a promise of jobs in the area of construction, medicine, administration, and more. your legacies, the building of a strong center cisco economic future and the economic future of all future residents who will be employed. we ask that you see your role as voting yes as so important because it would not only help move us through the economic downturn that we find ourselves in the midst of, but actually passed that downturn and into an economic boom of jobs, income, and the ability to spend those salaries in our great city. in our work admission hiring hall, with san francisco residents, in order to help them become more job ready, we encourage them to let no opportunity go by, which could have made a major difference in their futures. i asked this of each of you.

please consider this to be such a major opportunity to make such a difference in so many lives. please give that opportunity to those who are fighting so hard to improve their lives. please use your abilities to afford them those opportunities to get jobs they need and deserve. thank you very much for your time and especially your consideration. please support cpmc's project. thank you. president fong: thank you. >> hello. my name is prior -- is brian and i volunteer organizer. unfortunately, nancy was not able to stay. she was the only endocrinologist south of market for many years. practicing as a loose for 36 years, 35 of them in the same office. sutter has refused to allow our to lease and office space that

she can afford. they are charging her for five years, back increasing for charges of living, even though they were cashing her checks all along. she led a fight to support rate hikes on doctors that were going to drive some out of practice. in fact, one pediatric gent -- one pediatric dentist, one of only five who used to treat people on the peninsula, has retired because of those rate hikes. we want to know how they're going to increase charity care when they are driving out the doctors who have provided the most charity care in their system. we are also concerned about the situation at san leandro. they are announcing that will shut down the hospital within 90 days. they used a similar clause to the 1% klaus over at east bay, where they said if san leandro

loses money for two years, they can take it over, after they did do after a lengthy legal battle. now they are announcing that they want to close it. we have a lot of other concerns in terms of mental health. we have doctors and some others at s.f. general and their union is on diversion. it has to do with how the state defines acutely mentally ill. they are using their standards for what is not acute as an excuse not to pay. this is >> in terms of charity care, there was two university doctors training medical and nursing students at st. luke's for free providing excellent, excellent charity care and sutter health basically cancelled the program, drove those doctors and students away. a lot of people in that neighborhood now do not have access to great freehandon care

and they said they would bring in dartmouth students. that's not in fact evidence at the st. luke's campus. we are all for living wage jobs. if they build these hospitals correctly, they can do it every bit as well with living wage job for the community, thank you. please look at revoking their tax breaks. >> thank you, president fong and members of the planning commission. my name is anna and this is the second time i come to speak to you in support of cpmc. i am a project engineer, the contractor hired to build cpmc and i'm also a graduate of the mission hiring hall construction admission training program as well as a san francisco resident. i lost my job back in 2009 and i spent 18 months unemployed.

i had a lot to find out about mission hiring hall and the programs they offer. i met katherine carroll through the training program. they offered me a paid internship for three months. right after, they offered me full time employment and a career opportunity. i am now having the opportunity to give bang to my community by working for the workforce development department. in the last 12 months, we have worked closely with the san francisco office of economics and workforce development as well as some community-based organizations such as mission hiring hall. i strongly feel that we are not only helping people but changing lives. we want to create more work opportunities for those who so desperately need them, just like i did. i am happy to say today that i feel lucky to have a job and i'm looking forward to a successful career in the construction industry. however, we need to put politics aside and start working towards creating jobs

for so many people. i understand that some people don't agree with the cpmc project. however, cpmc will provide so many benefits for our community. cpmc will continue to provide exceptional health care to san franciscans with seismic safe buildings, will bring revenues to the city which we desperately need and will continue to create jobs for so many san francisco residents in the years to come. vote yes today and allow us to rebuild cpmc. thank you. good afternoon commission and president. i work at st. luke's campus in the food service department. i would like to say that i do support the rebuild because it shows dedication to the future and i also feel that a new building will provide a greater level of patient care and patient satisfaction. i encourage your support in

order to help ensure a better future for san francisco health care. >> ladies and gentlemen of the commission, i am father don fox, an episcopal preach who has served here in san francisco for 36 years. i urge you to please not enable sutter health to proceed with its plan for st. luke's unless and until it restores psychiatric services including inpatient beds. i do not envy your task in dealing with sutter health. sutter health is a highly funded powerful and slick organization. it's perhaps too inflammatory to call sutter health a liar, but it is no exaggeration to say that it is does not honor all of its promises.

