from the ads to promote dialogue and that's one of the things that our human rights commission does and so i certainly support the idea that the proceeds from these ads be given to encourage dialogue. i think something as complicated to these issues, the kind of dialogue that i think will be productive and useful is not from the dialogue that comes from these ads. there are more constructive ways to communicate on this important issue. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor wiener, you asked to be referred. >> thank you. i appreciate the dialogue and i understand that people have different views. while calling muslims and savages and calling israel is

an apartheid state. i don't agree that calling israel an apartheid state is something, is different in a meaningful way. i think it's important to focus on the context and the history of why israel exist. it didn't just happen. it happened because six million jews were exterminated in the 1940s in europe and that was after many many other jews were exterminated systematically in europe. after the six million jews were murder nd europe in the 40s, there was a recognition of the need for jews to have a homeland. while

the extermination was happening and before it happened, other countries like the united states turned away jews, jews tried to escape europe, and this country much to our eternal shame would not let them in and they were returned to europe and they were butchered. so the world came to view many people, many countries came to a consensus that the jewish people needed a homeland somewhere where they would always be able to go no matter what was happening in the rest of the world and that is what the state of israel is. the state of israel is a democracy, it's until recently was the only country in the middle east where arabs could vote. it is currently the only country in the middle east where gay arabs can be open and not be a great risk of physical

harm or death. so to suggest that israel country where arab countries can vote for office is somehow an apartheid state and not only completely ignores the history but ignores what is currently happening in israel. i know there are some who believes and that was what these ads are about who believe israel should not exist as a jewish state. there are people who believe that. are entitled to that belief. but for us to not recognize the history and what it is, in that debate, i think is really a disservice, israel exist for a reason and to suggest that it's an apartheid state and to suggest that it's not a state, it ignores the history of millions of jews who have been murdered

and deserve a homeland. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. are there any other supervisors interested in introducing new legislation? >> supervisor yee? >> thank you, madam clerk. on a different note, today i'm going to be introducing resolution of approving an emergency public work contract for public utilities commission to replace the water and sewer pipelines in the vicinity of 15th avenue and with a street. a water main broke which took place at this intersection and impacted 25 homes. and on that day i committed to the neighbors that i would do anything i could to help them and this is just

another step in that process. it's a main, they have patched it up and it's still in danger and it needs to be replaced as soon as possible. the infrastructure as you know throughout san francisco is fairly old and i wish we can do this for the whole city, but at this point, this is one that we know needs to be replaced. the rest i submit. >> great. thank you, supervisor yee, mr. president, seeing no others on the roster that concludes for introduction. >> thank you. can you call items 25 and 26? >> the clerk: pursuant to a motion approved on may 14, the board of supervisors will convene as a city as a whole for a public hearing to hear objections report for a cost submitted by the director of public works for inspection or

repair of blighted properties pursuant to administrative code chapter 80 of a black and white abatement fund. approving the cost submitted by the director of public works. >> thank you, why don't we hear from the department of public works who will summarize the reports on assessment cost. >> good afternoon, president chiu and members of the board. my name is gretchen rooud with robbins to representing the public works graffiti unit. chapter 80, the administrative code, the community preservation and black and white reduction act requires that property owners maintain their property in a blight free condition and inspect

graffiti and notify owners of the damage. we have notified property owners by physical posting at the property, regular mail and by certified mail the property owners are given 30 days to an abate graffiti. when posted blight they are given an additional 15 days when they ignore or refuse to do the work. the city will perform the corrections and assess the cost through the tax role. the department is requesting your approval for the assessment of blighted properties. >> thank you, colleagues, any questions to the department of public works? i know there are a number of properties that have received various assessment cost and we'll hear from the members of the public who wish to dispute any

aspects. if there are in members of public who wish to speak on this item, please step up and lineup on the right hand side and we'll give you two minutes to articulate your perspective on the cost that has been assessed. what we'll do after public comment, let's me wait for everyone to lineup. after public comments we'll ask for members who have come to this session to meet outside with the department of public works staff to briefly talk about your situation and after those conversations have occurred we'll invite the staff to report on whether there is a resolution or whether the cost should be assessed. as you speak, please identify your name and the property address. thank you. >> hi. i'm jerome. i own 549 street in san francisco. there is a problem with the way this

process is working. first of all they put a sign up on the property that might have graffiti on it. all it does normally say is you have graffiti on your property. there is no way for the owner of the property to know exactly where the graffiti is, if a big piece of property. in my case, i always address it immediately, but in my case they have addressed twice places we could not find. we've called many many times to the department of public works, tried to talk to gretchen and her supervisor and always goes to voice mail. never getting a call back. after many many months of me calling many times, i finally was able to go to the radio room at that particular facility and he put me through to gretchen. now i have response from gretchen. she's also notified me that

