>> good morning, everyone, and welcome to the thursday february 6, 2014 meeting of the board of supervisors, neighborhood services and safety committee, my name is david campos and i am the chair of the committee and we are joined today by committee member, supervisor norman yee and eric mar is in route, and the clerk is eric evans and we want to thank sfgtv staff for recovering the meeting today, jim smith and jennifer love, do

we have any announcements? >> be sure to silence all cell phones and vice and complete the speaker cards and documents to be included should be submitted to the clerk, items acted upon today will be on the board of agenda. >> did you want to call another item first as well? or starting with the first one? >> yes. >> item one, is a hearing to considerhearing to consider that the premises-to-premises transfer of a type 21 off-sale general license and a type 42 on-sale beer and wine public premises license from 1301 van ness avenue to the same address (district 2), to liz zaninovich for beverages & more, inc., dba bevmo!, will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county of san francisco. . >> great, thank you. >> i know that we have here supervisor weiner, to speak on this item, supervisor do you want to speak now or wait until

the presentations? >> i am here for the... >> oh, for the parks, okay. >> i think that it is item five. >> okay. >> you know, can we go back, i am sorry. could we call item five first? >>ordinance amending the police code to require applicants for commercial parking permits to provide the residential zip code, gender, and duration of employment for employees and other individuals working in privately owned parking lots or parking garages. >> great, and we have been joined by committee vice chair, supervisor eric mar, and so on this item that has been introduced by supervisor weiner, co-sponsor by cohen and so supervisor weiner? >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for taking this item out of order so i appreciate it. colleagues, this legislation is basic and straight forward and intended to provide us with a better understanding of how the

private parking lot industry operates. the legislation was considered last week, by the small business commission and the commission voted unanimously to recommend its approval. first, i want to be very clear that most parking lot operators are good actor and provide a very necessary and valuable service to residents and visitors, with that said, as we have seen over the years, there are a few not so good actors who have taken advantage of the fluid nature of the parking business, which puts these operators, and puts the operators that actually abide by the rules at a competitive disadvantage. a few years ago, recognizing that private parking lots have a heightened impact on their neighbors and the general public, the board of supervisors have legislation requiring a police department permit to better insure the public safety is being advanced in enacting that legislation, the board recognized the special and unique nature of

this industry. the legislation before us today for the committee today, builds on this recognition, and will help the city prioritize enforcement efforts. we want to be sure that there is a level playing field for all parking lot operators and that the interest of the public and the employees are being supportive. currently, parking lot operators are required to get an annual permit from the police department. all operators and agents are required to submit detailed information including information required for background checks. the existing permit process requires that all employees be listed and reported to the police department annually and that is the current law. my legislation would require that operators also provide some basic aggregated data on their employees to be clear the legislation in terms of demo graphic information will not be identifiable to particular people and it will be arrogated

and this includes the tenure of employment, dem graphics including gender and primary residence, specifically zip code and the purpose of this additional information is as follows. in terms of tenure, we have heard a concern that some private parking lot operators are excessively turning over employees with a goal of not allowing employees to gain tenure in their position, and guaranteeing short term employment that no one is ever able to increase on the pay scale. >> we of course of the city want to make sure that the people are able to build career and care for their families and remain in the city and have a livable wage and so the requirement for reporting

tenure information will help us understand if there is a problem with parking lot operators churning through employees with a goal of not allowing any of them to increase in terms of wage tenure. there are in he terms of demographics this is just information to make sure that we understand that the industry is and that there are issues around the demographics of the workforce and to make sure that we have a diverse workforce including around gender and then primary residence, although we are not attempting to impose the hire on these parking lot operators we are, or do have a public interest in knowing, whether san franciscans are being hired into these jobs. colleagues this information will help us better understand. it will provide us with an additional tool to provide enforcement efforts and the legislation and the reporting requirements will not be a administrative burden given that the operators are currently required to give

detailed reports annually and the information that we are asking for is easily obtainable from any payroll data base. >> they did issue a report last week summarizing how this city monitors compliance for the existing operators and including lay tore rules and the compliance with the minimum wage and healthcare requirements and parking tax which is a struggle with some members of the industry over the years. we requested this report so that we could fully understand and be competent that the current rules are being adequately enforced that was issued and we are reviewing it and we will be working with various cities departments to try to implement some of the recommendations including better coordination of enforcement efforts including the tax collector, osc and the planning department. so colleagues, i hope to have

