is a really terrific organization of primarily lgbt runners who get together to run and walk every week in our city. and he is someone who is very well thought of in front runners and in the community. he was 6 feet 4, so, we were a kindred spirit in that way. when his kidneys failed him in 2001, many expected him to withdraw from front runners, but he continued to participate. he was a regular participant and someone who was a real key part of the organization. he received the front runner of the year award at one of the annual banquets for the organization. he survived by his family in ohio and many, many friends here in san francisco. and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor yee. >> thank you, madam clerk. today, colleagues, i am sending

an inquiry to various city agencies asking them to participate in the working group to consult with each other on implementation issues with the noise laws in the city. in my district i have had many constituents contact my office with noise complaints. and after reporting those to the department of public health, my office found that many city agencies have overlapping authority over different aspects of the law and making it difficult to figure out who is supposed to enforce what. furthermore, technology improvements to how noise is understood and measured -- having evolved since the ordinance was last revised. the purpose of the working group will be to suggest potential solutions to improve how the manage noise issues within our city family. i expect that will come with this time limited working group to make recommendations for

revisions to existing noise ordinance and/or develop city-wide policies to guide interpretation and implementation of the existing law. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor yee. supervisor avalos. supervisor breed. supervisor campos. and president chiu. >> thank you. colleagues, i have a couple of items for you. first, following up on a request that i had made at the end of last year to our controller assessor and city attorney, i'm introducing today a general fund supplemental preparation co-sponsored by supervisor kim to assist nonprofit organizations that have been impacted by rising commercial rents in the mid-market tax exclusion zone. this is a supplemental for 2-1/2 million dollars which would be funded by the property tax increases that the city is expecting to receive in that zone for this current budget cycle.

the increase is based on the revenue growth given today's taxable values so it's likely to get larger as additional construction projects in the area are completed and newly assessed in the year ahead. this supplemental is one part of a larger collaborative effort spearheaded by supervisor kim to address the need to protect nonprofit organizations that have been providing vital social services to our residents from displacement. based on the budget analyst report on this issue, she has convened a working group with the mayor's office of housing and community development to assess and recommend policy solutions. the supplemental that we're introducing today will be directed to nohcd to fund the working group programmatic [speaker not understood] for grants for rent subsidies, displacement assistance and capital improvement [speaker not understood] at least until hopefully commercial rent stabilizes. my office will work closely with this group and stakeholders in the coming months. too many tenants, whether

nonprofit buildings or residential buildings have been impacted by our affordability crisis which is why i'm commit today moving forward concrete solution at our local level as well as for advocating for legislative changes at the state level to get the changestion that we need to protect our tenants. ~ changes i'm also introducing today a resolution of support to our city efforts to reduce the high price of pharmaceutical drugs. as you will remember in our most recent november election, our city voters overwhelmingly passed proposition d, which asked our city government to use all available opportunities to reduce the costs of prescription drugs and ask our state and federal representatives to sponsor legislation to reduce drug prices. the resolution that i'm proposing today is the first step in answering this mandate by the san francisco voters. our city is a major purchaser of prescription drugs. our department of public health spends over $23 million a year to purchase pharmaceutical drugs for our patient populations.

unfortunately drug pricing is often murky and secretive. many have trade secret protected and are subject to other regulatory prohibitions on disclosure. public entity purchaser such as our city essentially have to take the word of manufacturers that we're getting the lowest price even with discounted drugs covered by federal programs. there have been several attempts to increase price transparency in today's cost. the federal 340 b drug price program allows entities like the department of public health to purchase drugs for outpatient care at greatly reduced rates. a 2011 attempt to expand this to inpatient care was devoted by counseling. last year our city took an official support position of senate bill 746 authored by senator leno which would have required health plans and insurers to disclose more information on a variety of aspects of charges and rates including prescription drugs. unfortunately that bill was vetoed by our governor.

the resolution i'm introducing today is a first step at answering the mandate of proposition d. in february i look forward to holding a hearing at the board of supervisors to outline various issues and constrictions placed on the city regarding our purchase of medications. and i want to thank supervisor wiener for his good sponsorship as well as our department of public health staff and patient advocates for their input in crafting this resolution. colleague, give enthat today is the first legislative session of 2014, ~ as we typically do i circulated committee assignments for this year. as is typical when we are mid cycle between supervisorial assignments, [speaker not understood] many of you will continue to serve in the same roles that you have been serving in for the past year. there are three committees that i'll just mention that do not have a change in composition. our budget and finance committee will continue with the membership shared by supervisor farrell with supervisor mar as the

