commercial corridors. so i will be talking to them about that. small business week,small busino events that are really targeted at towards the merchants. there was the sidewalk sale, but now, the shop your neighborhood, i do want to of a discussion about how we can create a cohesive program for that day that really benefits the merchants. and at one of the briefings, commissioner dooley had the idea of having these identified by the neighborhoods, so we did do that this year, and that idea went over really well and was very well-received.

people liked it. the merchant corridors that participated really liked it, and so, again, just reemphasize the, this is another area where the merchants can come together and promote their commercial corridors. we also have i bike sf. we have not received a formal presentation on this, but it is one with the bicycle coalition. we have targeted two areas and are now moving into some other areas, like castro, where businesses can be high laid it on the -- highlighted on the sfmta page, so i want to present all of the programs that the city is doing that merchants can

be involved in to help promote their direct -- business, dry business, and that sort, so that meeting is being held. as i said, your welcome to attend, and then i do also what do talk about our office working with them. they will let an opportunity to respond. legislative matters. the two proposed matters that the commission heard last month regarding the progressive payroll tax and a parking tax increase on parking grosz's and valet parking, -- garages and valet parking, those two word

table, so they will not be on the ballot. the others passed out of the board of supervisors that you heard were the transfers from the fire department to the police department. that has passed out of the board of supervisors as well as the zoning regarding child care facilities. that concludes my report unless you have any questions. president yee riley: any questions for the director? seeing none, next item, please. >> commissioners, you are now on item number nine, the legislative and policy committee report, which allows the chair to report on recent committee

activities and make announcements. vice president clyde: we have already reviewed two items, the alcohol mitigation and the nail salon, but i do want to speak about another. we heard an informational presentation about a proposal that is not really in legislative form yet about restricting pet stores from selling any type of small animals except for fish. we heard a presentation from animal care and control. we heard one from the animal welfare commission, and we also heard from several of the merchants that deuce else -- still sell small animals. i was particularly taken by the fact that there are only five businesses in san francisco that do so small animals, formula

retail, and we asked some questions about some of the animals that show up at animal error -- care control better actually being purchased from life than the markets, an animal rescuers are buying them and then turning them into animal care and control, and that has been creating a problem. we may need to address this in the future, and i think that there certainly should be some sort of compromise that will work for both sides. the grandfathering the five businesses that are selling small animals and allowing that to continue, even if they sell their business, allowing that model to go forward but prohibiting new businesses in

the city, so we are just going to keep a watch on where this goes. that concludes my report. president yee riley: thank you. next item, please. clerk: commissioners, item number 10, the permit a committee report, which allows the jered report and recent committee activities and make announcements. -- which allows the chair to report. >> i will have that next month. president yee riley: thank you. next item, please. clerk: item number 11, the outreach committee report, allowing the chair to report on recent committee activities and make announcements. >> the status of the vacancy report, do we have an update on vacancies? -- vice president clyde: clerk: we do not have an update,

commissioner clyde. vice president clyde: ok, we did discuss outreach to the businesses, and i have to say that this month has really been concerned with outreach regarding the alcohol mitigation fee, and that outreach has been significant, and i would really like to recognize the efforts of small business in coordinating the dissemination of information to the small business community. the turnout in the committee hearing, budget and finance and policy, it was really remarkable, and, you know, largely due to your efforts. we discussed, of course, the progressive tax structures that are no longer on the table, as well as businesses that are currently not being taxed, and i have not had time to go more in

depth. i am sorry, business sectors. we did have a far ranging discussion on business sectors that are not currently taxed at the local level, but i have not had time to organize a report on that. we did of a discussion on the department's 2010 budget, and there was no new business. because our hands were full. thank you. president yee riley: 80. next item. clerk: commissioners, we are now on the president's report, which allows the president to report on the small business activities. president yee riley: well, i attended a meeting on community development, and there was a great presentation from the mayor's office of economic and work force development on their goals, objectives, and the funding strategy, which was very educational for me.

