immigration laws is to create and provide for family unification. unfortunately, that does not currently apply to same-sex couples. federal law does not currently recognize permanent same height ~ same-second partners for [speaker not understood] law. [speaker not understood] and his or her foreign-born partner. right now those couple are not allowed to have the u.s.es are department or the u.s. citizen sponsor the foreign partner to apply for immigration benefits. ~ resident and as we are trying to enact comprehensive immigration reform, it is imperative that we include every, every individual. the inability to sponsor a same-sex partner has created many problems. it has led many couples to

choose to remain in a costly long distance international relationship, to choose to live abroad in the foreign partner's country so that they can be together. and if permitted, to seek a visa independent of the partnership for the partner and then go through very antiindicated and very cumbersome process to allow the person to remain in the country. ~ antiquated sometimes the couple have to choose to allow a foreign-born partner to return -- to remain, actually, in the country undocumented. and sometimes it has actually led to a termination of these relationships. we have to do better than that as a country. the limited legal options for same-second partners to keep these relationships going exact an amount of -- tremendous amount of financial, emotional and mental toll. quite frankly, it's staggering

when you think about the fact there are 40,000 -- it is estimated 40,000 lgbt american citizens that are in same-sex financial relationships that are impacted by this discriminatory practice. beyond the personal challenges that it imposes on these couples, we know that we are losing -- we are risking losing tremendous talent of foreign-born individuals who want to have the opportunity to be here with their loved ones and to be a part of the society. right now, pending before congress is the uniting american families act which was reintroduced in february of this year by congressman jerald madler. and on february 2013 by senator patrick leahy with bipartisan support. the bills call for simply amending existing u.s. immigration law by adding three words, "or permanent partner"

wherever the word "spouse" appears in the law. we are urging congress and the president obama to ensure when we pass comprehensive reform it includes every family. this allows for the san francisco board of supervisors to express he its support of including same-sex couples and we ask that our country finally, you know, do right by the lgbt citizens and their loved ones who are impacted by this level of discrimination. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor chiu. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, as your board representative on both the planning -- capital planning committee and the committee on information technology, i'm introducing today two items with mayor lee, two plans that reflect the work of these bodies in recent months. both of these plans will guide us as we work to improve our city and our city operations in the years ahead. first, regarding the ten-year capital plan, it is hard to walk around the city and not

notice a revitalized park or rec center, new or renovated library and better roads. and other improvements taking place in other districts in the city. these investments have not only made san francisco a safer more resilient city. they have contributed to the economic recovery by producing thousands of local jobs. the citizens of san francisco have shown their support for these policies. over the past five years r voters have approved $1.9 billion in general oply gaytion bonds for hospitals, parks, police and firefighter and our streets. ~ obligation this is equivalent to the previous 22 years of geo bonds combined and we're doing it in a responsible manner without increasing tax rates. the proposed plan continues the commitment to the built environment by recommending $25 billion over the next 10 years to address critical seismic repairs and long-standing problems. these include identifying a permanent source for street repaving, funding critical muni infrastructure, replacing essential components of our

city's 150-year-old sewer system, investing in our waterfront and relocating staff and prisoners from the seismically vulnerable hall of justice. in addition to the numerous department heads and staff members who have participated on the capital planning committee, i want to take a moment to give a special thanks to our outstanding capital program staff including director brian strong as well as [speaker not understood] coner, elliott chang and until his recent departure, brian benson. i am also introducing today, colleagues, ~ our five-year information and community technology -- i'm sorry, five-year information and communication technology plan. several years ago i passed legislation to require every other year that we update a five-year ict tech plan to provide a framework for how our city thinks about plans for and invests in technology. as i know you have heard me describe before, i think we need to be doing better about moving our technology out of 1999.

