-- instead of having tiered? and will open it up for public comment. no public comment? public comment is closed. >> this is an informational discussion item with the department as we move forward with this matter. >> commissioners, item 8. presentation from the department of public health on an upcoming business case for lactation accommodation. from the san francisco breast- feeding promotion coalition.

>> my name is jackie and i am he been working with the breast feeding coalition. this kind of stems from the surgeon general's action to support breast-feeding. one of the items she mentions as a barrier to breast feeding the way the american academy of pediatrics recommend exclusively for the first six months and continued for the first 12 months is going back to work. the research has shown that when employers provide accommodations, they continue to breast feed. we are recognizing a free community forum for businesses and it will be on march 28 and it will be in the morning at the federal building. it is really geared toward the

business professional to help them better employment the laws that are in place and provide better lactation accommodations. we will be discussing the health benefits of breast-feeding, what laws are in place, and various strategies to implement these accommodations. and information on how to create policies. we will be providing a tool kit for those in attendance, breakfast and continuing education credits for a tour professionals. i wanted to inform me that this forum is coming out in march, and also, if any of you are interested, we are having a discussion tomorrow with business professionals to get some feedback on what we are planning to offer as long as it meets the needs of businessees in the area.

it will be tomorrow from 1:30 until 3:00. it will help us provide effective tools. we brought some say vashti -- save-the-date flyers. that and i have some cards for the meeting tomorrow. i am open for questions now. commissioner clyde: i just want to thank you for your presentation, it will be great if when you develop these materials, make them available both on the department website as well as on the office of small business. thank you for your advocacy for new mothers. this is a really important piece of advocacy. >> this is an example of the

work we're doing to help businesses provide accommodations. commissioner clyde: think you, it's important. president o'brien: i am curious, a community forum to help implement the laws regarding accommodation, and i understand that currently there are laws that are in place that are not being adhered to? >> there are various levels of the appearance that are in place -- of adherence that are in place. there is some confusion because there are federal laws and state laws. there are also some businesses that are doing above and beyond, meeting the gold standard of accommodating the breast-feeding employees. there are others that are doing the bare minimum.

president o'brien: director? >> chris schillman will be attending this. if there are lots of ideas, he will be able to report back as well. with anything like this, the larger an entity is, the easier it is to facilitate an accommodation. i am just informing you that chris will be attending, who and he will be able to bring more information to the commission as well. president o'brien: i will open it up for public comment. any public comment on this matter? public comment is closed. thank you for the presentation. >> thank you for waiting to the

meeting. -- through the meeting. >> commissioners, i will call item nine, presentation of b lab on b corporations in the staete of california. in due to a scheduling error, they were not able to make it today and made a request to present at the next meeting which i will discuss with the director and the president. for procedural reasons, it puts us on items 10 and 11. the director would like to go through the procedures for the election of officers. >> can we take a couple minute

recess and check on the commissioners that had to step out for a moment? mr. president, can we please take -- president o'brien: i would like to take a recess for five minutes. we gosh we are back at the small business commission meeting. we are about to call items 10 and 11. i believe the director would like to review the election procedures with the commission? >> we call each position separately, so we do the president first, the vice president. for each position, an individual may nominate themselves are have another individual nominate them. and in the order of

nominations, the commission secretary will invite the nominee to be able to say a few words. and in by the nominee to say a few words. at that particular time, we take public comment on that particular item. excuse me, we take public comment on the individual nominees when that individual goes up for the vote. >> commissioner comments and then the nomination? >> and then public comment. what it is, each commissioner is able to make their statement of why they are interested in this position, and in the order of which the nominations are made leave the -- will be the roll call for a vote. prior to the roll call, we

have public comment. >> commissioner comments come in where? >> prior to the vote. commissioner comment, public comment, vote. this allows the nominee to be able to make their statement before each nominee is voted on. it does require four votes for an individual to be selected and elected as president or vice- president. we have six commissioners, it should be a tie. there will be the discussion of whether you want to carry over the decision and the election to the february meeting.

