number of years when they were in waterfall wellness and by the sheer fact that they have all these people here, shows the fact that they are doing something really, really good. it's compassion if the sense that you don't have anything, they will always give you a little something and always help you out. so it's a really heartfelt program and it's really good compassion and really great people. and having another dispensary actually gives you more options of other things to do. it's a great asset to the community to have another dispensary there for the people there. thank you. >> thank you. as the next speaker comes up, i will call more names [ reading speakers' names ].

>> good afternoon commissioners my name is mark cameron. i receive compassion from bac and they come to me and i don't have to go to somebody else. it's more compassion than i have ever received on another problem. i'm agoraphobic and it's a shame that we have to come to support these two people. thank you. >> thank you. my name is justin bennett and

a san francisco native and i support greg and christina's permit. i just wanted to say that three and a half years ago, i suffer from cerebral palsy, and chronic condition that help my daily life and i can tell i that christine and greg have become part of my family and i thank you all for hearing our voices. have a great day.

>> thank you. a couple more names. [ reading speakers' names ] >> hello commissioner, my name is michael goadman and he was a part of the medical cannabis with christina, and i also sit with her on the current supervisor chiu's committee. i have seen how much she cares and very much involved in establishing the rules for compassion for everybody and we have here with these people, with greg and christine a model of how compassion should be done and how a dispensary

[sp-efrb/]s people. it would be a real shame to lose these caregivers. thank you very much. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hi, my name is adolph pickett and i'm here for support of the dispensary of compassion i don't get around too well and they deliver it to me. they were the first ones and if i can get out, i can go to

the open house and sit down and socialize with other people. it's great. either have it delivered or i could go socialize. if i don't have that, you know, it's kind of hard. i would like to keep it going. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i'm christine moyer and i would like to say that i have been with greg from the beginning of this, i guess it was the beginning when we were through the police commission and planning commission and hear we are back again and i would like to register my support once again for this dispensary at 1423 ocean avenue. thank you. >> thank you. [ reading speakers' names ]

>> hi. commission my name is anthony john martenelli, i am a veteran. and i help care for seven other veterans who are medical cannabis patients and suffer from ptsd. i have been serving them for a long time and for at least the last three years the supplies that i have been getting to help these veterans and myself has come from greg and christiana and contrary to anything else you have heard here, it's been nothing, but top-shelf, pure, clean medicine.

and i have never had to second guess what i have received to give as compassion in any form to the veterans that i help service. so i urge you to help them continue to give compassion to the community at 1423 ocean. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening. i'm kenneth coffer. i have been out here -- this is my third time advocating for medical marijuana on ocean avenue. first two times were for relief and for waterfall wellness and

now bac. i think that everyone should have access to this medicine, if they need it. i think that the more dispensaries there are, the better. i think they have a positive economic impact for the neighborhood. i see nothing, but good from the cannabis clubs on ocean avenue. the security at them are excellent. the streets are actually safer. i was on ocean avenue in the '70s and it was nothing, but liquor stores and bars and i was told as a 15-year-old kid not to go past there because it wasn't safe. well, those streets are safe now, thank you. have a nice day. >> thank you. [ reading speakers' names ]

if i have called your name, you can come forward to the podiumed. commissioners, i'm reverend roland, pastor of the 107-year inleside presbyterian church in the heart of the community, trying to heal people and bring people together. i have talked to all parties concerned of this critical issue and even friends of mine who use the services and bottom line for me, and i am also a board member of ocean avenue association. i presented my position toel them at the last meeting. at the end of the meeting they were going to take it up this month and i think they are going to reconsider their position. my position is why not let all three clubs operate? they bring people to the community. this is a great number of people who need these services. so they have a great income

coming in and why not work with everybody to everybody can win? get the parties together and support your communities especially with young peoplement we need money out in that community. for me, i see nothing, but good that could happen with all three of them operating and i know people have got a bad image of people who use the services, but i have personal friends and professionals, honorable people that need the services. it's present day-modern-day need and i support all three of them being on ocean avenue and you see nothing, but good that could happen if we can get them to work together for the good of the community, with the income and people that they are bringing to the community to support the local businesses that need support. that is my position. i hope you can consider me of. thank you. >> thank you. >> afternoon commissioners. my name is jasmine holtston and

i'm a care provider for bac. compassion people, can you raise your hands? these are the people that i serve? i serve them good medicine every week. i couple them monday and loan them $5 sometime and give them candy other weeks with their compassion. i am their connection to the outside world and sometimes you know i give them hugs, i feel like i am their family. let us have -- i'm sorry -- please support bac and give us our -- i'm sorry >> i will call a few more names. [ reading speakers' names ] >> good evening, president wu and commissioners. my name is shona. i have been a part of bac and working with greg and christina