it has claimed today and you have heard it, that it will provide "increased health care for low income and underserved san franciscans." its record is quite otherwise. it has one of the lowest records of providing such care. when sutter health took over st. luke's hospital from the episcopal church which founded it and operated it for 130 years, it promised to maintain the hospital's tradition of providing care for anybody, even if they had no money. the first thing sutter tried to do when it took over was to close down the hospital. it's failed at that. however, it did succeed in eliminating all of the psychiatric services. as you know, if you're a woman, you can't even have your baby at st. luke's now because that has been eliminated also. sutter health claims to be a

nonprofit organization. i ask you, how many nonprofits do you know who pay their c.e.o. $4 million a year? is that obscene or what? if sutter can pay an administrator $4 million a year, why can it not afford psychiatric doctors and nurses at st. luke's hospital. i'll tell you the answer. sutter health primary priority is not adequate care for as many people as possible. it's priority is making money. sutter cannot make money from poor people patients. however, it can make money by treating the insured and the after -- affluent. maybe the sutter steamroller is too hard to stop. it's armed with tons of money for political influence,

deceptive propaganda and clever lawyers to defeat almost anyone who challenges them. but you commissioners have it in your power to strongly urge the board of supervisors and the health department to force sutter health to provide at st. luke's at least the level of mental health and charity care that it used to provide. thank you. president fong: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, president fong and commissioners. my name is dr. johnson rause and i'm here on behalf of the physician's organizing committee. a have a psychiatrist in the emergency service where i had the pleasure of touring two of your commissioners moore and borden. i would be delighted to offer a firsthand site to any of you who would like to come by. i'm told that sutter argues here that their existing

psychiatric beds are underutilized since they closed the 32 inpatient beds at st. lukeas, they have accepted any of them from psych emergency. my colleague texted me and said they're telling the commission that 90% of the commission in p.e.s. are not acute and don't need to be there. i really hope he messed up that quote because i can't believe anybody would actually stand here and tell you that. to begin with, 65 to 75% of the people who are brought into p.e.s. are on a 5150 psych hold from the police. so they're there for sure. this morning at 11:00, psychiatric emergency was on condition red with 21 patients, eight of whom were slated as needing admission without any open beds at sfgh. you have just heard from one of the nurses at st. like's, they kind find psychiatric beds for their own patients who are on their medical units and need transfer to cpmc. i can promise you that p.e.s. staff is not wasting its time

calling up cpmc asking them to take our patients. sutter would like to pretend that they can open and run two general hospitals with a total of 635 beds without making any provision whatsoever for the severely and chronically mentally ill. this is both discriminatory against the mentally ill and impractical as it will leave more of their patients strapped down to gurneys in their medical emergency room hallways. sutter should be required to include an appropriate level of care for the severely and chronically mentally ill in their new hospitals including at the very least the restoration of 32 inpatient beds from st. luke's hospital and the support of approximately 100 supported housing case management slots. thank you very much for your attention and please urge the board of supervisors to that end. president fong: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon,

commissioners. my name is shad and i'm a pastor of the metropolitan baptist church in bayview hunters point. therefore when cpmc was purchasing st. luke, i was asked by cpmc to be alison person between them -- to be a leyson person between they will and the neighborhood. i attended many neighborhood town meetings and basically what i heard from the neighborhood was some of the same things you are hearing there, basically they wanted st. luke's hospital to remain the way it was and keep it the same amount of beds. so when i took this information back to cpmc, the c.e.o. informed me that there is no way they can do that. st. luke's hospital went under

because of the way they were operating and if they followed suit, they would go under, also. that made a lot of sense to me, so i began to do a survey of hospitals, not just in san francisco, but throughout the country. and i found out that cpmc was one of the few, and i mean very few hospitals in the country that operated in the black. so i am here to support it because of their skills and that sort of thing. some people may say they are slick, but i'm saying they know how to run a hospital. not only do they know how to run a hospital, but they have good medical skills as well. just last year, a year ago,

