it is you a philosophical a conversation for this commission. the thing i focus my mind on it in regard to the fines, i think it would be nice if there were any possibility is if it goes to a person violating the ordinance. it would have some language in it to the effect that there are other sources of advertising now and suggest resources, such as the small business commission, which would be also a form of raising our profile in the city and being there to help people who are getting these letters from the government, which none of us like getting

anywhere, so i would suggest that. president yee riley: ok. commissioner? commissioner: i does want to say that in a city with a reduced capacity, and on a city where it is a windblown, which is where i am, so all of the things is treated on the east side of the street and a swirled around my door on the other side of the street. -- end up swirled around my door. this eliminates the problems. i think people should have a choice if they would like to pass on this form of advertising. it would, you know, it is an option. we will have to do something to control the amount of work. as people are advocating for a reduced work force because of

the budget, we're going to have to figure out how to reduce their work load. i would just like to add that. thank you. president yee riley: commissioner dooley? commissioner dooley: i agree with commissioner o'brien about adding some language, like "contact the office of small business." i would like to see us put together a brief informational piece that could be put on our website or is in the office that will just refer them to things we may not be familiar with, like yelp, which is extremely effective now. i think we could do that with a fairly minimum amount of effort and with its shows good faith and concern for those really tiny businesses without

eliminating the disservice of keeping our streets from becoming a total mess. i had my shot on grant avenue four years. i would come to work, and there would be 500 fliers swirling around on the street front. so, obviously, it is a little odd of control, it would say, "if you would like some other alternatives, we would give you a list." i would like to add that and move this. president yee riley: this question is to the director. this is an existing law that we are trying to change? >> correct. correct.

president yee riley: and then the change would be the size of the sign. >> correct. president yee riley: so if we do not take any action, then the old law would still -- u.n. >> well, i mean, this legislation has been introduced, and as i said, a supervisor david chiu is a sponsor, so it would go through the regular board of supervisors process. they will be interested on the commission's comments. i did sit on the task force, so that will be known. president yee riley: commissioner o'conner, you have a question? >> just some alternative -- commissioner o'conner: just some

alternative comments. facebook ads are a better way to target. you can identify people in your immediate area and is a coat to solicit. we are here to support small businesses. we should be teaching them or giving them clues how to better run their business, not just putting roadblocks in front of them, if that is what this commission is about. i am not sure is. president yee riley: i want to open it up to public comment. are there any public comments? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner dooley: i would recommend to the board that we approve this with the caveat that we have the first and

second letter of violation, that we would make a referral that there would be alternative ways of advertising that might not have occurred to folks who are currently using handbills, and have ourselves as a resource for that, so we are giving them another viable way of advertising. president yee riley: those in favor? those opposed? motion carries. next item, please. clerk: commissioners, before we start, i did receive letters for the public, which we will forward to you. i forded all letters to you that

we have received as of 4:30, and those letters are included -- i forwarded all letters to you. about 5:20, 5:25, i did print copies, but i would like to leave that to the discretion of the president as to whether this should be there. commissioner o'conner: for the record, could it be noted that i abstained from the last votes? clerk: yes. president yee riley: and your question is? clerk: that we did receive something around 5:25, and did you want to distribute that to the commission? commissioners, but i will first

call for nominations. after the call for nominations, then we will have an opportunity for nominees to accept the nomination and make a statement. following that, we will have commissioner comments. next, a public comment. then we will do roll-call votes in the order that nominations are made. should multiple people receive a tie vote, if i am correct, director, then we will go ahead and have those people who have the highest votes have a second round, is that correct? >> yes. commissioner: in nominations, can we speak, or is that later on in the process? >> commissioners, the nominees will make their statements, and then the commissioners can make comments.

clerk: so they would give their nominees and then make comments later on? is that correct? would you like to proceed? at this time, we will go ahead and take nominations. madam president, i do not have access to the list of people who would like to speak. if you could go ahead and leave that part? president yee riley: commissioner dooley? commissioner dooley: i would like to nominate commissioner clyde. president yee riley: i would like to nominate luke o'brien. will go to item number two. clerk: at this time, we will

allow the nominees to accept the nomination and make a statement read we will begin with commissioner clyde. vice president clyde: i would like to thank president irene yee riley for this past year. she has taught me a lot about running a meeting in a discourse and very considerate manner, -- and i served on the outreach committee in the past year. i was the commissioner who proposed a recognition for city employees at a time when the city employees were really under an assault, for want of a better word, and there are so many city

