>> it is 5:38 p.m. on october 15. welcome to the commission meeting of the san francisco entertainment. my name is ben bleiman, i'm the member president. if you would like to speak, there are speaker forms on the tables and you can hand them to staff or you can just come to the microphone when i call public comment. that is fine too. we ask that everyone turns off their cell phones, including staff and commissioners. i want to thank sf gov tv and media services for sharing this meeting with the public. we will start with a roll call. >> commissioner perez is en route.

[roll call] commissioner thomas is an excused absence. >> thank you very much. the first order of business is general public comment. this is for any item that is not currently on the agenda for this evening. do we have anybody speaking on that? seeing none, public comment is closed. regular agenda. all right. the next agenda item is number 2 the approval of our minutes from october 1, 2019. do we have a motion to approve the minutes? >> i move to approve. >> second. >> is there any public comment on the approval of the minutes? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> vice president camino. [roll call]. >> the minutes have been approved. the next agenda item is a report from executive director weiland. >> thank you president bleiman. good evening commissioners. i have a brief report this evening. i wanted to provide an

update for all of you that we have been conducting some community outreach efforts as staff and really in gratitude to deputy director azevedo for leading the charge. but in educating neighborhoods in merchant corridors around our limited live performance permits specifically and around other permit offerings that we have. a few months back, she had attended a merchants town meeting and recently we spoke at the cultural center department meeting for all the cultural centers in san francisco regarding places of entertainment and other ways to activate their spaces with entertainment. and on tonight's agenda there are four permits for small businesses on the 24th street corridor in the mission. latino cultural district awarded four businesses a mini grant to pay for their llp permit. so that's what brings them here tonight. so we are really excited about that. and also we are

pleased that all their applications are on the consent agenda. they've done a lot of outreach in preparation for tonight. and we are very pleased they are joining our community. i wanted to let you know about that. and we are happy to continue to promote night life and entertainment opportunities via outreach and education in these ways. that's all i have. >> questions for director weiland? thank you very much. looking forward to the retreat this friday. is there any public comment on the director's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. the next agenda item is number 4, which is a report from deputy director azevedo. >> thank you president bleiman. good evening commissioners. so the enforcement report, i just have a few things highlighted here for you this evening if you want to go ahead and follow along here. so page 1 you'll see i've

highlighted this. we received a large amount of complaints about the olympic in a concentrated period of time and upon investigation determined that they are not having live entertainment. it's just a loud bar. so we did respond to that. but i wanted to mention what the recourse was there since we've had a lot of complaints. on page 6 you'll see 22 is highlighted. i brought this up at a hearing recently as well. just giving you an update that we are still trying to get in contact with ownership there, management won't give ownership information. but we have a manager's e-mail address. they are still having live entertainment, full-blown live entertainment. so the next step is that i'll be sending an e-mail out notifying them they have another week. and if they are still having entertainment within that week we will be issuing a citation. so we are following up there. page 8 you'll see that 3910 lounge is highlighted.

and this business had closed. so they were recently, this year granted a poe permit and mad permit. but due to somali core license -- due tosome liquor license situation they are closed. i received a call from sfpd permit officer day that he received notification that the hotel has outdoor speakers on the facade of the building. and they are stopping homeless folks from staying too long outside the hotel but it's disruptive to people living in the nearby vicinity. so technically this falls into an s path or fixed place amplified speaker permit. so inspector fiorentino went out this weekend to

gather contact information. when he went the speakers were off. i will be following up with the management to see if they are using the speakers and if so we can have our first permit. that is all i have highlighted but i'm happy to answer any questions. >> hello. let me start with a question first. do our investigators have the capability of writing an incident report or do we just issue citations? >> we have notice of violation which is a step below citation but we don't have what we would call an instant report. >> every time you issue a notice of violation you send it along with a narrative in your e-mail that is very detailed and could constitute an incident report.

