you put some of this money into investigators, and put out more legitimate cabs. your may priority here is making money for the mta and that is not providing a good service to the community. (applause) >> [indiscernible] >> chairman nolan: if anyone cares to address the board, please fill out a card. >> good afternoon - [indiscernible] i have a deep problem. i'm holding onto this problem for six months. the doctors told me you have a gum problem, lost four teeth in the last three years. i have no medical. i cannot get free medical

because i middle-of-the-road. every day i have medicine in my pocket. thanks director heinicke. this is what you're delivering. majority the drivers used to be white. no longer. now you have 500 nepalese. 0 mongolians, now hundreds. you decided to kill their living, get them out, and finish the livelihoods. that's what -- one drive called --

others are blacks. used to sing a song in the churches about mankind, what mankind is doing, this kind of behavior and me. what did i do wrong? this is what you are doing to the taxidrivers. these medallions will be worth .000 pennies soon. they will even go to the ballot and get from the voters approval; what would you do with these medallions then? the financing will be bankrupt. you are running into a big risk now. if the public says yes, what is the outcome of this medallion?

if you vote 400 on the meter, you -- [indiscernible] they are putting $80 more in the taxidriver's pocket. is this medallion worth any money after? it is never happen in the 50 years before. [indiscernible] the technology is going to take it over. you will be sorry for the whole game now. look at the situation, not about selling the medallions. stop the ideology. thank you. >> chairman nolan: does anyone else care to address the board? >> peter webb. >> happy thanksgiving.

do you really think that this is the way you should be operating our business? i would like to thank dean for coming down here and speaking for drivers. he can say what he says simply because he does not drive a cab anymore. i can talk about tires and lights. i'm not going to. i would like also to thank all the drivers that came here today and cycle the drivers that came here the last time and waited 2-3 hours for one minute conversation, a one-way conversation with deaf ears. cold-blooded was used. i like the words "maggot", the lowest form of creature i do. it can come out of nowhere and suck on dead meat.

if you are thriving - if you think the taxi business is thriving and wallowing in money left and right, think again. they say money is the root of all evil. i think we have an epiphany here. is this -- at the least, i think your job is to maintain drivers income so it doesn't go downhill. i surely don't think that is the direction that this industry is going, this taxi industry. san francisco is a very weird city, politically high strung. seems to act on whims and notions. and from the upper.

the direction comes from the top down. from staff down to you. with your blind obedience, deaf ears, and extremely dumb. if you are not dumb, you are corrupt. if you are not dumb or corrupt, you are delusional, and in denial. i would like to say that "dumb" is my choice for you. i will like to think that there is hope to educate you and that you will grow and make this industry flourish. and service will be great. i can tell you that -- i do not get that impression, driving 24 years. peter -- native san franciscan. i am disgusted

>> chairman nolan: anyone else care to address the board. >> i declare the public hearing close. >> chairman nolan: ms. -- would like to speak to any of the points raised? ms. hyoshi, could you come forward. could you comment on -- the point was raised about how this will work on day one in what the person could do with that. could you talk about that a little bit. >> yes, thank you. chris hyoshi, deputy director of taxis and accessible services. the proposal you have before you to give a 50 percent discount to the first 150 qualified applicants on the waiting list would not apply only to the first 150 on the waiting list; it will apply to the first 150 qualified

applicants and is certainly going to reach beyond 150; likely to reach closer to 200-250, down on the waiting list. those individuals will not be required to put down any down payment. and perhaps the san francisco federal credit union is here and they can talk about if you are interested, what the credit qualification requirements would be under the circumstances where you are acquiring an acid that is worth 300,000 dollars for a loan of 150,000 dollars; that is why there is no down payment required; there is substantial equity guaranteed and that asset. if somebody were to receive one of those medallions and qualify for that loan, and if they were to qualify to transfer the medallion % upon at the time they got it my age or disability, they would not have to wait any period of

time to transfer that again. they would be able to realize the equity in the acid immediately. >> chairman nolan: could you talk about a difference in this and where it is before this? >> today based on the action taking motherboard on august 21, establishing the medallion price of 300,000, if this was not passed somebody at the top of the waiting list would have to them up with a down payment of 15,000 at least. and borrow 240,000. both the down payment will be substantially higher than the payments on the loan would be substantially higher. that person also the qualified but age or disability would be

