supervisor chu: hello, welcome to the regular subcommittee meeting of budget and finance. our klerk today is mr. victor young. mr. young, do we have any announcements? >> please turn off all cell phones. if you wish to speak during public comment, please turn in a speaker card to myself. items today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda on april 12, 2011, unless otherwise stated. >> please call -- supervisor chu: please call item no. 1. >> item #one. ordinance waiving the street

encroachment permit fees in public works code section 2.1.1 and public works code sections 786 et seq. for stairway improvements on the unaccepted stairway located on the western side of 48th avenue between balboa and anza streets. supervisor chu: thank you very much. this item is brought to us by supervisor mar. i believe that we have a member of his staff here to speak on this item. >> i am with the department of public works. the fee is a policy issue. the department has no position on that. i am here to gather information and report back to the section manager. supervisor chu: thank you. is the supervisors

representative here at the moment? given that they are not here, let's pass through this item and come back to it. would you call item no. 2, please? >> item #two. ordinance authorizing the office of the treasurer-tax collector to accept and expend a grant in the amount of $240,000 from the earned assets resource network for implementing the office of financial empowerment direct deposit program, and amending ordinance 191-10 (annual salary ordinance, fy2010-2011) to provide for the creation of one (1) grant-funded position in the office of financial empowerment. >> thank you very much. we have mr. grant from the treasury tax collection office. >> good morning. in the policy legislative manager for the office of tax collector manager. it is my pleasure to bring this ordinance before you. it will authorize the treasury tax collector to except $240,000

for the direct deposit program and will fund one position. as supporting documentation shows, the goal is for all employees to access wages electronically and more fully participate in the mainstream. it will create an employer out reach mechanism to increase access to electronic pay while simultaneously supporting low- income workers. the program will set thousands of working families on the road to financial security with access to mainstream banking and reducing waste by no longer issuing paper checks. it is designed to build a pipeline for further asset building strategies in demonstrating that the workplace is an important venue for this work. this is actually a fallout project from a number of items that the office of assessment

has been working on since 2005. when we implemented the working family credit. we found that many families were taking it from the city and going to a check cashier and losing as much as 5%. our efforts have continued to put a moratorium on check catchers and the pay date + small loan program from kindergarten to college. one of the lessons learned is that what if we can improve access to direct pay options it can help local working families access mainstream banking as opposed to relying on predatory check cashing lenders. with that, i will take any questions. supervisor chu: i believe that this item is a grant that would require us to add an additional position? >> yes. supervisor chu: thank you.

are there any members of the public that would like to speak on this item? item number two? seeing no one, public comment is closed. we have a motion to send the item forward. done so without objection. item number three, please. >> item #3. resolution regarding yerba buena community benefit district annual reports to the city by receiving and approving the district's annual reports for fys 2008-2009 and 2009- 2010, which include the district's proposed budget for fy2010-1011, as submitted, pursuant to section 36650 of the property and business improvement district law of 1994 (california streets and highways code 36600 et seq.) and section 3.4 of the district's management contract with the city. supervisor chu: thank you very much. we have the office of economic workforce development for this issue. >> good morning. at the office i help manage the community benefit program. what you have in front of you is a resolution requesting the

board of supervisors to approve the annual report of the benefit district for 26 -- for the fiscal years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. before i make my presentation on what we are required to track, i would like for the executive director of the yerba buena cd to provide more on their accomplishments over the last several years. i will come back to give you the information we are required to provide. >> thank you. thank you for the opportunity to come and present all of the happenings that have been going on in yerba buena.

these individuals on the board of directors represent multiple types of industry as well as among nonprofits and private individuals in the neighborhood. i would like to show you what we have done in our accomplishments over the last two years. overall, the goal of the community benefit district is to improve the quality of life for residents, visitors, and workers in the neighborhood. we do this by fostering safer and more secure communities, cleaner and cleaner environments, reinforcing the viability and vitality of our economic base. in front of you i think you have a copy of our presentation. i would like to run through this quickly and answer your questions. we have a clean team on the streets age -- 365 days per year, focusing on sweeping, cleaning, graffiti, weeding, painting, fire hydrants, etc.,

model train public traffic -- public trash receptacles in the neighborhood. we also have community guides on the street 365 days per year from 6:00 a.m. until midnight, helping individuals find their way. as you know, we are the home of many major museums and city centers and these guys provide a lot of help in navigating the neighborhood. they connect people that need services to those services in providing extra eyes on the street for security issues. we partner with the police department to have a police officer on the street 365 days per year. what they focus on our quality of life issues that sometimes gets overlooked because of the volume of calls that police have to address. continuing on, i believe that we

are the only community benefit fund that has what we call a community benefit fund, a small amount of money granted to nonprofits in the neighborhood working to improve the neighborhood. we are focused on things like public art, green state, and police engagement. we have given out two so far. we focus on street and public space improvements to improve the neighborhood and make it safer for people to be in the neighborhood, driving, walking, or biking. we market the neighborhood. we truly tried to create a sense of place and support neighborhood businesses by marketing the area. this is a snapshot of our budget. this is in line of -- with at the management plan approved in july of 2008. this is probably the most dry slide, it is about administrative accomplishments.

