of our heart and prayers and i wanted to mention that. i have a second for someone who was a friend of mine and who passed away as a brain an u rizism. carolyn, i know supervisor cohen would like to be added to this. carolyn grow up in canada. she was a very well regarded public affairs professional, transportation professional, government relations professional who and who was the director of relations. she's someone who we all knew to be brilliant and an amazing activist and someone's life who was cut way too short. she will be dearly missed. i also want to add my

voice to what supervisor wiener had announced about moving forward with vehicle license fee for 2016. in 2009 i asked our board to consider the vehicle license fee which i sponsored. there were nine of us that were willing to move it forward but we didn't at that time despite the fact that it was supported by a wide coalition. and i want to thank senator mark for working and allowing jurisdictions like san francisco to move forward with the vehicle license fee. as supervisor wiener mentioned, the 2030 transportation task force with lee has two measures. it's a bond we'll move forward and a sale's tax and a bond fee. it's important to plan for this. i could have supported moving forward with the license fee, i do appreciate the recent

conversations that transit officials and mayor lee and other colleagues have had, so i'm happy to join as a sponsorship. it's critical we pass the bond manages number year and then hopefully sequence in two years to move forward with the vlf while funding our vision zero, pedestrian and bike plans over the next few years. when governor schwarzenegger gutted sale taxes, it's important to -- when we complain about our pedestrian and cycling situations on the streets and congestions on the streets of san francisco, that these conditions are in the context of a transit system that has been under funded for over a decade so it's important for us to commit to november and commit to two years from november. i want to close by adding my voice to what supervisor kim has just

mentioned as the minimum wage. i was happy to participate with her and all the efforts that led to announcements today. as a city, we're at our best when we come together and with our announcements, we're asking san franciscans to help us as a city take care of our lower wage worker was this measure and i look forward to our conversations to hopefully passing this in november. the rest i'll submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor kim. >> thank you. i wanted to add my voice of support as a co-sponsor to the 2016 vehicle license fee ballot manages that you are will build upon a strong and successful campaign this year for the general obligation bond for street repaving which we anticipate will pass this november with a strong coalition. he want to acknowledge mayor lee's commitment to backing this measure in 2016 as well as funding the $22 million delta remaining

in ssmta budget over the next couple of years. this measure is an important step to following our revenue road map and fund the city's needs around transportation and in particularly something very close and dear to my heart is pedestrian and bike safety. as we encourage more of our residents to get on muni or get on their bike or walk, we need to make sure people can do it safely and quickly. transportation funding will -- has continued to be a priority along with the dollars necessary to fully realize our investigation zero goals. bringing our vehicle license fee back up to 2 percent, of every car value is the right revenue source to pay for road engineering, and street paving and bike and pedestrian safety. san francisco is a transit for city and we have the political flexibility to lead

where other cities in california are still struggling to prioritize people over cars. i want to thank state senator mark forgiving the city and county an opportunity to bring this measure to the voters so we can back fill funding, that as president chiu has mentioned was gutted from our budget years ago. i look forward to supporting a charter amendment -- transit infrastructure should be allocated and the analysis on how that gets spent throughout the city. it is -- there's so many unmet need and we want to make sure it happens in a way that benefits all of our residents, but in particular, our most vulnerable and transit dependent residents and i want to acknowledge some of our strongest advocates that made sure this was passed. we have to spend

time educating and convincing voters that not only is this the right revenue source and pay more to build a safer city, but we have to convince voters to know that we're going to spend it wisely. the bike coalition, and walk sff and the transit equity and i want to recognize wiener and for his efforts to make sure we continue on this road map. i forgot to do a big thank you around our minimum wage ballot measure that we are introducing today with the entire board of supervisor and with the mayor. i forgot to honor lee who spent countless hours to keep the different stakeholders and all the different parties and all the different positions together so that we can get to the place that we got to late last night so i