your support. and i hope that we are looking forward to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> thank you, supervisor weiner and supervisor co-hen for introducing this information and it is important to get the information, that you are seeking to make sure that there is compliance with all of the rules and so thank you for raising this issue and bringing it to our attention. i know that we have a number of speakers and i am going to call them up. mark gleaton and david rodriguez, but any member of the public that would like to speak on this item come up and you each have two minutes thank you for being here and on this wet, thursday morning. mark gleason i am the secretary treasurer of teamsters and we represent about 1500 parking workers in san francisco. and i do want to first thank

supervisor weiner and cohen for sponsoring this legislation and also other supervisor whose have recently given us their ear to shine a spot light on the aspect of this industry that i am sure that no one would endorse and it is frankly the underground economy that we know what that is. my colleague will be coming up in a moment and talking in more detail about what we have found out there. and i will say that i do appreciate and applaud the budget analysts report, and it shows great improvement in recent years, about collection of the taxes. and which would also demonstrate that, you know, the bad actors that we have been talking about are probably fewer and fewer as we go along, but unfortunately it is our view that there are still some parts of the industry where the underground economy is pervasive and it is unfortunate from the labor point of view, but conversely i would submit that for this sort of behavior to continue out there, is also

bad public policy as it pertains to the transit first policy, and if you are going to come to san francisco in a single passenger vehicle, and that should be your premium mode of transportation. and i was also put eye spot light on this that as you are driving by and when you see rates that are so, low, in the 7 and 10 range and so on, something is going on in those garages and we are hoping that this legislation will put a spot light on that, thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> next speaker? >> good morning supervisors my name is david rodriguez and i am a business representative for teamsters and one of my job duties is to visit some of the parking garages in san francisco to follow up with some of the members who have grievances or questions or concerns and while i am doing

the routes, and literally across the street or sometimes next door which are non-union operators and i would say that more than half are spanish speaking which is my first language and so i will have a conversation with them and they will ask me, what are the benefits of these employees of the union under their contract, and i will let them know that it is better wages and job security, holiday and vacation and let them know and they seemed kind of shocked at this point, more of the majority that there is getting paid cash and i am not sure if it is under the table and some of them don't get paid over time and some of them are working ten or 12 hour days or shift and some of them are working six days a week and some of them and one of them is mentioned that they are paid in a personal check and by the time that they get it cashed out they are not getting paid for the full labor, unfortunately some of the employees are not allowed to apply at the bigger operators because they are undocumented and don't have a valid driver's

license and they will not be able to work in the bigger locations but this is a type of practice that needs to stop and we need to exploit that as soon as possible. thank you. >> thank you very much, is there any other member of the public that would like to speak? i know that we have some of our friends from local union 665. but, seeing no other person i will close public comment, and one thing that i would say is that i think that this is a great piece of legislation and i would like to be added as a co-sponsor, one thing that i would wonder, i was wondering about this is whether or not we should also approach the office of labor standards and enforcement to see if there can be a more thorough review investigation of some of the business practices of these garages. because i am sure that they are all going to have things that are happening including wage theft and without the union

protection, they get away with a lot of these things, supervisor mar? >> yeah, i wanted to thank supervisor weiner, but especially the workers from this industry, and really helping to shed light on how the working conditions need to change for those unregulated sites and i actually like how the legislation also it is not proactively supporting hiring and it is giving us more information so that we do the best to insure that san franciscans can be put back to work, especially those that need the jobs the most. i wanted to say that for mr. gleason that it is really helpful to understand that this industry is one that is a large one in our city and they are jobs for many san franciscan and this is a way of insurancing that wages and benefits and living wage opportunities are for many of our residents and so i am very supportive and i would like to be added as a co-sponsor as well. >> supervisor yee? >> thank you.