these were important elements as we were a brand new organization. we have developed and implemented financial policies, implemented a financial management system. we continue to work with that the city on the collection of assessments. we have completed review for the first year in a full audit that you have in front of you. we regularly conduct board orientations, community chair orientations, and board officer orientations on the board and brown act. we have reports that we have mailed to the property owners. in addition, mundane things like securing office space and hiring staff. for neighborhood cleanliness, again, we are on the streets 365 days per year. we contacted the property owners if they had special issues of a sidewalk treatments or what have you that would be affected by the cleaning, to make sure that we did not damage

property. we've recently developed and improved performance for neighborhood cleanliness that we were about to measure. we continue to reach out and meet with residents, homeowners association, and businesses. we regularly attend homeowners' association meetings. neighborhood security -- supervisor chu: a quick question on neighborhood cleanliness. is this a voluntary team or a paid team? >> it is a paid team. for neighborhood security we are working, again, in partnership with the police department. we also have our community guides, who are the extra lies in the years on the streets. we are in the process of developing a public safety plan. we serve on the task force of the visitors bureau to focus on tourism safety.

we have done a variety of things. we have an inventory of lighting in the neighborhood. we are the first neighborhood that started a coalition of neighborhood nightclubs, where we get together on a basis -- weekly basis to discuss how much clubs can be saved, good neighbors for the neighborhoods. 4 streets and public space, we have a very active committee that shoat -- focuses on short- term planning and long-term planning. we are in the final stages of developing a 5-10 year space. the next meeting is tomorrow night, where we will present 30 projects for consideration by the neighborhood on ways to improve streets and public spaces. yeah planted 17 trees so far and have another planting planned for later this year. we are also serving on the

better market street committee advisory -- advisory committee. we are focusing on two areas here. events and the benefit fund. we stay in touch through quarterly newsletters that are mailed out. we send an electronic newsletter once per month. and we have the web site, where people can go to get meeting notices and agendas. we have produced the annual reports that i mentioned. i believe the to have these, documents that we hand out to people in the neighborhood so that they know how to access services and have a clear understanding of what is provided. for the community benefit fund, public art, streetscape, green space, public priorities, we have given out one cycle. the next is set to be approved

next tuesday. in supporting neighborhood businesses, in the process of branding campaign, we measured a large chunk of the neighborhood in this particular effort. more than 650 folks. we developed a logo and a branded campaign that will be rolling out in time for international powwow in the neighborhood in may. in addition to that, other ways that we connect neighbors to masers -- neighbors to neighbors is we have posted six block parties. we have conducted three rounds of sponsorships. these are nonprofits having events in the neighborhood that focus on improving the neighborhood. we had a fair last october where we brought the neighborhood together and promoted the neighborhood. we were one of a few folks that could support the candidate for

a less summer. looking ahead, if you will, what is coming down the pike this year, we will be finalizing the master plan for public space in the neighborhood in doing an expedition in late july and august. again, we will implement the cleanliness program that i talked about one moment ago, finalizing the public safety plan. as far as district identity, we will rollout the branding campaign. the first three elements include street banners, neighborhood maps, and neighborhood web site, all of which will rollout in may through june. the second round of community benefit fund grants, we will continue to develop this sense of neighborhood. that is the presentation. i will turn it back over to trina.

>> can i use this one? ok. so, all business improvement districts are governed by state law, local law, a contract with the city and a management plan. the contract and management plan are approved by the board of supervisors. our office, the office of economic workforce development is charged with ensuring that all cbd's are meeting their requirements. we are also charged with performance review and financial review. as mentioned, you have a resolution improve -- approving their annual reports for 2009- 2010 and the two dozen 8-2009.

-- 2008-2009. established in july of 2008, they are a seven year community benefit district that receives annual assessment funds from 1700 properties with five benefit zones. bounded by market street, harrison, second, and fifth streets. a map of the district is included in your packet. it is probably the most divers cbd among the 12 in san francisco. museums, hotels, convention space, non-profit organizations, and thousands of residents that live in market rate and affordable rate units. an annual budget of $2.5 million. i will not go over their programs again, but you heard that they focus on cleaning,

graffiti removal, working with police officers, and in terms of district identity they focus on the informing of the community through their web site and newsletters. they have a small grant fund called the community benefit fund. our role is to review what they have done. we have worked with at the comptroller's office and the service auditor division, looking primarily at the financial portion. together we reviewed their annual budget, sources of income, variants between budget amounts and actual expenses, and plans for carry over from year to year. as you can see, in terms of their annual budget, yerba bueana cbd stayed pretty close to their annual -- original budget. 60% goes to the sidewalk

