become an institution. there have been documentaries that have actually been filmed about the tamale lady. there are bumper stickers and t-shirts declaring people's love for the tamale lady. and you can see those all over the city. and there is an even a compilation of songs that have been written about the tamale lady. for those who have interacted with her, they've referred to her as an angel, a saint, our lady of the tamale some call her, not just because she seems to miraculously appear when night life patrons need something to eat, but because she's known for her hugs, a shoulder to cry on, and her role as a surrogate grandmother to the people of the mission. in fact, if you have seen her, she has a t-shirt that she wears that says, i don't know you, but i love you.

so, recently as you probably have heard, some of the bars that have been working with virginia over the years have been told by our department of public health that virginia is no longer allowed to sell tamales because she's not legally licensed, permitted in the city and county of san francisco. last friday i met with virginia and my staff to discuss different ways in which we can work with her to make sure that she remains in business in a manner that works for the department of public health so that we allow her to continue to sell tamales and ensure the public safe of every san franciscan. so, we have many options that we're talking to virginia about, and we lehman brothers making an announcement in the next few days about the best way to proceed in a manner that's consistent with her wishes. so, to her many fans and her close to 6,000 followers on

twitter, we are doing everything we can to make sure that the tamale lady stays in business. since the media broke this story, our office has received hundreds, hundreds of calls and e-mails from people wanting to know how they can help the tamale lady. so, today i want to encourage people to attend an event that is taking place this friday in district 6 at the san francisco eagle, which is located at 3 98 12th street and it's an event to celebrate the tamale lady's 60th birthday. the celebration will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the san francisco eagle, and not only can you wish her a happy birthday, but you can donate a little money to help virginia to ensure that she continues to have a business here in san francisco. thank you. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor

campos. supervisor chiu. >> thank you. colleagues, i have two items. first of all, i have an in memoriam for eric aarons who tragically passed away on june 13th at the age of 44, four years after being diagnosed with brain cancer. originally from michigan, eric moved to our city in the late 1990s after completing his ph.d. in physics and he worked for well over a decade at the stanford research institute in the specialty of optics. but like many san franciscans, he was deeply passionate about what he did outside of his work, with the few friends he started and ran the dolores park movie night. way an avid kayaker and frisbee player and took roles planning trips and events to draw nonfrisbee and kayaking friends to join in the love of the sports. after diagnosis with cancer, he started a frisbee tournament

which raised well over $12,000 over the past number of years. he mentored young people, protecting and enjoying the california environment that he loved. he was incredibly generous with his time, with his smile, and with his wit. he was a tenacious fighter in the face of challenges that few of us can imagine. in addition to his mother, his sister, his two brothers and his many nieces and nephews, eric will be cherished by the many, many friends who were like family to him, many folks in san francisco and i know around the world. there were services for him today in michigan and memorial is planned in san francisco later this summer. eric was a wonderful person and member of our city and he will be greatly missed. i have a second item, a resolution to follow-up on the fact that last year our board passed an ordinance that i sponsored to require a city to develop an agriculture strategy to coordinate the 7-plus

agencies to that do work in this area to use the city's resources and to organize all our city efforts to make the community and neighborhood based demand for urban agriculture. under that ordinance our city administrator was supposed to recommend one agency to drive and coordinate urban agriculture strategy. this recommendation was supposed to come at the end of last year. it is or was a few months late, but at the end of the day the city administrator has recommended the rec and park department and has hosted a number of community meetings to educate the public on ongoing plans. under the ordinance we are required to pass a resolution to ratify the decision and recommendation by the city administrator and that is a resolution i'm introducing. i just also want to note that last year during the budget process we set aside $120,000 which was supposed to be spent for the first time on a full-time -- one full-time fte staffer. given that today and every year we have spent millions of dollars every year, but we have never actually had one person

whose job it is full time to coordinate this work, we made that decision last year but never spent the money. i want to thank the mayor's budget office for transferring this money from last year to this year's budget and hope that once we pass this resolution and once we get this person up and running, finally we'll be able to move forward with a cohesive and organized urban agriculture strategy for the city. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, madam clerk and colleague. today i have one item for introduction. as the chair of the gao committee, i've been working with our budget and legislative analyst on our 2013 audit work plan. and in developing this work plan for this year, i drew from a number of issues that have come across in my time on the board. the first audit request focuses on recruitment, testing retention of uniform members in our san francisco fire department as well as

