supervisor chiu: good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, october 25, 2011. madam clerk, please call the roll. >> [roll call]

mr. president, all members are present. supervisor chiu: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you join me in the pledge of allegiance? >> to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. supervisor chiu:, luke's -- colleagues, you should have copies of the september 20 meeting minutes. could i have a motion to approve this? those minutes are approved. are there any communications? >> i have no communications at this time. >> could you go through our consent agenda items? >> items one through five comprise the consent agenda and will be acted upon by a single roll call vote unless and member of the board or public requests an item discussed separately.

supervisor cohen: item three. supervisor chiu: on the remainder. supervisor mar: aye. supervisor mirkarimi: aye. supervisor avalos: aye. supervisor campos: aye. supervisor chiu: aye. supervisor chu: aye. supervisor cohen: aye. supervisor elsbernd: aye. supervisor farrell: aye. >> there are 11 auye.s supervisor chiu: the ordinances are passed, the resolution adopted. >> item 3, changing the street name to correct a discrepancy in dole street names and eliminate confusion in delivering public services. supervisor chu: in 1913, this was part of the roadway

considered great highway. signs were stolen and replaced with incorrect labels, which is reflected in our labels. we had heard of the problem when many of our residents were having their mail not delivered to their homes. we have since worked with the post office to make sure that mail was going to the addresses even if they were incorrect. but also make sure that the department of public safety, that there was no confusion with those agencies. we thought the problem was solved, but we continue to hear that there was continuing confusion, people not be able to get credit cards and other things. so we want to make sure it is proper the great neck -- properly named great highway, so i urge your support. supervisor chiu: same house, call? without objection, the resolution is adopted. >> item 6, ordinance amending the administrative code to for

him at limited services pregnancy centers from making false or misleading statements to the public about pregnancy related services the center offices or performs. on item 6 -- mar aye. mirkarimi aye. wiener aye. avalos aye. campos aye. chiu aye. chu aye. cohen aye. elsbernd no. farrell aye. kim aye. there are 10 ayes, one no. item seven, ordinance amending the administrative code to set a policy of community policing, and urge the police commission and chief of police to review and as necessary many police the promise policies and procedures. on item seven, mar aye. mirkarimi aye. wiener aye. avalos aye.

campos aye. chiu chaye. chiu chu aye. cohen aye. elsbernd no. farrell aye. kim aye. item eight, ordinance appropriating $1 million settlement funds to the department of public health for the neighborhood improvement and mitigation in the neighborhood's most impacted by the potrero power plant in fiscal year 2011- 2012. mar aye. mirkarimi aye. wiener aye. avalos aye. campos aye. chiu aye. chu aye.

cohen aye. elsbernd aye. farrell aye. kim aye. there are 11 ayes. item nine, a resolution authorizing the director of public works to execute an amendment to the emergency public work contract at the san francisco general hospital and to increase the not to exceed amount to approximately $20.5 million. supervisor chiu: can we do the same house, call? without objection, the resolution is adopted. >> item 10, resolution responding to the 2010-2011 civil grand jury report entitled "hunters point shipyard: a shipping landscape" an aging the mayor to cause the implication of accepted findings and recommendations through department heads and through the developer of the annual budget. supervisor chiu: without objection, the resolution is adopted.

i am 11. >> 11 is a resolution responding to the 2010-2011 civil grand jury report and urging the mayor to cause the implementation of accepted findings and recommendations through his department heads and through the development of the annual budget. supervisor chiu: this resolution is adopted. >> item 12, urging sanford's is the business of the transportation agency to reconsider and abandon the decision to shift the burden of credit card merchant charges to the city cabdrivers -- urging san francisco's municipal transportation agency. supervisor campos: this is a resolution that calls on the mta to reconsider its decision to pass these fees on to taxi drivers. we heard in committee a number of individuals about the problems that have been created as a result of this, and ultimately, from my perspective,

it harms consumers. from what we understand, the board of directors is in the process of reducing that issue, and i think it is important for the board of supervisors to take a position, so i asked respectively for your support. >> on item 12, mar aye. mirkarimi aye. wiener no. avalos aye. campos aye. chiu aye. chu no. cohen aye. elsbernd no. farrell no. kim aye. there are seven ayes, four nos. supervisor chiu: the resolution is adopted. >> item 13 is from the government ought to an oversight committee without recommendation. an ordinance amending the

administrative code regarding the health care security ordinance. supervisor cohen: thank you. colleagues, i would like to make a motion to continue this item. supervisor chiu: seconded by supervisor campos. any discussion? >> for how long? supervisor chiu: two weeks or one week? supervisor cohen: two weeks. >> november 8, mr. president. [laughter] supervisor chiu: sure, not much going on that date. supervisor cohen: moved it to november 1. supervisor chiu: i would also support that. i look forward to working and reconvening parties to finding common ground. that being said, can we do this same house, call? without objection, this motion to continue passes to november