vice-chair, supervisor avalos as a third member of the yee-long budget committee with supervisors breed and wiener as the fourth and fifth members of the budget committee during the summer. our neighborhood services and safety committee will be continue to be chaired by supervisor campos with supervisor mar as the vice-chair, supervisor yee as the third member of that committee. city and school district will continue to be chaired by supervisor kim with supervisor avalos as vice-chair, supervisor farrell as the third member. our government audits and oversight committee will be chaired by supervisor breed. the vice-chair will be supervisor tang. i will serve as the third member of gao. land use will continue to be chaired by suborn, vice chaired by supervisor kim. the third member will be supervisor cohen. and our rules committee will continue to be chaired by supervisor yee, the vice-chair of that committee will be supervisor tang and supervisor campos will be the third member of that committee. these committee assignments will be effective as of the end of this week and our 5-person

budget committee as usual will begin on march the first. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor campos asked to be re-referred. >> thank you. i actually forgot to mention something. i want to begin by thanking the mayor's office for the work that they have done over the last few months and the last few weeks dealing with some of the changes at the federal level in the area of health care, and specifically the implementation of the affordable care act. and one of the issues that, that came up early on as the city and county of san francisco was deliberating on how to implement that was the compatibility of the health care security ordinance that we've had in place for a number of years with the affordable care act. and i want to thank the mayor's office and the work that they have done and the work especially that was recently done by the universal health council that, you know, came

out with a number of recommendations and a very important recommendation which is a very positive development, is the underlying recommendation or finding that the health care security ordinance is consistent with and compatible with the affordable care act. the fact that we are implementing obamacare, the affordable care act it's usually known, does not change the existing requirements that we have in san francisco. and i think that's a very significant development and we want to acknowledge the work of the mayor and universal health council because what it does is that it allows for san francisco to continue to lead the way in how health care is provided in this country. by allowing us to retain the essential requirements of the health care security ordinance, it allows us to supplement the

gaps that will remain with the affordable care act. san francisco essentially will continue to lead the way because we are the only city in this country that will be able to fill in the gaps that exist under the affordable care act and we will be able to do that throughout the health care security ordinance. i wanted to take this opportunity to thank the mayor, his staff, and the health -- universal health care council for the recommendation that essentially agrees with with what we have indicated or along with which is that our law in san francisco is compatible with federal law. the second point that i would note, and is something that is very important, is that as we continue the implementation of the affordable care act, there is an issue that remains, and it's an issue that actually becomes an even bigger issue in san francisco. because of changes in federal law, the hoop hole that was tried to be closed -- we tried to close a number of years ago and which unfortunately was not closed, the issue of that

loophole becomes an even bigger issue because the change in federal regulations makes it impossible for a number of people who were previously able to use health care reimbursement accounts to access health insurance to be able to do that. what that means is that access to health care, because of the existence of this loophole, will be a much bigger issue in san francisco. and to the extent we have been able to find some middle ground and the implementation of the majority of the law, my hope is that between now and the very near future that we will take it upon ourselves as a city to close this loophole once and for all. as the report that was presented by the office of labor standards and enforcement shows, the legislation, the amended legislation that was passed by this board a number of years ago did not close the loophole and the rate at which

the amount of money that is being spent on health care remains problematic and the vast majority of money that is actually being paid by consumers is unfortunately not going to provide health care to workers. so, we look forward to working with mayor lee and his staff to find a solution to this existing problem, but i think that in the process of doing that, we acknowledge the very good work that has been done in making sure that we retain the health care security ordinance as obamacare comes into play. thank you very much. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor mar asked to be re-referred. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i just want to give an announcement that the richmond district tenants convention that we are helping to organize with a number of tenants and housing justice groups. it's long with the haight ashbury community as well. it's on january 18 at 1:00 p.m. at the park branch library.

that's right on the edge of district 5 and district 1. located at 18 33 page street at shrader. it's building unity and alliances with district 1 and district 5 residents, renters and tenants to come up with strategies for fighting the evictions going on in our neighborhoods and to defend those who are being evicted. in semi held a town hall in my district where literally dozens of people came out with stories of their pending evictions and their fears of evictions and knowing many seniors and vulnerable people that are being impacted as well. so, at this tenant convention we hope tokev indicate tenants about their rights and how they can fight when threatened with an eviction. participants will come up with ballot initiative also for next november [speaker not understood]. and come up with suggestions that will be presented to a city-wide tenants convention we are billing for [speaker not

understood] chinatown, tenderloin, south of market are also holding their own tenant conventions and we'll be making recommendations to the city-wide tenant convention. the tenant conventions are all free and open to all tenants and the main goal is building solidarity and support and new alliances within our city. these conventions are being hosted by the san francisco antidisplacement coalition. please help us spread the word and contact our office if you have any questions as well. the rest i submit. thank you. >> thank you. seeing no other names on the roster, that concludes roll call for introduction. >> thank you. why don't we go to our p first public comment session of 2014. >> at this time the public may comment for up to 2 minutes on items in subject matter jurisdiction on the board including without reference to committee calendar, public comment is not allowed on items which have already been subject to public comment by a board committee. please direct your remarks to the board as a whole and not to the audience or individual supervisors. the president or the board may limit the total testimony to 30 minutes.

