security. i want to give you an example. in 2009, i had a friend stopped by tsa while boarding a flight. they took him to a back room. fbi arrived and interrogated him. they asked if his wife worked a job. he is a resident of lebanon. they asked him how far away he lived from the security barriers. they proceeded to arrest him. they did not taken to a magistrate within 24 hours. many other things. at 1 point, they asked him, they got agitated, and they said, do you want us to shoot you? the right leg or the left like? -- leg? they charged him with bank fraud. this was at a time when people on wall street were running away with billions of dollars. the agent lied in one instance,

saying that he had told us about these charges. before the grand jury, -- he had said the reason he followed this because it is what he told us in interrogations'. bottom line is i don't feel safe. i live in fear for me and my family. sometimes i think, take me to jail. that way i don't have to pay -- [tone] that is all i have to say. [applause] >> my name is vera and i'm with the immigrants' rights commission. i was hoping to see the report on your sept. 2010 meeting. i was there and we have not seen the report. i was so happy to see that the

recommendations are being acted on from that report. our president was here a little earlier, but he had to leave. i wanted to let you know that we are certainly -- we do have a town hall meetings and we would like to have more. we have never read meetings and we often get complaints at our monthly meetings at city hall especially about the airport. the idea of having an ombudsman at the airport makes a great deal of sense, if we could help in that some way, it would be marvelous. people are harassed and kept longer and kept overnight sometimes while they're being questioned. i know the sfpd cannot be the police there. we have an ombudsman, a lot of problems could be solved on the spot. i'm glad to see you are working on solutions and that there are

recommendations, and you are willing to help. >> good evening. thank you for putting this on. i am the director of the fund that supports a 17 a-area memsa communities. there were earlier comments about the trust we should put in the u.s. attorney general. as a community member and someone who works with community members, i can tell you the actions the fbi have taken have eroded the trust. the men and women are supposed to protect us. instead, the community, community-base organizations as well as individuals, feel pro failed and -- profiled and

surveillance. this will spread even more in terms of relations and perceptions of the sfpd. i encourage you to strongly consider the resolution options and burn our community's trust back. you can protect our civil rights and keep us safe. if you ignore the resolution option, you will be sending the community a message that you don't take seriously our lives and concerns. i would also like to respond to comments about many members of the community's coming from countries that have different standards and laws. actually, some of these community members have shared that they have come to the u.s. in the hopes of seeking a different circumstance and in the hopes of seeking more protection, and an ability to speak up for themselves and their rights. however, are people say they're surprised, especially in san francisco that they continue to

feel they are not able to speak openly and that they're being profiled and surveiled. thank you so much. [applause] >> good evening. police chief, i want to congratulate you and welcome you to our community. commissioners, this topic looks kind of very deep. in looking at the law, i want to thank a good gentleman, jean, and i think you should consult with him.

he's knowledgeable and it seems like there is a fight here, and administrative fight, outside the law itself, concerning our communities. how the commission will deal with it, it seems very complicated, something that we, the subjects, we probably, we don't understand all of this, but i am sure the police chief, and you guys, you will get into some understanding. i am nobody, you know? i am just here, very interested.

not doing well. but this issue of profiling and deeper to people has been the same as immigration, federal immigration asks the police department to look to the immigrants. one police chief told me, i don't care where you come from. you do your job. also, you have to remember that in our community, it is a self- censorship. before anybody wants to do bad things for our safety, there are -- >> all right, sir.

thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i am the executive director of the san francisco bay area office of the council on american islamic relations. we're the largest american civil rights advocacy group. before i speak about our perspective, a pope of clarification. there have been questions about the fbi's present. it is my understanding, just so everyone knows, the fbi was invited to participate in today's hearing, and they declined. that goes to the question of trust and openness. if they are not willing to have these conversations in the open, the way they are in portland, the question comes to people's minds is, what are they hiding? why can't we have these discussions with them?

that is that issue. in my line of work, i represent dozens of clients who have been visited by the fbi. what i usually share some examples of what we see. they highlight the reason for openness, accountability and trust. there's a reason we need these things. some of the things we have seen with the fbi in the last year and a half is people being questioned on their views about osama bin laden. their question about the uprisings in the middle east, whether or not they know rebels in libya, tunisia, and egypt. african community members are questioned about the uprising in egypt and other parts of the middle east. we also find agents not willing to share their names, last names, affiliations, business cards, so all we get is mitch, george, and john saying they want to protect us. it does not work. i am urging this body to take up the recommendations that have

been put forth to move us toward a resolution model so there is concrete, clear, and transparent accountability for the way law enforcement interact with this community. we need trust. we must move forward together. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i am with the advocate for human rights. we work with iranian immigrants, iranian asylees. i don't want to repeat anything anyone said. in our line of work, we have also seen our community organizations being harassed by the fbi. i want to underscore the importance of community organizations, security in knowing they are not being surveiled when they are providing services to the community. thank you. president mazzucco: thank you

very much. any further public comment? >> good evening. i am going to be helping with translation. >> i am a tunisian american. she will try to translate my story. >> i have lived in san francisco for 10 years. i work as a cabdriver. the fbi has come to my home and my work multiple times. i have been interrogated. in san francisco, the fbi has asked me about my religion, where i pray, my family's name, the names of my roommates, and how many times i pray, and very personal questions. in 2009, i was delivering to someone without pulled over by various sfpd cars and a van, including a red crown victoria.

