>> so please humble request put your self in our shoes. when you guys don't have a job maybe you will be taxi cab drivers or something. applause. >> last one. >> by the way there's in the cab industry we don't really have a retirement system the closest thing to that was you finally get your medallion but you have to work half the year then you get a small pension

from the company whatever but abc actually did an expose on the mta they had a payroll of eighty million dollars in 2012 the biggest offenders were executives one dude his base salary was 106 thousand he was paid more than twice from doing so much overtime when they retire they are going to get a great big fat pension how are they going to pay for that? a lot of drivers got on the list and you know to get their medallions you know your name comes up now you don't get your medallion you have to buy it. so we don't have any retirement system you basically die on the job. and that's a fact. thanks. >> last speaker and unless

somebody else identifies themselves okay good afternoon sir. >> hi i have lived in san francisco since 1980 and have been driving a tax i since 1984 i think that all of these people who are here have only one question. what is the beef? okay? after many years of driving a taxi cab in san francisco, i feel that i make less than minimum wage in san francisco. minimum wage in san francisco since 2000 has been 10 dollars per hour many taxi drivers are making less than 10 dollars an hour per hour when i started driving a taxi 1984 the number of taxi cabs in san

francisco were only 650 right now the number is 1700 cabs. at the same time every single day there are twaen between 7 hundred and 9 hundred limos are operating illegally in san francisco and at the same time the population of san francisco since 1980 which was 735 thousand right now it has reached to 8 hundred thousand people okay? 650 taxi cabs in 1984 and in 2013735 taxi cabs. at the same time many buses are

chartering from one place to another so the taxi driver at the most gets 2 to 3 rides every shift and we're not talking about the city that has a convention every single day. >> if anybody else cares to address the board please identify yourselves now. okay good afternoon sir. >> any law has to be fair for

everybody. it's going to be way too more. if there's a rush people have to wait. oh there's a lot of people waiting for cabs oh let's add more cabs i don't think it's going to work like that so you guys we have good faith on you hopefully you will listen to us. >> thank you. good afternoon i've been driving cab living in san francisco 35 years driving cabs for the last 6 and a half years and since this body got a hold of this business i haven't seen one thing done for the cab drivers. 250 today i'm standing in front of you with a

nasty cold and flu i got to tell you i have to go to work after this and i'll tell you why because in this business you have to pay for the dam privilege of taking the day off. there aren't any drivers to cover anymore so if i have a broken leg i have to show up and that's for starters now you want to put another 500 cabs out there right now i live in a rent controlled apartment here in san francisco and that's how i can afford to do this job and i'm stressed up to here. thank you very much for your time. applause.

>> i'm currently a student and it's a great way to make money to pay my bills and all my friends work as a cab driver they are my age 25 to 30 years old they told me it was a great business. it was not bad i could make money but from the last year the money that i made was fifty percent less than i used to make and i was trying to work now you have lift and they all break rules why do i

have to follow the rules? all my friends are leaving the cab business i don't want to leave the cab business i think it's really good business been here 20 years you have to go through background check you can not be a sex offender that means a lot to the customers. i start asking them is that a cab driver usually a limo driver so please do something about it otherwise we would not have the chance i have to go to unemployment. >> thank you.

>> i do find it ironic that uber which is running around saying you have to prearrange a limo the only body out there that accepts prearrangements are taxi cabs and i find that a little bit of an irony. i

think you can tell by the mood in the room -- implementing this process in the near future will not help this industry at this time so i would urge you to go slow and proceed very carefully with this particular issue and that's basically what i have to say i think the suggestions -- you need to get data gathering if you feel this is important to get a volunteer group or a reliable sample would be a really good way to go at this point in time. >> anyone else? i got laid off

from my job 3 times i don't think i can handle another

layoff so please think about that. >> anyone else final call okay seeing none the public comment period is over. i began with an, apology we all get the bulletin that comes out and i saw and read that and i know it was too late to change that we did what we could to get the word out we do want to make sure i think today has been a thoughtful afternoon a lot of excellent suggestions have been made and these points are well taken when we schedule this again we'll make sure it will be available to the industry to all of you before that period

of time so some time for thoughtful deliberations in advance. and we'll try to just engage the most thoughtful process we possibly can on this we know it's a very important issue and i believe there's a hearing before the puc a workshop on some of this? >> so on april tenth and 11th the california public utility commission the cpuc is holding a workshop about the regulations that relate to the services we're talking about new online enabled transportation services. they said it would be a 6 months

process these workshops on april 10 and 11th will be 930 a.m. each of those mornings on 505 van ness probably go until 430 p.m. is what we're told there should be an agenda coming out about this workshop in the last week of march is what we're told and also told that the public is welcome and that people will have an opportunity to speak so i'd encourage anybody in san francisco who has an interest about the new online enabled transportation services to consider participating in this process the main questions of the discussion are these 3 questions that they initial ly put out a large list of 20 something questions but they have said publicly they will be focusing on 3. should these

