president yee: thank you. we now open up to public comment. any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> commissioners, this is an action item. president yee: sorry. commissioner o'brien: i am totally in agreement with this. i think we probably resent coming out to our porch and finding a lot of litter there. for those of us that have careers that involve property management, i can tell you it is a daily chore for us. unfortunately, our friends that occupy the building sometimes do not believe in cleaning up, and it is up to the guy that owns the building.

that said, i am speaking from the heart here and thinking about the people who use that as a medium. they will have lost a source of advertisement that is affordable for them. if anybody can give you any estimation for addressing that potential concern -- there are now much superior alternatives that can be cheap. you could relatively cheaply get a text servicing system that could allow you to communicate to people by phone or e-mail, or some other method except to sign onto that could be used as an alternative -- or some other

method date accept -- they accept to sign onto that could be used as an alternative. >> this is not eliminating handbills. it is not eliminating that mode of advertising. handbills still can be used. what we are reaching for here is to have the handbills placed in those places where people want them, and not have them left where people are offended by them or do not want them, and for example could have the negative effect i mentioned of many neighbors saying that if you leave him bills and i said i do not want them, i do not want to do business with you. so it has the opposite effect. but for those who want handbills and use those, it is still available. commissioner o'brien: there enough. i think that the people who are

in that business would probably say from a business perspective my getting it out there, including catching the people who do not want it -- that works for me to get the word out there. as an average guy who does not like these things, the truth is that if i picked up one and it said -- i might say i will have a chinese this evening, because i saw that. so the idea that we are going to have this division across the city, where people have indicated they do not want it and people have indicated that they do not mind -- i am a bit worried about how realistic that is. it is almost -- everybody is going to sign up to say "i don't want it," if they can do it and educated it is that easy.

i would still think it might be nice if we could just try to think about giving some suggestions to the people who might be the most hit by the loss, even if it is only a limited number of households who put the sign up and other people don't. just some sort of support. i am just trying to think about maybe we could to think of that as an idea. >> that is certainly a fair argument. i think i would look at you all as the experts there, and a great resource as far as what might help a small business that does not want to use this as a venue. is there a better and more efficient way to advertise? commissioner o'brien: that would be part of my discussion here. if the conclusion is we cannot do that, i would accept the conclusion. but i would like to investigate

that for those people who are affected by it. there may be people there who are not well represented. we're the small-business advocate. they are small businesses. it would be nice if we could think of possibilities. if there are not, so be it. but i would like to a least have some thought given to that. >> again, this does not prohibit the use of that as a means of advertising. thank you. commissioner o'conner: i had a couple of questions. >> i might be able to answer them. commissioner o'conner: does this piggyback on the legislation that supervisor mirkarimi passed a few years ago about newspapers? it is kind of similar. >> no. this is actually taking an already existing law and cleaning and up and clarifying

it a bit more to address some of the concerns on the residential side while still maintaining a business's ability to advertise. commissioner o'conner: what will be fine or penalty be? i have probably heard this part. i was like. i'm sorry. >> i am sorry. i did not present that. it does say here the director may issue administrative citations for violations for the san francisco administrative code in chapter 100. and i did not write down what that is. let me see if i can find it. let me see if we have it.

they can be fined up to $250. i think dpw's approach is going to be first working with written warnings and having a hearing. there will have to be a hearing. at that hearing, there will be a little bit of an onus on the individual filing the complaint. commissioner o'conner: so, then, summarizing where we are, from my perspective, as a city, because we are careening down the freeway towards complete city beautification and greenification and everything else that is going to maintain everybody's property values. i get the point of it. it seems right. but it is just another brick in the wall of making san francisco only for these people and not

for these people. while we do not -- while we are put controls on this -- another thing was a supervisor a couple of years ago blocked all political campaign posters on public property, which i thought was pretty draconian. it was based on the perspective of beautification. these are eyesores during campaign season. that is how people get the word out. this is a similar type of way. yes, i lived in hayes valley. i have signed for chinese or pizza on my door and i take them off. that is what i want to live in the city of san francisco. it is good, i guess, to give people the right to do this, to either accept them or not accept them. but when you start finding small

businesses that have no advertising budgets, that every day have to be inundated by posters on buses, all this money the city gets to collect off of advertising -- but god forbid a small-business guy goes around a neighborhood and put flyers on people's doors. but that is where we are going. that is where we are. further and further every year, we have more. >> this came out of a task force which i and our office was part of to kind of work to bring everybody involved together. dpw assembled the task force because of the number of complaints that did come through. i represented those concerns,

but i think we came out with something that is not too far off from the original -- commissioner o'conner: i am not contesting this legislation. i am just pointing out that this is where we are going, and it is not stopping. how far is it going to go? it is going to keep going, you know? >> the other thing -- the other components we can eventually take a look at is that there are a fair number of businesses that also are not utilizing some of the free resources they have with yelp or google, before getting into the text advertising for which you have to pay. i think that is part of things that the commission can work with the office of economic and work-force development in trying to find ways to really help those businesses better utilize

some of the online resources. but it is similar -- this law is very similar to the no soliciting law, where you have to have a posted "no solicitors" to stop people from running your doorbell and soliciting money. -- from ringing your doorbell and soliciting money. i think what we could do is perhaps we can have dpw give us some reports once this law is enacted in terms of the number of complaints that they are getting, if they do end up having to issue any fines and things of that sort. commissioner o'conner: thank you. i will make one final comment to fellow commissioners. we have talked about grant street and chinatown having problems and needing to be revitalized. i know there has been a lot of the conceit and small-business

issuesthere have been issues on streets like union street. even another is not doing that great be a what street is doing that great? -- not doing great? what street is doing that great? there are skills of income, and there are not really fancy restaurants. there are people coming to that street -- there are scales of income. is that going to the union street dead? as a city, where is that taking us? this is not about you or the legislation at this point. this is about small-business

issues in san francisco and what is working and what is not working. these are issues we should be tackling. we should be tackling wiimote pergram's street is dead after 6:00, -- why grant street is dead. or how another turned into one overpriced boutique after another, and nobody wants to go. valencia street is going to turn into one after another. i am sorry to talk about this while you are here, because it does not really concern me. but i do not think people are actually going to follow through with it. some will. that is their right, so they q4 listening. sorry. president yee riley:

commissioner o'brien? commissioner o'brien: i understand the point where you're coming from. 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 ec