supervisor campos: thank you. is there any member of the public who has not spoken who would like to speak? please come forward. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have been affiliated with restaurants for about 25 years. i think the legislation was well intended and was written with passion and care. however, although it is intended to solve a problem, a local, in fact, it will create another problem. restaurants operate on a 3% margin right now if you do everything right. with the 3% margin, with all the other mandates pushed on this restaurant shares -- restauranteurs, eventually, a straw will break the camel's back here right now, there's a lot of restaurants -- a straw will break the camel's back. right now, there is a lot of restaurants and about 500 close every year. right now, what you are seeing is people are failing, and there is no cushion. there is no money. 95% of us are struggling. 5% of us seem to be doing fine. if we are all put out of business, no one will have any benefits. >> i am with the san fr

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. >> i admit, you're so tired of hearing small businesses and restaurants being vilified -- i am tired of hearing small businesses and restaurants being vilified. what a perfect example of what is wrong with this amendment. we have six stores. we have been here for 25 years. we have been a great san francisco citizen. we feed hospices. we feed the tenderloin after- school program. we tried to be a good citizen and try to treat our employees in a benevolent fashion. all our employees get health care from us, but if this amendment passes, the impact is a $200,000 a year cost. we have six stores. two make money, two break even, two lose money. it this amendment is enacted, we are a true example of job loss. we will close two stores, and 40 people will lose jobs. that stands in stark contrast with what was expressed here. we are 1 business where you will lose 40 jobs right away from us. we are a prime example of what is wrong with this amendment. once again, i want to speak to

supervisor campos: thank you, sir. is there any other member of the public would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, is there -- colleagues, this is an action item. we have a motion. can we take that without objection? >> i believe this item is going as a committee report. supervisor campos: change the motion to committee report, and we can take that without objection. call item three please. >> item 3, resolution of intention to establish the west for the community benefit district and setup a time and place -- establish the west portal community benefit district and set up a time and place for the hearing. supervisor campos: we have been requested to continue this item, but before we take action on that, if there is any public comment, please come forward. >> i appreciate the fact that you are continuing this. you must have 30% to go forward to initiate. there were 20 to return their ballots in 2010, and there has been a recent mail out to see if those people -- if their pos

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i work for a technology company that contacted me with a larger company. they were basically paid by the company to pay me and to pay for my health spending account. last year, december 27, they made a quarterly deposit of $900 into a account. i was not notified of that and i was not aware that the account was in existence. when i found out about it and went to use the money, it had already expired. it was the use it or lose it option. i had over $900 from prescriptions that i needed to use, which i had to pay out of pocket. this loophole needs to be closed, so that people like myself can use the money that this ordinance has put in place to use. it is just kind of a hardship on me, someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, to have to pay that money out of pocket when it is supposed to be a benefit supervisor campos:. supervisor campos: thank you. i do want to thank the workers there are coming out, sharing their stories. i know it is personal. let me read a few

supervisor campos: thank you. is there any other member of the public who has not spoken who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. again, thank you to everyone on both sides of the issue has spoken about this. i know that president chiu and i know supervisor farrell -- ashley, he is on the rules committee, which is starting now -- actually, he is on the rules committee, which is starting now. i do not want to belabor this, but one thing that is important going forward is that we had a discussion about the legal parameters we have, and i think that is something that should have been appropriately at the board of supervisors so that the entirety of the board can hear in a closed session some of the legal issues implicated, so with that in mind, i make a move that we forward this without a recommendation to the full board. supervisor farrell. supervisor farrell: thank you, supervisor, and thank you to everyone who came out today on both sides of the aisle. obviously a contentious issue. to say m

supervisor campos: ok. colleagues, why don't we move to the actual resolution where you have the specific findings. again, what you have here are five findings and recommendations. we need to take a position on each one of them. if you look at the resolution, and it specifically references each one of those five findings. and we also have to provide our reasons for our agreement or disagreement with each one of those. before we do that, i do not know if there is anyone that wanted to add anything? before we go into discussion, why don't we hear from members of the public that would like to speak on this item. please come forward. >> thomas picarello again. i also want to thank the san francisco civil grand jury for their work the entire year. not only on this report, but for their reports on the ethics commission, and also the report on the controller's office regarding the whistleblower program. with all due respect to this committee, colleagues on the full board, it is unfortunate that the civil grand jur

