something days. that stable was closed september, 2001, around the time of the terrorist attacks in new york. and the city has done nothing to rectify that tragic situation, neither the ethics committee, any of those boards. basically, it is ethical by their standards to completely ignore the public and deny them their rights. [bell] another situation. mr. mirkarimi was trying to save his wife from any contact with mayor gavin newsom at the time because he did not want any unlawful, and civil conduct. so he grabbed his wife. what is the big deal? i do not see any big deal with that. he should not be prosecuted.

thank you. [bell] >> thank you, those of you who are left. i am a green cat driver for 27 years in san francisco. -- cabdriver for 27 years in san francisco. i have heard you speak about civil rights, justice, discrimination, etc.. there is a situation that all this come into play and where the board of supervisors comes into play regarding the cab industry. the board turned the cab industry over to the san francisco mta a couple of years ago and since then, although we in the cab industry, we 5000 cabdrivers' of the city have worked as cooperatively as we could with the mta, this relationship has been a disaster, and we're going to have to ask you, supervisors, to step back and help us out.

but the mta has done with the 10,000 -- what the mta has done with the workers in its control is to drive -- draw a line down the middle and say 5000 you get sick pay, health care, paychecks, and retirement plans, and the other 5000 of you, san francisco's cabdrivers, you get none of that. you have no paycheck, no vacation, no sick pay, no health care. and no retirement plan. and now they are trying to get $20 million a year from the cab industry, from we 5000 cattle drivers in order to pay for the -- we 5000 cab drivers to pay. we need a ballot measure and i am sure there will be other speaking about this. this is a cry from -- for help from the cab industry. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors.

i have lived in san francisco for 60 years. i would like to think the "ch -- thank the chronicle for printing articles about whistle-blowers. there is a trial coming up so let's add a few more thousand dollars. the article basically says the truth that the ethics commission is a zero commission. we will see what zero commission does with the sheriff. thirdly, i would like to ask for the record, where is the justice when we have a fire chief that had active police involvement on a domestic violence case? where is the justice there compared to the sheriff?

can we please have a hearing in front of the audit and oversight committee, or is that committee of three attorneys too afraid, the word is afraid and i will say one more time, afraid of doing anything about it? also, i would like to point out the fact, the fact that the people and residents of san francisco are your bosses. you ought to be sitting in your chair listening to us, we pay your salary. dr. member that. if you forget, i will keep coming up here and reminding you that we are the boss, you are the employees, and is back to the old hippie days, power to the people and if you do not like it, you have to sit there like obedient children and listen to me tell you time after time after time, we are the boss, you are the employees, and i would like to see mayor ed lee

take the same advice is you do. thank you. president chiu: thank you, next speaker. >> president chiu and board. i am emile laurence. i have been a resident of the city and county of san francisco for 44 years. the first issue is the counter terrorism that you just vote on is the most absolute nonsense i have ever heard coming out of this room. >> excuse me. president chiu: you are not allowed to provide comment on an item that was voted on. you are allowed to talk about the general area the item was

on. if you could limit your comments to that. >> we will debate that later. you have no right to cut me off on public access based on the brown act. you had better read it. secondly, i want to talk about the taxi commission, the way it was in 2010. before it was taken over and hijacked by the mta. at the present time, a taxi drivers in the city are being squeezed to pay for mta's problems. the pension liabilities, the ability not to pay their own bills, the ability not to pay their own checks. parking meters are going out in the neighborhoods where they never were in order to pay for their bills. they are squeezing the taxi commission which is how the taxi drivers, by doubling and tripling their fees are -- almost on an annual basis. it has got to stop. i think what this board can do

is take the taxi commission back out of the mta and and independent body and unravel the feud between gavin newsom and mr. peskin and honorable the politics that caused that. as the man said earlier, note taxi driver in the city and county, unlike you sitting on this board, has pension, medical, grievance, has dental, day off with pay, zero, and you had better start looking at that. thank you for your time. president chiu: public comment is an opportunity to address the board on the items of interest

to the public. i want to make that clear. next speaker, please. >> my name is mary walker and i am here to be on record as being able to hear the voice of the rife -- wife of sheriff mirkarimi. it is so fair that laws have turned around -- and fear that laws have turned around and victimize the victims. something is quite wrong where she is not allowed to speak or be able to make a choice. we have conservatives were trying to stop us as women to not able to have choice -- traces made which they think are considered violent when we choose to either have an abortion or not have one. the victims' rights against violence against women turns around and takes the rights of the woman who is the victim or

the man who is the victim, not to have a say in what is done with their case without looking at it as an individual case. they're making blanket judgments without looking at each individual case of being different from the other. it is very, very painful to see this family being referred to in the newspaper by a columnist saying, tot-lot. she did not know what the law was about. that is pretty cold. there is a child involved who is going to read what we did to this family in the newspaper and he is not going to appreciate what he learned. he loves his parents. he wants his parents to -- together and so does his wife and it appears, so does the husband. in has been horrible house so many people had their opinions and not allow this woman to have her voice heard at all. it is frightening, really. they are taking away their voice

