i believe it is an associate member. we have many members who provide various types of human resources, third-party administrative consulting. i'm not familiar with their marketing in this regard, personally. supervisor campos: can you verify that they have had no involvement with the efforts to market these things? >> what do you mean? supervisor campos: have you been associated with the efforts of beneflex and appealing to businesses to use the service? >> we provide a service to our members so they can communicate with our restaurants. whether it is a dishwater -- dishwasher, insurance and other products. i cannot say there has not been an e-mail that did go out. supervisor campos: that is fine.

thank you. i want it to show that the record shows they have had some communication. >> i would not describe it that way, sir. it is up to your discretion. >> thank you, supervisors. i am an employee at tenderloin housing clinic. i've worked in the tenderloin community as a rights organizer. i think we're all very clear that we're talking about hra's as the only option, not in addition to insurance. you have all been here the last several years. we have cut sf general to the bone. workers are constantly going to give up in order to fund our

health care system. it is not fair. it is not a right to have consumers pay once and have taxpayers pay again for services that are supposed to be covered under the law. if the business community wants to promote and tell each other they need to provide full health insurance, wonderful. that is not a reason to delay. it is extremely important we close this loophole. when i was working, the families i worked with, no one reported having health insurance except for folks who worked in union jobs that had contracts that guarantee it. everyone else, janitors, restaurant workers, room cleaners, they knew hra's existed, but had no idea how to access them and they were afraid to ask. many are afraid of retaliation. the reason they're afraid of

retaliation is because they see intimidation every day, not when they're asking to have health care coverage paid for. to have people have to go, whether english or -- is or is not their first language, having to argue that is unfair to put on an employee. second, and i have had this experience myself, there are issues of medical privacy that can be violated when an employee has to go to a chart and has to try and argue about what they need and how often they need it. for anyone who has ever worked as an at-will employee, giving any impression to your employer that you may not be healthy for some reason is uncomfortable. it can be scary. i think it is important, and our union stands behind it, and our community stands behind closing

this loophole and closing and now. thank you for your leadership. supervisor campos: thank you. speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm director of the office of small business. i am here this afternoon, want to thank supervisor campos for continuing to identify the need that we need to close the loophole. just wanted to note, the commission has not heard of the new piece of legislation and will be doing so on monday, along with supervisor chiu. the new draft still has some of the issues of concern for the commission, which is the potential millions of dollars out of the economy, and the immediate job loss. i will not reiterate much of what is said in a relationship to what has already been stated.

a couple of things need to be taken a look at better economic analysis report did not address. types of jobs in the income of the jobs that will be lost with this. with the current health care security ordinance, there are many businesses i have spoken to that have sort of stunted their growth and chosen not to grow past 19 jobs because they cannot afford the bump up into the 20 or over employees with the ordinance. i think what i want to request is that our small businesses need to be part of the discussion to address the need of what we want to accomplish in san francisco around health care and be able to keep businesses and jobs in the city.

at the small business commission, the commission was interested and did state it wanted to see exact numbers of the businesses using the hra accounts that are not allowing the accounts to be used for health care or severely restricting the use. we will be interested to see what the mayor comes up with in relationship to that. just wanted to state that we want to continue this discussion with all three proposals together. supervisor campos: thank you very much. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak on this item? public comment is closed. ok. no more speakers. thank you to everyone who took the time to speak on this item.

i know there are very strong opinions. we appreciate you taking the time. colleagues, i want to make a couple of points. for the benefit of all the people who have been working on this matter, i wanted to read the list of organizations from threat san francisco that have come out in support of this legislation before you. i want to make sure their voices are heard. many of them could not be your today. there are dozens of organizations. these are those organizations. adolescents help working group, alliance of california for community empowerment,asset building strategies, vernal heights center, california nurses association, california women's agenda, policy for analysis on trade and health, central american resource

network, chinese progressive association, city college board of trustees, the clergy in lady united for economic justice, the coalition on homelessness, community housing partnership, san francisco de labor program and women's collective, the employment law center. the health access, health care for american now, homeless prenatal, jobs for justice, latina breast cancer agency, league of young voters, mission economic development agency commission house and devoted corp., national employment law project, national physician alliance, people organized to win and get -- when employment rights, people organizing for environmental rights, private

