they are servicing the neighborhood, not just half of them. we have a situation where i have hundreds of orders that i can't fulfill, and dozens of drivers waiting to go out. there is no love lost between the other cab companies and myself. the one thing that unifies the

other major cab companies is that we will be out of business soon because the standards have applied. the standards in this industry are so low that i have never seen the level of exploitation of i have -- as i have seen now. the giants are operated by individuals. the proliferated and operated it least 30% of the medallions. one of the things the city must do is create standards and enforcement to make sure that the neighborhoods are matt. 31 cab companies with only half of them actually servicing the neighborhood. that has to change. chairman nolan: anybody welse -- else want to speak, let us know. two speakers. ok. >> be medallion pilot program

should be stopped. it should be brought back and issue to the drivers. i will tell you why. you are having the cabdrivers pay defending on what you choose. $200,000 goes to the [unintelligible] don't think that is fair, the cabdriver's like me that have been driving a cab for 23 years and have been on the waiting list, the medallion that higher

earnings and deserve. when i'm driving a cab, my feet get sore. i will be unable to drive a cab. for us, don't you think it's like changing the rules in the middle of the game? issue medallions under the leading less. if any new medallion is issued, it should go the drivers on the waiting list. use l 6 and in the hands and you get $225,000. under this proposal, you sell one medallion and you get more than $225,000. [chime]

chairman nolan: next speaker. >> i am a member of the taxi advisor a council. of like to take issue with the claims a couple of previous speakers that a new constitution, that anybody is trying to kill the pilot program. i don't know of anybody that has that in mind. there are people on the pilot program who have for it any kind of discussion of fair system to come out of this. there are a lot of us still concerned with people on the list as the last speaker just spoke, they spend their career trying to get their medallion and planning of with all of this stuff. we put up with a lot of stuff.

the are a lot of us the lead to discuss a possible future program that would be fair, and presented as a compromise solution. the pilot program was a small number of medallions and we will sell and evaluate the effects of drivers. there are people on the committee that feel that the purpose of the pilot program is just to transition in the total transfer ability. my understanding is that we're supposed to be of value leading it, finding the problems, and suggesting a fair way to continue like a dual system where of medallions will be issued to drivers have made a career. i don't think that should end. it doesn't mean we are trying to kill the pilot program. i think also of the flyer that

as a vindictive fet earhart is not propaganda, is an explanation of the way bi thinke of the money that you guys are spending to disseminate truthful information. chairman nolan: next item. >> you have concluded regular items. chairman nolan: is there a second? we will go to closed session. thank>> thank you, everyone, for

being here this morning. i have indicated to our new chief and i will be an active participant in comstat. of course, this is only one of many ways that we measure our effectiveness in the community policing in the city. i have been fond of looking at data and making sure we compare ourselves to previous years, look at trends and specific categories, crime to property, homicides, violent crime to aurora's, and other areas. various local captains of all

the stations know that the chief and i, command staff, and police commission, are working together to make sure that we work our best and keep our positive trends going. we are now enjoying, year to date, a 6% improvement over last year on all categories of violent crimes. we are still down in homicides since 1960, continuing a trend that was very strong last year and continues to this year. all of this as a result of the men and women of the police department working closely with command staff, sharing information, and doing all the things that account for best practices. one of the most important thing that the chief and i talked about, and we knew that we would measure ourselves in the first 100 days, is that we would do and a fine community policing in

every possible respect that we could. as you hear this morning, collaboration with other departments, the support that the chief has given to other departments to do their jobs while the police department does theirs, and also, a focus effort on improving the situation while we work with less resources. in these first 100 days, the chief has showed his leadership. i am amazed that he can go out there with his 30 years of experience and ask for officers to come in on the weekends or nights. that is when most of the crime happens. to get a response has he does, getting "volunteers" -- we want to get to a better situation. the reality i have, i am looking at what is occurring all around the bay area. i know there are bad situations. we need to be focused on our

situation, here in san francisco. i am committed to that. we also need to make sure to continue a detailed review, whether it is stolen bikes or property -- that sort of small stuff can lead to bigger things. that is something that mayor willie brown taught me. we allow our communications to get through and people will get through to us. i also want to give my appreciation to the police chief being out there tackling those things, even if there are communities that do not understand what we are doing, trying to get to a level of communication that is comfortable for everyone, so that we get good information. as i said earlier, working with our public safety adviser and his staff to promote as much

