community, and we are paying for it. youand you have to compete and e to online businesses. it is something this commission could do some interesting, ground-breaking policy around that. and now everyone is like, "it is great not to pay online sales tax," but it is incredibly unfair. you are providing some many different contributions to your street, to your community, by having a real shock -- real shop that an on-line office is not providing. i would love to see the commission address that more.

>> that concludes a report, unless commissioners have any questions. commissioner o'brien: thank you, director. any public comment? >> members of the public may have up to three minutes to address the commission. >> i own a small african- american certified business invade you hunters point. -- in bayview hunters point. i am out reach firm. i would love to see whatever documents you would like to have in to the bayview as well. i will donate some volunteer

time to my community, but some want to let the board know that i am here. i am a resident of bayview and graduated from school here, believed in local hiring. i have all the certifications and am available anytime for the commissioners to give me a call and i will forward you information. i have only been in business 14 months. i hit the ground running. i have not been able to take advantage of the small business things that are open to me because my business has not been open for two years, so i use my savings. i have a staff of four people off welfare and one off unemployment, all of of hunters point. i am definitely trying to make a change in my community. i would like to recognize and remember me if you do need any help in reaching out to the area.

thank you. commissioner o'brien: thank you very much. >> commissioners, i passed out those cards for you. commissioner o'brien: seeing no other public comment, public comment is closed. next item. >> item 11, legislative and policy committee report. it allows the chair to report on recent committee activities and make announcements. >> we got through most of what we talked about in our committee, but there is one piece of legislation that is quick to be coming up. it has not been formally introduced yet, but we got a preview from supervisor chu. the title is a displaced worker protections for certain employees under city contracts, a prevailing wage protections for janitorial employees with

city contracts. i want to give you a brief rundown on it. the basic points are one is that it lowers the threshold for city contractors subject to the displaced worker ordinance from 25 that it is at now to 10. every contract issued by san francisco for janitorial services would be required to pay and not less than the prevailing rate of wages, which means the wage paid by the majority of workers in that category. it will be removing the small business exclusion, which used to exempt any contracting business employing fewer than 10 people. they are reviewing the nonprofit exclusion. this has not been submitted to legislation yet, but i just want to give you guys a heads up that

this is something that is going forward and they will get back to us with changes and amendments. that is it for me. >> just to clarify, it has been introduced at the board, it was just premature to hear it at this commission. it will be on the calendar for the next legislation and policy committee. commissioner o'brien: seeing no comments, next item. >> item 12, permitting committee report. >> at the recent permiting committee, we welcome my vice- president, steve adams, to the commission. we are excited to have steve on board. as you have probably gathered already, he is very well versed on politics in this city and policies that affect the city.

he has a particularly strong interest in nc-20, which is something i am looking forward to hearing more about. we are excited to have him on the committee. some of the items that are on the list that we are discussing at the moment this to streamline reports mandated by proposition by, which is being concluded in stages. right now, we are reviewing the police permit fees. in particular, we are looking at some specific fees, as it example the antique shop and second-hand dealer fees, to see if they can be modified and improved upon. the nc-20 has already been mentioned. we are also discussing small venue permiting fees and i am happy to say that we are making some progress on that and that

our staff is working with the entertainment commission, the planning department, and a supervisor to make some headway in that. the goal is to open up the entertainment opportunities for revenues and businesses who want to provide sort of an extra entertainment as an excess reuse, which may include restaurants, cafes, and similar places. they may want to have something that is not going to disturb the neighborhood in any way, poetry readings and stuff like that. we are working on that to try to make it a bit better for the small business operators up there. last commission meeting, i also would like to recognized commissioner clyde's proposal to formulate a resolution supporting our friends that could be severely impacted by

the america's cup. we want to try to make sure they are protected or at least recognized, and try to make sure that the impact of this wonderful america's cup that we are all excited about this not become a terrible negative for them without any regard whatsoever for the impact on them. we are working on that legislation. i would like to think commissioner -- to thank commissioner clyde on that. every month, we discuss permiting issues identified by the office of small business staff to try and find the feedback from the city or the business community, the issues of permits and what permits are difficult to get or what problems occur along the way of getting a permit for a new business.

the usual complaints are there of long delays of six months to get maybe a conditional use permit that ends up just being granted what people say, "i waited six months just for that ?" if it is such an easy and foregone conclusion, it is a long time. we are looking at ways of improving that. that would probably play into the hopes that i have of having another joint commission meeting with the planning commission and probably the building inspectors in the hopefully not too distant future. i have director at regina working on that as we speak. you will hear more about it as we go forward.