work, a progressive workers alliance, san francisco building, trades council, the medical society, the labor council, sci you tend to one, as sciu, unite your local to come a women's community clinic, young workers united, and the building construction trades council. that tells you the broad coalition that is behind this effort. i want to make two points in response to a couple of the things that have been said. it is easy to say this is going to cost thousands of jobs. it is the same parade of horrible things we heard when the ordinance was first introduced. facts have to speak for themselves. the one independent study on the health care security ordinance that was done not by anyone here in the city made it clear that the impact on jobs was not

what was expected. there was no job loss because of the ordinance. those people have looked at that amendment and reached the same conclusion. our economist has made it clear the impact on job growth is minimal and in fact, once this law is implemented, you will continue to have thousands of jobs created in san francisco in the next few years. the last thing i would say is that i do believe, and i do hope that whoever is out there who has the very important task of protecting the consumers of the city and county of san francisco takes a careful look at "the wall street journal" and some of the practices identified. if it is the case that there are companies that are marketing themselves by telling businesses that they can

essentially exploit this loophole as a way of making money off of consumers, irrespective of whether or not they meet the technical requirements of the ordinance, there are a number of consumer protection laws that are still applicable. it is my hope that whoever is charged with protecting consumers in the city and county of san francisco takes a careful look at this. it is not just about workers. it is about consumers being protected. is my hope that that happens. -- it is my hope that that happens. this is an egregious issue. if the facts that are reported in that article are true, that needs to have careful consideration. with that, president chiu, the floor is yours. president chiu: thank you. i want to thank all of the members of the public who have participated in this conversation about an important

issue we need to address. i don't think it will be a surprise that i do not support my colleague's legislation in its current form. that being said, at least with regard to this meeting, i am ok with supporting the motion that we move forward without recommendation. let me explain why. there are a majority of college that have expressed support. we would engage in several weeks of parliamentary procedures that i don't feel we need to do. i would prefer we move forward with an up or down vote on this and call the question. that being said, i also -- i do have an alternative piece of legislation i would like to be considered by the board at some time. i will request that our chair hopefully schedule that legislation in the coming weeks. i understand that will be the case. i do hope that as we have this discussion, it is pretty easy to

have both sides going to their corners in thinking about how this issue is described. i don't think it is as clear as thinking that this is a debate about health care verses no health care. everyone in this room, whether you are from one community or another, believes in the right of all workers to have adequate health care. for me, the issue is, how do we ensure that we provide health care but also minimize job loss? supervisor campos has quoted are city economist on the topic. apparently, we have lost 30,000 jobs over the past two years. 30,000 jobs. i understand some might think his analysis that this piece of legislation will result in the loss of only hundreds of jobs, that is somehow trivial. i don't agree with that. i think every person who loses a job, we have to figure out how

to take care of them. i am trying to craft a solution that balance is those needs, make sure we provide the health care that we have to, but make sure that money is put to use to either hire folks come up with them to work, or provide health care. that is my goal. i appreciate this debate and look forward to continuing discussions on it. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. supervisor farrell: thank you to chair compos and president chiu. like everyone here, i recognize there's a problem. there's a huge problem. we need to solve it. the question is, how do we deal with it? i like -- i do not support this legislation in its current form. i'm committed to finding a solution. my only biggest disappointment in this debate right now is that we are not doing it here in committee and we are shoving it on to the full board.

that being said, we will play parliamentary games if we don't do it. at this point, i will support the motion to send it to the full board on tuesday and have the up or down vote. i will say that i appreciate president chiu's amendment and i like what i heard from the representative from mayor li's office today. i look forward to considering those together and begin having that debate here in committee so we can vote on it as a full board when we are fully informed. the solution here is not to propose something that will cost jobs in the near term. that is not what we should be doing in economic times. i appreciate the debate. to be clear, i will not support this in its current form. i'm happy to support the motion to move it forward without recommendation. supervisor campos: thank you. i do want to thank the president

and supervisor for their patience in listening to a lot of the testimony. i know it has the long process. with that said, can we entertain a motion to move forward to the full board as a committee for the october 4 meeting? president chiu: i support that motion. supervisor campos: we can take that without objection. the matter is forwarded to the full board. is there any other business before the committee? >> there is no other business. supervisor campos: thank you. meeting is adjourned.

