>> more people died by suicide at the golden gate bridge than any other site in the entire world. you don't often hear the statistic because it is not something that the city is proud of. the importance, the validity, and the dignity of an emotional assistance dog. it is established in scientific literature -- is understood as a

fact check can be someone in public that might be alone or get somebody to as " the group that might otherwise be terrified to be around a bunch of strangers. the only people i have come in contact with our people that like to tell other people what to do. i want to suggest that if allowing emotional assistance dogs in public can take even a small bite out of the other was terrible statistic the our city is known for, isn't it worth it? i think it is.

>> i am a longtime resident of san francisco, and i am the person disabled by aids/hiv. this is my service animal and i want to lend my support to the argument and put another face on a situation that would severely restrict and hinder my access. and these new regulations would be enforced. he is probably my greatest resource for a marginal support. it is as this lady said, there are days because of my illness that i would not leave the house if it weren't for him.

i don't think it is a healthy way to live. he has been trained in retrieval assistance. part of my disability involves neuropathy. i have trouble manipulating objects. there are times when the level of assistance to me -- that is, without -- i can't put a price on that. i hope you will consider the arguments made by joanna in a good light. i want to continue wonderful life that we have had up until this point. >> thank you. next speaker, please.

>> my name is robert and i have lived in san francisco for over 25 years. but also was diagnosed with six months to live in san francisco 24 years ago. i am lucky to be here. he is a small jack russell terrier. if it wasn't for him, i would not be here today. i have very severe depression and desperation. there was a time when i had nowhere to satay. i was living out of a suitcase. i thought he oved m -- loved me so much. i love him so much. i could not accept or understand

i could leave him. i knew nobody could take care d love him a and how much he brings to me. thanks to him, i go out. he forces me to go out a couple of times a day. one of the beautiful things in san francisco is that he was welcome everywhere, and i have to say, i came back years ago. and experience. a problem. having to call the animal control department. the second one was more recent, where a restaurant i go about two or three times a week refused to serve me, this idea that my dog was not a service dog.

it was an emotional support dog. i tried to explain to him that he was a medical psychiatric dog, but they refused to listen to me. animal control, showing them the tag. they refused to look at it and refused to call, so i left. i was really upset. i contacted animal control. they asked me to call the department of disability and city hall, and i talk to jessica and ken, who were very helpful with that. i sent a letter to the business, and i never heard back, so i just want you to know that the problem that i have your is that -- have here is that the law was changed by the federal government. it was wonderful with the animals here.

now, the difficulty is to explain to a business owner that a dog or any animal is a medical animal. [bell] a suggestion that i have is to issue two tags, one for emotional service animals and one for medical service animals. that would help tremendously. president o'brien: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i have hiv and aids, and i have been over the years since i have had her, it brought my health back, and she keeps me from reinventing myself because i am not into sexual immorality,

which is what caused me to contract h i v and drug addictions. i cannot do anything in front of my dog, so she is really a good deterrent for keeping me clean and sober, and she keeps me focused on my music. thank you. president o'brien: thank you very much. anymore public comment? take your time. clerk: 554-9632. fifi 4-9632 is the number to call if you are at home and went to call in -- 554-9632. >> my personal story is that there were times when i could not good to movie theaters, or i

could not go into stores because sometimes they have those flickering lights, and there were several things that i could not do. so i trained my dog to alert makes about, for instance, the flickering lights. it takes a little time, but they can do it. the other thing is, i am very fortunate. i have not had many problems in san francisco with businesses. i have been very lucky.

actually, whenever i have a problem, i like to educate staff or even supervisors about the laws. i have a little fly air which does pretty much what julianna talked about, and that is usually very helpful. i would like to encourage you to use those. do you use a service dog for a disability or as a pet, because oftentimes, there are people who are disabled. this is versus people who just want to bring in a dog, so if you have a disability, that is pretty much what it is about, that you verbally have this contract that is disabled, and this is the main thing i think businesses should note to truly asked about this for disability

and what task the animal can do for you. this is a trustee -- a tricky question. if you tell them about this, it tells them about the disability, too. the cannot ask you what kind of disability you have. sometimes, that is a really tricky thing, but i encourage the businesses to make use of those questions, and it is a liability issue for us, too. and the other thing i would appreciate is is businesses would fix their little signs on the windows.

that is pretty much it. >> -- president o'brien: thank you very much. so noted. any further public comment? >> hello, since i am a business owner, unfortunate, by ms. this -- my business does not allow animals unless somebody has an issue. all i ask is going for that people take into consideration that we work more hours and get paid less than many of our employees.

this can prevent us from doing our business. there is quite an influx. so i just ask you to keep that in mind, keep in mind especially what small business owners need. this would be much appreciated. president o'brien: thank you. any further public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner dooley? commissioner dooley: i am very glad we are having this conversation today and that there is somebody year from small business, and i look forward to work together to make this easier. i do not know where we are on

the city with that, but it would be great if we were able to issue some sort of a small test that says service dog or emotional, so that people will not having to be questioning the is. that would be good for the disability community. also for the owners. you do not want to believe you are not being told the truth. sometimes they just want to bring their dog in the bar or whatever, and i think that would be really helpful to clarify that for both sides, and, clearly, and this is the best way to go, so thank you very much for coming in. we certainly look forward to working with you. president o'brien: commissioner

clyde? vice president clyde: -- >> there is a narrow definition of service dogs. there is no requirement. it is illegal to ask for a documentation. one of the things that you brought up that perhaps we can work with, when the federal law establishes a standard, you cannot go below that standard, so we have to follow that rule, but now, we are talking about service birds or service monkeys or cats or emotional support dogs. we can actually have some documentation and if this is not feasible, something not visible

as a guide dog or perhaps as an assistance dog for someone in a wheelchair, we can do without the attack, but something above and beyond of what the federal law requires. that is my own concern. >> -- president o'brien: commissioner clyde? the commissioner can ask a question that can bring someone back. vice president clyde: with that beautiful bird, what is the specific barrier that you face when you enter a business with your birth? or a challenge, i think is the word? >> it has been a bit of a fight.

