the disability pension. she can't come back to work, so our culture is slowly moving in a protective direction. i know tony has the statistics about the equipment doesn't fend off the chemicals. i know it without knowing the chemicals. i come after a shower and i shower and i'm clean and i go home and go to the gym and start sweating on the equipment and i smell the sut. we don't know what it's going to do to us later. i got the cancers in my 40s. i don't have the gene so i holdup my end of the bargain. i work out. i keep healthy. i eat as best as i can. sometimes too much, but i eat as best as i can and i held up my end the bargain and i love my job, and i will continue to do

the best i can protecting myself in assuming some risk, but i want the city to support us. that's all i ask. thank you. >> thank you for sharing your perspective. next speaker. i want to take a moment and thank mr. ocon nshg -- oconner to bringing this to my attention. >> i'm a proud member of the firefighter cancer foundation. we stand before you to advocate for this legislation that can make the difference of a life of firefighter who have given their all for the city of san francisco. too often our firefighters are contracting deadly job related cancer that render them unable to work any longer. too many our firefighters are circuming to these cancers at a young age right in the prime of their life and these firefighters or their

family was left in the state of economic distress trying to keep their financial ship a float applying for disability pension and applying for benefits and these benefits have been denied by the retirement board. they have been denied after this cancer has been recognized as job related by the board and denied as it has been recognized by study. the result -- these brave men and women are short changed by the city that they gave their health and well-being to. this is not an example of san francisco's values. this is not the way we treat those who sacrifice for the greater good of this city. this will end this practice, the legislation that you advance will insure that every firefighter and police officer while they're fighting for their life won't have to fight for a check and their families who are left behind in the event they don't win that battle won't be left to start over

again and be left in economic distress. we witnessed a dramatic increase in the job related cancer that many firefighters are circuming. new chemicals that mass camacho raid that's in our furniture and clothing. a flat screen computer in every room that releases deadly toxins. our cancer foundation has led the way in research and prevention to mitigate this to ourselves and the efforts of tony, our president, he really has become the national figure head on this, and he's been inspiring and amazing to work with and we need to back up the work that he's done and insure that all the firefighters that he's advocating for, again, aren't left economically damaged once

they give their bodies to the city san francisco and we've taken effect to call this abby's law. >> if you can tell us about that? >> he's one of the -- he's been an advocate for cancer and his cancer has returned and he can't come here to speak, but we're going to speak for him, and hopefully we're going to deliver this legislation for him and know all of his efforts hasn't been in vein and the woman who we talked about was anice who spoke at our rally at the steps of city hall and a month after her testimony she received a letter saying that her pension -- disability pension was denied. she's been told by the state that her

cancer is job related and she's been told by the state board that her cancer is job related and she can't come back to work. what you're doing is critical for the firefighters of san francisco and i hope this goes through and i'm sure it will. thank you very much, supervisors. >> thank you for sharing your perspective. next speaker. >> president chiu, and supervisor tang. my name is mike. i'm a letter tired san francisco police officer. i'm in my 41st year. i represent police officers, firefighters deputy sheriff's and other employees from the appeals board and the city's retirement system. i have noted an extraordinary difference between my representation of the deputies sheriff's and the san francisco police officers and san

franciscos before the retirement board and that's because deputy sheriff's by virtue of being apart of the retirement system -- they join the same presumption that we're asking the board to give to our firefighters and police officers. i would like to bring to your attention, there's three types of retirement systems in california. the 1937 county's act which applies to 20 counties in california. the public employees retirement system which applies to the vast majority of public safety officers in the state of california and small independent systems such as ourselves. for 20 years, firefighters and police officers who are in public retirement system have received and obtained what we're asking in fairness inequity that police officers and firefighters receive. when you say president chiu this is a city

of saint francis which year accurate and you're proposing your legislation to protect those who protect us, also quite accurate, what we're really talking about financial protection. but the financial protection is emotional protection. as they protect, as you say supervisor we'll be protected. thank you for entertaining this legislation and i'd like president oconner [inaudible]. thank you. >> thank you mike he will. thank you for educating my staff and i on the complexity of our state and various retirement systems which i'll say to supervisor tang, overly complicated creating an establishing different standard and we have deputy sheriff's that enjoy one

starts, but our police officers and firefighters haven't been able to enjoy that. thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, president chiu. supervisor tang. my name is lawyer mac. i'm a 51 native san franciscan. i'm a husband, and father to two teenager daughters in. in 2001 i was diagnosed with stage one colon cancer. in 2011 my rectum was removed and i was given a bag while i recovered. in january of it 2012, a biopsy revealed that my cancer has spread. my cancer was now stage 4. since that

day, you can imagine the different emotions that not only i have experienced and had to deal with, but also my wife, and children. anger, disbelief, depression, anxiety are these emotions. i ask myself, why me. when i entered my profession, i knew it was a stressful job and i needed to take care of myself. i ate well and exercised and kept a well balanced of friends. my doctors were shocked, not only of my diagnoses but how it progressed to stage 4. genetic testing revealed nothing significant. i think about the countless hours working traffic controls and responding to car, house fires and walking through poorly renovated hotels

