nobody got it. it's not football, or baseball. america's cup had zero per share people interested. it's all a lie. the recession is already on our heads. the income has gone down from $200 to barely $100. please do not support this politically-motivated -- please stop it. there is not a zero need for anymore cabs. thank you. [ applause ] >> next speaker, please. [ reading speakers' names ]. >> hi, how are you? excuse me for my language, because my english is second language. i'm a taxi driver in san francisco. and everyday we get something new. one day uber and we lost a lot of business. busy times, friday and saturday nights. i got at least 10 no-goes. most of people calling for cabs, charged two or three companies. uber charges in advance and guaranteed that the people wait for them. nobody waits for us. i'm on the list for medallions. so if you put extra cabs for the people on the list, make it limited and controlled for the uber. the guy is talking [pwho-elt/]s hotels is saying there is not enough cabs. what about waiting in front of hotels for two hours and get nothing? limousines take the whole fare, so we waste time. it's not about short cabs of it's about the system, the system and how they manage their business. thank you very much. if you go to a restaurant you wait an hour for a table. so you don't mind waiting 10-15 minutes for a cab friday night. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. >> david hathaway, brian rosen, last speaker barry corngold. >> good afternoon, mr. hathaway. >> good afternoon. i have been driving a cab for20 years and been on the list for 16 years and currently no. 17 on the medallion waiting list. i kind of look at this along with the medallion proposal thing, giving the medallions directly to the companies. and i feel like it's a time when we're under tremendous financial pressure from non-san francisco-regular regulated services. that is a huge financial windfall for naught and cab companies. drivers are kind of the life blood of this. we're the ones pumping the money and picking up the people through the cab companies and i feel, i don't know, i feel like i am kind of left in the dark here as to what is going on as far as this. i just asked you to tread lightly on the drivers. and have consideration for those who have been driving in the city for a long time. i mean, i feel like i have earned a medallion driving a cab here. thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> brian rosen. barry goldgold. >> hi, brian rosen. i have been driving 20 years. i don't know how much more can be said. people have been talking about the list. last meeting you gave us some indication that you were going to let us know, maybe what was happening with the list. you know? i am 34 on the list. i think the frustration here is that people want to know what is going on. so we can either plan our lives accordingly. i think we deserve that. i think we deserve that. you know, to know what is going on. because it's very frustrating. we have watched our names move up, our numbers move up, but yet, there is no indication that the earned medallions -- i spoke to somebody who got their malion off the list and earned medallion today. they are driving and is lifts that they want. you know? and i just feel that we should give -- you should give us some indication. you guys have great poker faces. [ laughter ] >> it's great. we should -- sorry -- just give us some indication of what i think we deserve that. thank you. >> thank you, sir. [ applause ] barry corngold. >> good afternoon, mr. corngold. >> hi, i'm barry corngold with the san francisco cab association. i have a lot of problems with this proposal one of which is the statistics it's using is from 2000 when it says customers have a 40% chance of getting a cab in sf. that was 12 years ago. we now have 50% more cabs and the same problem. so just throwing cabs at it obviously doesn't solve the problem. there are a lot of other reasons that people don't get a cab 12 years ago. i think it may be hard for people to get a cab on friday and saturday night, of people that are generally complaining that they can't get a cab. that is when they go out. they are not out there monday evening when it's not that busy. giving the medallions to the company and leasing them, the mta collecting the money isn't going to provide any better service or more cabs out than giving medal medallions on the list. the average cab driver makes $30,000 a year and they wait years on the list and follow the rules and maybe make less than the median income of san francisco, which is less than the lowest paid mta employee gets. yet, sames director heinicke from looking at the emails, is insisting that the mta take the money from the drivers and use it for themselves to try to fill this huge hole they have dug for themselves. and i think it's pretty heartless and i think you need to consider the cab drivers who are on the list, that you are just ignoring. you are making the rules and just printing money. so you are just putting the cabs out and printing money. how about getting it to drivers on the list? while they are waiting to get their regular medallion at least they have a medallion and can be out there part of the time, filling the need. >> [ applause ] . >> thank you, [ reading speakers' names ]. >> good afternoon, mr. lee. >> good afternoon, mr. nolan and members of the board. we do have a lot of drivers not qualified to buy their medallions. they can't afford to make a long-term lease. they live on gate and gas. but i do like to pay attention to your policy. when you make a good policy it's good, but your policy bends like a rubberband. i know you are not a rubber stamp, but your policy is like a rubber bond and you can extend it like this. you can make it square. you can make a triangle. you have to pay attention to this. this medallion is quite good, but adding more and more hours to become full-time. when you originally passed it was a single operator and the driver must provide their own car and own full-time driver. finally it's becoming a pension type of medallion. that is what i worry b. when i look at the news or newspaper, you are spending $6 million in order to install your 357 buses, install your cameras. i don't blame you that you always say you are broke and have a deficit all of the time, because you are paying too much overprice for everything. i worry about your subway, $940 million that will be given to you very soon this. is very good, because it's how we get money. but i worry -- please lower the gate for the driver, because of the extra cost of running the taxi is too much. they have to have $80 a shift. [ applause ] >> thank