supervisor campos: think you. -- thank you. supervisor campos: you have said a number of your reports that help to alert the public as to how many businesses within your contacting rules are being contracts that are san francisco businesses. you had promised to get to our office a number of the reports to put out in recent quarters. i still have not received them. >> we will certainly check on it. >supervisor campos: i think it is time to have a quarterly hearing. >> we would love to do that. on all of these contracts, they were audited on august 6 and every single one met or equal. >> with respect to recommendation of regular visits to construction sites, from what i understand going forward, if you have established a system, a process to do that with the very limited resources you have, so that will be addressed that way? >> that is correct, supervisor. we do not have the capability in our department to monitor every project since we oversee hundred and several billion dollars' worth of contacting in the city, b

supervisor campos: think you. why don't hear from the perspective departments? -- thank you. why don't we begin in alphabetical order with the airport commission. >> good morning. my name is wallace tang, airport controller. ias mentioned by the director, for today's meeting i will brief you this that is on the six open items. the first one, the compliance audit of air canada, the open item has been completed, and we have received a follow-up review and audit from air canada. airport and air canada have figured out the exact amount of underpaid fees, and we have already billed them and they have already paid us. that should close this item. that one is done. for the second one, for audit -- a concession audit of the smart cart, and the open item is more like an ongoing implementation, so those action items are in progress. for the third one, a shuttle bus contract company audits, as the audit director mentioned, we are in the transition at of ending the current contract with shuttle buses, and that contract actual

chairperson campos: thank you. i do not want to lose the quorum of the committee. i wonder how long this is going to be. >> this is going to be brief. i will go over what the office of economic and workforce development is required to review on an annual basis. briefly, business improvement district, also known as community benefit districts, are governed by state law, local law, and a contract with the city administered by our office and the board of supervisors. our office is charged with ensuring that they are meeting their requirements, both on their city contract in complying with local and state laws. we are also required to conduct an annual review and provide you with a performance review and financial analysis. the resolution in front of you covers four fiscal years. we look at the annual reports and financial reviews. i am going to go over just a few more local and state laws so you have more information. the business improvement law does come from the streets and highways code, which requires that each b

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, supervisors. we are here to support the closing of the loophole. the chinese workers association have been serving the chinese community for 40 years now. our members have high rates of poor health because they are working long hours. i have heard of some people working 17 hours a day, sweat shop conditions. low wages lead to bad housing conditions in sro's, and that leads to bad health. my aunt was a low-wage worker. she was denied treatment. one day, she died in her sleep. she is survived by her two sons. for folks who do not get treatment, that cost would then be on the taxpayers. also for the chinese community, a lot of people do not speak english. people get for notice. when people get health care, they do not even know if they provide health care, even though they have over 20 workers in their workplace. in one case, a worker wanted to testify, but she is afraid because of her workplace. her employer changed to the health spending account. y

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i am a restaurant owner in san francisco, and i would like to address my remarks directly to some of the questions president chiu ask. i appreciate it. some of the questions you ask were really good. i would like to shed and on the ground business owner's light on those questions. we have an hra. we fully notify our employees. we provide any coverage that can be covered. dental, medical, so on and so forth, but utilization rates are still low. president chiu ask the question about 20% compared to 55%. there may be an assumption that is incorrect. we are assuming all things are equal. in healthy san francisco, i believe these are people who sought out health care and applied for it because they knew they needed to access the health care system. in our hra's, utilization rates are lower -- nobody argues that young people never access health care, but young people dollar for dollar probably access health care a lot less than older people. i have a lot of young emp

supervisor campos: thank you. any other public comment? >> i would like to offer my support of this resolution. i have lived in the neighborhood for 21 years, and i think everyone agrees the neighborhood has gone downhill. about the only improvement i have seen on west portal is that campaign office across from starbucks. this neighborhood in my opinion really needs this improvement. the whole district has been going downhill. if you look backwards, near new -- mayor newsom's famous triple play has failed miserably in all three aspects. i urge you to pass this asap. we do not need any further delays. we do not need any more delays on west portal. it is interesting that it will be delayed. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. any other member of the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. if we could have a motion. motion by supervisor farrell. we can take that without objection. is there any other business before the committee? >> no, there is no other matter. supervisor campos: thank you. the meeting i

