>> supervisor tang: good afternoon everyone. welcome to october. we are at our october 1st, land use and transportation commit committee. jim supervisor katie tang along with jane kim and supervisor safai. are there any announcements before us? >> clerk: yes. silence all cell phones and electronic devices. fill out speaker cards and any documents should be submitted to the clerk.

items acted upon will appear on the october 16 board of supervisors agenda. >> supervisor tang: thank you. can you call item numbers one through seven consecutively. >> clerk: yes. [reading items one through seven] >> supervisor tang: thank you very much. we have francis mcmillan from planning. >> good afternoon supervisors. francis mcmillan. i have a presentation. thank you. items before you today are the

article ten and article 11 designations. today's designations includes three individual art ten landmark designation and new pullman hotel and hotel utah. one article ten is proposed for today. the article 11 items include addition of two properties to the kearny market district, the designation of the mint district and change in designation of 26 individual building. each of the items was supported by the historic preservation commission and planning commission in march through june of this year. the surveys conducted over the last several years are examples

of property with architectural design. their statements serve aztec any cal studies used to inform the development and protecting -- as, technical studies and used to reflect the industrial and artistic feel of the neighborhood. the new pullman hotel is significant as one of the few remaining and best examples of the residential hotels. it is also significant for its association with seasonal and african american railroad workers including pullman porters and maids who established the first all black union in the country, contributed to the development of the african american middle class. the property is the only known property in san franciscan stanning strong associations with pullman porters and maids.

the pile drivers bridge is associated with post disaster reconstruction era. the union hall at 224 and 226 guerrero. this is a striking example of architect commonly employed in the design residential hotel building constructed during period and the hotel is notable for having survived a large scale redevelopment of soma during the mid-20th century during which much of the building stock was raised. the last article ten designate nation is named for the -- designation is named for the two

story warehouse building unique to the district. it is significant because it is representative of 19 century development of the south of market area and maritime commissioners a-- commerce along the west coast. it was developed in the 19 industry and continued through the 1906 earthquake and fire reconstruction. it is one of the last remaining enclaves of main stream building following the 1906 earthquake and fire. the first of the two designations before you is the addition of two properties to the kearny market district. 55 fifth street, and 1923 hotel.

their heights, scale and massing along with the renaissance detailing share direct relationship with the architectural character and historic context, making them natural additions to the district. the mint mission district is co comprised of industrial properties. as a reminder, article 11 building are classified with numerical rankings. buildings one and two are significant and contribute to categories three and four are smaller scale and possess less ornate detail. the district is rare with this mix of building types and representative of the post 1906 earthquake and fire reconstruction period.

the 26 properties proposed for a change in article 11 designation best represent the neighborhood. they include examples of the industrial and commercial hotel properties that were once common to soma. the majority of the properties are not currently rated under article 11 or classified or category 5. as outlined on this slide, throughout the development of the central soma survey, multiple outreach efforts were conducted. through recent notification we have received several inquiries from property owners with a mix of questions and concerns related to designation. department staff has held a number of meetings and spoken with owners to discuss their concerns, including the transferable development rights and using the california

building code and certificate of appropriate requirements. in closing, the article 10 and 11 designations included in the soma plan policies include supporting the preservation, recognition and well-being of the neighbor's resources, protecting heritage properties, designation to article 11 of the planning code and supporting the features that shows the art of the neighborhood. this concludes my presentation and happy to answer any questions. >> supervisor tang: thank you very much for that presentation. colleagues, any questions or comments? okay. seeing none, we will go to public for items one through seven. any members of the public who wish to speak on the historic designation items? >> this technique of conserving and preserving historic building is an example how you can

preserve buildings in area owned and controlled by nationality of white people. when you have historical building in areas that is predominantly black and hispanic, latino, people of color, you never come through talking about you want to preserve the building. you want to tear it down and build a brand new building and jack up the expenses of rent and move the original people in the area out of the district. and you do it all the time. every time you do it, i'm going to check you. and by the same response, i'm going to step outside just to conference of taking care of business in city hall because this is not the correct place to take care of these kind of problems with the way your administration is. i have to get you in front of a federal district judge with the

