i wanted to ask it supervisor and president david chiu wanted to make opening remarks? supervisor chiu: thank you. first of all, i wanted to thank you for your work on this. this has been a problem city- wide. ever since i served on the small business commission, i have actually gotten to know some of our small business advocates. jason and others, because of their leadership on this issue over the years. we know that in recent years, small-business owners have seen an enormous increase in ada- related lawsuits. thousands of them in california. in san francisco, our office of small business and my office, we identified hundreds of businesses that have been sued in our city, including businesses that have had to shut their doors down. i want to perch -- first mention that i know that's supervisor mar as a great lineup of folks to educate our colleagues about these issues. i crafted a proposal in number of months back that hopefully we will be able to consider today. it addressed some of the issues that we're talking about. and because i unfortunately need to join mayor le

i see scott and eric mar and david chiu behind me. we have embraced our parks bond and our whole capital planning to make sure that we put enough money and discipline into these wonderful rec centers and these park attributes and so on. so very happy to share this moment with the president of the rec and park commission. mark buell is here with all the wonderful staff. the staff that dpw has been working with rec and park. by the way, on budget, below budget and on time -- are you kidding? wonderful. [applause] but, you know, the spirit of all this is really two areas. it is the celebration of our community, but it is also the reason why we all agreed to name this betty ann ong rec center. because it is part of the history of a hero coming from chinatown, san francisco. and i n you -- 9/11 is right around the corner. while, as tragic as that event was for the whole country, we do have our heroes. we have people who stepped up and saved thousands of more lives. these are heroes to the country. so i began this really with a very persona

david chiu and i come from backgrounds where we do not want to leave anybody behind.want everybody to enjoy the riches of technology. we want them to enjoy the economy in san francisco. that is why we're working so hard to make sure our central marketplace is welcoming of all these technology companies, making sure that we can work with other cities. i am very lucky to be part of the u.s. conference of mayors, and they allow me to represent san francisco as the innovative center for all the rest of the cities across the country. so we get to compare information and there. what these days i will get to talk to you while i am in washington, d.c., and you can hear what i am saying across there, so we can enjoy it -- wherever i go, you know i will be working and not fooling around. finally, we also are using technology to join our private companies in hiring san franciscans. hopefully some of your kids, some of your grandkids as well, are going to enjoy some of these great jobs in san francisco, because the companies that are here, many of them have agreed to use the virt

certainly board president david chiu for helping me co-host this and carmen chu and her work with us already started and will help guide us, along with board president david chiu on all of the hearings that the rest of the board will have. i want to thank each and every member of the board of supervisors as well. you've been weighing in and we've been creating a different dialogue on the front end to make sure that all of our constituents know what we're doing, more transparent, and ultimately where our values are. i also want a big shout-out and thanks to everybody in this room. there's a lot of department heads and commissions and labor representatives and representatives from our non-profits and community members as well. thank you for engaging us in this really dedicated six-month process. i want to go back to the very first neighborhood budget hearing that we held about almost six months ago. it was one where i was asked at the very beginning, what does the budget mean to you? and i wasn't the only one. there were several supervisors that were there, and we all said pretty much

- carmen chu and david chiu's office. this launced -- launched in 2012. the program contains information that businesses that lists the federal and state laws that govern them. what is a cask program, what to look for in an inspectors, federal ada task credits and deductions a business can take, and informing businesses that their casp inspections can be taken as a text and data -- a tax deduction. we want to put together a loan program to help that -- businesses do with improvement and pay for an inspection. and work with the sf bar association to create some initial low-cost consultant for businesses. it should be noted that san francisco is the only city to date that has developed such a program for its small-business says. -- for its small businesses. with the annual mailing sent by the texas treasurer's office to food establishments, we mailed over 3000 food establishments in several different languages, information about needs for accessibility requirements, warnings of the potential lawsuits, and -- until we get th

david chiu ran on this when he was in the small business commission. we have not moved any steps toward trade we have this hearing year after year. -- he was excited and thought they would make some changes but four years later, we're still in the same position and we have not made any progress. we need to recognize there's limits to what the county can do. we have a lot of problems with the way the ada is implemented and the way the unruh act allows stacking damages. we can multiplied per visit. the only thing we can do as a city is to invest in the -- outreach. regina is the only person in charge of outreach and she has an office that has four people including herself. two people who are responsible for the counseling of small businesses when they receive these lawsuits. that is not enough and clearly, that means the city is not taking this seriously. they're setting rigid up for failure. she always -- the have not been successful in any of their attempts. regina has demonstrated this by mentioning in february they had 3000 letters mailed out and how