that were poorly renovated. and walking through areas that produced drugs. i think about the times i worked in a bes tuesday building for the better part of 10 years while assigned to the narcotic division. it took me 2 years to accept my diagnoses. i'm currently in remission and enjoying each day i'm here. but the reason i'm here today is not for my personal benefit, but for my wife cindy and children. and i'm the sole provider for my family and i'm here to provide. what about a year from now. the legislature before you had passed will give me another option on how i live the rest of my life, but it will give a since of comfort knowing my family and

children will be better take care of once i'm gone. aside from my family, there's nothing i enjoy doing more than serving the citizens of this great city. the legislation before you is important not only to me and my family, to all families of police officers and firefighters that serve this city. i respectfully ask that you pass this legislature that's before you today. >> thank you for sharing. next speaker, mr. donahan. >> good morning, my name is dan and i'm a proud member of the firefighter. firefighters local 798. i have served san francisco, i served on the san francisco democratic central committee, 2002, 2004, 2006 and i certain under mayor gavinson from 2005 and 2011 and i'm

devoted to the county and city of san francisco. i was born here, i work here and i have and will continue to have every intention to continue to serve just like you folks serve your district and the city and the county. on june 12th, i suffered a seizure. on june 18th, i had brain surgery to remove a brain mass later to learn it was grade two -- i'm one of the lucky ones. i'm a cancer survivor and i have a new perspective on life. i look at things differently. i look at my health and my family and i look at politics differently. shall it return and i hope it doesn't, because of this ordinance my family will be taken care of. i'm one of lucky ones. this is for

firefighters and police officers are here at the right time. today, and hopefully next tuesday the category will change. the importance of this legislation is really big, really significant, and it's going to help people that have lost hope, that have given up, that need assistance, so please move this important legislation forward to the full board. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. dan and i want to take the leadership for their legislation. any other members of the public that would like to speak. i would want to acknowledge supervisor -- supervisor breed wanted to be here and her aid wants to say a few words. >> she did want to be here for this item. she had an emergency and i think she is on route here, so hopefully she'll be here shortly. on her behalf, i want to say thank you president chiu for bringing

this forward and thank you mr. oconner. she was a firefighter before she was on the board. the men and women behind me and their colleagues, they risk their lives everyday on the job to protect us and the least we can do is protect them when their service makes them sick, so i would just request that you add supervisor breed as a sponsor for this legislation and thank you again. >> thank you, and i want to thank supervisor breed for her co-sponsorship. with that, unless there's other members of the public that wish to speak. madam chair, i think public comment is closed. >> thank you for your service and for sharing your heart felt testimony with us. i'm just surprised it has taken this long to make it to our board. so with that, would you like to thak a recommendation for a deposit of recommendation to the full

board. >> absolutely. thank you all of you, not just for your service, but for your work with my office to move this forward and i want to thank my aid who is watching this. this is her last piece of legislation she's working on and hopefully to all of our points, this will get done quickly. and i want to thank all of you who shared your perspectives and your stories. these are difficult topics and i think it is important for the public to know what all of you have had to go through as you have been protecting us and i do think this is so important that we get done and i very much appreciate this being brought to my attention but for that, we have so many heroes within city government that may not bring this to our attention, but because you have, we're able to do something about it. i do want to say and i think it was something that

tom oconnel mentioned, in addition to the work we're doing, we have so many new toxic chemicals we find in our central 21 communities and i hope to work with our firefighters and our police department to do whatever we need to do to prevent future cancers by going after new sources of toxic chemicals. i think that's the next front and i look forward to that work, but with all that, again, i want to thank you for your leadership and thank the retirement system and the budget analyst and yes, madam chair i would like to move this forward with full recommendation to the board for its consideration shortly. >> without objection. so moved. >> thank you president chiu. and with that, madam clerk, can you please call item number 2. >> resolution authorizing the mayor, or his designees, to cast assessment ballots in the affirmative on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, as the owner of three parcels of real property over which the board of supervisors has jurisdiction, that would be subject to assessment in the proposed property and business improvement district to be the lower polk community benefit

district. >> resolution authorizing the mayor, or his designees, to cast assessment ballots in the affirmative on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, as the owner of three parcels of real property over which the board of supervisors has jurisdiction, that would be subject to assessment in the proposed property and business improvement district to be the lower polk community benefit district. >> thank you, and again, our sponsor president chiu, i would like to turn it over to you. >> thank you madam chair. this is a simple item. a number of months ago, we moved forward the preliminary legislative work to establish a community benefit district in the lower polk community. those and those initial pieces of legislation will move forward. this will authorize the mayor or his designees to cast assessment ballots in favor of creating a community benefit districts for those parcels of property of which our city has jurisdiction and given that that declaration was something we did closely in conjunction with the mayor's department hoping we can do that, and i know we were suppose today have a couple of city staffers to present and i'm speaking for them and i ask that we move this forward with recommendation to the board as well. >> this has been long time coming so i'm happy to support

your efforts here. i'd like to open it up for public comment. seeing none, public comment is closed. would you like to send this forward? >> with positive recommendation. so moved. and madam clerk, is there any other item before board today? >> that concludes our business -- would you like to -- >> i apologize, we'll need to excuse supervisor breed from our meeting today. >> happy to excuse her. >> without objection. supervisor breed is excused and with that, our meeting is adjourned. thank you.

so, same time next week? well, of course.