taking care of. i spoke to someone who is first on the waiting list and he has been waiting about a year-and-a- half. he just got an offer letter. there are people who have gotten medallions who are off the waiting list who are out there driving right now. i really feel i should be given the chance to get my medallion, the way many people -- i do not know how many -- have gotten their medallion. i say this with all due respect. i do not want to be disrespectful in any way. but i see no other choice but to go to a lawyer in some way and see if we can go that way. and i think it is terrible that i would have to do that. [tone] that is why i'm here and not working right now. >> next speaker.

>>h the board. pilot program. >> that is item number 11 on today's agenda. >> should we wait for that? rex it will be out shortly. >> -- >> it will be up shortly. again, these are items that are not on today's agenda. >> i have been driving a cab in san francisco for 16 years. i am also on the waiting list. i and 82. -- i'm 82. i do not think it is the politics of the cab companies or for the drivers. i feel like it is the politics in san francisco. i think this situation can be dealt with. i do not think any of you have

actually driven a cab. the thing with driving a cab is that you sign up and you do it. instead age your cap and you have 10 hours. you have -- you a $150. you have to make that money to make your money. that is the job. after you pay taxes, you have what you leave with. there is no health plan. that is ok. you're a privateñi contractor. in your shift to deal with drugs, people throwing up, people tried to attack you, people trying to touch you, people swearing at you, roving organ donors. last saturday, i picked a big gap with a guy and three of her sisters -- his sisters. one woman literally had her legs around me trying to do something. i had to stop her from doing that. the woman on the right ended up

during outside the cab, thank god. but she was missing one of her pink high heels and there was puke outside of my cab. legally, i can charge them $100. they were happy drugs. it was fine. i have people pulled guns on me. i have had domestic squabbles. that is a typical cabdriver job. you signed up for it. that is cool. [tone] but what makes me angry is for the mta to throw the cabdrivers in san francisco underneath that bus. that is absolutely wrong. [applause] >> when i first started in this business in 1984, dianne

feinstein and the mayor had a thing with cabdrivers and she appointed a counsel to look at it. and they appointed in lieutenant to study the industry. he was supposed to talk to everybody and get their opinion and find out how the business worked. we have had a lot of trouble getting a hold of the sky. he finally showed up about two months later. he walked into the room and started to tell us what the cab business was light. he did not ask one thing no question. he spent two hours at the airport on a tuesday in april and he was telling us how the airport work. i corrected him and he started screaming at me and if it came down to a fight, the police would be cabdrivers. -- beat the cabdrivers.

ñrmove forward to 2009, and a woman came and her words were that the m.t.a. was coined to get its money, -- going to get its money and it would be the best we can do for everybody and it would be totally fair. we began to negotiate the price deadpan, -- the pilot plan, which was totally fair. everybody got something and nobody got everything they wanted. it was a pilot program for the rest of the country. and now we're back to the lieutenant. it is three years coming up with a plan that you guys decided to throw in the trash, and for god knows what reason. it is extremely disappointing to see why you are doing. [tone]

>> thank you. next speaker, please. >> is jeff johnson here? herbert weiner? christopher for ochres and -- christopherfá fulkerson? >> these are comments by the public. one thing i am really wondering about is when this mess is going to stop. there have been so many late muni buses, so many missing muni buses. i have waited such a long time sacramento st. to 444 ministry one evening. there is simply no excuse. the schedules have to be kept.

there is basically nothing wrong with the existing muni schedules as long as they are capped. there is no need for the transit effect of this project. no need for corridors or any of this fancy stuff. it is simply a scenario from a nightmare in a science-fiction movie the public has to be served, and that is what this board is designated to do. they are not designated to go scrounging for money. they are designated to fulfill their civic responsibility. i really wonder when this is going to stop. we simply have to get relief with bus stops. and one california industry, the bus sometimes does not show up for maybe 25 minutes. a lot of the existing schedules are not being kept and i do not like the turning around of buses. if anything should be turned around, it is the management of the mta.

>> jeff johnson. is mr. johnson here? no, ok, christopher fulkerson. >> good afternoon, directors. i would like to make some observations about the political process chorion year. first, i would like to thank the director forxd selecting directr kobayashi. we must realize that today is the establishment is the new george 3. your tactics are deplorable. there are so basic to methods that the public cannot approve, if they know them, that you

really ought to change what you are doing. the town hall meetings are an absolute sham. they have never met through any number of town hall meetings that terminate in one week, they all be reversed -- get reversed, at your direction. the tax advisory council has now told you in a structural way that they can no longer go along with a sham. there is not political representation here. we do not have the most basic american freedom. this is really as profound as taxation without representation. you are taking our livelihoods and restructuring the entire way our world works without our representation and you are doing it as a sham. what you're doing is a complete sham. [tone] please, get straight. >> the next speaker, please. >> ron walther.