for several years now. they are definitely model compassionate providers. r through our neighbored outreach process, i have seen -- i have been working with medical cannibus policy for over a decade and the neighborhood policy and outreach that i have seen is significant and hopefully a model for new dispensaries in the future. these providers have a proven track record of public safety and compliance. they participate in public policy concerns and as you have heard from veterans and patients on the patient advocacy committee, they have been listening to the patient advocates and activists on how they would like their compassion programs run. i feel that they are also available to work hand in hand with authentic patient activists, which sometimes we don't find from the business community.

and i just strongly feel we need to continue their services. it would be a great dysservice to a number of disabled at visits in our community not to open these doors. thank you for your time today. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello i'm alex. i am a disabled patient advocate who up thes is the approval of the permit for 1423 ocean avenue. their benefit to the community in my eyes is unquestionable. i volunteer at a charitable dinner that is in large part due to greg and christina.

i [tkhrao-eur/] that the people at bac are a true and substantial benefit to san franciscans already and please approve so they can continue their good work. [ reading speakers' names ] >> if in additional speakers wanted to speak, please line up. >> steven, i work at waterfall wellness currently and i was the compassion driver, delivery person that this all of these people have been talking about that they get regular delivery for free every week. i could pretty much look at half of them in the face and tell i already service them and they were actually happy with me. i'm not sure if they were trying to help the new people -- i don't know how christina right here and greg right there are taking credit for all of the waterfall wellness compassion that we have built for all of these people to have

anything to talk about. they were part of us. so for them to be here, i feel for ill patient, but i don't think it's usual to fight against us. i saw two patients here in our shop and two of them were at our pizza party that we host every month just last friday. my sister tyra mitchell holds a lot of relationships like grig and christina and for them to take credit for our compassion doesn't make sense. i want to know how are they even servicing these compassion impairments e patients without a permit already? >> thank you, next speaker.

>> hello my name is jackie and i don't think the question is about greg or christinia's character. i'm sure that they are great. as a mother and parent and excelsior collaborative committee member, that is an issue we have three collaboratives on ocean avenue. the question is do we need three in four blocks in this city is big enough and i'm just wondering that there are other places to go. the question is do we need three? it is ocean avenue. it's not that big. i think think three is overcrowding and clustering and it's just not necessary. waterfall and the other dispensary provides greet medicine. they provide compassion. they do community clean-ups and

they have adopted their blocks and do clean graffiti and found raisers such as toy drives and easter candy drives. so the work is being done. like i said the question is do we really need three in a four-block radius? i don't think so. that is all. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> my name is kyle. i basically came here just to show a little support to the dispensary that i use, because i'm a patient at waterfall and i'm part of their compassion program. and just sitting here i got a little confused as to what was going on as far as all of these people saying that they get all of this great service and this and that. they are all part of the waterfall compassion program. all their medicine is coming from waterfall. i basically thought it was just

a simple thing of zoning. was it okay for another dispensary to open up so many feet from one dispensary? that is kind of what i thought it was about, but now i hear these people saying that we're getting great service from people that are not in business. i don't understand it. like to reiterate what the other gentleman said, yesterday and the day before, all last week, they are at waterfall getting their compassion medicine. and then they are going to come here and support of someplace that is not open today and these people are great and they are giving me this great service. so i'm a little confused. i just wanted to make a comment on that. >> thank you. >> thank you. my name is brian webster. i am a special projects

representative, special projects representative with the united food commercial workers union 5 and here to speak in favor of the bac and hope that they open up as soon as possible at 1423 ocean avenue. so the united front commercial workers union are organizing medical cannabis workers into our union in 20 states. we represent food processing workers and agricultural workers and retail workers, ucw5 represents thousands of workers in san francisco and we represent macy's workers a wall green and also represent workers in mission organics and other dispensaries here in the city and in the bay area. we have a contract with vallejo holistic health center, which is the greg and christina management team and workers in

vallejo. we don't actually get involved with initiating contracts with just anybody. we're very pleased to have this contract with the workers of vallejo holistic health center and greg and christina management team. we have submitted a letter and paperwork and ufcw is on the board of the institute of workers research center, it's been around for 30 years. that actually enforces the california labor laws. people who had their wages stolen, been aggrieved in the workplace and then in our contract, we have a code of conduct, 10-point code of conduct to make sure that the dispensaris that we work with had the best practices. and we have every confidence in the bac and the management team. so i just wanted to. >> thank you, sir, your time

