a tree looks bad and then come to you, and have you say yes, let's remove it. it seems to me that they should be made to prune these trees. which we feel as we have demonstrated can be done. so we really are at your mercy. we want to keep what we have and it is very demoralizing to our community to see these disappearing left, right and center. and i believe that there are 60 years, and it is heart breaking. and if they are treating the trees like this before the project has even started, how do you think that they are going to treat, us? >> i am appalled to see the way that they have dealt with the environment, cut the water over and over watering the lawns and trees that are under 25 feet they don't even take care of. they send the gardeners out and they cut the topps off and those poor men have no

experience in pruning whatsoever. i throw myself on your mercy, what can we do to make these people accountable, when all that they really care about is money? and that is the bottom line. not maintenance, not preservation and not caring for the environment. thank you. >> thank you. >> we can hear from the permit holder, any rebuttal? >> okay. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> and yes, i won the contract to this and i am doing the work, and so i do profit from the work, i do the work. i do not... if the tree is pruned and you keep pruning a tree you keep coming back every year and once you remove it you are not coming back so that is

not particularly true. and there has been pruning done on some trees out at park merced and we have to currently trying to do more and this process is stopped us from happening. and so, that is all that i got. >> thank you. >> i have a question, sorry. >> so, besides the tree removal, has the bodies that have hired you asked you to take a look at the over all health of the rest of the trees? well, they currently have a contracted with another ar bonist to do a report and he is reviewing all of the trees on the site. and because you know, off doing the work and so we have to kind of, i have the opinions on everything that is out there and... >> are you the higher arborist to do the maintenance of the current trees? meaning like trimming and bringing them to the general health? >> yes, in terms of a and the

main nens contract, i am asking to do and respond to the specific tasks on the specific trees and i provide a quote and i do the work that is the nature of that. >> what is the percentage of the tree removal verses maintenance? >> tree pruning? >> it is disproportionate and i am asked to prune about 200 trees. >> so you have been asked to prune, two? >> correct. >> around the buildings. but, that is all not happening right now. >> okay, thank you. >> miss short. >> miss short, any rebuttal? nothing? >> okay. >> question for miss short? >> yeah. >> with respect to the tree, at 811, which it was suggested that to do this end wait and see the wind sale reduction and i think that was the one that you said was healthy but we do

agree that that is an potential alternative for maintaining that tree? >> again, i think that any reduction would happen reduce the likelihood of the limb failure and wind fail reduction, the same concept. i think that the structure of that tree is because it has in the past is problematic and i think that cable would also be essential if that tree was to be retained. and there actually is a cable, in the tree that installed at some point previously and although i don't know if it was installed properly and i have not inspected the cable itself. and but the canopy vigor of the health of that tree is the best of the three. >> you did reference earlier that by cabling sort of indicates that there is some sort of structural, failure, does that create liability of some kind. >> it does not indicate

structural failure, but it indicates the higher likelihood. but you would not otherwise perform which is basic. and so, there is then, the potential for higher liability if something was to happen, you have recognized that there was possible concern. >> thank you. >> next? >> i did have a question. >> the arguments that been made that the burden is on the requestor of the permit, you know the permit applicant, to, establish the basis for the removal and that the burden was not met, here. and it... when you approach your review, of these permits, are you going through any type of like a checklist or sort of is one factor more positive than another in making the determination that is such a

permit application should be approved for removal? >> our arborist will do their own assessment and we looking at the structure of the industry. and as you know i have presented before you in many other cases if the tree is healthy and structurally sound even if there are other factors that can be mitigated through the pruning or the sidewalk repair we do not approve the removal, in these cases we felt that the conditions were poor enough that it met that threshold to grant removal and i think that what he is referring to are criteria specific to significant treeds

and that the director of public works should consider when making a determination. and that there are a number of factors that he mentioned and i would just note that it was the director of public works and not the hearing officer who ultimately issued these decisions. >> okay. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioners the matter is submitted. >> all right. >> well, i will start, i guess. >> okay. commissioners as we know, i love trees, and i am a tree kind of guy. and as we know, whether they were ill watered or maintained on a poor basis, there is a situation that they are at the point of no return. and a tree of that size having a failure could be a very