it stayed behind and there was a man that was walking. the officers told me to step out of my car. they handcuffed me and put me on the sidewalk while they searched my car. they went back and reported to the man in the crown victoria, who then left while the officers spoke to themselves and seemed to be discussing what to give me a ticket on. i found out that i received a ticket for an unsafe right turn, which i did not do. i am saddened that this type of harassment happens to me. i'm not here today to speak about myself. i am here to speak about my family that i wish to reunite with. i have a daughter and a wife i want to bring here in the next few months. i don't want this to happen to my daughter when i bring her here and i don't want this to happen to my wife. help stop the abuses. [applause] president mazzucco: is there

further public comment? public comment is now closed. item three? item three is adjournment. >> i want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their hard work. i want to thank the audience. very compelling to hear your story. we as a commission, we are all individual commissioners with equal power and authority. i think it is fair to say that we the commission will not tolerate any form of discrimination, any form of profiling come in this city. that is not acceptable. i know that chief suhr will not tolerate or allow that. we will make great strides to clear up some of the perceptions this evening. i want to thank john crew from the aclu for presenting these issues and bring in the audience forward. the folks we heard from,

especially those individuals who have been affected, it is important that we send a message that we are not born to tolerate this, and that we will protect civil rights. again, this is an unprecedented hearing. i want to thank the human rights commission. we're sending a strong message to night. no one should feel threatened by anybody. commissioner dejesus: i want to thank everyone for their participation. i want to say that i think we should have some next steps. on the commission level, we should follow up on the resolution aspect of this and continue to meet and discuss that and see whether it is feasible and how to proceed. i want to thank everyone for bringing this to our attention. i look forward to continuing to work with you to move forward. thank you. >> on behalf of the human rights commission, i would also like to say thank you and thank president mazzucco and his commission for sharing their

meeting with us. i am sure i speak on behalf of everyone involved in sang thank you to theresa spar santazoey polk, -- theresa sparks and zoey polk, who have worked on this issue. i'm proud of the work the commission does in san francisco. i'm proud we will continue to be on the cutting edge of issues like this to make sure that matters are dealt with and human rights are protected, and there is full view of these issues in public in san francisco. want to thank everyone. i want to thank everyone for coming tonight and we look forward to seeing you at our future meetings. >> do we have a motion? >> i want to say thank you. i will make a motion.

i also want to thank members of the human rights commission for your detailed and thoughtful questions. i could tell there was a lot of work that went into it on your end, and i appreciate that. i also want to recognize the work of our president, president mazzucco, because i know that he has met with members of the committee. with that, i move to adjourn. >> second. president mazzucco: all in favor? this meeting is adjourned.

>> good morning, everyone. i am the director of neighborhood business development for the office of work force development. thank you for coming. this is the kickoff of small business week as well as a celebration of the accomplishments of our small business revolving loan fund, which we have been working on for about six months. i would like to start by introducing the mayor, and we will continue by hearing from supervisor wiener as well as our administrator for the loan fund, and finally, the owner of this great new business. mr. mirkarimi -- mr. mayor. mayor lee: thank you. i cannot think of a better way to celebrate the kickoff of small business week than to be right on valencia in the small business just started that has been the recipient along with some 27 other small businesses that have worked really hard to get to a place where they can be

and allow the city to contribute and help. we did not hear a lot of times -- we hear a lot of complaints about how the city has not been doing things, but thanks to our small business commission, which is here today, and they're wonderful work and their director who has been advising me on a number of fronts -- their wonderful work and their director who has been advising me on a number of fronts, and supervisor wiener, who had a chance to open up a farmer's market in glen park with me yesterday. we never do it alone. whenever our city is working together, we have to find people who know how to communicate with small businesses, drill down to what they need, and then work with our policy makers like the small business commission and their staff, but really help in figuring out what it is that a

limited amount of money -- and it is really limited when you are only talking about $680,000 in very tight economic times -- to be able to spread that around to 27 different businesses, help and make sure that a company like mission cheese, which is probably gone through a huge jury just to get here, can be directly helped to be opened and sustained success -- which has probably gone through a huge journey just to get here. we do not want to start things that cannot be successful. the whole game is about not only surviving the economic challenge, but as we recover -- and we are recovering in our economy -- that the small businesses will be successful, and they will grow, and they will sustain themselves, and they will be at the heart of what i think is a revival of the whole of valencia. when you walk valencia and look at all the vacancies that have

erupted over the past few years, and to see small business is coming back, you will know that everyone is struggling, but they want to make it happen. i really wanted to emphasize this morning how many different journeys people have had in making themselves successful and how the city has been able to get them here and the great journey and the great story we are going to hear from sarah and from family -- from emily. i want you to listen to sarah when she talks about how she got here and how she got the milk from those cows. [laughter] whether they are california or from maine or wisconsin, how did that milk and up into this lovely artisan cheese that she is making for our residents and visitors? i think the great journey will be when sarah talks about how

