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. >> thanks. next speaker. hi, i'm barry cargo with

the san francisco cab drivers association. i'd like to echo the comments of the previous cab drivers concerning these illegal rogue cabs. i'd also like to express my dismay of the apparent acceptance of these rampant -- the rampant influx of these vehicles. they try to avoid regulation by saying that they're ride shares when really they're not according to section 53, 53 h of the california public utilities code. a ride share is the transportation [speaker not understood] locations or persons having a common work-related trip and a vehicle having a seating capacity 15 passengers or less, including the drivers which are used for the purpose of ride sharing when the ride sharing is incidental to another purpose of the driver. with the inat the point of these drivers is to make a profit, these trips are not

incidental to the purpose of the driver. and the payment is not truly voluntary when the cost of the trip is not shared equally between the passenger and driver. this is not ride sharing. as i mentioned, the personal insurance federation of california says these vehicles aren't covered because they're operating for profit and they only have personal insurance. the use of an app doesn't -- it shouldn't allow somebody to break the law. i can't sell drugs. i can't run a prostitution ring by having an app. so, this is not an excuse. i shouldn't be able to put a pink mustache on my cab and avoid cab regulations. let's all play by the same rules. there should be enforcement against this illegal activity. >> next speaker.

good afternoon, supervisors. my name is jeffery rosen, i'm also with the san francisco cab drivers association. i'm not going to repeat what's been said. i am a 17 year veteran of driving taxi in this town. i agree with the last four speakers. i want to just add some commentary. when the mayor gave his state of the city speech, i recall he mentioned that these were innovative companies, lift side car. he mentioned both of those companies. and innovation, i believe, is when you bring something new to the table but you work within the constraints of what is already regulated. that is not actually happening here. these are -- transportation enabled services that are being unregulated, they are -- they require you to have a smart phone and a credit card. so, that -- there are people in each of your districts without

credit cards or smart phones. you're not allowed to pay with cash. so, they're not servicing those without those goods. they're also not serving senior and disabled. they have a choice as to whether or not they can pick you up. they rate you on a rating system as a passenger. so, if you don't pay or tip enough, they can decide not to pick you up. and who is regulating that right now? nobody. i implore you to get involved and to stay informed with these gypsy cabs that are out there right now. thank you for your time. >> thanks. next speaker. good afternoon. john [speaker not understood] from san francisco. this may be a dead issue. i tried to read this a few weeks ago, but i didn't get a chance to finish it so i'm going to finish it now, but i'll start at the beginning. are we losing our sense of

pride? throughout history we're doing, almost all humanity has chosen to retain a degree of dignity and privacy starting with [speaker not understood] and animal skins. today, some would have us turn into just a herd of naked animals instead of individuals with a sense of privacy. on a nude beach it's okay. in private clubs or a nudist colony that's okay, too. there is a form of [speaker not understood] agreement there, but not up and down market street or amongst the general population. i don't care to see or have others see a fairly accurate live image, naked image of myself on the corner of castro and market. i was raised by intelligence, not to expose myself for everyone and everybody.

so, don't push our [speaker not understood] in my face. i'm not impressed. after all, i was born that way. and then i grew up. clothes are a value of my intellect. maybe those body [speaker not understood] don't have much else to think about. thank you for listening. >> thanks. next speaker. good afternoon, president chiu, and supervisors. ♪ and i told mayor lee i'd like to be gang free and i don't want the city to end up in lake gitchigumi and i want to be free and i told mayor lee i don't want the san francisco bay to end up like lake gitchigumi

i told supervisor mark farrell i don't wanned the city to end up like [speaker not understood] fitzgerald and i don't make it clear i don't want the bay with fear and i don't want the city end up like [speaker not understood] fitzgerald. and i do make it clear and i want to take away the fear that i don't want the [speaker not understood] fitzgerald and the san francisco bay to end up like lake gitchigumi and got to pay gang dues when you sing the city blues and you know the city don't come easy and i don't want to shout or punch about you want to make the city -- make it real breezy open up your hearts and let your sorrow go and then we'll be better then, we'll make it better for tomorrow

i don't ask much, i only ask peace and trust and you know the city don't come easy and you don't have to shout or punch about and you'll make it real easy please remember city peace is how we made it use a little love and we can make it all the better >> next speaker, please. before i start, it's okay to focus on the lady behind me. you don't have to show me. [speaker not understood] douglas yip. i would like to say for the record that the dead man's curse has entered into district 7. it's pretty unfortunate what happened last week. but if the supervisors continue to ignore the dedman, i gues