SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT COMMISSION MINUTES

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supposed to go into effect on July 1 st so the sooner the better, please. Commissioner Mazzola asked if we can cancel these speakers today. Mr. Gruberg said that we are going to have a further opportunity to have a public hearing, and everyone will have the right to speak, but this is not the session and forum where it’s going to be decided. Commissioner Mazzola said that we did not expect you here today ... and that’s okay ... but I personally have an appointment I have to get to and I think some of the Commissioners do as well. I would rather have you do it another forum so we can have it done correctly and we don’t have to rush you. Commissioner Guggenhime asked what will happen with the July date. That obviously concerns them. Mr. Martin responded that we will work with the organizing committee to pick a date, to pick the forum whether it’s City Hall in a room like this, or in the Airport Museum where we can get a microphone system set up and accommodate a couple hundred of people. We will decide how to that. We will schedule it as quickly as reasonably possible, but we want to make sure everyone who wants to attend is given reasonable notice. Mr. Gruberg asked for a commitment that the July 1 st date is on hold until we have these further discussions. Mr. Martin responded that we will hold the hearing within the next three weeks. Unidentified speaker ... I suggest you put it on the Agenda and then you make time, Sir, with the forty-fifty speakers. Commissioner Mazzola said that he will attend the meeting but it may not be in a forum like this. Mr. Martin said that after the public hearing it will return to the Commission formally. We cannot take action with a change on July 1 without a Commission vote. So, there will be both the public hearing and then a hearing before the Commission again where everyone will have another opportunity to speak again and the Commission will get to ask questions. Because this is not calendared, the Commission can’t enter into a substantive discussion. Mr. Emil Lawrence said that he does not represent any group in this meeting today. I represent myself. I’m a resident of City and County of San Francisco for 40 years. I’ve spoken before this Commission in the past. There’s a major problem with DAJA and Henry Thompson who’s acts as a rogue manager by removing documents from the bulletin board that taxi drivers read. He’s been doing this for eight months. I asked you two weeks ago to put a stop to it; nothing happen. Part of the problem that the taxi drivers in this City have, they’re shunted now from MTA. MTA is taken them off their plate as well. Now you don’t want to talk us either. It’s a problem in this City. Commissioner Crayton said that‘s not true. Minutes, April 20, 2010, Page 12
Commissioner Mazzola asked Mr. Lawrence not to say that the Commission does not want to speak with them ... don’t make comments like that. Commissioner Crayton asked Mr. Lawrence not to make misstatements. Mr. Lawrence understood that they will have a format. Let me finish please. We pay $4 coming into the Airport every time we pick up a passenger. It’s 10% of the gross business we get on an Airport fare going back to San Francisco. Unlike all of you that work for the City and County, we get no benefits whatsoever for that $4 that we get. Nothing. We get an open parking lot that pumps probably $8,000 to $12,000 a day into DAJA’s funnel or campaign fund. And that’s it. And now they want to take it up to $5-$6, cut short fares, talk about entering San Mateo Cab companies into SFO. Maybe there’s a problem with SFO that it should be put for sale at the highest bidder if it can’t make any money and they have to squeeze cab drivers to do it. I thank you for your time. Kulwant Khaira, cab driver. The things which were imposed on us ... July 1 st , should be suspended or cancelled until we decide at future hearings and make a decision. This decision was imposed on us and we were not heard at all. I have spoken to several hundred drivers. They’re frustrated and they are not able to express themselves here. July 1 st should be cancelled or suspended until we reach an agreement or until we go to any conclusion. We pay $4 fee. We cannot refuse credit cards from any customer. Credit card companies charge 5%, which is another $2. We had an agreement on September 2, 2002. Since then the price of gas has gone very high. Everybody who picks up credit card passengers pays $2 to $3 extra because the company charges the 5% fee on credit card. And we are collecting money for the Airport for ground transportation. We are major, major part of ground transportation and we are not being heard properly by the Airport. This issue should have come up and discussed with them in front of Commission. They haven’t listened. There was a notice for public hearing and there was no issue to cancell shorts. The next day there was a notice on the board that they are cancelling shorts. The drivers are very frustrated. We want to be heard. Mr. Martin said that no decision has been made, no decision has been made. Unidentified speaker asked if the action could be cancelled until then. Mr. Martin responded that no action has been taken. The Commission must approve it. We will hold a public hearing and it will return to the Commission before a decision can be made. So there’s nothing to retract; it hasn’t happen. Commissioner Mazzola welcomed Mr. Taranto back. Mr. Barry Taranto said that he hasn’t been before this Commission since Commissioner Richard Guggenhime joined. He welcomed him and said this was a good opportunity to . meet the cab drivers who are safe. Unfortunately, the article in the Canon Ball Express and S.F. Weekly was poorly written. I have a journalism degree from USC and if I ever wrote article like that, in that format, you can cut off a part of my body of your choice, because I would never write an article like that. Because it was disgusting and it was not appropriate. As you see, the drivers that are here, there the ones that care about the passengers that they pick up from S.F. Airport or take to S.F. Airport. You can’t paint all drivers the way this writer wrote that article. Minutes, April 20, 2010, Page 13
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SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT COMMISSION MINUTES

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