going to do this, so i would make the motion to adopt those amendments now. president chiu: supervisor elsbernd has made a motion to amend, seconded by supervisor mirkarimi. colleagues, if we can take those amendments without objection? that shall be the case. so at this time, we are going to hear from any speakers who wish to speak in support or in opposition of this disaster. we will first hear from speakers in support, and then we will hear from individuals who oppose it. after today's public hearing is closed, the department of elections will count all of the ballots, including those ballots received during today's hearing and some of the tabulation to the board. members of the public may choose to view these on the basement level of the building in room 59. if there are too many ballots to accurately tabulate them today, we can recess this meeting to a later date to obtain a final

tabulation. if the tabulation of the ballots shows a majority protest, the board of supervisors will not approve the establishment of the district or the assessments, but if there is not a majority protest, the board may choose to impose the assessments. a majority protest exists if the weighted balance exceed the ballot of those in favor of the assessment districts. the ballots are weighed according to the obligation of each of the affected properties. so with that, at this time, why do we not open up a public hearing on this issue for anyone who wishes to testify on the proposed establishment of the west portal district and on the proposed plan an engineer's report from september 2011? that forced ask if there are members of the public that supports the establishment of this district, if you could please step up.

police stepped up, and if you want to line up on the right- hand side, that would be great. each member of the public shall have up to two minutes to speak. >> that afternoon, supervisors. thank you for letting as the year. i have a business. i have been active on this street with a merchant's organization for well over 20 years, which is how long i have had my business. i have also been probably the key member in seeing this through. this started in 2009 sort of out of frustration of the volunteer- based merchant organization. we looked at the aspects of the cbd and talked to property owners, and we formed a plan. the aspect was discussed in

merchant meetings, and eventually, we hired a consultant and drew up a management plan, after which we had several neighborhood meetings aimed at property owners and merchants and set up a website to get out the word of what we were proposing. in setting up this plan, we researched other districts, including a valid one, because we thought it was very similar in the make up to west portal, and we learned a lot from things they did right and things they may have missed stepped, and we adopted two important lessons that we learned, the budget amount. we learned a lot of districts are too shy, so we went for a high amount, and then the length, the term, we figured it should be significant, so we went for what we thought was a reasonable amount. the assessments are fair, especially less than one phone bill for a business owner like myself. i pay about $80 per month.

and it said that the formation of a clean and green district, so we are going to clean the streets, green the streets, and put up some small parks. this is a well thought out plan. i encourage you to support it, and we have a lot of supporters here. thank you. president chiu: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am an owner, and one of the locations i have is on west portal. i have had that business for 12 years. i have also grown up there. my family and child a home is still there. growing up there, i have seen it go both ways. it is one of those avenues that is nice, quiet, charming, and sleepy, but it needs revitalization. in the past years, it has always been voluntary, and all too often, it was way too few

people doing way too much for people who probably did not deserve it. this is a great unifier. everybody gets skin in the game. we have a functioning infrastructure. everyone is committed. i feel that wants everybody starts to pay into the system, they tend to be more committed, and they tend to be more involved, which i look wholeheartedly forward to. i am currently president of the west portal avenue association, and once again, it is way too few people doing way too much. i support this. there are some that had objections to them. i have looked at some of the videos of some of the other conflicts. west portal is not as diverse lead discrepant s some of the others, which at that questions and conflicts. i think we are all on the same boat, headed for the same island. it is just a matter of having

something to get us there. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is james robinson. i have and big business on westboro avenue for the last five years along with my wife, who will be speaking shortly after. the cbd's have a tremendous track record, where they go in and help improve the neighborhoods and to manage with the existing organizations, and i urge you to wholeheartedly support this, as i do. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> below, my name is gail. my husband and i have owned a business for five years. we are very excited about this. we believe it will bring continuity and unity, and it will elevate the business district, which is so sorely needed. thank you. president chiu: next speaker.

