yes we collect evidence. we want to preserve that. we are not scanning fingerprints in the field like a hollywood television show. >> families say thank you for what you do, for me that is extremely fulfilling. somebody has to do my job. if i can make a situation that is really negative for someone more positive, then i feel like i am doing the right thing for the city of san francisco. welcome to the small business commission meeting on january 22nd, 2020. for the meeting is being called to order at 4:34 p.m. i'm this meeting is being held in person in city hall, room 400 and broadcast live on sf gov tv. the small business commission thanks media services and sf gov tv for televising the

meeting, which can be viewed on sf gov tv two or live streamed at sf govtv. org we welcome the public's participation in person during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for general public comment at the end of the meeting, and there will be an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. there will be special accommodation for individuals who cannot attend in person due to disability. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker. an alarm will sound once the time has finished. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. sf gov tv please show the office of small business slide today. we will begin with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. before item one is called, i'd like to start by thanking media services and sf gov tv for helping to run today's meeting. please call item one. item one

roll call commissioner benitez is present. commissioner dickerson present. commissioner herbert is absent. president huey here. commissioner ortiz cartagena is absent. and vice president susan's present president. you have a quorum. thank you. the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone, who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditional, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. please

call item number two. item two san francisco, san francisco municipal transportation authority sfmta briefing. this is a discussion item sfmta director jeffrey tumlin will provide an overview of upcoming projects that will likely impact the small business community and discuss current and future community action strategies. welcome director tumlin. thank you very much. uh, greetings, commissioners. my name is jeffrey tumlin. i'm the executive director of the san francisco municipal transportation agency, and i'm very happy to be here this is now my second appearance. the small business commission, and it remains my favorite commission to attend, in part in part because, uh, in part because you run small businesses and therefore understand the nature of being scrappy and having to make trade offs and hard choices and be creative about how to use limited resources in order to achieve success. so i have a pretty dense presentation. i'm going to

go through it very quickly this is meant to really be a teaser for all of you. we are eager to hear your advice about how we can better hear from small business owners and use our limited resources in order to help foster small business success in san francisco. so my, uh, my presentation will cover a couple of topics. we're going to talk just a little bit about that, a little bit about sfmta priorities. you'd asked about what we're calling our active communities plan. uh, we'll talk a little bit about how we engage with small businesses and how we mitigate construction impacts. how we coordinate with other city agencies. we'll talk a little bit about parking and a very, very tiny amount about our financial outlook. um, so let's talk about priorities. um, uh, the transport sector here in san francisco is the city's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. we're one of the greatest sources of injury and death. 33 people die and

thousands are injured unnecessarily every year as a result of traffic crashes. um, we're also an avenue to opportunity. um, transportation is how kids get to school, how people get to work, how people find new opportunities. and we're a critical agent in supporting san francisco's overall economy, especially our small businesses. and so in order to do that, we focus on number one, making muni fast free, decent, reliable, clean and safe. we focus on making the entire transportation system, um, safe, particularly for people walking and biking. we try to make sure that traffic flows smoothly. um, and that includes dealing with, for example, a huge increase in the demand for curbside pickup and drop off just over the last couple of years. a necessary element in supporting small businesses, but also an impediment to allowing traffic to flow smoothly. and of course,

we also have a key role in supporting this unique time in san francisco history. as we recover from the economic impacts of covid. um, every commercial district in san francisco is they're literally because of muni's 110 year history, san francisco commercial districts are long and skinny because they follow former muni train tracks. um muni itself is utterly dependent upon small business success. s a the largest source of our current revenue comes from local taxes, which are largely driven by small business success. and the other portions of our revenue come from muni fares and parking fees, much of which is driven by commerce s associated with small businesses, small business and the sfmta are inextricably linked, but neither of us can thrive without the other also thriving. and it's why it's been a big focus of our work, particularly over the last

couple of years. um, over the last four years, we focused a lot on making muni more reliable, faster and more frequent. we've added 25 miles of transit only lanes and about nearly 100 miles of transit priority improvements that have made muni more reliable, faster and in many corridors, more frequent than it has been in our for at least the history that we have data for. the result of that is, even though our downtown ridership is still about 50% of where it was pre-covid, our overall ridership is now over 70. and on our neighborhood lines like the 22 fillmore or the 49 venice, those lines are over 130% of pre-covid ridership, some of the highest pre-covid ridership return of any transit system in the united states. we've also invested heavily in shared spaces in order to ensure that so many of our businesses could survive and make our commercial districts more lively, we've been focusing

a lot on street safety, including investing our efforts in securing speed, safety cameras from the state legislature, which have been proven to cut pedestrian fatality rates in half. we spent a lot of effort focusing on parking availability, even as demand changes dramatically, particularly with uber and doordash and amazon and other services taking up more of our curb space and we've been investing in modernizing our traffic signal system in order to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. all over the city. um ultimately, though, our job is really to focus on trade offs. the city is continuing to grow and recover, and yet our streets are not getting any wider. the task that we face every day is how do we take streets of a fixed width and allocate that space and manage that space in order to serve the greatest number of people and the highest public good? i'm not

a better person when i take muni or walk to work, but i do take up one tenth of the roadway space that i do when i drive a car. and so part of our work is recognizing the basic math of mobility and making sure that we're continually prioritizing those modes of transport that can deliver the most commuters to work and the most patrons to our small businesses. um, our work over the last four years on muni has been, um, uh, well has turned out far better, in fact, than any of us ever expected was possible considering the forces that were stacked against us throughout covid. it has been a remarkable surprise to us that our customer approval ratings are at the highest. level that they've been in over a decade. in fact, muni was the only government service in the recent citywide customer survey that

showed people really appreciating it more than they did pre-covid. and that's happened. in large part because of the work that we've made, uh, to make muni faster, more frequent and more reliable. um, just five years ago, uh, the 14 mission, for example, when i would go to get the 14 mission rather than having one bus arrive, uh, every five minutes, you'd get six busses every half hour. changes that we have introduced to the management of the system has instead asked our operators to simply space themselves out evenly, resulting in a dramatic improvement in reliability investments. for example, in the venice busway, have improved transit speed and reliability by over 30. in fact, we get regular complaints from riders that they are missing their stop because they look down at their phone and the bus has traveling now so quickly that there are two stops past where they had intended to get off and we're continuing to do

more work on muni speed and reliability. we we're also trying to recognize that, uh, um, street violence is a big concern throughout san francisco , particularly for people who are walking and biking. and again, about 30 people a year die on necessarily on our streets. and so the work that we're doing in order to promote safe streets is right now in our active communities plan, this is a citywide effort that is aimed at asking the question, how can any normal san franciscan, whether they're a kid trying to get to school or a senior trying to get groceries, is how can they reasonably walk or bike or use a mobility assistance device to safely and comfortably get from their neighborhood to any other neighborhood in the city? and it, like this doesn't mean making every street perfect for people on bikes or on foot, but it does mean a connected network that connects every single neighborhood in the city to each

other. and it means using a variety of different techniques, uh, techniques that have been proven in cities around the world, and that we're just beginning to experiment with here in san francisco. so i'm happy to talk more about that process. but right now, we are engaged in an extensive community engagement effort, um, trying to speed to small businesses and neighborhood residents all over the city. we've spoken at over 100 events across the city. we've reached over 6000 residents and have gotten about 3000 survey responses is trying to help understand. and how do people want to be able to walk or bike in their neighborhood? and again, for any kind of trip, whether that's kids getting to school or or going to work or getting groceries? we're taking very much a locals first approach, focusing on what our actual neighborhood needs rather than cross city needs. and we're focusing on our most vulnerable populations as well as

populations that are not typically heard from in conventional city processes. so we're currently in the feedback stage right now trying to figure out is, are there common themes that we're hearing from communities about what we should be prioritizing and will be continuing to work on this process for the coming year, including helping get feedback from small business. uh corridors about what improvements they want to see. um, another series of questions you asked is about how we do public outreach and engagement. i have here with us today. our head of communications, deanna desantis, as well as janette sanchez, who works as part of that team, and also my chief of staff, victoria wise. and they're available to provide more information. our engagement efforts are, um, are headquartered in our centered

around our communications group. we have a specific team for public outreach and engagement. that's 14 staff people working on over 200 projects that we have going right now. and they have a standardized approach to engage that varies depending upon project size and level of controversy. typically what we do in commercial district is first and something we would love advice on. try to get a distribution list for how to actually communicate with small businesses. oftentimes we'll go door to door, but as you know, oftentimes times the owner may not actually be there. and so it's hard sometimes to get direct contact with owners as well as have addresses either phone numbers or email addresses for follow up. but that is something we always strive to do and would love. your advice on. uh, we'll almost always, uh, do two site tours and form an

advisory group and work with merchants association. in order to understand needs and also to mitigate our construction impacts. we've also, over the last six years, had an mta specific small business working group that has been mainly, uh, leaders of neighborhood commercial organizations that have helped us to figure out how best to allocate our limited communications resources, as well as understand the needs of small businesses. we would love your advice about the best ways to engage with local merchants in order, again, to be able to allocate our resources as best as we can. um, again, on our outreach efforts vary a lot depending upon the size of our project. some of our most disruptive projects, most famously the venice improvement project, included a very formal business advisory council, along with a pretty significant budget

for construction mitigation, as well as direct grants to individual businesses are our smaller projects like the geary rapid project, which does not involve any digging up of the street, has have included targeted marketing campaigns and a budget set aside in order to help make sure that customers knew that all businesses were open during the construction period. um, for many of our projects, we have done in sort of creative marketing campaigns where we have collaborated with neighborhood merchants, associations, um, in order to uh, uh, encourage, uh, people to continue shopping. that includes a lot of work that we've done, including some gamification for our l taraval project, which has involved significant disruption to, uh, small our work engaging with the merchants on 16th street and hyde street for our

more modest transit lane projects. um, we've also done a citywide effort marketing small businesses through or local commercial districts throughout san francisco. i'm trying to remind folks about that intense interconnectivity between muni and local businesses. here's just a few examples of using our own public service announcement ad space on our vehicles. and in citywide posters in order to help support neighborhood commercial districts. um, whenever, uh, any of our projects disrupt at the streets at and this is happening more often in part because of decades of deferred maintenance across the city. um, we are trying to catch up on the fact that much of san francisco's infrastructure was built between 50 and about 110 years ago, and much of that is all reaching the

end of its useful life all at the same time, including our trackway on taraval street, which still has had the creosote. so soaked. uh, you know, redwood timbers from the east bay hills that were supporting the tracks on taraval street laid direct on the sand dunes from the early 20th century. all of that needed to be dug up, and the utilities underneath it replaced. that work is necessarily disruptive. and so in every case, we try to do what we can to mitigate those construction impacts. um, one of the things that we do to mitigate construction impacts is to, to, uh, is to collaborate with every other city department and the utility companies in order to replace everyone's infrastructure for all at the same time. um the upside of that is the street doesn't need to be dug up for another 50 years. the downside side, however, is that mta projects inevitably be inevitable. we end up being much

