you need to do. they gave an abatement notice in english. they did not give him a notice in english and chinese. >> any of the questions? >> i am done, thank you. >> the abatement notice would notify your client that there is an abatement hearing scheduled. the client attended the hearing. >> correct. there were deficiencies that needed to be corrected. a hearing after that, he corrected the deficiencies, went to the abatement hearing but was not sure what it was for or why he had to be there if he actually did correct the deficiencies. at the hearing, you will hear podcast, did you fix these things and he said i did. do you have proof and he said

sure. where is it? at my restaurant. could i come back? we cannot do that. this is the hearing date. we're not allowed to continue it. that is where we are. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> anything else? >> eis there reason why you never mentioned any language barrier? >> i must say that i did not put those papers together. and i have only recently become involved in this. what it does say and i have looked at these issues and spoken to the operator and understood this issue of the language problem. there is no question that it is there. i do believe that because of economic issues, this operator

was still behind him. this was suffering at a deficit. and economic deficit and a language deficit. he did the best he could to appeal and put the papers together. i agreed to become involved. that is why we're here today. there are documentations that put together but i understood the role -- rule because it was late you could not take that so i made the presentation to you today. >> we will hear from the department now. i am finished.

>> good evening. i am a senior environmental health specialist for the san francisco department of public health. i am the food safety inspector for the southwest quadrant of chinatown's district which does include the restaurant, louie's chinese california cuisine. it is the department's position that he has not presented any information that contradicts the documented evidence prevent -- presented to this board. that evidence included three years of stark photographic evidence of the most negligent and agreed to a sanitary conditions i have personally encouraseen. a documented recidivism which returned in intensity and surpass the original violation.

the department of public health has gone out of its way to provide assistance. the department from the beginning has always assigned bilingual inspectors to inspect his restaurant. the bertran has provided ongoing education and food safety training. the department contacted pest control operators on his behalf and took the unusual step of convincing his landlord to provide him improved repairs at no cost to him. the department chose not to issue him a citation to the director of public health hearing that would have initiated the permit of revocation process in order to give him more time to come into compliance. the mayor's office of small business contacted -- was contacted on how to pay his face that were in arrears. time and time again, mr. lei is -- has proven he is incapable of

sustaining a level of sanitation that the public deserves and demands. the department of public health, the stores of public safety, revoke his permit -- revoked his permit. that was upheld by this board on april 25. the department of public health maintains both those decisions were correct and we respectfully ask that this board denied the appellant's request a -- for a rehearing. >> to questions. what is -- two questions. one is the photos you had in your brief. when were those taken? >> february of this year. >> of this year. the voters that the appellant has was taken approximately toward the end of three.

>> i do not have knowledge. >> the last inspection at your department made was early february? >> february, correct. in february. >> one of the other comments made i believe i knew toward the end of the last hearing related to what options did this operator have in terms of replying -- re-applying and your comment was they did have no options for re-apply. did i hear that correctly or not? >> that was not the response from the department. >> ok. what are their options? >> the options are anyone who would apply, this would be open to anyone who would cry -- applied. anyone can apply again and the department would accept the

application. the approval process would be the same for anyone, whether it is new or someone who is returning for new permit. that is an option. that was always -- had always been and will always be open to the appellant. >> that would require an inspection. >> in terms of what kind of partners -- we can get into the specifics of what we're looking for. >> not necessarily right now. there is no time limit their like it would be for building permit if one was to come back with the same project, they would be prohibited from applying within the 1-year time frame? >> not that i'm aware of. >> ok. president hwang: thank you. we will take public comment. is there any member of the public would like to speak? employes and others who are

affiliated with the parties should not speak at this time. >> commissioner, i am chairman of the [inaudible] association. former police and park commissioner. asking you today to consider to grant a rehearing. there are enough evidence to prove that mr. lei has completed the violation. he did try to call the inspector to come down to meet inspection but could not get him. but left a message in chinese. mr. lei because of a language problem when down to the abatement conference on february 10 -- kory 28. -- february 28. bringing documents and photos to prove that the work had been done. while i think it is better --

inspector tong give him the notice of abatement, this is the record on february 27. together with the notice for closing the restaurant on that day. really, mr. lei does not understand what his abatement contract is. that is the only chance he could come down to prove you have finished our work. the [unintelligible] i would remind the commission that based on the hearing, he -- [unintelligible] pest control of something. he will prove to you [unintelligible] and i hope the department will come down and make an

