beyond the building envelope as it existed on january 1, 2013, and if no tenants were evicted under certain provisions of the rent ordinance; and making environmental findings, and findings of consistency with the general plan, and the eight priority policies of planning code, section 101.1. ~ or reconstruction. >> supervisor avalos. >> thank you, president chiu. i would like to actually postpone these items till after roll call. [speaker not understood] was ready, but there is one question that remains. so, we can hear them after roll call. >> okay. without objection that shall be the case. why don't we handle item 36. >> item 36 is an ordinance amending the planning code, by adding section 102.37 and amending section 204.1, to allow cottage food operation as an accessory use for dwelling units and increase the allowable area for accessory uses in dwelling units; and making environmental findings, and findings of consistency with the general plan, and the eight priority policies of planning code, section 101.1. ~ and increase the allowable area for accessible units within dwelling units. >> colleagues, with can we take this item same house same call? without objection this ordinance is passed on the first read. [gavel] >> why don't we go to roll call. >> supervisor campos, you are first to introduce new items. >> thank you very much, madam clerk. i'm simply introducing one item today. it's a hearing request on the report, the final report from the wage theft task force which was created in june 2012 and has been looking at different ways in which the city can

prevent wage theft and make sure that we are using all the necessary tools to make sure that wage theft is a thing of the past in san francisco. so, i'm calling a hearing on the wage theft task force, final report, so that we can hear the various recommendations. and we also want to hear from various city departments that are mentioned in the report just to hear directly from them on how they intend to implement the recommendations. so, the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor campos. mr. president. >> thank you, colleagues. i have three items for today. first of all, an in memoriam for rhonda bizan. rhonda was a san francisco resident who passed away tragically and very suddenly a week ago today. she worked at the punch cup, was a regular attendee of the sabot agnes catholic church and was the life partner of guardian editor stephen t. jones. rhonda died at the all too young age of 45. ~

she touched many people from many walks of life during her many years in san francisco. she is described by all as a luminous joyful spirit and loving friend. she radiated life brilliantly and her sudden passing has left many of in her community including steve jones as well as my aid catherine and many others in this city deeply mourning her untimely loss. a memorial gathering will be held at 1:00 p.m. on december 15th at the bently reserve preceded by service and reception at saint agnes beginning with the regular 10:30 a.m. mass ~ and the funeral will be on december 21st in los angeles. today i am joining the mayor, am proud to join the mayor in introducing the earthquake safety and emergency response bond 2014, otherwise known as esr2 which is a 400 million dollars general obligation bond for the june 2014 ballot to fund critical repairs and

improvements to our fire station, our police stations, our emergency fire fighting water system, and other core assets that our first responders rely on to safeguard san francisco when a disaster strikes. in 2010 i was happy to champion the last earthquake safety and emergency response bond which passed our city by 79%. as we all know, we live in earthquake country and experts believe there is a 63% chance of a major earthquake in the san francisco bay area over the next 25 years. we must be prepared. esr 2014 works to ensure our public safety service functions are effective in responding to a major earthquake or another disaster. the funding will make important earthquake safety upgrades to neighborhood fire stations and police stations across our city. in short, more of our aging fire fighting was term system. the bond will also relocate the police department's traffic company and forensic service facilities and the medical

examiner from the hall of justice which we all know is a 1950s old building that isn't expected to remain functional after a major earthquake. our public safety services are critical in responding quickly to an emergency and will have a direct impact on how well we recover after the next big earthquake or disaster. this bond will help to reduce the number of injuries and deaths and speed up our city's economic recovery. as a member of the capital planning committee representing this board, we have analyzed this in the context of our city's 10 year capital plan and well planned this measure with solutions early analyze today ensure that funded projects that are critical to the public safety of residents, businesses and first responders are dealt with and that they'll be delivered with strong oversite and transparency. and there is one more piece of good news about easter 2. it is expected to create more than 3500 jobs for san franciscan and it complies with our capital plans policy by issuing new bonds as old ones retire and meaning there will be no increase in property tax

rates. colleagues, i do hope that you will join us in supporting this essential earthquake safety emergency response bond for the june ballot at its core, this bond measure is about protecting san francisco's future. ~. i do have one other item, which is a resolution on the topic of fracking. colleagues, you've probably known there has been a national and state debate about hydraulic fracturing, which is known as fracking. fracking is used to tract gas and oil resources by drilling wells deep into the earth and injecting water and chemicals with high pressure. this is known to produce toxic wastewater, pollutev ants and is therefore a likely threat to environmental health. fracking is happening in calf but it's not adequately regulated. the precise locations and the number of wells in our state are not recorded. the exact mix of chemicals used are not required to be disclosed among numerous regulatory deficiencies.

