director brinkman present. >> director borden. >> here. >> director lee. >> directors please be advised that electronic devices are prohibited at the meeting. anyone responsible for one going off may be asked to leave the room and cell phones do cause microphone interference so the board requests that they be turned off. do i have any comments from the board or the

public from the minutes of the last meeting? do i have a motion to approve? thank you. all in favor. minutes are approved. >> communications directors please be adviced that there that there will be no closed session today so the closed session will be cancelled. >> do you have anything from board members new or un finished business? all right. >> item 7 directors report. >> thank you members of staff and the public. a few things that i want to update you on today. starting with at the beginning of the month we launched the agency's official blog moving sf something we had been working on for quite a while a daily electronic

publication that shares with our stakeholders and friends and allows us to put out our own story to increase transparency and also boost employee moral and it will provide overviews and updates of projects and also new initiatives and also allow us to give people a little bit of a deeper look about the nuts and bolts of the agency and how the agency works and a strategic plan to give more people insight of the transportation system so that that they can learn more about it. it is online on our website at sfmta.com slash blog and you can subscribe for daily or

weekly updates and they they can be found on the blog page and welcome suggestions in terms of content anything you would like to see pushed out on the blog so to get that underway. the next thing i wanted to mention in a few weeks from now from 3 to 6:00 p.m. at the golden gate club we'll be hold be holding our annual safe driver event. we want to to honor and recognize 180 safe drivers people with 15 or more years of safe driving record and recognizing and supporting the the good work that these employees are doing and to inspire all the rest to

operate safely and it it can be done despite the challenges on our streets here. >> next, last week our buses were -- we were on the buses we rolled out the first adds for pedestrian safety program we're the project lead along with the police department public health department and walk san francisco this ad campaign all part of vision zero. it came out of a lot of analysis that looked at data and used focus groups to really identify what needs to be targeted and to whom and it's -- it will be targeting the driver violations of pedestrian rights of way responsible for nearly

two-thirds of all pedestrian collisions so we're trying to use not just put out random ads out there but trying to be thoughtful and strategic about what behaviors we're targets and the it stops here graphic that graphically depicts the behavior we're looking for as for such as drivers crossing before the crosswalk and they had seen a number of different options. in could in conjunction with that the enforcement campaign and coordination with the education campaign providing 24 high visibility enforcement days where officers will be on the streets and citing drivers for violating pedestrian's right of way and they have stepped up traffic enforcement

and this education campaign we're particularly excited about. also we're working with community groups and the the california conservation corp we have people out there talking to pedestrians and businesses in our 4 key corridors some some of the highest collision corridors as well as highlighting needs of the drivers to give people in the crosswalk the right of way and we'll have bumper stickers for cars who are willing to take the pledge taxi companies have been taking the pledge and soon be bringing the pledge to people travelling on bikes and we'll get some bike bumper stickers and as you know when we talk about pedestrian safety we talk about the 3 e's education enforcement and as

we continue the engineering design changes that round out our path towards vision zero so very excited to see that roll out and finally also our very exciting -- recently you all recommended the the board of supervisors approve the contract to replace and expand our light rail vehicle fleet happy to update you i guess it was last tuesday the board of supervisors unanimously i'd say enthusiastically accept your recommendation and approve the contract we hope to to to be entering a notice to proceed to the contract or by the end of this month it's maybe one of the single biggest thing we'll do as an agency to improve

transit service in san francisco and the first car would come in towards the end of 2016 and the first couple of dozen by 2018 and expand beyond it from that point forward and very exciting some good news there and that completes my report. >> thank you. i just continue to be amazed 180 drivers that have 15 plus years driving without an avoidable accident it's really an accomplishment and thank you for noting we'll roll out to the bicyclists i think that will be good. i remember in southern california when i was younger pledging a slower driving speed. do we

have anything else. >> the blog is amazing i really appreciate it whoever is behind it and look forward to it. >> i think more people should make sure to tweet it out. >> a credit to our communications directors the chief of the blog and a lot of folks on the agency providing content and hopefully it will be useful. any public comment? >> no member has presented an interest. >> so this is the council report mr. murphy is not here so we'll move onto general public comment this is an opportunity for members of the of the public to address the board not on today's agenda. we'll start with richard rothman followed by nate

tweery. >> good afternoon my name is richard rothman i live on on the 800-block of 38th avenue i want to thank you for the 5 l it's great i can make it down to city hall in half an hour that's great but what's not good news is balboa street. 38th and balboa they forgot about 28th and balboa they made parallel parking there but there's no bulb out, no stop sign, i've seen accidents. i won't drive across the street the last time i walked across the street, i almost got hit by a car so i won't even walk across the street anymore. dpw ran out of money and doesn't want to put them in and one of