>> i'm just looking at the kave22 and the refusal to provide the owner's information. i actually think it's a violation of our local laws but it's a violation of the abc act. and making notification to abc would trigger an investigation on them. if they want to be that noncompliant that might be the most effective route. >> okay. >> but i'm happy to make that notification on the commission's behalf that this occurred. if we don't have -- but it might be something to think about down the road. maybe kind of an incident report way of memorializing what we are doing. doesn't have to be really complicated. maybe on friday. >> okay. >> thank you. >> thank you for that. >> thank you for the report. i have no comments personally. is there any public comment on the deputy director's report.

seeing none, public comment is closed. moving along. agenda item number 6, which is police department questions and comments. i don't see any members from the police department here so we are going to move along as well. i'm sorry, that was 5. yep, that was 5. and then moving along to number 6 which is a hearing impossible action regarding applications for permits under the jurisdiction of the entertainment commission. and deputy director azevedo please introduce the items on consent agenda for this evening. thank you. >> as director weiland mentioned four permits tonight are mini grant funded, which is very exciting. however all five permits on the consent agenda this evening are accessory use permits. there was no opposition submitted. the respective police districts had no conditions. and they had a lot of neighborhood support gathered. happy to answer any questions if you have them.

>> our representative from calle24 here? i have a few good questions for you. >> do you want to call specific businesses or. >> more curious about the program that they've put together and how they implemented it. >> hello, good evening. i'm the liaison for the calle latino cultural district. >> got it. so thank you for coming in. we really appreciate it. this is the first i've heard of this. it's pretty exciting to me. can you explain what motivated you to do this and how you went about doing it because i think it might be a model for others. >> the cultural district became a cultural district five years ago. it is in an effort to bring

a more cohesive community, invested in the neighborhood and businesses, so it was a grant that was allocated by the department of -- diane? okay. by the department. so we got a grant for some businesses that were long time businesses within the latino cultural district recently established that met some criteria. the criteria was they had to be in the neighborhood for quite a while. they could host some sort of

live entertainment. their lease would be at least three years long as of this time. i think that was it. and so based on this criteria, i went from business to business to see how many of them would qualify for this grant. and if there was any interest in this grant. and so it is more for businesses that whose primary business is not live entertainment or music or poetry, things like that, right? so we came up with, we have on the list a bakery, we have on the list a small tiny family business restaurant that doesn't seat more than 25 people. we have a bookstore. so it was very exciting for us to come up

with this idea, there was a lot of interest. very many wanted to participate. and so it's just a matter of our board actually looking through the paperwork that i have provided them. and then they wrote it. and that's how we arrived to today. diana? >> just to provide a little context. from the office of workforce development. so it's one of our grantee partners in terms of through our invested neighborhoods program. part of the grant is to support technical assistance with small businesses on the ground, activations, events, and so the mini grant program grew out of that support to support the entire economic strategy for the corridor. so obviously it's a cultural district with lots of events, cultural things happening. in the past there had been entertainment

naturally happening in these restaurants. and it went away. so we also saw this as a way to strengthen what was already there to make it more vibrant and for businesses to be able to participate in a way that was within regulation. so with gabby's support as our business liaison on the ground for the cultural district, she was able to help and work directly with the department with the entertainment commission to help them through the process. because a lot of times it's not even necessarily the money but it's also the bureaucracy the understanding of how to do that. so she served as our liaison to get them through that process and be able to package it in a way that would be accessible to these small businesses. so with that, part of the funding provided the initiation for the grant and to get that through to benefit overall the overall strategy of the area and the district itself. so this is the first four. and we'll see how it goes from there.