more disruptive of because of the need to dig down to replace electrical or sewer or water infrastructure, which is vastly more disruptive than our own infrastructure. um, so in the case of taraval, we've worked very closely with people of parkside in order to reduce impacts to the sidewalks, to maintain, uh, pedestrian access across the construction zone, to clean up dust more frequently and to do a lot of work to promote small businesses during the construction period. um, all of this work is documented in the citywide construct mitigation program. again, this is developed in collaboration with the with cdd, with public works and the puc, because we all try to coordinate our projects together in order to concentrate the impact in a limited time period. uh, we, for each of these projects, work really hard, particularly for

the larger impact projects, to have clear communication, to make sure that there's a single point of contact that any business person can call in order to get their needs met. the larger projects include include other mitigation, uh, investments as well. um, we've heard a lot of feedback about our program, including advice about starting earlier and being more proactive, making sure that we're being fully truthful about the reality of the necessary impacts, particularly for projects that involve underground utility replacement and also the importance of having not only sfm, sfmta people out there in the community talking one on one with merchants, but having our contractors do the same thing. um, as i already mentioned, we do collaborate extensively with other agencies. uh, one way that we do that is by mapping all. of

our projects, which you can find at the link here. maps dot sfmta.com/safe streets. so you can learn about existing or upcoming projects on your street or in your neighborhood. and how to sign up for updates for those projects. um, another key area that we spend a lot of time working on is parking and loading. we know that while in many san francisco commercial districts, most customers are local and arrive by foot or by bike or more commonly by muni, that parking and loading are absolutely essential elements of making your business work. um, and so our policies around parking and loading are making sure, number one, that businesses can get access to the services that they need, particularly businesses that have no choice but to take their loading from the front and then making sure that there is available parking for customers at all times of day or night. our policies for all sfmta

garages as well as our meters, is to always charge the lowest price at the parking meter or in the garage. that ensures there's always a few spaces available for customers. again, we charge the lowest price that makes sure that there is availability for customers. uh, this is the price that optimized his small business success because as it creates the perception that you can find a space in san francisco commercial districts and, and generally we are successful at achieving this goal at least before 6 p.m. do um, and we applied the same policies at all of the garages that we manage as well. and we encourage promoting these garages because most of them have available capacity. um, and finally, before i close for questions, i do want to update

you on the reality of our budget. so the sfmta is an enterprise organization. we were set up to be self-funding, and before covid we were funded roughly an equal quarters by a fixed set aside from the city general fund, from park fees, from transit fares, and from, uh, kind of a set aside of state and federal grants. um, covid, of course, devastated. uh, two of our revenue streams and is now affecting the third revenue stream, which is the city's general fund. um, our budget has to balance once every year. and if it doesn't, it triggers layoff of our staff. so we take our budget very seriously. and we also take our role in supporting the city's economic recovery very seriously, because there is no economic recovery without muni and there's no muni without economic recovery. that said, about a quarter of our budget right now is one time state, federal and regional uh,

recovery grants, which expire between within about a year from now and about two years from now, we are scrambling right now in order to identify a new ongoing funding sources, which will most likely require winning at the november 26th ballot in order to sustain our services. if we're unsuccessful, the magnitude of the cuts we'll need to make is the equivalent of eliminating 99 muni lines. that's the reality that we're in right now, and we have time to find a long terme approach. but we need to work hard and quickly in order to make sure that muni can be here in order to allow san francisco's economic recovery. uh, we also have a lot of questions for you. um, we're eager to collaborate. in fact, i and my staff are happy to come here whenever you like in order to answer questions, but mostly to get advice from you about how

do we use our limited and fragile resources in order to best support san francisco's economic recovery and particularly our locally owned small businesses? those who we understand play a much larger role due to the multiplier effect of locally owned businesses in the city's economic recovery. you're also central, of course, to our culture as a city. i i live here not because of the lovely victorian architecture or the spectacular views, but because of the astonishing, uh, variety of services and stuff that i can get in any of our neighborhood commercial districts. so with that, i'm happy to take any comments or questions. thank you. great. thank you so much, director tomlin. that was that was so good. i feel really well prepped to be able to kind of give thought to, um, how we can, you know, continue and build a

working relationship, um, going forward. so um, happy to have any questions or comments from commissioners. i know if you want to go. no, no, no, no. go ahead. yeah i have a quick one. maybe well, i'm going to start. is it okay. i'll start with, um, commissioner. yeah. commissioner benitez, thank you for your presentation i loved it. i'm a huge, um, you know, proponent for muni and anything that we do, whether it's going to the games or taking my daughter to school or even take it to my own small business, i always find a way to make sure i try to take that way first before i try to venture out any other ways of transportation. um, just a couple. and this might be like a three part question for the whole crew, but the first one is, um, you know, my daughter is of age now where you know, i would ideally feel comfortable her taking the muni to school turns your public outreach. how is it that you know, how do you

how do you work with kids in schools? do you physically go there? do you take them on short trips around and just kind of teach them the ins and outs? is the one question. i just love to see how that public engagement goes. um, speaking of safety, um, you know, i would love to hear about how exactly either the writer or the bus driver or the driver takes charge of that. i've been in instances where i wasn't sure who is in charge of that. i feel like the writer, the driver, doesn't typically do to be very transparent. um, and they kind of leave it on the writers to take care of that. and i don't know if that's the best situation to put the public in and would love to hear your opinion on that. um, and then secondly, in terms of engaging with small business, you guys have probably already done this as well. but i've worked with various merchants associations. i used to head our fillmore merchants association. i'm part of a divisidero merchant association too, and i'm sure that they would love to hear this presentation. also, i know there are times very limited, um, just in terms of the breadth of what you can be able to offer. but, you know, rather than my opinion would be rather than going kind of door to door, i think, you know, reaching out to the merchant head or the head

of that association, they'll have all the contacts that you need. um and you can use them as a buffer as well. but if you need kind of a couple contacts out either of those, i'll be more than glad to provide that for you guys. great. okay. let me try to take each of those. so since we implemented our free muni for youth program a couple of years ago, youth have been a huge part of muni's ridership success story. uh, kids are not only taking muni to school and precedented numbers, they're also doing all kinds of other kinds of trips. um, something that i'm actually really hopeful that we can get some academic research done on because i'm curious to know how how free muni has expanded social opportunities and employment opportunities for young people throughout san francisco. uh, it's also been the source of the most amount of adjustment that we've had to make in the muni system. so we expect less severe crowding, particularly in the morning peak, because the. school bell times are all at the same time all across the city.

and it overlaps with the commute peak for people heading to work as well. so we've had to actually pull a lot of resources out of the downtown in order to provide an unprecedented level of muni service on lines like the 29 or the 44 that serve a lot of schools. um, so one of the things that, you know, we don't have the resources to go to every school to train kids on how to ride, but what we try to do is to partner with the san francisco unified school district around tools and tricks , as well as to provide feedback like back and forth for ways in which we can be increasingly better for kids. but that is something we would love more advice on is how to effectively reach kids, not only about about how to more skillfully ride muni, but also how to stay safe. and there are responsibilities as as a san franciscan about how

to behave appropriately with other people on the bus in terms of safety and security. that is a huge part of our focus right now. um, despite the fact that we have an unprecedented rate of untreated mental health and addiction issues on the street, and typically with transit, whatever problems you have on the street are going to find their way onto transit because of our investments in security on muni, our reported crime rate on muni is actually a quarter of what it was a decade ago. we have 12 video cameras and audio recording on every single one of our vehicles, as we've also worked very closely with the san francisco police department and the district attorney's office to make sure that they understand the data that we have access to. and that if they can apprehend and criminal on muni, that they can pretty much be guaranteed of a conviction. we

believe that is partly responsible for the fact that while other systems are really struggling with crime, we're having a remarkably good success on muni. despite the fact that we've got a lot of additional work that we need to do. we also train all of our public facing workforce and a whole array of safety and security techniques, mostly focused on keeping things chill. so the responsibility of the operator is not to stop crime from happening or to stop somebody to directly intervene in with a potential violent incident, but rather to work at de-escalation while at the same time silently contacting our transportation management center and sfpd. the responsibility of the writers is, you know, you all are always our eyes and ears out there. um, please do not ever hesitate to call. 911 if

you are, um, seeing that there is an actual or imminent threat of violence, we want to make sure that pd can respond very quickly. you will notice that in the inside and outside of every vehicle, there is a number in red, usually at the front and the back. if you can provide that number, we can directly get law enforcement or other services there immediately. we also really want to hear not just about crime and violence on muni, but also things that make you uncomfortable. so we know that while reported crime is down, um, that it there is a likelihood that harassed count is up. but in order for us to understand that we need feedback from all of our writers. so you can use three, one, one or the muni app, or go online to sfmta dot coms muni feedback in order

to report incidents of harassment or anything that is making you uncomfortable, whether it is racism or sexism or people doing things that they should not be doing, it's really important to us to be able to get that information so that we can direct our security personnel, our transit fare inspectors, inspectors and our transit ambassadors to the locations where we're experiencing problems. so that they can address the problem at its root. and then, yes, we're happy to come speak to neighborhood merchants, associations. just let us know. diana decides is a good contact for scheduling staff to come out and meet with community. thank you. um, vice president. thank you, director. and to the team for coming today. we really appreciate your presence in the chambers with us. um, i have a

couple random questions. um, i think that was a great overall, uh, presentation. um, is there a timeline or update on the sixth street project at the sixth street project? is a dpw project. we're closely coordinating with them on that, and we can certainly get you an update there should be a project website that you can link to from the sfmta website, but i believe dpw owns the main project website. well that leads me to my next question. yeah. um, how is your coordination with dpw and where is their like , where are the tangible, um, kind of places on the sidewalk in which you are actually coordinating? because i know mta regulates the color of the, um, of the curb. um, but does dpw, i guess i want to understand, like when in my world i do a lot of deliveries with, with the dolly.

