. >> if i could just make one point to olse staff, i'm hoping there might be some follow-up with the cheesecake factory. >> before we get to ms. hail, let me call additional speakers, jim lazarus, kim jacobs and gordon mar, ms. hail? >> i'm vera hail and today i'm here just as a restaurant goer and i'm one that objects to the as -- surcharge and glad to see that was part of the recommendations, when i buy something at macy's or amazon, i do not have to pay for their employee's health care. whenever i eat out, i only eat at mid priced or lower restaurants, so not everywhere do i eat is covered by this, but i've noticed that the places that i do are adamant about it and i talked to the server to find out what the problems are and most of them do not have it and don't know when it starts when i talked to them. there was only one place that offered to remove my surcharge and when i complained about it and wherever i go, if it's on the bill, i complain, but nowhere else except this one place has offered to remove the fee. i think that all of these restaurants are doing okay by the number

everyone who came out, i want to especially thank the work of all of the city agencies, the work that olse is doing and there's a lot of coordination that goes into this, but for me, what was especially touching was hearing from the worker who talked about his story and something that actually just happened so it's not like this is something that goes back two, three years, this is something that is very recent. i know that there are differences of opinion on this committee and on the board but i do think and with the mayor as well, i do hope we can get to a resolution. there are two issues that i think remain unresolved, i think on the issue of the surcharges, i know there has been an effort to address that issue, i still don't think the effort goes far enough and while i appreciate that this board and the mayor have given more resources to olse, i think that we flexed -- need to consider being more proactive about that work, olse is able to do that if they have the resources to do that, i don't think it's simply enough for us to react until there are complaints that are issued, protectin

directed olse to collect additional data from employers providing hra's with respect to what types of hra's are restricted what types of medical services or premiums that the employer did reimburse. he also asked olse to specifically track hra reimbursement rates distinctive from all the other reimbursement accounts and to compare those accounts to reimbursement rates, he also decked olse to employ on which employers allow employees to draw down hra funds to cover health care. he asked our department specifically olse the office of small business and dph to conduct employee outreach around their rights and obligations under the health care security ordinance. and he called for a qualitative research effort to better understand employee barriers, real or perceived to accessing hra funds sparkly, that's something that we are working on doing that, i'm work -- working with many of the departments, privacy may be one that we would look at, but looking at it, i think ideally within those employers that are doing a real ri good job of drawing down and doing those reimbursements, what are th

. >> and i think that's the problem and i think i think the olse is committed to doing everything they can with the limited resources, but the challenge here, right, is that you're talking about businesses that for a number of years have been charging consumers a surcharge that supposedly was going to go to health care and we know for instance that the numbers as much as 80% was never spent on health care and in terms of our enforcement strategy, the strategy p0 relying on those very business thaz were charge consumers and not spending it on health care, then trusting the information they give us because there's no way we can audit and verify the accuracy of that information, and so that is the challenge here, and even though i understand the intent and the spirit in which the amendment was made, i simply respectfully submit that that is not enough in terms of ensuring that when a consumer in san francisco pays more to provide health care ensuring that in fact that's what happens and it's not an issue of the olse doing what it can, it's simply the system is designed. >> i want to share

limited to complying with the minimum wage and sick pay ordinances, both the city attorney and the olse grie with the grand jury that administrative enforcement of section 14.3 subsection d against employers who use these more broadly labeled surcharges will be extremely difficult. criminal enforcement by means of a consume fraud prosecution, charging a business with not properly spending the money collected for the broad purpose stated in these surcharges is obviously even more challenging. >> thank you very much, supervisor compos? >> i do want to thank the district attorney for looking into this and i'm glad there is an investigation. i do have to say that i feel that even though there are efforts on the part of the local government to address this issue, i do think there are already in the books state laws that might get to the heart of what's happening here and i just, i really hope that there is a thorough investigation that goes beyond what olse is doing because i do think they have limited resources, and it's not a good thing to hear that it would be almost impossible to bring a

fourth finding, the grand jury indicated that the city didn't have a plan nor sufficient staff at olse to audit surcharge compliance with the regulations. the olse's response in summary is that we absolutely intend to at least facially respond to as has been indicated already, employers are going to be required to report to us their surcharge data, how much they collect in surcharges, whether or not that's more or less the amount they spend in health care, those who report to us affirmatively that they have collected more on surcharges than they spent on health care, we will enforce the provision that they be required to spend that money irrevocably on health care, we intend to do that and have a plan to do that. at the same time, i think it's also right to say we do not have the resources to proactively investigate or to on our own velysing report to they have collected more on surcharges than spent on health care. fnt supervisor compos? >> thank you very much, mr. gold berger and -- gold berg, thank you to your and your staff with the limited resources you have, do you verify the inf

which of any portion of a surcharge is imposed for customers for this specific purpose, however, the olse will ensure that employers understand this provision of the ordinance for and are in compliance of it and for members of the public, we have many, many findings, departments gave us their recommendation and is we are incorporating the recommendations we see make sense. with regards to finding number 7, i would agree with that statement and incorporate the city attorney's spops to finding number 7 which states that a business commits consumer fraud if it assesses a surcharge for a stated purpose with the knowledge that it will use the money for a different purpose. with regards to responses to recommendations for recommendations 1, 2 and 3, i would recommend that we not implement those recommendations, for the first recommendation, i think we state that recent amends to the hcso adequately address the issue of consumer fraud, the board of supervisors support businesses identify how to cover their cost within the individual business models as long as it is done within compliance of the

. >> olse said, from what i understand, they're not going to be auditing these businesses so would you support that they aq the mayor be in support of that? >> yes, i think it depends on your deaf nation of audit, as complaints go in, let's audit those companies. >> independent verification of information. >> when they do that follow-up, that is their independent verification. >> you would be support to do what they're doing but nothing beyond what they're doing? >> over the next dwraoer and as we look at the 2012 data, look at that in the context of how much more work do we need to do, have the results changed significantly as we hope they will, and also get olse's assessment on what further resources they might need. >> i would respectfully disagree, i don't think we have to wait and see that a report con firs many of us already know which is that this is a problem and i would hope that we would be supportive and we would get support from the mayor's office so that the verification is not complaint-driven because complaint-driven verification is reactive, it's not proactive, i think

they are administered by a third party according to to olse's data, 85% of employees use third party administrators or provide the type of benefit that would not be able to provide health information, many employers build in other safeguards that make sure that private health information remains confidential. and then with regards to the fourth response to recommendations around disallowing the use of employee hra options, i would recommend that it states it will not be implemented, the hra are important to businesses and with respect to complying with the chro, they use appropriate tools to make benefits readily available to their employees and with regards to the response of recommendation number 5, i suggest we state that it not be implemented with regards to eliminating time limits. it defer tos the public health response, so thank you for listening to that, and i'm making a motion that we revise the motion that included these findings and revise them as i had just stated on the record. >> and to budget and legislative analyst, anything to add? >> no, we have all of the informati