price fixing and price gauging and you get trillions and billions of dollars to high-tech companies that don't need a damn blink. i'm tired of it. i'm tired of it. about you talking about i'm being decisive. pitting minds of people against each other when i speak up for every nationality. [bell] >> i don't appreciate you talking to me like that. a black person come here and tell you he had two cancer surgeries because of the radiation in your district and you slam the door in his face. female tell you how 13 people have died because of the cancer causing materials in your district and you hang up the phone. do not come through and how black people have been discriminated for years in san francisco. [bell] >> supervisor tang: thank you very much. any other members of the public who wish to comment on items one through seven? seeing none, public comment is

closed. colleagueses can we get a motion on these items? >> supervisor kim: i would like to move forward items one through severalen with recommendation to the full burden. >> supervisor tang: we are missing our colleague, but do we need to roll call then? >> clerk: sure. on the motion to send this matter forward as recommended, supervisor safai? absent. supervisor kim? kim aye. supervisor tang? >> supervisor tang: aye. >> clerk: there are two eyes. >> supervisor tang: thank you. these items will proceed. item eight, please. [reading agenda item]

>> supervisor tang: thank you. we are joined by supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. it is in response to multiple fires we have seen in the city over the past few years that have led to property damage, massive tenant displacement and some instances loss of life. there were 252 two-alarm or greater residential fires between 2004 and 2016. the most horrendous fire in my district was 22nd and mission in 2015 where 58 men, women and children were displaced. access to fire escapes were locked and that the alarm system didn't work. many of these survivors are low income families with young children.

one person also tragically died. today this building is nothing but a hole in the ground and people have not been able to return to their homes or community. this legislation provides the city with a strong mechanism that will help keep our most vulnerable building safe and hopefully prevent tragedies like the one at 22nd and mission in the future. while there are many upstanding building owners in the city, what this legislation does is focus on those who have a pattern of negligence. the legislation will be triggered when a building owner has been issued two or more notices of violation for violation of fire safety requirements and any fire hazard continues to exist or reoccurs after abatement. the violation must also be so extensive or of such a nature that the health and safety of the resident is endangered and the property owner has failed to abate the violations.

in these situations, the city can issue a fire life safety notice and order, which can be signed off by either dbi or fire in consultation always with our fire marshal. this order will make clear that not only must the building owner resolve their outstanding notices of violation, but they will now also be required to do so through one of the following. either install a new sprinkler system, install a new fire alarm system or make improvements to either one of those systems. this legislation amends the housing building and fire codes and the admin code because it makes clear that the landlord will not be permitted to raise the rent on tenants to pay for the installation. landlords will not want to incur the significant price and be incentivized to keep their building safer and up to date.

we have added one more provision to this legislation which is reflected in the version before you colleagues on page five beginning on lines 13. once building owners receive a notice of violation related to fire safety, they will be made aware of the consequence for not abating fire safety violations within the specified time period and be made aware of this new law. in addition, once a building owner has reached two or more notices they will receive a warning letter letting them know they are a recipient of the order. negligent landlords need to understand if they don't take life safety then there are clear and serious consequences. i would like to thank many people who worked on this legislation starting out with the incredible rosemary who is

now retired for developing this idea together with my chief of staff, caroline who have worked on this for many years and are really the brains behind this incredible piece of legislation. thank you caroline and rosemary. i hope you're watching. i also wanted to thank the fire marshal, dan decosio. jamie and bill from dbi. and then a huge thank you to anty displacement coalition for help in developing this legislation, especially justin and tommy from the housing life committee and rose maria from the tenderloin housing clinic. i want to thank charlie from the san francisco apartment association for reviewing this and providing feedback. thank you so much. with that, in my colleagues have any questions or comments.