we're making progress, but we have a long way to go. the plan identifies four strategic it goals, making government efficient and effective through technology, improving public access and transparency, strengthening security and disaster preparedness, and maintaining and supporting critical city infrastructure. the plan identifies significant information and communication technology needs which will need to be prioritized by [speaker not understood]. in fact, there is a $175 million gap over the next five years between the funds that are likely to be available to fund i-t and the projected needs of the city. including major projects such as the replacement of our financial systems, the replacement of our tax system, and the replacement of a number of public safety radio system. for that reason the plan recommends several strategies to reduce the gap between proposed projects and available funding. these would include improving collaboration and planning between different departments and among different projects,

finding alternative funding sources, and reallocating our budget to support i-t projects. in addition to the members of [speaker not understood] and its subcommittees i want to take a moment to thank the department of technology as well as the mayor's budget office, kate howard and [speaker not understood] in particular for making the ict plan into a better document than it's been in the past. and in both of these plans i also want to thank the direct involvement of our controller ben rosenfield and city administrator [speaker not understood] which has been critical. i look forward to working with all of you, colleagues, as these plans move forward through the board this spring. and with that, i will submit the rest of my item. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much. today i'm going toe fa to be introducing some legislation that i've been working on with the bayview community for nearly a year. as a board we spend a considerable amount of time talking about the impacts from the loss of the redevelopment agency. we primarily focus on what the loss has been for certain development projects, commitments to our community,

and affordable housing. but one of these aspects that has not received a lot of attention is when the governor dissolved redevelopment agencies, so went our project area committee. so went the community based entities responsible for reviewing projects, rezoning efforts, providing recommendations to the planning commission, as well as the redevelopment agency and the board of supervisors. it's become particularly a problem in the bayview project area where we're seeing many new projects and there is no one really to organize community forum where residents can provide their input. now, while the bayview project area committee was not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, it still served an incredibly valuable purpose by providing neighborhoods a place where they could engage directly with city staff, developers, and other neighbors to ensure that the growth plan for our community met the vision -- met the vision that it had spent -- met the vision

that many had spent nearly a decade on planning through the redevelopment process. now, the ordinance that i'm introducing today we're creating new citizens advisory group that will are the ability to review any development project or rezoning effort and provide comment to the planning commission and/or other relevant city departments as well as the board of supervisors. in an era where we no longer have this agency, we still need -- we still have a need to ensure that we are providing the communities that are going to experience development and growth a voice in shaping the future of their neighborhood. and madam clerk, mr. president, the rest i submit. >> thank you,. seeing no other names, that concludes row call on the roster. >> why don't we go to general public comment. madam clerk. >> now is the time for the public to comment on general

subject matter up to two minutes. if you would like to utilize the overhead projector please clearly state such. and speakers using translation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify. >> thank you. why don't we hear from our first speaker. [speaker not understood] san francisco. [speaker not understood]. our supervisor, good afternoon. my name abdullah [speaker not understood]. i thank god who give me the time to be here today with you.

at least i can be and i can deal with you to make it nice and warm welcome to our new supervisor katy tang. katy, [speaker not understood] over china. i have here the list you can see. we have 12 people, chinese people has been involved in this room in the city hall, such as mayor ed lee, senator leland yee, assembly woman fiona ma, supervisor [speaker not understood], supervisor mabel tang, carmen chu, [speaker not understood], eric mar, john k. jenkins, david chiu, ed chiu, and katy tang,

she come in at number 12. i think chinatown has moved into the city hall. i am not against that. i am with them because in this moment i rise to support my chinese sister fiona ma to be the next congress. i wish she have take it [speaker not understood] office. she deserve that. and i like to support the chinese people. yes, they are going to make it good future. supervisor, district 4, on behalf of them, they love you and they want to see what new good thing you make it for them. i know and i believe you have good surprise for them. surprise them and show them you are serious. again, [speaker not understood], and welcome and thank you very much to come

here to present to the district. congratulations and i tell you thank you very much. thank you. >> thank you. take care. >> next speaker, please. next speaker. so, good afternoon, everybody. my name is darian smith. i am president of the national federation of [speaker not understood] california san francisco chapter. we are a grassroots chapter that work with the blind and visually impaired in san francisco to improve the quality and standard of living for blind and visually impaired

people throughout the life spectrum. i wanted to make you all as a member -- sorry, all of you as members of the board of supervisors aware of who we are. another chapter, we'd love to really work with you to make sure that when we're doing things, we're all working collaboratively to benefit everybody, including the visually impaired in the city. i have some information fliers and a flyer, general flyer about the chapter, a flyer about upcoming event that i brought with me and a folder so you guys can take a look at and pass around and pass to your constituents as you deem fit. and if anyone has any questions about the national federation of blind or the national federation of the blind of california san francisco chapter, i will be around a little longer and would be glad