you. the public hearing part will be closed at this point. members of board, i have a couple of things. if i could begin with someone raised the issue here, i think it was mr. grewberg that the possibilities of getting this many new cabs by all of these october events is unlikely. can you respond to that? >> i think it's correct that these cabs won't be able to hit the streets overnight. there is time in issuing the permit. there is time in qualifying additional drivers. so there is no question there will be a transition in terms of the moment you act, if you choose to do so, to the time that there are additional taxi cabs on the streets. i think there is a lot of data to support that there is a problem today. so the fact that the sooner this board were to absent, the sooner the cabs will be on the streets. that fact, i think is not refutable, but there is a ramp up, and the big peaks of demand for next summer and next year's america's cup are very real. >> well, it makes it a little -- when we talked about needing them all for this october, for fleet week and all of these things. it's a little more candid, i think to talk about them for next year's events rather than these things to be done very, very quickly. >> i apologize if the staff report promised that they could be done as suggested that they could be out by october. that oct weekend is a good exemplar where the taxi is shown as extreme inadequate to meet that need. >> the second pint, miss housman made the comment about large vehicles, was it no. a5, the fifth [wra*-rs/]. whereas. >> i believe the technology for larger vehicles is improving everyday. i don't think fact is this is consistent with city and mta policy and i wouldn't recommend kind of compromising on that at this point. we can look into issues with regard to larger vehicles versus these, but i think that the promise of a greener fleet is, in fact, part of the basis for our environmental clearance for this, and i think helps make a much stronger case that while we're putting more vehicles on the street, we're putting out vehicles that are cleaner than basically the vehicles that they would be replacing, private, limousine or otherwise. >> two other items. are you telling us that there are some vehicles that would meet these criteria, that are now available or would be available shortly? >> that i don't know. >> okay. then another thing, the thing that bothered me, too, and i forget who mentioned it, but the statistics used to justify some of this are from 2000. that is an awful long time ago for the studies and i know we're doing our study coming up in january, is that right? so that to me was of concern that we're basing this at least on some things that are pretty dated, that part of it. i am convince there had is a need, but basing it on something from 2000, i would be much more comfortable after the study in january. >> as would i. it's been my preference all along to make sure we had good, current data. what we presented to you is what we had. i think it's notable for the first time in my, however long it's been, 13 months in this job. this is the first time that we heard a taxi item that we had comment from other than the taxi industry. so i think just think it's relevant to hear the empirical data [tpr-eplt/] from those affected. wftv well, i guess the question on that is to get more up-to-date data, that would be sometime in the new year, right? >> yes, probably january. >> so then if we began the whole process of getting the new cabs and following that into the new year, as opposed to months from now, is that right? if we did this today, if we approved this today, then the effort can go out to get the new vehicles, right? >> that is correct. it would be four months ahead, likely when that data is available. >> the biggest issue for me that i have heard here and i'm not sure how we can deal with it, but i think it's a pretty compelling case about the list. and especially the two gentlemen, one 17 and the other is 36 on the list. i wish we could figure out a way to somehow tie it to this. but something very soon that recognized what the waiting that they have done, the service that they have provided to the city. >> yes. so based on your direction at the last meeting and think what is a very legitimate issue that is sitting out there, unresolved, and has relation to the matters of last time and this time. i was preparing to bring to your recommendation, if it's not going to go through a public process, then it can come on september 18th, possibly. but i was planning to bring a recommendation to make a policy statement from the board. >> about the list? >> about the list? >> okay. >> those are the concerns that i have, directors? director brinkman? >> i would like to talk about the second resolve, hybrid electric compressed natural gas, et cetera. i understand what we're trying to get to with our fleet is the emissions control. it's not just fuel-efficiency, correct? >> that is correct. >> and i do know that even if it may seem that the technology is not there for the larger vehicles, at this moment, that the auto industry is moving so quickly on technology and on fuel-efficiency and every time that the bar is raised, they meet it and they beat it. so i am confident on that one. i hear miss housman's concern on that, but i'm confident that question address the higher-capacity vehicles with the low emissions that we're striving for to have a truly green fleet. we have to remember unlike a private vehicle, these vehicles are in operation 23 hours a day, so it really adds a huge impact on our city. the big thing that i hear is the hailing technology. i think that is probably, aside there figuring out what we'll do with the list, that is the biggest thing we can do to help the taxi driverss is to figure out how we're going to connect them with the passengers, not just passengers that we have right now. because i think there is a huge -- not just unmet demand for passengers, but a lot of people not taking taxi because they don't feel they can reliably get a taxi out in the neighborhoods. so the point that one driver made, these people are taking taxis on friday and saturday night, because sure, it's hard to get one, because serve trying to get one. if you increase people's confidence level when they use whatever technology or whatever system we're going to come up, that they will be able to get a taxi out in the neighborhoods. i could see people switching to taxis for more trips that they are currently using private automobiles. young people in our city are not buying private automobiles like they used to. so there is a huge glut of passengers, but right now unfortunately