evaluating overtime. also the board, we have -- we are asked repeatedly to approve superintendent letval appropriations for the fire department. ~ overtime, but i have not seen a commitment to addressing the structural staffing challenges of this department. so, it is my hope that this audit will give us a fuller picture of how the city can do better in recruiting more san francisco residents into the fire department and develop a pathway to addressing the staffing deficit for overtime costs. the second audit will focus on dcyf implementation of the children's fund. this is a key funding tool that supports many of the city's children and family services. i know that this request -- i know that at the request of supervisor mar and the budget committee will be taking -- i know that at the request of supervisor mar, the budget committee will be taking a look at this year's rfp process for these funds later this week and i am very thankful for your leadership on that, supervisor mar. i eagerly anticipate and await

that conversation. but i also think that it is important for our budget and legislative analyst to take a look, a more comprehensive look at the last 12 years of the implementation of this fund, evaluate how it's been used, the role of the citizens advisory committee, and identify areas of improvement. the third audit will focus on the department of public health's compliance with privacy and security regulations that are specified in state and federal law with a focus on the data system and records management specifically at laguna honda hospital and san francisco general hospital. it's my hope that this evaluation will help identify areas of improvement in patient records, management as we move forward with the implementation of the affordable care act which is also known as obamacare. and i also want to announce to everyone that this thursday, we've got something really exciting happening in the bayview community. we're calling it third on third

and this is when the bayview community is going to come alive. community wide art celebration for the whole entire family sponsored by the san francisco arts commission and the public utilities commission, and we've got some really cool activities which include pop-up galleries. we'll have food trucks and get this, everyone, we are also going to have a beer and winegard en, woo-hoo. [laughter] >> so, you definitely want to make your way down to 3rd street. we're going to also have art-making activities for the kids, and we also have cern grove on the road featuring bayview talent. so, i am very grateful for all the people that have put in a lot of work on making this event a success. i'm going to speak as if it has already happened. it is going to be a success. it is going to be this thursday, as i said. it is going to be from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. along 3rd street corridor between mckennan and

oakdale. and there are going to be muralists. there are going to be participating artists. there is going to be dance. there is going to be music. there are going to be food trucks. scott wiener, there are going to be food trucks there. everyone is going to have a good time. come ton down thursday. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor cohen. supervisor avalos. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, have a resolution today that is asking the mta to provide current names for excelsior street and historic names for excelsior streets. back in 1908 when many of the streets and the grid was made there were three streets that had a different name. they were excelsior which was also china, which was china at the time, avenue a london, which in 1908 was japan, and peru, which was india. and folks may know that the excelsior district is actually named after -- streets are

named after countries and capitals, the countries go east-west and capitals of european cities go north-south. and, so, many people in my district have been really wanting to recapture our history in the excelsior district. many people feel that in the past there was some prejudice that may have caused or led to the change of the streets from asian countries to other countries or it was excelsior avalon and peru. we really think that our history should be shared and should be recognized and the effort is to actually have these historic names to provide that context. and, so, i want to thank two people in particular for their work on this over the years. linda daviro and linda light houser. many other people in the district as well have been pushing for this, may well be another one. and we have already funding in the budget that has -- was puts in the budget last year to

actually do the renaming and we are very excited about seeing this history brought back to the excelsior district and to recognize our great diversity and our great history of the neighborhood and the rest i'll submit. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor avalos. mr. president, seeing no other names on the roster, that concludes roll call for introductions. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, why don't we go to our first 3:00 p.m. special order. madam clerk, could you call our item 33 and 34? >> items 33 and 34 comprise the special order at 3:00 p.m. pursuant to a file approved on june 11th. the board of supervisors will convene as the committee of the whole for a public hearing to consider a resolution containing a report of assessment costs, sidewalk and curb repairs performed pursuant to the public works code. >> thank you. colleagues, as we typically do for this report of assessment costs related to our sidewalk and curb repairs, i'm going to ask the department of public works to make a brief presentation on the various costs that they have submitted. we'll hear from members of the

public who will subsequently have an opportunity to speak with our dpw staff, and then we will close the hearing and resolve the matter. so, first dpw. >> thank you. my name is robert kwan and i'm with the department of public works. this report is for properties inspected and notified and repairs made and invoiced by the city under the sidewalk inspection and repair program from april 2012 through april 2013. during this period, the department inspected and repaired sidewalks and curbs along city blocks in portions of the north beach, excelsior, noe valley, cal hollow, twin peaks and clone a height, inner and outer sunset, potrero hill, ~ western addition, lower pacific heights and the marina

district, issuing 3,0 94 notices to repair, and 2300 [speaker not understood] notification to various city agencies and utility companies. repairs were done at a cost of $1,319,000 for notices to repairs, $1,536,000 for [speaker not understood] for a total of $2,85 5,1 77.02. ~ 1369 invoices were sent out to property owners, of which 1231 property owners paid, allowing the city to recover $1,156,524.65. the balance of the property

