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tv   [untitled]    October 2, 2011 6:30pm-7:00pm PDT

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mitchell engineering and authorizing bonds and the preparation of funds not to exceed 15.7 $5 million. -- $15.7 5 million. president chiu: without objection this ordinances passed in the first reading. let's skip over the 3:00 special order. and our four-o'clock special order which will be continued. why don't we move to roll call for introductions. >> supervisor campos, you are first on roll-call for introductions. supervisor campos: i have a couple of items. this is the oversight committee for the general obligation bond. this is their annual report for
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2010. i have requested that matter be sent to the government audit and oversight committee. the second is also a hearing request on the budget and legislative analyst's performance audit. again, we have asked this be sent to the government audit and oversight committee. the final item is i have requested the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would require that the meetings of the san francisco ethics commission be televised on sfgtv and that ordinances being drafted as we speak and will be introduced in hopefully by the next meeting. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor avalos?
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supervisor avalos: i had requested analysts to do an assessment before the summer break, looking at how we could leverage or local revenue and tax dollars and two financial institutions that could do community development type work and also to support our local economy and small businesses. they have drafted the report and is available. i am submitting a request to overview that. in requesting that be heard in the city operations and services committee. the rest i shall submit. >> thank you. supervisor mar? supervisor mar: i have a number of items. the first is regarding the negotiations with the california pacific medical center. recently i and many of our communities havexperienced a osparency and ua communications.
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i am requesting a hearing to provide the mayor's office with an opportunity to update the board of supervisors and also the workforce development to refresh and update us where the negotiations are around the community benefit and where they stand. secondly, i am joining, i am introducing an ordinance that amends the planning code to prohibit the use of customer operated checkout systems in stores where alcoholic beverages are sold. i would like to thank supervisor john avalos and david chiu for being co-sponsors as well. this is a common-sense measure that requires anyone to a new purchases alcohol to buy face- to-face. it is a simple step which is required of tobacco, spray paint, and some cold medicine.
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it will make it harder for miers' -- miners -- minors and intoxicated persons to get alcohol. this protects the public health. recent studies by ucla and san diego state show that self checkout machines make it easier for minors and intoxicated persons to get alcohol. a study showed machines used in stores that have self check out failed to stop one transaction in five. that is 20% failure rate. the machines are easily fooled by customers and i know young people can game the system. that is apparent. minors are sharing methods to beat checkout machines. scanning one item and bagging the alcohol or holding a non alcoholic item so the alcohol is not scan. people will cover the bar codes
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or replace it with something else as well from my understanding of how the system can be manipulated. one cashier can be forced to monitor up to a dozen machines allowing the machines to be easily been when the worker is nbusy. public safety groups are strongly supportive of our measure because they know the tragic consequences of alcohol ending up in the wrong hands. that is why our ordinance and others are supported by mothers against drunk driving. the california police chiefs association, california council on alcohol problems, and many others. also, i am calling for a hearing on an issue i have been working on with many senior and disabled people's organizations and housing access groups. i am calling for a special hearing on issues affecting some of our most vulnerable residents, seniors and people dities who live in
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sro hotels. the official policy is to support seniors to a giant place. san francisco has no comprehensive strategy for sows -- serving those who live in residential hotels. while it is relatively affordable and generally close to transit, presents its own sets of challenges to tenants. the city needs to develop creative strategies to reduce the isolation, make the building safer, and aging friendly and provide the elderly and disabled greater access to community resources. those are our recommendations from a number of organizations that have been working on the issue. i have been working with the senior action network, the mission, central city, and chinatown sro collaborative. the in home support services consortium and others. we will share the information at
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the meeting and from these problems and begin to provide solutions from the bottom up with grass-roots community based organizations centrally involved in policy development with the rest of us. i hope from this hearing there will emerge strategies for meeting the needs of residents who are aging in place in housing systems that may be inadequate or unsafe for them. i am also introducing an ordinance today that has to do with the richmond district's george washington high school which is 75 years old and celebrating its many accomplishments. i would like to also point out that george washington first opened on august 25, 1936 and is among the finest, prince of high schools in the nation. in addition for -- to a full range of classes for students, the school also offers many
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extracurricular and athletic opportunities. i am proud that -- for this coming year, we hold the crown not just for football, baseball, and basketball, but also for the wrestling. the principal and the staff and counselors and the teachers are proud of the accomplishments of washington high school. washington is open to families in san francisco panter of the city. it has been a model community for ethnic diversity. the schools illustrious alumni, we often hear from other schools but i would like to brag about the richmond district's high school. lee merriweather, gilman lui do looked -- developed tetris.
