Skip to main content

tv   [untitled]    August 9, 2012 4:30pm-5:00pm PDT

4:30 pm
programmatic needs we see in the $5,000 to $50,000. folks looking to do bigger scale or a mass some amount of inventory and need the money to amass that and been to rate to sell. it's often times folks that need to invest and their equipment, often times because there is more energy-efficient equipment. those are the main areas we would see. the third of several new initiatives proposed as a halftime temporary position to support the night life and entertainment sector. we believe this staffer would complement the work we're doing by industry sector, by focusing on the night time economy entered we think right business
4:31 pm
assistance and promoting the sector and having a well- balanced throughout the city is something we have not paid attention to it could yield a lot of very positive economic results of a were more systematic and how we look at our light -- look at our by -- look at our nighttime entertainment sector. supervisor wiener: regarding the nightlife and entertainment position, as i know you know, earlier this year in my request, a rough study was released showing -- a study was released showing night live, not even a subset, this doesn't even account for street fairs and daytime entertainment. this is an understated number in an this shows our $4.2 billion to eight san francisco economy and produces around 50,000 jobs
4:32 pm
and $50 million in tax revenue. i think that's a very conservative methodology and i think these numbers are understated. what we have seen more and more in san francisco is that due to all sorts of factors, including but inertia and resistance in some of our city departments, not only lack of support from city government but sometimes hostility. we have seen some events that have gone away or one recently went outside of san francisco, so i was excited when the mayor announced his budget would include a position for night life and entertainment because when you look at the critical
4:33 pm
role -- you look in the market and navigating the different departments, it makes all the difference in the world that i think it is critical we review nighttime entertainment from an economic perspective. i was disappointed when the budget came out and it was only a part-time position. in my view, that is not adequate and i would be interested in seeing that become a full-time position. this is a big sector in our economy we have neglected and there's a lot of work to be done. with the right person in that position fulltime we could make a huge difference. if you could comment on that? >> i think you're right. the part-time position allows us to cut the nighttime economy in
4:34 pm
one or two ways. we can look at certain sectors with in the economy citywide or look at certain neighborhoods, but we cannot let comprehensively everything. the planning department recommended an entertainment master plan and i think that could very well informed where the future of our parts of the night time economy are situated. i think that would require more resources. i think half time is a good start. if you want to hear from joslyn -- supervisor wiener: the entertainment commission is a chronically underfunded agency and we need to start doing this the right way instead of under reinforcing. >> thank you.
4:35 pm
i'm the director of the entertainment commission. this is a position under oewd. we believe there is a tremendous amount of work to be done in addition to planning projects yet described, -- it spreads across the brat of all projects in that department in addition to the workforce as well because of a number of jobs that are available to workers that don't need a tremendous amount of training. it is an industry that does not hire without high levels of education. it is really important and i think there is more than a full- time position to be honest and
4:36 pm
we are fully supportive of that and will help as much as we can. supervisor wiener: one other question -- going back to the revolving loan funds, once bill loan is made, is -- does oewd stay in contact as a resource? >> absolutely. we are on a committee of working solutions that helps to select businesses and we are well aware of who those recipients are and we continue to work with them if they have any issues related to anything regarding their business. supervisor wiener: when we helped kick off the loan fund in my district, it's running into huge problems.