operations and beautification. about 15% for district identity and streetscape improvements. in terms of other sources of funding, they do not meet the requirements of raising five% of their budgets from other sources. they raise between 1% and 4% for the first two years. only in operation for three months of 2008-2009, they were definitely below what they budgeted. for 2009-2010, they were still ramping up programs, so they were under budget there. as of the end of fiscal year 29 -- 2009-2010, but they had done in -- what they had done in coordination with us was figure out how to spend that $2.3 million over the life of the

cbd. a copy of how they allocated those funds is a part of your packet. this is their current fiscal year budget. they plan to spend $6.3 million. as you can see, they are carrying over $722,000 in net assets from this year. they are planning to definitely raise five% from other sources. -- 5% from other sources. the final note is to improve fundraising efforts. we just reviewed the mid-year report, they are definitely on track to meet all of their budget goals, as well as their fund raising for this year. if you have any questions, please let us know. supervisor chu: just taking a

look at the budget projections for the current year, you have shown roughly expenditures and revenues at $3.3 million. in the upcoming budget year it looks like it will go down to a relatively steady state. the major changes that i see are simply on marketing, branding, and the pvc line? >> with regards to the fund- raising requirements, do you get -- supervisor chu: with regards to the fund-raising requirements, do you get the sense that we will meet pfeifer sense in this year? >> caffey, could you describe more of the fund-raising efforts? >> this is obviously something that we are aware of. we have a grant application that we are submitting today. obviously, we think that we will.

we also have reconstituted our fund-raising committee and are working on the plan for next year, so we are 100% confident for next year. yes, we think we will come very close. supervisor chu: you are anticipating being on track in the coming year? >> very close, if not exceeding it. correct. supervisor chu: what are some of the areas where you are expanding fundraising? >> a great question. we are applying for a community challenge grant today to focus on street space improvements. we are really looking at different marketing efforts for how we can raise additional funds. we have been speaking with a major corporation this year, though i hate to say, for a grant -- i do not want to jinx it. we are looking at marketing opportunities. we are launching a neighborhood web site, as i said earlier.

there will be small advertising space on their for neighborhood businesses. we are looking at ways to generate revenue through those, as well as marketing activity. those things are all under way. supervisor chu: thank you. for organizations like cba cbd to be able to tap into a community challenge grant, in my mind that is not a good connection as they are meant to address and deal with smaller organization neighborhood type projects. if you are already getting an assessment of $2.7 million, it doesn't seem it should be the intent of aid community challenge grant to augment the budget. i hope that is not a red line on your fund raising component. >> we do not want that to be.

we have a project that fits neatly into that criteria at this point. which is why we made the decision to apply. supervisor chu: thank you. let's open this up for public comment. i have two cards year. [reads names] >> hello, my name is richard smith. i am speaking in favor a yerba buena community benefit district. by barbara and i are rental residents in the neighborhood. we are pretty active in the neighborhood and volunteer our time in the district. currently, i am serving as a rental representative on the board of the community benefit district. we choose to volunteer our time because we have seen the

district -- difference that makes in terms of making the neighborhood safer, cleaner, and the identity work going forward. so that people will know where this place is. and we see the work we are doing, volunteering, as making a difference. so, we love our neighborhood, there for seven cisco. thank you for your support. supervisor chu: next speaker, please. >> my name is lawrence lee. i work for one of the nonprofits in the neighborhood. i am extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in the last two years. in the treasurer, and i can tell you that we have some very hard- working committee members. the balance of the time users and evening users, cultural

institutions, of visitor services -- to be able to take in the needs of all of those constituents, serving those needs and having a hard-working crew that is pretty much in line, that is a great accomplishment. so, with at that i ask that you approve the annual report. supervisor chu: are there any other member -- members of the public that would wish to speak? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. supervisor kisupervisor mirkarie someone who can answer this question on the challenge grant process? some one from oewd? thank you. >> lisa paggan. supervisor mirkarimi: i think

the chair person said something that was very important and i wanted to explore this. is there a policy that actually distinguishes in hell cbd's were able to buy ford community challenge grants, as opposed to neighborhoods that to c havedb 's? -- that do not have cbd's? >> many of these cbd's do not have budgets for capital improvements. many of them have maintenance budgets so that they can maintain over the life of the capital improvement that improvement. others might have more money, such as yerba buena.

i understand the competition for grants. they do not all have the same type of budget. the challenge grant program sets its own criteria for how they select. so, we would have to ask them what their criteria is and how they disperse their grant funds. supervisor mirkarimi: in very basic terms from where we sit, you could see that potentially with varying degrees of strength, they may have more of the wherewithal and the ability to secure transplants. whereas communities that do not have cbd's do not. i am probing to determine if this might merit some kind of protocol, potentially, or a ground rule, so that the proces