supervisor ciu: look into the budget and finance committee. we also have with the supervisor farrell who has sponsored one of the items of the agenda. our clerk is charles young. mr. young, the we have any announcements today? -- do we have any announcements

today? >> yes, leadplease turn off all cell phones. if you present in the documents to the committee, please write a copy to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear of the board of supervisors agenda on september 27, 2011, unless otherwise stated. >items #one, or did amending the san francisco administrative code section 57.5 and 57.8 to decrease building fees for smaller budget productions, including a documentary films, docudrama films, in reality programming among eligible productions for the film rebate program. supervisor chiu: thank you .

this item is sponsored by supervisor farrell. supervisor farrell: in the past reality shows used to be fairly low-budget productions, and now we're seeing more with substantial budgets to work with, and we want to attract them to san francisco in order to have them spend production dollars in our city. we also have had requests from large documentary productions interested in the rebate program, and we want to include them as well in the legislation. since introducing this, i have had two different calls from well-known reality tv shows about working your differences go. this legislation will also decrease fees to $100 per day from $300 per day for productions with budgets busted $500,000 for the filming of a commercial, corporate media, industrial media, video, shore subject or web video.

cautiocurrently many fed has the permitting process because it is cost prohibitive and they will end up shooting under the radar. this causes not only liability issues but traffic jams throughout san francisco. right now all feature films and tv series k three of dollars per permitting. this is higher than anywhere else of the country. will bring the people and to reach productions -- lower terig the fee will encourage production in new york city they cost $300 for the whole production. and we see in the bay are free. these are states already offering incentives that we simply cannot compete with, and this will make it more affordable and will continue to make the rebate program as attractive as possible.

this has always been and continues to be about creating jobs in sanford says go. this is that a great success and we want to continue the viability going forward. right now like to invite in a to the executive director of the film commission is here as well to help talk about the legislation and explain some of the reasoning behind it. >> thank you for letting me speak today. we have a number of items, but three different items on this bill. the first one notifying our fees, which were never written into the legislation about the film commission, so we would like to have those in place at this time, but regarding the reduction of permit fees, right now if you are a budget of $10 million, you are paid the same fee as shooting each day.

four films that are small budget, it is really cost prohibitive for them to actually fill here. and a lot of films actually flying under the radar, and they are shooting without permits. we estimate we could get probably it to more low-budget films per year actually pulling permits with this legislation. the feedback i have gone from a local independent community has been very positive. they admit they very often without pulling the permit. this goes hand in hand with the film commissions support with the local independent filmmakers. reestablished of them collected in july where we read the below- cost of this base to independent filmmakers were shooting films in san francisco. we feel like this would just go hand-in-hand with the work we

are already doing to support local filmmaking. regarding expansion of the rebate, basically reductions are following the rebates. that is like california has lost so much building to louisiana, the minew mexico, new york, ari the fact that arizona offers a city rebate is really wonderful, because we're one of the few cities that does offer a city rebate. i think we can make it more attractive by expanding this to documentary's and unscripted television programming, otherwise known as reality programming. the main thrust of this is we want to bring more jobs to the city and more jobs to the local economy. what happens is when these productions are shooting here, they do have a certain amount of people that stay in hotels. they use local production

services, and they ultimately bring or exposure to san francisco, which helps bring more tourists. we would really like to expand this to documentary and unscripted television programming in order to attract more of the productions. we have recently had a number of documentary series that have called us and son are we eligible for your rebate program? at this point we have not been. that was one of the reasons for considering adding documentary's to the rebate. we also have had more and more very high-budget reality programs interested in shooting in san francisco, some of which we got of some of which we have lost. one thing i wanted to point out for the unscripted reality programs, in 2008/2009 we had 26