-- our voice. women's rights, victims, they're using tea party methods to steer politicians and to doing what they want. thank you. -- into doing what they want. thank you. >> thank you. folks should not be expressing their support for public comment her with applause or their opposition to anything city -- stated. thank you. next speaker, please. >> the afternoon to the president and members of the board of supervisors. also to mayor and laid -- ed lee and our wonderful police chief. i am here as a mother and grandmother. as a neighbor, a concerned citizen. with thousands of tourist visits, [unintelligible] a couple of years ago whose case

was solved within six months. i stand here in place of those who cannot be here who have lost their sons and daughters because of violence. to the families who lost their loved ones out there. i stand here for them. i stand here for the fine young african-american male who lost his life last night in district 5 where we know sheriff ross mirkarimi would have been there doing his true civil duty to that family. we lost a young man last night, his name was lawrence, he was 21. >> stop reading. the president is not even listening to you. >> we also lost another victim in district 10 and another one

in another area. recently, we have also loss s -- lost seven families in oakland all by senseless gun violence. we stand here as parents of unsolved homicides. we're feeling the pain we wish, no one at all. our hearts are saddened by what took place in oakland as well as in omi. and has been 17 years for me -- it has been 17 years for me. since i lost my son to gun violence. his case remains unsolved. there was fatalities going on with foreclosures of people's homes. we ask that you leaders join us, all of us activists and concerned citizens on tomorrow as we will march on third and carol streets to evans to talk

about the foreclosures. president chiu: thank you, next speaker. thank you very much. think you very much. ma'am, your time is over. -- thank you very much. >> i ahave been a cab driver for 22 years, i am a medallion holder. we would like to draw your attention to an extreme case of conflict of interest that the municipal transportation agency is entering into, is already in. by making itself both the administrator and the chief recipient of the medallions sales program. this is something that is completely contrary to what

everyday folks believe government is for. it is a no-brainer in terms of ordinary conversation, everybody understands the mta should not be both selling the medallions and administering the program. we would like to believe in the industry, those of us who do not have a financial interest, would like to believe that this is something that was not in your plan when those three or four lines of text in proposition a were in our opinion overestimated. the program has been one in which the sunshine task force has had to be brought to alert, when the tax at -- taxi advisory council voted to set aside every other consideration there were discussing and talk about only

whether the medallion sales program should be put forward. and so the paradigm at the taxi advisory council has been to sell medallions and this has been used by the mta to -- as a definition for its own monetary profit. also, i would like to point out that the mta, another way of saying this is the mta cannot properly put itself forward as the replacement of the medallion holders, to run the taxi industry and be the beneficiary of the taiex industry. i cannot think it is overstepping the -- [inaudible] to say that -- president chiu: thank you, next speaker. >> if you have pen and pencil, i will give you some of the items

of a lot. in this case, abusing their power. what is the fourth amendment of the united states constitution. on -- one is the fourth amendment. the other is the revolution they put themselves and [unintelligible] they are abusing, i explained each of those. when it comes to our resolution, -- a resolution -- [unintelligible] it must be in effect until a new resolution and a new rule substitutes that. they're breaking and have a case in the court at this time. the other one, the california constitution. it says if a government body wants money, millions and

millions, there is a name for it. it is a tax. they have to go to the public and get two-thirds of the boats. they cannot charge the people under their domain, 20 or 30 million time after time. and also, the fourth amendment, the justices said you cannot violate it when it comes to criminals. their argument is that when you have the public behind your seat, you are giving freedom. and of privacy. we're not the only business. every single business deals with public. the therefore the medium -- fourth amendment freedom as well -- they lose their fourth amendment freedom as well? [bell]

>> i am mr. troutt. yesterday's yesterday was palm sunday. quite a few things were filled on that amazing day when cheeses road in on the donkey -- jesus rode in on the donkey. we read and get all sorts of amazing prophecies about this particular day that said this was the day that the lord had made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. zacharias says they would shout as they rejoiced and were glad in it and jesus emphasized this point when he brought up some 118 after giving a parable and said that the stone which the builders rejected have become the chief cornerstone.

in other words, himself. in dannell, chapter 9, the angel gabriel said we were to know and understand that from the going forth from the command to restore and build jerusalem, after the 70-year exile, there would be 487 years to where he would be cut off. on palm sunday we were within a week where he would be murdered for our sins and this was now one week into the 487th year. this is why he said when the pharisees' which were among the multitude, that allowed multitude that praised him said, master, rebuked by disciples and if he said if these were too old -- hold their peace, the stones would cry out. you cannot stop the word of god from being fulfilled. god has said sunday he will raise the dead. the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. with a voice of the archangel and the trumpet of god.