supervisor campos: thank you. why don't we open it for public comment? there are a number of members of the public who are here to speak on this item. again, thank you for your presentation. this -- [reading names] why don't we begin with them? you will have two minutes. thank you to all the members of the public who have been waiting patiently for this hearing. welcome. >> good afternoon. i am from bayview hunters point. my understanding in the coming here was to discuss what was happening at a site in bay view hunters point, a shipyard that was closed in 1974. he talked about the regulatory agencies. in three minutes, i cannot give you the story of how this began. it began in 1990. we were having birthdays in -- earth days in bayview-hunters point. they said in southern california they had rat boards. there were no closures in northern california. i had to raise my hand and state, i am from san francisco. the shipyard closed in 1974. as i am speaking to you today, there is a process going on to close the presidi

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning. restaurant and hotel workers union. from a union that struggles day in and day out with over hundreds of worksites that would have to compete with the businesses exploiting this loophole, i cannot tell you how galling it is to be back here to fix a problem that we thought we fixed. i was shocked by the economic report that 70% of workers experiencing this phenomenon with hra's are city residents. when we pass this, we thought hra's would be an attractive option to those who live outside of the city. the genius of healthy san francisco, the reason it passed unanimously and signed by the mayor, was that in leveraged our health infrastructure in a way that provided attractive options for businesses and workers, in particular, who lived in this city. think about the perverse, massive disincentive that this loophole creates for businesses. you can cheat your customers. you can pocket the money by cheating your workers out of what is due to them out of

chairperson campos: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is james tracy. the first thing -- full disclosure. our organization receives a small grant from the community benefit district. but our praise would be the same even if we did not receive a penny. the community benefits district -- north of market/tenderloin really distinguishes itself by trying to improve the community for the poorest person in the neighborhood, whether they are living in a cardboard box or a condo. programs have to benefit each and every person in that neighborhood. that distinguishes them from some of the other groups that do not have such an inclusive, wonderful scope. we are looking forward to continuing to work with them on the safe haven program. it is really a one-of-a-kind program that we are developing with them. i really urge you to support them. thank you. chairperson campos: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is lorenzo. i am a member of the tenderloin filipino community organization. i am here wit

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> [speaking spanish] >> good morning. i work for the restaurants. i am here because me and my co- workers, we are eligible for hra's, but most of us do not know about it or do not know how to access it. for a lot of us who do have money, the employers keep it at the end of the year because they do not let us know about it, or they make it complicated for us to access it, especially when our first language is not english. for example, where i work, they told us about our account. when i asked them how to access it, all they told us was to call this number, and then they would help us figure it out. >> [speaking spanish] >> i had to pay some costs out of my own pocket. when i inquired about these accounts, i was told that i no longer had the money. >> despite all this, my restaurant continues to charge customers this feat. -- fee. some customers ask what it is for, and it is for health care, even though we do not have it, and even some customers refuse to pay the f

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. i have a few more speaker cards. [reading names] >> my name is laurie baker. my husband and i opened a restaurant a year and half ago. it was a lifelong dream, and i am happy that we were able to do it. we created 30 full-time jobs by opening our restaurant. nothing would make us happier than to provide full insurance for each and every one of our employees. i am sure you know, running a food service industry is such a small profit margin, it is not possible at this time. we encourage everyone of our employees to use their hra's. i just want to put my 2 cents in and say that if there were more incentives or tax breaks for small business owners to provide full health insurance to their employees, instead of something like an hra, i think that would be money well spent . i also want you to think about the jobs that will be lost by closing the profit margin for small restaurateurs with the passage of this amendment. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please.

