better interest in the financial health of the city and the programs and services it provides then the workers who provide them. so, thank you for the opportunity to do the right thing, and i hope that the message that is shared from this is that the workers in san francisco did do the right thing. thank you. [applause] mayor lee: i also noticed from the san francisco labor council, we began with a lot of the union reps saying, "please just talk to was." after a few months, it was "ok, talk with us. " tim paulsen, from our labor

council. >> thank you, mr. mayor. as you say, this is historic. i speak to my colleagues all over the country, and there has never been a partnership with a city family that we have seen like we have seen in san francisco. usually, someone has to run good idea or they're doing it unilaterally. and there's all kinds of friction. here in san francisco, we really have done it as a good way. where do we get business, labor, progressives, and moderates coming together for solutions to save jobs and city services? here. in san francisco. by the way, this has also been done with the account of the impact on working men and women in town. this is done deliberately. this is done smartly. during those long, long meetings during which we crafted this proposal -- i want to thank warren hellman for helping lead

this charge. i want to thank all the sector unions. the public safety, the lawyers. everyone was at the table. i want to give an extra shot out to the chair of our public employees union from local 21. i am surprised his marriage is still together, the amount of hours he has spent on this. i want to knowledge everyone surrounding us today. some of the other people working. i know tommy o'connor from the firefighters. the police representatives. along with the board of supervisors. there was a lot of number crunching to people were fully prepared when the move to the table. this is historic. i am really proud of both the public sector and the private sector that we can craft this kind of resolution. thank you. [applause]

mayor lee: i also said the transparency was well beyond the labor unions as well, as well as our city workers. so, i know this transparency was reflected in the san francisco chamber of commerce and their ongoing participation. they listened very quickly to our efforts. >> thank you, mayor lee. the chamber of commerce and the entire business community of san francisco want to thank you for your leadership, and supervisor tells burns -- supervisor tells burns -- supervisor elsbernd, for your leadership. businesses have had to reduce their work forces. we have 40,000 unemployed san franciscans. it was time that we faced the

reality of helping the city of just -- i just needed pension reforms. we're pleased to be part of this process. again, the best kind of reform is consensus reform. there are many times when you see in front of you city leaders, labor leaders, business leaders agreeing this is the right solution of the right time. thank you, mayor, again for your leadership, and we look forward to balancing the city budget and getting a raw economy back on track. thank you. [applause] mayor lee: by the way, if you are keeping count, i counted nine supervisors here. the other two who could not make it, i believe it was because they could not get here on time. we also have with us david metcalf from spur.

we had a representative from the labor foundation. i also want to emphasize tim paulsen stood up for working families. that included rebecca ryan, roxanne sanchez, tom o'connor, tim paulsen, and we are joined by the fire chief joann hayes- white. i want to make sure i recognize throughout the process that our city attorney contributed to all the legal questions that came up. knowing how difficult these aspects were, they stepped up to help us review all these proposals. with that, this press conference

is concluded, and we will move forward. yes, we will take questions. >> [unintelligible] >> first of all -- [unintelligible] in this proposal, we're talking about 35%. how can we afford that? mayor lee: it does, but obviously we have a long-term view on this. our talks relations indicates -- our copulations indicate this over 10 years. a lot will depend on how -- our calculations indicate the server 10 years. a lot will depend on how our investments do. we've always said employee contributions would be the major part and for a lot of current sacrifices are reflected.