>> supervisor tang: i think we just wanted to see the amendments and maybe we could look at them while comment is going on. >> supervisor ronen: it is in the packet you have. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you. we can just go to public. >> supervisor kim: i wanted to say something. first i just want to thank supervisor ronen and her office for their really incredible work on this ordinance. i know when we had a number of major fires in district nine but also district six, many of us were wracking or rain or a legislation that would be appropriate to addressing this without doing a city wide requirement on every single multi-unit apartment building. it is obvious a great deal of work went into it. it is a very elegant and sump solution that help -- simple solution to help and protect lives and housing of our

residents. i just want to thank you in advance because redid require springi springi springing -- sprinklers. thank you. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. >> supervisor tang: each speaker will have a few minutes. i will call a few names to line up on the side. julio, joseph, anna, raquel veronica gomez and i will call some more after we hear from our first speakers. >> public: i agree with this and also move to expand it. the ordinance prohibiting landlords from increasing rent to cover the cost which is supposed to be paid for by the

owner of the building in the first place. normally i speak up for people in low-income and very low-income brackets and people with disabilities both mental and physical. but there's a unique time where i came to speak up for people in high-income brackets who are being discriminated against and involved in rent increases based on general routine maintenance. you claim that the rent ordinance prohibits landlords from increasing rents. i believe my last comment the rent stabilization board is not supposed to be price fixing and increasing the rents when they are supposed to be maintaining rent control. the same response has been studied by the university of berkeley pertaining to how rent control will stable out the displacement of low-income, very

low-income and fixed income and people who are retired on a fixed income. by going and taking care of the business the way you have been doing -- the study produced information by professors at berkeley both law school -- [bell] >> public: san francisco, bayview district and san francisco has lost thousands of low-income black households where lower income prices were already established. you incorporate situations per any expense that is supposed to be liable to the owner and pass it on to the tenant and undermine the tenant that is not aware of their rights pertaining to housing. you signed a contract with the owner. [bell] [microphone cut off]

>> public: good afternoon. i have been working with sf tenants since 2017. i'm here today to support the legislation. i have been working with tenants who have been displaced by fires in the mission and what often goes unmentioned in this conversation about fires and housing units is the difficult process of tenants returning to those units or their homes. housing units are supposed to be temporary displacements but they turn into permanent displacements. the fire -- they are supposed to be temporary until the proper repairs are completed. so, the fire life legislation before you can help ensure the safety and well-being of these tenants and reduce the amount of impact it has on the building

and the tenants that live in the building. please support this legislation as it will help reduce the impact fires have on the san francisco tenants. thank you. >> public: hi. good afternoon. my name is leticia and i'm one of the lead housing organizers. i have been working with tenants in the mission and other neighborhoods across the city since 2013. and i'm here today in support of this ordinance to amend the building and other housing codes to ensure landlords take the safety of their tenants seriously. i can share as an organizationer -- organizer, i have worked with tenants and i have conducted building inspections and

outreach when tenants have horrible repairs. i have worked with families displaced by fire including tenants from the 22nd mission street fire and i have seen the gaping hole there with no hope. so, we really believe that this legislation is vital in protecting the well being and safety of tenants. and although i can say that we work closely with inspectors from the department of building inspection to get landlords to obey these code violations, in the tenants unit and in the common areas of buildings, those repairs can take anywhere from six or more months to abate. so, my hope is that with the amendment of this housing code -- [bell] >> public: slum lord will take the notices of violations that are issued to them and actually fix the fire code violations

rather than paying fines. and the sro hotels have sprinklers and i don't see where landlords have ignored multiple fire code violations shouldn't be held to the same standard. please vote to support and move this legislation forward. thank you. >> public: hello. my name is raquel and i'm a housing advocate at the housing clinic. i'm part of the code enforcement outreach program and i'm a mission native. i support this legislation because every building deserves to have a fire sprinkler system that are working and up to code. as you may all know, the mission has had many fires in the last couple of years which have displaced many families. in particular, one building my friend used to live in which was on 22nd and mission. it was his senior clear of college and because of that

fire, he lost everything. growing up, my mother would take my sister and i to the markets to buy produce and when we would get good grades, she would take us to popeyes. when i walk by i can think of the memories i had as a child. i will never forget the night when that building caught on fire. there would be nights i would have a hard time sleeping because i was scared my building would be next. by passing this legislation, not only are we helping families stay housed, but we are keeping memories and stories that we grew up so we can pass it on to the next generation. can you imagine in that building would have had sprinklers, it would possibly still be here. thank you. >> public: good afternoon. my name is angie saunders. as of a month ago i was living in the mission hotel sro. i now live in a private

apartment. i believe this gives the department of building inspections the legislation would potentially benefit. i believe this gives the department of building inspection and sf fire department enforcement tools to hold negligent landlords responsible. this legislation is a step in the right direction for private apartment tenants like myself towards fire life safety prevention. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you so much. >> public: [speaking spanish].