1. madam clerk, 14 and 15. >> item 14 is an ordinance except in irrevocable offer of public infrastructure improvements associated with the assembly -- mission bay south blocks 41 thru 43, phase two. item 15 is an ordinance dedicating city property and portions of state trust parcels four and five, known as mission bay park blocked p16. supervisor chiu: can we take the same house, call? without objection, these ordinances are passed. why don't we skip over our special order. i think we all know we will be presenting for restaurant month. let's go to roll call. >> supervisor mar, you are first on a roll call for introductions. supervisor mar: thank you. i wanted to applaud the schools

and pta's for their creativity and fund-raising throughout the school year. when big events happen like fleet week or the reset outside plants or the bluegrass festival, they get even more creative about fund raising efforts. i wanted to say also that the fund raising is very hard, and many of the parent/teacher organizations -- i know firsthand how we struggle with our fund-raising efforts in this difficult financial times. i wanted to of knowledge that working with the city attorney's office and pta leaders to hopefully craft solutions that will make it easier for hard- working parents to help their children's schools stay afloat, and this has to do with recent announcements about fund

raising of around eight events. i just wanted to acknowledge that. i know that we will be acknowledging also restaurant appreciation week a little bit later, but i did want to get a shout out to the inner richmond district restaurant that i will be supporting, especially for their efforts to create healthier food for the people of the richmond district. i also wanted to make a plug that one of the good efforts that the three brothers do for the richmond district, so we do not have a farmer's market in richmond. one important community service they provide is providing produce boxes, healthy and fresh produce boxes for people on sunday from 10:00 to 3:00 p.m. with tremendous items in it as well. i apologize for those that did not know about this, but yesterday was free food day as well. usually, it is the first monday

of the month with the chefs and others will try different types of food for sampling. i do not know of any other restaurant in the city that has a free food monday. the issue -- the other issue i wanted to raise -- supervisor avalos and i will be raising the motion we made last week in support of the occupied wall street -- occupy wall street movement, and i wanted to reiterate that i strongly believe in the efforts around the country, and we are doing our best to challenge the bailout of banks and billionaires' while our communities face growing hunger. i wanted to say that one of my

heroes from rage against the machine and audioslave was at the rally, and a number of musicians and entertainers have been there and a lot of creativity is coming out of these efforts. it is showing strong public support, and i think the resolution will help the public understand the importance of people raising their voices in a peaceful way not just in san francisco but in thousands of places across the country. in chinatown, coming up on sunday, october 30, the day before halloween, the association and many community- based groups are calling for an action from 10:00 to 3:00. i think we are calling it "from wall street to chinatown" and supporting people's right to assemble and raised concerns about the huge bailout for banks and billionaires and support

community efforts to revitalize our neighborhoods. the rest i will submit. thank you. supervisor chiu: today i will be introducing a drafting request to helps avoid companies that provide social benefits to our community. for over a decade, social entrepreneurs around the country have been pioneering a new way to create businesses that do well as they do good with companies that have a double or triple bottom line. in recent years, there has been interest in establishing a new type of corporate structure, known as benefit corporations, as compared to the typical c corporations. they go beyond maximizing shareholder value or profits to include stakeholder values such as environmental, social, or other community benefits. as a used to power business to help sell -- solve social environment problems. two weeks ago, governor brown signed into law assembly bill 361, which creates a new class of b corporations in california.

arce became the sixth to try these. i am drafting legislation that would provide city conferences similar to what is being done for local businesses. to receive this, a business would have to be legally recognized as a b corporation by the state of california. the legislation would be the first in the state to promote the foundation and growth of b corporations. i want to make sure they know we are open to business to them and we want to be the headquarters for such corporations that are employing san franciscans to provide services and goods that have multiple impacts on our community. i think this is very timely given the recent debate fueled by public frustrations with significant corporate profits at a time of growing economic inequalities. i think that promoted the benefit corporations is one way that we can transform all of the frustrations that i think we

share into a positive force to creating jobs in san and cisco, to foster a new way of doing business and will be on one bottom line. the rest of my items i will submit. supervisor mirkarimi: colleagues, i am is submitting an ordinance for evaluating alternatives for providing crime lab services, including the possibility of an independent crime lab. the legislation follows efforts of proposed more than a year ago to shift responsibility for providing services from the police department to the city administrative just in the same ways that the medical examiner is currently looking at the city administrator now and to study the creation of an independent crime lab within the municipality of san francisco. as part of that ordinance, i requested the controller to investigate further, but at the time, the those investments had

been suspended because of the wave of scandals caused by one lab technician, which had induced the district attorney to dismiss more than 500 cases. outside auditors found that other problems having to do with the crime lab, along with the district attorney, the public defender, and even the police department that we should at least explore the possibility of an independent crime lab or be able to examine the pros and cons. since then, a decent amount of time has passed. meanwhile, several other u.s. cities and counties and states decided to follow the national academy of sciences. the national academy of sciences had recommended a couple of years ago that city police department and the crime lab's move into an independent status. those cities are seriously considering or have moved to an