right. and for workers, i just want to understand, is there planned buffers for them in loading areas? because like the curb where the sidewalk is, like almost in every space corner has a divot, you know, it's like it's an area that kind of seems overlooked. and it's where a lot of people load fragile things. i myself almost ate it like twice last week doing deliveries. um so i guess my question is like, where does dpw jurisdiction end and where does your start and when? where do you communicate on upgrades? yeah so roughly speaking, sfmta manages everything that moves and we manage the striping of the street. the color of the curb, traffic lights and the overhead wires for muni, dpw manages hard stuff. so the sidewalk, the asphalt, um, the landscape

typically and then the public utilities commission manages us for the most part, the street lights and the electrical infrastructure. but for all capital projects, that's we coordinate together and piggyback on each other's projects again in order to minimize, you know, relentless disruption of our businesses. in fact, we have a rule where if any of us goes and does something in the street that none of the rest of us are allowed to do anything in the street for five years, right. uh, the other thing is that for curbs moving a curb is unbelievably expensive, um, in part because it involves changing the drainage of the roadway and then upgrading, for example, to the latest standards. the americans with disabilities act. so oftentimes those projects, um, get instantly much larger. so we tend to not move curbs except

when we're doing a major street redo. but there are you know, there are exceptions to all of that. and if there are, um, again, specific things that you're trying to solve for dna is probably a good contact. and we can put you in touch with our counterparts at dpw. and we love our friends at dpw. and i'm so glad that carla short agreed to stay on permanently as the public works director. she's fantastic, very. she and i are of a similar mind. okay cool. so they they they upgrade, you do the color of the curb, but they do the upgrade. yeah. if the pedestrian walkways, for the most part and such sometimes if we're doing a whole big thing next to it, sometimes it will end up having to replace that. but okay, they they typically take the lead when it, when it's concrete. okay. yeah i just my intent in asking that is we talk about buffers for bikes for vehicles. but the buffers for workers and you know delivery is

just always kind of, you know, how do we make space for those types of activities on, on curb space. and it's just my general hope that that's part of the planning. if there is, if you're having acute delivery needs. so for example, when the film commission is doing some um, big thing or when there is a major move in at, uh, you know, a new building, our temporary sign shop will sometimes create special, dedicated zones for short terme that allow for lots of lots of maneuvering to allow for major load in to occur. um, so if it's if it's about managing things out there in the street, that's usually our responsibility. interesting. okay uh, thank you. and um, i guess just like one more thing while, because this is a community, um, cautionary tale we've seen in the past, i don't

think under your leadership, but we have had issues with the ad, certain ads that mta has taken in the past. we've seen a lot of really politicized and problematic ads in our in our city. as of late. and i just want to warn, since we've had some very serious community issues with with ads taken, um, with money ads, money taken by mta before that, i hope that you all have a lot of scrutiny with who you're accepting for ad space, especially now. yes, indeed. not only have we changed our policies around what ads we accept, uh, we're also always on the lookout for guerrilla ads in our space, which we've seen an uptick in. so if you see an ad that you think does not belong on city property, please call 311 immediately and provide the, you know, the location and what's going on. we've had to just over the last couple of

months, uh, send crews out and usually we can our crews can respond within an hour for particularly for anything that is politically charged or offensive. great thank you. and i think that was my questions. thank you. um, any other questions before i, i do have a little bit of a list of questions. um, not in any particular order, but, um, you. know, i'm wondering about, um, recovery in regional tourism. um, now that i've been kind of, you know, building a business now in a more tourist centric kind of part of the neighborhood, i'm seeing a lot of people from different places and, and, and i'm spending a. lot of time, like, just almost

surveying people, like, where are you coming from? you know, who, who, who who, um, is recommending good stuff to you. like, how are how are you getting around? what are you seeing? and so this is like a wonderful opportunity to kind of understand how people are moving about what people are thinking about in terms of san francisco, um, as a city. luckily, i would say like 100% of the people that i've talked to have had fantastic experiences in our city. um, and, and of course, not a surprise. it shouldn't be a surprise. but, you know, living here, we know that there are challenges. um, so i guess one of the things i'm noticing is a lot of regional tourism, a lot of like weekends in the city , um, people coming in for the night to spend time, um, you know, thinking about dinner, but also spending time bookending it with, like, something beforehand before dinner, walking around a place before dinner and doing something after. and so i'm kind of wondering like, what are the conversations and the thoughts that you have in terms of working with other modes of transportation? right. most

people are kind of driving into the city. is there a park and shuttle uber or whatever, or, you know, whatever kind of rideshare thing, like what is your plan for people coming from other cities around the bay area? yeah that's a great question. so just two weeks ago, i met with the new director of sf travel, scott beck, who i was so happy to learn. in addition to his experience in toronto, also has experience in salt lake city, where you your ski pass is your regional transit pass. good on all busses and trains? uh, in the whole greater salt lake region and scott really understands the importance of integrating mobility into tourism. and so we are looking at some interesting partnerships, not only with muni, but also taking advantage of the new bay pass program that provides a integrated pass across all 26 bay area transit

agencies so that, you know, your bart ticket is also your cable car and muni ticket. but in the meantime, um, while the region is working on that, we encourage you to think about how to use muni mobile on your phone. it's really easy for us to create special deals where we package all day of muni. uh, along with your. special event ticket. you know, every ticket to chase arena is a muni pass. uh, every ticket to outside lands is also a muni pass. we would love to integrate, um, the use of the regular muni system as well as the specialness of our cable cars into programing a whole day in san francisco. um, like, i don't know how to do that because i'm not a travel person, but i'm a transport nerd, and i would be delighted to work with any business organization in order to find ways of how to fold that in. we also try really

hard because we understand that particularly families coming from the region may really want to drive in. and so we really want to promote the sfmta parking garages, which all almost like we've got 30 odd of them, almost all of them, especially now, have plenty of capacity. they're also the cheapest place generally for visitors to leave their car in all day. so come in park in one of the sfmta garages, download your muni mobile pass and have a spectac popular day in san francisco without having to worry about driving in parking in san francisco neighborhoods. you know, you know, park downtown, take the cable car to fisherman's wharf, go get your fresh crab off the dock at scoma's. you know, it's fantastic like that. that is so exciting. i'm like, that's exactly what i wanted to hear. um, yeah. i mean, i feel like

taking public transit is something really special for me. um, for, you know, kids, like you were saying, you know, i know, um, for me being able to take public transit to work makes me feel like i'm living in a city. right? i get to see people and, like, bump, you know, bump into people a little bit. you know, more every day. so i think that's a fantastic, um, resource or like a thing that i did not know about that i would love to share with people is the ability to park and like, experience the city as any of us may do daily. um um, i think. i'm also, i might go back to that in a second. i had another thought, but, um, wanted to move to loading zones. i know we talked briefly about that already, but but is there an any thought or to have dedicate loading zones for,

for food delivery services that are not manned by sfmta but the responsibility is then on the delivery service to figure out how the efficiencies work. yes. so loading zones are a topic of a lot of internal conversation right now. all of you are small businesses. you know just how dynamic is the world of curbside pickup and drop off is? i mean, it has changed dramatically just over the last couple of years. and there is incredible competition for that curb space. like if we're increasing loading zones, we're taking away metered customer parking, um, or, or we're increasing double parking. um, one of the things that we're also we try to be responsible for is, is emergency response time. and and in the analytics that we did around using the gps trackers on our fire engines or the, you know, the fire department's fire engines, um, the most significant correlation

we could find with increased emergency response time is increased double parking in our neighborhood, commercial districts. um, it's also, you know, creates significant safety hazards as well, particularly for pedestrians and people on bikes. so this is this is something we really struggle with. and perhaps this is one of the most important topics for us all to collaborate on. how do we take that limited and incredibly precious curb space and maximize the public good? because there's there ain't no perfect solution for sure. um, one of the things that we're also eager to understand better is how can the city help coordinate, deliver free schedules so that they can happen when that parking is least needed for customers? but in the meantime, we're also experimenting with delegating

some more, like we're very cautious about this because we're controlling bureaucrats, but delegating more responsibility for that real time fine tuning of curbside management to the commercial entities. as for things like at entertainment venues, um, clearing out the curb for when all the giant trucks for the musicians are coming in like, i don't need to be in charge of that. i can trust businesses to manage that a little bit on their own. so again, a topic where i think collaboration would be fruitful. um, i mean, i think that kind of, um, reminds me that, you know, one of the questions i was thinking about, um, or that i've been thinking about is how do we create more nimble, flexible systems in general, right? because it's like we've had to change from, um, you know what? we kind of knew to then like a world where now scooters, self-driving vehicles is like, you know, delivery services, like, all

these things have changed within just a handful of years. and what that leads me to believe is that in the next handful of years, things are going to change again, significantly. right? and this is kind of the life that we live in. so how do we you know, how do we build a system that is so used to change that? this is like the normal and we're not. and i think a lot of that maybe is in the communication systems. right like i think your, your job is going to be increasingly more difficult because i feel like we're very close to many answers, but oftentimes the gap between, you know, the, the solution and what everybody else is feeling is just we're not all getting the same message like, and so i think as small business owners and, and leaders and advocates in the small business community, we have a real opportunity to be able to kind act in this way to understand

what some of these, you know, things are and, and be able to share them with so many more people than if we're hitting them. you know, if we're taking a message door to door. so so, um, so this is exciting. um, and how do we create a more nimble, flexible system? did you figure that out already? well, i mean, we we've been we've been forced to during covid, like there was no way we could have survived during the worst of covid. you know, when i had 80% of my workforce was in quarantine. and yet we still needed to provide services like we were forced to reinvent everything and to strip away all of our pointless bureaucracy. well, not all of it. there's still a lot of bureaucracy, um, that i am still working on. but our starting point for making changes to our process is was getting clarity about what our values are. um, ultimately, the decisions that

we make as an agency are the same as the decisions that you make every day. as small business owners. i have a limited amount of resource. how do i best allocate that for? i mean, in my case, the public good for your case in order to serve your customers need and make a profit. so you know, somewhat different motivations, but ultimately the same phenomenon of clarity of values and recognition in that in order to do our jobs, we have to face very difficult and unpopular trade offs. one of the things that i realize about my job is oftentimes, you know, any transportation director's job is not to make people happy, but to make everyone equally unhappy because as the demand for transportation is always greater than the limited street right of way or muni budget that we have to play with. right? so it's about how do i use my limited resources to best support the

public good in the past was the budget like and maybe you said this during the presentation, but in the past was the budget always balanced with like the revenues from ridership alone or or or maybe not alone, but largely. um, no. so again, in the past, our budget was about equal quarters. muni fares part parking fees for set aside from the general fund and then state and federal grants. you know, those four sources, um, but our parking and transit fares have been in long terme decline relative to inflation. so, in fact, for 20 years we've been balancing our budget through deferred maintenance. we've been letting the system fall apart. that was the decision that we made. and that is one of the things that i am trying to reverse. and of course, it is also making me very unpopular because we simply can't deliver the services that we used to

deliver because the revenue is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to support that. and instead we've been kicking the can down the road and letting things fall apart. so we're trying slowly to put the system back together again. um, we were amazed that as a result of, you know, we have this quarterly what we call fix-it week, where we shut down the subway at 9:30 p.m. and our maintenance crews, we get all of our maintenance crews together. they start at 9:30 p.m. they work a full eight hour shift all night long for a week and try to, um, try to deal with deferred maintenance. it's had the impact of reducing major delays in the subway by over 60. i did not think that was going to be possible. and you'll remember before covid you'd be taking the subway. you know, from wherever to downtown and you'd get, you know, it'd be going fine. and then you'd get past church station and then the train would just shudder to a stop, and they would lurch

forward and stop and then lurch forward to stop. and then you'd get into venice station, and then you'd stop again and that's mostly gone now. and that is an example of just a little bit of catch up with deferred maintenance and a lesser that we learned from some of our peer agencies like boston that that didn't make the hard choices. and instead have let their systems quite literally fall apart. so just so i can understand. so partnering parking and traffic has revenues have gone down right. like people are not or yes relative to inflation. right. so our costs rise every year with the cost of labor. you know, our budget is over overwhelmingly muni drivers and mechanics and you know, people delivering services and their wages rise with the cost of living every year. but our revenues have basically been flat or in some cases declining in real dollars.