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker? next speaker. i would ask that we respect each other. everyone has an opinion. >> thank you. my name is sheila. i am not with none of these people. i want to say one thing. this is an inhaler, right here. this is an inhaler that a lot of us have to use because of the toxins in the air and the exposure that we have no control of. having said that, i just think that everyone has said what needs to be said. this honorable committee will make educated decisions on this issue. i would like to leave you with, we need action now that holds regulators accountable and demonstrates the environmental racism and unethical behavior that will not be tolerated in san francisco. i say that as a native san franciscan. we do appreciate clean air. i really appreciate clean air. thank you very much. supervisor campos: thank you. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak to has not spoken? if so, please come forward. public comment is closed. colleagues, i want to make

supervisor campos: supervisor campos: thank you very much. one of the reasons we asked mr. goldberg to do a brief presentation on how the health care security organs works and how that differs from help the san francisco is because it became very clear in the main, and that commissioners made that there was a real lack of understanding of how the law works. that is one of the reasons why we wanted to provide some context. because the comments and statements really do not align with the reality of how the actual ordinance covers. >> i just wanted to thank you on your willingness to spend so much time on an issue that should be taken care of quickly. i am a rabbi in san francisco. i began my career 42 years ago as a chapel in the united states air force, spending t a beale years in southeast asia. i address you today not as a rabbi. i am a strong believer in the separation of church and state. i want to speak to you as a resident of our great city and as a customer at a restaurant, and i want to tell you that i feel deceived. i was so proud when i first learned that a portion

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i would like to get the supervisor's attention. i am speaking on behalf of a restaurant -- there are about 11 of them in the financial district. we are a business that believes in health care for our employees. we provided health care well before 2006, and continue to seek to provide health care. we do not have that 3% tax because it has always been a cost of doing business. however, this legislation, as it is written, is counterproductive to the idea of universal health care, and this is why. right now, employers are faced with health insurance or a use or lose it hra. most will choose insurance because it is a better option. the with the legislation is set up now, the hra continues to grow, like a pension plan. now when faced with a pension plan, $2 more an hour, they made choosethe hra. if there is a catastrophic accident, the person choosing the hra is going to get screwed. i really believe this legislation, as it is written, is counterproductive. superviso

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. i have a few more names to read. [reading names] >> good morning. my name is edwin escobar. this loophole is unjust and unfair. i am a restaurant worker, here in san francisco. three months ago, in april, i was in a bicycle accident in the city. if it was not for this health care ordinates, i would not be able to pay off the emergency bill. i got my bill from sf general, and it was $3,300 for a four- hour visit to the emergency room. i got some stitches, some painkillers. this year alone, i have been working part-time. this health care is really beneficial. it would be much better to close this loophole. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, supervisors. we are here to support the closing of the loophole. the chinese workers association have been serving the chinese community for 40 years now. our members have high rates of poor health because they are working long hours. i have heard of some people working 17 hours a day, sweat shop

i do want to thank supervisors campos -- supervisor campos and the many community voices who have pointed out what i think is a real problem. i support the intention of the legislation. i am troubled that there are employers not paying what others are, that they are a disincentive to do the right thing, who have been limiting usage, who have not been providing notice. i am also frankly troubled at the fact that we only have 20% usage. i do not think that is acceptable. at this hearing, there have been a lot of questions that have been raised that have not been answered. for example, what happens at the end of an employee's time? do we want to have millions of dollars sitting in definitely in these accounts? is that the best thing for workers? i think we all agree that we need to amend the legislation to ensure all employers are providing notice in all languages to all employees. there are still issued -- issues we need to discuss with the city attorney's office to make sure whatever we do is complying with federal law. that said, i do think it is appropriate, given this is only the first

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. >> i am with health access california, and i wanted to address the rollover issue, which has not been addressed yet. the issue is that the ordinance currently does not require hra's to have a rollover ability. i would submit to you that that is an essential issue addressed by the amendment, and that would not be addressed by other forms of solutions. first of all, only 10% of hra's nationally do not have a rollover capacity. this is really an allied air. on the front end, the reason to allow funds to roll over from year to year is the prevention issue. the fact that employees are not currently using the hra's is not a good argument. fact is that the national health care reform debate was fundamentally about moving towards a culture of coverage, a culture of prevention and primary care. people who are not used to having health insurance and young people used to being healthy do not tend to see primary and preventive care. it is no more a reason to stop providing them acce