problematic situation, whether it is a car or whether it is an individual and there are a lot of pedestrians in that particular area. i do sympathize with what the appellants and the fact that they have had a lot of missing trees. and i think that having it in front of this board the people that are in the know are now in the know and so we probably will not see any more trees hopefully disappearing. but i will be i will up hold the permit. >> okay. i would concur with your assessment. and that is, i have not heard any basis to contradict the apartment's assessment of the permit. >> anybody else? >> no. >> i am going to move to deny the appeal, and up hold the

permits. do i have to provide? that the issuance of the permits were code compliant. >> thank you. >> we have a motion from the president to up hold all three permits. on the basis that they are code compliant. that is right. >> yeah. >> on that motion, commissioner fung? >> aye. >> commissioner hurtado? >> aye. >> lazarus. >> aye. >> honda. >> aye. >> thank you. the vote is 5-0, all three permits are upheld on that basis. >> we are going to take a ten to 15 minute break.

>> welcome back, we are calling number 6. vladimir strazhnikov, appellant(s) vs. municipal transportation agency,appealing the revocation on september 11, 2013, of taxi medallion no. 651. >> thank you, i am an attorney acting for him and this is an important hearing because it is about the revocation of his taxi medallion which he works many years to require he came here as a refugee from russia and with an accounting degree but could not get work. and so he started driving his taxi cab, and worked hard over a period of 14 years.

and was able to purchase one for 250,000. he has paid a good deal of that, about half. and some remaining, which is bank-financed and it he loses his medallion, he will have lost an equity value of about $50,000. that is a great deal of money to him. and more importantly, he would lose his business. and the business with which he supports his family, many of whom are seated with me tonight. and his father, his grandmother who is 92 years old, and his wife, and his two children, young children and they require his work as a taxi cab business person, to support the family

he was served with transactions with the parment atransit cars and he admitteds to two, and the dollar value of the transactions amounts to about $27 and you have to compare that against the kind of punishment that the revocation of his license proposes to, or the revocation is to propose to wreak upon him and it is a huge disparity and what i am hoping that you will think about is a different way of punishing him. and no doubt that he should be punished for these infractions but, what the revocation of his med dallon means that he will have lost his ability to conduct a business, and to earn a livelihood in the way that he has, over the time that he has had his med dallon and that means a difference if he were to drive a taxi verses own a business, of about $20,000 a year. and it is a loss of equity in

his med dallon as well. and the statute which is the one relied on to punish people in the situation. is the transportation code section 1118. and if you take a look at that code, you will see that there are three ways in which a taxi me dallon holder can be punished and one is revocation and one is by suspension and one is by fine and in most situations, in the criminal law system and in the civil justice system, when a person violates some law or commits some infraction, and then we punish that person incrementally, in steps, and by disciplinary procedures and this is the first time that he has ever been charged with a discipline violation and he has never had

an accident during the taxi cab and he has a ste lar record with the clients and he is well loved with the clients that he serves which consists of a russian speaking community and he is makes special efforts on their behalf by driving them to the hospital visits and translates them and assist them up and down stairs and serve them in a way that other drivers cannot or do not. it is far too drastic and it is taking off his head and he should not be punished that unkindly and he should be given a chance to rise again and make a living as a taxi cab business person and he should be spanked

but not terminated. and the way to give him a spanking and to tell him that he has to change his behavior in the future over these infractions, something of which he is committed to do and as he himself will say, is to impose a fine. or suspend him for a period of 250i78 and rather than take away the entire business and i suggest that the commission, choose one of those remedies. fine him. and fine him $10,000 which will be a big big hit to him. a big enough hit for the kind of infractions of which he was accused. but don't take away his livelihood and his ability to support his family. i am going to keep the rest of my time available to him who wants to address you personally about this matter, thank you. >> i am number 651 and i work

as a cab driver for 18 years and i had a chance to purchase my medallion eight years ago and three years ago and these purchase i had the ability to be a more independent, and more and make more money and have a chance to, to with the right and so, if and the sfmta believe that i made, i had a three, person and the customer and so i speak in the customers that i help with and sfmta believed that i all of those times i transport fragile but my grandmother is taken care of and she is 91 and she is the special care and the trip to the car and it is for the people who do so.