but we are super excited to be here, to be supporting that and for them to be a part and collaborate as there are activations along the corridor not just individually on their own and being able to use it as a tool for revenue and to support themselves but also to be part of the bigger picture when there are events and to be able to leverage that for the entire corridor. >> do you know if they have plans to replicate this program in other neighborhoods? >> yes. i know there's been discussions in the bayview. and we are looking at it from this model we'll be looking at other cultural districts and how we can support that in the same way. >> cool. so do you educate them as well, you know, about the good neighborhood policies and all that? i mean because having a permit is one thing but to understand how to not disturb the neighbors to keep going. >> i think that's a very key piece of the neighborhood the

local calle 24 cultural district wanted to be responsible in terms of a permit of what it means and also to protect themselves in in terms of what responsibilities come with the permit itself. so that's part of actually gabby's job as the liaison. she's not only liaison to small businesses but also with the community. it's very well integrated into it. >> great. well, i'm really excited about this. i think this might be a model that could be used all over the city to encourage artists and performers and venues for hiring people. so thank you very much for contributing here. this is really cool. it's great to hear. >> thank you. >> did you have something you wanted to say too? >> i'm one of the founders of the calle 24. we have a board of 19. we have four committees under us. we will be watching them and guiding them and looking for anything that is out of line and trying to make it work for everybody. >> thank you very much. it's great

work. and great work for the ewe. is there any public comment on this specific agenda item? i mean the consent the entire consent calendar? seeing none, public comment is closed. wait. i'm sorry. motion. we have to motion first. i didn't make the motion yet. i'll make the motion to approve. >> i second. >> all right. now we got it. >> all right. [roll call] >> congratulations. it's been approved. please follow up with our deputy director as soon as you can for next steps. thank you. >> good luck. congratulations. >> all right. and now we have a one-time event permit request. and i'm going to ask commission

aid crystal stewart to introduce this for us. >> the only item on the regular agenda is for one time-out door entertainment event for the seventh annual on saturday october 19 from 11 to 8:30 p.m. from 12 to 3 there will be a chowder competition between local restaurants. and four local bands will play. at 4:00 p.m. they will host a benefit concert featuring four bands including the slide deal with grammy winning artist charlie collins. and frazier of sugar lake and joel and scott owen of the pawnshop kings. the concert stage will be positioned toward the bay with film projected away from the local businesses and hotels along jefferson street. the applicant requested to attend tonight's hearing because they anticipate exceeding the standard outdoor sound regulations of npc260.16. staff

recommendations and entertainment commission inspectors set a sound prior to the event during a sound check based on the closest receptor. we approve with conditions listed below. i have sullivan here to speak on behalf of his application. >> it's great to be here. thank you for having me and hearing me at the end. i'm excited. i have a jump drive. i can show pictures and things of the set map. just tell me if that's appropriate. it's right here, i'm going to just pop it in. >> with technology you never quite know what's going to happen. >> i have a degree in computer science. >> then we are lucky. this will be the one we don't need a. >> i will go ahead and show you. give

you a visual. i don't know if you can really see it if it's big enough. you can see our stage over here. can you see that okay? >> we are pretty familiar with the spot. >> there we go. can you hear me okay? sorry. give me a second here. sorry.

>> have to rotate i think. >> i think that works. we can see it. >> i can enlarge it a little bit. >> we have individual monitors. >> so you can see how we configured this year's event. the way the footprint looks it's in front of the bakery and right between the francisco and pier 39 is off to the right there. so really how we are really thinking of doing this is starting our event at 11:00 a.m. for v.i.p. guests. we have a v.i.p. lounge furniture with donated furniture for the day. we are paying for the shipping for it. we have our v.i.p. area. and you'll see the stage. and the greenrooms in the back. and so the idea would be to have -- we have four bands going on. we are going to be opening with a band called the heather nation, she's a

cover band, local lady and real mellow acoustic guitar type sound. she'll be starting at noon and going until 1:30 and the other band, the cary bailey band, swing music followed by a group called the walking dead, a cover band more '90s grunge rock sound going into the side deal which is our new super group a new band these guys i've been dealing with them today on the phone. great group. it's three grammy award winners. it's stan frazier from the pawnshop kings we've got charlie colins from train who is a grammy award winning song writer. they've gotten together and formed this group. so they are using this as their launch event for their new album. so while all this music is playing during the day, we are going to start our chowder competition at 12 p.m so we are going to do three hours