>> good afternoon. >> my name is ron walther. i am a taxi driver in the city. will you show a photo when you put it here? >> sfgtv well. >> can iq the commissioners? >> [unintelligible] [laughter] >> there we go. xdi sent this letter to the director of taxis and a month ago and i did not receive a response. it is regarding the taxi stand at the caltrans station. probably about two months ago i noted a u-turn sign was posted there. and apparently, we can only take passengers in down on

townsend street toward at&t park. the road narrows there. i have been taking taxicab passengers up the street there every workday for the past 10 years. i would like to be able to do my job without being cited. you can see in the picture the loading area for the taxicabs. to the left of that taxicab before the bike lane, that is all loading zone. there is not a traffic light. it is pretty easy for the taxicabs to turn in the loading down and make a left-hand turn on two towns in street. [tone] here is where our -- where i had gotten cited. i wish you would take up these questions of the taxi stand. i am disappointed that your priority now -- you will not make $50 million by making this change. your priority now is money from taxicabs. i agree with the speaker that in dealing with this agency we have

no say and no representation. under the taxi commission we had a member of the board. [tone] i'm out of time. >> peter witt. >> get the camera on there. that would be nice. native san francisco, and a yellow cab driver for 24 years. i have been ostracized by this mta body and the taxi commission previously disenfranchised, excuse me. and by the directors and staff. for the record, the two ideas i have suggested are not new, but they always get deleted from the minutes. implementation of a congested pricing system to slow demand and increased taxes applied.

that will incentivize a new taxi sharing program that will lower taxi fares and boost the taxi driver revenue and increase the taxi supply and efficiency in the city of san francisco. in the city of love, why not? 15 years -- this batch is another story. 15 years of unprecedented customer out reached to my data that i have supplied to both the taxi commission and the mta board. i can i get a camera on this, please? i did not see it before. the data deleted from other records with regard to pcnm process. and that has been skewed for political purpose, data that would otherwise give full transparency and accountability. [tone] it also put sfmta and taxi services 15 years behind the

times if you do not digest this data. usable data, comparables, even to the untrained executive director. i have an anecdotal story -- story. i took a survey the other day about taxis at home at 8:00 on a sunday i took a survey. to 48 questions, by the way, to the average taxi driver is a little absurd. [tone] >> kory lamb, followed by david toronto. >> good afternoon. my name is kory lam. one of the things i wanted to talk about at the last meeting, but got wrapped up in the emotions of everything we were dealing with, during the golden gate celebration -- i drive a taxi and i had some folks that

needed assistance closer to christie field than the marina safeway. as i got closer and closer, the dpp pearson -- the d p t person would not allow me to even just get 2 ft. beyond the barricade soccer disembark. instead, they may be brought to the golden gate bridge, which is not where we could stop off anyway. at the south side of the bridge i stopped and got yelled at, but these people needed to get out. there's no place for me to drop off my passengers. they were here for your event. we need to look out closer for a drop off place for the folks who need access. as a cabdriver, i'm not looking to park at the marina green or at christie field. i will just be dropping off.

maybe a little bit of consideration will be appropriate for the folks who need it. i had one person in a wheelchair and their family and i had to drop them off way out of the way. [tone] i would appreciate more out reached in that regard. thank you. >> thank you. >> mary toronto followed by david barlow. the >> good afternoon, chairman and directors. i am troubled today. your only giving us two minutes. i hope on item 11 you will give us threeçó minutes, due to the fact that is a major change to this industry. i beg you not to give this short shrift. i urge you to give us three minutes on number of love and particularly. you know the tax does not exist at this point because all of these people reside.

i have seen some of these letters on line. it is troubling. i think you should be concerned as a body, not just one director, but all of you should be concerned about why this occurred and should have a discussion about this and actually get to see some of these letters. i hope you have seen some of these letters. and if you have, you should be troubled by this. as a general comment, you allow one commissioner to control the policy of the whole body. that is a question, and if you have any doubts or concerns about the taxi industry today, please put off the other items to get more information and attend a town hall meeting. that is an important issue here. and the next topic is crash- rasheed -- chrisfá hayashi.