the members from the engineering staff recommended that there be stop signs there but apparently m u.n. i thinks that it's more important to have an m u.n. i buses not stop so what's more important? moving forward or vision zero? well, my mind is vision zero and there needs to be a stop sign there and the engineering won't put it in because the the m u.n. i people don't want the buses to stop for another five or 10 seconds there and i really think something needs to be done and talking about mta i was on a safety advisory committee and chaired for 1 year and one reason i left i couldn't deal with the m u.n. i staff it's very hard to communicate with most of them and they make up there plans

before they come to the public so you take it here or we'll do it our way anyway and don't listen to the public so this stop sign needs to be put in right away. thank you. >> thank you mr. rothman. >> hello again. i'm with yellow cab. you hear an awful lot of complaints from the cab industry about the so-called rent a ride companies. they are unfair, they they are possibly questionable legality and it helps to complain and say to you help us. you need to know how to help us. but we're trying to help ourselves at yellow cab and i'm sure other cab companies as well engaged in an effort to get the drivers to be more customer conscious and more customer

responsible i i won't go into details but we want to be paid on a customer base and regain the customers we we lost and make new ones. that's neither here nor there but i'm here to ask you to help us with some muscular regulatory support and a couple of things one is a carrot and one is a stick if you could see your way to considering doing something about what i would call abusive drivers. i'll give you an example we had a driver recently accepted a service call saw somebody with luggage threw the customer out and in mind in my mind this kind of action needs to be dealt with -- this person should not drive a cab and i'd

like to see regulations addressing abusive behaviors by drivers who's consequence would be you lose your permit to drive a cab and i figured if this message got out it would be helpful to us and the public and that's one thing. as as far as a carrot is concerned it would be helpful to us if you had -- >> i'm sorry that's time. thank you. >> tone lee. >> good afternoon directors. i'd like to comment on a recent study from uc berkeley that was widely reported which i believe gave an unfair negative view of taxi industry response times the study used a poor poor methodology. for one thing,

why didn't they compare aps to aps a slower dispatch service as well as our very fast ap services and in fact our aps have shorter response times as uber and lyft and so the study had they compared aps and aps i believe the study would have found a very different story. in fact when it comes to response times on the aps, our small local taxi cab companies are running in neck and neck with billion dollar global corporations and another comment you may have seen press reports showing photographs of a suspect wanted for a murder

and that picture that appeared in the papers was taken by a taxi cab security camera one of the forward facing cameras and likewise sfpd recently asked for a video for dozens of taxi cabs that were in the area of fifth and mission a fatal hit-and-run incident and both of these instances are how taxi cabs enhance the safety of our city and also i love the new blog it's really good. thank you. >> thank you mr. rathman. >> good afternoon i spend a few hours to write down a point of view for my taxi industry so i make a copy so everybody have one of this kind of report.

you said report about our business, the middle high school -- and the team if they have full-time you know that that's what's happening to the cab driver now. each cab driver here to compete with 6 or 7 in the cab industry and they are making below them the minimum wage and go home for a long time already even in this busy system and cab driver trying to find justice from you or from the city and county of san francisco because it's a main part of that money here but very soon they are going to engage with the state they like to to go through all the democracy ways to find justice and fairness for the industry but maybe they are going to get crazy sooner or later because

the taxi driver already struggling i saw the documentary about the chinese driver before their shift they have to go through the -- they have to have a conversation with their supervisor look at their face it's okay or not okay and second go go to the machine and they had to answer all the computer questions on the machine so before they go go to the shift so they are catching up the western subway system within 15 years and they only use 15-year because they are using a good system for safety of the public. thank you. >> thank you mr. lee. >> good afternoon directors. i'm with desoto cab i just want to make a few points here today

on public comment and the rest i'll reserve for the taxi agenda item and i think it's extremely important right now to enforce the red lanes and this has privileged taxi cabs to get around the city faster but they are not really enforced and we're seeing others using these lanes without problems and i hope you would make it clear that there are consequences for doing that that and we need to enforce that and i speak for everyone that would go a long way and i want to make it clear there's nothing wrong with a company like uber or other technology companies that are using an interface but i want to remind the public where i where things are inherit ly unfair

with an un licensed public passenger vehicle driver we can not compete in an environment where there's 7 to 10 thousand people acting on demand in their personal cars doing the same service as taxi cabs no matter what we do our wait time 3 and a half minutes to get a cab when you book a cab with us. our driver income -- there's there's a demand for service out there but people feel they don't need to get a public passenger vehicle driver's license anymore go to a class understand the geography get a background check when they can take their personal cars and do the same service downloading aps and no control on the numbers and when we're playing by the rules and our competition isn't we may