david chiu ran on this when he was in the small business commission. we have not moved any steps toward trade we have this hearing year after year. -- he was excited and thought they would make some changes but four years later, we're still in the same position and we have not made any progress. we need to recognize there's limits to what the county can do. we have a lot of problems with the way the ada is implemented and the way the unruh act allows

before moving forward, i would like to invite the former press a -- the president david chiu. last year, david said the landscape in san francisco is different today compared to 15 or 20 years ago when we were wondering who were the next asian pacific americans running for office, getting elected, and appointing the city offices. it is very different. >> do we have asians in the house tonight? thank you for being here. as she said, we have a very different picture in city hall today. we have the asian-americans on the board as well as the honorary members. we have so many asians at the board of supervisors that eric mar and i get confused on a regular basis, jane kim and carmen chu get confused on a regular basis. that is a good thing. if you have a chance to look around at the 700 of us fulfilling this auditorium, we came here through very different paths. your asian-american supervisors, and none of us actually grew up in this city, how we all came to the city because after 160 years, a san francisco is the asian american capital of the united states. 2012 has been an amazing

we're here with david chiu from district 3.hat includes chinatown, fisherman's wharf, and part of the russian hill neighborhood. he was elected to the board in november of 2008 and has served as board president since january of 2009. we will get to know him and talk about the toughest issues facing them. thank you for joining us today. tell us about your background. >> my parents immigrated to the united states in the 1960's. i was the first kid born in the u.s. my parents sacrificed everything so that their kids could have the opportunities that they wanted when they came here. i grew up in the boston area and lived in different parts of boston. i went to catholic price school in dorchester, a section of boston. -- i went to catholic high school in dorchester, a section of boston. because of my parents, my brothers and i were all blessed to go to harvard university. that is where i went to school. it was intense. i stayed there for law school and have a master's in public policy from there. those are subjects i decided to stud

. >> let me just say that president david chiu is the sponsor of 3, 4, 5.composts -- and campos are co-sponsors. >> i'm the legislative aide to supervisor david chiu. if i could just have the committee -- the committees indulgent about how we have gotten here. last year in the middle of 2011, president chiu had worked for a livable city and other stakeholders on a significant ordinance that amended the planning code in numerous ways. it was about 345 pages and was related primarily to controls in the northeastern part of the city with some impact that were beyond the northeastern part of the city. i'm happy to report that over the course of the second part of 2011, we've actually had five or six hearings and through the diligent work of aaron starr and others who are here, we have worked to get the wheel the ordinands into its constituent parts. the we have three of those ordnances before you. there are for five more pending. if i could speak briefly to the specifics to each of these three ordnances, i will speak before -- the overall point of the ordinance

before moving forward, i would like to invite the former press a -- the president david chiu. d the landscape in san francisco is different today compared to 15 or 20 years ago when we were wondering who were the next asian pacific americans running for office, getting elected, and appointing the city offices. it is very different. >> do we have asians in the house tonight? thank you for being here. as she

no matter how much harm is done to citizens or the society, if it is good for david chiu, it is good. thank you. >> members of the board of supervisors, director of san francisco. i would like to respectfully ask everybody in this chamber other than the members of the board of supervisors to ignore what i am going to say. anybody who is watching on sfgtv, i ask you to hit the mute button. i have something personal to say to the members of this board of supervisors. the funniest part of these meetings is when you take the pledge of allegiance at the beginning. i honestly have come to wonder what it is that is actually going through your mind when you do so. it is not to respect the fact that members of the public are exercising their constitutional rights when they stand at this podium. they get up and leave the chamber, leaving enough to keep a quorum. i don't give a damn if you disrespect each other. when you disrespect of the public by leaving the chamber as if what they have to say makes no difference to you, that is a violation of your oath of office and also that pledge of allegi

i met david chiu in 1997 when he was a small business commissioner. we have a tax system right now that currently taxes but the number of employees in company might have and how much they make. and clearly that type of tax could be a disincentive for is a disincentive on hiring new workers in our economy. the gross receipts tax will open the door to a fair tax system that is going to tax revenue instead of a number of workers we have. the measure we have, we have an agreement with the mayor's office. i have introduced a measure with fellow colleagues. supervisor kim, supervisor mar, supervisor campos, and supervisor olague. most of us have co-sponsored. i want to thank you for your co- sponsorship. we have an amendment that would raise revenue in new revenue coming from business registration fees that will be indexed to the consumer price index and i will -- i am excited about revenue generating measure that was the impetus for coming forward with a second measure in the hopes we could come together as a city and we have just that based on the breadth