owners elected to have the cost of the sidewalk repairs placed on their property tax or otherwise have not paid the city in a timely manner. in this report we are submitting 138 properties with outstanding invoices totaling $162,4 86.35 to be placed as an assessment on the property tax rolls ~. >> thank you very much. so, at this time let me ask if there are any members of the public that wish to speak on this matter. if you could please line up on the right-hand side of the board chamber. we're going to give everyone two minutes to speak. and after you've had a chance to articulate your dispute with this report, you'll have an opportunity to speak with dpw staff to see if there is any additional further resolution. so, folks could please line up. yes, why don't you be the first

speaker. if everyone can line up on the right-hand side so that we don't block that center aisle, that would be very helpful. let's hear from our first speaker. hi, my name is tanya clemmons and i live at 1456 second avenue and i became the homeowner of that address october 25th, 2013. and on may 22nd i received a bill to pay the outstanding balance for the sidewalk repair outside of the house. unfortunately that was kind of a surprise to us because it was not in the disclosure paperwork, nor was there any mention from our real estate agent that we owed any sort of money. so, we did a little bit of work and it looks like the notice to repair was sent out on august the 16th. so, two months prior to us closing on the house. and the bill was rightfully sent to the pacifica loan pool

who we bought the house from and they refuse to pay for it apparently which is why we're being asked to pay this bill or it will be assessed on our taxes. so, today i'm asking for the department of public works to forget this amount of $416. >> thank you very much. >> let's hear from the next speaker. and again, if everyone could list your name and your address as you speak into the record. then just stick around so you can have a chance to speak with our dpw staff after these oral presentations. next speaker. yes, my name is [speaker not understood]. i'm the owner's daughter and property manager for the address of 1 001 lincoln way. i've dealt with, along with ms. [speaker not understood], with a william wood street inspector and representative due to the sidewalk not being done properly, and also splatter of cement on the base of our

building. it is a corner building and surrounds quite a bit of linear footage. my last e-mail correspondence with him in which he asked for the color of the paint, i responded to him by saying, thank you for your attention to the matter. unfortunately it is not as simple as providing the paint color, to just state a few questions that come to mind now, we do need to be informed as to who will be performing the work, what specifically will be painted, when and in what weather condition. my goal is to resolve this matter instead of causing additional follow-up due -- do an additional follow-up to an unfavorable result. since june 20th, 2012, i received no response, so, therefore because my husband and i were dealing with adopting an infant child, nothing was done. i have pictures of the existing problem.

i have an estimate by a licensed painter. it involves $675. i'd like that along with $75 for my charge involved with this because this should have been done properly in the first place and not involve all this time. and also i don't appreciate a nonresponse, even though mr. wood had requested for us to corby e-mail. so, -- correspond by e-mail. so 675 and 75 my charge, i'm prepared with one cashier check to pay the balance. >> thank you very much. next speaker. good afternoon, everybody. my name is nadine griner. i live on the corner of 167 roosevelt way. it's a triangular plot of land. it's 15th street and roosevelt way so there's a lot of pavement. so, i was delighted at the beginning of the year when the city took upon itself to offer its own services to our residents to maintain the

sidewalk because it is quite a chore. so, the work was done mostly timely. unfortunately there was quite a bit of damage done to the fences and then to my garage door. so, i've got pictures of that. [speaker not understood] at the department was with very prompt and said to hold off paying the bill until we had decided what to do. so, i don't mind doing the repairs myself or if the city wants to do the repairs handling the damage, but something should happen. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon. i am eugene chan. i'm here for 20 50 van ness avenue. i need to say i was here a year or two, 18 months ago about on the same sidewalk issue. at that time i met with members

of dpw and it was determined that the original invoice was submitted to the wrong person and sent to the wrong address. i thought this matter has been resolved after three meetings, but yet here i am again. so, i would like to get a final resolution on this bill. and i have -- it's clearly marked on the original invoice that it was not sent to me and it was not sent to my address. thank you. >> thanks. next speaker. [speaker not understood]. my name is cai pong [speaker not understood]. >> excuse me, please speak directly into the microphone. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is cai pong [speaker not understood]. my house is located 138 14 [speaker not understood] street, and a couple years ago in san francisco department of

public works notified me [speaker not understood] repairs in front of my property, allow the city to repair the sidewalk. cost 750. for me, i signed an agreement. we have the department of public works perform the sidewalk repair. work cost 750. however, during the sidewalk repairing construction, the contractor worker aside from [speaker not understood] spoke to me. he he stated the repair [speaker not understood] at no charge to me. i would apply for the contractor that i didn't want any additional charge incurred to my sidewalk repair.