>> good afternoon, everyone. welcome to the september 26, 2011, meeting of land use of the san francisco board of supervisors. my name is eric mar, and to my left is supervisor wiener.

clerk: please turn off your cell phones. items to they will appear on the next meeting agenda unless otherwise stated. supervisor mar: thank you, and i would like to thank the staff at sfgtv for broadcasting us today. mr. young, gratefully we have only one agenda item today. could you please call that? clerk young: this is for dedicating them to public use. supervisor mar: thank you. and we have a staff presentation. quickscat afternoon, supervisors, chair. i am with the planning department.

today's resolution is before you. it is a resolution that gives the improvement, and i have a quick slide show for you powell street. it gives the improvements that the union square business improvement distric install on powell street, thanks to money they receive from audi. unfortunately, the image on the screen is cut off. i would just cycled through this.cally, what we did is an extension along powell street to abo two blocks, along that corridor. powell street enjoys about 1000

pedestrians. it is one of the most active pedestrian street in the united states. we removed or re-purposed the sidewalk parking zone, which was not parking but just loading, and we were able to identify a location for the loading demand. we had an extensive community process. the business improvement district, over one year worth of engagement to ensure that we got the design right. really quickly, the images. as i mentioned, -- unfortunately, not going to be seen, but i think you can get the idea. supervisor mar: on the computer,

if you use control minus, it reduces the size. it may not be the screen. >> i apologize for that. so unless there are any questions, that concludes my presentation. when we were originally permitting this project, the department of public works and the business improvement district, at that point, we were talking about the process, and that is where we are today. the project was permitted as built by the department of public works, and the business improvement district is part of regifting. it will continue to maintain it, so they are going to keep that. thank you. commissioner torres: thank you -- supervisor mar: thank you.

let's open this up for public comment. is there anyone who would like to speak? three minutes, but if you can keep it short, that would be great. >> that is my pleasure. i am the executive director with the business improvement district, and it is our pleasure to make this get offered to you, and we hope you will accept it. as he said, the traffic on powell street is tremendous. there is the construction over on stockton. this is a fair amount of pedestrian traffic. this would be the second kind of get we have made to the city. the earlier one was through the recreation and parks department, and it was for furniture that the public can enjoy out on the square, so we are committed to maintaining the project through its life, and we hope you will be our partner. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you.

is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak? seeing none -- please come forward. is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, can we move this forward without objection? thank you. mr. young, is there any other business before us? clerk young: that concludes the agenda. supervisor mar: thank you. meeting adjourned. [gavel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

there are so many ways that the internet provides real access to real people and resources and that's what we're try to go accomplish. >> i was interested in technology like video production. it's interesting, you get to create your own work and it reflects what you feel about saying things so it gives perspective on issues. >> we work really hard to develop very in depth content, but if they don't have a venue, they do not have a way to show us, then this work is only staying here inside and nobody knows the brilliance and the amazing work that the students are doing. >> the term has changed over

time from a very basic who has a computer and who doesn't have a computer to now who has access to the internet, especially high speed internet, as well as the skills and the knowledge to use those tools effectively. . >> the city is charged with coming up with digital inclusion. the department of telecommunications put together a 15 member san francisco tech connect task force. we want the digital inclusion program to make sure we address the needs of underserved vulnerable communities, not communities that are already very tech savvy. we are here to provide a, b and c to the seniors. a stands for access. b stands for basic skills and c stands for content. and unless we have all three, the monolingual chinese seniors are never going to be able to use the computer or the internet. >> a lot of the barrier is

knowledge. people don't know that these computers are available to them, plus they don't know what is useful. >> there are so many businesses in the bay area that are constantly retiring their computer equipment that's perfectly good for home use. computers and internet access are helping everybody in the community and people who don't have it can come to us to help with that. one of the biggest problems we see isn't whether people can get computers through programs like ours, but whether they can understand why they need a computer. really the biggest issue we are facing today is helping people understand the value of having a computer. >> immediately they would say can i afford a computer? i don't speak any english. how do i use it. then they will start to learn how to do email or how to go back to chinese newspaper to read all the chinese newspaper. >> a lot of the barrier still is around lack of knowledge or confusion or intimidation and not having people in their peer

network who use computers in their lives. >> the important thing i learned from caminos was to improve myself personally. when i first came to caminos, i didn't know anything about computers. the second thing is i have become -- i have made some great achievements as an individual in my family and in things of the world. >> it's a real issue of self-empowerment where new immigrant families are able to communicate with their families at home, able to receive news and information in their own home language, really become more and more connected with the world as well as connected even inside their local communities. >> if we value the diversity of our city and we value our diverse neighborhoods in the city, we need to ensure that they remain economically viable. equiping them and equiping residents in those