inspection. if he does not do the work, he is entitled to close it down. but the the dead, the department -- if he did, the department will report to you. i ask you give him a fair chance before you close it down, before [unintelligible] will be in chinatown again. i am asking you to give him a chance for a rehearing and he can present evidence at all the document, proof. he hired pest control and [unintelligible] before they did. i am happy that the department is doing a good job to make sure that the food is safe. we all appreciate that. i hope that you can give him a chance to prove that he did

finish this work. thank you very much. i hope you consider the re- hearing. president hwang: thank you. next speaker. >> i am a community supporter along with many who also were at the hearing. i also remember about [inaudible] being closed down. i remember being invited to louie's for many parties. wilma pang has had many dinnfers. and ling wang has been hanging in with him. i think we have compassion fatigue. i had a good long phone conversation with terrance hong.

what i was called in because another lawyer that ling chi had had, we are playing musical chairs and walking in and out of the room. so many people try to help that we're not all on the same page, reading the same script at the same time. richard asked me to write in english letter 10 days or so before the to-february 25 hearing. i had a night's -- a nice conversation with cynthia on the phone getting up to speed. i could not be that at the hearing, i was out of town. i picked up the focus from the history of violation and i sympathize with terence. there has been a long period of stress on both sides with trying to help with the violations, trying to survive the chinatown campus construction, so here we come at the end of this for

years or so. i would -- it would be ashamed when mr. louie is finally able to deal with the conditions. his 20 workers or so who are all old back wages. the landlord who has had rent arrearages. i have had two long conversation with the landlord's attorney who is not here. they do not see a viable option because it would rather have mr. lei or louis stay and pay and work that out with whatever new financial are that -- or other partners can exist. it would be ashamed to close him down when finally, he would like to get the restaurant back up to speed and show inspector hong

that it can be done. he has become a cause celebre in the chinatown papers. this strikes a note of fear. they're watching to see what is happening. president hwang: thank you. next speaker. >> i am in labor union in chinatown. i am often at louie's restaurant. i am here to ask you to consider granting a red-herring. there is a lot -- i am here to ask you to consider granting a

rehearing. he did call to inspector tong, come for the inspection. mr. tong, he did come down to inspect. please consider and grant a rehearing for louie's restaurant. thank you for your consideration. president hwang: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, i teach at the university of california, berkeley. my connection with this restaurant has come mostly from my connection with a construction of the city college

campus. for more than 30 years, i have advocated for the campus to be built in chinatown for a 6000 or 7000 immigrants and working class people, most of whom are taking esl classes and citizenship classes. finally, we have that. i have taken an active role in this. this turned out to be a complete financial disaster. if you drive by, you see right next door to him, on several occasions, because the pipeline bragging or the foundation of work for shoring up the wall, his restaurant has been totally adversely affected and for three years now, more than that, his front door is totally blocked because of this light of

construction. i became -- alliance of inceslif construction. the communication has been the one major problem. i have been on the road since march so i have not been keeping up with this public health issue. there are issues with the irs and city college and even permits to operate a business repeatedly. i found all the communication had been done exclusively in english only. i oftentimes have to play the role of translating for him as well. i think what i am here to emphasize the point that we need to give him another chance and i think he has been completely and -- financially ruined. i could go into a lot of details beyond that but i do not have time. he is very much paralyzed

because of what has been happening to his business. he has been there for 13 years. during those 13 years, he could not be violating all those health codes. but i think is important for this commission to give him a red-herring so we can better present his case before you. -- a rehearing so we can better present his case before you. president hwang: thank you. next speaker. >> i have an overhead. can you turn that on? i am richard [inaudible] his restaurant being open for 13 years, often i went there to eat. lunch, dinners quite often. i never get sick from it.

i do not go in there myself. i always go with a bunch of friends. sometimes to tables, sometimes three tables. -- two tables, sometimes three tables and no one ever got sick from eating from the restaurant. business was good at the beginning. there was lots of fund-raisers for politicians, leland yee, willy brown was there quite often to, at the beginning. -- too, at the beginning. if anyone got sick or their friends, we would know about it. there would keep going back. and then, what happened? construction of the community college right next door. not even right next door. wall-to-wall.