[speaker not understood]. i told him that he should not charge me any additional cost. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood] i received february [speaker not understood] was $1,0 64 which has more than the original agreement of 750. as such i'm objection to the additional charge for the sidewalk repairing work done at my property and request that the charge [inaudible]. >> thank you very much, sir. thank you very much. next speaker. good afternoon. my name is ben hall and i live

at 1 120 diamond street. i am here to ask for a reversal of $98 0 charged of our total bill of 38 64 for concrete and tree pruning at our home. the basis for our request is that the notice that we received stated that there was a possible tree root problem. we hired an independent arborist to look at the problem. they investigated it, determined that the tree was not well and should be removed. we obtained a permit, had that work performed. they reduced the stump well below the grade that was identified in our notice. and yet when we received our bill, it included $98 0 for that work. i would like to add that until that point ~ we were very pleased with our interaction with the city. we thought the city was very responsive and overall that the program worked very well. so, i did want to make that note for the record as well. >> thank you very much. let's hear from the next speaker.

hello, my name is jean pulse. i'm speaking on behalf of my mom for 7 36 kansas street. one of the main complaints we have, first of all, the craftsman ship of the work was horrible. there's a lot of splatter on the wall when they were doing the saw cutting as well as a parked car that was next to the driveway. when they had done the curb cut there, first of all, there's discrepancies in the amount of linear footage that was done. they didn't do it correct. you're supposed to go out into the street roughly 12 to 18 inches and that was not done. and there is a discrepancy there is some work that was done on my neighbor's property that we were charged for as well. so, i took a calculation from what was done, what was marked originally and what we were billed for and what we should be billed for. and i had tried to get hold of someone down there, the sidewalk department, as soon as we got this notice, to have someone come out just to clarify exactly what needs to be done. and i didn't get a call for a long time. so, i had to go down there

about maybe actually three weeks later. there was a gentleman down there who was very nice and he did end upcoming out. after all the work had been done. i would like to talk to someone and hopefully we can get this bill dropped a little bit. we have no problem paying, but i just figure you guys should be a little bit fair, too. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon. my name is anna anaya. and i'm the owner of 114 1 [speaker not understood]. i've been here a year and a half ago two years trying to deal with the sidewalk work that they did. and at that time i had spoken with mr. hong a couple times over the phone. and the damage that was done on the sidewalk, we did have some water department working on that street and also pg&e department put in a new meter

on the sidewalk. so, damage was done by pg&e and also water department. i never got a result back and with mr. wong they were going to be working with pg&e to find out if they were going to be paying for that bill and he never got installed. so i'm back here the third time. >> next speaker. hello, my name is andy gregory and i'm a co-owner of 234 [speaker not understood] and we had the sidewalk repair done a month or so ago whenever that was. and when we got the bill, the work they had done was almost entirely in front of our neighbor's house, not our house. and, so, we received a bill. and we just want to make sure we can reconcile this with our neighbors and get the bill straightened out so we all pay what we're supposed to pay and i was told to come here today to reconcile this. >> thank you. next speaker.

hello, my name is dan chan and i'm at 339 mississippi and when i received the bill for my sidewalk repair, i contacted the inspector who also told me to withhold the payment until things were cleared up when i questioned the work that was done. and when i received this notice, i contacted my inspector again and he responded back with an e-mail saying that the bill was correct without any details. when i asked the details, he has not been responsive. so, just wanted to take care of this and take care of the payment. >> next speaker. hi, i'm the owner at 13/32 jefferson street and this notice was taped to the post next to my garage and i don't really know what's going on. and i didn't receive any bills,

so, i need to find out what i owe and what's going on. >> thank you. are there any other members of the public that wish to speak in this hearing? at this time we're going to leave the hearing open. i'm going to ask our dpw staffer if you could please go outside and if the individuals who came to speak at this hearing wish to speak to the department of public works, you'll have an opportunity. and then i will ask if you can come back and report, let our clerk know when you resolved these matters. we'll probably interrupt the hearing to give you a couple moments to wrap up this item so we can close it out. so, i'll ask you to let our clerk know when you've been able to do that. thank you. with that, madam clerk, why don't we go to our second 3:00 p.m. special order item, the so-called bulenson hearing. >> item 35 is a special hearing

to consider the budget eliminating and/or reducing medical services provided by the department of public health. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, and ladies and gentlemen, as you know, every year if there are any potential elimination or reduction of medical services, we need to hold a beilenson hearing [speaker not understood]. we are still required to hold a hearing for the 2013-2014, 2014-2015 years. what i would like to do is acknowledge department of public health director who is here, and give an opportunity to make some opening comments and we will open it up to public comment. >> good afternoon, supervisors. [speaker not understood] issues in our bielenson hearing today, [speaker not understood]