because there has not been adequate regulatory action at the state level, numerous localities have been asked to formally weigh in and ask the state to impose a moratorium or outright ban on fracking. santa cruise county, ventura county, city of loss, and [speaker not understood]. while there is no fracking that happens in our city, we regularly weigh in on policies that impact climate change and our city has been on the forefront of environmental leider ship. across the bay in oakland today the california state division of oil gas and geo thermal resources is holding a public meeting on environmental impact of the effects of fracking. and a broad coalition of environmental organizations will be calling on our state to place a moratorium on fracking. in conjunction with the events in oakland, i am introducing the resolution today on behalf of our city calling for a moratorium until the completion of further studies of the environment -- environmental impact of fracking. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor cohen.

>> thank you very much. thank you. i don't have anything formally to submit, but i wanted to just acknowledge since i'm on the role before supervisor kim, but i want to acknowledge a piece of legislation that we are very excited to be working on together. this is a, what i would consider a landmark piece of legislation. it's called fair chance ordinance. it's also known as the band of blocks ordinance. and it's critical because when you consider that one in four residents in our state has an arrest [speaker not understood] history, that nets out thousands of individuals living in san francisco. and here we are in a time and era post ab 109, we've did got a disproportionate number of folks that are leaving the -- leaving incarceration and reentering into our city. so, today i am co-sponsoring with supervisor kim an opportunity to begin to relax

the barriers to fair housing and access to fair jobs and i will leave the rest to supervisor kim. thank you. >> supervisor farrell? supervisor kim? >> supervisor kim? >> i am also going to speak about the same legislation which supervisor cohen and i are co-sponsoring today. really, really excited to finally introduce this legislation. it has been on the docket since january of this year. so, our offices have been working on this for the last 12 months. many of you are already familiar with band the box because the city and county has instituted similar legislation for employment opportunities within the city ask county back in 2007. this is an opportunity to

expand leg asian that's worked for our city to private employers, contractors who have a contract with the city and county of san francisco, and affordable housing developer providers that have a contract with the city and county of san francisco. as supervisor cohen has importantly mentioned, one out of three to one out of four individuals in this country have an arrest or conviction record. in many parts of the country and here in san francisco, decision makers in the business and housing world can ask about your conviction history at the very first application. this is what we normally call the box. today, any business or housing provider can say, if you have a conviction record, you need not apply. the bureau of justice statistics and the office of the u.s. attorney, one in three adults in the u.s. has had contact with the criminal justice system, whether it is a dui when you are in college or an arrest that didn't lead to a

conviction. but these frequently show up on your criminal back ground check. we know that having a job and home are the two most important factors predicting whether one will commit a crime in the future or not. at the same time, employers and housing providers are concerned about opening the door to [speaker not understood] who might commit a future crime that might hurt a customer, a coworker, another tenant, and even if the decision maker believes in second chances, there may be an unconscious bias towards someone with a conviction in their past. i have met and heard stories of many returning citizens along with supervisor cohen as well, one, mary who survived a severe domestic violence situation. finally left her abuser and made the mistake of stealing in order to survive. even after she had served her time, went back to school and got a job, mary couldn't find stable housing which impacted her ability to regain custody of her children. peter, another individual, got into a fight with a neighbor when he was 18 years old and

for years after could not get his foot in the door to explain his past and how he had changed his life after paying his debt to society. after finally expunging his criminal conviction record when he was in his 20s, he he still ran into closed doors because many commercial background checks were still showing his expunged conviction. all of these men and women want to own their past and make no excuses for the mistakes that they may have made, but they do all want the opportunity, a fair chance to be able to apply for a job and housing and be able to get their foot in the door, an opportunity to work, a place to call home is something that we should all have a fair chance to pursue. and we all want that whether you are an employer or a job seeker, a landlord, or a tenant. ~ looking for that chance. with this ordinance, we are both proud to introduce a law that is designed in collaboration of many stakeholders, from members of the business community through san francisco chamber of commerce, the civil rights