that is it for the permitting report. i do not think we have any public comments. next item. >> item 13, of which committee report. >> thank you. at our meeting -- where are we here? at our meeting, we requested an update on the parklets. there is controversy. there are also communities that would like to see them. we would like to hear where they are, how many. >> that is a controversy in our neighborhood right now. i talked to supervisor weiner over the weekend and they are trying to streamline it. there are already certain rules

that are already being broken by restaurants. in my neighborhood, parking is sacred. it is taking away parking for restaurant expansions. i can forward it on to -- i do not know how this works. supervisor weiner has some legislation he is trying to pass to regulate the whole parklet phenomenon. >> on lower 24th street, we have carnival and cesar chavez parade. to have our streets taken up by these parklets, you are losing parking but you are also losing this public space. we are an urban environment. there are issues about

deurbanization that have been brought before this commission. commissioner o'conner: i am a person who presented on this issue on many or all of these points before this rolled out. this is ridiculous. >> that are going in front of restaurants now and they are serving food where they are not supposed to. >> right. >> so we are going to get some response back? >> i requested that we get the list of the next group of applicants, and not too surprisingly almost all of them are restaurants. i know my own district block by block, but there literally was on two blogs of columbus avenue like eight applicants. there would be no parking at

all, basically. there was also an applicant that was located across the street from washington square park. i do think we need to just kind of -- i think parklets could be fantastic, but we need to look at the phenomenon and how it will be used and not just think of them as an annex to a restaurant. if there is green right there -- if i just miss say that nothing is going to prevent an entity from applying. but what is the criteria being used? it seems a little vague. >> i do think clearly the commission could use a day -- there will be an agenda item to discuss this. it might also dovetail into the one-hour parking meter limits in

north beach during the day, which is causing people to run out and move their cars when there is plenty of parking in north beach during the day. that is when you can park in north beach. it is just incredible to me. i would like to follow ups with the meters and sf park program. i do not know if other neighborhoods are having a problem with the new roll back. >> i was going to bring something up under new business. i do not know if i should bring it up now are under new business. >> you can bring it up now. >> i do not know if you guys have noticed in all the neighborhoods on castro street, the 400 block, on the meters, you have yellow zone barking -- parking. there are way too many yellow

zone meters. this is citywide now. i did not hear any public comment on this. the yellowstone, monday through saturday after 3:00 in the afternoon, you can go to regular parking. from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., the general delivery hours. and then anybody could park in the yellowstone. early january, they came and they did it on chestnut street, they did it on castro shriek. the change them all back to 6:00 p.m.. they did it in noe valeeley too. they slapped a new sticker on there and there is no public outrage. districts now. it is effective on castro street.

we actually did a survey. there is more yellow parking on castro street then there is general parking. >> the same with valencia in the 16th through 20. there is more yellow then there is regular. >> and they are up their ticketing. >> it is theoretically part of the attack on cars. unfortunately, small businesses -- >> rely on them. >> we did have new information, just to continue my report, with the truancy programs. the truancy program is actually successful. i do not know if you recall the presentation we had on small businesses assisting with young people. that has actually shown some success. so we will have an update in the future on that. for a very small program, apparently it has really helped some people.

thank you very much. >> next item, please. >> item 14, president's report on recent small business activities and announcements of interest to the small business community. >> i do not have any announcements. i do have something for new business but i will bring it up in that section. >> item 15, of vice-president report. >> i do not have anything new. daylight savings time started this weekend, so the neighborhood farmers markets are starting this week. in castro, we have ours in the evening at 4:00. the sisters of perpetual indulgence are having a ribbon cutting at 5:15. i know the date is also -- the haight is also starting there's and you guys on the visit iraq

-- on divisadero starting next sunday. i know that really does help small businesses. it really does attract and have people shop local. those are all starting this week. >> what ours is that? >> ours is from 4:00 to 8:00 in the middle of the week. it is different from other farmers markets. >> thank you. >> item 16, commissioner reports. commissioner o'brien: seeing none. >> seeing one. [laughter] commissioner o'brien: bigger pardon. commissioner dooley. commissioner dooley: on february 17 i attended the small business

groups meet the supervisors event at the old mint. a great turnout. great food. all the new supervisors got up and spoke. it was a very successful event. i really applaud them for that. as some of you may know, i have been working with the small independent pet store coalition on issues for about a year and a half now. the chair of that committee -- we met with supervisor mar on february 16. he has gone ahead and submitted for first introduction to the board of supervisors a change in special use district on geahrry that had restricted formula retail because there was so much

fast food going in there. he is adding pet stores to this can block area of geary, which was very welcome. the small pet stores are really struggling with the increased interest by a formula retail pet stores moving into a neighborhood areas. we really would like to thank supervisor mar for working on this. we will see how that goes. today, commissioner clyde and i attended the kick off for a sunday streets, which is well known as a fantastic thing for the neighborhoods. we are pleased that are adding chinatown and north beach as other sunday streets this year. our neighborhoods are very excited about the opportunities that will afford us.