to answer those questions off and quietly, of course. so, thank you all so much. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors, [speaker not understood] public library. don't give money to the friends of the library. don't accept money from the friends of the library. the privatization of our society has reached the point where the only benefit is to the privatizer and to the corporate benefits themselves who steal the public's money to buy influence. i explained last week that the friends of the library had access in 2000 of 20.3 million, but after 12 years of the branch library improvement program it had net lost assets of 11.3 million. over the same period the friends generated income from the sit sins of san francisco of over 40 million. as required under the san

francisco administrative code, the library administration has reported that friends carried out -- to carry out or assist any public library function during that same period was only 4.9 million. what is really significant is that we now know from filings required to be filed with the california state attorney general the friends executive level employees have earned 6.6 million which is 35% more than the benefit to the library. this means that while raising $40 million, the library received not only a fraction of the lost assets. it received a fraction of the money that was raked in by the friends' executives. ~ in salaries. we don't just protect this fraud by having critics like me arrested at board of supervisors meetings. they have wholesale violations of open government laws. they have a president of the library commission who has been found guilty of official misconduct and it doesn't

matter. they can raise money without any agreement with the city and no committee of the board of supervisors will raise a question of accountability. many a so-called [speaker not understood] influence even when the money has been stolen from the public. having me arrested does not solve society's problems and the lies cost more [speaker not understood]. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is derek mahmoud, taxi driver. next two weeks after march 19, there will be a protest at city hall. hundreds of taxis are coming. why they are coming? what's wrong with them? guyth a call from scott wiener from [speaker not understood] to take a customer. i got there in 30 seconds, and i come across the customer and they say in 45 minutes he

called three times yellow cab and he didn't get it. ~ so, it's not the taxi drivers who are doing something wrong. it's the company's computer system. and today, normally we have to make roughly about $20 per hour to give to the company and $15 per hour [speaker not understood]. $35 per hour. position of the market is so bad that drivers are barely taking hundred dollar home after 10 hours of work, barely. and mta has decided to put 500 more cabs and they are going to make a decision march 19. can we survive, can we live? no. we'll have a hard time. on top of that, all of you people, your district, the people who live there, they want to monitor your people,

mta wants to monitor your people. if i take anybody and take them to a center fold or a new dance place, their home address and their drop address will be forwarded through electronically. [speaker not understood] will be recorded electronically. i've been protesting against it, that we should not record the citizen information where we are taking them and where we are dropping. we have currently a paper system where we write where we pick them and where we drop. please tell them [inaudible]. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon. i'm peter war field, executive director of library users association and welcome to the new supervisor. in the 12 years since 2000 when the good program began, our san francisco public library has

spent approximately $1 billion. that's 1,000 million dollars. and when the budget comes to you, we ask you to scrutinize and reject the library's priorities, wrong priorities, when it comes to books and book-related issues. the library's overall proposed budget is to increase by more than $3 million, but there is a zero increase for adult books, zero for children and teen books, zero for children and teen periodicals. by contrast as an example, the library wants to spend $100,000 on a machine it could not -- that it could not demonstrate at the library commission because it was so flawed with unstated bugs. and the funding was approved with no demonstration of need, no cost benefit analysis, for example, why can't librarians

continue to check out pcs, and no sense of the ongoing costs. last time, i noted that the library's single copy of ralph nader's groundbreaking book on faith at any speed, hasn't been in the collection for about a year. this was just one example of the library's neglect of its collection. it does not systematically monitor its collection, for example, reviewing what books were lost and therefore should be considered for replacement, and a catalog has many problems which are not addressed and haven't been for years. when the library's budget comes to you, please reject the library's dee emphasis on books. thank you. ~ >> thanks. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. [speaker not understood]

hawkins, lifelong resident of district 10. overhead, please. thank you, supervisor cohen, for having them to -- for having it -- having the supervisors to adjourn in memory of bishop wenzel jackson last week, son of ms. ruth also known as piley jackson whos very active in sunnydale against gun violence. bishop jackson is also the spiritual advisor for the bayview opera house community choir as i mentioned before, but it was along with reverend cordell hawkins of [speaker not understood] baptist church who happened to be the director of the cbap program of the d.a.'s office, who founded the homicide memorial quilt. ~ we need gun violence -- gun

legislation, but we have to see about the aftermath and those who are affected by gun violence. his idea he got from cleve jones at the [speaker not understood] project. i was blessed to work for the maims project for a short period of time. we're going to be revising the homicide quilt and we'll be having quilt panel dedication ceremonies coming up soon. and ask the prayers for the families of those affected by the gun violence. and we have panels on the homicide quilt, san francisco bay area homicide quilt also victim of domestic violence. and we should start adding pedestrians who were killed also because that's a homicide. homicide is when you're killed by another human, and my heart goes out to the young family who is an alumni of laurel high school. thank you.