of chowder tasting with vintners beer. i believe mayor breed is going to award the chowder trophy. we have five chowder judges that will be voting on who gets the best chowder. from there the event turned from a foody, wine thing into a music kind of a rock 'n' roll event. it goes from the really the focus on the music will be from 4:00 p.m. until about 8 p.m. and it will end up wrapping up at 8 p.m. so it's a complex event. but it's nonetheless it will be kind of fun. all the benefits and proceeds go to wharf cares which is our

benefit program. >> i have a question. >> sure. >> who is running your sound system? >> we have a guy we are working with called glen, called audio north. and he is going to be handling all the sound for the tonight. >> have they done outdoor events before? >> yeah. we got him from the wine festival. he did the food event. he has partnered with our sound inspectors in the city for smaller events. i have photos of the stage i can show them if you would like to take a look? >> i just want to know the experience. >> yeah. >> although you are pointing away from the hotels, but sometimes we get across the bay the sound travels. so they are used to handling things like that. but it's such a small, these are small groups, right? local. >> yeah, like garage bands. >> huge systems. >> the grammy award winner, i was chatting with the owen brothers today on the phone. and really they do four-part harmony. they actually sing the national anthem at big events. and they are big on vocals and not big on a lot of thumping base. it's not like an edm metal concert. it's look

at our musicality not how loud we can be. ironically we took a look at who is going to be complaining and the only potential nuisance would be the north apartments which are on the other side. so we are projecting the music towards alcatraz essentially. and on the other side we have the apartment building. we've let them know about what's happening. ironically all the hotels, they are all on the port commission board, and they want this, you know, this event and really the businesses do to promote foot traffic and get everybody down there. so we don't have a lot of people not wanting it. >> there's been a lot of festivals encouraged, because it's been a bad kind of tourist summer so a lot of the neighborhoods are asking people like yourself to produce activation to bring in more foot traffic. >> one of the beautiful things about

this too, so the wharf cares program is near to dear to my heart. the ambassadors are creating a situation of warmth for the homeless where they can provide blankets and refer referrals into mental health and other services. people that don't want to spend the admission for the chowder competition, they can watch the event, bring a basket of food and eat and enjoy the day. so i'm trying to make this as much of a fun event for everybody and accessible for everyone, you know. >> great. >> so yeah, so as far as projection, i talked to tony today for sound, and we are excited about having him come by 11 amon11:00 a.m. a.m. on saturday. i think there will be two orthree sound checks throughout the day. the

band will be landing at 11 a.m and there will be another one at 3:30 for the band when they get set up. i will be mindful of where we are putting that extra sound. >> okay. thank you. >> yeah. i'm wondering if there's any other sort of descriptors i can provide or other visuals. i brought other photos. i don't know if that's needed or whatever you think. >> i'm okay on descriptors. i have a question. i understand we are asking, and this may be partially for the staff as well but you are asking for a one-timex pangs -- one-time expansion. >> raymond wasn't requesting this, he applied for the one-time-out door entertainment permit and i flagged it because it looks like a larger event and he was having several bands and the footprint looked bigger so i had crystal reach out to see could he

comply with the condition which is in municipal police code to the inaudible at 250 feet from the property playing at the event or the last attending audience member. and he said he really couldn't comply with that. and he wanted a little more leeway. and so our condition is it's not super specific in terms of what their sound limit is because we need to go out when they have the event set up and be there for sound checks. we're asking you allow us to administratively set that limit based on the closest sensitive receptor which is likely far beyond 250 feet. >> got it. thank you. >> one of my concerns really is i work at the building for the fisherman's wharf benefit district. and we have a lot of these street performers that come in and i can sometimes hear from my office which is a few blocks away i can hear the performers that are right there at the triangle lot. so

i guess as it exists, the community is used todayly amplified sound just because of where the location is. but to be sensitive to you within that 250-foot range if i have somebody on a mic the mc for the event and i have the cover band performing and they go beyond one city block just to be mindful and be within guideline. we want to let you know and be up front about stuff. >> i think i mean when they did the america's cup they had this big debate whether they have their big concert stage. usually it's great for you to come out because you never know on the hill who is going to complain but i think in this case it's a more local festival. i don't think you're going to have that problem. that's why i was asking who is running your sound. and that's your key. if you have somebody experienced then you shouldn't have complaints. but this is nothing compared to what was down there for america's cup. >> yeah. and also they did a big presentation