so the ridership is not helping gain in like we're not seeing the gains in ridership that we need in order to offset the loss in parking and traffic. that's right. and we're also because of our equity values doing things like free muni for low income seniors, free muni for all youth, deeply discounts, transit fares for low income folks, measures that we feel are very important, but ultimately impact our bottom line. and our ability to sustain the service. um this is a side note, but like, is there a tourist pass? is there like a 5 or 7? yeah. so again, muni mobile is your friend and download it. we have a new app and on there you can get not only one day passes but also three and five day passports, including passports that fold in cable car as well. okay very very really good deals for, uh, for your, your visitors,

particularly if you have people coming in from out of town and just as another little, uh, note , when or what are the thoughts around, um, more robust transport from the north to the south, like on the west side. so like sunset richmond connection. yeah. this is something that we're also working on, both in our long range planning. so, you know, we are in the midst of planning, you know, our next 50 year project, which would likely be a subway out geary and then down 19th avenue to daly city station. but in the short terms, um, we have heard a lot from our west side friends that travel patterns have changed a lot in the west side, and they're much more oriented north south than east west, uh, than they had been historically. and so we're working on significant improvements both to the 28 19th avenue as well as the 29 sunset. the latter project was actually driven by a bunch of local

students who got us to really focus on the data for the 29 and the extraordinarily the extraordinary complexity of the travel patterns in the 29, as also it's our longest normal route. and so also one of our least reliable. so we've been incrementally focusing segment by segment on improving reliability and frequency on the 29. we're also partnering with caltrans on the big 19th avenue construction project in order to improve move reliability and speed for the 28. we've also just recently increased frequency on both of those lines . ultimately, we want. to make those two lines to be as robust as any of our main lines in san francisco. again, knowing that a lot of the west side travel pattern is very much associated with northern san mateo county. um. one perhaps last question.

you can tell i've been like hearing up for months now. i can come back to oh, good. oh, i have okay, i'll ask this one last question and then i'll ask the 20 others after everyone else. but, um, so, so oh, things like commute times and data like usage data, is that available for small business owners. so that we can have an understanding, like if i own a business, you know, downtown, i know what days i should be open because this seems to be the days that people are naturally commuting. um that so yes and no . we have access to that sort of detailed trip planning data. but through special deal from private companies, you know, it's basically telemetric data. you know, it's, you know, the cell phone company is tracking your cell phone. and then they disaggregate that data to look at patterns. and that's something that we use regularly. i'm trying to think if there are free sources for that refined

data, probably not. i mean, the free stuff that you can get are, for example, um, you know, walk or bike score, transit score that are available. you know, you can see on zillow or, you know, any real estate site will tell you, roughly speaking, how accessible you are by other modes. but that sidewalk level data, um, that is expensive typically. and there are many companies that do sell that data. um you know, aimed really largely at retailers because that would be helpful for our small business community to understand as we plan activation and as we plan, you know, um, opening hours as we plan special events, um, all different things. and i think if somebody was was interested in partnering with small businesses in a capacity to help provide that data, that would be wonderful. i mean, i'll turn to your executive director here. i mean, i think, you know, we katie tang and i have spoken before about

about how we might jointly purchase, um, telemetric data like that or credit card data, uh, on a, you know, to really track in real time the health of neighborhood commercial districts by naics code so that we can see, you know, the impact of our work, both positive and negative, and get a quicker signal, um, about impacts quicker than we can get from, for example, the sales tax data, which we do track. yeah. because then we can work together to really help, you know, um, make things as robust as we'd like. um, commissioner zunes or vice president sousanis. thank you. uh quick follow up to, uh, president huey's question about budget. um, i know that we've had a big federal infrastructure plan that's slowly trickling down to our municipalities, where you all able to, um, or any of the, like, rfps that have

issued through the state or directly from, you know, department of transportation or whatnot, relevant to san francisco, were we able to acquire any of that and do we have a good state contact that we that we coordinate with, or that that's kind of my question. yes. so we our grants team has been very successful the last couple of years in securing both state and federal and regional grants for our projects. most of our significant capital projects have at least some state or federal match to them. um, one of the reasons why we're we've been successful is because of the value oriented approach and collaborative approach that we take with our projects, and strong track record on delivery. that's something else that we haven't really talked about is, you know, i have two projects that i inherited, uh, that began a very long time ago and finished under my firm. uh, that

did have some significant cost overruns and delays associated with them. they were also really important lessons learned to make sure that all of the work that has started over the last five years stays on time and on budget, which we are being almost entirely successful with. but of course, being on time and on budget doesn't warrant you. a headline in the newspaper and what is the state agency that helps you all with like, um, following those you know, saps or whatever? um, like, do is there a lot of coordination with your grant team? um and an entity with our. oh yes. yeah. and it varies depending upon funding source. so if you're getting a significant amount of federal funding that also comes with a lot of federal oversight and auditing, we are absolutely the most audited unit in all of government, because every funding source comes with, uh,

with an with an audit. and so that is that is a way not only in which we stay accountable, but in which we, we have continuous improvement. you know, i always love myself a good audit because it gives me a little bit more authority to get the team to, um, to adopt best practices and to better deliver in the public trust. that's great. thank you for engaging our questions. um commissioner benitez. yeah, thank you. um a quick question about revenue. without getting too much of the weeds and things like that. but i do have a question and let me know if i should have known this, but clipper card versus muni mobile in terms of clipper card, knowing that it goes to various agencies for transportation, does sfmta get a percent of whatever that payment . is? and then for muni mobile, do you guys get 100% of those that revenue and clippers readily available on my apple wallet, like i was able to

download it really quick now with with muni mobile, i was honestly just furiously kind of going through it and i was like, i still have to enter in my card. it doesn't necessarily connect very quickly. i think everyone's all about quickness as well. i think that's what might kind of help with with just accessibility. um, just kind of those two questions like clipper versus versus muni mobile and then are there any any speaking of nimble being able to access it, the muni much more quicker in terms of payment. um, so that riders can easily go on. yes. so let me be really clear. your primal approach for payment should be clipper. right. that's that's the tool that works for most transactions. we get basically the same amount of revenue from a clipper transaction versus a muni mobile transaction. um, so we use clipper. um, clipper is also going to be undergoing some massive upgrades over the next year. um, and hopefully that will allow clipper to be able to do the things that we rely currently on muni mobile to do.

so clipper is great. it's also about ten year old technology at this point. um, and so in the near future, um, all 27 different agencies are going to be transitioning to full open loop, account based uh transit passes through clipper. and what that means is you can either use your clipper account or, or tap your credit card or tap your apple pay on your phone in order to access all transit in the region. and we'll also do all the back end processing to input any discount that you're owed and eliminate, uh, transfer penalties and, and hopefully soon have what we call fare capping where you, you know, after you've spent a certain amount per day, you no longer get charged. and after you've spent a certain amount per month , you no longer get charged. so that for low income people, you don't have to buy a fast pass

all at once. on the same day that rent is due. instead, you can pay for transit $3 at a time until you reach the fast pass total. those are all innovations that we will be implementing in the coming months. director tang , thank you. i know we have tons of questions, but out of respect for our colleagues who are up next, i'm just going to, um, leave it to one, which is really more educational for, i think the commission and public. i get asked this question a lot about construction mitigation and how it is that we can support businesses that are impacted by these projects. so l taraval is an example. and of course, there are many others that we can name, but can you just, um, shed light on why that's not possible or what are some of the considerations into that? i know you talked already about how it is that you try to direct more business to the corridors, but of course, um, many of the

businesses directly impacted don't feel like that's enough. and so they continuously ask us about, again, these mitigation funds. so if you could just speak to that and what are the thoughts around that. and why it is or is not possible. yeah so this is another one of these topics that we really struggle with. um, any time that the street needs to be dug up. and that's typically when on an sfmta project, it has triggered a puc or private utility project. um that has them digging underneath our projects. but then it all gets bundled as one, uh, those projects are super disruptive to both businesses and residences. wherever where they occur. and so we're always trying to be creative and figuring out how do we minimize the negative impact. and then how do we what can we do to drive customers there? um folks sometimes ask us about direct cash payment for the fund sources that we use that is

almost always unallowable, particularly with state or federal funds. and so, you know, we can't just write checks, checks to business owners or residents, but we can be creative around the edges is about driving commerce, um, minimizing impact, minimizing footprint, minimizing schedule and so oftentimes what that means is, is working collaboratively with the merchants and the contractor to figure out, um, you know, do what sort of the optimum scheduling of the disruption. like, do you want us to just go all in all at once and just get it done, or minimize the overall project schedule where we would be doing different elements all at the same time, so that the overall project takes less time, but there's a longer impact on an individual block. um, again, this is something that we are eager to collaborate with all of

you and with your staff at pwd in order to figure out how do we how do we best set, um, upgrade our decrepit infrastructure to and make it as easy as possible in our businesses? great. thank you. and just one more question. given that we want to deepen our relationship between small businesses and sfmta, um, i believe there's a small business advisory fee for sfmta. can you tell me a little bit about that? and how, um, people are chosen or or who sits on that and, and the, the i guess the details about that. yeah. that's a that's a good question. this is also something that we would like advice from all of you on. so for the last six years or so, we've had a small business advisory committee specific to the sfmta that is usually, you know, neighborhood business leaders who come and help us problem solve. um, it's been challenging for us to, to keep

this program going, largely because san francisco's small business owners are having to keep their businesses operating, and so they're needed at the cash register, um, at the same time, the council of district merchants is also forming their own transportation specific subcommittee. and so that's one thing like, should we should we be investing our limited staff resources? the council of district merchants subcommittee should should we put effort into doing recruitment for our own agency specific like, do you all want to come help us? how how is you know, given the fact that you're all working 80 hour weeks, how how can we best collaborate? well, i don't have those answers. perhaps i will just say that from our experience. and i know. director tumlin, you asked earlier, how

can you get in best contact with the business owners? what we found is it literally just takes multiple trips. door to door. it's not through a mailing list, which i think tt is probably the only department that has all the contact info, but i don't think they can share that. um, you know, with us. um, and so really it's just going door to door and , and trying to engage, leaving behind materials. um, so i know you do have a was it, i think 14 people on your public outreach and engagement team. and so i do think, yeah, it's not just once, not just twice. sometimes it'll take multiple times. um, and that's probably best even better than a, a working group because, you know, every again everyone is busy. we don't like on our office. we don't ever ask people to come to us to have a meeting. we actually literally just go to them to have those conversations. so that's my recommendation. all right. working group. you'll hear the same things like small businesses are repeating. you know, the issues. so i would