she's called a person that was working on our property when the city has the records of my phone number and me being the owner of the property. the problem is that for me to be assessed any problem in not removing graffiti, i need to know where it's to talk to someone to identify that or at least give me a picture of where the graffiti is. there has to be a remedy on this and i hope you can help us work on that. that is all i have to say. >> thank you, as i said before, at the end of the hearing, i will ask members of the company to have a continued conversation outside. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, ladies and

gentlemen of the board. my name is peter schaffer, 1264 folsom street. my parents lived here through the 1906 earthquake. i was married here. my family has a long standing history in the city of san francisco. i care deeply about what i feel used to be one of the most beautiful cities here in the world. i'm here today to protest the treatment of the victims of the crime run a muck graffiti. i only find out about it if i drive by or i get a notice from the graffiti abatement department. i do not live in the city of san francisco. 1264 folsom is a notorious corridor where blight is covered. as soon as they cover it, it

happens again. as you imagine there are many citations issued. if you would catch the perpetrators. it would eventually stop. punishing the victims, only em bold ens the perpetrator and creates a new canvas for them to payton. paint on. the only way they get caught is if it's a concerned neighbor the police happen to accidentally stumble across them when they are in the process of vandalizing somebody's property. i'm proposed two solutions to help curb this black and white. i hope the mayor's and others will propose several ideas. stake out known graffiti corridors with your graffiti abatement department or what you might call it and when

these things occurred -- >> thank you very much. we give everyone equal time. you will have time to discuss with w w staff. next speaker. >> my name is michael man and my address is 428 grove street. i don't have an issue with the graffiti. my property is graffiti free currently. my issue is with dpw. i have recently gotten two bills from dpw, one was $263, the original bill in september 2011. i purchased the property in january 2012. i'm expected to pay the final bill of $4339 and i have no idea where that is coming from. so, thank you.

>> next speaker? >> my name is mary. the property address is pacific avenue. i have been a tenant for the past 15 years. i'm speaking today because we have had in 16 years in this location we had the first 12 without any graffiti, but in the past almost 5 years we've been tagged quite a few times and we've never received a clear message from the department that supervises this. we were originally contacted by someone from the graffiti unit that told us that our location was a high tag area even though we are on a really quiet one way street. he suggested that a stake out was

going to be made that we were in a location where the city would -- he was going to see to it that the city was going to find a way to stake out this area and once he gave us the okay, we were going to participate our wall and paint over the existing graffiti and they were going to do a sting operation and catch the people in the act which was suggested by one of the other speakers but it never happened and in the meantime we kept getting more notices about this graffiti situation. in the past years we've painted over it many many times and the amount of the fee that has been assessed on us is $3800 and our landlord is not paying it. he's going to pass it on to us. need

to go pay $3800 which only cost us $800 is over our budget. we thought we were in communication. >> thank you very much. next speaker? >> good afternoon. my name is bill. i'm a manager in chinatown. i don't own any building but i manage many of them. this city is fineing the landlord for graffiti even though they maybe merchant gates. i think it's being done that way because it's easy to tag the landlord that have properties. i don't understand why the board of supervisors with the public works

department would not cite the merchants. they have a business license they can go after them. my clients are day after day being penalized. we don't see them because the gates are up only at night. inspectors are driving at night and tagging on almost like if it's a game. it's getting worse and worse. also i noticed being everyday in chinatown that none of the sidewalks or properties that are owned by the city are being packed like some of my clients have been tagged for chewing gum, a tiny piece of green along the edge of the building but if you go around, not just in china town but everywhere you will see a lot of sidewalks cracked and chewing problems, but it's owned by the city but they

don't get tagged. that's it. thank you. >> next speaker? >> hi. my name is william chang. i own the property for many years. i have so many problems. the street level, i have the people clean it. every time i clean it, they are going to do it next time. finally i spent a couple thousands. i have a mirror on it and they stop doing it on the street level. then they start doing it up in the roof. in that case i can't just like stop them doing that. i wonder see if the city can help me out to try to stop the people doing that.

otherwise i just can't stop them from doing that every time. i have to hide the people from doing it. some it is when they do, they put the gum in the key hole. the tenant calling me and says my front door doesn't work and i have to hire a locksmith to do the work again. i don't know what to do in that case. also. i got a penalty for $260 for the late fee. in that case i just wondering then what should i do in that case. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker? >> my name is sheldon. i have owned the property on 274 cap

street. >> speak into the microphone, sir. >> thank you. >> my name is sheldon fong. i'm the owner of 274 cap street. i have been doing this for the last two months. i have been taking care of every time they paint it. they mess it up, i went there and paint it, touch up. now, you still want to fine me for what i'm not doing, but i'm doing it every time they mess up the place i went to paint it. now, do i still have to pay the fine? i'm asking you a question? do i have to pay the fine? they want to fine me. why? i'm asking. why

