baptist church. i have one statement to make to this board. is this board willing to sacrifice the moral, social, spiritual, and the life tinging lessons that are being talked -- life changing lessons that are being taught at our church on sundays. in order to collect some easily dollars. is that the sacrifice you're willing to make in order to bring this city into some sort of economic balance? thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for this opportunity. i am the pastor at tabernacle faith church in the mission

district. i am in agreements with the meters being sent at a certain time, the charging people. we already have enough distractions trying to get people to come to church. that would be a huge distraction. and detour. the second issue i have is where i am pastor, between 26 and 26 street, there is a church between 24th and 25th that has no meters at all. i am concerned how one block can have meters and any other block can have no meters at all. there is a church also on the block between 2014 and 2015. i would urge you to reconsider pushing this. -- between 24th street and 25th street. i would urge you to reconsider

pushing this. >> i am representing mta employees. i am here to address the disparity in funds allocated to local positions in this budget. 216 new operator positions proposed. this budget has cuts to custodians, clerical staff, a parking control officers. they generate revenue and do far more than write tickets. further vacant positions already funded remain unfilled, adding extreme stress to our members, increasing workers' comp claims. there are millions in so-called salary savings. it should be used for hiring, as specified in your budget. this budget designates of millions to date sfpd. i urge you to hold the administration accountable and

to require that they fill budget approved positions as soon as possible and to retract these cuts on middle-class workers. >> anthony wagner. >> thank you. my name is anthony wagner. i lived in a beacon at third baptist church for the past 35 years. -- begin at the third baptist church for the past 35 years. we were accommodate all faiths in one chapel. the city of san francisco should be able to accommodate the people of faith on sundays. i am requesting that the commission would not pass this part of the budget. you saw me get up two times to go feed a meter. i do not want to do that in my service. i am asking that you give the same accommodations that you had

given to various marathons', walks, a bicyclist, street closures, and accommodating worshipers on sunday. thank you very much. [applause] >> good afternoon. i pastor the home baptist church in san francisco western addition. it seems to me there is a heightened level of insensitivity from the political establishment and from this board to. that would even suggest that you would have parking meters around the churches, and especially activating them at the time when you have listed, i do not know if you understand how value -- the services we present to san francisco.

you wonder why families are leaving. when you have that kind of insensitivity, i do not know if you understand the lessons of history. whenever you do this kind of thing, you also continued to be -- devalue what is going on in our religious community. i urge you, there are so many things going on that you could address. [applause] >> [reading names] >> greetings, everyone. i stand here to speak of a lady

who i know who left san francisco due to out migration of african-americans. she drives and every sunday to attend the church where she has been a member for the last 47 years. she has an aging vehicle, she is unemployed. she asks her friends and individuals to give her -- to allow her to have enough money to pay for gas money and the toll for the breads. she does it every single week. -- for the bridge. she doesn't every single week. -- does it every single week. >> [reading names] >> good afternoon.

i am a practicing jew. you want to have -- you want to take part in money out of people's hides and it is disgraceful. why don't you go after the bicyclist said? you should charge them for licenses and also charge them for parking. they have gotten away with it for too darn long. what are you doing with your proposal? it is the courage is supposed to hold services on buses? -- is the clergy supposed to hold services on buses? this is outright disgrace so. you tried to get money anyway you can short of gunpoint. i really resent this. [applause]

>> good afternoon. i am the pastor of the missionary temple christian at the episcopal church. when i think about the proposal to put parking meters or to activate parking meters on sundays, i think about our senior citizens. many times, they have to struggle to get into their churches. they have to walk around the block. to force them to have to get up in the middle of the service, struggle at of the church, it down the hill, around the corner to feed the meter, and struggle to go back up the hill, to get back into their church. if there is an afternoon program, make the trip again. i think it is an injustice.