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, members of the board. i am an analyst of the curve and accountability office. this morning, i am not a representative of diego. i did research for my master's thesis. i conducted a study from january to may 2010. the authors of labor enforcement was interested in how these programs work. my results will be available after the meeting. through my research, historically, hra's have been used as a consumer health care plan model. these are often offered in tandem with a health spending account. however, although hra's are often offered in tandem with high-tech plants, it is possible to provide these without coverage for catastrophic illnesses. you have also pointed out, controlled by employers since they can decide what they want to cover and whether they want to keep the money or roll it over to employers the following year. i also had the opportunity to speak to several employee benefit experts who said outside of san francisco, hra's are not offer

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is beth carey. i work for a temporary home care agency. we provide hra's to our employees using a third party. a small percentage of our employees actually use it. what i want to say is, this issue is also about the health care of our seniors. our biggest competition -- this is not a level playing field because our biggest competition our domestic referral agencies. instead of hiring employees, they hire independent contractors. they do not pay taxes, they do not pay workers' comp, they do not pay insurance. they did not supervise their employees because they do not have any. their employees are independent contractors. that means that this is giving an incentive to people to pay independent contractors, who are not supervised, or people who advertise on craigslist, because the cost is lower. we cannot recruit this cost -- recoup this cost because that would put us at a huge competitive disadvantage. we need to figure out a way to put domestic staffing

commissioner campos: any other questions? why don't we open this up to public comment. >> good morning again, directors. and the with the bicycle coalition. i want to speak to some particular is here. the adult bike education classes, as you hear, the cac continues to be diligent in their oversight, as they should be. the whole question of black education bike to work day, encouragement, soft programs. we are not building curbs or rail went away. what is the actual benefit? let's make sure we get the best bang for the buck. as the cac reports, we are seeing here and encouragement. for four years, the city was forbidden from making any changes from bikes. no new bike lanes, no new bike racks. certainly, as we buildout and network of bike ways, we have more people riding bikes. we need to educate more. it is a responsibility question more than it is it an option. we ate knowledge there is more evaluation that can and should be done. we are excited about the investment the mta is making with prop k money in the automatic counter

commissioner campos: thank you. i do not think we have any other questions from the committee. thank you for being here and for your interest in continuing to serve. is there any other applicant who is here who would like to address the committee? i do not see any others. why don't we open this up to public comment. is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, this is an action item. if we could get a motion -- motion by commissioner avalos 2 reappointee rosie west to the citizens advisory committee. seconded by david chiu. can we take that without objection? without objection. congratulations and thank you for your service. please call item five. >> item 5. recommend allocation of $270,819 in prop k funds, with conditions, to the san francisco municipal transportation agency for one project and $1,275,900 in prop k funds, with conditions, to the department of public works for two projects, subject to the attached fiscal year cash flow di

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i am the owner of arcadia home care. i oppose this amendment. i am disappointed to hear you continually use language like it is a non-starter, when there is a solution available. my industry does not charge a surcharge. we do not put money in our pockets. we provide services to seniors. this will continue to provide, to increase the cost of remaining in one's own home, our own relatives, forcing the industry to go underground without protections, supervision. adult protective surgeonservicey is already neglected. there is a solution. this should not be passed on to employers who already complied with every letter of the law. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i would like to get the supervisor's attention. i am speaking on behalf of a restaurant -- there are about 11 of them in the financial district. we are a business that believes in health care for our employees. we provided health care well before 2006, and continue to seek to provide hea

supervisor campos: i think it is possible to do that. even though we have these great districtwide elections, i think district election still allow you to deal with larger issues. we feel that we certainly have demonstrated that as a board. individual supervisors have demonstrated that. one of the pieces of legislation we worked on last year that we are very proud of is the health services master plan, which is legislation that for the first time has a city like san francisco thinking about the health needs of the city of seoul. -- cities as all whole. it is good for us to know what the health care needs of the city are going to be in the next couple of years or long term. so, making sure those who do planning and other things, that we think strategically about the need citywide and also neighborhood by neighborhood. and we were able to do that and pass that legislation as a district-elected supervisors, even though this is legislation that impacts the entire city in the future of health care in san francisco for many years to come. i th