pick on the taxpayer. i'm the one who works hard to pay the tax and pay you to fine me. do that to me? that's what i want to know. okay in let me know. do i have to pay the fine. >> as i said before, for anyone who has come in today please sit tight at the end of the hearing well ask you to speak to the staff. next speaker? >> good afternoon supervisors. i have lived in san francisco for 61 years. while living here i have noticed that blighted properties have become so obvious especially lately in districts 4 and 7. i would like to thank the board for holding this item because even district 4 and 7 have deteriorated to

the extent that blighted properties are obviously there. i would like to recommend two suggestions. no. 1 authorize publically citizens arrest for catching these people and there will be plenty of people watching to make the bounty money. it's like having pal dean in san francisco and making money on the graffiti guys and secondly have it mandatory jail time for convicted graffiti and being in a same cell with a killer and that would discourage a lot of graffiti people and will also encourage people not to do it repeatedly because you are sitting in jail and you don't know if you are going to get

killed or raped in city jail. i think that should be a good deterrent. if you don't know who pal diane was look for it on the internet. we should have a bunch of pal dins in san francisco. >> thank you, next speaker. >> any other name is steven. i live on valencia street. i would like to see a crack down on graffiti vandals and i think the city is too lenient and causes millions of dollars for everyone. we have to constantly paint over. i have spent thousands of dollars on this a year and i also go out myself

once a month for one or two hours to paint over graffiti on my block. for me to be hit with this $263 fine violation for not painting it over in time, i think it's an outrage. like i say, i hire the people to paint the stuff over everyday and i do it myself. i think it's outrageous. thank you. >> thanks. next speaker. >> hello, my name is pat gave in and i got a bill from you. everybody is here for graffiti. the cops stand by all day watching them spray my building. i happen to be a paint contractor. i paint myself several times. the people next door they paint it for me. i don't n what this bill is for. it's completely

wrong. i paid over $22,000 over two days ago to the city of san francisco in my taxes alone. in four days, everyday cleaned up and i have done nothing to improve the place an i get a bill for $22,000. i don't have the money to pay it for no. 1 and it's a historic building. the university studio came out and done it for free. so the building is up and rulg and i'm doing my best all day but i don't have another $2,000 to pay. i'm broke after this whole deal. it's wrong. serving wrong. i'm down there all the time trying to fix it. it's remarkable, the improvement i have made and you can send me another bichl it's wrong. i just don't know do i have to pay this one more time or what.

who is going to answer to me. i don't have the money. the cops are going up and down to street to see what is going on and here you send me a bill. something is wrong. thanks folks, i appreciate you listening to me. i'm horrified. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, i live in the mission and we have been getting graffiti for 37 years. i have been cleaning it all up. i live in a brick building. they just write on the corner, you can't just paint over it. you have to do certain things. for you to hit us with that kind of bill is ridiculous. we get hit all the time. i don't know what it

is. if you if this continues to happen, it's going to end up lie -- like new york city. they cleaned it up. it's not fair for what you are doing to us. you have to make us pay for what they are doing. you don't make them -- you slap them on the wrist. if they jaywalk. they make them chop wood. after they have suffered they may not want to do it again. you are giving them a free for all. that's why it's happening here. i hear people say, we can write on san francisco, it's legal. this is a bunch of bs, right?

it's not fair to these people. nobody wants their house to look like that. >> thank you, next speaker. >> members of the board. director of san francisco open government. this is about the fourth time i have been here while we've had this kind of hearing i keep hearing from individuals who are coming here and i'm having a hard time deciding who is here and who is not. people say i call the department and leave message and i can't get an answer about where it is. it keeps happening repeatedly. the bottom line is i was in retail for about 30 years and one of the things i learned was that for everyone person that complains there are nine that simply walk away because they don't think they have a chance to do anything. don't assume because you have handful of people here that it's a unique problem. i would be willing to bet that this is a problem citywide, you know it

and there seems to be a need to do something. if your building gets defaced over again, we are not going to work with you, we are not going to consider the number of times you painted it. all we are going consider is the rules say you have to fix it and you didn't fix it period. if somebody goes through a case where they have had to repaint their building five times in the same year, there ought to be a way to come up with it to help them. simply saying that's your problem and it's not our problem which is the approach to be taken, is unacceptable. the city has a right to have a department to work with them openly and honestly to resolve these issues and not dump it on them and send them a bill when they

don't respond. i have a hard time that these people don't want to do anything about the graffiti and they don't know what to do and they are asking for your help and if you didn't look at your screens like you always do, maybe it would pay attention to help. >> thank you, very much. are there any other members of the public that wish to speak on this item? >> okay, as i said at the beginning of this hearing. what we would like to do right now is we have d w p staffers, can you stand so they will know who to approach. they are going out to the hallway and if we can ask members of the public to address the specific case here, once those conversations have occurred i will ask dwp staff