-- chairperson nolan: >> this will be very quick. i would like to ask the director if he can direct staff to update us on the status of the installation of [unintelligible] throughout the city. many businesses have been waiting for that. where are we waiting on that? chairperson nolan: thank you. now we are at the executive director's report, right? we are skipping over everything else after this. director reiskin: absolutely. thank you, members of the board, members of the public, and mta staff. i would like to start by recognizing a couple of individuals, who after many years of service to the city are choosing to move on, and want to wish them well. i would like to ask ban yi to step forward. ron has been not with the agencies since muni was part of the puc. i had the opportunity to speak briefly with him yesterday, and learned that he has really had his hand in much of what we see in our rail network today, particularly in the downtown and embarcadero area, in getting the f line up and running, starting back in the 1980's, the ex

chairperson nolan: the public hearing will be closed. [applause] if you keep it up, i will have you removed from the room. members of the board, do you want to take these together? it seems to me the first item 12 has a lot of consensus around it. anybody have any problems or comments on this? >> i do want to recognize the idea of the way bills. chairperson nolan: any further discussion? all in favor? the ayes have it. item 13. director heinicke: i have some questions. how you respond to the question that maybe we should follow the nilson report and let the companies decide. are we trying to create a uniform access for all customers? >> it comes from the board of supervisors asking our staff, our agency, what we have done as we go to regulatory changes to try to make improvements for the benefit of the industry. the public is not always at this table for the conversation. next time you get into a san francisco taxi, i advise you to look at the rate card and see if you can read it at all and if you can get any information that is useful t

chairperson nolan: what we are doing now is just item 11. after we finish that, we can consider whether to groups some of the rest of them together. secretary boomer: [names are read] chairperson nolan: good afternoon. >> i do have problems with procedure and the way this was put before us, but i will address myself to the issue. credit cards. what we have is a reduction of the credit card charge from 5% to 3.5% and some other changes. this is better than it was before, but only by comparison. if you take away somebody's loaf and give a piece of in back to them, they are not really going to thank you for that. these are charges that should be borne by taxi companies. i cannot tell you how many times -- virtually every passenger who gets into my cab asks me if i will take a credit card. by now, virtually nobody should be asking that question. maybe out-of-towners', but certainly these costs should be invisible to the passenger and the driver. the way to do that is to place them upon the taxi company, as green tab does right now. by doing that

chairperson nolan: is there a second? all in favor? we will take a 10 minute break. >> we are going to go ahead and get started again. chairman nolan has to leave for an engagement. he had to leave for another event, so i am taking over for him. before we start on items 14 and 15, which i believe we will combine, i would like to go ahead and ask ms. morley from the city attorney's office to give us a legal opinion on the idea that we perhaps violated sunshine regulations with our amendment on item 11. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am from the city attorney's office. the amendment to item 11 was proper under the sunshine ordinance. the item as it was agenda is to reject agend - - as it was agendized would allow drivers to use their own merchants. the board was free to decide that or to decide they were not going to allow it. they were free to allow it but subject to conditions. there was no violation. thank you very much. >> i think we can combine items 14 and 15. -- vice chairperson brinkman: secretary boomer: recommending that the de

chairperson nolan: good afternoon, mr. lawrence. >> good afternoon. i would like to bring up the issue of the 3.5% to 5%. we ought to start subtracting 5% out of your paycheck every month. everytime we deposit it, we get 5% for the taxi industry. whether it is 3.5% or 05%, in a couple of years it will be 12% or 15%. you are ripping off the taxi driver, forcing him to take credit cards. you are forcing the population to use credit cards when they can use cash. how about stopping on the corner for a $4 credit charge when the traffic is low? with a policeman behind you, a woman hands you a credit card. i have 15 badges in my hand. here is a mastercard. it takes 4.5 minutes to do it. [)s0ñ forcing taxes drivers to do. it is like removing the benches and the trash cans and having the population at large through a crash in the street because there are less trash cans. taxi drivers are small businesses. you do not understand that. a taxi medallion holder does not make what a junior clerk makes at city hall. no benefits, medical, dental, or otherwise. but you