easter i had a very serious prostate problem and they saved my live. four months ago, i had a light heart attack. again they saved my life. about a decade ago, cpmc started an african-american health disparity committee which i was on in the formulation of that committee along with dr. brock, the c.e.o. and the reason for that was he wanted to know why many african-americans, especially men did not attend hospital or seemed to be afraid to go to hospital. and we came up with poor bed manners and this sort of thing and each of those incidents

there are bed matters, the doctors and nurses, the complete staff, bed manners were superb. so i ask you to support it if you can. president fong: thank you. >> hello, thank you, supervisor fong and the rest of the chair. i'm james mabrey owner of the everyday janitorial service. i speak as a san francisco resident and a san francisco small business owner and a trade partner to both cpmc projects. both projects are in need of upgrading, seismic upgrades and just new facilities, period. i think the residents of san francisco deserve it.

the projects would help revitalize our cities -- city's economy. it would boost hiring jobs for san francisco natives and all sorts of progress for the city in a failing economy right now, you know. i vote yes and encourage the chair to do us well to vote yes and get this project going so we can have some safe hospital facilities in the city and county of san francisco. thank you. president fong: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is robert lopez. i work for mission hiring hall

community relations. we have been in the mission since 1971. we're a direct placement agency. we started out with construction referrals and that's the connection with us getting people to work through construction. we have two programs there, city build academy which you may have heard of and the construction admin training program. the city build program is a particular program that is unique in that it helps people to have multiple barriers to employment get work in areas where they might not be able to get work. construction is one of the few trades that barriers like criminal history, drug abuse, or homelessness might be something that they can overcome and get a new start and find sustainable employment. many of the people that are homeless and that come to look for work with us look just like you and i. they're just, a lot of people are just two steps away from homelessness.

they just don't look like the typical vagabonds in the street. they're looking for a new start in life. in particular they would benefit most from the construction jobs that would lead from the rebuilding of cpmc which i urge you to vote yes on this. i know there has been a lot of opposition for different issues and stuff and i know that's a tough call that you guys have to make, but i'm confident that you guys will make the right call so you do the best to have both things come out with a positive outcome. we also have another program called the construction admin training program. you heard from anna and another woman here who is sitting there in the blue in the beautiful dress right here. those two are graduates from that particular program, the construction admin training program. both of them did not have jobs when they came in there. and through that program, they're now permanently employed with the general

contractor. now they have a new start on their life. anna came looking for work in u.p.s. she didn't get a job there. i steered her to the construction admin training program. now she has a job with good benefits and a new life. so i urge you to consider to vote yes and to get these projects going seismically safe hospitals, good health care and all of the good things that can come from that. have a good afternoon. president fong: thank you. >> good afternoon, president fong, commissioner moore, commissioner sugaya, commissioner antonini, commissioner miguel, and commissioner borden. i'm ted sang, the director of the asian foundation. many in our community these days are busy at work preparing for next month in may which is asian pacific heritage month. i was thinking about all of the great health institutions that take care of the health of the

asian american community in san francisco, from kaiser who has a third of our patients which is the only hospital in the country dedicated to serving the chinese community and northeast medical services, the largest federally qualified health center in san francisco. as i was thinking, nobody, no institution in san francisco does more for the health of the asian american community than cpmc. it really starts from birth. so many asian babies are born in cpmc. if you look at the roles of the babies that are born in cpmc and you look at the sur names, you don't just see asian nails. you see the sur names of all of the people in san francisco because that is part of the service that they offer. but beyond just being born in cpmc, cpmc takes care of the health of asian american families as we grow. many of you are aware of hepatitis b disease. hepatitis b is the greatest health disparity for asians in

america. hepatitis b is also the greatest cause of liver cancer in the world. for both of these reasons, san francisco has the highest rate of liver cancer in the country. we are doing something about ending that liver cancer in san francisco with the campaign and cpmc has played a leadership role in that. because of the great work that we have done in ending hepatitis b disease, in part we have helped to create a national action plan to end hepatitis in america which was issued last year. in that plan, they called for the firstever national hepatitis testing day on saturday, may 19, 2012, to be run by the u.s. centers for disease control. and on may 19, 2012, the head of our hepatitis from the centers of disease control will be in san francisco to recognize the work that we are doing in san francisco to end hepatitis disease and to support the work that we are doing. we will be offering on that day free hepatitis screening, not just help tightis b, but