they are using uber and the pink moustache cars and feel confidence around the technology that they are hailing. so i think, if we can figure out how we want to standardize the hailing of taxis or standardize the calling of taxis, we can very easily claw back those passengers and get those passengers out the pink moustache and uber cars and back into our taxis and probably the most important thing we need to do to help our taxi drivers. i think again, i think there are tons of people who would take a lot more taxi trips if it felt more reliable and felt more standardized, not just in the hailing, but paying as well. i think that is why people like uber, it's that cashless transaction, that ability to take transportation on credit cards. i think that is all for now that i have. >> thank you, director brinkman. directors? are you okay? >> i just wondered, one speaker mentioned this, but could you elaborate in terms of the distribution of these medallions or permits? >> yes. and we will make this public. i agree with one of the [spo-erbg/]s, this speakers, this needs to be entirely transparent. we want it based on objective standards. so the idea is to look at the dispatch data, and look at each company's performance in terms of responding to radio dispatch calls, as a percentage of the service that they provide. and providing proportionately more the ability to at least proportionately more of these permits based on that performance. so the higher percentage of radio calls make up the service that you deliver, the higher proportion relative to your size of these permits that we have available. and we would -- we will establish and publish exactly what those criteria are. how basically the algorithm is working to determine whatever number you authorize, if you choose to authorize these, how we would allocate them. >> and will there be a mechanism by which the staff with monitor the performance as it continues on, so if there is not performance standards being met, they can be revoked or something? >> absolutely. the requirements that you all put in place with regard to data-collection and requirements for electronic data provision and collection will give us something that we haven't had in the past, which is uniform means of determining so we'll have a better ability to do that in the future than we have today. that is part of the benefit of issuing these permits in this way, to the extent that it's not being met by an individual permit or individual company, we can take them back. >> i just have one last question. >> sure. >> i think an email correspondence and in public comment, can you comment on that? >> yeah, i think my understanding is that in terms of how it's defined in the transportation code, these are rightly characterized as medallions. a medallion is essentially a permit that can take different forms. i think i consider them to be interchangeably in this regard, but in terms of definition within the transportation code, i believe what we are presenting here, recommending here today is consistent with that definition of a "medallion." >> thank you, director heinicke? >> thank you, on this issue of the list, i agree with the comments, suggested that we should move to address that issue at the very least the people on the list deserve certainty, so they know whether they should take advantage of purchasing a medallion or wait for a free one or discount one or financial-assisted one or whatever we're going to do. as i said before, certainty is the very least that is deserved here and i'm glad to hear there are plans to move with that in a meeting or two. following up on director rubke's question, as you develop the plans to determine who get these medallions, assuming this proposal is accepted here today, would there be some process for encouraging that the cab companis have the sort of taxi applications, the hailing -- electronic hailing applications that we have talked about? i assume that answered radio calls through a taxi magic or similar app would be counted in the success rate for the company. if we're pushing the industry in' way to get to a more certain place in taxi hail, i wonder if there is an opportunity to make sure that the companies that have taken the steps to put that in place with their fleets have been rewarded with the medalones and those who haven't are not. >> we were not planning to use that whether you are affiliated with or making your data available, your dispatch data available via an app. i agree however with the vice-chair brinkman and many speakers that the dispatch side of this is extremely important it's not just about the number of cabs on the street, but the extent how they can be accessed by your average person. so i have directed our technology folks to work with the taxi folks as expeditiously as possible to solve that problem as quickly as we can. >> through this proposal, we're not binding you as staff how you set the standard. i am certainly in no position to insist on it, but i would urge you to at least think about whether this is a requirement we should put on the companies? it's clear that this is next step in making taxi service for reelaborate or a next step in making taxi service more reliable and i think those companies that have gone through the efforts to sort of implement these apps should be rewarded. the cab driver who is new to us here, but whose comments were very much appreciated talking about the no-goes that he encountered. i would suggest that. have some sort of system whereby in exchange for them putting money down unbeing punished if they no-go, they are more likely to know they are being picked up. i would hope we would work with our taxi companies to enable them to do that, if they choose to do so. on the pricing of these, you have a sort of suggested rate of $1900 per month. we're not actually locking that in here, is the price to be determined or this proposal locked it in at $1900 per month? >> i would have to look at the language in the resolution. we were setting that as a baseline, based on what we currently -- to be consistent with our current charges. >> okay. and i know we went with a set fee for the individual sales for reasons of protection of the buyer, for reasons of certainty and frankly for reasons of financing is what the credit union was going to finance. was there any consideration given to whether it would make more sense giving these to corporations, sophisticated eptities to use an auction system as a fixed price? >> that is not something that we considered. we thought was simplest and more straightforward was using our current fee structure to price these permits. that is again, something we could