wanted to thank and acknowledge her and the rest i submit. >> thank you supervisor. that concludes role call. >> why don't we move back to item 27 on hcso. supervisor campos. >> thank you. thank you, mr. president. and my apologies. thank you for your patience. i am absolutely thrilled today to be introducing a long with supervisor reed, supervisor farrell, a set of amendments that finally lead to the closure of a loophole in the health and security ordinance that has left more than 26,000 workers in san francisco without access to health care. the amendments that we're introducing is updating our health care law that was

passed by supervisor, so we have health care that works with the affordable care act so we have as many san francisco workers covered. and we have had indeed the most shocking and inhumane inequality in san francisco for the last few years. this is an issue that so many of us have been working on for more than 4 years and i want to thank all the members of the coalition that are here. the loophole has gotten bigger because of limitations in terms of how these healthy reimbursement accounts will

work. today i will be introducing amendments that were developed in coordination with supervisor's london brooed and mark farrell. i believe that the amendments that have been put together and that have been circulated to all my colleagues strike the rights to protecting the worker and taking into accounts of small businesses. i want to take this opportunity on a very personal note to thank supervisor farrell, to thank supervisor breed, and to thank my co-sponsors for working so hard to finally address this issue. it has been a long time coming. after these brief remarks, i'll turn it

over to farrell and breed so they can talk about the amendments incorporated in the package but i want to explain some additional amendments that i made in committee that is in the original ordinance. i created a program called cover san francisco which was designed to use employer expenditure money, most efficiently when they pay money to the city to enroll workers. when employers pay into the health access program, the department of public health enrolls workers at a reduced rate. i originally designated a third path which is the creation of covers san francisco which was going to provide

additional local subsidies for workers who were eligible for insurance through covered california but who had otherwise couldn't afford it. the department of public health informed me and my office in our coalition that they wanted us to amend the ordinance to give them more time to develop their own program for the purpose of using employee expenditure money to get as many people employed. the coalition in my office agreed to make the change because we believe and understand, we recognize that the department's desire to have flexibility in how the program is designed and so the amendments that we made in committee provide that flexibility by removing the language creating the covered san francisco program and adding language directing dph to develop a health access program designed to maximize the number of san

francisco workers that can purchase health insurance and also directing the department of public health to present its plan and its recommendations in time for the 2016 covered california plan year. >> before i turn this over to supervisor breed and farrell, i want to describe the additional amendments to the law. i wanted to take a moment to actually thank all of the people who have made it possible for us to be here. being with tom amuona who is responsible for have universal health care in san francisco. thank you tom for not only the original law but your guidance as we're try to go close this loophole. on behalf of more than 26,000 workers who will get health care, i want to thank the san francisco labor county and here

local two, the california nurses association, united educator of san francisco, the american confederation of teachers local 2121, the national union of health care workers, sciu local 20 to 1. uc berkeley labor center, health access, the san francisco clinic conversion, ace, the san francisco organizing project, young workers united, jobs for justice, single pay or now, and so many others. i especially want to highlight the incredible tenacity and long hours and so much work that has put into -- that has gone into this from my chief of staff hillary ronan. we have been working on this for combiet some time and hillary, we finally did it and i want

to thank our city attorney, and the various deputies who have worked on this legislation over the years including vince who sits on the northern district federal court, and sherry kaiser who has been incredible in guiding us through a complicated law that in a way that not only insures that we have illegally sound proposal, but one that will address the underlining issues at hand. i believe this legislation is important at a very critical time as supervisor kim indicated, we have an issue of inequality in san francisco. we do have the fastest growing inequality and to address that issue, to make san francisco affordable for all of our people, it's not enough to make sure that

they make a fair wage, but health care is an important component and i am just so proud that the 26,000 workers and their families who for the last few years have not had access to basic health care will have that access and i want to thank my colleagues for making that happen, to my co-sponsor, supervisor yee, and breed, and cohen, and supervisor farrell. thank you very much and i turn it over to supervisor breed. >> supervisor breed. >> first i want to start off by thanking supervisor campos. i 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