kicking up the dirt and the noises of putting the pilings and hundreds of thousands of cement trucks go in front of it. they line up in front of his restaurant. so business went down. as morale went down, too. you nkow, -- know, he did get lots of notice, complaints from the health inspectors. he did not really take care of it. since it was closed and from time to time, i go in there for a cup of tea, he hire

people, lots of his friends, trying to clean up for him. i am very reluctant but he insists tuesday we down to his basement and show me how much more he has done. and how many refrigerators he cleaned up. there was really an effort even though after the restaurant closed, he tried to continue for the business. his whole life is life savings and all his friends were based on the restaurant. i hope that you will give them a rehearing and ask the inspector to inspect one more time. thank you for your consideration. president hwang: thank you.

next speaker, please. >> good evening. i teach at city college. for the past year, i tried very hard to organize teachers and staff of city college to help this restaurant. it is a shame that during these economic times, so many restaurants are closed in chinatown. give them a chance, give him a chance. i am willing to help him translate because i am fully bilingual. i would like to say please consider the economic climate in chinatown. if you close another restaurant, another one at another one, what is going to happen? i am the founder of an organization called a better chinatown tomorrow. which has nothing to do with restaurants but hopefully, by promoting traditions and art,

culture to bring in visitors to visit chinatown. i had an idea of how to really promote this culture through the eatery outfit. anyway, everyone has said so much about it and i plead you, please. give him a chance. i am willing to help and city college, the faculty also is going to help, too. we feel very guilty about this campus and dragging him for the last four years. thank you very much. president hwang: thank you. is there any other public comment? >> hello, commissioners. i with the san francisco small business development center. -- i am with the san francisco small business development center. i was his client and i am still his client. now he is my client, too.

my work is to help small business in chinatown. i am the only bilingual consultant. by -- we help small businesses in chinatown and other chinese- concentrated areas. i have worked with so many different businesses. i notice a lot of them do not know chinese and they were glad, he is glad that we have someone to speak chinese for us so i have been having a lot of them and that is how i got to know him. i used to be there, i never had any problem after eating there. in the last couple of years, i started helping him getting back his business. we usually provide technical support. there are some things we cannot do. what i have been able to come up

with, i said, you have got to have something, if you've got back your business license, you have to work for support. food safety is important and he understands that. he has a plan to how to upkeep of the food sanitary. we worked together to ensure the health and sanitary conditions of this restaurant is up to the city code of food safety codes. he always has pest control. in the last -- in the last century has had his business, i said make sure you are beyond the standard, about the standard. have the inspector -- pest control come two times a month. cleaning, usually it is three or

four months of the time. he would have it every month. the dishwasher, maintenance every month. he has been doing that ever since. also, struck the requires all employees to adhere and work according to the standard set forth by the department of health. also, the personnel to check the restaurants, the kitchen, bathroom, every hour on the hour. twice a day in the morning and after. i really wish that you could grant him a chance of a rehearing. thank you. president hwang: next speaker, please. -- any other public comment? >> good evening. for years, i have been a proponent for small business, especially restaurants.

restaurants face many challenges today. in this case, there is a big extenuating circumstance where he is a victim of where his location is. aside from compromising any safety, it sounds like to me the man did not have clear communication. he was going through the process of not falling -- and not fully understanding where he needed to be. we can see it is not only himself but the community that has gone behind him to help aid him through this process. i think we should grant a rehearing because at the end of the day, we will find out whether he needs -- meets all requirements and whether he can khristine all the requirements. but to close him down is going to cost family jobs and he will be in financial ruin and it will be devastating consequences that will spiral throughout the community.

we're at a time where we're not starting from a round one. we're at the end of the road here. he their shapes up or he ships out. at this point, i would think the consequences of him being shipped out tonight would have dire consequences on the community. we can give, rehearing and say get it right or we closing down. -- give him a rehearing and say get it right or we are closing you down. on behalf of this restaurant and the community, if we can have a rehearing and give him more time to get it right. president hwang: thank you. is there any more public comment? >> [speaking foreign language

-- [speaking foreign language] >> he was a worker there and because of this and he is off work and he really wished that he does not have to go for unemployment. so he really wishes the commission will be able to grant a rehearing so that he can get his job back. thank you. president hwang: there are president hwang: there are other workers of the restaurant.