[applause] chair nolan: next speaker. >> thank you, mr. president. i am associate pastor at without walls church in the city of san francisco. let me say a couple of things. this kind of action is the kind of action that suggests an open hostility towards the faith community. and also towards families. we are already impacted on sunday. a couple of my friends have had to finally throw in the towel. they now have to have church on saturdays.

a 2000-year tradition of having church on sunday. we have a bicycle race, the marathon, the car race a few years ago. it already makes it difficult for us to get there. now you propose a parking meters. if you have parking meters, you would not -- we will not be able to double park. where did those cars go in neighborhoods that have no parking facilities? it is an absolute impossible think and i am overwhelmed that you all would come to even discuss this. please, change your mind and do the right thing. [applause] >> you picked a heck of a group to go against today. you know the lord don't play. >> [inaudible] >> oi have come before you of

representing seiu. equity is still important. as my colleague pointed out to you, there has not been equity. i have been fighting near the four years for equity. some of you have caught me in my most -- let me explain this to you, folks. we need to to be equitable. you cannot have budgets where you hired 20% more employees in one category cannot find others. i ask you to consider this. this is probably my last time i come before you as an employee. i ask that you consider this.

we all need to find muni correctly. there will be more difficulties ahead, but i want to be able to be supportive of you as an advocate. let's find some ways to do advocacy. chair nolan: good look. -- luck. >> good afternoon. i have not been here for a while. a higher power asked me to come here today to address you on the fact that there are not as many jewish people here in this city. a lot of the synagogues and places of worship are in residential districts. it has not impacted them, but there are far more people in other religions and their places of worship are not -- have to be in commercial districts in areas where people cannot live.

-- do not live. god said anyone should go up or ship and have spirituality and stay out of trouble. what you are doing, you are asking uhim to put 10 plagues on you. >> thank you very much. i am a former member of the board of supervisors. you refer my namesake, david brown. -- you heard from my name's sake, david brown.

i am amos brown. the prophet. the profit has come to prophesy. -- prophet has come to prophesy. it is unimaginable that you will would have the gall in this city to come up with a measure that would adversely impact the quality of life -- of life in the city. my wife had to get up and go out to feed the meter. it is sexist against women to have this kind of a measure. 60% of the membership in faith communities are women. i am appealing to you to have a heart today. new york city has 8 million plus people. they get a face leaders -- we

are in san francisco going to charge people for parking on sunday. i beg you, please, pretty please come and kill this measure. naked dead on arrival and do the right thing. " -- make its dead on arrival and do the right thing. >> good afternoon. judgment day is coming. i am looking at the devil. the double in sheep's clothing in this room. -- devil in sheep's clothing in this room. you have to make it -- an intelligent decision. reject this budget. go back to the drawing board.

tallinn to go to his buddies downtown and -- expand the transit impact development to the mission bay bridge make them pay. they are getting subsidized services from the city, from us. bus rides, they are not paying a dime. make the police pay. make them pay. [applause] when they collect the shoplifters downtown, the businesses do not pay them. the taxpayers pay the police. homeowners pay the police. chair nolan: thank you. everybody gets the same amount of time. thank you very much. [laughter] >> i am rev. donna wood.

if you implement parking meters on sunday, it would have a seriously negative impact on my congregation. it has been in the same place since 1908. all the surrounding area was mostly sand dunes. we have a lot of people to come from outside the city. you have heard all the wonderful stories from all the other folks. i want to point out that they come to church and worship and provide services to the people of san francisco and also spend their money here. they go out to eat, they get their hair cut, they go to the grocery store and the shop. that is another thing that would probably go away. if they have to pay for parking, they will not come. i urge you to take this out.

chair nolan: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i am the past president of san francisco nisters conference. as i travel across this country, san francisco is constantly on people's lists. they have good -- because of our diversity in this city and because it is a city that people like to come back to once they visit. i used to be proud of this city. i'm beginning to think differently. there is a negative spirits in this city and it starts right here. anywhere we can get some money, let's try to get it. even if it means closing

churches because the people will not be able to pay to park. thank you. [applause] >> he is the last person. >> good afternoon, mr. chairman. i am a taxi driver. i would like to support -- they are the mainstream of this city. sunday, a lot of people come to the city, they eat in restaurants, shopping. everybody feels safe for sunday parking. you are going to lose a bunch of money for the city revenue. we have 10,000 american people retiring every day in this country. they are only driving on sunday now because they still sunday is a safer day for driving.