4:37 pm
supervisor cohen: i wanted to know if the revolving loan fund had run out. >> there are still dollars available to issue things to your proposal. some of that has come back and has allowed for a few grants around $25,000 to be made again. that number will continue to revolve but with the million dollars you gave us mitt year, half a million of which is about to arrive, there will be another 120 that can be sent out in the coming months and we'll come back and ask the other half million, for reserve and we think that will cover the vast majority of the next fiscal year. supervisor chu: it looks about like $620,000 is not in the preapproved pipeline. >> exactly. continuing on, the other two new
4:38 pm
initiatives help to backfill the hole left by the dissolution of the redevelopment agency. as you heard during the presentation about where resources are being deployed at which department has the responsibility for what, oewd is leading the central market partnership, which is suppose to be funded with $1.7 million. the priorities are informed by the central market economic strategy and is focused on filling vacancies, creating jobs, and preventing displacement of arts organizations that includes parts in public-service programming, office of improvement, and programming for our tent next to use projects. this will be an enormous increase and that general fund and a much-needed increase for
4:39 pm
the central market because previously the redevelopment agency would have provided a good deal of these funds. this allows for the continuation of important programs, just now under these to the family. the bayview initiative would include $1.2 million and continue work under the redevelopment agency, including $600,000 for passat and tenant improvement programs. this would be solely focused on third street corridor and bayview and represents a commitment that would have been met by the redevelopment agency. it keeps that corridor at a base line. it also includes funding for activation events and funding at the focus of the plaza and money to the use for mixed use development projects. supervisor cohen: about the
4:40 pm
third street corridor bayview -- which section of third street are we talking? are we specific talking best -- specifically talking evans to paul? >> it is not restricted. something we want to do as the invest a neighbor its initiative becomes an overlay for the work we're doing and becomes a comprehensive umbrella even in communities where we have long been doing work, there'll be different levels of assessment but we propose an assessment going into the next two years looking at what tools we have available, what are we doing, what has worked and what has not worked? in all cases, these resources are limited. there is still a lot of work to do here but we can see them
4:41 pm
generate their own energy. it is something we will be doing working in consort to determine the actual parameters. supervisor cohen: perfect. throughout the conversations, the bay view has some serious needs and i don't want it to be seen as a detriment, burgeoning neighbor of like dog patch and to some degree, mission bay, who our neighbors that can benefit from research it -- resources we are pouring into third street. the entire southeastern part of the city will be healthy and strong. >> that the perfect segue into the concept of invest in neighborhoods which is the city
4:42 pm
working in a comprehensive way and the initiative has a proposed $1.5 billion over two years. two staffers would be working with these commercial corridors and that funding and umbrella offers the opportunity to work together to identify those corridors that have this kind of comprehensive been put by the city family and for district 10, the continuity up and down the corridor is extremely important. you do not want to feel like there are starts and stops of city focus because by not having that continuity, you lose a lot of really important work being done.
4:43 pm
supervisor kim: i know i brought this up earlier but i was hoping you could clarify a little bit. it seems like to departments are asking for positions in very similar lines of work. there was of a request from the city administrator for a community development specialist to support that market and bradstreet projects and here we are seeing request for funding for the central market and third street -- may be through the invest in neighborhoods, it would be funded, but if you could tell me how you distinguish these positions because we don't want to pay for services when we're trying to find savings for our schools or the cost of doing businesses for nonprofits as we prioritize the budget. if you could explain the thinking behind at and how you
4:44 pm
imagine the coordination work would happen a month the department. pedestrian safety is another issue. has been challenging working with several departments on one issue. how be hoping to work through that? >> with regards to how the invest in neighborhoods initiative is staffed, earlier this year, the city administrator and i convened a working group which is now meeting on a regular basis which has representatives from a number of departments. the mayor's office of housing, others are coming together initially to talk about what tools we should put in that tool kit for the work we want to do with paper had to be able to address these comprehensively. as the neighborhoods are put into effect, this would be put into effect like pedestrian safety, who should be doing
4:45 pm
what in a particular neighborhood, what has to do with enforcement, what has to do with infrastructure, what has to do with painting and taking on those issues in a way this city family is aware of based on the working group structure. i don't think there is duplication. we are proposing enhancements across different departments. i believe the position in the city administrator's office are a position under the neighborhood empowerment network and i think it to get some streetscape beautification and corridor ambassadors, we want to be able to enhance as part of investing in neighborhoods since we are planning on doubling the number of neighborhoods we're working in. bringing the rest of the city family in other parts of 25 their breath, the positions
