making it an ideal place to work and receive care. the commitment to the city is undeniable. the plan to build a state of the art hospital in the mission district. it would create union construction jobs, more than $2 billion into our local economy. cpmc makes investments in programs benefiting san francisco. in 2010, 400 people participated -- i want to be part of this team. i strongly support cpmc and i believe that san francisco's hard-working men and women need

this project. i ask you to vote in support of rebuilding. supervisor mar: thank you. [reading names] next speaker. >> thank you, members of the board of supervisors. my name is laura and i am an intern for the general contractor of the cpmc project. as a resident of san francisco, i believe it is essential to rebuild cpmc for myself and others who may need health care services at some point in their lives. many say the large proposed central hospital has inaccessibility issue because of its location at a busy intersection. i have to disagree because local residents can easily receive

most or all of their services at one location without traveling to other parts of the city. this hits me because of my own experience of health care failures due to being transferred to different facilities. at the age of 16, living in south sacramento at the time, i was diagnosed with early stage kidney failure. because i was under pediatric care and there was no pediatric kidney doctor in my area, i had to go out to the oakland facility. i was supposed to receive a call to schedule an appointment, the days went by without a call. after calling oakland to make the appointments my family and i waited. days went by and my symptoms for getting worse. i was extremely tired and

experienced excruciating headaches. i lost over 10 pounds and by the third week, i am still waiting for the results, i collapsed and experienced a seizure. i was taken to the emergency room to find out my kidneys were permanently damaged. i was told the biopsy results were already completed within a few days after the procedure. none of this was communicated to my doctor's or my family. this was essential information that could of been prevented any further damage. because there was lack of communication, there was little to no relationship between doctors and that was forgotten. none of this would have happened if all my needs are met at one facility. supervisor mar: thank you so much for the testimony. thank you for being here.

next speaker. >> thank you, members of the board of supervisors. i am a health care architect and i support rebuilding cpmc. my entire career has been committed to designing healing health care environments for communities across the country, including dozens of major hospitals and medical center projects. i am honored to be currently a partner in charge of the kaiser permanente a oakland medical center replacement hospital project, which is currently under construction. it is with knowledge, great interest, and good intentions and i speak to you today. here is what i have learned about cpmc. place. there has been great effort and great success in the integration of buildings and neighborhoods.

health care services are both inwardly focused and our refocused. some need to embrace and enhance the community and there are some that need to be on heard and unseen. this is a complex balance between function, design, and experience. i believe it has been addressed during nicely and is planned. world class. san francisco is a world-class city and deserves a world-class medical institutions. one of the physical drivers of a world-class is an institution's ability to accept change. this has been significantly developed and appropriately outlined in this facility. innovation. this is a facility that is being designed and planned to be one of the safest places in san

francisco in the event of a seismic event. without compromise, -- thank you very much. i support the project. supervisor mar: next speaker. >> thank you, supervisors. over 10 years ago, cpmc's executive architect. since that time, i've been an independent consultant working with the california healthcare foundation. i was a member of the safety board that wrote the regulations and i was responsible for the selection of the cathedral of help site. i support rebuilding cpmc. -- the cathedral help site. i support rebuilding cpmc.

existing buildings must be maintained to support continued ongoing patient care. it is critically important better most vulnerable people be housed in six buildings. prior to joining cpmc, i was responsible for the peninsula hospital completed two years ago. it had to be built. cpmc and st. louis must be built or the hospitals will lose their licenses. -- st. luke's must be built or the hospitals will lose their licenses. it is time to move forward and build these buildings. they fulfill their commitment to community, staff, and patient safety. with the affordable care act a certain date, we need more than ever to provide health care in the most cost-effective way possible. generating the best outcomes for the sickest patients at a centralized center of excellence hospital.

am i done? supervisor mar: 30 seconds to go. >> i strongly support the mayor's agreement with cpmc to build the two stood of the art hospitals. supervisor mar: i am going to call a few more names. [reading names] next speaker. >> i am a lifelong resident of san francisco, born and raised. i am here to support cpmc's rebuild efforts. we talk about this process going on for five years. both of those hospitals could of been already built. in the event of the seismic earthquake, we would be that much safer. i think the time for holding this up is over. we need to push forward and make this happen. it is time to be proactive. i wanted to say that i support

these two projects. thank you for your time. supervisor mar: next speaker. >> tnk you, supervisors, for this opportunity to speak. i am a structural engineer, chairman -- a member of the national academy of engineering. we know that a major earthquake will occur in california sometime in the next 30 years. if it happens to stand for -- we are expecting heavy damage to our city, casualty's in the thousands. a very slow recovery. a recovery depends on san francisco being a disaster brazilians city. we must have -- a disaster city. we must work together.

