co-sponsored by supervisor avalos and olague. it is a hearing on a very important report that just came out on foreclosures in california. a crisis of compliance, commissioned by the office of the assessor. i think that all of us during these tough economic times have heard about all of the issues that many people have had around foreclosures. this report is a very enlightening report, quite by opening, which reviewed 382 residential mortgage loan transactions, a fraction of about 16% of the total loans that we are talking about here in the city and county. this report looked at those 382 mortgages and found a number of the very serious concerns. overall, it identified that one

or more irregularities, in 99% of loans were reviewed. in other words, except for that very small 1%, there were irregularities in falling applicable state law in terms of protecting the rights of the people impacted by these foreclosures. in 84% of the loans reviewed, this report identified at least one clear violation of the law. what you have here is a grim picture that the protections afforded to bar wars and homeowners, protections afforded by state law in federal law, are not being sought -- not being followed. it is important for us to make sure that we have an in-depth analysis in the findings of this report. i know that in my district, we have an organized movement that

is looking at what is happening with the foreclosure clark -- crisis. that is just one part of the city. i know that there are districts like six, 11, but the entirety of the city, really, is impacted. that is why it is important for us to have a discussion as a city in as a city government about this crisis. it truly is a crisis. i want to thank the accessory reporter for commissioning this report. my hope is that out of this discussion, we can come up with some strategic ideas for steps that can be taken to address this crisis to make sure that we respond to what is happening to so many residents who have lost their homes or are in the process of losing their homes. again, i want to thank supervisor avalos in olague for being co-sponsors of this hearing -- avalos and olague for

being co-sponsors of this hearing. i want to call upon other city officials whose offices are also involved in the foreclosure process to see what we as a city collectively can do to address this crisis. whether it is the city attorney's office, which i know has been looking at this issue for quite some time, whether it is the sheriff's office or the district attorney's office. i want to thank supervisor calling for being a code-sponsor of this hearing. it is important for us to have a discussion about this very important issue. >> thank you. to supervisor chu, i apologize for skipping over you earlier. supervisor chu: i just wanted to become one of these items. small-business is our very important to us. i think the supervisor wiener spoke to it a little bit when he talked about the food trucks and making sure that it was a

balanced approach. one of the things we have been challenged with a in a neighborhood commercial corridors is helping to maintain the store fronts, making sure that these areas are well lit, friendly, and hospitable to residents. but we were submitting legislation in advance of that to encourage small businesses to make improvements in their storefronts. the legislation before you all will be one to waive the fees associated with awning replacements and permits issued for st. pedestrians, street level lighting insulation during the month of may. be want to see whether this approach will help to encourage businesses to make these improvements that will help to encourage the look and feel of many of our commercial neighborhoods and areas. we look forward to speaking more about this as we go through the process. we expected to have a small and nominal budget impact. i hope that the supervisors

consider it. thank you. >> thank you. president? president chiu: i have a couple of items. a memorial for richard chen, a longtime leader in a businessman in the chinatown committee that passed away on february 5. i want to take a minute to acknowledge and thank his family members who are here in the chamber today. he was born in a humble village in canton province in china. he proved over the course of his career to be a man a significant talent. after burying his wife in 1929, he began a remarkable military career with the chinese national party as a lieutenant colonel, later with the united states army, where he supported the famous flying tigers air force. soon after that, richard retired from his well decorated military service. he moved to san francisco with his wife and children.

despite a modest start in the food industry, his hard work and dedication allowed him to build several successful grocery and restaurant businesses in chinatown. richard was highly respected in the community as an entrepreneur and business leader. in his story epitomizes the american dream. i want to thank him for his love for his wife, his children, his family, his compassion, and dedication to the chinatown community. colleagues, today i am introducing a drafting request regarding the privately owned public open spaces, otherwise known as popo's. we are always looking for ways to improve the livability of our -- urban spaces. they were required under the 1985 downtown plan. one square foot a public space for every 50 square feet of office space. we have 15 of these kinds of

spaces. many of them are in the downtown area, in my district. unfortunately, very few people know about it, because it signed its requirements are vague -- because the sign age requirements are very vague. i want to thank the planning department and the san francisco chronicle for reminding us of the need to protect the spaces. thank you to supervisor wiener for root -- for his attention to this issue as well. i would like to co-sponsor the resolution that supervisor wiener has offered regarding the state legislation that would make the food trucked legislation more difficult. the rest of my items, i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor olague? supervisor olague: i would like to introduce a hearing requests

for the public safety committee. it is being co-sponsored by supervisors, posing in calling. -- supervisors campos and cocacohen. the hearing on collaborations between the san francisco police department, sheriff's department, unified school district, and related protocols developed to support low-income school age youth that experience repeated exposure to violence and trauma. a review of current strategy is designed to look at posttraumatic stress in children, as well as a review of research from the childhood trauma research program. also, i would like to mention at this time that in collaboration with the supervisor kim's