it has not happened yet but it will and it will happen soon. i have mentioned before -- i do not have time. [bell] >> good afternoon. i am a cab driver here with national veterans' camp. i am here to talk about what i believe is an untenable situation within the cab industry that has the sf mta, the regulatory agency of the industry set up to make rules and make regulations that the sf mta can then profit directly from. that is just not what regulatory agency should be doing. they should be regulating and industry for the good of the city. if we go to the workers for safety of the industry, for the

long-term viability of the industry. not for the profit of the regulatory agency. i think this is an untenable situation for the long-term future of the cab industry in san francisco. it is a cry for help from the taxi industry. you have got a lot of first- generation immigrants in this industry, english language skills are perhaps not great. they do not have time to go to these meetings, they have a hard time expressing their feelings at these meetings, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed. thank you for your time. >> good afternoon. i am here with my friend to protest the intention of the sf mta to [unintelligible] tesellein -- to sell in the

city. that would make the revenue [unintelligible] the corporations are making a profit, the city is making or royalty of $12 million to $15 million annually. it is time to start considering the rights of the drivers. looking at the driver in a derogatory term a derogatory eye, the driver needs to be well-treated. in the sense we do not have any health insurance at all and our job is very risky. most of the drivers start getting chronic diseases. we do not have any benefits of retirement. they are taken away, the

medallion system from us. we do not have any -- even workers' comp that we already have. is well known that if a driver goes ahead, another worker will come. they're putting themselves in the line to get fired. we have no benefits whatsoever. sf mta is taking away the medallion from us. i want to protest with the rest of the cabdrivers that are here. thank you very much. president chiu: thank you, next speaker. >> i am a san francisco taxi cab driver. the sf mta regulates us and they write the regulations and enforce the regulations. they profit from the cab industry, and thyey are the ones who are to decide how many cabs are to be out there.

s if mta staff has proposed leasing 500 + medallions to taxicab driver -- companies that would otherwise have gone to taxicab drivers. there would be up to 500 cabdrivers who would be denied the possibility of being small business owners. these drivers are largely minority and occasionally female. instead, this revenue would be going to this sf mta to pay for muni drivers' retirement whereas we have none and there would be going to certain favored companies. i trust the current head of taxi services, i do not trust to the might put in there in the future and frankly, i do not trust the influences and pressure the taxis services will come under

as to what companies would get these medallions and how difficult it would be. is that my 30 seconds? we are going to be asking you, supervisors, to support us and help put a ballot measure on the november ballot, only two simple things, on medallions and [unintelligible] cab drivers and all taxi revenue must be used for tax purposes. there is so much that can be improved. do not let this be a cash cow for the mta. thank you. president chiu: thank you, next speaker. >> i am a cab driver. i would take this opportunity to express the anger and fear of thousands of cab drivers who cannot express or speak well. it continues fear, the threat

from the mta about those 500 medallions which they are supposed to get and are entitled to get an going to the cab companies, as long as safety, two of my known drivers, my friends, they have died while they were on duty. they do not have any health insurance. thousands do not have any health insurance or protection. they do not have retirement. i believe every single medallion issued should go to the cab drivers and they are entitled to have them. other than that, they do not have any retirement plan. they rely on them, their situation of psychology because the situation is pretty bad. the fear every day is the threat is on their neck every day. thank you very much. president chiu: thank you, next speaker.

>> good afternoon. i am a disabled combat veteran. i am proud i defended the nation, i am proud i am a san francisco taxi driver. what i am going to say, who makes money, and up with the losers -- [unintelligible] they do not make money. we make money and we serve people. lettis -- let us out of mta. and we the people and medallions must go to the people, not to some companies or mta's or name it, with the people. let us have our medallions. thank you. president chiu: thank you, next speaker. >> my name is [unintelligible]

i am totally against this 500 medallions to be turned to corporate medallions to benefit mta. according to the pilot program, they had a year ago, there were saying 12.5% of the revenue of the medallion goes to the interest of the drivers. nothing has done -- been done about it. -- 2010 medallions. the drivers have not benefited. on top of that, mta wants to [unintelligible] for their own interests. mta is trying to help the municipal transportation, the buses and cable cars and all those people who are working for

the city at the expense of the taxi drivers. very low benefits. we have been driving taxis and after all these years, we get our medallion. we are not benefiting from this. i think we should -- the board of supervisors has to take the taxi section out from mta control. [bell] president chiu: thank you, next speaker. >> >> the afternoon -- >> good afternoon. i purchased a cab company last year and is a challenge to do with the san francisco taxi industry. the reason taxi speakers are here today is because of something that is being proposed here.