hospitals must began operating shortly after the disaster. a seismically resilience san francisco needed hospitals to be fully operational after a major earthquake. i need to remind you that most of our hospitals were built prior to the mid-1980's. as a map -- a major earthquake -- with precious few beds. these replacement hospitals would significantly change that picture, but they must be completed. when the major earthquake occurs, san francisco deserves to have modern hospitals. thank you. supervisor mar: next speaker. >> thank you, members of the board of supervisors. i am speaking on behalf of life

learning academy. it is a san francisco -- supervisor mar: any objections? you'll be speaking for him. any objection to that? please continue. >> life learning academy is a charter school opened in 1998 as part of a juvenile justice reform effort in conjunction with the city of san francisco. students come from the most economically disadvantaged high crime neighborhoods in san francisco. they volunteer to attend life learning academy because they want something better for themselves and their community. in 2007, the academy internship program was born. we look to place each of our students in internships one day

a week during the school year. one of our first participants was cpmc. we have since placed over 30 students as part of this program. cpmc has been instrumental in providing our students with the job experience necessary for them to make the transition into the real world. many participants pursued careers in the medical field since graduation. cpmc's commanded to the city is undeniable. -- commitment to the city is undeniable. it will double the number of earthquakes saved beds in san frantic life learning academy supports cpmc possibility to build a new facility. construction of another hospital will serve to further strengthen the relationship between so many disadvantage youth in their hope

for a brighter tomorrow. the experience they have collected at cpmc has been invaluable to their growth as people. thank you. supervisor mar: next speaker. >> ♪ don't take your hospital love away from me if you go, then i'll be blue you can take away the sutter tax breaks remember when you made psychiatric just right and cathedral hill has the highest heights think of all that we have been through make it better, won't you

thank you ♪ ♪ something in the weather hospital moves the tracks and no other hospital i do not want to leave it now the are you going to fix it up and how long to do that, please let's go through the hospital, let's go to the hospital hop let's fix up your benefits, too. make it better, won't you? ♪ let's go to the hospital hop make it the best that you got ♪ ♪ make it better, make it better a lot ♪

>> keith wolf, kamani ahmed, max moser, michael smithwick, michael streetland. next speaker. >> hand you, members of the board of supervisors, and speaking on behalf of the foundation in support of the plan. >> you did not fill out a card, is there any objection to the speaker taking the place? please continue. >> i am a board of director and a life member of 29 years with the san francisco chinatown lions club. we just celebrated 60 years anniversary. for over 18 years, we have had many hundreds of patients to the

foundation clinic to receive free eyecare treatment and surgery. surgery's such as cataract, clara,, and ocular degeneration provided to patients that have no financial means to take care of these problems. most patients speak little or no english. the volunteer and provide transportation and translation services. the club is very proud to be associated with the clinic. the service they provide for our patience is rated first- class. please support this project and let's move forward without delay. thank you. >> next speaker. >> i am a neighbor of st. luke's, i have been working on the traffic project for about

seven years now, and my comments are about the transportation and the context of health care. i have a few examples from the plan that i think show how transportation affects health care and how they demonstrate the bad faith of some of these points. st. luke's, the plan will downsize from over 280 beds. at the same time, the garage won't be changed but there will be a new mirage. the other parking spaces are about 100 spaces in the new one will be over 200 spaces. we're basically turning the numbers on their heads. we're swapping patients for parking and i think that shows priorities here. they do have a shuttle system. the shuttles run north and most of the patients come from the south.

they actually run a shuttle to the mirage in japan town. they don't bother to run a shuttle from balboa barked that what access several lines and reached the south part of the city. they run another shuttle on jerry st. for 180 spaces. they don't bother to run a shuttle from the senior center for the excelsior or the health clinic at the bayview. this shows what we are working with and the bad faith. >> i will call the last remaining cards as well. >> my name is al gore when.

