an agenda item. that is the one good thing that nathaniel ford did due to agree the tax exempt it became a useless and a day. regarding these items before you, there was a town hall meeting but the outrage was so terrible. the director decided information needs to get out earlier. with regarding these, there has been little outrage and the impact on the industry as great in some areas. that -- [unintelligible] without more outreach. the average cab driver comes from a country where english is fánot their first language, did not get the american education, and understands the impact that these may have on their ability to do their business and do their job. you're making a lot of these

cabdrivers' employees. there's a lot of risk involved by treating these rules and regulations. also without the enforcement. they have not hired at the investigators and they're dragging their feet on this. what is the industry gotten? i am concerned that this is moving too slowly in terms of helping the cab industry do a better job in terms of customer service. the question you first asked is how does this improve customer service? thank you. >> next speakers. ñi>> no agent is allowed to acct

or solicit gratuities. i first drove in 1969 for looks workout -- luxor cab. i never paid for favors but i want to give you a scenario. a driver has got his money and he is paying his money in and there's no benefit there or anything else. some throw a buck to the cashier to count them out. a lot of them to the gas man. he will put the gas in and check their oil when they finish. some drivers, not all through the mud driver. the most abuse is there will have to pay extra money to get a good captain drive and i can tell you, i know some other companies, we follow that

closely. we fire someone for holding someone out. half of them are assigned shifts and have far side taxis. they're not been told that to anybody. and yet not all but many of them still throughout the book when they throw -- when they're at work. this year -- this says if they're caught doing that, giving someone a dollar, there will be fined $600 and would like to see that revised. chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker? not here. >> are real 13 or 12? >> both together. the one i want to talk about is -- why is that no every driver.

it would be the long term lease where they are not necessarily checking out. that would be -- it needs to be included for safety. more than anything else. i do not care about how many people drive but if we're putting the gas and the people into the same requirement, [inaudible] chairman nolan: next speaker? >> let me talk about this 1105 a10. this prevents any personnel from taking anything of value from the driver. and what you have heard here is

ridiculous. they make it sound like it is about a chocolate cake or maybe about somebody once in awhile throwing the book to somebody. for every driver at these companies is under the gun and the vast majority of not 100% are paying people off as protection money so they do not ill treated by that company and that is typically $5 to $10 a shift. and if a driver what special treatment, get out earlier, a better cab, we are talking $10, $20 or more. this goes on hundreds of times a day. it is in the rules, it is against the rules and they're worried they might get fined for it. i hope they do. if you at their behest, she cannot change it. there is no changing the rules here. it is a question of the fine.

that fine needs to be in there becausesjñ drivers in essence ae paying gates way beyondxd what they should be. it puts other companies that are trying to do the right thing at a tremendous financial disadvantage and it is not right. this is ingrained corruption in this industry that needs to be rooted out and not to be treated with a wink and nod as it has been. i'm about to speak out of turn. what you did in that previous decision is stripped the driver's fund of about $50 million that it would otherwise have received. thank you. >> mr. kim. >> i think these rules and

regulations were very well done. they took a lot of input from the industry and it was handled quite well by staff. i support most of this. there are some issues and others i have spoken about. the process in coming up with these regulations was a good one. everyone had a chance to give their input. something was put together and discussed. i want to talk about process again. what i am upset about and i will tell you right now and there will tell the public, i will be your best advocate here to support this agency in moving the taxi industry along. it is a long time coming. despite my concerns and reservations, this is written behind closed doors. i.s. do what we go forward with this, some people have given resignations. i suggest have it vetted through this body. put capable people in the industry there.

have them vet through these things and let them have input before you put something here to be voted on very quickly. there is not much time for us to basically say we want to change this or change that. the board is going to do what is going to do. give us an opportunity to realistically look at changes whether it is wholesale changes for rules or regulations before the body looks at it. be informed and have the industry give their input. in this case here i support this legislation and i asked you in the future let the industry have forward. i think that is the biggest concern this industry has which is this lack of feeling of inclusion. thank you. chairman nolan: next speakers. >> good afternoon. i am a taxicab driver.