advocate such as all of us [speaker not understood] and lawyers committee for civil rights. we are also able to work with members of the small business commission, the apartment owners association and nonprofit affordable housing providers. even more miraculously, everyone is on board and in support. and even a couple of months ag i'm not sure i could have predicted such consensus around legislation that i expected to be much more controversial, but i really believe we were able to work together because we all believed in the final objective, which is that if you want an opportunity to work, you should be able to get your foot in the door and at least be able to explain yourself and have an opportunity to interview. and talk about how you have either rehabilitated or how your skill set is applicable to the job that you are applying for. ultimately, the question was mainly around the process. employers wanted something that wasn't overly burdensome, but allowed them to review candidates that may have had a conviction history, and those with the conviction history

wanted an opportunity to be able to explain their history and also not be turned away immediately at first blush just by checking that box. this law will make a significant change in how we view, share, and use conviction information for work-related and housing related decisions and. of you read the cover story in the chronicle today, [speaker not understood]. one of our tenants in the tenderloin who talked about how he was recently fired from his janitorial job when his employer discovered that he had a conviction back from 1974. this legislation would prevent that from being the reason for firing you from your job because that was 7 -- that was before the 7-year timeline at which you can look at your conviction history. it doesn't mean that employers, affordable housing pro he vieders and contractors cannot review anyone's background check. in fact, you will always have that opportunity after you've either made a conditional offer for employment or after a first

live interview. and this came after many discussions with small business owners and with employers. san francisco, one of the very first cities in the country to initially quote-unquote ban the box in its own city-wide hiring, again set the barbie expanding and strengthening its banned the box form to cover private businesses, contractors and affordable housing. i want to thank in particular supervisor malia cohen. both of us represent the highest number of individuals with a conviction record in our two districts in 6 and 10. so, this is something that really impacts many of our residents. i am also often asked what we are doing to work on combating homelessness and creating more employment opportunities for many of our most vulnerable residents. this legislation is one of those pieces. i also want to thank our co-sponsors today. president chiu, supervisor avalos, supervisor campos, and supervisor mar for your early support of this legislation.

so many organizations worked on this legislation over the past 12 months. whether it was our department such as olsc, dhr, to many of our organizations that i've mentioned and of course some small business securities and exchange commission and san francisco chamber of commerce, honestly that would not have been possible if not for the work of two staff members, [speaker not understood] and ivy lee. the level of diligence and detail to which they worked on this legislation was outstanding and i think that's why we're going to be presenting legislation that will hopefully smoothly sail through the legislative process without a lot of controversy. but beginning a very important dialogue. so, again, i want to thank supervisor cohen, ahn drape a and ivy. i don't think we would have been able to get this far without all of these individuals. ~ >> i want to take a moment and acknowledge supervisor cohen who i know wanted initial comment on what was just discussed. >> yes, one very brief comment. i want to go on record and make

sure we're very clear we're not asking employers or housing providers, we're not asking for favors or a preference, per se, but we are asking them to not automatically disqualify people solely based on a conviction history, conviction history, if you think about it, think about it in relationship to your credit history. oftentimes on our own individual credit histories there are mevishes or things that are mistakenly put on this. ~ blemishes there are people who are wrongfully convicted and exonerated. denying them to move forward with their life. i want to make sure that we give voice to this very important piece of legislation and i would welcome every member to support this. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor kim. and supervisor cohen. supervisor mar.

for your introduction, supervisor mar. >> i wanted to thank supervisor kim and cohen for the banned the box legislation, too, and thank all of us and many of the prisoner legal services and others for their hard work on this as well. first, i wanted to say that i'm introducing a request for the budget analyst to do yet another study and analysis, this one on the very controversial issue of corporate techy shuttle and their impact on traffic and infrastructure and pedestrian safety and housing costs in the city. i think at the transportation authority, many of us look closely at the transportation map that exists in shuttles, especially the ones that some have said we've become the bedroom city for silicon valley, not only the google

shuttle, but also many other ones that are growing especially in the eastern neighborhoods of the city, but there are others that are touching along park presidio to the richmond district as well. colleague, the sfmta or muni will soon be implementing an 18-month pilot of a policy that will limit corporate shuttles to 100 of the 250 stops that they currently use and charge a fee for maintaining the stops. on the other hand -- or on the one hand, these corporate shuttles provide roughly 35,000 rides per day for companies including not just google, but facebook, yahoo!, apple, jen entech, intuit and ebay. but they also cause major and minor delays for muni and intense frustrations to passengers and she's shuttles have not followed the rules for using the public [speaker not understood] as well. this was highlighted yesterday in much of the mainstream and the alternative press as well.

