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. our hard work is continuing this respected. i hope we take seriously at some point of those who actually do the work that is a necessary part of transportation in san francisco. i would like to add the arrogance of this board is amazing. none of you know anything about [inaudible] accept malcolm -- except malcolm heinicke. please demand it go away.

thank you. ñi>> our last two speakers. >> this afternoon, commissioners. you have a nest egg, a golden goose. you got $20 million from the taxi industry. it cannot even run the buses. you understand, i am not talking about what you do to the drivers, what you do to anything. but your massing -- you are messing up the bus lanes. taxis tecolote to get from a to be so it costs more money and there are not enough drivers -- taxis. it cannot enforce the white zones.

so the taxis and everybody else double park or triple parks in the whole of the downtown so you have gridlock. why? it is not about money because you could find these people. you could tell the hotels i am sorry, this is not a parking zone. the white zone is for dropping off and picking up. but you cannot do it. you do not care. you're still getting money from us. we do not understand, you're not sending attorneys up to sacramento are talking to other cities on ways to defeat these electronic new methods. you do not understand. when there are no taxis to pick up levees are taken to the hospital or anythingr%ñ else, me you will start crying. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> i am president of the sf taxi drivers' association. i am former vice president of the taxi advisory council. after going to town hall meetings and missing work and discussing medallions and how the new plan would possibly affect drivers and the jillian holders and then all the sudden before our report and recommendations are sent to the board, you guys come up with is already written out ready to be voted on plan that has nothing to do with what we have talked about were considered things we talked about. it does regards drivers to put their lives into the industry,

who have adjusted their lives because they're on the medallion waiting list and they expect to get a medallion up till two years ago. they have been waiting up to 19 years waiting to get their medallion. maybe they have given up other careers like i did to get my medallion. medallion holders who want to get out of the industry now, they're offered less money and the mta wants to sell the permits for twice as much. i just think that this whole thing has been a facade and you need to listen to some of these concerns and not just look at medallions of the taxi industry as a revenue source for the mta. it is not serving the public. cabdrivers are not making a decent living if they feel they have no future, there will be less safe drivers. it is a public safety issue. if nothing else.

>> thank you. >> good afternoon. in 2008 and 2009, my income dropped roughly 50%. there was a recession nationwide. i and 10 and 11 we picked up something and we were ok. 2012, this year there are no tourists. no europeans in america, no europeans in san francisco. go and look at the taxi stand. they are jammed packed with cabs. over the city taxis are looking for any customers for $5. and you're looking at 300,000, $500,000. i'm not talking about that item. what are you looking?

hoover cap is cutting as. business is not there. and your looking to put the hands in my pocket and take every penny from my pocket. you have to look for the ways to give kendry more business. not the way is to cut my income. you're looking at -- 35 cabs at the start of this year. we're planning 50 calves and 85 more. 200 added three years ago. now you're looking at 200 more coming by september 4. where are you doing with us? can you read, can you understand? go look at the website and see how the economy is doing. things are bad. terribly bad for the taxi drivers. are you working only for the many union?

not for other taxi drivers? they're not human because they're immigrants? there from other countries? that is what you're looking at, the taxi drivers? ÷hpthank you. >> the last peter -- speaker. >> i am a driver at national veterans' camp. i am disappointed in a lot of what i've seen coming down the pike here from the commission. we're at a critical juncture in the taxi industry. we have a fleet of pirate taxis with electronic taxi healing technology on smart phones. in the pirate taxis, charging double and triple the rates of double and triple the rates of authorized taxis in at th