legislation and policies, and commissioner dooley already reported it, and august 3, that was the day we had the new commissioner, commissioner kasselman, sworn in, and commissioner o'brien also gets sworn in. so that is it. thank you. clerk: commissioners, items number 13, vice president's report. vice president clyde: i would like to begin my report by recognizing a woman who gave extraordinary service to the small business community and to the san francisco community, joanie chang, who passed away a

few weeks ago at age 41. she was a compliance officer with standards enforcement. she was charged with implementing the groundbreaking san francisco law that created healthy san francisco, and the reason i would want to recognize her is that she was a real model in how to educate the community, how to communicate with the small business community. she did it with grace. she did it with just great intelligence and compassion, and i think that the small business community should really an extent -- note should really extend our -- should really extend our sympathies. she was taken way too soon. she believes newborn twins and her partner, -- she leaves

newborn twins and her partner. she was only 41 years old, and she is diagnosed with cancer seven weeks ago, -- was diagnosed with cancer seven weeks ago. for the members who would like to send condolences, there is a website that was created by her friends and family. it is www.giveforward.org/ bakeanapple, and i would like to think the office of supervisor campos for providing this information and, again, to her partner, and to the new twins. i would like to send, you know, our condolences and our appreciation. thank you, so i am just going to move on. i did attend a convention with bettie yi.

she is our representative to the state board of equalization. she made it very clear that she did not favor a patchwork of regulations regarding the alcohol industry because it is so difficult to work. she did make it clear that her office is not interested -- her office is interested in keeping small businesses operating, and her office will work with businesses that are having trouble meeting their tax payments. she was very clear in response to members of the public. the state board equalization now requires substantial deposits from businesses, businesses, who do not have track records or businesses that are changing their corporate structure.

that was brought up at this meeting. her office is responsive to the synthesis go small business community. please contact and the board to work note payments and to work out schedules. she is focused on we are still in economic crisis, and she emphasized that she did not want to see businesses closing. she also discussed marijuana and the challenges of legalization and taxation of the marijuana industry and challenges of the industry that is threatening to pick up and leave if they are

taxed. this is going to be extremely challenging. the merchants organization in north beach did note -- did have a presentation, and i will encourage everyone to support this fund project. thanks. president yee riley: thank you. next item, please. clerk: next item, commissioner 14, commissioner reports. vice president clyde: i have been trying to keep the small business public more informed about the proposed congestion pricing that is being proposed

by cta, which is creating a very large corridor in our city that would be charging a fee of entry and exit, morning hours and afternoon hours, perhaps in each direction, and the possible impact that might have on our small businesses. i attempted. attended a workshop cta last month and brought up some of the concerns of the small business community which i attended a workshop. -- i attended a workshop. also, phil did a report on this for channel 5 news, and it was also mentioned in the column, so i just want to

continue to keep putting this in front of the public as much as possible so we can get some feedback and have folks be aware about what the potential costs might be in the business community. president yee riley: thank you. anymore reports from the commission? seeing none, next item, please. clerk: commissioners, item number 15, general public comment. president yee riley: seeing none, public comment is closed. clerk: commissioners, item number 16, new business, which allows commissioners to introduce new items for future consideration by president yee riley: the riley: -- consideration by the commission. president yee riley: seeing none, next item, please. clerk: item number 17,

adjournment. commissioners, the meeting is adjourned at 11:46 p.m. --7:46pm. note but

because we have a great waste water system here in san francisco, we do about 80 million gallons of waste water here in san francisco, which means we basically fill up 120 olympic sized swimming pools each and every day here in the city. we protect public health and safety and environment because we are discharging into the bay and into the ocean. this is essentially the first treatment here at our waste water treatment facility.