for i think it was the nba a few years ago on pier 39 and that was another amplified sound event. so this is not the first time it's been done. it's now it's a little more structured. our goal would be to try to make this more robust of an event on a annual basis and bring more money into wharf cares. >> the street artists come under the street performer. doesn't really come under our purview. >> that's the thing. >> one time they tried to figure that out, you know, but. >> our goal is we have the receiver the zefer. we are motivated to end this by 8:00 p.m. and get people into the bars and restaurants as part of the business promotion. our goal was to bring in proceeds for wharf cares but promote the local businesses. so we are not going to go far beyond 8 to anow a--

annoy people. >> i think it's good. >> i would encourage you to aim the speakers towards oakland because they are outside of our jurisdiction. berkeley. >> aim it towards berkeley. >> i think we've heard enough unless anybody has more questions. >> ready for a motion? >> thank you. you can have a seat. >> thank you guys. i'm really excited. and please come by on saturday. we would love to have you. >> i would like to open this up for public comment. we do have a commentator. >> this should be one of the chowder judges. >> good evening commissioners. i just want to also give kudos to randal and rachel from the community benefit district at fisherman's wharf. the business there is like a roller coaster ride. today was completely dead. so events

like this help merchants it keeps the vie vibrance. the fact that we are having this discussion, i mean, is great. there's a michael jackson performer. there's a sinatra performer. they are not permitted performers. they just come up randomly whenever they want so to speak. but having this discussion today, we are ready and we know what we are getting. i commend this gentleman here. wharf fest is going to be very successful. i think it will be sold out. this is not a first time event. they have a history behind this event. so i just think that this one in particular, the music is going to be really cool this year. so i'm all for it. >> thank you. anymore public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion? >> i'll raise the motion to approve it with the staff and the sfpd recommendation, the two conditions

for approval. >> i second the motion. [roll call] >> it has been approved. thank you very much. congratulations. please follow up with our staff at your earliest convenience for next steps. thank you. >> good luck. >> all right. and the final agenda item is agenda item number 7 which is commissioner comments and questions. >> you know how we have maybe this for commissioner falzon, since we haven't had police comments in a while the permit officers from each district with come and air their frustrations or any suggestions of improvement or promotions maybe that we can do to beef up entertainment in their districts. >> i'm happy to make that offer yes.

it's been both kaitlyn and crystal have been really great at educating them on any changes within staff and showing them the map of our permitted places and we are working with each permit officer directly on any enforcement action. so they've been super engaged administratively. but i agree it would be great to see them in here. >> you know, we've all been doing a lot of thinking around our mandate beyond just the regulation of night life but also the promotion of night life. and there are a lot of moments where when we are listening to different groups, tonight was really beautiful. we had someone from calle24 and we had the wharf fest. these are legacy businesses. there's a lot of history there. and i'm starting to become more curious what their outreach strategy includes. as we think about how we create a platform

for promoting night life as a city agency, i think we need to incorporate more learning in our permitting process around what our permit holders and what people are doing to just engage at this point. i want to have an understanding of it's like street team activities, is it facebook. i mean, i'm very curious what strategies people are employing as we look at all the articles that are coming out in the newspapers these days, we are seeing the businesses close and we do a count of how many businesses have closed since the beginning of this year i'm curious as to how many are starting to open. one two, how many are becoming a permit holder and are becoming part of the commission and how many services they are utilizing, whether it's through the outdoor event producer series what kind of ta programs they