unscripted tv productions with $720,550 in estimated budgets. we collected all thousand $300 and permit fees. in 2010/11, we had 33 of those types of productions $2,496,400 in estimated budgets. we collected almost doubled the amount and permit fees. while the productions, they are coming in, they are spending a significant amount higher in money. we would like to attract that many here and have them spend it locally. the other benefit of this is that reality program is becoming more and more popular on television. this is a way to increase the exposure to san francisco as a

tourist but you. one of the things i wanted to reads -- read to you before i close is a quote from mayor bloomberg of new york city. new york has a very high rate of television production. they have 23 prime time series shooting varied this year. in 2006 they only had nine. that is largely due to the rebate program. the entertainment energy -- industry greatest contribution is to make the image of an idea of new york is to make a living presence of the minds of people around the world. few other cities on earth have been celebrated more widely or memorably than new york. in that sense, the industry can be seen as a priceless marketing tool for the city, helping to draw millions of visitors and tourists each year to new york for the propelling -- for the propelling the economy and vitality. i would like to be able to some friends -- substitute san francisco every time you say new

york. i think we can do that with this legislation. thank you. president chiu: thank you very much for the presentation. why do we go to the budget analyst report. -- don't we go to the budget analyst report. >> on page 6 we pointing out reducing the fees by $200 per day for phone production companies that have production budgets of less than $500,000 would result in decreased revenues to the city of $440, an estimated reduction to the city of 1467 per year. it is pretty minimal. however, certainly we cannot estimate the amount of the potential increase revenue to the city as a result of the proposed reduction. regarding the film rebate program, also, the fiscal impact

cannot be determined because they have not tracked document carries, docudramas and reality tv programs. however, the maximum cost to the film rebate program is 1.8 million. so we have a recommendation on page 8 of the report. my understanding is the supervisor is proposing to extend that the rebate program, which expires on june 30 of 2012. our recommendation is that some time prior to the resumption of the rebate program that you amend the legislation to

require a report from the foam commission to the board of supervisors detailing the objectives of the program. this would include the number of jobs. as you know, that was the purpose of the potomac rebate program, that in return for reimbursing cost it to the city to the film production companies, that they would hire disadvantaged persons. we consider approval of the proposed ordinance as amended to be a policy decision for the food 0 -- board of supervisors. i will be happy to respond to questions. supervisor chiu: in clarification of what is before us. we're seeing a reduction of these four very small production that has a $4 million impact,

and last week, allowing documentary's and unscripted shows to be qualified. this does not extend the program. >> this legislation -- our recommendation is that if the board decides to extend the program, that prior to that extension you obtained a report so the board is at least in a position to evaluate what has transpired and what the benefits mean for the program. >>supervisor farrell: thank you. we're working with the film commission and ms. roberts on whether it would make sense to extend the phone rebate program. we're digging in and want to dig in to mention and understand whether it makes sense financially to contribute dollars to the program it is creating jobs that we intend it to and has the financial impact that we want it to.

we're only looking at it does except for our city. what i would like to propose is that we amend the legislation to include this report that was requested, but actually what i would like to do is have it done on december 31 of this year. the legislation is set to expire on june 30 of next year. i would like to see that before it expires, that way we can confront any of the issues and have time to evaluate whether make sense to fund this ongoing or whether it makes sense to terminate on june 30 of next year. i would like to offer that amendment to the legislation and have them advise the city attorney if it will be material. supervisor chiu: thank you, supervisor farrell. why don't we open this up for public comment? are there any members of the public that would like to speak to this item, item number one?