>> public: i'm going to translate for her. good afternoon supervisors. my name is veronica gomez and i live at 642 hyde in a private apartment. in january 2017, after christmas, 2017, we suffered a great fire that impacted myself and my children, my three children. it was a very tragic situation and we had to relocate our whole lives. although this situation did not impact us physically, the trauma

of this event can still be felt. even today, my children get scared when they hear the sound of the fire trucks and firemen coming. i don't want anyone else to suffer as we did. for this reason, i strongly support the legislation and i ask that you all do as well. thank you very much, supervisors. >> supervisor tang: thank you. >> public: good afternoon supervisors. my name is anna g. and i'm with the code enforcement outreach program. and i'm here to voice those ten other private apartments in our neighborhood, the tenderloin, that couldn't make it here to this hearing today. they are very happy that this legislation is going to hopefully pass. i'm just here to say thank you and support for the legislation.

thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you. >> public: good afternoon supervisors. joseph from the richmond district housing rights committee. speaking in support of the fire safety legislation before you, i want to thank caroline and supervisor ronen to hold landlords accountable and for building the apartment association together with the d d displacement coalition together. fire safety is seen only as an issue that effects the heart of the buildings. these are seniors like the ones who call me every day because they are still waiting to get back into their apartments in a four-unit building after a fire that happened nearly two years

ago. the tenants in a 16-unit building who are scared because there are constantly electrical problems that the landlord refuses to fix or many tenants displaced this last year throughout the richmond. so many that it is hard for us to track down all the tenants once they have been displaced. having a better system of accountability is essential. once a tenant is displaced by fire it often takes years for the owner to fix the damage so the tenants can move back in. the additional fire safety notice and order is a huge step in the right direction. so, we in housing rights committee are in full support to make sure they are working together to make sure tenants don't continue to live at risk of displacement or having their possessions or lives threatened by fire that could have been prevented. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you. >> public: hi.

from the housing rights committee. this measure is a no-brainer. it may not be what i would like to see happen in the long run, which is fire sprinklers in all building but it is an important step in the direction. we know that sprinklers save lives. landlords with fire code violations that go unheeded for years should be required to put in sprinklers. every day these landlords continue with business as usual, lives of the tenants the are at risk. we have seen what can happen when they ignore violations. who knows if that fire at 22nd and mission would have happened. i have been with housing rights for 18 years. tenants debt displaced by fires and end up out of their homes for much longer than they ever imagined. sure, tenants have the right to return if they are under rent control. if you are out of your place for two or three years, what does that matter if you have to find

another apartment? are you really going to come back to your apartment? so, major displacement happen with fires and a lot of tenants don't know they have the right to return even though they do. i hope this committee will vote to send this legislation to the full board with an absolute positive recommendation. as i said, it's a no-brainer folks. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you. i want to make sure that anyone who wants to testify who has a mobility challenge, feel free to just jump the line at any point. >> public: good afternoon, supervisors. we are in full support of this legislation. we feel if this legislation was in place maybe five or eight years ago we would have saved many lives from 22nd and mission and two 2 on 24th street where e was a father and his small daughter who died in that fire. i think the most important thing about this legislation is of course saving lives of those

individuals or having these people displaced, families spread out throughout the city or other parts of the bay area. it is far reaching. it is important to keep families in place when they leave, they lose their services. they lose the school their children are going to. they lose the connections with their families and the neighborhood. it is very far reaching. this is a very important piece of legislation to make sure these families are kept in place and safe. thank you. >> public: thank you, board of supervisors. my name is mel beetle. i live in the ramon hotel and member of the central city sro collaborative. i am speaking on behalf of the central city sro collaborative tenant organizers. and you see us all standing.

[applause] >> public: although i don't live in a private apartment building, i strongly support this legislation. because i live in an sro, i benefit from the strong standards of the 2002 sro sprinkler ordinance legislation. i want to make sure that all the tenants in san francisco are safe from fires in their buildings. i support this legislation because it takes preventive action against negligent landlords. please take note of what i have said. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you so much.