prevention as we can. it is not always going to be the police stopping everything. it will be other programs that prevent and change people's lives. that has to work in concert with our police department and all the things they do, but it begins with a good presence. the police chief has shown that through a number of things he has done, making sure there are great communications while we ask our police officers, has with our other public officers, to contribute to the deficit, making sure that our funding gap is closed. this is one of the most difficult years we have had financially, and everyone is stepping up. even the command staff is looking beyond their own self- interest. this is one of the most selfless organizations we have in the

city. congratulations and let us keep on working together. we want to continue that faith that people have, the confidence in the things that we are doing well. thank you. >> i want to thank the mayor again for his support and eco what he was saying about the spirit of cooperation from the police department, other agencies, community. we cannot arrest our way out of crime. if you look at these numbers, violent crime arrests are actually down. partnership with other agencies, the spirit of collegiality, really, an atmosphere of cooperation. when i asked 60% of officers to move to weekend and night, they

were willing to do that. we work out a contract negotiation that would help to close a $12 million budget gap, the corporation was there. everyone understands how serious things are right now with diminishing resources. we have about 4% mustaf than last year but we continue to have crime lows. that is because the her using the force multiplier of goodwill within the city department, police department, and the community. and i cannot say this enough. it is all about the young people in san francisco. if we engage kids, give them positive choices, there is no reason why this cannot become the new normal in san francisco where we are just a safer city. again, i appreciate the mayor's support, going forward. >> [inaudible] are we not facing a crisis of a

loss of officers? >> i do not think it is lost on anybody. the mayor and i talk about all the time. we have had a 4% decrease in staffing, but staffing is up in other areas. the 35 officers that were not working nights and weekends are now. that is akin to an academy class. more efficient and one of the resources we have will hopefully get us to the point where we are hiring more academy classes as the senior officers retire. that will bring new ideas and greater efficiency and a safer san francisco going forward. >> i would also say, the police officers to police work. when the chief graduated one of the largest cadet class is in recent history, we are talking about civilians doing the

civilian work while the police are out there giving the police work. we are identifying those activities within the police department that should not be done by uniformed officers, and assigning those to the right people. so we are just approaching resources the smartest way we can while we try to get more police academy classis. -- classes. >> you talked about a game can? -- gang camp? [inaudible] >> about three months ago, i walked through the mission district with jane kim and david campos. this was after that shooting in the mission. we were walking along with officers in the district, just

watching the streets, -- walking the streets, talking to merchants. we got an eyeful and an earful of these kids hanging out on the corners with nothing to do. people said the city has come out to come up with better programs to track these youth. they are listening to the people on the streets trying to recruit them. we know that they are interested player from getting in ties into these gangs. we particularly listened to the community response network, the people that are in touch with these gangs. we have a program where they are helping police officers get information on what is going on. they recommended that we create an annual camp, where for free, about 50 kids -- and we may increase down the road -- will get a full camp experience.

kids across whole arena of san francisco get these weeks where they go to camp and have a wonderful time. some kids do not get a chance because they cannot afford it, no one is enticing them. they see that and a bang, that is not my life. my life is on the street. we need to integrate this live with them till ginsberg went out there to work with us. our friends at the family and children youth center that got the funding together. it begins at the end of the month for one week. we are recruiting literally those individuals -- we cannot get to the hard-core gangs, but we can get to those that are about to make a decision. they are true, on the edge with

their grades, and we again be back. they can give as name referrals of kids that we can talk to. that we will be leadership development week at the camp. expos them to some fun. they may see some other people that may even be recruited by gangs that they do not like, groups of people they do not like. to be able to experience them on a first name basis, i got to know you before, you are a cool person. we did some things together that is positive. experience what normal kids get to do everyday, except that they do not have it because of economics or cultural difference walls, or the wall themselves off because they are being recruited by other efforts. we are experimenting with this for the first time. we think we are going to receive a lot of excess -- success from this.

>> quickly, as the mayor said, we are claiming -- it is not a game camp. we are claiming the skin before they enter a gang. we are claiming them first to give them a positive choice. >> [inaudible] >> with regard to the metal death, this is an epidemic nationally. this is something that i dealt with at the puc. and it is dangerous. a lot of these folks, as they go for that copper, it is charged copper. it is a safety thing. it is a miracle that nobody has been hurt or killed. i met with members of the puc last week. we spoke to the acting director of the dpw who is affected by this, corporate security from pg&e.

we will be assembling a task force within the next 30 days to attack this going forward. people are taking out manhole covers and leaving by whole -- the hole. i know that one school was affected over the summer months. i know when the east bay terminal came down, that was scavenged. we will be working with the district attorney's office to gain successful prosecution.