are utilizing within oewd and mohcd. i think we are kind of in crisis for small businesses at this point. and i think it's sad. i think every sunday paper we are learning about all these different businesses closing. >> that's a great idea, especially because i think we are so close to the problem and these permit holders. and i think oftentimes when we hear that a business closes there's another one that opens in its place. so it's good to know what our story is and what these business owners are doing to still activate their spaces. i think staff-wise we can definitely do a lot more data analysis, which i think would be really interesting to do, especially to look at all the businesses that closed and see which held permits from us and then what happened with that space, so i think deputy director azevedo can work with van

houghton on that and then just on the intake side, we could always ask more questions in our permit application meaning that's totally relevant. and we should just talk offline and see if there's anything we can include in the applications. >> and during our retreat i think we should powwow around the different kinds of questions we should be asking so anecdotally when people are coming in front of our commission we'll be able to learn what tools people are utilizing to promote their establishments and how we can better promote night life. >> the other option is this is a previous mandate from a previous president of the commission, but if you want to know more about these limited live performance permits i know it definitely speeds up our agenda to have them all on

consent. if you want to know more about their stories, we can change that up and have them on the regular agenda. it's really up to the president. >> well, thank you for those comments. i had a couple things. does anybody else have comments? first of all, seeing that calle 24 bundling of llps and grant program, i think it's something we need to take a much smarter look at. i think there's probably tens and tens of different neighborhood corridors that might be able to use that. and i think our goal, at least my goal and i think our goal should be more llps at the minimum across entire city so there's more opportunities for artists and performers to play and our culture is more vibrant. so that was really cool. and i'm shocked that i was unaware of it before, and that's on me. i also think that we got to the point of small businesses reaching out. last monday there was a pretty heated discussion at the small business commission on the proposed fees around go boxes. and i think some of the

legislature's -- legislators are starting to see how frustrated small business people are especially in the service industry. and i know that a lot of businesses feel like they can't raise their prices anymore and continue to do business. and that's a serious issue. and i commend anyone with an environmental mind who wants to change human behavior and wants to produce less waste in san francisco. it's a crushing issue of our time. i'm just hoping that we find ways to do that that don't also force small businesses to continually raise their prices. for the record, beer and a burger at my bar in the mission is currently $27 with a tip. and our burger is not that good. i'll put that on camera here. it's okay. but it's not that good. [laughter] that's a lot of money for a burger and a beer and everybody sits around talking about how millennials are ordering online and changing their buying habits and austria try having student debt

and spending $27 on a burger and beer and you would come up with other buying habits yourself. finally it takes a lot for a government body to surprise me in this day and age. but i encourage you to read up on the responsible beverage service act that has been proposed and now is being implemented by the california abc. it is very rare that i see a steaming pile of turd this large that affects small businesses in our state. what they are proposing which they did in a very quick timeline, essentially over the summer break when nobody was paying attention, they are trying to create a new bureaucracy in the state which will actually force every single person who serves alcohol to sign up in the dmv-like state setting in order to just serve alcohol. it will rival the dmv in size and scope. i know

personally many servers in the city who would be uncomfortable putting their name into a database for various different reasons not the least of which are things happening on the federal level around immigration enforcement et cetera. it also requires a brand new extremely onerous basically college-level course for everybody to complete and get at least a 70 percent on before they can serve alcohol. and they are offering it in just two languages, english and spanish taking out the literally hundreds of other languages that people serving alcohol in california have to -- or speak as their first language. it also makes the id process incredibly difficult for checking ids. to the point where it will slow down business and really, really hurt business what they are proposing. it's a solution in search of a problem. the public comment time is over now. but

anybody watching and anybody else watching this, i would encourage you to reach out to your state representatives your local representatives, scream it from the rooftops that this is exactly what we do not need right now. it's a solution in search of a problem. so i just wanted to point that out. is there any public comment on our comments and questions? seeing none, public comment is closed. and i will adjourn this meeting at 6:19 p.m. thank you.