what we do is slow down the water so that things either settle to the bottom or float to the top. you see we have a nice selection of things floating around there, things from bubble gum wrappers, toilet paper, whatever you dump down the toilet, whatever gets into our storm drains, that's what gets into our waste water treatment and we have to clean. >> see these chains here, this keeps scum from building up. >> on this end in the liquid end basically we're just trying to produce a good water product that doesn't negatively impact the receiving water so that we have recreation and no bad impact on fish and aquatic life. solids is what's happening. . >> by sludge, what exactly do you mean?

is that the actual technical term? . >> it's a technical term and it's used in a lot of different ways, but this is organic sewage sludge. basically what it is is, oh, maybe things that come out of your garbage disposal, things that are fecal in nature. it's sludge left in the water after the primary treatment, then we blend those two over and send them over to digestion. this building is built to replace tanks here that were so odoriferous they would curl your hair. we built this as an interim process. >> is there a coagulant introduced somewhere in the middle of this? . >> this coagulant brings solids

together and lets the water run through. that gives us more time in the digestion process, more time to reduce the amount of solids. these are the biggest ones in the world, like we always like to do in san francisco. they are 4 meter, there's none like it in the world. >> really? wow. >> three meters, usually. we got the biggest, if not the best. so here we are. look at that baby hum. river of sludge. >> one of the things is we use bacteria that's common in our own guts to create this reduction. it's like an extra digestion. one of the things we have to do to facilitate that is heat that sludge up and keep it at the temperature our body likes, 98.6 degrees. >> so what we have here is the heat exchanger for digester no. 6. these clog up with debris and we're coming in to -- next wet

weather season so we always come through here, clean them out, make sure that we get maximum heat exchange during the colder wet weather. sludge season. >> rubber glove. >> right here. >> rubber glove, excellent. all right, guys. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> this is the full on hazmat. . >> residual liquid. we're taking it time to let it drain. we don't want to get sludge on it necessarily. take your time. stand on the side of it. . >> should we let it release for a while? . >> let it release. >> is that the technical term?

. >> this is the most important bolt on the whole thing. this is the locking bolt. it locks this thing right in place. so now. >> take your hammer and what we want to do, we get rag build up right in here. the hot water recirculates right in here, the sludge recirculates in here. the sludge sometimes has rags in it. all we want to do is go around the clean the rags. let me show you how. take the slide hammer, go all the way through the back, go around. >> got you. >> during the real rainy season, how does that change the way dealing with this job? is it a lot more stuff in there? . >> what we do, charles, we do this quarterly. every four months we go around

and clean all the heat exchangers so we don't have a large build up. . >> go around? . >> yeah. (sound of hammering). >> what i'm trying to do, charles, is always pull it out on the low stroke. >> right. so you are not, like, flying out. now talk about clean up. . >> then where does this stuff get deposited? . >> we're going to dump it in a

debris box and it will go back to the plant. >> if you think back, the romans came up with a system of plumbing that allowed us it use water to transport waste away from the hub of civilization, which enabled cities to grow. . >> you have a large bowl, a drive motor and another motor with a planetary gearbox with differential pressure inside there. the large mass up there spinning separating the solids from the liquid. we have to prevent about once a month, we go in there grease those, change the oil, check the vibration levels. the operators can tell just by the hum of that machine that it's a harmonic noise emitted that it's out of balance and the machine needs to be cleaned.

it will start vibrating and we have vibration analysis machines that will come over here and check the levels. so it's kind of an on-going thing that you have to stay on top of on a daily basis. >> handled properly, you take organic residuals, as we call them, that are leftovers of our society and turn them back into some energy. and we have another ability to take that sludge and get a nutrient value for crops there. we actually are running a kind of composting energy recovery system. >> well, this is a dirty job. we try to do it safely and we try to do it without imposing too much on the public. people want to flush their toilets and have things go away and not be bothersome again. we do a lot to try to accomplish that. i'd like to invite you to come

back any time you want. once you got this in your blood, you are not going to be able to stay away. the raging waters are fun and when we do digester cleaning i really hope you can come back. that's quite a sight. >> yeah, that sounds interesting. >> i really appreciate you coming by and it was a