speakers using translation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify and if you would like a document to be displayed on the overhead projector, please clearly state such to sfgtv and then remove the document when you would like the screen to return to live coverage of the meeting. madam clerk, our president, and perhaps the san francisco supervisor, my name abdul [speaker not understood]. i am here today to tell you welcome back. i wish in my deep heart that you have good holiday and you enjoyed your christmas and the new year with your family. for your knowledge, today is a christmas day for the greek orthodox day celebrated today,

7 january. ladies and gentlemen, i missed the meeting 5, 6 times, but i come today to enjoy your company. our president, our supervisor, today i make 30-year continuous to be here to give you hard time sometimes, and to give you good idea in the meantime. today let me tell you happy new year for the year 2014. for our city mayor, chief of police, fire chief, and the sheriff department, i don't include anyone who work in your office. i thank them for the hard work and i am going to thank you for

the challenge to each other to make it my city better and clean and [speaker not understood] more than this. jane kim, your brother [speaker not understood] my supervisor [speaker not understood]. the problem i tell you we would like to [inaudible]. [speaker not understood]. >> thank you very much. thank you. i think your time is up. but it's good to have you back. next speaker. ladies and gentlemen of the audience and supervisors, good afternoon. for the record my name is emil lawrence.

i've been a resident in the city and county of san francisco for 44 years. i'm also a taxi me ~ medallion holding for [speaker not understood]. i spoke earlier at the mta meeting about the new amendment to curtail ramp van taxis in the city of san francisco as the taxi agency within the mta tries to sell more medallions in this chaotic endeavor of the taxi business in the city and county of san francisco. uber taxi didn't just run over a young girl. he murdered her and it rests on yours and the mta's shoulders. we have a proliferation of automobiles in this city at the present time, anywhere between 3 and 4,000. that are acting as taxis. i drive in the city and county of san francisco and i see it every day now. you have the law within your hands to regulate somebody driving a taxi, talking on a

telephone, and texting at the same time. this is an uber driver. this is how he ran over the young girl. he was texting and telephoning at the same time. at the same time the taxi sfmta taxi agency is trying to drive the ramp van that pick up handicaps out of business. they're fining us. they're forcing us to buy another medallion from them. this goes on nonstop in order to pay for their bills. i urge you to do something about that. they're driving me out of business. i've had a ramp van taxi medallion for three years. the letter i submitted to you not only has my vamp van taxi number, it has my actual cost and income for the month of december. there's no money left. between the repairs, paying the mta and paying the cab company, there's no money for the driver. i thank [inaudible]. >> next speaker.

thank you. my name is carl [speaker not understood], i'm a career taxicab driver. the taxi industry is in a lot of trouble because it's such an oversupply number of vehicles, companies can't fill shifts for drivers. income is eviscerated. also the taxi medallion as a sales program, the value will go down. the city is anticipating being $300 million through this program the next decade and you're going to lose out on a lot of that if you don't start to take some action against these rogue transporters. [speaker not understood] pale in compare ton so what you lose. i do think that the taxi industry was arrogant collectively over the past couple of decades. the driver miss behavior, lack of capacity and inefficient dispatch to neighborhoods. the mta is taking steps, 370

combined taxis being issued, years 2013-2014 and now there is a contract to emulate the uber model which is much more effective than the taxi industries [speaker not understood]. during the cpuc hearings during 18 months while i was accused of insurance fraud, the [speaker not understood] there's no coverage if someone doesn't have commercial insurance. and that is the case. and i think you look at this accident on ellis and polk, uber saying they're not responsible, and cpuc ruling six months ago saying the driver has to be in the mode of providing services. but there 's another comment here. [speaker not understood] drivers are required to provide proof of commercial insurance in the case of an accident. well, you need to provide it in advance. the five enforcement officers in the state of california are cpuc so we're going to ask the

police and the sheriff's department to pull people over and make sure they have their insurance. 95% of them don't. it's a joke to people who bought a medallion. >> next speaker. good afternoon. barry toronto, happy new year. no, it's not a happy new year for sophie lou and her brother and mother. it is not. i worked new year's eve and i saw the street blocked off on polk street and i wanted to know what happened. immediately within hours taxi drivers on facebook immediately listed what happened. and then thanks to supervisor kim we got to find out because the police only released information to her about -- that this driver was connected to uber. i appreciate you holding a hearing about this uber issue. you don't have the political will from the mayor who actually named a day, a saturday in july for a certain app in honor of them.