and so, i apologize for those transactions. i was wrong and i... if my medallion is going to be taken away it is going to hurt my family a lot. thank you. >> we can hear from the department now. mr. murray? >> >> good commissioners, jarvis can the sfmta and we are here related not because of something that is a minor infraction, i think that the average person you would have to ask yourself, how would that person feel if they found out that a driver a taxi driver who

owned the vehicle was using their credit card when they were not in the vehicle and running it and charging money on that credit card. i think it is our duty as the sfmta, to up hold our drivers and especially our medallion holders who have complete ownership and control of that vehicle to a standard that says you can't do this to the riding public. you can't do this to our most vulnerable population which is the elderly and disabled. what we have here is the usage of the para transit card and now i explained it in my brief but to quickly so that you can understand again, the para transit program is a program that is being used here in san francisco to allow our elderly and disabled population to take rides in vans and taxis throughout the city so they can

do various errands would be do physician beingly demanding and difficult and it allows the drivers to take them at a subsidized cost to whatever they have to go in the city and county of san francisco. and as part of that program, they are issued this card, and it is a subsidized card and as long as they qualify, and they used those cards at each taxi and we have about 1800 taxis in the city at this point is required to be a part of this para transit program and which means that every patron has the assurance of knowing that i can get a ride, a personal ride, a private ride in the taxi to my destination. now what he was accused of and what was found in the hearing was he was taking those cards without the patron in the vehicle, he had several cards and he was running them. and now in our previous hearing, it is true, we showed

video. of two of those transactions taking place without the para transit patron in the vehicle. the patron has their photo on the card so our drivers are able to identify that you are the appropriate person using that card, our driver can look in the backseat and verify, yes this is the right person who should be on this card and once they do that, they run the card, after they take the person for the ride and obtain a receipt and as long as the person is physically able that person can sign the receipt. and what, the video showed him doing was taking the individual, and i got into a taxi and my ride was say, $20. and then, once i leave, he would take a second card, after i had already paid my fare, he would take the card of an elderly and disabled person and run that card again, getting and doubling up on that fare and now he has turned a $20 ride to a $40 ride for his own

personal gain and now i have with us, and he provided a declaration, of the services of where we get the documentations related to these rides because the cards show the identification and pick up location and drop off and the id of the customer and the id of the driver as well. mr. san der son is going to come up to you and explain what he saw in that system which is more than just two rides, but a pattern of conduct that happen before he obtained his medallion and continues until we issued a complaint against him. and so go ahead mr. san der son and he is going to use some of our time to discuss what he found. >> thank you, i'm john san der son, operation's director with the billy transportation which is the broker in san francisco. and we administer the programs including the taxi debit card

program. and sorry, basically the evidence that we found consists of a number of patterns that we sao in the transactional record that consists of the transactions that were performed in the taxi cab and mr. murray mentioned a bunch of the data points that are captured in that record. and we noticed a few things and we noticed that there were a number of riders and turned out to be 7 riders when we had done all of the math, who almost exclusively used him and at least three cases there were the riders only ever traveled with him during the period we looked at and they never rode with another cab driver at all. at the same time for the same period, those riders in their travel, never appeared to go home. they only traveled between

other places but they never went back to their home address and to us that was very unusual and then we also noticed in a number of cases, and i believe that 67 separate instances where multiple cards had their balances checked, using the electronic equipment in the taxi cab, by him at almost the exact same time so we can say based on that record which i would like to put up on the overhead here. the striping on this report, which i believe that you all have copies of indicates different days and times, and that these balance checks were conducted and that tell us that all of those cards were in the cab at the same time. and although, it is not credible to us that all of the patrons were in the cab at the same time. in addition, to that, i have