>> good afternoon. my name is bob presley. i am neither an owner or a merchant. i live a couple blocks away. i have been around there for 10 years. we have enjoyed watching the good things on west portal. we have done a lot of shopping there. there are restaurants. we eat out a lot there. there are a fair number of new people moving in. there are five new families on our block with kids. we hope this was portal area will continue to grow and be the center it can be. this would be one of the stops on the way to the suburbs. we have more muni lines: through west portal then i think anywhere else in the city, so it has the advantage of being able to handle more people, and the growth in west portal is growth without necessarily having more cars. that should be a positive thing for the city.

i support this very much. i see or do people -- i see older people in jointness, taking a walk in and join the local stores. i support the type of distress you are setting up, and i hope that you vote for it, because it is important for the board of supervisors to lead in things like this, so thank you very much. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is auburn shepard, and i am with the greater neighborhood association. i have lived in san francisco all of my life, and i have grown up and have spent a long time -- a lot of time in westport. my uncle used to take me down when i was younger than you. i am here to support the

community benefits district. i think it will welcome west portal into the current world. people go to places now. they go to restaurants. they could to shops. they expect to see something bright and shiny, and this is a great way to make a place bright and shiny. the assessment that the merchants and property owners will get is so small that they will not even feel it, but they will feel the benefits of it. i have experience in with the benefits district and a small town in the san joaquin valley that has added benefits district for over 15 years, and i have seen their downtown area go from a ghost town to a thriving place where everybody within to i urge you to support this benefits district. thank you.

president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am the owner of a carpet store, and a property owner. i urge you to support this. west portal is one of the best family oriented neighborhoods in san francisco, and this is a catalyst that can make this community even better. it is a little village. this is something that has been needed for a long, long time, and i urge you to approve it. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> ♪ well, i look to the east, and i look to the west, and west portal is the place i like best they fix your abilities and your shoes, and they have movies, and

for elsbernd, they have foodies. they fix your shoes, and they have food for foodies, and supervisor elsbernd's favorite restaurant for foodies yes, they know how to help you, yes, indeed, and i know they are going to take the lead. they have got ice cream. they have got free -- fruities, fix it up, and i think you -- thank you ♪ president chiu: thank you. are there any other speakers in support of the establishment of

this district? now, if there are any individuals who wish to speak in opposition of this assessment district, this is the time for you to speak. police stepped up. >> my name is mark, and i am over on the boulevard. i have nothing against this community benefit districts program in its inception, but i do have a problem with the 13- year trial period that it has. i thing -- thing that is entirely too long. i think a 4 or 5-year trial period would be more apropos. there are issues. parking.

when people come to shop in west portal, if they do not live by to what to it, they start putting quarters in there, and after about $2, if they are in a shop having something done or eating, they come back and get that, what is it, a $60 ticket? i fortune to have not gotten one and a long time because i do not drive much anymore, but anyway, the only opposition i have is the 13-year trial period. but basically, it is a very good idea. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. sir, if you could please speak into the microphone. >> i am definitely opposed. number one, i own a residential building on west portal and a 35-year member. i live just around the corner, so i have seen everything happen on that block. number one, i was never notified

at the inception of this thing, so i felt very insulting. number two, as the gentleman said, 13 years or 15 years is too darn long. three or five years makes sense. the amount of money seems exceptionally high. they say it is low. i say it is high. if you take the complete 13 years added up at a 3% per annum increase, it is over $3 million, and that is -- the thing i oppose is the increase each year, according to the records they gave me, 3% or there about. well, if we put a bunch of trees or benches or what ever you do the first second or third year, why is the cost going to be that high the fourth or fifth year?