and yet why don't we honor taxi drivers? we have an app for taxis. every company except for yellow has it. flywheel, okay, we need to help promote the availability of this app with companies with cab drivers that are trained, backed with proper background checks, and have their proper insurance guaranteed to be covered. uber does not want to claim any responsibility. uber has appealed the decision of the state puc. they repealed the decision because they claim there is just an app. yet there are a lot of arguments that claim they're not just an app because actually have to hire the drivers and actually pay the drivers through the app. so, i urge you to get more involved because the mayor and the city attorney don't want to get involved. they've shown a reluctance in this area. and i urge you to please do this. i would love to drive friday and saturday nights, but i hardly do that because the business isn't there. everybody is looking at their

phones calling these apps that don't have proper insurance and i'm not making money. i'd rather be dancing at mighty than serving at mighty because of the fact we're being railroaded out of the industry. and we're losing good drivers, losing good drivers and we're losing the business. [speaker not understood] have a resolution telling the state puc [inaudible]. >> thank you. next speaker. my name is mary mcguire. i'm a taxi driver. so, anyone who reads the news now, i think you know that the transportation company uber with all their millions of dollars actually they were [speaker not understood] 2.8 billion [speaker not understood] responsibility for the death of little sophia lou. thank you, supervisor mar, for dealing with this issue. but i want to ask all of you, do any of you feel responsible for this?

a little bit guilty? we've been here numerous times. do you feel at all responsible for failing to listen and respond to the members of the public who warned you that this was bound to happen unless some action was taken against these ride share companies? do you feel at all responsible, jane kim, because you appear in public praising these services, ed lee, do you feel responsible? trained drivers, [speaker not understood] insurance, [speaker not understood]. uber has admitted their alleged million dollars policy covers only passengers, only passengers and not third parties, not third-party victims. so, even if the driver had a passenger at the time, and [speaker not understood] was on their system, they're not going to cover -- they don't have the insurance to cover pedestrians, other drivers, property. also there was another driver. all the taxi drivers, we have workers' comp. it's solid, it's enforced. when i drive my taxi, everyone

and everything is covered. there's no gaps. they're covered by a million dollars insurance. so, i want to tell you, this is not going to be the last pedestrian that gets hit. this is not going to be the last accident. there's about 2300 of these vehicles out here and their business model requires them to text while driving. do you hear me? they text while they're driving. and their private insurance policies are not going to cover accidents. they may use [speaker not understood] state farm, [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. thank you. next speaker. [inaudible]. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. when jesus came to [speaker not understood], he asked them who do men say i am?

they sade likev a or some other prophet. [speaker not understood]. he said, who do you say you are? peter said, you're the christ, the son of the living god. and jesus said blessed are you, simon, barjona, blessed son of john, [speaker not understood], for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father which is in heaven. and i say unto you that i give unto you the keys of the kindergartenv dome of heaven. those keys were to unlock the secret of the gospel in acts chapter 2 ~ when he explained how jesus fulfilled the prophecies and 3,000 get saved. now, the bible is a revelation from god, it says in first peter these prophets in the old testament, they would hear words from god about how the messiah would suffer. and other words from god how he would be glorified. they themselves did not understand what the words meant. this is the only book, the author is not the people that wrote it. if you saw the decline and fall

of the roman empire in a cough >> shop and he was reading his own book, you say why are you reading that book, you wrote it, well, to find out what it means and it says. that's craze crazy, but that's what the scriptures say about the scriptures. it's a supernatural book. now, god has revealed the time of the sounding of the sixth trumpet. if you get my podcast broadcast i call kfax on monday, the kay before it happened. if you get the podcast webcast of october 28, [speaker not understood] 25 minutes where i laid it out, it's in the bible. i can't say for sure when christ will return, but i can say for sure 9/11 was the sixth trumpet. it could not have been prevented. yes, alex jones is right on info words.com. it was an inside job but it could not have been prevented. >> next speaker. thank you, president chiu, supervisors. mark gruber, driver for green cab and member of united

taxicab workers. i wanted to speak to the tragic accident that -- the word accident isn't appropriate -- in the tenderloin that took the life of sophia lou and wanted to thank supervisor kim for her concern, supervisor mar for his remarks. this would be inconceivable under other circumstances. the regulatory agency such as the cpuc could allow vehicles to operate without the insurance needed to protect the public, and yet that seems to be exactly what has taken place here. and the company itself uber is attempting to deny responsibility because their driver who was logged in seeking a passenger, but didn't have one, you know, he did not

have an uber passenger in the back seat. many of us in the taxi industry participated in the cpuc's rule making proceedings, and we urged them over and over again, we warned them time after time about the gaps in insurance and it fell on deaf ears. and, so, i hold uber responsible. i hold the cpu crushtion responsible. and i think there is some responsibility on the part of the city because you could have nipped this in the bud before these companies had any car of authority when they were operating without any responsibility, any authority whatsoever from anybody. so, there's a lot of responsibility to go around and i hope at this late date that something can be done about it. thank you. >> next speakers.