4:46 pm
requested in the department would be specifically talking to businesses around business needs and would act as liaison to corridor managers and be involved in setting of the vacancy tracking program and trying to attract businesses and working as something as a concierge with businesses in these corridors that are having any issues related to the city. they would not be doing the accord or work or streetscape improvement work. supervisor kim: potentially the streetscape -- i understand a distinguishable group of staffing would focus on street scaping by your house would deal with the sought improvements? >> yes. we have been managing the
4:47 pm
passat improvement through the redevelopment agency. has been general fund it and it's a program we work directly with businesses on making sure -- it has been our department that has overseen with redevelopment money that has overseen the work of that because we work so closely with merchants and we would continue to do that. supervisor chu: thank you. i think many of us are very supportive of the invest in the neighborhoods of goals and objectives. i think for areas that do not typically receive support, it is very exciting to see that this would roll out to outlying areas as well, whether it is a supervisor avalos' district or mine. i am wondering if, as a follow up, you might be able to share
4:48 pm
more affirmation on this new invest in the neighborhoods perspective? we have bits and pieces, but i want to make sure we're not doing the same thing we did before. i think when we last talked about the revolving loan funds and about how many different programs we have in all different departments that there were so many programs, so want to make sure we're not just saying that we are discontinuing all these different things again, and somebody will have to coordinate. there has to be something that is more collaborative and integrated than that kind of set up. i want to understand that better. >> i think we will be coming back to you next week. i am happy to bring to you, in a very comprehensive way, what is we think we are bringing to these neighborhoods that is extraordinarily concrete in terms of how we have developed this toolkit after weeks and months of talking to lover ee with our sister departments about how we think this is going
4:49 pm
to rollout. supervisor chu: great. supervisor avalos: i want to make sure -- i am going to be looking to see how the neighborhood commercial corridors are benefiting from invest in that neighborhood spirit we have not really seen the kind of investment in our neighborhoods that happened in other places in san francisco were a lot of neighborhood dollars come in and are focused on in those areas. i think we need to compensate for the lack of investment that happened elsewhere, from other sources with city dollars. i want to see if there's some way we can see those types of improvements in the neighborhoods like mine. >> you will see the list of proposed neighborhoods.
4:50 pm
we will start working with the mine august and september. the last position we are requesting is a high level deputy director to sort of oversee all of the neighborhood economic development. when you think about it, there are so many initiatives either being enhanced or proposed. when you think about the bayview in central market is being stand-alone initiatives that are for the first time within the city family exclusively because of no longer having the redevelopment agency, the job squad outreach, coordination with the office of small business, monitoring loans at sf shines. would you want to do is get commercial corridors healthy enough that they can consider the ability to create the community benefit district which provides a permanent level of
4:51 pm
private sector funding to do a lot of the work the city is doing. that combine with the investor in the neighborhoods initiative is a huge expansion of our work. the mayor believes we need a high level deputy director to work directly with the supervisors and with the outside stakeholders and to really kind of own this portfolio. that is also before you for your consideration. supervisor chu: thank you very much paired with regards to the budget analyst recommendations, can you provide an update as to your status with agreement or disagreement? >> we are not yet in agreement. we anticipate being in agreement by next week. we have not been able to provide -- provide the budget analyst with details on any small business loan program, and we will be providing that in detail today, as well as some of the other outstanding issues. supervisor chu: thank you. why don't we go to the budget analyst report. >> our recommended reductions total dollars3393,379 in 2012-
4:52 pm
2013, and21 $231,379 are ongoing savings. it would still allow an increase of1$3,204,736 or a 40.6% increase in the 2012-2013 budget. there's also a policy recommendation of dollars1 -- a $one in 2012-2013. one. -- it would still allow an increase of $11.9 million or 37.5% in the 2012-2013 budget. in addition, we recommend closing the prior year in and -- on the expanded general fund incumbrances, totaling $122. together, dollars1,333,501
4:53 pm
settings for the general fund in $12.2012-2013. of that amount, the entire amount our ongoing savings. we're still working with the department, and we will report back to you next week. supervisor chu: thank you very much. if there are no other questions, i would like to move on to the next department. any questions? ok, see what -- so to what to the office of workforce and economic development. we look forward to seeing you next week with answers to some of those issues, including the neighborhood marketplace and is the bottom. colleagues, i would like to call one department out of order. we have a request from someone who has to leave the less to the assessor. >> i have been applied with the civil service commission.