employees who provide important services, critical services, to the small-business community, and it was really important for this body to engage with and recognize and help empower those city employees who move our small businesses forward. so i would like to just remind the commission that i have been engaged actively in the small- business community, at city hall, and with this commission and the office of small business, and in the coming year, i will actually have more time to devote to the commission, and i do plan to have more time for outreach in our communities, particularly to our south of market and outlying communities compaq so the excellus year, the sunset, -- an outlying communities, so the

excelciur, the sunset, and the bayview. i can represent the entire commission as a consensus. as president, i will be absolutely a book, i think, to represent our collective decision in any forum, so thank you very much. president yee riley: commissioner o'brien? commissioner o'brien: dear fellow commissioners and all. i would like to start by thanking you for your nomination to the presidency of the small business commission. i have been honored to work with the office of small business to provide support and guidance to be increasingly important segment of our society that is the small business community. i have been able to bring a perspective and an experience to the commission through the wide range of different businesses

that i have been involved in, including my current business in real estate. i enjoy working with city initiatives, including the public advisory committee, or pac, and the community advisory committee, of "c -- or "cac's," as they are known. some things are always involved in almost every new business start-ups in san francisco. in my participation of this group and later as chair, i participated and and things to streamline the overall number of permits and fees, presently a number of excess across the apartments, and in this group, we are working to build an interdepartmental processing and consulting group that would

advise and steer the permitting of caterer's through multiple departments, including police, health, and others to ease the burden pagano all new businesses. going forward, we plan to leverage the information and experience to build additional teams to facilitate planning, building permits, and inspections and streamline the process to further build efficiency into the system. i am also a member of the mayor's task force of the immense importance to the health and safety to the city in the event of a major earthquake. addressing both the ability of buildings to withstand such a quake and the ability of these buildings to still be able to provide shelter afterwards. there are many complicated and challenging situations in this initiative, including the impact of the program on the small business community. for instance, how to deal with the retrofitting of a building that is currently occupied by a business and residents and limit

the impact on them during the construction pittsford. having hands on experience in this kind of work, i think i would be valuable to the subcommittee group and in general as president of the commission combining processes. these are but just a few of the issues currently being undertaken within the commission. in the interest of brevity, i have chosen not to reference the many other important items that we are presently working on. you know these already. having not miss a single hour of a single commission meeting since my appointment, you know already that i am dedicated. i am committed to the work of our group. i look forward to meeting the group through what will undoubtedly be a tough year for the economy in general and an even tougher year for the small- business community in particular. finally, in conclusion, i wanted to once again thank you for your

consideration. sincerely, luke k. o'brien. president yee riley: thank you. any comments from commissioners? commissioner dooley? commissioner dooley: i would like to speak a little bit about commissioner clyde, and what i want to talk about is her breadth of knowledge in some a different parts of small business affairs. she is knowledgeable on ada requirements. she is out there in the communities talking about taxation. she always does more than her homework. she is out there all of the time. she engages with the communities. she attends every event that i can imagine. she is there. the fact that pat christenson, who is with the council of

district morrison dissed -- district merchants, gave her such a huge recommendation, that she would be recommended by someone who is part of a citywide organization. i know, as i have worked with her on many projects, one of the best things about her if she knows how to listen, and she absorbs what you have to say, whether she may agree or not. i feel like she has always been there to listen to all different people on our commission about their opinions, and she always comes to a great consensus opinion. she does not adjusted to what her personal beliefs are. she is out there, listening to all of us, in she has had her experiences as vice president. typically, our president has been our vice president, very freely moving on to be president, and that is a great

way of transitioning into a pretty difficult post, as i know irene with the test that is not an easy job, so those of the things that i want to talk about janet, including her accessibility and her amazing outreach in the community. that is why i would really like to support her as president. president yee riley: thank you. anymore comments? commissioner o'conner? commissioner o'conner: for starters, it is critical that this commission has a very energetic and aggressive president in order for us to matter at city hall, somebody who is going to be walking the hallways, meeting with supervisors, in making sure that

legislation that is pertinent to the small business community comes before this body. i am very confident that janet will do a great job making us matter. for starters. that is my first point. i do not know how important the presidency is. number two, of the commissioners year, commissioners that have served, very few of us actually participated in the small business commission prior to being appointed as a commissioner. the reason why i wanted to put jints name fourth as a potential commissioner three years ago or however many years ago -- put janet's name fourth -- forth is that it was relevant to the