i saw lot of demand and changes good. we are the servant to the public. it is not the copany. -- company. we -- the problem is we do not have medallions. i need a permit or licence. some people want my right eye can give them a ride. nowñy the direction is a good direction you're headed to. cabdrivers are told to by a medallion. if they need a job, they want to have a stable income for the family. this amendment change is ok. your office is not understanding that gate and gas and long term

lease drivers, they split it up. this is iportant for our live. thank you andbw÷ make sure that they're not being over a stretch -- overcharged. this is responsible by the medallion holder. this is the right way to do because of this guy won't this medallion permits from you and he had to respond -- responsible for how much gate he charged to the driver who has to drive on the street. this is a good direction as well. thank you and this amendment changes good. thank you. chairman nolan: thank you. next speaker. >> it is appalling that a company like luxor or yellow cab is being discussed of extorting

drivers for. tipping -- for tipping. drivers are not exported to tip anything. it has been a tipping business since i was 8 years old that i can remember where drivers shared with their dispatchers, their call takers about the tip or their gasman for helping them out with cars or whatever. it is not recommended, it is not forced on, is a common courtesy to let individual if they want to share in what they have made for the day with people they work with on a daily basis. that goes back to management exemption. that is one of the items the tac got on the agenda that never got forward -- i do not know if she is our director but she never brought it to your attention after we voted on it to have that done. continuing to do that brings people up on here to speak to

you that have experience, educated to know what they're talking about in the cab industry. it is a benefit to everyone of us including you to have that knowledge presented to us. talking about extorting drivers is ludicrous. we have doneñi everything to hep our drivers with hybrid equipment to give them, save money on fuel, to give them a and to give them the most -- my job is to keep the meter on as long as i can for these drivers. my job is to pick up the people of san francisco. i am not going to be slandered when we do projectiles can act. we do things for the city and county on a daily basis. we have the largest wheelchair accessible van program in the u.s. and our customers are happy and we try to improve it daily on a daily basis. getting back to the reality of the facts, the city needs more taxicabs. it needs to help the people of san francisco. taxi stands are major issue in

planting these programs and if we do not do it, you have a set industry if we do not help out. thank you for everything you have done. i know you're tired and it has been a long day. god bless all of you. fáchairman nolan: next speaker. >> i would like to speak about a couple of things i have forgot about during my last times talking. since you people have taken over the cab industry, it has gotten worse and worse and worse. i am making $100 less a night than they used to make three or four years ago. that is because of the situation's going on. everybody is paying everybody off. i do not care about the company. brokers who are charging immense amounts of money to lease out medallions and nothing is done. you do not care. you could care less. also with the limos and the town cars and the pink cards, those

people are ruining our business. taking all the rides and in front of the police. i was sitting on broadway and a limousine pulled up and ask somebody if it wanted a ride. it would not get in my cab. they got in the goddamn town car. that does not matter. you have done nothing about that. you're letting it get worse, every week it gets worse and worse with more limousines coming in from out of town. there is as many town cars and limousines now have their taxis on friday and saturday. thank you. chairman nolan: next speaker. >> i wanted to make a comment on the -- i notice there is a fine of $514 for tampering with

equipment. the rule is it would be for not supplying taxi security camera data to the sfmta. i want to remind everybody that it is illegal to record people pose a conversations without the express consent and these cameras that are in the taxicabs to record audio and there is no way to tell whether they're recording them or not. it is also established through recent senate hearings in california that drivers have the right to disable these devices and there is no easy way to disable these current cameras. there is no on-off switch. you have to call them or pull the plug. i think this needs to be revisited. maybe you need to make a fine. if a taxi company installs a camera that is recorded audio, there should be a fine.

there is going to be some legal action soon if you do not do anything about it. you need to step up and impose a fine to cab companies to put cameras in and recording audio. terrace cannot be fined for disabling these devices. california law says we can. >> thank you. >> i am coming in toward the end of this. a major problem is it is difficult to address. the witnesses against this would be working cabdrivers who would be fired. there is an incredible amount of corruption in here. i nearly died when i walked in the room and heard john lazar talk about and voluntary tipping. he said the tip was $5 in and out. still living voluntary is you

could voluntarily to the gasman $2 or not but he would not take care of you. if you didñi not to appear righ. this is an industry standard. nothing unusual. it is hypocrisy. there is only to companies i know that do not tip. one is metro cab and the other is green. and maybe the sadove -- desoto. there has to be some way to if you are going to be giving these people medallions, you have to be giving it to people who are not screwing their drivers if you will excuse my expression. at $10 or $20 a day. chairman nolan: next speakers. >> a few weeks back at the

outside lands, i was working on the day shift. i dropped off and almost got a ticket but i did not. i got no tickets but as i was eastbound on fulton, another taxicabs was dropping off passengers for outside lands and there was a dpt officer riding down the license plate as if he was going to offer -- issue a ticket. the taxi driver was oblivious to the fact he was being issued a ticket. çói wish this would stop. it was not a police officer who was issuing the ticket. my assumption is that it was not a moving violation. the cab driver was being cited simply for dropping off on fulton street to outside lands.

