know you and hillary and those on your staff have been working on this issue for over a years' time and your work is to be commended. i'm glad we have been able to arrive at this point. thank you farrell for your hard work on this issue as well. i want to stop and acknowledge assembly tom who has been champing health care for all for so many years even before we were working in this building. i've had a chance to meet with labor leaders and i want to thank guy because she's been an advocate for women and health care in general for so many years and she has a way of putting things in perspective that is truly appreciated and it gives me the ability as the legislature to make sure that those changes are implemented in policy. i want to also thank many of the labor folk who's have been

actively engaged in this issue. kim with the national united health care workers, palar, chavo with the california nurses association. adrianna casanova with 1021 and paul as well as kim with the labor council and so many others who have been coming to the table for many, many years to try and deal with this issue, so we have arrived at a really great, i believe, great legislation, great policy to really effectively close this loophole and clearly with this coalition, we have a consensus. thank you all for your continued dedication and thank you to my colleague for your willingness to support this. by closing this hra loophole, the legislation will provide better health care for almost 44,000 san francisco workers. these workers currently have

health reimbursement accounts $44,000 san francisco workers. these workers currently have health reimbursement accounts that provide limited medical service and it's difficult to understand and difficult to use and that's why 3/4 of the money doesn't get used and under current law when the money doesn't get used, the employers can recollect it. this does not innocent better health care for workers or better practices by employers. especially now with the passage of the affordable care act, we need to move in the direction of assuring everyone has quality, affordable, medical insurance. these hra's is an impedement ment and i want to close the loophole. i understand why a lot of labor leaders are angry that hra's has been allowed to exist for as long as they have. as a policy maker, i want to insure that we move in this direction fairly and we don't create any new problems

by moving too quickly. over the last few weeks, i went and talk to restaurants and small businesses in my district some which use hra's and i asked them about their health expenditure and health -- i asked one customer if she had do you have an hra manager and she said you're looking at them. they're not greedy, they're working hard often on slim margin and they're doing their best to navigate health care laws and working with their third parties who aren't giving them the best advice. businesses will need some type to adjust and close this loophole. they

contributed $120 million to this account and their employers used 25 percent of that. these companies will recapture about $90 million from the hra's. that's equal to $2,000 per employee. i'm not arguing that this was fair and i'm certainly not trying to reward the companies that have been using the hra's, but i don't think it benefits workers or businesses to arbitrarily have the business cost -- that will have job losses or hiring freezes which would not be good for labor or businesses. i know the mayor was very concerned about and abrupt and i wanted to reach a consensus and i appreciate the fact that the coalition and supervisor campos and supervisor farrell came to the table to build that consensus. that is why i got involved because i knew there were great people at

the table willing to work towards a better solution. we crafted a three year phase in that will allow worker to keep their health funds while giving businesses the time that they need to adjust. workers will receive guaranteed 60 percent ear revocable contributions startsing january 1 of 2015. 20 percent of ear revocable by january. so we expect it to be completely closed by 2017. i'm very proud to say that this phase approach is supported by campos and farrell, and labor leaders and maybe lee. i'm proud that we added some initial intent language to look at how we can innocent businesses to provide top quality health care

insurance to their employees. health insurance is the best outcome for all workers and i'm committed to making that a reality. and again, thank you supervisor campos for your leadership. >> supervisor farrell. >> thank you president chiu. well said, supervisor breed. i definitely want to associate myself with your comments and i'll be brief. thank you to supervisor campos for your hard work. to supervisor breed as well for your significant efforts here and i think two other people, hillary from supervisor campos's staff who has done amazing work and so many people have been involved here, but for me, the one person that i think has been -- who has played a role is paul. so thank you paul for your hard work for a long period of time and i want to thank the mayor's office for their support. it's a big day with minimum wage and

for this legislation. this issue is long in the making. it's the right thing to do. as we see certainly sitting on the health service bore, -- board, and to see that everyone has -- san francisco is no longer alone. the reality is the current system is not only adelantodo minute stray tifb burden, but it's a hassle to deal with to the 20 hours -- and i heard from businesses that it's a burden to be where they are right now. and the implications of obama care are here in san francisco and it has impacted what we're doing as a city. with the compromise we have reached, supervisor breed talked about a phase in period over a number of years which i think is critically important for our

small businesses that do operate especially on small margins and i think also from my perspective, the second part of the amendments for those dollars seen on the ballot sheet which amounts to tens of millions of dollars for employees in the city, but especially for our businesses that rely on those and have had those funds tied up. and for that money to be returned to the employers to soften the impact of what's happening here. from my perspective, this is the right thing to do. the alternative could have been much worse and it's something i believe we should all support. we come from different perspectives on this legislation, but it is from my perspective, an amazing thing that this coalition has come together, not only the coalition of legislatives but the coalition of people outside of city hall. and i really respect what this process has done. it has come to a great