second that okay. well i think that's pretty much all i have. if there's no no other comments up here, then i'd like to open this up for public comment. if public commenters want to line up to my left, your right, if there are any, i see none. we'll see no public comment. um i guess public comment is closed and thank you very much. director tomlin and all of your team. i really appreciate all of all of the information and we look forward to long lasting relationship. thank you. next item please. item three san francisco lens presentation. this is a discussion item sf lens is an initiative of the office of the treasurer and tax collector, and the city administrator's office that aims to connect small businesses to

affordable loans and lines of credit for their day to day cash flow needs. the commission will receive an overview of this new initiative presenting today. we have shaw and nicole abernathy with the office of the treasurer and tax collector, and it looks like director stephanie tang. i'm looking for it. i just started i got it, thank you. yep perfect. yep thank you. now and computers and eyeglasses and age . good evening. thanks so much for having us. my name is tejal shah. i'm the chief assistant treasurer for the city and county of san francisco. and i'm here with two amazing colleagues , stephanie tang, who heads up the contract monitoring division. it's almost her one

year anniversary as head and nicole agbayani, who's the director of financial empowerment here at the treasurer's office. and we're here to really share with you a new program, project that we just recently launched. we wanted to let you know about it so you can further inform your, um, colleagues and other business his about this hopeful opportunity that we have. and so the project is called sf lens. it is a partnership as articulated with ourselves and contract monitoring division in the city administrator office. and what it really is, is going to advance is a new initiative that has come forward, recognizing that the traditional banking institutions do not have loans and products that serve small businesses and it was really out of response, out of that, that we sort of identify this need. um, it connects small businesses, particularly with,

with lines of credits and loans for day to day cash flow. and it is with banks. so that small businesses can establish a long terme relations. and not traditionally cdfis and i'll speak a little bit more about that design and why. and the intent behind that. um, first, i'll speak a little bit about why the treasurer's office and how this all started, because i think it was helpful to know a little bit of that context. um, we see the treasurer's office is responsible for all of the banking relations with the city and county. so all the monies that come in to the city, all the monies that go out, all of our bond capital proceeds, everything comes in. all our tax payments. um, and every year, like all of our other partners here in the city, family, we have to do a request for proposal to check and see if the banking partner that we have meets our requirements. and go through an rfp process and a contracting process. and we did that. and in that process, we

also included not only traditional commercial banking for a $13 billion business called the city and county of san francisco. but we really looked at our practices that are in the neighborhoods and social responsibility and our commitment to the work that the treasurer has started around kindergarten to college and loans for young folks as well as getting rid of predatory products and all of those pieces . and through that, we really made all of the banks that were seeking business with the city and county to really engage with us on that front as well. in addition, we actually spearheaded one of the first task forces around public banking and in that conversation, we found continuation of conversation with folks like you and others that there isn't capital for small businesses and that if there is, it's really mostly people doing self financing on their own, relying on friends and family and really looking at why we were seeing that the financial market does not

provide services that are so critical and necessary, and if they do, their definition of small business is not our definition of small business. and so that was really sort of the underpinning of this. in addition, in our partners in other city departments like port came forward and said, we have these amazing lbws and contracting with the city's not easy, right? we have really long milestone payments as a subcontractor. the money's going through several channels, and so the port and others were like, we want to really support our lbws and our sub lbws figure out how to be really great. you know , be be healthy while they're working on our project. most simply. so that was really sort of what fermented this concept. um, and what we did is are sorry . there we go. so what we did is really went to all of the

banking community and i'll speak a little bit about the product and the process and said, we really want to have loan products and lines of credit. so specific to small businesses, specific to our specific to ones that are contracted with us. um, they need to be products that are native to the bank, not specific to san francisco and the reason why is because we wanted scale. if the city was underwriting, it would be very limited in the number of people that we could serve and very limited and frankly, we did ask the banks to do that. and they said, it's just not big enough for them to invest in. and what they also shared with us was that they had products that were coming forward that they had never really released. in response to both covid as well as sort of black lives matter and sort of really supporting small people of color businesses throughout this. the country. so

it was one of those combinations or the bank was saying, um, we reckon, well, we'll see if the how quickly they recognize the need, but they are learning to put product out there and um, when we were putting forward sort of an ability to underwrite, they said it's just not big enough for sort of these large scale institutions to play. so that's what we said. we wanted a partner product that was for lbws and contracted entities. and overall small businesses. i think i said all this, this is great. so the project is really specific to the very communities that i said, but it's also for all small businesses. so one of the things that was really exciting for us about this is that we were able to broker relations. i sort of think about it as sort of arranged marriages and brokering relations with banks that already exist, that have products and any small business that wants to go forward to them. so it isn't prescriptive by nature, by business, by size,

or if they do or don't have a contract with the city or county of san francisco, because we really wanted to underpin that. and it really came forward, as you also know, and why we chose banks and not cdfis, because as many of you know, the city did significant work during covid and pat had money go through cdfis. but what you also learned better you than i in many cases is that folks that got ppe loans were through their banks and not cdfis and so recognizing that we wanted to really establish a relationship so that you can have partnerships with banks that can help you in really difficult and trying times and have access to cash and funds when the federal government puts those forward and not have to sort of then cobble together a relationship while the folks that had the relationship benefit from it from the first place. so that was very intentional in that structure and design. we did do an rfp. we

went out to the entire banking community. um, i failed to mention that the city has contractual relations with some of the largest banks through our competitive process, we have contracts with bank of america, jp morgan, citibank, and us bank, and we also spoke obviously through rfp process, through many, many, many other banks. so we went back to that entire community plus more and said, here's this concept, this thing called sf loan, sf lens, come forward, give us your best. first, we're going to rank it. we're going to score it, and we're going to determine who's in and who's out. and what we'll do is really broker for you. we're not going to tell you what to do. we're not going to tell anybody what to do, but we're going to really broker it. we said no to some institutions. we said yes to some institutions. we established mous with them. and what you see online and what we'll talk about with my colleagues next is who we chose, what the products are and the next steps and what supports

that we have available all to institutions that go and speak to those banks about wanting to get a line of credit or wanting to get a loan. and some of the outreach and successes we've had so far. so i'm going to pass it over to nicole, and then we look forward to your questions and thank you again for this time. all right. good evening, commissioners. good evening. director tang. once again, nicole agbayani. i'm the director of the office of financial empowerment and as tejal mentioned, we're a small section and we sit under the umbrella of the treasurer's office. so i'll just share a couple more things about the experience of small businesses once they get into the sf lens initiative. and we'll start here with this is actually a screenshot from the website that we've set up publicly, where we're really trying to pave the way and create an easy pathway for small businesses to be able to access these products. that is described. and we've gone through we've vetted and we've qualified for this list. so the

products themselves were working with four financial institutions, and we have five products that we've qualified. and there is a range including loans as well as lines of credit. whichever the businesses are needing. um, there's some that are open to any small business. and then there are a couple of the two that are on the right of this slide that mentioned are part of special purpose credit programs, which is a newer initiative of the federal government. and these are specifically available for bipoc owned businesses, women owned businesses, those lgbtq and veteran owned businesses. and something else that we're really proud. and we think sets sf lens apart is that we've been able to have a close working relationship with the financial institutions who have signed up to be part of sf lens. so i mentioned that this is just a screenshot from our public website, and we're actually able to have each of these banks provide a distinct point of contact, including their direct contact information that we're

providing directly to businesses is on the website to be able to reach out directly to these banks. so as we had developed the sf lens initiative, it was important for us to be able to have a pathway for businesses that could be self service. we didn't want to create another city program that puts up different barriers or hoops that folks have to jump through before they can actually access the resources that they need. and so another thing that we offer on our website is some basic guidance around the types of things that businesses will need to do to prepare before they apply for the products. but sf lens is designed such that it can be a self-serve model, where we've published the products online businesses can go directly to the banks and they can apply directly with them for the products. so a little more about the process that they would go through. um, as i mentioned, we have these products online. the businesses are applying directly with the

banks. and so they will use their standard application and they'll use their standard underwriting procedures. the way that we've set it up, the financial institutions will review the applications themselves and they'll be the ones that are determining whether the business is approved or denied. and then we as pt, are there to serve in an ombuds role, if you will, and that we've created a dedicated inbox sf dot lens at sf gov. org which is actually the recipients of that. i'll share article myself and a chief policy analyst within our department where we're there to be available for businesses if they're having trouble along the way and the application process, or if they've been denied and they want to, um, continue to work towards accessing capital. and so we want to make ourselves available to small businesses to be able to help them on their side. and then additionally, um, we've, we've set up so that we are having conversation with the banks as well. so we imagine

that the majority of businesses will access sf lens through that self-serve service model. like i mentioned. but we did also want to create supports that are available for folks if they feel like they need a little bit of extra help when they're trying to access that capital and so we are working with two entities to be able to provide that additional technical assistance and make it available. everything that you see here on the slide is provided for free and we're excited to be partnered with the office of small business and the small business development center to provide the lion's share of to for businesses that need it. so this will be that one on one consulting that is provided through sbdc to answer questions like which product of these is the right one for me? how much should i be applying for? um, as well as providing kind of the wrap around consulting and supports to be able to have a strong application going in and then my group, the office of financial empowerment, is providing a smaller slice of to

for specific kind of circumstance. so we have a program called smart money coaching. it provides free one on one financial counseling for anyone who lives, works or receives services in san francisco. typically we're providing this service to individuals, but we have heard in in working on developing sf lens that one of the barriers to accessing capital, particularly for our smallest small businesses, can be the owner's own credit score. and so our coaches are really well trained and have a fantastic track record with supporting folks through credit counseling and so we're providing this service for sf lens businesses. if they need support in this key area. and so we actually just launched the sf lens initiative in the middle of december of last year. so it's very new. but the way that we've set it up is that we want to continuous conversation with these banks, with their products listed on the sf lens site. and so we're engaging in quarterly

meetings with the financial institutions. we actually just had our first quarterly meeting last week where we're asking them to keep us posted on what's happening with our sf lens businesses. let us know how many folks are applying if they're seeing approvals. that's fantastic. we want to know those success stories, but more importantly, we want to understand if there are trends for reasons that people are getting denied. so that we can be really proactive and continuously improving and seeing if there's ways that the city can be tweaking our our technical assistance that we're providing and making sure that there can be more successful outcomes for the businesses. and so we have those in a routine conversations set up with the banks. and then as i mentioned, we have this inbox set up where we really want to hear directly from small businesses on their experience as well, so that we can be kind of the bridge in that conversation to make sure that people are not just applying for these funds, but actually having success in in getting them, um, and so i can

share, as we've launched sf lens, very new, as i mentioned, i think our energy and led by director tang of the contract monitoring division, has really been around doing outreach so far. so we've been thinking about this in a variety of ways, working to present to city bodies like this one. the lbe advisory committee, the office of small business. we've also tried to activate our relationship with chambers of commerce. so the san francisco chamber of commerce is helping us to do outreach to their membership. we've done a presentation very similar to this at the african american chamber. and then we've been putting a lot of energy into reaching out to other technical assistance providers that work with small business and affinity groups. so we've been in front of groups like build out, california renaissance center and um, main street launch, and we have many more of these engagements that are planned. so be able to really get the word