>> thank you, supervisor weiner and to bring this issue to our attention, i guess, it is one of these issues where you would be in san francisco for a long time and realize that it exists and especially if you whether you live in areas like this part of town, or work in this part of town, and that, you know, pretty much, on a daily basis, you see these workers and you wonder what kind of protections they have, and so i am supportive of this piece of legislation but i do have a question, on i guess the line 15. paragraph 15. and in regards to the mail, the total number of males and the total number of females working in the parking garage and parking lot.

i was not too sure what we are after there and whether or not this is information that we collect on a range of other type of workers, in san francisco. supervisor weiner? >> sure, and thanks for that question. so, first of all, initial matter, this industry is quite unique and we recognize that in terms of the requirements that we have placed on the industry in terms of information reporting that other industries do not have to report, so it is a unique industry. and i think that for the demographic data. there is a concern that the hiring practices and some of the operators and i don't want to paint it with a broad brush because there are plenty of actors because they are riding out opportunities for the full diversity and including women and i am just looking for

aggregated nrish to the zip code and tenure. and perhaps mr. gleason if appropriate, mr. chair... >> sure. >> do you have anything to add to that? >> yes, thank you. i have been in hearing of the sfmta where the directors themselves have asked, why is there not more women, i can tell you out of the 1500 that we represent in the industry there are just a handful of women who have been hired and these are just good paying jobs and we don't have any control of the union over the hiring and the hiring is completely controlled and a union location or other by the employers, and in fact the employers have insisted over the years even in bargaining when i brought it up along with the other business agents they have insisted on controlling and holding all aspects of the hiring and these

workers are hired and then after that they become the members of the union, we want diversity and we want really to be able to go into a garage, and say that there are people from every background and that is not the case often and there is a term that i use and some of the employees out there and they screen for ethnicity and you go in a garage and you find that everyone is one of an ethnic group and one age bracket and all men and so on, considering the unemployment that is happening in some parts of this city, or it is double with the state rate is for unemployment, local folks and men and women should be or have access to these jobs and if there is something going on, i think, in the hiring process, where people are being put off, and perhaps, by their gender, and i don't have any prove of

that except visually looking out there and see very few women employed in a good paying job, with the good benefits and i think that there should be something said about that so that everyone can have access to those jobs with a skill set, as you probably can understand, it is a physical job, and it is something that people can be trained for quickly and it would alleviate some of the unemployment that is out there, that is our position, we really want a very diverse workforce going forward. >> mr. gleason if i may follow up, did you want to follow up? >> yeah, i want to follow up. could i? >> yes. >> first of all, i want to commend that effort and i am not asking the questions to be against this necessarily. i just want to understand why we are doing it and what is the impact? i was assuming that probably that is what you were trying to do was to shed some light to

this. and as it was obvious to anybody that walks in the garages, and the parking places that it is dominate, a male, and so are a lot of other industries. whether and they are trying to improve it. so, my question really is, is there any way to put in the language that would give a little more here and give me the number of males or the number of females so i am trying to push them a little bit more. >> mr. gleason? >> well, again, i don't know how we can craft that as far as policy, i would leave it up to all of you and would i just repeat that while we really as a union and a labor organization, we want a diverse workforce and we don't have any other way to fix that hopefully through this spot light is what i am calling it that would encourage the employers across the spectrum to be more diverse

in every aspect including gender, going forward and i will repeat it was very interesting that i was hearing at one time in the sfmta and the directors and i was at the podium and they asked me why more women are not in the industry, 19 sfmta garage and very few women employed there and i had to strug my shoulders and say that as much as we would love to have a diverse workforce we don't control the hires, and i know in other industries they do. and we are just in the whim of what they do and these employees and they come on board after that hopefully again the spot light and we will get the encouragement to everyone in the industry to make it more diverse. >> thank you for answering my question. >> i want to follow up one more question, but on that point, i do want to note that i think that supervisor yee has a good point and you know, maybe it is something that we can look into. and i do think that having the information is an important step in figuring out, you know, what else can be done. and i certainly would like to

know more and i know that, for the purposes of enforcement having the information about the type of worker that we are talking about is always, useful for the agencies involved. but how do we, as a consumer, how do you know if a garage is union or not? >> we are going to be putting up insigna soon. and the employers have goed to that as we go forward. >> and the large employers in san francisco generally are and just to give you a quick snapshot and almost all of the large commercial office buildings in san francisco have our members in that and most of the class a hotels and of course the city garages as well but we are going to bring and put in the insignia up soon. >> the reason that i asked that is that for many of us in san francisco we would like to know, you know, if the business were patronizing, in fact, is a union shop, because then there is a guarantee that they are treating