i represent lost block association. we are property owners and residents of the immediate block adjacent to the new st. louis campus. we are adjacent to the large parking lot that currently exists and will contain the new giant hospital that will be built there after this is done. we have spent a long tomahawk working with the design process, talking with them about some of our concerns and they have been quite cooperative and quite helpful in revising, in some cases, helping us alleviate some of our concerns for the area home to the point where in the beginning there was a lot of the opposition with him doing what they want to do. now the entire lost bloch's in favor of the new hospital being built. i think that we are probably some, if not the most affected

residents of the construction of the st. luke's campus. some of us will have an emergency entrance to the hospital 25 feet from our front doors. and despite that, we favor the hospital being built for the sake of san francisco. >> good afternoon, supervisors. think you for the opportunity to speak to you. a cut this issue is impacting our health rates for city and county employees and retirees. and the impact the house bill rates have on that. in the interest of transparency, i have been on the health service board since 1987, the longest serving commissioner on that board. one of the first things i learned when i followed this information as much as i could possibly do for over 20 years,

the fact that whether it was stanford hospital, a presbyterian hospital, cornell in its latest iteration, a member of that system, the specific hospital network has been the highest cost hospital in san francisco. in all of our networks for what ever we have had and also across the board in any of the hmos that belonged to the system. that specific cost of that size of the cost the remaining in our network as glues to the cost of health care for city and county employees and retirees for as long as it has been in our system since the late 40's, at least. and when you talk about the jobs and the contractors, they paid to the welfare and benefit for all union employees that will be building this hospital.

the cost of construction will be directly impacted by whenever these hospital rates are for what ever plans they have. as long as you have this exclusive contract trying to eliminate competition, you will find that those rates will remain the highest. even discounted, they are a lot higher than any of the other hospitals in the area and they will continue to be so. since we have had proposition c and a number of other issues that have come before us, we talk about the fact that the health care costs are very high, and so does the private sector and other public employee groups, everybody is talking about because of health care. this is an exact example of what happens when you allow certain that works to remain the highest cost and they basically are not

encouraged, in any way, to reduce those costs to get any kind of contractual home benefit. quality and morbidity are not the issue with regard to these hospitals in san francisco. we are exceptionally fortunate to have some of the highest quality of facilities in the country and the state. i think you should ask that the construction cost for whatever arrangement you make, i am not here to talk about that. what are the arrangements made, those hospital rates and construction rates are not passed on to those the purchase had those hospital services whether it is through blue shield or united healthcare or our own plan, that we have transparency with regard to that. that those rates are kept consistent and they don't reflect the increase in the construction cost across the board because as representing the public, we have an

obligation that the money originally that goes into the general fund starts out has taxpayer dollars. we tried to get the best bang for the buck. how we need transparency in regard to the hospital rates. lastly, as a resident of district 11, st. luke's is significant to all of us that lives in district 11 and 10, who must critical that we have the hospital or we have to go across the line and we don't know what is going to happen with stephen. they just can't handle the capacity even with the new hospital rebuild. let's look realistically at the families we have out there. we need a guarantee that st. luke's will remain for ever in our neighborhood serving districts 10 and 11.

>> i have called all the cards. if there is any one of that would like to speak, please come forward because we will be closing public comment. >> during a time of the transition when california pacific health bought st. luke's, i was asked because i was pastor of the church over close proximity to st. luke's to be a liaison person between that sutter and the community. i attended many town hall meetings to see what hockey denizens of bayview hunters point feelings were. all of the in-house wanted to the st. luke's hospital to remain the same. i certainly could understand the

sentiments and because as you know, south of market -- [unintelligible] i went back and took the information to the ceo, asked him why it they can't remain the same. he said, because he would love to do that. because the hospital had been operating in the red over how many millions of dollars it was a year, no business can stay in business that way, and if we operate the same way, we will go out of business also. so they reduced down to 80 beds. in my opinion, her 80 beds are better than no beds. i say that because the california pacific can't do it,

and not know any other hospital in san francisco that can do it. because of the longevity has a health-care provider, they have been operating in the black the whole time, i think that is indicative of the fact that they are the best qualified to rebuild the health care while the center in san francisco. i support them all the way. >> my name is scott, who i am here representing the lost block of san francisco. many of you may know that we are the bloc that as a ground zero for st. luke's. the residential block or the proposed hospital is going to be

reconstructed. ourselves and many of the people have been actively involved for over four years now. the process of coming to meetings, working on trying to find a balance, compromise, a design that works, and certainly from the health care standpoint, it is important for us and members of the community had a health care is effectively managed with the hospital with the beds that we need. what i want to talk about is that while no agreement is perfect, we agree that this one is one that strikes a balance and a compromise that we support. we are happy with the fact that there will be a hospital to serve the south side of the city. we're happy that the focus is on the outpatient community as well

as the elderly that have issues with regards to both transportation and fixed income, in many places. that balance having acute care, elder care, serves the broader community well. >> you have 30 seconds. >> i will wrap this up. because we have been involved with this and it has been such an ongoing proceeding, we are asking that we not take a significant amount of time more to make a compromise. when asked that we find a way to either move forward with this agreement or an agreement that is close to it. >> next speaker.