office, i would like to start working over the next week or so on legislation with regards to the gold dust lounge. even though it is something that is specific to supervisor kim's office, and they have been working diligently on the matter, it is an initiative that has city-wide impacts. we have been receiving a lot of calls from constituents in district 5 regarding this. i wanted to remark on a couple of items that i will be working on over the next couple of weeks, in collaboration with the supervisor's office. i am working on legislation to initiate landmark designations of the building, 301 gary, home of the gold dust lounge. a historical touchstone that has held tourism in union square, as well as being an important

neighborhood resource. it was a former burlesque venue, it was owned by bing crosby, and herb caen was a regular. i will be pursuing that. and also, another issue that i think relates directly to this, i plan to work with the planning department on that, it is a moratorium on converting non- retail uses in the current center downtown conservation district. this district was established in 1985 to protect and preserve established theater, retail restaurants, and other uses in this important section of downtown. over the years, local businesses and entertainment venues have been displaced by national retail chains. more are threatened today. the theater district comprises the section of the district that

is west, 2 mason st.. it is one of the city's last live entertainment venues, to be replaced by an escalator for yet another non-local retailer with intent to occupy 301 gary. we are losing our downtown and cultural, social heritage. the 18 month moratorium will give us an opportunity for comparative analysis of this district against what we see before us today. intelligent choices can be made to preserve the heritage and tourist economy. those are a couple of issues i will be working on this week. finally, as we are closing out african-american history month, i wanted to make it eight.

of acknowledging the work of mr. washington in district 5. he is a fixture in city hall and i believe that he deserves to be recognized for chronicling he deserves to be recognized for his dedication to chronicling his community. every event that i attend a bat bites to african-american concerns. i believe that he should be recognized and honored for that. [clapping] >> black. [unintelligible] >> thank you, supervisor olague. supervisor wiener, you asked to be re-referred?

supervisor campos? supervisor campos: many of the streets are named after european cities, like paris and madrid. munich. one of them is edinburg. i am not quite sure how to pronounce it. seemed like when the language was drafted, it was edinburg, without the age at the end. i am putting in a resolution that would change the street name from edinburg without the age to edinburgh with the h. we will still have the option of renting or mispronouncing it correctly. that is one item for introduction. the next is in except and spend

item for the clubhouse in the amount of $710,000. i am happy to be ushering this through for a park that is very worthy of recertification. the rest i shall submit. supervisor farrell: today i remain incredibly excited about the america's cup coming to san francisco. i think it will be a great thing for our city and waterfront, and for all the spectators. but i am disappointed today for the port in san francisco, for all san franciscans. i think that we lost a golden opportunity and drove away and organization individual yes -- individual -- yes, a billionaire -- someone who wanted to spend

$100 million rehabilitating our crumbling piers along our waterfront that we have no financial plans to fix in the next decade. i was the first person to say that san francisco needed to get a good deal out of the bargain. we should not give away the farm. at the same point in time, if we need to get private investment into this city, we have to make it attractive enough for people to invest dollars. we have $2.2 billion of port infrastructure improvements that we have no money to do and are on backlog. in a few weeks we will be considering hundreds and hundreds of building and trades jobs that will be absent from that project. building in trade workers that will have no jobs. -- building antitrade workers that will be deprived of jobs. i do not want to be approving

crumbling piers on the waterfront. if there is a lesson to be learned, we need to make sure that projects are a good deal for the city, but we also have to be mindful of public assets and taxpayer dollars. making sure that private investors are partners and allies for jobs and economic growth in san francisco. we have to treat them that way. i hope that we remember that direct link between partners in real jobs in san francisco. taking the responsibility not to drive these people away. as far as the port goes, i am asking for a hearing on the port of san francisco possible long- term plans, in light of the fact be just lost $100 million in investment that would have rehabilitated those peers. it will focus on long-term plans for waterfront development and

opportunities studied over the last few decades, and a vision for the future of support's entire infrastructure. -- future for the port's entire infrastructure. president chiu: let's go to general public comments. >> the opportunity for the public to address the board for leave -- for two minutes. please note that of the comp -- public may not comment on the items that have already been considered. speakers using translation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time. if you intended to display a document on the overhead projector, please remove the document when the screen should return to live coverage of the meeting. president chiu: let's hear from the first speaker. >> good afternoon for you in each one of our supervisors. you know my name, [unintelligible]

i do not have good issue to speak about language. something else more than i concede. yesterday i had a chance to have meeting with former supervisor death tufty, . he becoming now the big head of the city for taking care homeless people i am happy for him. i am glad that we have a history about georgia smith. she used to be in that position. but, shamefully, i tell you that he hired two of his brother and his niece to work in good with big money for something that they never had any experience of about.

supervisor, i have here a lebron supervisor. you do not go far away from this city, from that city hall in the basement. your target, if you have homeless in your district, you have one way to go. go with me or without me to 18. you are going to go to the room always. door open. lot people, i see them. lot people, in the ward, there. today you can see in my hand, newspaper. show you the homeless people all over the city. another newspaper for today, too. the homeless people. i will tell you something else, prove that many of them, coming

to my city, for two reasons. number one, free hotel, which we have shouldered. then, the big money, that is the way they are coming from. supervisor, i do not mean to be brilliant, one of you, but i am going into all of you -- but in bullion -- but i am boyant , all of you. i have meeting with him yesterday. he except -- he accepted having meeting with me next week to discuss the homeless and how we can resolve that problem. god bless you. come with me next week. we wait for your reaction. thank you.

