a whistle-blower brought that lawsuit against recology. reported earlier this year at kpix 5. after a month long trial and over a week of deliberations, a san francisco jury ordered recology to pay back $1.3 million to ratepayers for bonuses it received in 2008. those bonuses are for meeting recycling goals and diverting garbage from the landfill. >> as a result of making a false claim, they received a bonus in excess of $1.3 million that they should not have received. instead, that money should have gone into a pot that would the next year have reduced the amount that ratepayers in san francisco paid to have their garbage collected. >> reporter: recology has an exclusive contract to both pick up garbage and recycle in san francisco worth about $300 million a year and is guaranteed a 10% profit. >> what came out at trial was recology wasn't happy with just making $30 million a year. it had to cheat and make false claims to make a few extra dollars. >> reporter: the case was brought to light by brian mcveigh, a former supervisor at recology

today we are at recology. they are celebrate 20 years of one of the most incredibly unique artist residency programs. we are here to learn more from one of the resident artists. welcome to the show, deborah. tell us how this program began 20 years ago. >> the program began 20 years ago. our founder was an environmentalist and an activist and an artist in the 1970's. she started these street sweeping campaigns in the city. she started with kids. they had an exhibition at city hall. city officials heard about her efforts and they invited her to this facility. we thought it would coincide with our efforts to get folks to recycle, it is a great educational tool. since then, we have had 95 professional artists come through. >> how has the program changed over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood, what you would expect from a program like ours. over the years, we tried to include artists and all types of mediums. conceptu

and i think that recology is doing a great job and i know that you are trying to expand that effort and i just want to say, you know, mr. justy is always going out of his way to also connect the dots with you know, creating job opportunities for folks in the community especially young people and so i am very appreciative of that. >> thank you. >> thank you. and i know that we have another major hearing is coming up as we get through had one and i am going to do my best to ask the people to keep the comments short and the next speaker is regina, the director of the office of small business. >> good morning, good morning, and mar, and supervisor yee, and a couple of things and thank you for having the hearing and a couple of things that i want to just point out, is that the definition of a super market was established in 1986 which was the definition that is around what is like a safeway, and that is at 2 million dollars, and so, because of that two million dollar market, or marker, we are now seeing more of our neighborhood markets now moving into that definition, of a super market. and

on that claim and over 100 others. >> recology won a resounding victory today. this was a false lawsuit that was brought against the company and we won on 158 out of 159 charges. that's more than a minor victory. that's a gigantic victory. >> well, lawyers for mcveigh would argue they say the $1.3 million award will likely double or even triple once interest and lawyers' fees are tacked on. recology says it will appeal. >>> a big bump in the road for ridesharing apps like uber and lyft. state lawmakers are considering restricting the companies and as kpix 5's ann notarangelo reports, drivers and riders aren't too happy about it. ann. >> reporter: veronica, "rideshare" supporters want the legislature to reject two pending bills that they say will curb these ridesharing companies. they say it's just another example of people opposed to new technology. >> if you think about it, the residential phone was threatened by the mobile phone. the movie theater weighs threatened by the video store. >> reporter: they rallied on the steps of the capital to keep personal cars

and recology help us and make your containers less easy to theft. give us a breaking mechanism on them so that they can't be so easily rolled. clearly from the point of view of 2020 market, urban blight and public nuisance will get worse, not better, and if the cr closes we really do a lot to clean it up and maintain order. thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> sure. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is david and i am the recyclinger and i am unemploy able because of my disabilities and i need this place to stay open and close to home i can't walk but about eight blocks at a time. and i can't afford i am on a limited income, and i need the help that they offer. and they do a great job at keeping the place clean, and there is no drinking there. and they come out and they pick up the trash around the area, and they sweep, and they really do an outstanding job for our community. and i like to see them stay open. that is all, thank you. >> thank you. >> i am going to call several other names. marian, from the arab gross reer a associa