able to immediately transfer the medallion but there would be no equity in the asset and they would be little reason to do so. >> chairman nolan: would like to add anything at this point? >> director rubke: speakers commented about how this does not address ramp medallions. what is the plan addressing those folks? how quickly will that be on the calendar? >> under the pilot program if they were qualified to transfer the medallion, and they had a ramp medallion, we don't want us to be bought and sold; those are important to ensure accessible transportation. would allow that person to exchange it for an available sedan medallion, and give the ramp medallion the somebody else on the list and that

person could transfer the sedan medallion in its place. that seems to be a reasonable approach for ramp medallion holders; we have to talk to the industry about this and make a policy decision. i'm not sure whether or not that will require further legislation. i have to talk the city attorney's office about that. i'm glad that you asked the question. begins with the opportunity to announce that we will have a town hall meeting on the subject on monday the 26th, will discuss this with industry and come up with a proposal is in as we can. one thing we do we do recognize is the uncertainty, is not something we want to maintain. >> chairman nolan: i would ask question. several people raised the

safety issue and the lack of inspectors. can you comment on that? >> we have 4 taxi investigators, no substantial field presence. we are in the process of hiring for additional positions, and we will have teams of investigators in the field most of the time. we can cover most of the days in the week, and most of the hours of the day with teams of 2 investigators. >> chairman nolan: the drivers fund, what is going on with that? >> the drivers fund continues to accumulate funding; it has over 3 million dollars. there is no determination as to what to do with it. however i recently came back - and one of the suggest some might advances that, i came from the international association of transportation

regulars conference last week and i heard the city of new york is planning on issuing a request a proposal for drivers healthcare. in order to increase the level of coverage. i want to talk to new york city and other jurisdictions about leveraging multiple cities populations of taxi drivers to bring rates down and provide health care for san francisco taxi drivers. >> chairman nolan: what is the rate at which the fund is growing? >> we started a pilot program, approximately 1 million dollars a year. we started the pilot program in late 2010. i cannot say with any accuracy what would happen when old medallions become transferable. that is what is happening now. >> chairman nolan: i am interested in that. that would be a wonderful thing to be able to do that. mr. -- point about being at a

level, middle level, i would be interested in seeing that. >> a lot of the cabdrivers have talked about sort of the other challenges that they face in their industry, corruption may be within the cap companies, maybe with non-driving drivers holding the down is required to drive, competition, challenges around technology that may be they don't have the access. do you feel that these things we can address with more resources in our agency, our

department to clean up this. one of the drivers mentioned there is no future. i don't agree with that. we are missing a lot of riders out there; we can bring the taxi industry up to the level where everyone in the city can get a cab, and we can create a lot more passengers. i want to get a sense if you feel that with more resources available we'll able to address this issues going forward. >> with the resources we have had we have made great progress in those goals. for example on the issue of the driver experience of the taxi company. we are putting together a color scheme ranking system that will give us the ability to differentiate and hold accountable these different companies based on their performance, both with respect to the public and with respect to taxi drivers. an important part of that is that we hope to send out a survey the taxi drivers and

asked them about their experience with the company. they are not able to say that in public. yeah not able to testify at a hearing. you were given the opportunity to tell us i feel good about my company or i don't feel good about my company of these are the practices of my company that i wanted to know about we can take the survey results and turn them into a score criteria for the companies themselves and getting the companies incentives to treat the cabdrivers better. or suffer the consequences. it is important. i have to say, there are a lot of people here talking about the pain of this transition. the pain is real. the hard work is real. the professional skills a real. the importance to the city is very real. i don't want anybody to think that it is not. these people are very important to us and we should respect that. with respect to -- and side car, that is an enforcement

issue. we are working closely with the city attorney's office to identify our alternatives there, again with the addition hires we will have an effective field presence. if anybody heard the forum on kqed, those services are illegal, unsafe, unacceptable, and we must do something about it. (applause) >> director bridges. >> director bridges: i want to go back to a couple of things, the financing piece. i concur with the comments that the drivers are important to us in the city of san francisco, and this agency as well. we appreciate your services. i want to go back to the financing issue. you mentioned earlier that there would be a discount for

the first 150 applicants and no down payment required. i have been listening for the past few months, most of the drivers on the list have served, and had been on the list 25-30 years, most 60-65 plus. is there any such ability for them in terms of how the financing will be structure for them to take advantage of this? >> it is quite easily available i believe. i'm not aware that any driver even under the pilot program under full price has been decline the loan. generally speaking, again the credit union could speak more directly to this, most cabdrivers have qualified for this. that will be particularly true when the asset is funded; there