independent status of crime labs in washington, d.c., houston, and the state of north carolina. i continue to believe that crime lab issues require strong consideration in san francisco to make sure the integrity of our crime lab is not further compromised here this ordinance asks the controller to pursue this. the rest i will submit. supervisor campos: thank you, colleagues. i have a couple of items. the first is a hearing request that the hearing be held at the government audits and oversight committee on the controller's city services auditors review of the sfmta work orders for the year 2010-2011. as many of you know, the mta presently spends about $60

million in the work order services provided on behalf of the mta by other city agencies, and the controller has been conducting a review of that process, and the review is complete. for this hearing, we will have an opportunity to hear what, if any, progress has been made with respect to work orders. when you think about it, even a 10% reduction in work orders, that is $6 million and would be more than enough to pay for something. 20% reduction would actually pay for increased services throughout the system. this presents a new opportunity for us to really get to having a better understanding in terms of a nexus between what is being paid for and the nexus, the connection to public transportation. the second item is a resolution that i am introducing supporting the regulated and safe patient

access to medical candidates. i want to thank the following colleagues who are cosponsoring this resolution. supervisors mar, avalos, chiu, mirkarimi, kim, and wiener. the vast majority of californians voted and approve proposition 215 in 1996, the compassionate use act, that recognizes that there is a medical use for cannabis. san francisco has in turn adopted a comprehensive regulatory system to prevent and control medical campus collectives and cooperatives. supervisor mirkarimi has played a key role in making that happen. what we have is an industry being regulated by the city and county of san francisco in

accordance with state law. we in california are not the only state that has recognized there are medical benefits to canada's. there are least 16 states in this country that are doing that. doing -- during the campaign for president, president obama repeatedly asserted that he recognized and respected the right of states to allow for medical cannabis. ultimately, this is an issue that is about patients' rights, the rights of patients to access the medication that is needed peer the state's largest association of doctors and california medical association, which represents more than 35,000 positions, has clearly stated the need for the recognition of medical cannabis. we have a number of associations that have made the same case, and there are also benefits in terms of job creation, which is one of the reasons why organized

labor has also taken a position to support the rights of patients to access to medication. at different times in the last couple of years, the federal government has made some positive signs, made some positive comments about the importance of protecting state law when it comes to the issue of patients' rights and their access to medical cannabis. unfortunately, in the last few weeks, there has been a negative, bad turn of events with the federal government has, unfortunately, decided not to respect the laws that the state of california has passed. the legislation i am introducing is legislation that follows the lead of assembly member ammiano, senator leno, senator ye i am calling upon the federal

government to reconsider its policy and simply do with the president indicated you would do, which is to protect the rights of states like california to provide access to medical cannabis to california patients. this is truly about the rights of patients, so we are asking that the federal government comply with the principles that until recently were the principles that have been articulated by the president. i know that sometimes the issues can be sensitive and complicated, but this is simply about medical cannabis and the right of patients to access medication they need. i believe it is important for us in this time for the city and county of san francisco for the board of supervisors to be clear that we do support the rights of patients to have access to medication. with that, i ask for your support. the rest, i submit.

supervisor avalos: just a couple of items for introduction. one, at long last, the advisory committee for the balboa park station. the plan was approved in january 2009. i think it was my first piece of legislation because i had inherited from my former supervisor from district 11, and since that time, there have been a lot of discussions about how to proceed with land-use issues surrounding the station, and there has been a lot of need for the community to have greater oversight along with greater entities involved around the station including bart, caltrans, muni, dpw. this body will be meeting quarterly to provide input. it will be staffed by the mta if we do approve this, and it will be a great benefit to district

11 and people who have a stake in bell ballpark to ensure that we have transit that meets the needs of riders and neighborhood residents appear willing to make sure we're moving forward with transit that can move the ball park out of the industrial zone. i hope to have your support of that if it comes to committee, colleagues. my next piece of legislation, the resolution, it is actually supporting the occupy wall street protest movement and urging mayor lead to hold the people's right to peaceful assembly -- urging mayor lee. the timing of this could not be more important. we heard what happened in oakland and earlier today.

police and law enforcement from several jurisdictions have come down around 4:30 this morning to remove the people of the occupy oakland set up. they used tear gas and force. we had two locations in san francisco where there had been the use of force to remove people from the plaza and separate them from their belongings. my concern is that these confrontations travel that happen between the -- confrontations that happened between the police and protesters only increase the amount of uncertainty and distrust between the police and the people who are protesting, a distressed that i think will only get worse as we see the movement escalating, as i believe it is. we have seen a proliferation of the demonstrations, starting from one in wall street, now it

is across the country and even across the world. this is not something that is going to end any time soon, and a thing that we will use force to make it more difficult to -- difficult for the to mistresses to occur is only going to backfire. we need to have a more supportive city and not use force to prevent the demonstration from continuing. this resolution i am sending to the city operations and neighborhood services committee, which i am the chair of. hopefully, we can have a special meeting on monday and have it come back to the full board. i think time is of the essence. i am concerned that the police could be moving against the demonstrations this evening. there needs to be concerned from there needs to be concerned from the people who are demonstrating the people who are demonstrating