small business community at large, and i think that that speaks to her passion about small business issues and why her voice would represent us well in the entirety, not just in the commission but in small business, as well, and lastly, i would like to address the civility of conditions in this building and that there is a practice that presidencies and vice presidencies switch back and forth between mayoral commissioners, appointed commissioners, and board of supervisors-appointed commissioners, and, personally, i would like to see luke this year, and i would like to see janet president. i think that is simple. as we continue to team up to devotes to be president, it is

disingenuous, and president riley yee has done a great job this year, for all of the time and energy that she has put in it, but for the record, i want to say that our director's job was threatened last year unless all four mayoral members voted for the candidates, and for agency, for a body like ours, which is here to defend small- business issues, this is not about progressives and moderates, etc.. we are not dealing with those issues. we are dealing with rights of the small business people. we are not dealing with who is on the board of supervisors and that that you voted on this or that. this is about this commission and doing a good job comment -- a do jock -- a good job, and i

would just say that we should be civil, which all get along, we should work together, and it is right that somebody with janet's energy and workload capacity be president of this commission, and with all due respect to luke, luke is doing a great job also, but janet is doing a good job all of the city. thank you. president yee riley: i think we all have a different style of leadership. luke may not be very vocal, and he is a man of few words, but when he has something to say, he will say it, and like he said, he has not missed any meetings. he has always been here. he is very active, not only participating in the small business commission and the committee meetings, he is also very active in the community, out there listening to the small business owners and working with

small business owners, so i think that he will do a good job, and i believe in rotating leadership, and as to commissioner o'conner, he mentioned that the executive director's job was threatens, and that was the reason why i was elected. i have not threatened and new buddy, and i am not aware of anybody putting that fort pierce -- i have not threaten anybody. i am sorry you feel that way, but think you. any more comments? -- but thank you. commissioner o'conner: i would like to address that point. under no circumstances is is blaming you. this is coming from the mayor's office, and we should not be subjected to the mayor's problems. you did a great job as

president. president yee riley: thank you. commissioner dooley: i just think that in the spirit, we need to look back and see that we had had mayoral appointees, and i think everyone is qualified on this commission probably to take either position, but i would urge just sort of in the sake of fairness that we would consider janet, not only four qualifications but that it would be now note, i think it would be the right thing to do to consider a supervisor cook appointee at this time, just to kind of mix it up and keep it going -- a supervisorial appointee. i think that is something we should consider, because kind of

traditionally on many of their commissions, there is a switch of between the appointees, and i think it is a healthy thing to make it seem that it is not a skew that even leave for a moment to questions of fairness in this area, so i would support janet matter what. she'd a great job, but i do think that is a little something to keep in mind. president yee riley: anything else? ok, seeing none, let's open to public comment, two minutes. clerk: at this time, the commission is taking public comment. please take -- speak into the microphone and state your name. public comment will be limited to two minutes. >> good evening, commissioners.

i in here to support janet clyde -- i am here. i also serve on the board of the north beach association. i have worked with janet on many things over the years. she has been a productive member of the merchants association of community, as well, and she operates a did a small business and knows the difficulty of doing this in san francisco, with all of the associated fees. i could talk to them about any small business issue, with janet and with the president. i can also concur with the other commissioners that every time i turn around at an event, i see janet. they are always there for us. once again, i support janet clyde for president, and also

support that it is a very healthy system to rotate back and forth between a mayoral candidate in the other. >> john, from the san francisco coalition for responsible growth. president riley, commissioners, director. i did send a letter earlier this afternoon, and i would like to think the director for very quick reply to about and for not taking the time to slap me on the wrist for the typos, so thank you. a new president, a new beginning for the small business commission. san francisco faces a challenging times in the years ahead, and your work on the

commission is always so important but even more so now. selecting the next president is a big responsibility, and i want to share my thoughts with you about commissioner o'brien. i know knew from his business days, and i'd always been impressed with his integrity and for his concern for all the stakeholders. there is going to be a lot of that facing us in the future. the economic burden of doing business here will put a lot on your plates on the commission. from this business experience, he is customer focused and

service oriented. he has a demonstrated record of on time and under cost projected delivery and knows how to meet that payroll. he speaks out with no hidden agendas. good luck with your deliberations, commissioners. president yee riley: thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, commissioners. i am tom, a lawyer in private practice in san francisco with my own office. i was in the richmond district for about 30 years. now, i am downtown. i think i met luke through the i think i met luke through the coalition for responsible