is a 300,000 value for 150,000 price. >> director bridges: and then my second question is, reading through the documents, i do not see anything here about the revenue sitting at the financials additions. can you address what will happen to the interest income? >> i will have to defer to the credit union or get back to you with that specific answer. i neglected to follow up on the last answer which is that staff's recommendation is based on 150,000 to 150 all about applicants. staff would have no objection if that number of people could be increased. we recognize this people have serve the city for many years

and they have certain expectations. we as staff want to do as much is possible for them. >> director bridges: -- >> we will be collateralizing the down payment assistance with transfer proceeds from mta funds that otherwise would be in the standard bank account. the level of funding that the credit union will retain will be just the amount of collateral. it will be remitting funds back to the sfmta. the interest will come back to us. otherwise we would be earning

interest through the regular city treasury. >> director bridges: you know the rate structure? >> the credit union is here. they can answer. >> director bridges: that is my question. i appreciate that. >> chairman nolan: will the credit union come forward. >> good afternoon. >> i am rebecca -- with the san francisco federal credit union. >> director bridges: my question was -- the money transferred back to the mta funds. the fun sitting in the credit union, what type of rate structure? >> it will be against their five year cnt, with 75-100

basis points in addition to the rate. we wanted a good market right. >> director bridges: a good market right, that's correct. thank very much. >> chairman nolan: -- >> can i get clarification on this balloon payment due in five years? >> the example we gave to chris, one choice, a borrower could have, the five-year loan. we want to keep the payment as low as possible. we want to make the term as long as possible. a five-year 30 is fixed for 5 years; at the end the balance is refinanced until paid in full. it could take that to the full 30 years. there is no prepayment penalty. they can make higher payments anytime and pay the loan down, which is what we have seen over the pilot program.

it is a way to bring the loan program for the borrower to keep the payment as low as possible to fit their particular budget. we have programs that range from a three-year fixed program, a lot of people take a 10 year, 12 year program. it's really what the person is most comfortable with that fits within the particular financial circumstances. we try to make as many programs available. we created the 5/30, when the medallion price went up, to keep the loan payment as low as possible to the person borrowing. >> chairman nolan: -- >> i want to clarify a few things and speak to something that carl -- said. important that the drivers that we do value, some people are suspicious when i say that, but i think it you will realize that when you understand this program better.

these are questions for director hyoshi and director reisking. first of all, an important point, 150 qualified applicants. if it stays at 150, how deeply get on the list with folks getting this benefit? >> for 3 applications, 2 will qualify. my math -- >> it sort of a 2-3 ratio. so with 150, we'll get to 225 on the list. let's talk in tangible terms. there are people who have put their lives in its industry. it is important that we have

clarity in tangible terms. the current proposal would generate this benefit to the 225 waiting spot on the list. number two, i want to speak to a comment specifically from bill -- someone but i've known for a long time. i suspect he's not through with my ideas, but i hope he knows that i respect him. he said you cannot get a loan, because if they borrow 150,000 that would not get that loan but we are in a different situation. they are getting this loan free. if someone got the loan, the credit union will give it to them for no down payment. there is no reason to believe that any of these 225 people on the waiting liswould be unable

to secure a loan for this medallion. we have seen no one turned down for a long. >> correct. >> is important to clarify -- and i want to make sure everyone understands it, the debt service, loan payments, mortgage payments, whatever you want to call it, under this proposal is going to be roughly according to your proposal $800 a month. >> $800-$850, yes. >> the difference between what someone would get it we're stuck with the prop system, the difference between the month

revenue stream to one of our long-term value drivers from this sort of the medallion, is about -- a month, because they have to pay the loan service. but the same time, unlike prop k because people drove onto the drop because they don't have any ownership in the medallion, people in this medallion do own it. >> people think the pension is being taken away. i want to correct that perception. the system creates a way for the driver to transfer the medallion and realized the asset value. >> thank you for addressing that point. i feel a bit of kindred spirit with you today, suffering

personal attacks. this is a program that was is explained like that shows that you as a staff showing respect the people will have a long time in industry. while it is tempting at some levels of the mta to reach out and take all this money we have sacrificed determine some of the revenue to create a transition program. and i appreciate your comments. those are my questions. >> chairman nolan: director rubke. >> chairman nolan: i would like to make an amendment, item 11. >> director rubke: i would like to to make in a amendment to item 11.

>> chairman nolan: second of the motion? >> if director rubke's amendment is passed, we'll get to 300 on the waiting list. >> correct. >> chairman nolan: all those in favor? passed, 11 as amended. i would like very much to see that the revenue generated, in fact is back to this industry in a direct, definable way, such as inspectors. that is an important issue. safety is an important issue. i don't know that four more will do it. i would like to see the drivers fund get substantial inc