i believe the mta's pilot project a good first step in regulating these buses that provide a valuable service to many of our residents and get cars off our road. however, i would also like to note how our city is financially impacted by these shuttles in terms of infrastructure cost, pedestrian safety and housing costs now are heavily impacted along the routes that these buses run. this is not just about transportation, but about the city's fabric and about who gets to live in san francisco. and to this edv i'll be directing our budget and legislative office to study this matter. i will convene a hearing after the report is published to look at other solutionses. also, this friday december 13th, friday the 13th, our district 1, the richmond district, will host a clement street holiday shopping from 4 to 9:00 p.m. please come and support our local community based businesses. also, many of us may have been mourning the december 5th passing of nelson mandela and i

wanted to ask if the board can end our meeting in commendation in memoriam of nelson mandela madiba. i wanted to say -- and i'm just going to improvise this one because i didn't really write anything up. i was expecting as our city [speaker not understood] the mayor's liaison to the board was reminding me there is an 8:00 a.m. in the rotunda celebration of nelson mandela's wife tomorrow, and i'm hoping that folks can join us. but for my comments on nelson mandela, when i had heard he had passed away on december 5th at the age of 95, a lot of strong emotions came through me. i don't know if others were active in the antiapartheid movement like i was, but mandela lived a full life at 95 years. he was imprisoned or 27 of those 95 years, over a quarter of his life. i think about the antiapartheid

movement and others that passed away and contributed so much. but for him, like labor and transafrica leader bill fletcher wrote in some of the comments that he reflected, mandela was like a elder family member or grandfather to many people, i think, and i felt this loss of a family member. i joined the antiapartheid movement in '84. i think it had the most profound effect on my life because it was so up lifting and it was so sharp in how governments and systems oppress people, not just on racial lines, but economic and other lines as well. i wanted to also say that in my work in the entire apartheid movement, i got to meet anc leaders and leaders that spear the nation, the armed wing of the amc, chris honey was one of my heroes, a leader that was assassinated about 20 years ago

and in many cases i was really fortunate to be in key places with our san francisco bay area antiapartheid movement. as a student activist, i was able to meet so many other students that were working on central america solidarity and other issues, and we looked up what happened in the u.s. with what was going on in south africa. the amazing transformation of my life by the struggle of mandela and others as well. also artists were the key place where i learned so much about south africa. and nelson mandela died in johannesburg, but i remember just playing the hell out of [speaker not understood] johannesburg and see him on saturday night live in 1975 when i was 13 years old, my daughter's age, and just being amazed by what artists can do to support justice and to support movements. i also wanted to say i ended up joining asian american artists against apartheid or a lot of the students against apartheid. it was a great experience

working with so many other folks as well. and within the uc system where we organized major protests with leaders like pedro [speaker not understood] from u.c. berkeley, it was an amazing experience, artists [speaker not understood] came out of the movement as well and [speaker not understood] spearhead as well. but i wanted to say that bill fletcher, jr., and others have written, they could say it much more eloquently than i can, in celebrating mandela's life bill flesh assays that celebrating mandela's life is celebrating the very fact that this man lived and made the immense contributions that he made, celebrated his commitment and integrity, celebrating the extent of his courage, a courage that few of us can ever imagine. this is bill fletcher talking. i find myself celebrating his comrades, some alive, many dead, who against all odds took up a multi-decades struggle for freedom and social transformation.