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hello. i'm shauna with the leaving women voters of san francisco. along with the league and sf gov tv i'm here to discuss proposition d, a ballot measure before the voters on tuesday november 5. proposition d would impose a business tax on commercial ride-share companies for fares generated by rides that start in san francisco. currently the city of san francisco does not impose a business tax on fares charged by commercial ride-share companies, such as über and lyft. these companies provide car rides for fare and range shared rides where each passenger pays a separate fare. typically rides are requested using on online platform to connect drivers with passengers. the proposed tax is 1.5% on a shared ride fare and 3.25% on a

private ride fare. the city would impose these taxes on fares charged by these company until november 5, 2045. passenger rides in zero-emission vehicles would be subject to a 1.5% business tax until september 21, 2024. the city will deposit the tax revenues, estimated at $31 million annually into a traffic congestion mitigation fund to spend for the following purposes. the san francisco municipal transportation agency which oversees the city's transportation system, including muni buses and trains, bicycles traffic parking and taxis will receive half of the revenues to improve muni service and reliability maintain and expand facilities and improve muni station access. and the san francisco county

transportation authority a county agency separate from the city that funds and plans transportation projects would receive roughly half of the revenue to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. a yes vote means you want to impose a 1.5% business tax on shared rides and a 3.25% business tax on private rides for fares charged by driverless vehicle companies to fund improvement in muni service. a no vote means you do not want to impose this business tax. i'm here with sunny from the office of supervisor aaron peskin and a proponent of proposition d. welcome. >> hi. >> we're joined by howard epstein and opponent of the measure. thank you both, for being here. we're going to start with opening statements and we'll begin with howard.

why do you believe this proposition is so important? >> i believe it should be defeated. that's not important. this is not going to do anything. it's not going to stop the traffic. if you look at it and look at for instance the fees charged on a $20 single ride it's going to add 65 cents to the ride. on the $10 ride-share it's going to add under a dollar to the ride. that's not going to dissuade anybody from taking the ride-shares. and frankly given the state of muni in san francisco, given the way the taxis work -- where i live in the richmond it's almost impossible to get a taxi. ride-shares are helpful. i use them all the time when i'm going downtown out to dinner. whatever. they're very handy.

and to take them away and say, well people are going to run down to take the muni just isn't going to happen. the other thing in this, there is a paragraph in there that allows this commission to add a $300 million bond to be paid for. i mean we're bond crazy now. we don't need another $300 million bond. so that's why i say vote no. it's not going to do any good. it's not going to curb traffic. it's not going to help anybody. >> thank you howard. sunny? >> well, many, many studies have shown that ride-shares über and lyfts have contributed to over 50% of our traffic congestion since 2015. this is just in the last several years. frankly unfortunately, it is an industry that we are preempted through state law from regulating. we can't cap the number of

vehicles. we can't require them to do background checks. we can't require them to do the same safety training for example that our taxi cabs are required to do, but we can ask them to pay their fair share toward mitigating the impact on our streets and fund the maintenance and creation of the infrastructure, that they are utilizing every day. that's our streets, bus stops, curbs. this funding is a very modest business tax that would go towards 50% toward increasing our muni fleet hiring bus drivers paying for operation and maintenance, paying for the affordability programs, free muni for seniors and youth. and the other 50% goes toward capital improvements which are regulated through our transportation authority, a separate body that the board of supervisors and their county designations help toover see.

that's everything from senior crossings to pedestrian safety, disability access as well as bicycle infrastructure in the city. so i mean i think that the city has identified a $22 million annual need. and these types of capital costs whether it's the downtown caltrain extension for whether it's the neighborhood improvement. and this is projected to bring in $32 million to $35 million annually and i think it's a great investment in our system. >> thank you. so the first question is following up on that. it goes to howard. sorry, to sunny, rather. so the proposed tax is estimated to generate $30 million in revenue you said $32 million to $35 million annually can you talk about how this money will be spent and why you are in support of that? >> sure. so again, 50% of these funds -- i mean all the money goes into a

traffic congestion fund, because numerous studies, numerous experts have all agreed that one of the best ways to get people out of their cars is having reliable muni, it is having safe bicycle networks with safe improvements where pedestrians, everyone can walk free of being hit by a car. and so 50% of the funding would go towards increasing capacity on our muni. we know from recent hearings that we are vastly understaffed in terms of our muni drivers. we don't have enough. and we need to be able to give them a competitive wage and hire more. we need to increase our fleet. we need to build out the rail network, including the richmond district, and make sure that rapid transit is operating efficiently. the other 50% goes to capital improvements that the transportation authority would be doling out.