is up. >> thank you your time is up. >> we look forward to working with planning. >> next speaker, please. >> madame president, fellow commissioners, good evening. my name is edward breslin and i'm the committee chair for the apprentice program sponsored by the uc fw. i love to see it's no longer neighborhood opposition that is contrary to mcd myaccountinglabeding, but yet today it's opposition by the established dispensary. i saw this at berkeley city council meeting and all of the employees from cream came and

were worried about losing their jobs because across the street there was a ice cream shop at dream. it makes me happy to see neighborhood opposition has been basically thwarted. thank you. >> next speaker. >> good evening commissioners and apologize for the sun

glasss, medical condition, surgery on my eyes. i was one of the first members of bac, bac is bay area compassion. you probably don't remember me, but you probably remember the meeting that went on until 3:00 a.m. that is when bay area compassion health center started . greg really wanted to serve the community and found an opening -- the location where waterfall is used to be nor-cal. they got into a bit of trouble. greg took over that, and got a loyal staff behind him and turned it from the hole it was into the great dispensary it is now. things have turned a little by bitplore and when the federal government was coming in and closing dispensaries because of proximity things,, nor cal was grandfathered in. so was the

waterfall. it's closer than a thousand feet to a school. greg found another location that was larger and he saw the vision of community service, of servicing with oriental medicine, acupunctureand alternative services and counseling and had a larger space to do that and it was within the green zone. it met all of the requirements. the other form owner of, nor cal, i understand is if any come back to take over waterfall after all of his good work. i am strongly support bay area compassion health center. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, i'm george roberts. i quickly wanted to address two points. the first is that bac submitted their application approximately a year-ago, and the

legislation, which supervisor yee has introduced is not the law now. and we believe this hearing should not be continued; that if there was a desire to put a hold on things until new legislation came into place, that interim zoning controls could have been enacted, but they were not. and so we believe that although it would make your job easier, if the health director were to make a decision denying one or the other applicant, that is not the case ordinarily the health director's hearing occurs after planning approval. not before. and believe that it would be a real problem to delay this just before a change in the law, when we don't know what that would be. so we would urge you to go ahead and rule this evening, based on the laws that exist now. and if you have any questions, with respect to the lawsuit and

some of this other stuff, which i think is really not germane to the land use issues. we're happy to answer questions. thank you for your time. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good evening planning commission:my name is daniel mendez and i would like to say me and greg were partners for a while and i have notarized documents. i have a copy, a handout i would like to pass out, which is a lawsuit that we currently have and a copy of a waiver that he wants me to sign in order to regainply company's books and records, our company's books and records. they keep stating he left open and freely, but he is not stating in the lawsuit that he removed $30,000 in the bank and went to the shop and told everyone that they were fired and remorphed d and removed

$7,000 out of the cash register. thank you. >> thank you, any additional public comment? if not, commissioner borden? >> i don't necessarily want to know, nor is it germane to our discussion, the battle that is going on, but it disappointing that people are fighting each other about medical care that people need. i don't know enough to take anyone's side in this, but for our consideration, we just look

at the facts of the case and in general, i mean, if the health department doesn't have a problem with the applicant, and we're not currently talking about clustering, because that is not just really what our determination is related to i don't see its a zero-sum game. i don't know what is going to happen in the future, but i don't see its a zero-sum game that you have to knock one business out in order for another one to be located somewhere. i just don't think that is the case. i understand that there is a concern that this is indeed true and we have that in other conditional use cases where a bar purchases another bar or things like that, but i always think those kind of anti-competitive sort of behaviors are not germane or helpful actually in the debate. from what i have here, it seems like there is a good amount of support from both community organization, as well as members in this room. it seems like i do remember the

case that was [hrao-r/] until 3:00 a.m. and approved that and testimony about the character mr. shep. we go on faith that people have the standards and do what they are supposed to do and that is what we determine, but pore me, i don't see any exceptional or extraordinary circumstances based upon what we have seen and i hope that everybody can co-exist and work it out and the community can come together as one again because it's sad to see a community fractured in this way, especially in close proximity to each other. >> commissioner sugaya. >> i had a question for staff. sorry you are getting beat up tonight. public comment group table

shows one supporting and one opposed. can you tell me who they are? >> i would like to say for the record, there was no official neighborhood group that voiced an upon. >> and yet they are listed? >> i put "neighborhood" like other people and then neighborhood/others. >> we haven't heard from the ocean avenue association, westwood park, sunset association, omi neighbors. >> residents from the ingleside heights have remailed me, but not official letter from the board of directors. i did a site visit with the