supervisor cohen brought up excellent points. the mta can speak to them. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for the opportunity to speak. my name is paul. i have been in the industry for 35 years here in san francisco, as a taxi driver and a dispatcher. i am disabled and retired now. when i started driving, i started in oakland. i was trained where you had to drive in the cab with another trainer. oakland business is mostly from people who call in to receive service. here in san francisco, that is not the case in general. you have a lot of flags downtown. drivers that have difficulty speaking english also have difficulty knowing where things are, and they tend to stay downtown. they don't go to neighborhoods. that is an area we need to change in our training. i am here to speak in favor of this legislation. it is long overdue. it will keep -- it is a safety issue. it will keep illegal town cars with inadequate or no insurance from picking up. one thing that i always prided myself on whenever i drove a cab is i knew my cust

to briefly address supervisor cohen's question about representation -- supervisor cohen: i am talkingut the whole southeast. >> the response to your question about how is the industry oversight handled, the council is the industry council. the questions they consider are so technically deep into taxi industry that it would probably be difficult for a member of the public to follow. the taxi advisory council is there to consult with the mta board on matters that affect the industry. the citizens advisory council is a good place to talk about customer service. i went to the february 3 meeting of the citizens advisory council to talk about open taxi access, which i am about to share with you today. members said, i cannot get service in my neighborhood. those voices do have a place with the and thecac and sfmta oversight structure. to go to be presentation i wanted to bring to you that you requested last week -- get the last meeting, people. out there are two issues. the reason this legislation is before you have to do with the public policy of protecting public safety, to make sure model

commissioner cohen? supervisor cohen: thank you for coming. nice to see you. bear with me. i am one of the newest members on the board of supervisors. can you describe to me what is the current community policing model that you will implement? >> as far as that goes, every station as a community policing advisory board. that consists anywhere from 15 up to 25 members of the community that work with the captain directly to put together community policing initiatives and processes within that district itself. we have our community forum. there is a citywide group. in my form, i have the asian- pacific islander forum. we focus on citywide issues that affect asians and pacific islanders. also, our captain attends at least four, up to 10 communities in district. it is everything ranging from -- most are broken up into smaller groups. they attend those meetings, also. we have the pal program in place. we work with juvenile probation. we work with our gang task force, our sro's, to put together things for kids who are at risk. there are a lot of different things out there. i am no

supervisor cohen: i just have a couple of questions. i see mostly city agencies here. i wondered if you have factored into the services that nonprofits or some of the faith- based communities dealing with the question as well. >> great question. i listed the incident that would like to be responsible for making the policy change or funding decisions, in full recognition that 95% of the good work is done by cbo's and sbo's. they have very much been involved. supervisor cohen: correct me if i'm wrong, but you also have representation on the council, right? am i not by name. the reentry council is to slash three governmental departments responsible for reentry and 1/3 formerly incarcerated be individual -- individuals who have been through the system. at least two of the seven must also be service providers. in fact, four of the individuals are service providers. supervisor cohen: the composition of the council is also comprise the formerly incarcerated persons, as well. >> correct. 1/3. i do not know of any other council that has that much representation. it has been ext

cohen, how's it goin'? >> we are obviously a major supporter and hope to be part of the architecture with this. this is a long time coming. i think staff work hard to come up with a good solution to what we referred to as the orphan block. it was this last little part of the upper market. for a 20-some odd years, the entire stretch of the commercial district of copper markets -- this was back in the 1980's when the city went through a number of commercial district rezoning -- let's call it inadvertently or for a variety of reasons, that got split into two pieces, so this is really about reuniting the commercial district quarter and providing less certainty that the previous speaker mentioned. i do want to speak to, i guess, both the properties that came before you. i think it is fair to say that at the planning commission, this has already played out. they expressly granted a grandfather of impact fees for the property because that was the primary thing being discussed. variants is common, but in terms of t

so, roll call. >> on the motion, supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: yes. supervisor mar: aye. >> the motion passes. supervisor mar: thank you. please call item two, and we are rejoined by supervisor wiener. supervisor wiener: if i could just -- i was reduced, but i was watching on tv. i just do want to indicate that i do intend to, separate from this legislation, introduced legislation relating to the zoning and that the property, and we will be having discussions with the planning department about trying to find a way within the law to make that rezoning work without tipping the project to the point of not being financially viable. thank you. >> would you like to call item two and three together? supervisor mar: yes, please. >> item two, resolution declaring the intention to vacate portions of the public right of way within the transit center project area. item three, ordinance ordering the vacation of portions of the public right of way within the proposed transit area. >> good afternoon, members. acting director of real estate. before you today is the p

next to us is supervisor malia cohen and scott wiener. our clerk is alisa somera. clerk somera: -- supervisor mar: i also want to thank sfgtv for televising this. ms. somera, we only have one item before us today. could you please read the item? clerk somera: a resolution authorizing the port of san francisco to accept and expend a great in the amount of 15,000 $200 from the california department of boating and waterways -- $15,200 from the california department of boating and waterways. supervisor mar: we have a speaker. >> this is for abandoned watercraft. staff has identified seven recreational vessels that have been in the jurisdiction that pose potential navigation and environmental hazards. that number continues to grow. within the jurisdiction of the port, there are five marinas and three yacht clubs with over 2000 recreational vehicles at their facilities, and there are numerous areas where both can be left at acre or tied to spears without authorization -- can be left at anchor or tied to piers without authorization. over $1,000 represents a 10% matching f