my request is that when it comes to things like this is especially for the big events where they do need public transit service that there would be better coordination between bus service, dpt, and taxicabs. i asked if we could start thinking about other things besides medallions and maybe some of the things we think about is when it comes to event planning and how to service these large events that we can include the taxicab industry representatives including drivers to help coordinate the sorts of things and please stop punishing cabdrivers just because they're providing transit services. thank you. >> next speaker. >> good evening once again. my name is emile lawrence.

i am talking about the requirement to give -- for vehicles to change color schemes. that is the number-one problem. if you go to newark city you cannot get a cab between four and six because they are changing shifts. we're -- we have 1500 cabs. 500 are not available for pick ups. they're changing the shift, taking a cab in simply sell the market to get a new driver. they're not available at the hot spots when people go to dinner between 4 and 7:00 p.m. those caps are not available. soleil they're requiring security cameras to be in calves. that is in there now. i do not know if you have the approval from passengers to have live stream information to the asaph pe and the mta. i am not clear on that where the

law stands. i'm not sure where it is on a federal basis. it should be[:0nto. we get no with information from sfpd on people that are committing murders nonstop in the city. if we're going to do that maybe we should make it a two-way street that we shouldñi have copies because a lot of criminals in the city take taxicabs all over town. last is that the citations for permit holders -- i do not know you mean by that. you have changed almost nonstop with those proceedings are. are they before separate tribunal? are the before you? it is not clear what that means. part of the problem is for the majorityt( of the last three tai director pecs, the civil service requirement and administrative analyst has been an attorney but they picked an attorney instead. thank you for your time.

>> thank you. last speaker. >> it afternoon. as far as the issue of tipping goes, it is contentious as you can see. i tip guys when i get 10 bucks or 12 bucks. if i do not like the dispatcher will tip them less if i do notfá like the way they do their job or i feel they are an idiot. if i like the guy i will take him more. that is just me. that is the way it has been since i have been driving. that is me. other drivers are different. if there is an individual at a cab company as a gatekeeper in the position of power who is found to accept giving cars

away to people for $20 a shift, $15, these are high numbers, those of the only people that are driving a cab on those nights, they should be fined $600. they should be fined $1,000. there are the gatekeeper controlling who goes out and drive the shifts and if they are taking the highest bidder for the shifts, instead of giving to the guys who are going to be good drivers or take radio calls or pick of handicapped people, you are doing a disservice to the city and the industry. the regulation is good. it protects against abu. the $600 fine i think that should be left in. even though i may driver that tips myself. i can see the situation coming where that would be useful. thank you. chairman nolan: the public

hearing is closed on these items. the two items in general, do members have comments? let's go to director reiskin's amendment. it was 10 116 -- 1106. >> there is subsection 9 and less to do with requirements for reporting. as proposed as written, which require color schemes to report all lawsuits, notices, demands, claims of any kind involving bodily injury or property damage. the proposal is to narrow that language. the new language would say that this would be in section 1106.

by the fifth day of each month, each color scheme must file a report with sfmta listing each accident that occurred during the previous month involving any taxi or -- affiliated with the color scheme resulting in property damage or bodily injury. >> we need a motion and a second. chairman nolan: all in favor? the ayes have it. i am concerned about this one. about the deaths, -- gift, the gifts part of this thing. there is a division of understanding. i will see what other members of the board have to say. >> i am happy to start. this is something i know i have brought a lot when we talked about taxis and the gift or tip culture does disturb me a lot as a lot of people have pointed out here today. so many of our taxi drivers are

recent immigrants and the come from countries where bribes, graft, and corruption is a standard operating procedure. i absolutely hate to think for them that their first experience with american-style business is something that is similar. i think it is easy for us to understand the nuances between a $10 bill or a $20 bill and a slice of chocolate cake which is distributed among the entire staff but you have to put yourself in the position of someone who is new to this country who might not understand there is the nuance and might not understand they're not obligated to do that. i stand firmly in favor of this language. >> the language that is there is the existing language. is it changing to a fine level? has your taxi department find anybody for bringing in a chocolate cake or doing anything

like that? the point coming back from the industry is to do not have a flat ban, it almost becomes a non-ban. it can do one of two things. you can build exceptions into the role and do it that way or you can keep a flat ban which protect the people are -- that the director is talking about and you are trusting officers not to find for chocolate cakes. i think that is fine. >> the director has persuaded me. do we have a motion and a second? >> i have a motion to approve. >> is there a second? chairman nolan: any further discussion? the ayes have it. thank you very much. closed session time. >> you have item 13. motion to approve? >> second. chairman nolan: any further discussion? the ayes have it. we are at the closed session. >> there is a motion to conduct

a closed session. >> a motion for a closed session. >> second. all in favor? fá anticipated litigation with the city attorney. disclosing are not disclosing? chairman nolan: all in favor? we are adjourning in memory of our employees who just died. thank you. >> thank you.