hepatitis c screening. hepatitis c does not just affect asian americans, the new guidelines that are about to come out from the c.d.c. indicate every baby boomer in san francisco should be screened for hepatitis c. we will be providing hepatitis b and c screening on that day courtesy of cpmc. cpmc has been supporting the health of san franciscans and san francisco should support to rebuild the cpmc. i urge you all to vote yes today. thank you very much. president fong: thank you. >> good afternoon commissioners and president fong. my name is nick rozzo. i am a patient and a volunteer at california pacific medical center. i received a liver transplant nine years ago, may 13. if it wasn't for the doctors at cpmc and the miracle of science, i wouldn't be here talking to you today. i have been waiting all day to

talk to you. i'm exhausted. i haven't eaten. and due to that, my two kids have their dad and my wife has a husband. who is going to take care of my kids? they go out of control. they're crazy. so i'm begging you to vote yes on building cpmc. cpmc is not just a hospital for san franciscans. it's a hospital for the east bay, for the seven counties, for northern california, for san luiz ibispo. if reaches arizona, las vegas, we get patients from all these states and sometimes there have been patients from the philippines, from mexico, and other countries. i get to beat them because i get to talk to them about survival and give them hope because they see me and they see a healthy human being. they say, hey, i can be like

nick. that's the rewards i get out from walking the halls at cpmc and talking to patients. i will encourage you guys to come and join me one of these days with the purpose of the c.c.o. to come and talk to the patients with me so you can see how grateful they are and thankful they are for cpmc. i know there are a lot of issues at stake. they can be resolved. we're all heading that way. we're not getting younger. we're getting old. we all need those hospitals here in this city. this is a city that is leading the way in many, many ways, in many things around for the world. so just do it, don't think about it because the more you think about it, the more you think about it, the more meetings you'll have like this, the more time we're going to spend here, the more money that is spent by both sides. to save that money and spend it where it needs to be spent.

thank you. president fong: thank you. >> oh, and for the record, they'll still having babies at st. luke's. >> hi, president fong, members of the commission. i'm betty employed at st. luke's for 12 years now and on behalf of my co-workers, we ask you to please prove the building of st. luke's because of the jobs that the hospital will give us to support our families and the benefit this hospital will give to the community. we also urge you to vote yes for the safety of the patients and the employees due to the fear of the earthquake calamity anytime. we thank cpmc for taking over st. luke's campus because cpmc give us good benefits and for agreeing to give us our jobs in the new hospitals. thank you.

>> good afternoon and thank you, commissioners, for allowing everyone to speak here today. my name is rick oherro. i'm the owner of a contracting business, we're a local union business, local contractor here in san francisco for the last 57 years. of all of the contractors in the land, cpmc and sutter chose us to joint venture six years ago to form a partnership to bring this facility to life. i have never seen an owner so patient with the process in my life. so many of the projects that we start never get to the start line and to the finish line. i know there are many waity issues on your plate here, life safety, seismic, economic, physical, and mental health of the community. these are issues as waity as the ones i deal with every day trying to put people to work. personally, i volunteer to teach a life skill class at the city build academy on evans. i love to do it.

provide skill and hope for the faces that i see there, but it also pains me because at the end, they all come up and ask me for jobs that i don't have for them. additionally, for 20 years, i have been a board member of the pacific vision foundation. it pains me to hear the dreamonizing of cpmc when it comes to charity care. we support the lions clinic at cpmc and because of the access to access their doctors and facilities for to cost, we are preventing blindness to the most needy people in this community. lastly, i ask the question, why are construction workers so often referred to as temporary or transient as if they can just go to some other place to work every day. we live every day to find work on sites such as this. we are especially trained to be good neighbors because these are the neighborhoods that we live in or do live in. we are part of this community. sites like this are our factory floor because the gates on this

project have been chained so long, i ask you on behalf of all the workers and many more people that will benefit in the area to please unlock the gates and allow us to go to work. thank you. president fong: thank you. if there are any other speakers who would like to speak on this item, if you would line up on this side. >> good ann, president fong and the commissioners. my name is yolanda jones. i'm the owner of a small business yolanda construction administration and traffic control. i'm a bayview hunters point resident and business owner. i, too, am a mother of six three born at st. luke's and three born at cpmc. i can say nothing greater than than they were a great hospital then and i hope they continue toon