that's bike lanes protection. >> same question to you, howard. the revenue, why would you oppose how this money is going to be? >> the city has enough revenue as it is. if you look at our budget, it's very high. we spend the second highest amount per resident of any city in the country. only washington d.c. beats us. if you look at the spending, it's inefficient. look at the streets, look everywhere. what they do here every time there is a problem they throw money it at it. if that doesn't solve the problem throw more money at it and nothing ever gets done. we need to bring people into city hall who understand how to manage, who understand how to plan, who are successful in the private sector and will get things done. >> thank you.

my next question is to first to you, howard that is if the proposed tax the correct way to reduce traffic congestion in san francisco and if not, what is? >> as i said in the opening statement given the small fee, it's not going to dissuade anyone from taking the ride share. what they really have to do is plan. if you look at taking lanes away and giving them to bicycles for instance, they're taking out parking. they're doing a lot of things that add to the traffic congestion. if they had more parking, leave the lanes there, because there are more cars going down. and there are bicycles. we need some bike lanes, obviously but not the way they're doing it now, not the way they're blocking the streets and taking out the parking. >> same question to you sunny. >> is the proposed tax the correct way to reduce traffic

congestion? >> i think it's one tool, absolutely. absolutely. i mean look at this point we are -- our city has not kept pace with the population boom in the city. we're projected to have a million people in the city and county of san francisco within the next ten years. i mean we don't have, you know, a bus system a rail system that is able to manage that kind of worker-resident traffic. and i think this funding is critical to being able to hire parking control officers. we've seen that successful in helping to reduce gridlock and blocking the box, which is people double parking in our streets. this is one of many tools we need to be employing as a city to make a dent in what is going to be gridlock like no one has seen before. in the south of market, in the center of the city you can't

even -- frankly where all of the tc traffic is is a heat map of just total gridlock. that's where the tmcs are. we've got to start employing some of the tools we can until the state does something. >> thank you. closing statements. howard? >> as i said i don't think this is needed. they're going to throw money at it and they won't get anything accomplished as with everything else. we need to plan. we need to take a step back, check our budget, and look at everything we planned. look at how many employees we have in every department. again we have 20-something employees for every resident. that is very high. other places like philadelphia have half that and three times the population. so we need to take a step back.

and rather than raising taxes issuing bonds every time something comes up, we need to step back and look get effective people to plan and take it from there. >> sunny? >> you know, i am not a proponent and i think the city is being very thoughtful about what kinds of taxes we are levying. this is actually a business tax. this is not on the riders. it's not on the drivers. it's not on everyday citizens. i think that is something we're sensitive to given the fact that the sales tax that was supposed to go toward the same types of improvements we were never able to fund failed miserably. taxpayers are like why are we the ones paying to build infrastructure, when massive corporations including über and lyft are not paying their fair share. they identified $22 million needed in capital improvements and being able to hire muni

drivers. that's money we don't have. and the dedicated piece of this is so important to show the voters, this is exactly what we're spending the money on. we're not hiring a new mta director, not spending it on pension plans, we're spending it on these line items. that's where taxpayers have told us they want investment. this is no -- not a bond. this allows us to bond against the revenue we bring in. i think that's also very important. >> thank you, both for your time and input on this measure. >> thanks for having us. >> we hope this discussion has been informative. for more information about this and other ballot measures in the november election please visit the department of elections website. early voting is able november 7 from 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. if you don't vote early be sure

to vote on tuesday, november 5. >> welcome to the stage, father microcode -- father michael quinn. [applause] >> good afternoon distinguished guests, chief nicholson chief scott, and all the wonderful people of san francisco and the people from surrounding areas who are he