director ford: director cohen? director cohen: is there a reason we did not look at putting this in the terminal? >> we looked at a number of technical reasons. as i referenced, there are specific laws and code requirements that relate to child care facilities. primarily, direct access to open space. secondarily, as it relates to emergency egress in the case of fire. we did look at the building itself. it did require a change in vertical circulation because we needed to create independent, vertical emergency egress for the child care center. we looked at including in the same article core plant in the building but still found we would need to widen and separate them because of the way the code is written. as it related to the use on the park itself, there was consideration for flexibility that would create an opportunity where the open space would be dedicated to the child care center during the operational use of the center, and then flip to public use. we received some public indication that that is less desirabl

supervisor cohen: aye. supervisor elsbernd: no. supervisor farrell: no. supervisor kim: yes. supervisor mar: aye. >> there are eitght ayes and three nos. president chiu: this is adopted. [applause] >> item 25, a reinstatement of janitors who worked at one at south -- at 1 south van ness avenuse, represented by local 87. >> we have tweaked the language to tighten it up. i sent a copy of the revised resolution. i want to thank supervisors avalos and cohen for joining me, supervisor kim, and president chu. president chiu: supervisor weiner has made a motion, seconded by supervisor mirkarimi. supervisor mirkarimi: i want to thank supervisor weiner for his leadership on this. i want to be added as a co- sponsoring. supervisor campos: i also would like to be added as a co- sponsor. thank you for introducing this item. supervisor avalos: i also want to thank supervisor weiner. this was the janitor's union i had worked for in the past. because i had worked for the same membership but a different leadership, i was still holding got a chance i could have a relationship with the leaders

supervisor mirkarimi: supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: thank you for your work. i am pleased to see this model and look for to its implementation. who is going to be doing the training? >> great question. it will be the cit coordinator in partnership with a mental health stakeholders. we researched their academic institutions and hospitals and asked for professionals from those hospitals and academic institutions to donate their time. that is part of the reason why this is a community program. people are donating their time to provide this training. we already have existing training. rather than starting from scratch, we would see this as additional components to add to it. supervisor cohen: so we are to have the experts from memphis to come? >> the cit coordinator would likely go to memphis. i think we sent three members to go to memphis before we adopt the program. now that we have adopted it, memphis has invited us to come back, to bring our cit coordinator, mental health stakeholders, to get more intensive training. that group would then come together and rev

supervisor cohen: i do not know the entire policy. is there a way we could have it a little more time to review some of these? president chiu: we would need to accept these amendments today in order to consider them in two weeks, and we would not be able to change it. that being said, if individuals are uncomfortable with these amendments, we could take a short recess, or we could adopt them, knowing that is what the charter sponsors want to do, and have a discussion next week on the charter amendment. supervisor kim: that has been to the rules committee a few times as well. supervisor mar: i appreciate the amendments. i would like our legal counsel to give some input before the committee as a whole next week on the funding. if the school district is going to cover the funding, we do not have the authority, if it is passed by voters. it is the authority of the board of education and the superintendent. i know that jill wynns from the board of education and others were here. there were mixed ideas when it first went forward on the boar

supervisor cohen: fast by whom? >> by all our partners in the city. their job is to make sure we protect our general fund monies. the concern is simply this is a very powerful financing tool, and we need to use it judiciously. otherwise, presumably, every neighborhood would like to have an ifd, and pretty soon, all the cookies in the cookie jar would be gone. we were proposing this as a smart growth carrot, a reward to neighborhoods that have been willing to accept growth and change, and it is essentially a social compact. the city saying we will prioritize a portion of our future tax increments to be reinvested in the very neighborhood that has accepted growth and change for public facilities that supports that destiny. parks, sidewalks, transit, bicycle improvements, and the like. the term we used in the planning field is building complete neighborhoods. this is a way for the city to show its commitment towards that. it has the advantage, of course, that it can be used to supplement existing impact fees. your previous item dealt with the issue of im

supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: i look forward to having a more substantive conversation about this when it appears on our agenda, but today, i want to introduce this regarding the budget proposal as it relates to the redevelopment authority. now, it is no secret that the state of california has a budget shortfall of over $25 billion, it and it is in his proposal dated, i think it was january 10, that he proposes among other things to repeal the authority of the local jurisdictions, such as the city and county of san francisco, " and to eliminate the redevelopment agency. -- city and county of san francisco, and to eliminate the redevelopment agency. neighborhoods like the ones in the southeast part of san francisco. it is because of this that i rise to ask for many of my colleagues' support. it is because of these tools that we have been able to create new businesses, new business opportunities, and build, build, and will continue to build thousands upon thousands of units of affordable housing, w