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one of my favorite actors, and betty ong are from washington high school. the ordinance will declare washington high school day. also i will be honoring along with supervisor jane kim one of our city labor and community leaders, karen bishop, the president of san francisco unified school district chapter of sci you -- seiu. president chiu: i will be introducing legislation to help our city small businesses comply with our americans with disabilities act. when i served on the small business commission i heard from hundreds of small businesses as we have around our districts in
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the city that have been sued allegedly for ada violations. since 2005, there have been five dozen lawsuits in california, and over 300 businesses in san francisco have been sued, some of the multiple times and some have closed their doors because of the suits. the proposal i am putting forth is about ensuring that we are encouraging full compliance with our accessibility laws in doing this in a way that is transparent, fair, and hopefully bring about more cooperation between small- business is and landlords and building owners. this proposal does four things. it prioritizes building permit applications that involve work on accessibility complaints -- compliance. it requires landlords to bring ground-floor entrances and exits into compliance with pre- existing access laws before a new lease or renewal is signed. we're not creating any new 80 obligations, only insuring the
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improvements that are required be done around our entrances and exits. thirdly, they legislation requires commercial landlords to inform small business tenants they have potential ada obligations and -- on other parts of the property and to include provisions that address these respective obligations. the fourth thing this proposal does is it allows small coffee shops and self-service restaurants to exclude square footage for disabled access from the calculation of the maximum allowable square footage. this will hopefully ensure that we move beyond a time when small business tenants and owners were pitted against disability activists. what we're trying to do is ensure that we're bringing in all stakeholders to use money on? the bill -- access ability -- accessibility improvements. i am pleased to be joining a number of colleagues to
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introduce a resolution to reform our support for the central subway project and for replacement housing for the tenants displaced by that project. we all know the benefits in terms of transit ridership, this is why the board of supervisors has cast some of the unanimous votes. our city is committed to replacement housing for the 19 households that will be relocated for this public benefit and we know that great cities and our regret building subways. great cities regret not building subways. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you. supervisor mirkarimi. supervisor mirkarimi: i have one item. i would like to ask the city attorney to resuscitate a piece of wood solution that we sponsored nearly two years ago and that was to call for moving the san francisco police department crime lab under the
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cao so it would be in independent jurisdiction. considering this spate of stories about scandals that have compromised the integrity of the crime lab and the drug lab, and the fact that the national academy of sciences has come up with a report recommending to all metropolitan government's they'd move to crime labs to an independent jurisdiction, i had decided because of the disinterest and the resistance in different corners of the city government to revive that legislation. i am making a public request of the city attorney. >> thank you. supervisor elsbernd? supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: thank you. i am proud to co-sponsor with
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supervisor wiener legislation that would establish a commission to review practices and make recommendation to the board of supervisors on changes. this is important in light of the realignment that supervisor mirkarimi has been taking leadership fund and put the public -- and create the public safety committee. we need to make sure we are utilizing innovative approaches to decrease the rate of recidivism. in addition, i am very excited to introduce a supplemental appropriation that will appropriate $1 million of city funds the city received as part of a settlement agreement that closed the referral power plant. that settlement was the result of a decade of negotiations that -- resulting in the plant pose a closure last year. after a robust public process,
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led by the asthma and powerplant task force, we identify programs that the fund will be used to continue to support. these programs are focused on promoting public health in the neighborhood surrounding the plan and include funding for retrofitting homes and air quality -- in here quality -- air quality hot spots for its support for committed the guards and projects and bending for an asthma educator to assist the community in understanding, preventing, and treating asthma. the preparation is a significant step forward in combating the decades of impact from the power plant. although it has closed, our obligation to ensure the public health and well-being of those communities who were disproportionately impacted has not ended. i also would like to say on a closing note, i would like to
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think many members who were active in the southeastern neighborhoods. those folks in bayview n potrero hill. i would like to thank the leadership of city staff that put numerous hours into helping shut down this power plant. i would like to thank our city attorney for his leadership and also ensuring that this toxic power plant has been shut down. looks like justice has prevailed. i am very excited to introduce the supplemental appropriation. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor kim. supervisor kim: thank you. in light of supervisor mirkarimi's comments about the increased shooting and the increased need for gun control, our district also experienced a recent shooting this past saturday morning. it 15-year-old girl and a 42- year-old woman who were struck in the legs and the torso.