another thing here. these are transactions that originate or end at town taxi facility. and based on the toe at patterns the cards were his possession and none of the trips that were recorded during this time period actually transported those patrons. >> thank you. >> so just really quickly in the interest of time. we just want to point out that the inconsistentcy that include numerous balance checks and the trips not being taken at or near their home address and we do have video available if you care to see it at a different point. >> thank you. >> i have a question. >> please. >> i am a little confused. if i am eligible for the program, is the card issued to me? >> that is correct. >> so it should be on me at all times and then i give it to the

driver, the driver swipes it and would you say if i am capable i sign a receipt and i am supposed to get it back. >> sometimes when they are with the care giver as well. they are always together, the person should be in the vehicle. >> you would always be in the vehicle. >> i guess i am not clear on how he was able to do all of this swiping is it alleged then that these people allowed him to keep the card? >> we do not know why, or how he obtained the cards, but it is alleged that he had the cards without the presence of those people. so they can be insin you ated that they allowed him to keep it but we did not go that far into it. >> and one other thing, that there is a reference that i think to potentially as much as $21,000 of suspicious transactions. >> that is correct. >> i was not clear if that was over a two year period or a three year period? >> i think at one point it says since the program was instituted in 2009 and at

another point it happened from maybe just in 2013. >> he can answer that. >> our reporting period covered september 2009 through september of this year. and the reason for that was that the debit card program itself started in about september of 2009. and the para transit taxi program existed previously but we used the paper script and so we used the electronic record go to september of 2009. >> so the 21,000 dollars is from 2009 forward. >> that is correct. >> thank you. >> i have further questions if you are finished. to what extent are these cards subsidized by the public? >> depending on the person's income? >> no the rate of subsidy is fixed. currently the rate is for every $5 of cash that the person that

the card is issued to is paid to our office and we load the $30 of ride value on to the debit card account and so it is about one 6th of the cost that the patron is bearing. >> okay. >> and are there for the did he bit card holders, the rider are there any particular policies with respect to how they are supposed to keep their card? >> yes. our riders guide and another policy that are very, very clear that it is, a major violation to provide your card to another person, for them to use. >> okay. and did you do, as part of your investigation, interviews? >> we did. >> and can you summarize, there were a number of instances of explanations that were not credible at all. and we had people who told us i don't know how these

transactions got in there but i use my card all of the time and i use it to go to the doctor, they never started at home and never go to the doctor. and we also have one person who did tell us a very credible story. that she had lost her card for a period of some months. she was able to recall the date of the ride and the date sha she requested a reprint card and when we matched up those dates, the pattern of the suspicious behavior was squarely between them. >> it happened during the period that she contended that the card was out of her possession. >> and is the amount of money on these cards, electronically loaded? >> >> yes, it is linked back to an account but it is not a stored

value card. >> it is automatic reload? >> pretty much. yes, that is correct. >> if we issue a new card, the old balance rolls over automatically. >> that is not my question. >> i am an account holder and i am a debit card holder. >> okay. >> and i use of the para transit system and i gave you $5, and i got $25, or 3eds $30. >> i have $35 card it is not loaded on to the card. >> no, it has a 15 digit card number, which goes to the account where the money lives and it is debited against that account >> so if i want to have, that constant debit, does that lend tied to my bank or credit source so that i don't have to

come in with a $5 check. >> not athis time, we accept the payment in the lobby and by mail, cash or check we recently started accepting credit cards but we don't have an automatic payment. >> if i wanted to be efficient, i would say here is $100. >> correct. >> okay. >> you differentiate in your analysis in terms of those transactions which you deem to be suspicious because of destination and pick up point? >> how about related to where a taxi client would have paid in cash? and then, a card is swiped? is that included in any guess work there? in these total? s >> i am not sure that i understand your question, sorry. >> somewhere in the br