i look at your budget, $840 million. 850,000 people live here. it is about 4% of their income. thank you. chair nolan: we will declare the public hearing is closed on the budget issue. one more. >> i have been a resident for the last 44 years. i've spoken before this commission for a number of years. i am back here to talk about the operating budgets, which has been approved of the last three

years by deborah johnson, who is not qualified to approve it. you have gone up by 7% a year what you have taken over the taxi commission. and begun to squeeze the drivers beyond any reasonable basis. they are not part of the income producing part of the city and county of san francisco. they have no salaries, pensions, medical's, unemployment. they are paying for yours. thank you for your time. chair nolan: that would conclude the public testimony. we have before us the budget as presented, including these items. director heinicke: let me start with this. at the beginning of this process, we ask you to scrutinize the work orders and

make sure these were situations where there were was a proper nexus to the agency and this was a proper expensed to our money. we were looking at relatively lean times. let me focus on the police work order and the motorcycle unit. i will ask you to address that work order. your view that it is a proper work order for us to be pain. follow up with the two questions -- is this something we could revisit during the budget cycle as we discuss things with the police department? i assume it is, but i want to make sure. i realize that is a broader discussion about staffing priorities, but there was comment raised that perhaps we could be using pco's instead of

police officers to handle certain tasks. that would be less expensive to the agency. i have a few more questions, but let's start with this. >> we paid to the police department through a work order, which is the phrase the city uses in its budget process when one city department has services from another. $9 million of the work order supports a large portion of the traffic company of the san francisco police department. these are the motorcycle police officers who do traffic enforcement. the decision -- work orders are for specific services, order of purchasing, or certain city-wide function that are allocated to all departments. most of those cases, it is not a

choice of the individual departments. it is an allocation from city hall. it is an issue of where we believe the city department providing the services is best able to provide it. for us to do so, it would be more expensive. we would need to outsource the function. the traffic company is a little bit different than all of the other reporters. it is based on a policy decision that was made by city hall a number of years ago as part of their budget process. it identified a nexus between a large number of the functions of the traffic company and the city's transportation department. the theory behind the nexus is that to we are charged with having a safe transportation

system. we are charged with implementing the city's transit first policies. there is an argument to be made that the traffic companies supports both of those charter goals of this agency. in terms of making sure that transportation in the city is safe and enforcement works to the benefit of safety and the benefit of transit. there is a nexus for the use of mta funds for the service. there is also as many public speakers indicated, a justifiable position that the city's general fund should pay these costs. that is not a decision that we can make unilaterally with the this -- at this board. it is something i have discussed with the mayor, would some of the members of the board of supervisors, and with the

mayor's budget office. the challenge is, the reason why the decisions were made, the traffic company, and the way and work orders are allocated, was to protect general fund dollars there providing safety net services to our most challenged populations. the decision about mta police department work order was one of those decisions. the city is looking at the next fiscal year has $160 million general fund gap they need to close. to the extent they assume responsibility for this work order, are fiscal challenge there are policy arguments to be made on either side of the issue. the way the budget is currently structured, the responsibilities -- it has been

recommended to me that i include in my transmittal letter to the mayor and the board of supervisors, and articulation of how we could otherwise use those funds if that policy decision more different. if you gave us another $9 million, how we could put it to work to benefits the people of san francisco for the transportation department. that is something, i think comment that is a good idea. the other thing i been talking with the mayor and the budget office about is the fact that there is a unit of the police department that has been providing direct services to muni for security on the system did have been grant funded for which the grant is expiring at the end of this fiscal year. we do not have the funds

budgeted for that. the police department does not have the funds in their department to continue that service. that is a direct service provided to muni. i've also been seeking their assistance in the form of loring the traffic come -- lowering -- to make room for us to be able to find this direct service. i know that is a long answer. i think there is an arguable policy call in terms of where the funding comes from. it is a decision that needs to be made by city hall. >> i very much appreciate that answer. i am not suggesting that this money is falling into a sewer hole somewhere. it is being used for our police officers. the question is where it comes from. i have a little bit of tissue with the notion that this is a city hall decision. -- issue with the notion that

this is a city hall decision. not to have funds allocated for transit purposes used for other city hall purposes. again, i am not suggesting this is an el purpose. we need to support our police officers and we need traffic enforcement. the question is where this money comes from. i think we could make a unilateral decision to strike this from our budget and say, we will not pay for this because we do not believe there is a nexus. i think that would be an extreme mood and it would be one taken without enough -- extreme that move. i also want to turn up the temperature a little bit on this issue. the transmittal letter you are talking about is the appropriate step to take. i think we need to make clear that we as a board are reviewing these things and not simply accepting them as the city hall decision. of course, we will vue