>> public: hello. afternoon. special thanks to supervisor ronen and supervisors fewer and mandelman who are helping get this legislation through. my name is cathy lipscomb and i'm a tenant at 4220 cesar chavez street. just this time last year my faucets kept dripping in the sink, kitchen and bathroom. i notified my landlord several times and the situation wasn't remedied. so, i called building inspection and within pretty short time, an inspector appeared at my door and she noted the faucets were indeed broken and said to me as i was leaving maybe we should walk through the building. would you like to come with me? i said of course. to my astonishment -- not so much because the building is not the worst building in the world but it is not in great shape. it is a framed building on a windy hill. there were 12 housing code

violations in the building. half of which were fire related. the most astonishing one was a storage space on the fifth floor which dedid not have a sprinkler and there was a presence of excessive storage. personal items including fabric, plastic bags, metal and wires were stacked to the top of the storage closet. there were two exits which were -- which did not have lighting that was in good shape. [bell] >> public: there was a need to remove an egress obsess on one floor. on the first floor, the rear exit door did not close properly. on several floors, exit sign lighting was inoperable. that's enough. i think you get the point. i certainly notice that this hearing the difference though between the treatment in noe

valley and those in the mission and that's pitiful. work on this legislation and thank you very much for recommending it to the full board. >> public: good afternoon. theresa. thank you so much supervisor ronen. this is wonderful. it is about time and as tommy mecca said, it is indeed a no-brainer. this is a way landlords with protect the human beings and animals in their buildings and hopefully that is an investment in human kind. i'm still waiting for my friend to be able to return to her home of 74 years that was burned four years ago. there's been another fire since on powell, that corner on to columbus where i happened to be sitting in a restaurant right

around the corner when the fire broke out. i was grateful that there weren't any people in there at that time. but that could have been yet another horrible tragic story. so, i'm so happy also that the folks in stockton and pacific were able to return to their home after the fire. that meant that they were without their home for two years. but two years they were able to move back in and to a beautiful remodelled area. be back in their community again. so, not to lose people through death, through fire. not to lose housing. not to lose community. this is so important. thank you and i hope you all will of course recommend this to the full board. thank you. >> public: good morning -- or

good afternoon supervisors. my name is rosa maria. i'm the program manager for tenderloin housing clinics code enforcement outreach program. i'm proud to have worked on this legislation with supervisor ronen, with caroline, with tommy and joseph from housing rights committee. i am also a private apartment resident of the tenderloin who has awoken many a times to the jolt of a fire alarm going off in our building. i wholeheartedly ask for your support of these fire life safety amendment legislation that i really do think will strengthen the measures against negligent landlords. rosa, rafael, victoria, veronica, virginia, olga, miguel, these are just some of the names the fire impacted individuals our outreach program has assisted and counselled. i share with you their names so you may understand there's been

real life tears and real life heartache that has been felt by those that have been fire displaced and trauma that actually does come from it. many of these individuals are seniors and low-income families. i want to express that there is definitely this power that you guys have by passing and supporting this legislation. it will prevent others from experiencing this kind of trauma and struggle families have faced. i do believe again that this legislation is a step in the right direction towards strengthening the expansion of fire safety prevention. i hope we can count on your support and i can't wait to work towards future strengthening of this legislation. thank you very much, supervisors. >> supervisor tang: thank you. >> public: p good afternoon. my name is dina.

i'm here to support the fire life safety sprinkler legislation. we are supporting the recommendation of this legislation as it encourages property owners to remedy issues that otherwise ignore and can result in permanent loss and displacement of population. i believe this legislation also clearly identifies mechanisms for department of building inspection, department of fire department can hold others accountable. we want to acknowledge the legislation amends fire building and housing codes ensure that landlords that have incurred multiple violations remedy these issues in a timely manner. we also appreciate the consideration that these improvements in quality and safety should not be at the cost of tenants, but that are responsibilities of habitability

standards property owns should already be adhering to. thank you. >> public: good afternoon. tony robles. our organization supports this legislation. the expression is a pound of prevention is better than a cure. we hope this prevention will ultimately be the cure for what others have called a no-brainer. i know people, myself, that have lived through fires and were not able to return to their homes. it shows responsibility on the part of the landlord to take this seriously. that this legislation is a strong message to landlords that habitability is -- this is a part of habitability and this is a life and death issue because people's lives can be lost in a fire of course.