out about sf lens and we'd love your support on that as well. and the last thing i'll share before we open up for questions is that we were excited to hear in the quarterly meeting that we had with the banks last week, that we have had some applicants already go through and apply for some of these products. um i think about six they've said, which we're really excited about, considering that it was just the holidays when we launched. and so we're excited to see that small businesses are going through and applying. we know of one so far that has been extended a line of credit that they're waiting for the small business owner to ink. and so we hope that this is just the beginning and the first of many that we're able to kind of make that happy match made between the small business with a banking relationship and then with the access to capital that they need. um, so with that, i think thank you very much. and we'll open up for any questions that you have. thank you very much for that presentation. there were so many different things in there that i want to learn more about. um, director

tang uh, yes. thank you so much. and i know when you came to our staff meeting, there was one clarification. i was hoping you could make here, too. is that. yes. it is open. these products are open to any small business. you don't have to be doing business with the city or holding a contract with the city. but if you could explain, if you are a local business enterprise and ll.b. or if you're even you hold a lease with the city. so for example, maybe you are in a sfmta parking lot and you operate a business out of there. what are the benefits or what is the um, i think it was in the underwriting process that you could explain how they get through that. um, as a result, sure, sure, sure. thank you. so, so sf lens, by and large, all of the elements of it are open to any small business across san francisco. all of these products are publicly available and off the market. products all of the technical assistance is available to anyone for free as well. and so it's not limited to the local business enterprise

certified community or contracted entities. the one piece that director tang is referencing that is particularly for those folks is during the underwriting process for these loans we've shared with these banks that they can reach out to us in the city to verify the ll.b. certification status of applicants as well as their contracts with the city. and so for the one that has been connected with capital already, like i mentioned, it was a simple email to director tang and the contract monitoring division to verify that those the those elements of that application were correct. and she was able to verify that. so it's just an extra layer and added support during the underwriting process. um, particular for certified llbs who are contracted with the city . commissioner benitez, thank you for the information. just, um, out of my own knowledge of how long do these businesses have to be in operation, can it

be a new business that has just decided to right there and open maybe this year they're not even six months in operation yet, or up to legacy businesses as well. that it's a great question. so with these particular products, i think it's a minimum of two years in business. um, but i think tejal mentioned earlier, we're thinking about sf lens as part of this kind of whole landscape of the resources that the city has to offer. and so we know that there are cdfi programs that are available for businesses that are just starting out for startups and for entrepreneurs. and so we imagine sf lens to be one of the kind of rungs in the ladder to stepping stones along the way. but this particular one, when we went out to the banks to qualify these products, we mentioned two years in business. um, do you have information that, um, we could easily like email out? do we have that already? okay. and i'll just shout out to director tang. we're we're

cross-referencing each other on our websites. so, um. yeah, we're on the pd and the office of small business website. and likewise, we point to you guys on the sf lens website. so the information that you saw here is hosted on tt website. nice um, one other question abo the office of financial empowerment. um, so i actually did not know that we had an office of financial empowerment, but like for the city and, um, you know, i'm wondering for many of us who do, um, you know, have employees or teams that we manage, is this a recommended resource that they can go to if they're are experiencing financial challenges? definitely. and i want to make a joke to say, i promise i didn't plant that question, but i'm so excited for you to ask that. and i'm happy to pass along more information. just really quickly. i think one of the most exciting things that we offer is that financial counseling program that i mentioned. so it's called smart

money coaching, and it's free for anyone who lives, works or receives services in san francisco and allows folks to be able to sit down one on one with a certified financial counselor to talk about anything from their budget to working on debt, their credit savings, all of those really core basics for financial inclusion and accessing the financial mainstream. um, and so we're really, really happy to get that service out to as many san franciscans as possible. and we have a variety of other programs that we offer that are around access to safe and affordable bank accounts. we operate the kindergarten to college program that tejal mentioned that connects every single public school student with a college savings account and so i'm happy to send along additional information. or if you're interested, potentially come back and talk about off. we would i would definitely be interested in that. i'm sure many of us um, you know, we spend so much time together in our teams and to be able to support them with, um, you know,

mentorship in so many ways beyond just what we do daily is i think, a really important piece of small business ownership and, and leadership. so i think your office would provide so much support for all of us when we're trying to, you know, help people along the way. so we would love to have you back. so thank you. um, let's see, did you have anything else or was that okay? well i don't think we have any other questions up here. um yeah. no, thank you very much. i'm going to move on to public comment and if there are any public commenters, please come up to the mic. there appear to be none. well, seeing no public comment. thank you. so much for your time. we really appreciate the presentation on so, uh oh, public comment is closed. i forgot to say that. next item please. item four office of

small business annual report. this is a discussion item. the commission will review the office of small business annual report for fiscal year 2022 to 2023. uh, director tang will present this. all right. thank you. and, um, i know we have some slides that. thank you. kerry is going to share in a moment. all right, so, um, while we're getting the slides up and running, i think this is just also a great opportunity just to especially as we have new commissioners to just to remind folks about the services that we offer at the office of small business. um, i know we can sometimes get confused with other departments. we are are a division also within the office of economic and workforce development. and so just wanted to share what our services are. so on page three of the slide guide or. yes. so this is an

overview. so we provide counseling services assisting businesses with business registration connecting entrepreneurs to available resources. for example, if someone is looking for more capital we might connect them with the sf lens program. just as one example. and of course, providing general guidance for any small business needs. uh, about a year ago, over a year ago, we added a permit support function to our office. so we have a team of small business permit specialists that help entrepreneurs navigate the multiple agencies that you often have to go through, uh, policy development and advocacy. a lot of this work here at the commission and of course, through kerry bernbach, who is our senior policy analyst, and we collaborate with all of you and other business owners to make changes to our laws and policies, to make it easier to run, to start, run and grow a business. last year in january, we added a commercial leasing and activation support service. so through the addition of additional staff, we were able

to actually provide wide one on one guidance to entrepreneurs to advise them about their lease agreements or even letter of intent, a negotiation means perhaps someone is either in a new or even an existing lease agreement, have questions and need that that counseling. so that's actually been really, really, um, um, i think valuable in addition to helping with the matchmaker of entrepreneurs looking for vacant spaces. um, so we've been able to do that as well. and then lastly, um, of course, is our legacy business program. um, and so we support long standing businesses in san francisco through marketing grants and technical assistance. so go on to the next slide is a snapshot of our $3.7 million budget from last fiscal year or this current fiscal year. uh, so, as you can see, in terms of our breakdown, um, although our budget is only $3.7 million, we are part of our budget actually sits within the office of economic and workforce

development budget, which has much more funds dedicated to small business support. and we're always cross referencing each other's services. um, and so you'll see our breakdown. we have an incredible team here which forms most of our our budget, our legacy business program, which is the next, um, category of spending. and then our small business development center, the sbdc, that is actually hosted by office small business and ud, um and so that's a unique arrangement. um, in some other jurisdictions, as you might see, the sbdc, um, hosted by maybe a chamber of commerce or, um, a nonprofit organization. so here we are, unique that it's actually hosted within our office, and they actually sit with us in our city hall office. um we also receive some money from, um, through business registration fees that kind of go through the state and then come back to us. um, and it's the disability access and education fund. so what we do

with that is we actually run a grant program year round, and where we offer up to $10,000 in reimbursement for any business that needs to make accessibility improvements. so to comply with ada or to even do an inspection to understand their ada obligations. um and then, of course, our a small portion of our budget is formed by admin costs and a shop dine sf campaign, which goes towards supporting marketing of small business corridors and ultimately small businesses themselves. all right. so this slide here, um, shows a breakdown of our services that we provide and who are the people that we serve. oh, sorry. actually if you could go back to slide six, my apologies. okay. so this just is a snapshot. of, um, how much, uh, our incredible team does. so in fiscal year 22, 23, um, our team of case

managers supported 4855 cases. so that's quite a heavy workload there. and just to point out that in that fiscal year, we were able to add the four positions that i mentioned, um, and that really helped us increase our, our services. so compared to the prior fiscal year, we increase our services by 18. and then compared to pre-pandemic times in fiscal year 1819, we're able to increase our services by 25. um, in addition, as i mentioned, sbdc, the small business development center is part of our team. they served 1124 unique clients. um, and you see the breakdown here in terms of, um, most of them are to support existing businesses. most of the inquiries, um, and then the rest are for people who are in the kind of pre startup and startup phase. all right. so this slide here shows the breakdown of in terms of our office small business services. so for the most part uh i would say it's a

breakdown between um those those who are pre startup phase and startup phase. that would be one if you were to think about kind of one category of, of people we're helping a lot of times people don't know what they want to do yet, but they have a business idea that they haven't taken any steps and they're doing research. so we do a lot of counseling on that front, but we also, uh, help a significant portion of those who are existing. um, and may have some sort of business challenge that we're supporting them through. and then, of course, if we further break that down, we do have people who might be existing, but they want to relocate, or they might want to expand or or they're going through a business acquisition. and when we added the new commercial vacancy manager position last january, uh, we were able to add a couple of tools for small business entrepreneurs that were really excited about. so one of them is a template for letter of intent, um, negotiations to help

business owners, um, either during negotiations but also really for educational purposes. um, we also. help them with checklists and outline steps to help them prepare for commercial leasing process. so just understanding that we know it often it can be quite daunting. and then um, our commercial vacancy manager also participates and advises on site tours with of commercial spaces with the actual business owners so that they can check out the space together. we can point out certain things and what some of the needs and challenges. or maybe it's a great perfect fit, which is what we hope. so we're excited to offer those three new things. um, this slide here just shows the top five industries that we tend to get inquiries about at our office. so food services, retail trade, certain services as admin support and private education and health services. and you can see the definition um to the right there. but these is um top five industries have really roughly

remained the same in the last three fiscal years. um, this slide here shows a breakdown of who is seeking our services. um, by race, ethnicity. um, a lot of times people are not disclosing to us, um, uh, the race or ethnicity. so um, this just really accounts for the ones that we know. and then in terms of the language of service, provided we are only able to track, um, really the language that we speak to that business owner. so you could see the breakdown there, um, mostly in english, but we also do have staff who speak spanish and chinese in our office. and are able to offer in language support. and of course, we can call language line, which is a, um, a provider in case we have other languages. um in terms of business locations, this shows a breakdown, uh, by percentage of the total number of cases, um, broken out by board of supervisors districts. so, um, we also, as you can see here on

this, uh, on this table that, um, sometimes, um, people are actually calling from outside sf and they want to locate here. so that's always exciting. um, and so these these are just the ones that contact our office. and in fiscal year 2223, this is a visual of where we've been. so as mentioned earlier during our mta hearing, we go out almost every week to a corridor to try to talk to businesses one on one, share our services. we often hear that people don't even know that office small business exists, so it's really important for us to get out there because we'd love to talk to business owners before they have a crisis situation. um, we want to make sure that they feel supported and know who to talk to. if an issue arises. and as for our legacy business program, um, as of january 1st, 2024, we have, uh, 382 legacy businesses on our registry. so there are 30 years or older in san francisco. i think as of today, it's, um,