i celebrated the fact that mandela believed both passionately in organization and did not wish to be worshiped as the supreme leader. he saw in organization that the organization of the people, the key to liberation. nelson mandela will be mourned and celebrated, but something else will happen. there will still probably very soon be efforts to reinterpret his life. i do not mean leaving things out as happened in the otherwise film just released about his life. rather, as we have experienced here in the u.s. with great leaders like martin luther king and malcolm x, there will be efforts to convert mandela into a very safe character in order to advance the ends of the global elite. the battle over mandela's legacy will not await his burial nor will it await a period of mourning. it happens immediately. and for that reason, how we interpret his life and work will determine which nelson

mandela we are actually recognizing and praising. mandela will be missed, but we cannot end our thought there. we must express our appreciation to the creator of all things that this planet was blessed with nelson mandela and those who stood with him in the global elite declared the situation [speaker not understood]. i never thought nelson mandela would be released from jail, and then he appeared in oakland at the oakland coliseum in 1990. that was probably one of the best days of my life. but i just wanted to end with a song, so many songs uplift me from peter gabriel to jerry damers and the special to sun city [speaker not understood] including [speaker not understood], jeffery osborne and others, but i'll just say the ub 40 song is my favorite song of the whole movement. and it goes, we will fight for the right to be free, we will build our own society. we will sing, we will sing, we will sing our own songses.

when the ancient drum ribbonses ring, the voice of our forefathers sing. forward africa run, our day of freedom has come. for me and for you, [speaker not understood]. thank you, nelson mandela. >> thank you, supervisor mar. colleagues, can we -- (applause) >> thank you. colleagues, can we do that in memoriam on behalf of the whole board? without objection, that should be the case. [gavel] >> madam clerk? >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor wiener? >> thank you, madam clerk. today i'm introducing a hearing request about the status of the roll out of the at&t uverse boxes. a year ago this board rejected the c-e-q-a appeal relating to those boxes and the roll out began almost a year ago ~. i'm sure, colleagues, that you

all heard from constituents as the process moves forward. i know we work closely with neighbors, some with at&t, planning department, department of public works to try to make sure the process is a good and inclusive one. under the memorandum of understanding that i and i think a number of us entered into with at&t last year, i think, one of the requirements was for at&t after a year and again after two years to participate at a hearing at the board of supervisors to provide us with updates, but also to hear from the department about how things are going and from neighborhood groups as well. so, i am introducing a hearing request to trigger that hearing. i am hoping that we'll conduct it sometime in january. and, colleagues, i look forward to all of us participating so that we can make sure that the process is as good as possible. and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor yee. >> thank you, madam clerk.

i would like to add my name to ban the box legislation, too, and as a late supporter. colleagues, [speaker not understood] a amendment from the members of the long term design group, group of stakeholders and advocate nominated through the department of aging. represented the work they recently have completed on the long term care strategic plan. i was really impressed with the thoroughness and insight of the report and i would like to call for a hearing to give they have an opportunity for the members of the design group and the department of aging and adult services to present their finding. i believe this is a great example of city staff and community stakeholders working together to provide a detailed analysis, [speaker not understood] a clear path for the next steps. i look forward to the hearing next year.

>> thank you, supervisor -- >> the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor yee. supervisor avalos. >> , madam clerk. i have one item for introduction. it's a hearing about the backlog of cases in the medical examiner's office. there was a recent story in the chronicle that described how the medical examiner's office has a significant backlog in pending death certificates. as of last month there were 609 cases that had been pending for more than three months, 389 cases that had been pending for more than sick months and 80 cases that had been penting for more than a year. ~ six the medical examiner's office is budgeted to have four assistant medical examiners, but it is currently only one permanent -- has only permanently -- currently only one permanent and one temporary assistant examiner. the short staffing slow turn around times led the association of medical examiners to downgrade the

office's accreditation this year from full to provisional. these extreme delays can prevent family members from reaching closure in the loss of their loved ones and can delay their ability to resolve issues with insurance and retirement funds. i have actually heard from a couple of constituents who have been waiting in this backlog for news of the official death certificates of loved ones and i can't imagine how much anguish this could cause a family. therefore, i am calling for a hearing to review the backlog in the medical examiner's office, their staffing levels, and what steps can be taken to expedite the resolution of these pending cases. that's my item for submission. >> thank you, supervisor avalos. supervisor breed. >> thank you. i have a few in memoriams that i want to submit today. one is very personal to me. [speaker not understood] who sadly was