outcome. i think this is the right thing to do for the future. it provides relief for the near term and it's something i'm proud to be proud of. >> supervisor cohen. >> i want to reflect on the pieces of legislation that we're producing today alone. we've got something to look forward. minimum wage, one ballot initiative going to the voters in november to increase minimum wage and we're dealing with health care ordinance. when you think the several pieces of legislation that's going to be happening today as well in the next two years in the future, it's incredible that working families are -- their needs, their cries, they're being heard. i shouldn't say "finally," but

they're being heard. we're moving and rebuilding public house and we're moving the needle and getting more affordable units to people. it's just -- if you stop and think, it's remarkable and i've seen just the tremendous benefits that healthy san francisco and access to affordable health care with bring to my own constituents. three years ago when we first admitted the city's landmark health security ordinance, i always knew we were going to be back here. back here to make the needed changes when affordable health care act was implemented and today marks that point. we're here because of that legislation as well as to make -- to close the loophole. i strongly believe in this ordinance that we begin to push the department of public health, to provide a comprehensive plan on how we're going to implement the affordable health care act and make sure covered california is

affordable to all of our residents in a very expensive city. i believe that this legislation represents a compromise that prioritizes health and well-being for all of our city residents. this benefits all of us and this legislation helps san francisco to continue to be a strong city with strong progressive worker rights. i want to thank the dozens of individual worker who's have reached out to me about this proposal and i want to give an opportunity to publicly acknowledge the business owners who offered feedback and even though we haven't been able to come to a unanimous agreement, i think we share the same values about keeping san francisco a place where people can work, where people can remain healthy,

keeping san francisco as affordable as possible and more importantly safe for all of us san franciscans. i have worked with a few people on this legislation. i want to acknowledge connie ford and tim and brenda, i don't think she's in the chamber today, but there's a number of people that i work with. but there's two gentlemen who has brought me and has speaking the -- i call them the city ordinances whisperers who have been educator and i want to recognize ken and danny from the iron workers. these two gentlemen have -- [ applause ] >> thank you. that was nice, mr. tray, and danny deserved that. but mr. tray, he's an educator through and through to his heart and although i'm no longer one of his students he has been working with me and i want to say thank you.

i want to acknowledge the leadership of mike who has been work with me in the last four years and its been quite a remarkable journey and i'm excited to celebrate with everyone today. thank you. >> supervisor yee. >> thank you president chiu. i basically want to express my gratitude to soup adviser campos and -- for offering and allowing me to co-author with a few others. i want to acknowledge the work that supervisor breed and farrell has done to make this ordinance even stronger. i give the example

of veterans administration and realizing when you don't have health care, what happens to people. given my own experience of not having health insurance for a while including when i had our first daughter, and given the fact that my parents never had health care insurance, i know how difficult it is to maintain yourself in a healthy way and we're in san francisco, i mean, i shouldn't be taking -- we're in the united states and in this day of age, everybody should be getting it, so thank you very much. [ applause ] >> supervisor mar. speaker: thank you. i will not repeat all the thanks but i did want to acknowledge the courage of

supervisor david campos for standing with health equity coalition for many years to make sure that this was going to come about. appreciative of some of the compromises that was made and it's going to make it easier for the small businesses to adjust, but i think without supervisor's campos courage following in the footsteps of tom and a strong and broad coalition of labor and community united that we wouldn't be here passing this legislation today. i wanted to say that the fight is not over for health equity and stronger universal health care system in our city and in this country but this puts us one step closer towards that number and i'm appreciative of the hard work from hillary to supervisor campos's office to make sure we're continuing to move forward in our city and not step backwards but i appreciate the coalition for standing strong and i'll be happy to cast a

vote and be a co-sponsor of this today as well. >> supervisor kim. >> thank you. ten years after the healthy implementations, we anticipate a loophole that none of the stakeholder and parties in the room when they originally negotiated the launch of healthy san francisco in 2006 had anticipated. i supported this ordinance in 2011 and convinced after talking to workers back in 2006. this was an unintended consequence and loophole discovered to prevent all employers from paying. a mandate that everyone supported back in 2007. it's great to be back here two years later with the legislation that is going to work for all parties and while i would have supported closing the

loophole this year, i recognize the real need of businesses, whether we'd like it or not to adjust a complete closure of this loophole and all the work that went into this to make sure we came to a unanimous vote. i want to recognize campos for pushing this issue over and over again and it was the right position to be in and she's been the -- i really want to thank supervisor breed and supervisor farrell for their work on making sure that we can get to a place that we had closed the loophole, but do it in a way that would work for businesses. you know, today is a really big day for workers but for employers today. we announced with support, the strongest and most progressive minimum wage proposal in the country ten years later, and

what this means for our city and it's not just for workers but for employers is we're going to have higher retention of our workers. we're going to have a happier and healthier work force with a little extra money in a pocket in a city that is expensive and this money is going to get pumped back into the economy. this money is going to go back into the economy back into our small business and into so much of the economy that's happening here in san francisco, but finally of course, this means a stronger work force in san francisco. you know when we had this debate two years ago, there was a lot concern about whether we would lose jobs from this proposal, but it's not about the job loss or even job creation, it's about the type of jobs that we're creating which is why i supported this closure in the first place. we can't just talk about what it means to create jobs and lose jobs, we have to talk about what it means to create high quality jobs that allow people to