providers be regulated as taxis? and if so why. or should they be regulated as a third category. and to remind everyone in california taxi service is regulated at the local municipal level and limo is regulated at the state level so what they are doing is they are evaluating these new services and trying to figure out which category they should go into we will attend and we will present sfmta's position we've been submitting through the formal comment process i believe i've shared those with the board and will continue to

actively participate in this process and encourage regulation of these services. >> thank you directors? >> can we make sure that the taxi drivers have all the information and in particular if there's a way for them to submit comments without them having to go to an all day workshop i'm hoping that there's a way that they can submit comments either online or in writing we can figure that out and get that information to them that would be great. >> we're endeavoring to get that information out.

>> members of the board? >> thank you all very much and we'll move onto next item on the agenda. >> the next item on the agenda your consent calendar. all items of the consent calendar considered to be routine. unless a member of the public wishes to have an item considered separately. the

board is not being asked to change the strategic plan. we are required to submit strategic plan for the implementation of this

particular mtc initiative. we didn't want to create a separate strategic plan so all we're doing is identifying the elements from the strategic plan that you have already approved in saying it is these elements that will constitute the strategic plan for the implementation of the region's sustainability project basically an effort -- all we did was pull some items out of our existing strategic plan and put those into this report. the one message i saw about this item had to do with residential parking so i believe it was a miss understanding of what this item was. >> mr. chair man, directors, there maybe some confusion because he starts off this

letter saying -- the sf park program which is -- >> not related to this item. >> motion to approve the consent calendar. >> all in favor say aye. >> next item. >> moving on item 11 amendmenting the various transportation code sections to require all motor vehicles or higher permit how hold ers to participant and support the development of smart phone applications for color scheme hold ers the second change is for color scheme permit hold ers to provide financial data

and to extend the deadlines for implementation for electronic data and passenger information monitors and lastly the last amendment is to provide that a driver may not smoke inside a taxi cab at any time and mr. chair man i do believe the staff is requesting a change at this point. >> the two of the main things that we've been working towards in terms of strengthing and improving taxi service in san francisco is ensurg suring we have the right number of taxis on the street and a way to access them we anticipated having the results here today

along with this item so i want to just apologize again i know you already have, mr. chair, we have been kind of long waiting the results of this study. it was our best understanding that they would be ready in time for this meeting and it was only last week that we learned that study wouldn't be ready in adequate time for the public to review it. while we didn't want to inconvenience people we thought it was a big enough issue it deserves public review as soon as it comes out we will put it out to the public so that we can have a thoughtful public discussion including the town hall meeting before the board considers it so i take responsibility for the fact that our gamble that it would be ready did not pay off and i'm sorry that we

inconvenienced people but i thought we got a lot of good public comment even absence the report and i don't think the report is going to suggest that we immediately put 500 taxis on the street so that's one piece of it and one piece of a larger body of work that we -- item 11 here trying to make it easier for people who want to access a taxi to be able to do so. the first has to do with electronic taxi access and the second has to do with financial data disclosure with regard to the first what this is mainly doing is establishing the requirements for realtime data

transmission from dispatch services basically to a virtual hub that will gather all of this information much of what is in here was already approved by the board we're actually adjusting a date from february 28th to i think april 30th so a number of the changes in here are merely date changes but we are requiring submission of realtime data from the dispatch services to the central hub and then an app developer can connect into and would be valuable to the riding public have access to all the taxi cabs in san francisco. it wouldn't preclude them from selecting a taxi company of their choice we understand there's brand loyalty and we don't want to stand in the way of people doing that but we want people to have access to all the taxis in san francisco

that are available and in service that's the thrust of the electronic taxi access system changes that we're including here and to the extent that there were many public comments about electronic weigh bills that's something the board had previously approved so that was something that had been approved last year. the second piece of this has to do with a requirement for taxi companies for the color schemes to provide to the mta certain financial information that would enable us to evaluate the financial liability of the taxi companies and to feed into the process for us to review gate fees. we've had a number and that maybe 2 pages of this -- we've had a number of concerns expressed including legal concern and see while we

believe that what we proposed is legal ly sound and operation ly necessary, what we propose today is that we sever those specific items from consideration today so that we can make sure through the city attorneys office and our staff that we've addressed all the legal concerns that have been raised so whenever the appropriate time explain specifically which parts we'd be severing off but the main thing that we were would like to move forward with or have you consider moving forward with today are the requirements for that would enable what we're calling electronic access virtual dispatch something that's been an idea in san francisco for perhaps 20 years now. as one of the speakers said the technology is here

it's been here for a while frankly we're behind the game on this so i'm happy to be bringing this forward i wish we had brought this forward 2 years ago this is what will help us strengthen and make more efficient use of the taxis that are already on the street and i realize that the packet for this item is thick but you will note the report is about 4 substantive pages.