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both are in the hospital. it is a continued tragedy of violence, particularly because of the reason spate of shootings that have occurred on sixth street. many of the neighborhood -- much of the neighborhood has come together and meeting monthly to see what we can do about reducing violence. this incident was a damper on a lot of the efforts of folks are making to make this a safer place for everybody. i am also proud to co-sponsor president to pose a resolution in support of central subway project and the replacement of demolished rent-controlled units in chinatown. in recent weeks, we have seen this project, under scrutiny again despite a thoroughly vetted expansion. and we have seen --
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republicans are using this project as a target to cut funding for the city of san francisco. though this resolution is non- binding i believe it will send an important message to the obama administration. as well as to our city residents of san francisco, we stand with them in supporting this project and of our replacement housing. we have been engaged in this discussion many times but this is a promise we made to recommend these. communities of color have often been left behind in the economic development and also transit first projects. as you know this will connect the bayview and alley to the south of market on mission bay, chinatown, and union square. those who have dismissed this project as a subway to know where this regard the important neighborhoods these -- this
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project will connect. also i am dismayed by the continued targeting that has become fashionable among those in our circles and the media to target nonprofits. i think we start to see that in budget discussions over the last couple years as we have been fighting over service dollars and other things about the supposed waste the nonprofits produced in the city. while there may be some, the vast majority of our nonprofits work with incredible dignity and with incredible respect and commitment and dedication to improving the city of san francisco and also improving the lives of our low-income communities by providing and stretching every single public dollar we give them to provide housing and other services. i am also dismayed by the disregard that several folks have for the decades of community planning and meetings that our marriage -- residents have been involved with.
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10 years ago i started attending meetings in support of central subway and watched as seniors and used demanded to see this type of improvement come to their neighborhood. 90% of residents in chinatown do not own cars and depend on muni to get around the city. i am happy to co-sponsor this legislation with president chiu: and supervisor cohen and other supervisors. thank you. >> thank you. supervisor farrell? >> ." i am asking the budget and legislative advisers to conduct a study to compare and analyze how a number of other cities and states provide incentives for local film production either by rebates or other incentives offered to encourage local production. asking to review these incentives that are being offered, the law enforcement
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costs, permitting fees, how much -- how many television shows feature films -- and whether or not there is the incentive for commercials and how many jobs have been secured by the rebate offer. secondly i want to thank in a particular the marina association and the impetus behind this for a great family festival. we had hundreds of families come out and it was a great time. i wish the weather would have cooperated but we will have it again next year and it will be bigger and better. we want to thank the mca for their hard work in putting it together. i would like to thank the members of the california league of cities that came to our tun -- town for their annual conference. i served on the california
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director and i was appointed by mayor ed lee. i want to congratulate our treasurer for being elected second vice president of the california league of cities which means in two years he will be the president of the organization. he will do was proud in the city and i want to -- to do was proud in the city and i want to congratulate him. we have one in memoriam, a beloved and long term president. he was born in 1922 in colorado, he was a proud u.s. navy combat veteran of world war ii and served from north africa to or canola. he was featured in the "san francisco chronicle." the library of congress was making an effort to get their
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recollections of veterans to the collection. he is quoted as saying, "we were a part of history/ . it is not neat and clean like in the movies. it is long periods of boredom followed by short periods of actual terror. people did not understand what a horrible experience work can be." he wrote on his computer which is now part of the project. he was a retired vice president by -- of bank of america. he was married for 67 years. he and his wife lived by example and mentored couples. their advice was basic. have fun, left, and do not take things seriously. there were adored by the young adult group and those they mentored and gave new meaning --