>> good morning, supervisors. i have lived in san francisco for 59 years. i would like to speak in favor of this ordinance. i think anything that brings an income to the city is fine. basically another issue i would like to point out since today's agenda is only one item, since this is the regular meeting of the budget and finance committee, considering ye there is only one item on the agenda. i have read in the paper recently that there would be some sort of consideration in regard to the city's use of participation certificates. i think this is a long overdue examination. in fact, one of the comments i heard was why it took a new supervisor to push that idea

forward rather then the to so- called experience fiscal supervisors that never brought up the issue. hopefully this committee will consider the subject of participation certificates, because one of the favorite topics i follow, especially when i am back east, is the subject of voodoo economics. i have a feeling somewhere along the line participation certificates might fall into the category, depending on whether you use them wisely or misused them. anyway, i think this ordinance is a step in the right direction, and i hope this city will use a very realistic approach to finding revenue, rather than trying to use the old federal system of class warfare. i do not think that will make our teamwork spirit and the better and san francisco, and i think it will hurt everyone's

feeling, and all that ends up doing is everyone will. a finger at anyone saying it is your fault. thank you. supervisor chiu? thank you. and the other speakers at like to comment on this item? >> good morning. my name is robin kincaid. i am a producer here in san francisco. i am the person that is dealing with most of these. bili can tell you the budgets he shrunk. five years ago i was getting 2000 for how summer. and of his $5,000. i am just as shocked as everyone else. the bottom line is how much money they are spending.

we should all over the bay area. we're not shooting in san francisco, and we should be. we look at permits, police, and parking. oakland, i am there every week. literally. we use restaurants. we do not use hotels because most of our stuff is local, but we do spend money in the cities. i am here to support the strongly. we really need this in the industry. it puts people like me to work. there are 50 to 60 people working on the show. that is a big thing. that is it. thank you so much. supervisor chiu? : thank you. any other speakers that wish to comment on this item? >> good morning.

my name is catherine bloom. i am a location scout and location manager here and have worked on numerous reality shows as well, including the amazing grace, which if any of you watched the emmys last sunday night, one the category, which is a very exciting thing. they shot their final episode in san francisco in december of 2009. it aired in the spring of 2010, and they had at least 9 million to 11 million viewers for that final episode. it was shot entirely in san francisco. when they landed at the san francisco airport, they climbed up outside of the tower, and they continued around the city and ended up -- it was candlestick park. that is a lot of eyeballs seeing our fair city ensure we get off

in a really positive, a good way. although we only shot for a morning, literally, it employed over 100 people locally. the ipad hotel rooms for a least a week before with a lot of people. take the money and run, which i also worked on in january, have roughly 4 million eyeballs on the premiere episode, which was one of the ones shot in san francisco. it employs people like me who was a homeowner and -- in property-tax fair in san francisco. it keeps our business alive. employes people within the industry, which we have had so much attrition in the past year that it is unfortunate we of lost rental houses, talented people, crew, and etc.. the more information we can get,

the more talent we can keep in the war industry we keep here, the better it is for the entire area of san francisco. every frame that is ever shot you should consider as a great for getting peace. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: and the other members that wish to comment on this item? he none, public comment is closed. supervisor mirkarimi. -- seeing none, public comment is closed. supervisor mirkarimi: to our reality film enthusiast, i think you have a prospect by considering a reality tv shows for the board of supervisors of sentences go. i am surprised the one has picked up on that yet. [laughter]

i am curious because i have been on the board enough to track this discussion that somehow we incentivize by a rebate program. i am not so sure i'm sold on the idea, although i do support the idea that that is what breeds and more film production and more interested to see if francisco. in the report that is being talked about that we would like to get at least some sort of progress, what i would like to see is recommendations beyond what a rebate program will do. new york is also very cost prohibitive. it also enjoys a different stature. it has historically. of being that place where production and t d was born in

movies as well, too. san francisco has always been in salary to about relationship in the united states. i do not know how we have become a symbol rebate program. i think there has to be other answers to the larger question, and i have not ever really heard the drill down of what the answers are. >> well, you know, we are working on ways to bring productions here, because our incentive will not be the only thing that brings them here. one thing is we're working on a real to distribute to producers that shows you francisco, not just the icon stomach as everyone knows what we have here, but we're trying to sell the city as all the other things that we have here. we have the mission. we have things that could also double for paris. with things that could double for new york. we're trying to not just focus o