live here here in san francisco, to have health care and to be able to thrive here with their families and that's what ordinances suppose as raising the minimum wage and closing the loophole is going to do. she spoke for the coalition for their economy at the press conference today on the minimum wage ballot measure and she recognized the workers but also the movement around the country. whether it's an ordinance in san francisco and bringing sick paydays and bringing universal health care. all of this is apart of a larger movement and i'm proud that san francisco is on the forefront and we have elected leaders who share this vision in supporting everyone in san francisco. so congratulations, this is a long time coming and to everyone that has been involved. >> thank you, president chiu. speaker: thank you mr. chair.

-- thank you mr. chiu. i'm happy to support the version of legislation that we have today. i also want to congratulate supervisor campos and finding compromises and the real concerns of the department of public health. i also want to thank supervisor breed for her amendments to phase in this process over the last couple of years. we knew that immediate immediate implementation would result in layoff ons s and i want to thank you and her. our board of supervisor was moving forward this measure but minimum wage ethics are formed

and moving forward the license fee. when we reflect the diversity of our city and we come together, and when we hammer out consensus, we deliver results. i'm proud of the board and i look forward to moving this and other measures forward. >> supervisor avalos. >> i think everything has been said that has to be said, but i want to congratulate supervisor campos for his work in bringing this together. i want to thank farrell and supervisor breed for your work as well, and most of all, i want to thank and appreciate the patience of many workers, labor groups and community advocates who have been fighting for this measure all these years. i was staffing the chair of the budget committee when the health care security ordinance was -- when it gets way to the board of supervisors back in 2006 and it took many, many months to put

this together, negotiations with the mayor's office and the board of supervisors at that time, and it shows what an incredible work this was to put together. it's what we need right now, but we really need in this country is universal health care and i look forward to one day having that. [ applause ]. >> campos, thank you for your leadership on this and your work over the years to make it happen. >> thank you. supervisor campos. >> thank you very much, mr. president. i do want to just add some personal comments but i do want to make a former motion to amend the ordinance along the lines that

was -- that were circulated and i don't know if it's possible to get two seconds, but maybe supervisor farrell and supervisor breed -- supervisor campos has made a motion. >> colleagues can we take those without objection. without objection, that should be the case. >> i want to reflect sort of how we got to this point and it has been a very difficult issue and i think that for me when we lost this battle a couple of years ago and had a loophole that we always believed remained open, it's a very painful experience. it was a very difficult experience, and one of the things that kept me going and that i know kept the

coalition going was the fact that we kept hearing from workers who had the courage, the nerve to continue to speak out and share their stories, even though it was not easy for them to do that and many times risk or at least having the real fear of retaliation, and people have asked me, what has changed and i think in some respects, the affordable crisis that we are facing provides a new perspective for us as a board. but, on a very personal note, want to take this opportunity to thank supervisor farrell, to thank supervisor breed, because i think that one of the key teaches is we had two supervisors that perhaps when

it comes to me were not algs -- were not always on the same political page, and it took a long time to really understand the complexity of this issue, to not only know and understand the intra-- intra camacho sees of the law, but how it impacts people. and as a legislator, i learned something new everyday and i just, on a very personal note, i want to thank supervisor farrell supervisor breed for taking the time to do that because i think that made a really big difference. i'm glad that other people were thanked, for supervisor breed, thank you for the [inaudible]. but i

want to close with a more personal note of gratitude and everyone knows about the road of helen. but i particularly want to acknowledge an individual who has been from my perspective, intrumental -- instrumental to get to go this point, the amazing paul kumar who has just provided from a great deal of clarity, a great deal of guidance and a level headedness that was truly needed. and so it's a very great day as supervisor kim said not only for workers but businesses in san francisco, and let's close this loophole. thank you.

>> thank you supervisor. with that, colleagues can we take this item same house, same call. without objection, this ordinance has passed on the first read as amended. [ applause ] >> with that colleagues, let's go to general public comment. >> the public may comment up to two minutes on the following items on the jurisdiction and the mayor

is in appearance and whether to go into closed sessions. the adoption with that reference to committee calendar. note that public comment is not allowed on those items that been subject to a public comment by a board committee. please direct your remarks to the bore as a whole and not to the supervisors or the audience and those using translation will be allowed twice the time to speak. if you need -- please remove the document when returning to live document. >> we've had public commons on those, and let's hear from our

first speaker. >> i'm peter, executive director of library users association. the mayor's struggle against the homeless and against the poor is coming to the library. on june 19, there's a previously scheduled plan to change the rules of behavior. and the library is taking average to create not only increased penalties but to add new rules that were not asked for by the mayor and to increasingly make the library a club for don'ters. -- club for donors.