>> 35% -- it never gets to 35%. [unintelligible] mayor lee: it is a safety net. we have made the calculations just in case. >> [unintelligible] mayor lee: the very first year this takes effect, we anticipate $60 million in year 2013. in addition to that, all the new hires will begin contributing in a different way beginning january of next year. that is the savings. there is no smoothing in this process, because there is no smoothing in the economics of what we are facing. so we did not consider that a

dog. >> the 10-year plan will not get going before a couple of years. mayor lee: we do have labor contracts in place right now that we have to honor. we currently have a lot of obligations that we have to honor with current retirees. so we did not touch that the legal obligation. so we had to start making significant changes as of nest -- next fiscal year. >> [unintelligible] mayor lee: the service employees are right here. they are right here among us. >> [unintelligible] can you talk about how they came on board? >> i would just say, we are happy to be here today. [laughter] i am the staff director in san

francisco for the service employees. i am joined by members of our bargaining team. we are pleased to be here. we are especially thankful to warren hellman for his guidance and participation. we do have meetings with the mayor, issues we will be discussing. it is a healthy process and we're happy to participate. >> [unintelligible] >> we will be discussing with the mayor. >> analysis negotiation different from previous years? >> negotiation is always a difficult process. both sides come in with their interests and ideas. what was different is we spent a great deal of time at the beginning and got beat up from the press because of the time that we did take because -- so that we fully understood what was going into the discussions. >> there is a particular elected

official not ammonia. [unintelligible] mayor lee: i did meet with him yesterday. we explained our proposals. we will leave it to him whether he wants to present those or not. we to believe that our consensus approach is the right thing to do. it signals that if you do want a sacrifice, you have to work directly with people who will offer that sacrifice and will do it in a way which is comprehensive and reflective of the values of san francisco. that is what we have done. i leave mr. adachi to his viewpoint. i am sure he has to recognize this is the official city family and he does not represent that. >> [unintelligible] do you think that was in his

interest? mayor lee: i do not. the city attorney has been giving us advice. there is no doubt in my mind that that advice has been completely apart from anything that is political. we have kept politics out of this and focused on the numbers and the legality of the proposals we presented, and we are extremely confident this will pass before the board of supervisors and the public in november. mayor lee: >> lee: thank you. [applause]

>> 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 -- they rotationally graze. that is what this is about, sharing that accomplishment with a culture that has come so far away from small, handcrafted cheeses to a community that now really supports it. this is proof of that. people love cheese, and they love to know where it comes from. it is just an honor for me to curate that experience and bring that to the mission. we have an open for a month. we celebrated our month birthday for this week -- our month birthday this week. we have been busy. we beat our projections by 12% in the first month. [applause] that is without beer and wine the first week, so an

opportunity for next month. and we have gotten -- we have been welcomed with open arms by the community, local merchants, and people that live in the neighborhood. they are really excited to have a place where they can purchase these beautiful cheeses, and also people that are knowledgeable on the subject. it has been an amazing reception. i cannot really say enough. so many people to thank. i know i could talk for days, and i would probably start crying, and that would be bad. [laughter] as a new business owner and someone who had a dream and felt so passionate about something that they quit their 9 to 5 well-paying job to make it happen, it was difficult to find bonds -- to find funds for sure. especially in this environment.

i had dreams of getting loans from banks, and those dreams were shattered in conversations about revenue essentially. being a startup business is really difficult, and i was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with gabriela. she helped, through the process of refining my business plan to the point where i could ask for a micro loan micromic -- microloan. agnes helped, and i was baffled by the kindness and generosity, working with both of you through the process. it was a lovely process. i was like, "i'm asking for a loan, and it is so wonderful and nice."

i was grateful for the opportunity even to present to the loan committee. my expectations were pretty low, given my other conversations with banks, and people at large being like, "good luck getting money from, you know, anyone." i was just thrilled getting this microloan. it was essential. the refrigeration you see here was paid for with that. there is a killer of an in the back. the beer dispenser. a lot of equipment that is necessary to provide what we provide here was paid for with that microloan. i was dancing in the streets after you guys call me. [laughter] i did not know what to do with myself. i am just really grateful for this opportunity. i cannot say enough. it is serial -- surreal.

thank you. [applause] >> is the key is available -- oh, i'm sorry, we are cutting the ribbon -- is the cheese available? [laughter] >> oh, we have some more scissors. >> there we go. >> here are some more scissors. mayor lee: on the count of three, two, one. [applause]