and taking preventive measures can make the difference between life and death. thank you. >> public: good afternoon. brook turner with the coalition of better housing. i have been asked to speak. we are generally supportive of the ordinance and thankful for the outreach that supervisor ronen and her staff did to our industry. we believe that the ordinance adequately targets the bad actors and does not punish property owners who act in good faith and work diligently to maintain their buildings. we agree mandating updates in some buildings which posts risks. we also believe this ordinance targets the buildings and residents that are truly at risk

without mandating huge construction projects which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for small property owners city wide. one point of concern of course comes at the issue of cost pass throughs. the ordinance departs from the existing city law and rent board policy by prohibiting pass-throughs for fire upgrades subject to an order by dbi and fire. we would ask the committee and board of supervisors to consider a provision to bring it into accordance with the capital improvement law. it targets truly problem mat hick buildings in giving dbi discretion about what sort of upgrades to mandate, we are generally supportive of the ordinance. and we believe it strikes an appropriate balance to target problematic buildings without

punishing good actors. thank you. >> public: hello. i'm a tenant at 634 powell street. i urge the committee to support this legislation. i want to thank you for your diligence and detailed wording in the legislation. san francisco's the largest landlord is veritos operating a business model that makes a compelling case for this legislation. since 2007, it has acquired more that 250 rental controlled buildings, many in which have years or even decades of deferred maintenance. rather than make sensible and sustainable improvements for the benefit of existing tenants, it

has rolled out a business plan to renovate these building for the supposed benefit of new market rate tenants. at 634 powell, i have seen multiple neighbors leave our building through hazardous conditions. once they leave, verits gets a new unit, washer, drier, new microwa microwa microwave. i know this because i'm now displaced for the third time in unit 43 in my building due to hearing jackhammering. [bell] >> public: needless to say even throw with the electrical upgrade, the circuit breaker goes off because there's not enough power. in january 2018, a neighbor of mine experienced a spark --

outlet sparking from her electrical outlet. sorry. sparking in her unit. the building was built in 1912 and we have -- [bell] >> public: anyway. thank you so much. >> public: good afternoon supervisors. david elliott lewis. jim a tenant advocate with the central city sro collaborative and i work with tenderloin people's congress. i'm a three decade resident of the city and i have lost friends and neighbors due to fires. fires that were preventible, building that didn't have adequate protection. as i recall, even a former supervisor here lost her home and a neighbor due to a fire. a fire in a small building that she rented that did not have adequate fire protection.

so, it's touched even this board. this legislation will help. it doesn't solve the problem but it will help deal with some of the negligence by private landlords in not providing adequate fire sprinkler warning systems and sprinkler infrastructure. so, i hope you will support it and pass it to the full board as proposed. thank you so much, supervisors, for doing this. we really appreciate it. >> supervisor tang: thank you. i want to call the remaining cards. ray sullivan, i think it's lorena. rick chavez and kevin. thank you. >> public: good afternoon, supervisors. my name is ray sullivan. i'm speaking on behalf of the housing rights committee in san francisco. i moved into my current apartment building located at 709 gary street in december of 2016. since that time, san francisco fire has been called out to the

building. for example, a dryer fire caused the basement to be filled with spoke and the motor system also caught on fire. both of these fires submitted smoke. when i moved into my apartment, my kitchen window allowing egress to the fire escape was also painted shut. veritos failed to install safety lighting fixtures along with illuminated exit signs. failure to have these critical fire safety fixtures installed in san francisco apartment buildings and painting windows to fire escapes shut posed a clear and present risk to lives. we have no way of escaping during a fire emergency when we may have only seconds before

succumbing to smoke. we need to pass this to keep large corporate landlords accountable and responsible for the health and safety of all their tenants. i wanted to take a motion on behalf of the san francisco first responders, the firemen, the brave men and women of san francisco fire that go into these buildings to evacuate tenants in a fire emergency. i stopped by their fire house and they asked me to speak before the board today. really because their lives are in jeopardy along with tenants when these fires come up. thank you for considering this legislation. >> supervisor tang: thank you so much. >> public: good afternoon. my name is kevin stall. i live in a private residence. about three weeks ago i was in my apartment and all of a sudden i hear the fire alarm going off and i thought oh-oh, this is it. this is going to be a big fire. i'm going to be displaced. turns out it was somebody who cooked their food a little bit

