. >> thank you, madam chair, for angendizing this item today. i very much appreciate it.oday, colleagues, this hearing which i called for this month ha

. >> thank you, madam chair, for angendizing this item today. i very much appreciate it. today, colleagues, this hearing which i called for this month has as its purpose a review of our city's automobile towing policies and fees with respect to stolen vehicles. and i called for this hearing because the mta's contract with auto return, our vendor that provides towing services, expires next year and will be renegotiated and then ultimately presented to the board of supervisors for approval or rejection. so rather than wait for this contract to come to the board of supervisors and then at that point have a discussion after the negotiation about the treatment of stolen vehicles, it seems it me that now is the time to do it. so the purpose of this hearing is to have a discussion about the city's towing policies with respect to stolen vehicles, how the fees and penalties are structured, how stolen cars that are recovered are structured and how we may change the contract to treat the owners of stolen vehicles in a better and more respectful and fair way. i want to be clear that

. >> thank you, madam chair, for angendizing this item today. i very much appreciate it.gues, this he

. >> thank you, madam chair and thank you, colleagues for angendizing and entertaining this resolution today. colleagues, today before us is a resolution declaring february 15th, 2015 imperial council of san francisco 50th anniversary gala day. and authorizing the imperial council of san francisco to use the city and county of san francisco's official seal in connection with this important event. it is a big deal and not very common for us to authorize the use of the city seal but the imperial court is a big deal, as is its 50th anniversary. the imperial court is one of the core community institutions in the san francisco lgbt community and one of the oldest lgbt community organizations in the world. next year it celebrates its 50th anniversary. the imperial court was founded in 1964 by jose saria, who recently passed away and was honored both before his death and after his death by the board. jose saria, who ran for the board of supervisors in 1962 and did very, very well in that city-wide race went on to found the court two years later and become its first reigning empress. each year