it just does not make sense. having run a billing for over 40 years, it just does not make sense. one year, high expense. six or seven years. you put in trees. you print it. not every year, three to five years. i do not know if i am getting to you, but the whole thing, and leaving a lot of us out, and i have spoken to at least four merchants, never even heard about it. of course, it goes to the owner. i am an odor. had my neighbor not clued me and, i would not know -- i am and owner. i do not care for computers. my white candles in all, so i do not always ask her to get this stuff, and a lot of information, i know this gentleman back here, i consider friends. [bell]

that is it, i guess. i am outnumbered. president chiu: thank you. are there any other members of the public who wish to speak on this item? police stepped up. >> hi, i am elliott wagner. i have a store on west portal. i have been there about 30 years, and i am really strongly opposed to this current version of the west portal dbd. i can think about my opposition. one, i believe it was developed with insufficient community outreach. to the local merchants, property owners, and residents. basically, west portal had one landlord meeting and one merchant meeting, and it was presented to us almost like a fennel -- final document, not

really with input to either of those cribs at that time. the othercbd's had five, six, or seven meetings. the others did multiple surveys of both merchants, people on the street, and lambeau boards. i believe the yearly costs are really disproportional compared to the size of others. the number of blocks and number of parcels, the valley is twice the size of west portal, and yet its budget is only 17% or 18% greater. i have asked numerous times, i came up with a magical figure of to wonder thousand dollars, but we have not been able to do it. i am in favor of this. i think it could be great.

i do not believe in this one, and i pledge no matter which way it goes that i will work towards getting one that is successful, be this one or a better version. thank you. president chiu: thank you. any other members of the public wish to speak on this? please step up. ok, it seems that there are no other members of the public who wish to speak on this, speaking on the topic of the westport a community benefit districts. we will have general public, and later, so if you wish -- you have been listening to it. if you want to speak to the westboro community benefit districts, otherwise we will have a general comment, and you can speak then. >> i disagree. president chiu: thank you. any others? supervisor cohen? supervisor coehn: -- cohen: i

have a question. who pays into this, and how is the budget derived? >> well, in the west portal, the property owners are assessed. lisa pagan, and the property owners are assessed. the assessments go out on the property tax bill, and they are due at the same time the property tax is due. in other districts, not this one, businesses could be directly assessed. we do have one in the fisherman's wharf area on the port side, but this is a property based district, some property owners are assessed, so -- supervisor cohen: all property owners, whether you are a commercial space or in

residential >> within the boundaries of the management plan, yes. >> but just to clarify, alisa, some of the tenants have passthroughs, and the property owners will be passing through their costs. that is not a universal thing. some of the leases prohibit a pastor, but in many cases, it will be the retailers who will be paying the cost. supervisor cohen: ok, lisa, could you describe the outreach? >> lisa, if i could take that one? this mini benefit district has been discussed at pretty much every community meeting in emergency meeting i have attended since 2009. i think even the concept of it was discussed prior to that. more importantly, and i do not want to put too much on this on one individual, but the first speaker we had, matt rodgers, i

think he has spent more time talking to merchants over the past year note -- two years than running his own business. there has been a tremendous amount of outreach, far surpassing our which i have seen on just about every other issue. a lot of community discussion, important not just with the emergence but with the neighbors, and that is why you see neighbors here who are speaking out on behalf of the issue. supervisor cohen: thank you. no further questions. president chiu: thank you. any further? this is closed. it will begin. the board will continue with our agenda, and we will await the department of elections for the tabulation of the ballot, and when that ballot is tabulated, we will call that item and announce what the results are, so at this time, it is 3:30, and i would like to go to our 3:30

special orders with regards to commendations. we have several today. the first two will be presented by supervisor chu. supervisor chu: thank you, president chiu. if i can ask mr. scott -- to show up? i have served with him on a board as a board appointee to that body, but today, i just want to recognize scott for all of his work on the health service board. he has taught me a thing or two about the work there. in addition to those accomplishments, i do want to speak a little bit about the person behind that. in addition to his role there, he also served formally as the council and general for the republic of rwanda. he was a board member of a company, the director of the nasdaq insurance group, a managing partner, a former director, with several other