not survive that. >> thank you. . >> good afternoon. my name is ashwani, ari i've been a taxi driver 26 years and board member of a new union called san francisco taxi worker's alliance we're affiliated with the new york taxi driver's alliance we have 450 members and over 800 drivers have signed a pledge to join the union and we look forward to be working with you in the future. thank you. >> thank you. >> mark gruberg? >> thank you board members mark gruberg i've been long associated with united taxi cab workers and have spoken on

their behalf many times and it's fully supportive of the new you know i of the new union of san francisco taxi worker's alliance and has been around for almost 30 years now and i think has very significant accomplishments over the years but it never achieved the goal of a mass taxi driver organization. and that is now happening through the san francisco taxi worker's alliance drivers from all ends of the taxi industry are coming together in this new organization and once it is fully fledged united taxi cab worker's tend to merge itself into the alliance and cab drivers need a strong organization to defend their rights promote their interests, and we are looking forward to working with this board in that

capacity, and i just wanted to convey that to you. thank you. >> thank you mr. gruberg. >> we have the last 2 people who have turned in the speaker card. >> thank you. today i want to -- i know you have housekeeping amendments there's another one i think is very important that you need to address very soon it's section 11-16, f 1 of the transportation code pertaining to someone who buys a medallion when they go to sell it 20 or 30 years later the transfer fee is 20 percent it's 5 percent in new york city and 5 percent in chicago and right about 5 percent in every other city that sells medallions and the effect of 20 percent has put a

a strangle on the potential buyer many people are balking at buying the very day they buy it the medallion is basically worth 200 200 thousand and to lower it to 5 percent -- so the perceived value would actually rise by 37 $37,000 that way and it might eventually this scenario with uber some day would put you in the position to raise the price back up and other cities they go for half a million or more so i think it's it's a penny wise pound foolish thing to put a high transfer fee on the drivers and i think the the director heinicke has gotten a lot of credit but right now the young drivers can put a pink mustache

on their personal car and they know they don't have adequate insurance and they can make a lot of money so you need a system the industry needs to boost and it's something under your control so i hope you will ask staff. thank you. >> thank you. >> mary maguire. >> she's the last person interested in addressing. >> good afternoon. i'd like to address the fact that they feel now free to use our cab stands. at the ballpark we can't get near our customers because they have been solicited. and you have got pco's every where you can't get one of them to do enforcement? so am i correct -- we're paying for these cab stands are we not? and how

much are these guys adding to your to your coffers? the hyatt regency and fair mont and also they now think they are eligible to use our transit lanes on third and geary and they brought this up at the puc hearings and they are requesting the legitimate use of the transit lanes and we pay for this don't we? so am i wrong? are they allowed to use the transit lanes? if they are it's crazy. they are riding up the middle and the buses can't get by and there's no enforcement for that and i've never heard commissioner heinicke why is there so much traffic lately. so go downtown

they have the aps and they are texting and you you are surrounded by them and you don't know how many cars out on the road who is driving them and didn't we pay to do a huge study to find out how many cabs on the road who is driving them how many people we pick up so this is crazy. i think we paid a few million for that. for that. >> thank you miss maguire. >> i'm sure that's the last person to fill out a speaker card. >> thank you. >> these items are considered routine unless a member of the board or public has asked an item to be considered separately. no one has submitted a speaker card for that. thank you. do i have a motion to approve the consent

calendar? >> approve. >> do i have a second. >> thank you. all in favor aye. >> the ayes have it and the consent calendar is passed. next item i believe we will call items 11 and 12 together. >> all right. >> and with that that 3 minutes to each speaker and housekeeping when you hear that first chime of of the little countdown clock that means you have 30 seconds left and when you hear the louder chime i will gently but politely cut you off all right? >> so we have a presentation and discussion regarding the status of the taxi cab industry in san francisco and item 12 ratifies all permit renewals and . it authorizes the director

to enter into an agreement with color schemes and it authorizes the director to enter into an agreement with the desoto cab company and lastly amends the code for the taxi medallion use fee through june of 2016. >> thank you. >> madam vice chair, as you heard 2 items one is kind of a general update reflecting a number of requests we've gotten from the board from the board in recent months for the state of the industry as well as some as some of the dynamics that we've already heard about today and in most of these meetings and one specific item that we'll seek your approval for as well so we'll ask kate to come

up and provide the presentation for item 11 and kate stepped in as an interim for a few months and a few weeks ago i appointed her and happy to have her in this capacity and hopefully she will cover all the issues you have been asking about and i'm sure we'll have good public, comment as well. >> thank you for taking the job. >> i couldn't think of a better job to work with and interesting dynamic. >> is that microphone on? >> yes. >> that one is not. you will have to speak from one of the big ones. sorry. >> did