388 or so. and and in fiscal year 22, 23, we added 49 new legacy businesses to the registry. um, which thanks to this commission here, you all approve. and also last fiscal year, awarded. $766,000 to legacy businesses supporting 44 of the businesses through the rent stabilization grant program . and so, as a reminder, that's where, um, if a landlord agrees to sign a long terme lease. so that's ten or more years or five years with an option to extend for five more years, um, that they can get a grant as an incentive, uh, for the small business, the legacy business to remain in place. um, some other program improvements. we wanted to highlight for you under the legacy business program is that we eliminated successfully the application fee. um through, uh, prop j. it specified that we had to charge an application fee. um, but we were able to get that removed, so businesses no longer

have to pay $50. um, for the fee. we also tried to simplify the application form to make it easier for people to apply. and next, you probably heard me talk a lot about this, but we wanted to highlight the small business permitting reforms. um, this one is through the legislation that mayor breed sponsored as part of a roadmap to san francisco's future, made over 100 changes to the planning code and excited to share that it took effect. this month. so we are are eager to see how much easier this makes it for small businesses to establish themselves or expand or pivot. um, in san francisco. yeah yes. um, for we hope that it helps both existing and new businesses and then more on permitting reform. we also found that a lot of times small business owners have to spend additional time and money on requirements that don't make sense. so, for example, if you are going into a space where you don't need to do any

construction, um, the city has been requiring that you actually have to get a building permit with an architect and produce these professional drawings. so that takes time and money. um, so we initiated the creation along with the planning department, on an alternative path. um, and so we were we have been able to get more businesses through the process saving them time and money. again, if they meet these eligibility requirements, where they're not making any construction, uh, doing any construction in a space that they're locating in, um, in terms of fees, as we had advocated last year for the first year free program to be extended. and this is the program where, um, sponsored by mayor breed and supervisor ronen that waives um license and permit fees for new and expanding businesses. so so, um, we want to also thank our previous presenters, the treasurer and tax collector's office, that helps us manage this program. um, and since the program started in 2021, over 5700 businesses have enrolled and more than $2.38 million have

been waived in city fees. so this is super important given that, as you know, when you're starting out and you're not making you're not generating any revenue yet. um, and you have to pay for all these fees to get started. uh, this has been a really important program, and we actually want to advocate for this program to be extended for another fiscal year as well. so i'm sure we'll be coming back to you on that. and then, um, on awnings. so this was a challenging year where it started out with uh, uh, almost 200 businesses getting complaints about having awnings without permits. and so we wanted to figure out a way to make it easier for these businesses to comply with the city's permitting requirements. so we developed a awning amnesty program to simplify that process. so it is valid until june 1st, 2024. so if you have any questions about it, you know, any other business owners that want to take advantage of this program where the permit fees are waived, please let us

know. um, and we also worked with supervir so that in every may, which, um, there's an existing program where the permit fees are waived for new awnings, um, sorry, existing awnings, um, if you're replacing them that the permit fees would be waived. and we work with our office to extend that to also the installation of new awnings. so every may during small business month, you can also take advantage of a permit free process. and of course, this is um, a slide on small business survey thanks to this commission here. and led by president huey, we did a follow up survey of small businesses. so over 800 small businesses, uh, participated. in this survey. um, in partnership with san francisco state university. and, um, we have here displayed the top three challenges by sector. um, so i think it's no surprise to you all what those are, are, um, supply chain disruption,

staffing challenges, increases in cost of the goods being sold, lack of parking. um, and then of course, the street conditions. so um, again, i don't think that's a surprise to any of you who are business owners and then, uh, also last fiscal year, we awarded, um, almost $200,000 to 34 small businesses to help them with accessibility improvements. so, again, we want to make sure people take advantage of this year round program. and we're in, um, uh, i think year two of that, um, or heading into year three and then also if i don't know if you remember this, but january started out, um, really splashy. um, there were a lot of, um, issues caused by the winter flood, um, floods. and so we had this one time funding from wd to administer the disaster relief grant specific for flooding. and so we supported 100 small businesses last year, um, to the tune of $300,000. all right. and

then our shop in sf campaign, we took over management of that campaign in 2022, turned it into shop dine um sf as the rebranded campaign. and so through that, there's a new website launched where we've been just populating with a lot of content there to draw more people to our small business corridors, and then also highlighting, um, certain celebrations that also would draw people to a commercial corridor so you could see a sample of that here. and then also launched shops in sf on instagram. so we're constantly on social media, also highlighting upcoming events and activities. so we encourage people to send events our way so that we can continue to promote all of you. and this is just a reminder of the small business commission priorities that you all, um, discussed and decided upon for last fiscal year. and that is it. that concludes our annual report. happy to take any

questions. that was incredible. director. i feel like looking at this, it's like a journal almost of like the work that you and all of us have kind of like walked the last year. so, i mean, i can definitely see how everyone of these programs, like you've, you've not only touched but like very much like spearheaded for small businesses in san francisco. so thank you very much for all of your advocacy. um i feel like i didn't say that loud enough. right? like you're when i look at gary, she she's always like, can you speak louder? i really would like to thank you from the very bottom of my heart. and all of the small business communities that we all serve, i'm sure, have the same level of gratitude for all of the work that you've put in. i've been asking kind of like every, every

month i'm like, when am i going to see a map of what you do or where you've been? and that map is in impressive. carrie, put that together. and i have to say, on record, just really want to thank every single person in the office. small business. they are incredible. they are, i think, representative of what government should be, which is always trying to help you find a solution. and if there's a problem, how can we fix it? long terme, not just for your situation. so i just really want to thank everyone at the office of small business. it's wonderful. vice president zuma's sorry. yes thank you that i echo all of that. um it's so impressive that our repertoire of services and policies has expanded, um, over the years. and i just want to give kudos to our, our leadership for being able to delegate and manage all of those growing priorities and projects. so uh, very, very amazing stuff. and, um, yeah, i

think i would love to come pick up some of your ever developing postcards that you go leave people. um, because, you know, i give my business card and i try to show them the phone number for the office, but, i mean, it'd be good for each of us to grab a stack of those because i know they're, um, real stylish, like the powerpoint. so so great job. well, is there i don't have any questions, but is there, um, any public comment? no seeing? no public comment. public comment is closed. um, thank you very much. director tang. i know you have more coming up. item five, office of small business budget update. this is a discussion item reviewing budget instructions for the fiscal year 2425. all right. thank you. commissioners. um, and don't

worry, this will cut down my director's report. so, um, i wanted to share with you the budget instructions and the status that were issued to all of the departments. um, back in december. um, so due to a number of reasons, um, one being the rate of expenditure growth outpacing our general fund revenues in san francisco, um, and, um, other um, challenges, uh, increasing health care costs, among them, um, multi year inflationary growth for contracts with community. um community based organizations. um, and also using up fund balance that the city had stocked up to address uh, budget challenges in previous fiscal years. um, all of these and probably more have led to, um, uh, fiscal outlook that has been challenging for the city to manage. and so back in december, all the departments in the city were instructed to reduce our

budgets for the upcoming two fiscal years that we're planning for. so that's fiscal year 24, 25 and 2526. um, so all departments would need to make a 10% reduction in each year. and on top of that, also, um, have a contingency reduction on hand to the tune of 5% as well for each fiscal year. so so, um, what that means and what that translates to for, um, the office of small business is that we had to identify over $300,000 in cuts to office of small business. so not food, but just office small business. um, and for fiscal year 2526, we had to identify about $350,000 worth of cuts. the contingency reduction amount for the fiscal year 2425 amounts to about $150,000. and then the next fiscal year would be about almost $180,000. so so, um, you saw in our previous agenda item that we have a quite a lean, um, budget and it's mostly our staff because we

provide direct services. so so where we were able to make the cuts, i think i mentioned in our last, um, commission meeting, but really the only place that we can make the cut is to the legacy business program. um, and so however, despite the reduction to the legacy business program, it will not result in, in any staff, um, reductions. um so that's good. also uh, because there were some years where there were unspent funds, um, we were able to carry those forward . and so the impact to the program, at least in this next fiscal year, should be either minimal or pretty insignificant. now, in the future years, if there are more cuts, um, probably can't say the same. um, but as a reminder, we also had to make mid-year reductions this year. um, so we already cut the legacy business program and last, going into this fiscal year for fiscal year 2223, we also had to make reductions to legacy business program. so, um, that's that's the state that we are in. um at this moment. um,

and in addition to the committee hearing, um, the office of economic and workforce development is also hosting a series of three budget town halls, uh, virtually. so they're starting this week. there's two this week, one on wednesday, one on thursday, and then a final meeting as well. in terms of outreach and again, that is where the bulk of the funding is for any kind of grant programs and assistance to small businesses, whereas our office is direct service and staffing, mostly. so, um, so that's um, that's it's a quick high level summary of the budget outlook and what we've been instructed to do. um, and we'll i would say probably around maybe may or june, we'll come back for another update, um, with our um, with cfo and we'll talk about what we're proposing as part of this budget, um, to the board of supervisors at that time. thank

you very much. um, one question is the legacy business program, do we understand, um, what the greatest of our legacy businesses? i think some of them are actually really similar to just existing businesses in general, which is the decline in, um, you know, customers foot traffic. um, some of them may also need to adapt to, say, maybe having more of an online presence because so many people are doing things online these days. so i wouldn't say that it's dissimilar from a lot of the non legacy businesses as well. but um, some of them may have had um, you know, maybe a good lease arrangement for a period of time. and then now things are changing. um, and it's hard for them to, to adapt to that as well. so yeah it's varied for every business of course, but i would say that it's, um, what we hear by and large, is decline in sales. um because i feel like we would, we

could, you know, given that this is this is kind of what's happening with the budget. i mean, maybe there's a way that we can kind of creatively be able to meet their greatest needs by providing thing, i don't know, other resources that maybe are outside of the city. um, or, you know, pointing in different directions where, um, where we can just kind of help with, with some of that. um, um, yeah. and um, as i mentioned, the small business development center being hosted by us, um, we often do pair legacy business owners with, uh, with, uh, personalized advisor, so. or. sorry, i should say, um, a specialized advisor who can help them with maybe marketing and communications or maybe just looking at accounting, um, and looking at their, their books and seeing where is it that they can adjust, um, and so that is probably has been um, i'd say one of the more valuable resources that we can offer to

legacy business owners, because this really is taking just from the grant program. right like the budget cut. yes so, i mean, staffing wise and all these other resource wise that are quite generative in nature, right? like, can we still continue and we can maybe just be a little bit more creative? that's right. yes okay. cool. um, any questions from commissioners? no seeing, no questions from commissioners. public comment. no comments from the public. public comment. oh, actually, i'm just going to ask when you present this to the board. uh, so, uh, all the departments will have budget hearings at the board of supervisors budget committee in june, i believe. yes, june. okay yes. do you need anything from us, director tang? um, at this moment, um, i think we're not sure what some of those other

cuts will be at pd, so i think. yeah we're happy to share. once uh, once more. uh, before they go to the budget committee. okay great. we'll seeing no public comment, public comment is closed next item, please. item seven. general public comment. this is a discussion item. there is no public comment. no public comment. i'd also like to just thank any public commenters for their public comment and their, um, so seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, item eight director's report. this is a discussion item. all right, i will keep this super short. now since you heard a lot already. um, so in terms of legislative updates, um, i think i spoke with you earlier about the small business permitting legislation that took effect january 13th. so really excited about that. i also wanted to point out a file

that's currently pending in land use committee. um, that's filed 231165. that has to do with lithium ion batteries and powered mobility devices. and we had heard some concerns about impacts to businesses that sell e-bicycles and scooters and what some of those, um, challenges might be around limitations on, on battery charging. but we also do understand the public safety or the really the safety concerns and some of the fires that have broken out in, um, businesses and residential units as a result of charging. so just flagging that that's, um, still pending in land use committee, not vehicles. um e um, like powered mobility devices excluding wheelchairs, though. but again, e bicycles and scooters are probably the main, the main ones. and then on behalf of rick from our legacy business program, just sharing with you, inviting you to the heritage happy hours coming up, the next one is february 8th at the irish bank. um, march 14th.