she found her way to establish in san francisco. the greatest journey i hear are people who take up that opportunity, when they come into san francisco and make their home here. that is a wonderful journey because it has many more stories to tell about how young entrepreneurs who start their families and then grow. that is the story about small businesses. i want to join all of you here in celebration. we will hear about other businesses, but it begins with these very personal stories and, really, how this milk and cheese got here, but how sarah got here through all of her work and study and how she could perform something very unique and contribute to the great businesses that sustain san francisco. with that, scott, come on up. [applause] supervisor wiener: thank you,

mr. mayor. i represent this district on the board of supervisors. we always talk about how important small business is in terms of creating jobs, in terms of having interesting neighborhoods where we have unique businesses and not a complete takeover by chain stores, but then, we do not always put our money where our mouth is, and we make it difficult sometimes for small businesses to succeed. in my office, at least once a week, we learned of a new arcane regulations or permit or fee or something preventing small businesses from succeeding. so it is so nice and so productive when the city is able to take a pro-active steps to help small businesses financially -- take a pro-active steps -- take pro-active steps

to help small businesses financially. we have a real diverse array of interesting small businesses, so i am proud that we have been able to do this, and especially what we have been able to do on valencia's street. so congratulations and best of luck. -- especially what we have been able to do on valencia st.. >> a quick word before emily speaks. the money is critical, but what we have seen is the really critical things the city can do. one of the things that we like working solution so much is not just that they are able to make loans but the kind of business solutions they are able to give to owners, so i just wanted to put in that little plug. [applause] >> good morning. i am the executive director of working solutions, and i also am so excited to be here to kick

off small business week this year as we celebrate the success of mr. and cheese. sarah, congratulations on all your hard work and achieving your dream. we all wish you success. sarah is the perfect example of the hard-working, tenacious, inspiring, and created under for nor -- creative and entrepreneur that has received assistance from working solutions and san francisco. two years ago, the city had the leadership to prioritize access for capital to small businesses. at that time, credit access was at record lows, and even today, still, access to capital remains one of the single biggest challenges that a small business can face. particularly startup businesses like mission cheese. working solutions was selected to administer the loan fund, and that gave us the opportunity to do what we do best -- getting

capital to entrepreneurs who need it most. working solutions uses its expertise to see the potential in an entrepreneur is like sarah -- entrepreneurs like sarah. plus, working solutions is committed to long-term -- to the long-term success of each business. what we do in addition to every loan is provide five years of business coaching, advising, and mentoring. the san francisco loan fund has been a bright spot in a dismal economy. has been extremely successful in creating jobs and economic development. for example, in just weeks that mission cheese has been open, sarah has already created five new jobs and the loan fund

overall has created 50 new jobs. working solutions, through this loan fund, has made 27 loans to businesses. the interest rate is low and fixed at 4% to 6%. we have lent out close to the entire $680,000 of the original lending capital, and 100% of those businesses are repaying their loans. as the funds revolve, they become available for additional businesses. the funds are used for different things like marketing, hiring new employees, purchasing equipment, tenant improvements, and more. the types of businesses that have benefited from the city loan fund range from salons, cafes, retail shops -- all different types of businesses throughout the city of san francisco. these are exactly the kind of very unique businesses that make san francisco the diverse city that it is.

i also wanted to point out that a few of our loan recipients in the city have also graduated and able to later on success -- access traditional bank financing. two of those have been able to move on to get traditional loans. i would like to really thank the community partners that working solutions works with. we collaborate with organizations like the small business assistance center that -- assistance center, the san francisco small business development center, and pacific community ventures. all of these organizations and more create a network of vital support services and resources for small businesses in san francisco. i would also like to take the opportunity to thank working solutions' staff, board, supporters, and volunteers, who are really a big part of the success that we are celebrating this morning.

finally, i would like to thank the city, mayor lee, supervisor wiener, and the small business commission for continuing to prioritize the needs of small businesses. it is my hope that we will be able to build on the success of this loan fund so that even more entrepreneur worst -- entrepreneurs in the future can access these funds. thank you so much. [applause] >> i had no idea what to expect. this is my first press conference. [laughter] i have not prepared tirelessly for this, but i definitely have a lot to say about the space that we are standing in, so, welcome. producer real -- pretty surreal at the moment. i have to clarify first that i do not make all this cheese.

[laughter] it comes from across the united states from dedicated cheesemakers that worked tirelessly without vacations to care for the animals and the land and create these beautiful beautiful -- create these beautiful pieces of art that are also delicious. that was my inspiration for this space, a place to highlight and celebrate what is going on in the cheese world today and how far we have come from a place of kraft singles and block cheddar. i love when i deliver a cheese plate and tell them the names of the cheeses, where they are from, what they are made with, a few details about, you know, the rhine or the cheesemaker or the cows -- they have names. the vocationally gray's --