i have had some serious problems. i was asked to leave the library at one point. i elevated it to the library management. for me, because he is not a dog with a tag, people just assume that he does not apply, and the absolutely completely applies. i have letters from my doctor. i am disabled. on muni, problems for the first six months or so that we were together. i was thrown off of a muni bus, but i went to a hearing with muni, and they apologized and trust guys to it -- and chastised the driver. as the lady said before me, people sort of get a kick out of telling people how they can live their lives because they do not appreciate that you have some sort of a special circumstance.

i find that is mostly the bottom of it all. i ride very freely on muni. we live in the valley, and we conduct our lives every day. >> i wish to address this issue of identifying a service animal? >> i wanted to show you. i actually took the initiative of contacting an organization called usar. i am sorry. i do not remember. i talked with them and provided them with information, and they are a national registry of service animals in general. would you like to have a look at the card i carry myself? it has been a boon for me. in has changed my life, basically.

>> -- vice president clyde: i did not know that you could not ask for documents. you could ask that if it was a service animal. before that, people would show me, but i did not check. who is issuing this? >> it was frustrating at first because there is no tag for a bird. birds will not necessarily even tolerate a tag. i am sure that kasper would like one. people are reminded that if your animal does not have a tag on the collar, it is not a service animal. that is not true. you just do not understand the full letter of the law. everything i have done is within my legal privilege and right with my situation. so anyway, this place, as i said, i rarely have to take this out. if i have showed it a couple of times, and any time i have

showed it, the conversation disappears. vice president clyde: 80 very much for that. >> that is just my way of dealing with it. would you like to see it? vice president clyde: yes. i have been in france and in other countries where dogs are basically welcomed everywhere, and the dog. i think maybe intuitively over the centuries, they understood the companionship and the support and the emotional value and the civilizing influence of our relationships with our domestic animals, so when we are talking to small business owners and educating people about animals in public places, i guess the operative word is the well behaved animal, the well behaved animal, so i am

just bringing that out just to throw that out for a discussion with the public health department in particular, because that seems to be where i see the biggest problem war barrier for acceptance, you know, widely around the city and county of san francisco. i think the public is very well aware of the rights of the disabled community. we have a lot of information that goes out. there can always be more outreach about the rights, but people are very sensitive when they see a tag or someone pulls out any kind of documentation. people tend to accept, ok, and go on. again, i just want to thank all of the advocates, the mayor's office of disability, for bringing this forward in helping us all get together for solutions. thank you very much. president o'brien: see no other commissioner comments, i just want to wrap it up and think

everyone for coming out and for the presentation today. -- c&o whether commissioner comments. it was very informational -- seen no other commissioner comments -- seeing no other. vice president clyde: staff is willing to work as well as the interdepartmental and team to work on the ordinance -- the interdepartmental team to work on the ordnance and find a way to incorporate, one, with the ada compliance and work with how we can get the information out, because i think from having been a merchant, i think a lot of times not being clear on what the guidelines are, the easiest thing to do is just to say no.

which i think is what happens with a lot of business owners. they are not clear, so the easiest thing to do is just to say no. we will continue to work with that and with the mayor's office. we will provide updates until we're able to hear that ordinance. president o'brien: thank you. thank you. next item, please. clerk: commissioners, you are now on item 6, the presentation and discussion on the proposed consolidation of annual permits and annual payments. we have tajel shah of the office of the treasurer and tax collector. >> good evening.

good evening. my name is tajel shah, and i am here to do a presentation on a proposal that has been initiated by the president's office as well as the president's office. i think it is the legislative subcommittee. this may or may not be new. going forward, look. it moved already. before we get started, i wanted to do some definitions. we have a tendency to talk and not necessarily defined, so i want to define some terms. we will be talking about the regulatory departments. regulatory departments in this case are the actual departments that issue the permit. the permit is what allows a

business to do an activity that is desired. it allows us to do that annually and obviously confirms the the activity is done in the specified domain. in this case, fire, public works, entertainment, public health. these are the ones we will be speaking about today. they issued a permit. this goes to a regulatory department. they say this is the specifications. and then there is a thing called a license. it needs to be analyzed to the process of a license. this practice or this work is done by the office of treasurer

and tax collector. the relationship between the regulatory department that says you can do these things and also the tax collector, which each year it says it is time to renew your license. if you do not wean your license, you are not allowed to do the permit or the task. those are just interesting things to know. here are some of the basics that are out there. in this current state, this is a current state that we have right now, so i want to talk about that. this is as well as public works and some others. this is what is housed within the organization.

in order to achieve the march deadline, and then set down in may for another deadline and made for december. this is by the permit issued. in other words, we can give you an example. licenses for these permits. most of you know this. the solution that we are proposing is 1 per business owner. no matter how many locations you have. this is the simplicity of making it easier so that people do not

have multiple bills coming so within the scope of this project, and i will give you some more examples. there will be legislative changes. looking to september to try to introduce the changes. we are linking the permits to the business registration level or otherwise known as your registration. we will begin the anticipated start in december, and we will talk a little bit about how that rolls out. our desired impact, simply, streamlining. we need one mailing. you can choose to pay online. the bill will be