i love her to death, but i call there and was told in a voice mail that she will be out until september 11th. why she involved in other projects, but she is supposed to be out? [tone] she is not returning callsfá or the mills from anyone in the industry. it we are all paying her salary. we deserve to know. don't you want to know? maybe you do know, but you do not want to tell us. [tone] >> david barlow. >> good afternoon. i am with taxicab workers. my topic is not about the pilot program, but something akin to the transit effectiveness project. maybe i missed it, but i wonder,

has the commission drawn up and published a plan for improving taxi service over the next four years? something that covers everything? we need for the public convenience and necessity, for the people to take -- who take taxis, for the cabdrivers to have viable jobs, we need to know the plan overall for taxi service. all we have seen is month-to- month a new scheme. we do not see improvement. i think plenty of things that we used to rely on have been destroyed. maybe i will give this example. it has always been my understanding that the only vehicles that will do taxi

service in san francisco or decertify taxis. those are the ones that are -- are the certified taxis. é@does the ones that are checkd out and mark. others that perform the service that -- [tone] they are breaking the law and can be put on a tow truck and hauled in. it is that way in new york city. i expected that it was that way here. now, uber is performing taxi service -- not a taxi. and limos at hotels are performing taxi service. when people ask for a taxi, they get pushed into a limo. that has to be controlled. [tone] >> next speaker, please. good afternoon. >> i am a san francisco taxi driver for 16 years.

i cannot believe that the medallion list would be done away with. i have been waiting and been doing my time and i cannot believe intelligent people would rob other intelligent people of an opportunity that they have been waiting for, that i have signed up for, that i've been driving in this city and serving in the city. please, do the right thing and keep those medallions that are coming out for the drivers that deserve them we have been working. we have been putting in our time. you have no right to take that from us. that is what we signed on the dotted line for. that is what the contracts are for. if the contract is not up held, some action will come from it. the people on the list deserve the cab's before thea"s corporae companies, before the big companies. we, the little people who you represent, i you should be representing us faithfully.

thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> keith dennis. >> good afternoon, mr. dennis. >> god bless you, commissioners. god bless the city and county of san francisco. my name is keith dennis. today, commissioners, i would like to reiterate -- actually, this was not spoken to you. i brought this issue up a year ago to the mayor's office of disability how there are no bus shelters on fillmore and eddie

street. today is a perfect example. it is very windy. people are out there freezing because there is no bus shelter. there is no bus shelter on fillmore and daddy andeddi and it -- fillmore and eddie and they also need electronic signs for when we can catch another bus. thank you >> -- thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> commissioners and members of the audience, my name audienceemil lawrence. -- my name is emil lawrence. we've had a lot of testimony in the past year about permits in

the city. but without the drivers, you do not have anything. they buy the taxis and repair the vehicles and ensure them. if you think they are your assets, we must be your slave spirited we have no benefits. we have no medical. and when you get into an accident when it is not even your fault, you get bills of $2,800 from hospital, from the fire department, from the police department. that is not covered by any insurance by the city and county of san francisco. that is the reality. looking at citations in this city, one of the drivers was complaining about, no other vehicle that is associated with transportation in the city and county of san francisco get parking tickets. the department of transportation does not, muni does not, by --

but taxi drivers do. when you look at all of this and combine it and you have a taxi advisory commission -- [tone] you keep them in the dark and make decisions without consulting them. that has been a part for the past two and half years. it is under mr. nat ford and mr. reiskin, is now under you. you do not consult the guys that work in the industry, that make their >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, directors. i want to follow-up on some of the comments that some of the other speakers have made. we have moved now from a

participatory process to a dictatorial process. i call this the -- [inaudible] approach. you shove regulations down our throat and dine on the results. this is wrong. the message the taxi and treasurer councilmembers are sitting to is as loud as you could possibly hear from this industry about our feelings about what is going on. this is happening at a most precarious time for us. we have unprecedented competition from vehicles that are laxly regulated by the state

in an open entry system. it is incompatible with the regulation that the city performs in taxis and it is a threat to our survival and we need to be working -- it is a threat to the regulatory scheme as much as to our survival. we need to all be working on this in a cooperative fashion to see to it that taxi service can continue and the public can be served. instead, what are we getting- what we're getting is a dictatorship. i.s. the need to talk about the waiting listq heard from who waited 14 or 15 or 16 years. there will be left out in the cold and you're not telling the truth. you are pushing out the back door. thank you.

>> good afternoon. i wanted to give a word of gratitude for this delightful award we got from the readers of "san francisco" magazine who have voted luxury cab the best of san francisco. >> thank you. >> the last three people who have turned in a speaker card. >> i am a taxi driver in san francisco for 24 years. where is my word that you give me? to give me nothing. you don't care. i come here today to read my letter of resignation.

it is with mixed emotions that on august 21, i am resigning from my position on the committee. the reason i have made this decision is the board to which we are advisory -- does not to give -- take seriously any of our recommendations. the board also continues to [unintelligible] contains over 100 years of driving experience. we continue to lose ground and the fact the medallions will be sold and not earned.