>> thanks. next speaker. can i have the overhead, please? >> sfgovtv? good afternoon, supervisors. welcome, supervisor tackvthv. i'm mike gruberg, united taxicab worker. i want to talk about the worldwide services that have been springing up, [speaker not understood] those coming down the pike. you can see from the accident in this picture, this is a lift vehicle and a motorcycle. don't know what happened to the motorcycle rider. don't know who was at fault in the accident, but that's really not the point. the point is that there are going to be accidents. they're inevitable. and insurance is indispensable. these companies simply don't have insurance. i want to read you something from a submission of the personal insurance federation

of california which was submitted to the california public utilities commission in connection with the rule making proceeding that is now undergoing. since the issue before the cpuc is not ride sharing, but instead using a private passenger vehicle in a livery service, this is clearly not covered under a standard policy. if an accident occurs, coverage would not exist. that's pretty damning language from the insurance industry. these companies claim they have excess insurance policies of a million dollars. read their terms of service and you will see that that insurance does not apply if the underlying insurance does not apply. basically the poet -- public is in grave danger here. the mta is not doing anything about it. you are public elected officials. i think it's time to step in and see that this danger to the public is dealt with.

~ this is the function of governance, to protect the population. and we will ask you to do that. thank you. >> thanks. next speaker. i spoke last week about this. i'm going to do it again. but last week as i left here, i watched the city employee get into a lift car right in front of city hall. like you said, they're illegally operating taxi companies city-wide. right now there are a thousand vehicleses. they heavily promote internally to their drivers to work over time just like a cab company. they also tell them there is no special license or insurance they need in order to work. they're operating as taxi companies in practice. this really needs to stop. they're actively recruiting drivers and defrauding the drivers, putting the traveling public in danger. i have seen many incidents

reported on their internal driver lounge on facebook ranging from unreported accidents, bribery, extortion, and up to threats of violence. i heard anecdotal reports there are as many as three people driving under one hired driver's registration with lift. legal threats by the ceos of lift and side car to individual drivers asking for proof of these so-called extended insurance. both of these companies claim to have, which side car has none. these drivers are also active soliciting ride at bars [speaker not understood]. at least 100 officers whose only job is enforcement of these rules. by my cal claytions, the city could bring in over $5 million in fines in one to two months by targeted enforcement. $5,000 per occurrence times 1,000 vehicles, that's $5 million. this is out of hand. we have to stop it before it gets worex, guys.

-- worse, guys. >> thanks, next speaker. ~ hi, mary mcguire, i'm a taxi driver as well and i want to address the uninsured vehicles roaming our streets. these companies, lift side car, they advertise themselves on the internet as being safer than taxis. really, really? they have no inspections. they're not green, by the way. i thought it was a green city. is any car newer than 2000, and they have no insurance. they require that the potential customer waive their legal rights before they hire the vehicle on their app. this they do knowingly. there is no random drug testing for drivers. there is no fingerprints for drivers. the background check is really a very simple consumer grade credit report like if you're renting an apartment or maybe you met someone on the internet and you wanted to date them before you get more serious,

$30 gets you the background check. they're calling their fares donations. they are not required to pay state or federal income taxes. even though these companies themselves are not listed on the irs website as charitable organizations, go look it up. the drivers are not required to submit their social security numbers. if the driver asks for a 10 99 or some proof of insurance they're told their services are no longer needed. you know, you have an obligation. you have a duty to protect the streets of san francisco, to protect the consumers, to protect the taxi industry. i was a tax commissioner seven years. i could give you so many valid reasons why we need a well regulated taxi system. open entry does not work. it's a disaster. certain industries need to be regulated, transportation, banks, health care, agriculture, guns -- don't let this happen here, okay. don't let it happen here.