too much and it set off the fire alarm. it could have been a lot worse. unfortunately, my studio doesn't have sprinklers and i can only assume the rest of the building is the same. we live in a very dense city. this is -- my apartment is mid--block on mission street and there's two other apartment building right next door. if that fire was really a bad one and spread to other apartments, it could have been a very serious situation. this legislation is crucially important for people not only because i wish it was putting springing lers in all -- spring clers to make it -- sprinklers to make it safer. i hope this legislation has enough teeth to make sure this

gets through. i really hopefully in the future that we could work on getting all buildings everywhere have sprinklers. please recommend this to the full board and thank you for all your hard work. >> supervisor tang: thank you so much. >> public: hi. my name is linda and i'm a tenant at 634 powell street. i urge this committee to pass this legislation. i want to speak on a pattern we have noticed about the fire safety legislation passed by the board of supervisors in 2017. in recent board hearings, veritos tenants have been able to document how this landlord passes on cost. a fire alarm upgrade as capital

improvement. in a recent board -- rent board capital improvement hearing for 621 stockton, tenants testified the new alarms were not fully functional and that the landlord didn't satisfy the rent board competitive bidding requirements. tenants uncovered the company's responsibility for the work aec alarms was founded in 1972 by the father of veritos ceo. tenants also raised objections to related project managers costs that were a part of the fire alarm upgrade. unicorn consulting according to a secretary of state statement of information is headed by the

ceo's brother. prevent rent increase on the basis of fire safety work. i urge strong enforcement and i hope this body will work with the rent board to pursue new legislation around ethical bidding of work to avoid conflicts of interest. thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you. >> public: good afternoon supervisors. i work for the mission economy. [please stand by]. important to

born in this town, and i've watched it changed over the years. hopefully, it's getting better. slowly but surely, but my main concern is to get this passed. politics and money, heck with it. the main thing here is saving lives, and that's what we need to do. thank you. >> thank you. if there's anymore speakers who would like to comment on this item, if you could lineup. >> good afternoon, all the supervisors. you guys are doing wonderful job. thank you. my name is gunmun shah. i urge the committee, this land

use and transport, for 550 and pass it -- i'm sorry. 12-26-2006, we had a fire in the building that started in elevator room. went all the way to the fifth floor. it was right the day after the christmas, and we have no elevator service from 2006 to 2010, and the fire department shows up, and -- i'm sorry. i'm getting nervous. and the manager is not on duty to let the fire department in. so since i could not sleep, i rundo run down stairs when i hear the fire, and open it, and let the fire department in. thi thing manager on duty is not where he's supposed to be to let

the fire department in, and i had to do it. now this last friday, there was a power fuse in my building, went off. i was just making little tea, and the whole electricity went down all the way from the first floor to the fifth floor. as of this date, he has not responded to my text message. a week before that, he shut off the fire entrance -- to -- the entrance to the building where there was no way in for one week, and i urge -- [inaudible] >> thank you so much. is there any other member of the

public wouho would like to spea? seeing none, we can close public comment? >> all right. public comment's closed. >> fantastic. i wanted to thank everyone for coming out and giving your really thoughtful, impactful comments, thank you so much. thank you for all your work developing this legislation and for your bravery of coming out and telling your stories today. with that, is there any questions or comments? >> i had just -- was asking, supervisor ronen, i know this issue came up, whether installation of sprinkler systems would qualify as a something that would be a capital improvement that would qualify for a pass through, and i was wondering if you could explain that, and the thought process behind that. >> supervisor ronen: sure. if we had required this of all landlords of more than three unit older buildings, then, we

would have allowed that pass through. but because we wanted to spare that expense for good acting landlords that are not creating fire safety in their building, this is legislation to landlords that are not acting in good faith. we'd like this to be a deterrent. while sprinklers are the safest possible condition, if all fire safety exits, if alarm systems are up to date, and if all the fire safety codes are overwhelmingly maintained, then, the likelihood of a fire is much less. so we'd like to see people following the law and maintaining their buildings in safe conditions, so it didn't make sense to us to allow this pass through, given that we're targeting particularly bad actors. >> thank you for that.