companies he was at, and he has served on the health service board as an appointee. he has served under many mayoral administrations, under mayor jordan, brown, mayor newsom, and mayor lee, and, of course, he served on that board wellcome as not only vice chair but as chair in many years. he brought with him a significant business experience and really understood what it meant to have to deal with significant budget challenges over the years, and, of course, the one thing i always like to say about scott, even though he had such business acumen, and people thought he could vote a certain way, he always found consensus, worked with members of the board, and always cared for the health service system members, so i do want to take time to recognize his contribution to the health service's board and to say thank

you on behalf of the board of supervisors for your many years of service, and we hope you will serve the city again in a different capacity. i know it supervisor elsbernd, who also served on the board, would also like to say something. supervisor elsbernd: we have served together. it may be appropriate that we are redoing this up here. you know it can sometimes be a pain to be a providing officer -- presiding officer with me in the body. he handed me perfectly. you are a fantastic share. you handled all of us well. you handled the issue well. i really learned a great deal from working with you, and you really epitomized for me what a public servant is. it was a true honor to serve with you, and i hope i get that opportunity again, and truly on

behalf of all of the members of the system and all the residents of san francisco, thank you for all of the great work you did for the city on the health service board. supervisor chu: thank you, supervisor elsbernd. \ -- another one into the year, but she is stuck on another board, but she wanted to say something. would you like to say something? >> i will say a few words, knowing how time is spread out and that we look down from the podium. my kids should be sitting here, listening to their ears burned about their dad. [laughter] one thing i encourage every citizen to do is to take time out of whenever they are doing to work in the place they live. they can think globally, but they have to act locally, so it was just a pleasure to do that, and i recommend it.

thank you very much. president chiu: i do seem ms. dodd here. did you want to say something? >> catherine.. health services. i am so pleased that this formal city and county body is recognizing scots service. scott stands out in my memory as having been around politics for a long time as someone who works with all sides to make sure they get things done for the people of san francisco and for the employees and retirees. i could always count on his advice, his honesty, and on him working with the other members of the board. i'm just grateful he is being acknowledged for his years of service, and i hope we can count on him serving on other important boards and commissions in the city and county. thank you.

[applause] >> i am going to add one thing, that the best thing i did was to hire her. [laughter] president chiu: i know that supervisor chu has another commendation, which she is rushing here to present. >> thank you. i would like to invite someone from the recreation and parks department. as a district four supervisor, i have had such pleasure to work with terry. terry has been with the recreation and parks department since 1971, in nearly all of his 40 years of service with our sunset district parks. he started out at an ocean

beach. he spent some time at golden gate park. then another place. for the last 17 years, he has been working at the playground area as a groundskeeper, and he made sure to keep that area always very well maintained, not only the soccer field but also the baseball diamond, and we have seen from many of our residents and the different little leagues that have come out to play, they have always had such satisfaction playing on those fields. he used to have the assistance of many other gardeners, but over the many mean years of the recreation and parks department, he has actually been single- handedly keeping an area well maintained, and i do want to thank him, because war is not for his dedication and all of his work, we really would not see that quality that we have for all of our kids. i do want to say thank you for all of your years. i know youare retiring. it is a big loss to the sunset

district, but we hope that you'll come out and cheer on the teams that they play, and i do want to it knowledge that his brother eddie is your of the way from new jersey, and there are also a number of supporters here who have worked with him over the years. thank you very much for all of your service, and the sunset district will definitely miss you. [applause] >> hi, i would just like to say thanks very much for this show of appreciation. i feel i have to accept on behalf of a lot of people, a lot of co-workers, members, but the carpenters, plumbers, ironworkers, teamsters, electricians, you name it. all of those guys help a person like me keep a site functional and up to snuff some people can appreciate it, and i am definitely going to miss it. it was a great privilege to work for the parks, and i have been through