that's at doc's clock in the mission. and april 11th at the plow and stars, um, on clement street and if you, uh, i think we will always send out to you an email invitation. so just, um, mark your calendars and that's it. thank you. great thank you. now we'll open it up for public comment. is there anyone in okay seeing no public comment. public comment is closed. next item please. i jet lag is catching up to me and i skipped item six. approval of draft meeting minutes, a discussion and action item. so let's take that before we move on to item nine. fine. okay commissioners, any comments on the minutes? no no comments. we'll open it up for public comment. seeing no public comment. public comment is closed. uh, commissioner motion

and roll call. oh. if somebody would like to make a motion to approve the draft meeting minutes, i'll make a motion to approve the minutes. if we could get a second second. that motion by commissioner dickerson, seconded by commissioner benitez. i'll read the roll. commissioner benitez. motion to approve. motion to approve. so the motion is to approve. so you can say yes, i, i still getting new here. no problem, commissioner dickerson. yes commissioner. herbets absent president healy. yes commissioner ortiz is absent. and vice president ozuna's. yes motion passes. item nine. commissioner. discussion a new business. yes. this is a discussion item. commissioners. any reports proposing new business items? vice president ozuna's. thank you. yeah, i just

wanted to, um, look at our minutes from our last meeting, because i remember there was something important on there. so the business tax reform, folks, if i know we had a lot of, uh, follow ups for them. so just let us know if you need help. um, director and carrie, like specifying whatever updates we wanted, because i know they hadn't had a concrete list of the reforms at that point. so i just wanted to put that back on our radar. for. um, i'd like to add, um, as an idea for number next meetings to have the office of financial empowerment, i believe, um, here, as well as i think for us to give some thought around like what other you know, benefits and, and opportunities, we can kind of

share with, with our teams totally cool. um the other thing i wanted to point out is that lunar new year is coming up, and, um, i can't believe that we're already in a new year right now. um, but lunar new year festivities are going to they're already kind of in motion. and the next few weekends we'll have, like a flower market in chinatown. we'll also have, um, the parade, um, after the lunar new year and , and so please come out it may rain. i have no control over that. but i have done the parade in the rain before, and it was actually really fun. so we, um, i invite you all to come out to chinatown. i'll be there. and i opened a new shop in chinatown. it's called on waverly. it's on the corner of washington and waverly. it's a aapi centered

gift shop. book shop space, whatever it is. and i've been meeting all sorts of new people coming through. it's been really fun. so i'm generally always there. i don't really want to say this on record that i'm generally always there because, but but i invite you guys all to come out and check out all the new the new businesses that, um, have come up as well as some of like, everyone's favorites. i know everyone comes in with a favorite restaurant that they they're like, oh my god, i get to go here now. so um, yeah, come out to chinatown. yes. yeah . cool. any other commissioners? new agenda items? nope. okay. well seeing no. um. oh, public. public comment on our. none. none seeing no public comment. public comment is closed. and next item, please. item ten adjournment sf govtv. please show the office of small business slide. we will end with

a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with any small business matter, continue to reach out to the office of small business. uh. meeting adjourned.

>> for us, we wish we had our queue and we created spaces that are active. >> food and drinks. there is a lot for a lot of folks and community. for us, it started back in 1966 and it was a diner and where our ancestors gathered

to connect. i think coffee and food is the very fabric of our community as well as we take care of each other. to have a pop-up in the tenderloin gives it so much meaning. >> we are always creating impactful meaning of the lives of the people, and once we create a space and focus on the most marginalized, you really include a space for everyone. coffee is so cultural for many communities and we have coffee of maria inspired by my grandmother from mexico. i have many many memories of sharing coffee with her late at night. so we carry that into everything

we do. currently we are on a journey that is going to open up the first brick and mortar in san francisco specifically in the tenderloin. we want to stay true to our ancestors in the tenderloin. so we are getting ready for that and getting ready for celebrating our anniversary. >> it has been well supported and well talked about in our community. that's why we are pushing it so much because that's how we started. very active community members. they give back to the community. support trends and give back and give a safe space for all. >> we also want to let folks know that if they want to be in a safe space, we have a pay it forward program that allows 20%

to get some funds for someone in need can come and get a cup of coffee, pastry and feel welcomed in our community. to be among our community, you are always welcome here. you don't have to buy anything or get anything, just be here and express yourself and be your authentic self and we will always take care of you.

5 o'clock. >> (music). >> co-founder. we started in 2008 and with the intent of making the ice cream with grown up flavors and with like and with tons of accessible freshens and so we this is - many people will like it and other people will like you my name is alice my husband we're the owners of you won't see ice cream in san francisco and really makes fishing that we are always going

together and we - we provide the job opportunity for high school students and i hired them every year and . >> fun community hubble in san francisco is my district i hope we can keep that going for many years. >> and i'm alexander the owner of ice cream and in san francisco and in the outer sunset in since 1955 we have a vast of flavors liar choke o'clock but the flavors more than three hundred flavors available and i am the owner of the ice cream. and my aunt used to take us out to eat ice cream all the time and what can i do why not bring this ice cream

shop and (unintelligible) joy a banana split or a great environment for people to come and enjoy. >> we're the ordinances of the hometown and our new locations in pink valley when i finished law school we should open up a store and, and, and made everybody from scrap the first ice cream shop any ice cream we do our own culture background and a lot of interaction and we're fortunate we can get feedback and serve to the king of ending and also(music).

>> today wire he emergency operations center for england with one activation so oversight board that one of the many activations have locations which probably has between to one hundred people at this time 340r7b 25 different city departments and hundreds of partner local partners and straight and fell partners we're in the echg a critical consultant of emergency center and surcharged with the single voice communicating with media about all issues with the apec and go a lot of preparation went

into stemming up this e oc and little actuated managing things as they come up and the people in the room and making sure that everyone is in the next step and doing count work of a single set of objectives with a single idealogy in mind many is having an apec that runs smoothly. >> i basically organ the agency projects and um, whatever this is in-person, transmissions have (unintelligible) to we're never (unintelligible) i will get a response right now and (unintelligible). >> please check in. >> my role here in the agency to help the cooperation and the way to do that is by sharing

information corresponding activities and some cases requesting additional resources when the cfo steady the property of the departments working at the moment and one of the first agencies that was called the energy planning for the agency that we do streets and pipes and others a to point b. >> and this activation there are parts of the city cut off limited access points and information is sometimes confusing and so the information that not necessarily always refined for their knowledge and this activation is different from the activation we're waiting for something to happen if or if we don't have the resources available we we have

to piecemeal it because 6 departments we are able to make things happen and from my department is the 9-1-1 features and be able services which runs the emergency operation center where we are right now. >> by insuring the rights of people to exposure the first amendment rights our job we don't want people to think that because the federal government was coming into town that for federal government will be cracking detain on protesters looking to demonstrate and also the law enforcement partners insures that people could do that while keeping everyone safe and something we are doing. >> the jet has responder to over two had the and advising

people of the impacts and plan for delays and plan their travel of entertainment commission and wounding to do that without people. what is happening on event like this people love individually and because they find integrity in themselves that didn't go know was there and have to rise to occasion they didn't know they'd have to and really across the board for us and the city to make us a better city. >> and really a good learning experience xrefrns city augment but amazing departments across the city working together or working together in the same room and part of this in a meaningful way it everyone is united truly everyone. >> what we do matters a lot of

i can't take credit. >> when i'm done with that all we can tie the bow on that and send it off. >> i'm he getting an opportunity to find it exciting that's what we're here to do to serve the city we love and wanting really great learning experience. >> extremely rewarding and the great relationships with the people >> making to may grandkids a program all about pop ups, artists, non profits small business in into vacant downtown throughout the area for a three to 6 months

engagement. >> i think san francisco is really bright and i wanted to be a part of it revitalization. >> i'm hillary, the owner of [indiscernible] pizza. vacant and vibrant got into safe downtown we never could have gotten into pre-pandemic. we thought about opening downtown but couldn't afford it and a landlord [indiscernible] this was a awesome opportunity for us to get our foot in here. >> the agency is the marriage between a conventional art gallery and fine art agency. i'm victor gonzalez the founder

of gcs agency. thes program is especially important for small business because it extended huge life line of resources, but also expertise from the people that have gathered around the vacant to vibrant program. it is allowed small businesses to pop up in spaces that have previously been fully unaccessible or just out of budget. vacant to vibrant was funded by a grant from the office of economic workforce development that was part of the mayor's economic recovery budget last year so we funded our non profit partners new deal who managed the process getting folks into these spaces. >> [indiscernible] have been tireless for all of us down here and it has been incredible. certainly never seen the kind of assistance from the city that vacant to vibrant has

given us, for sure. >> vacant to ibvooerant is a important program because it just has the opportunity to build excitement what downtown could be. it is change the narrative talking about ground floor vacancy and office vacancy to talking about the amazing network of small scale entrepreneur, [indiscernible] >> this is a huge opportunity that is really happy about because it has given me space to showcase all the work i have been doing over the past few years, to have a space i can call my own for a extended period of time has been, i mean, it is incredible. >> big reason why i do this is specific to empower artist. there are a lot of people in san francisco that have really great ideas that have the work ethics, they just don't have those opportunities presented, so this has been huge lifeline i think for entrepreneurs and

small businesses. >> this was a great program for us. it has [indiscernible] opening the site. we benefited from it and i think because there is diverse and different [indiscernible] able to be down here that everybody kind of benefits from it.