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meaning to the phrase, young at heart. he is survived by his loving daughter who was a great grammar school teacher of mine a number of years ago. her husband and their son, there will be a mass at st. vincent de paul church. where jerry spent years as a usher. we will miss him in district 2 and he will be missed by so many san franciscans. thank you. supervisor wiener: i would like to have my name added as a co- sponsor to the resolution supporting central subway. we have this unfortunate habit in san francisco if you have a project that moves forward, that will create a lot of benefit and as it nears completion or gets down the road, all of a sudden, barriers are thrown up or people start questioning it.
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any major transit or infrastructure project to the bay bridge or bart, or the central subway, there will always be some controversy. there will be folks who think it can be done better. we have to extend our transit system, this is an area that needs transit. i am confident we will extend it further north. no major project is going to be 100% when you want out of the gate. this is a project that will make it up to the no. one day. i want to co-sponsor that. i also want to elaborate on the legislation i am introducing today with supervisor cohen and supervisor farrell. the district attorney has been spearheading this and i want to compliment him for his work here and anticipating one of the effects of realignment, namely,
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we need to be smarter about how we sentence people. we will have a much heavier burden in san francisco not just with the current prisoners but with future prisoners who in the past we could said tuesday president, but if we sentence them, ain making sure that the e -- people who go to jill go to jail. we have to make sure that they do not concern the rest of the budget. we have seen what happens in california when we are not smart with sentencing. we have a state budget that is higher than our state education budget. i do not want to see that happen in san francisco, so this will be composed of the district attorney, the public defender, adult probation, the reentry council, a number of other representatives, so we have a complete group of stakeholders that can go about it in that
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way, and i am proud to be sponsoring it. clerk calvillo: thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor chu? supervisor chu: in terms of connectivity, thinking about how not only connects some, but how it connects the outskirts of san francisco to the central part of our city. so many residents of the sunset, richmond, the valley, they do make their way to chinatown and the downtown for work, for shopping, to connect with community, and to the extent that we do this, it is not just an economic magnet and something that helps the state economy overall, but it is something that helps improve the
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connectivity and transportation for our existing residents, so i do want to be added as a co- sponsor of that legislation, as well. clerk calvillo: thank you, supervisor chu. president chiu: ok. supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: banks that have been bailed out but who have not been doing their part to support local communities, banks like bank of america, wells fargo, they received bailout from the federal government and yet have not been doing their part to create jobs and to ensure that households across the state and the country have recourse to prevent foreclosure and default, modifications of loans with these banks not as strong as they can be, and it is when residents demand that there is action and accountability that
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we know we can create change, so my hearing request, looking at how we can leverage our dollars, that is this week, a proposal to these actions. also, it just so there is no doubt about my position on the central subway, i would like to add my name as a co-sponsor for the resolution affirming the central subway, and i have actually been kind of alarmed about have a sense of what has been criticized by some of the various people who have been supporters over the past several years, so i think it is important that there be no doubt that could perhaps jeopardize funding that is going to need -- we needed for the build up, funding that will be openly approved at the federal level, where there is a great deal of change going on in terms of transportation projects being approved, and i think the board of supervisors making this statement will be important to assure that there is support