4:54 pm
our tax roll continues to grow. . supervisor chu: we are looking to our presentation. you have one for the overhead? >> yes, it is here, but the overhead has not been turned on. i am talking about page two right now. we have had some of the growth of property taxes in our assessment roll from $70 billion to $155 billion. we anticipate continuing to have a slight, very modest growth, but relative to every other county in the state, we are actually doing pretty well,
4:55 pm
considering that many counties, especially those hardest hit by a property value reductions, are actually seeing decreases on their property tax rolls. we have seen a slight uptick, and we think we will be summer around $155 billion for this coming year. very quickly, the additional revenue that comes in are called supplementals, is give revenues. we brought in a little over $100 billion of the additional revenue which goes into our property tax rolls. what has been critical in our staff being able to bring in processes assessment is we had two additional teams of seven staff each working on our assessment appeals. we have had over 6000 appeals come in each year the last couple of years. that has been critical to have time limited staff to work on the appeals, which we hope will start to dissipate in the next two years.
4:56 pm
transfer taxes have actually done extremely well this year, so the market is starting to rebound as you all have started to feel. we raised the transfer tax rate from 2008 and 2010, and we are benefiting now at an all-time high, about $186 million, and we're actually over $200 million in transfer taxes. we have been able to bring in about $16.5 million in under- reported and unrecorded documents, and that was thanks to a loophole that we close our in the 2008 transfer tax law, as well as us being a little bit more aggressive in making sure the people are actually accurately reporting the values of real estate as they come into an office. this gives you an idea of the
4:57 pm
assessment appeals. we had a huge spike from 2007- 2008 to the 2009-2010 year, and it has hovered on in that range. we think that will significantly drop in the next couple years. we think that that will really help alleviate all of -- a lot of the stress on our staff. that is why we only ask for time-limited staff previous year. and we will be able to not bring those people back because the appeals or kroger's -- go drastically down. supervisor chu: with regards to the outstanding cases, it has. up to a very high level. typically, the city has experienced some more like 1000 or 2,000 or so of those cases. for the city, do we create a reserve generally for a situation where we have outstanding appeals pending? >> yes, the controller's office
4:58 pm
has set aside about a $40 million reserve in the past. i think it was increased going into this year. monique could probably speak much better about appeared we work very closely with the office to identify what is in the pipeline, what we think might be the approximate -- a very general reductions in value, but there's always a set- aside, in particular for the commercial property. supervisor chu: for c theontr -- for the controller's office, can you speak to what we generally do for appeals cases overall? >> members, monique from the controller's office. we do set aside reserves based on appeals. we look at what the latest appeals of bent and we project those amounts -- and appeals have been and we project those amounts we estimate. supervisor chu: it is sort of like holding something in reserve, basically.
4:59 pm
money has been allocated for expenditure, and if we end up tapping into it, we have to cut back -- >> we actually reduce our revenue estimate based on that. supervisor chu: supervisor kim? supervisor kim: thank you. by the way, congratulations on getting down from 16,000 to 10,000 buying your backlog. there have been a series of e- mails from residents complaining about the length of time that it is taking for these assessments. i am wondering if you can address that? >> absolutely. your district in particular along with supervisor avalos and supervisor cohen's districts were there are a number of short sales in foreclosure is occurring, it will take longer. traditionally, it would be processed in rare between three