we will look forward to participating in that. that is my report. commissioner o'brien: thank you. commissioner clyde: last month i attended the lower 24 st. neighborhood plan being coordinated by the neighbors -- by the mayor's office of workforce development. you remember the man who presented the small business report here. he left the mayor's office. supervisor campos organized lower 24th street merchants, neighbors, and social service agencies to craft their action plan going into the future. as you know, 24 st. is changing as rapidly. there is a real need to preserve that corridor, but also

respond to changes in the neighborhood as well. that was really a great meeting, and there was a small business and economic development focus. we were told that everything that can be done to innocent -- to incent locals shopping locally is, they feel, the basis of the tour but -- is the basis. tourism is lovely, but the backbone is the residence in the neighborhood. anything that can keep people shopping locally, they really appreciate. like commissioner dooley said, the first sunday streets is this sunday. it goes along the embarcadero. i would like to remind everyone that the merchants of fisherman's wharf were opposed to this program in the

beginning. now they cannot wait for it every year. it has grown and neighborhoods are asking for it. the merchants to participate in it are very -- they do find this a successful, healthy, positive event. for all the merchants, i would like to thank them for accommodating sunday streets. it takes a little bit of reorganization with your parking, but it is a great event. also, they have changed the hours from 11:00 to 4:00 on sunday because it accommodates people coming in and out of work and does not block traffic. also, the powwow -- the travel association is having their first travel association meeting. maybe commissioner adams could help me with this. san francisco -- vice president adams: san francisco tourism is

what it is called, but they have not had it in san francisco in 20 years. san francisco is the number-one tourism destination in the united states, and 2 below or three in the world. commissioner clyde: this will take place through may 26, which coincides with small business week. i am very excited for san francisco. this is going to be a great opportunity for us, with thousands of travel writers, planners, and the media. it is an extraordinary event and it generates business in the area for years to come. that is may 21 through 26. the last thing i would like to talk about is the durbin amendment to the -- let's see.

there is a large piece of legislation regulating banking right now. the durbin amendment to the dodd-frank bill will limit the cost of bennett card transactions. by now it is proposed to 12 cents per transaction, a 75% reduction. this amendment is supported by the national federation of retailers and retail associations across the country. it is somewhat controversial because there is some concern that 12 cents may be too low. but i am really confident that something can be worked out that a compromise. if it is too low, it goes up a little, if that is necessary.

but at the same time a reduction in the cost of debit transactions, which total about $12 billion to $14 billion a year -- that money will stay in our local economies. right now, there is a lot of media attention about this money going up into the banking system, and the banks responding by limiting your ability to use your debit card to $50 or $100. a consumer said that if a bank did that, they would eat their debit card. the are not really thinking that is going to happen. i do want to remind the public that the money that stays in your community is circulated in your community. any reduction in the cost of these transactions will provide

significant benefits. these are the benefits that pay prevailing wages. these are the benefits that pay for health care. this is money we have to invest in our community and spend in our community. this is money that stays in our community. please support the durbin amendment. that is my report. thanks. commissioner o'brien: any other commissioners with commissioner reports? seeing none, next item. >> item 17, general public comment. commissioner o'brien: seeing none. >> item 18, new business. commissioner clyde: yes. i would like to request a hearing for a speaker from the department of public works to discuss the issue of issuing a permit and then having that

permit contestant and what is -- having a permit issued and then having the permit contested. i am really concerned that we have situations where a person is absolutely legally through the city able to operate, and then there is a drawn-out process of a permit being contested that stops the business from operating. this is being driven by the small neighborhood cafe that had a few tables and chairs and was permitted by the department of public works. i am concerned about the department's ability to stand by the decisions of the department when they are made fully within the rules. they are fully within the regulations. for a small business to have to spend their time and their

money fighting for something that they are permitted to do -- i would like to know why the department -- what holds them up? what can someone make a complaint and another complaint and another complaint and there does not seem to be a time? it is like an open time before the decision and it is closed. i would like to get some briefing on that. >> just to make sure that i have a clear understanding, i think i understand the issue that you are referring to. if it does also involve other appeals processes and other entities that deal with this process