[clap] >> good afternoon, supervisors. do not give money to the friends foundation. stop the corporate rate of the public library. ra -- pe of the public -- rape of the public library. the library suddenly realized how bad this look. the current budget report showed $7.6 million added this month. a significant fraction. it will take severalit will tako demonstrate that even this figure is a fraud. the repeating billion of loans would be a scandal in itself. this comes after a budget in the controller's report that found the branch program out of budget in the management out of control. it comes after a civil grand jury report in june 2008 which

found that "no one was in charge of the store" in the voters had been hoodwinked. it comes after another audit by the comptroller -- controller in 2009 that found deficits in management oversight. 85% of standard's had not been complied with. it is clear by now the lack of accountability is a way of life for these people. the reason, of course, is that broken promises is a way of life, and failing to document their actions comes as second nature, because private- corporate influence depends upon crop -- depends upon fraud. this does not change the fact that the lack of accountability should be an issue by itself. every time we try to turn it around, the influence peddlers try to pay it off and the benefits fall into fewer hands.

we need sunshine. that is why the lies cost more than the money. >> good afternoon, supervisors. in september 2011, the sunshine taskforce found that supervisors weiner, chu, and cohen violated the the sunshine ordinance in revising the parkmerced con -- contract. days later, supervisor weiner ordered a survey of the cost of complying with the sunshine ordinance. he emphasized the sunshine taskforce must function effectively. but he defined "effectively" solely in terms of costs, without looking at the results or benefits, or even performance metrics. we have now reviewed 38 of the responses to this survey.

"we found is a one-sided instrument designed to overstate the cost of the sunshine ordinance and the task force. the departments are on record in the cost of state act like the brown act and labeling them as city sunshine ordinance costs. virtually all departments are giving estimates of cost by what they remember, a sure way to inflate the numbers. even the cost of noncompliance with the ordinance that delays the city attorney fees, the hearings at a loss lawsuits, are all counted as compliance costs. there are other flaws in methodology we are reporting directly to harvey rose's office. the survey promotes three types of wrongdoing. one is political retaliation. the second is biased research.

the final is a waste of tax dollars. unless this survey is modified, it will be worthless. thank you very much. president chiu: next speaker, please. >> i am peter boer field -- warfield. with respect to the ongoing survey of sunshine costs now under way, only looking at the costs and not benefits biases the survey and suggests the stage is being set for a hatchet job against the sunshine ordinance and those who use it on behalf of public knowledge and awareness. when that apparent intended hatchet job is coming from a source that has formally been found in violation of the sunshine ordinance, let us just say it is worth looking at the

source. i would say i am disappointed there is not a larger question being asked. that is how well are the supervisors supporting sunshine. the answer is it has not been as well as it could be when it comes to support for the sunshine ordinance taskforce. we suggest that should be a board priority. if we look at some of the basic background for sunshine, section d says the right of the citizens to know what their government is doing is fundamental to democracy, and with very few exceptions, that right supersedes any other influence public officials may use to prevent access to information. only in rare and unusual circumstances does the public

benefit of allowing government to conduct business in secret -- the should be narrowly defined to prevent public officials from misusing their authority. perhaps it would be cheaper to get rid of trial by jury or elections. but i guess that is what the friends did. it was too expensive to have elections, and they abolished it. thank you very much. >> i am a mother of bayview hunters point. i can see how people feel intimidated to express the reality of what is going on. what i find shocking is the first time i asked anyone on the board of representatives the question of whether there would put the wellness children's program a block away from a sewage plant of a company that has no barrier, since 1952 has not been prepared?

the stench in bayview hunters point is nitrogen oxide, which is a poison chemical that has been all over bayview neighborhood since 1952, causing us to have cancer and asthma. causing us to die. what i find shocking is you just passed an ordinance to have a wellness clinics for children within one block without doing an environmental study. california pacific medical center is going to be building this. i find it shocking. why didn't you do the research to find out there was no study done? this is a block away from a sewage plant, a toxic environment. we know this is true. you have just been allocated $300 billion, or was it $300 million, to have the city repaired. this is shocking. all 10 of you voted for this

without doing any research. i called you personally a half hour before you made your decision, supervisor avalos. president chiu: direct your comments to all members of the board. >> i called him a half-hour before he made his decision, and he knew. someone needs to have the courage to say maybe i am not sure. i find it shocking that each of you voted for a rezoning that should not have taken place in an industrial area. everyone knows that is contaminated. everyone knows that is an industrial environment. president chiu: thank you very much. the speaker. -- next speaker. >> my name is mr. maxwell. this board of supervisors uses trickery analyze for the citizens of san francisco to put ballot initiatives on the