>> thank you, director. commissioner, item 10 is a election of president to the small business commission. this allows a member of the commission to -- but it requires a motion and a vote. it is an action item. the first thing we will do now, we will: nominations -- we will call nominations by members of the commission. commissioner clyde: i would like to nominate steve adams for president next year. or this year. >> do we need a second? >> no, are there any other nominees? president o'brien: seeing non, we go to the nominee's statement. >> we will ask the nominee to

make a statement. commissioner adams: i would like to thank commissioner clyde for the nomination. it means quite a bit to me. i am a huge advocate for small business. with the merchant associations in san francisco, i learned a lot in my five years. we will focus more on this commission. with the lot of the legislation that has come through this year, i want to take that into this year and be an advocate for jobs and to see that we don't lose any. i am very passionate about it and i enjoy working with each and every one of you.

>> we will take commissioner comments, it will be at your discretion. president o'brien: commissioner dooley? commissioner dooley: i agree with janet clyde that mr. adams will make an excellent president. he has great leadership qualities, one that we can all work with. i heartily endorse him in this position also. p commissioner clyde: -- president o'brien: commissioner clyde? commissioner clyde: the basis of my nomination is based on your strong work ethic, your ability to really judge things with a good, independent mind. i don't believe you come to the meetings with your mind made up

and you do your research very well. i am actually very proud that it is the advocacy of myself and other commissioners for a strong commissioner to sit in your seat that brought you to the commission. i am very proud to nominate you because this commission worked very hard to put you here. thank you very much. president o'brien: i would like to say that being the president this year, steve has been on my side all the way as the vice president . we tried very hard to be very proactive with the director and a staff, discussing the agendas for the meetings. and to be heavily involved in the issues, especially those that are very important.

it was appreciated that steve was always there for the discussions were we had a conference call which we did more than once. i have absolutely no hesitation in banking on him to be a fine president of the small business commission. that concludes my comment. commissioner riley? commissioner riley: i will also support you as the president, i think that you have done a lot of good work for the commission. for the community for small business -- president o'brien: seeing no further comments from the commissioners, i will open it up for public comment. do we have public comment? public comment is closed.

we shall bring it to roll call. >> commissioner janet clyde nominated commissioner steve adams. commissioner adams: aye. commissioner clyde: aye. commissioner dooley: aye. president o'brien: aye. commissioner o'connor: aye. commissioner riley: aye. >> that motion passes 6-0. congratulations, commissioner adams. president o'brien: next item, please. >> commissioners, you warare now on ite 11, election of the vice- president to the small business commission. it requires a motion and vote. the same procedures will be followed.

president o'brien: do we have any other nominations? commissioner clyde? commissioner clyde: i would like to nominate kathleen dooley for vice president. president o'brien: commissioner o'connoriley? commissioner riley: i like to nominate commissioner o'brien to vice president. >president o'brien: nominee statements. commissioner dooley: i think my record is quite clear. i began my experience with this commission, i worked to bring the problems of ada lawsuits to this commission. i hope to continue further in

any way i can to help small businesses to maintain themselves as a strong force. i have also worked very hard with small business corridors to help protect them from outside interests that would not allow them to continue in their strong role as community leaders. that is something i am very proud of. i have been planning to work further on extending the occupancy of business corridors, and recently met with supervisor mar's office to begin a pilot program to fill some of those vacant spaces. i am also very active in terms of attending outside meetings. i go to all of the council district merchant meetings. i am very available to any merchant anywhere in this town

to discuss what their needs are. i feel i would be a very good balance. president o'brien: it is time for my statement. for the last 12 months, i have been presiding as president, and i have enjoyed the role very much. i believe that it has been a productive year for the small business commission. it has pretty much been a year in which we have been able to steer legislation through to the board of supervisors, to the mayor's office in such a way that we have been able to almost have a unanimous vote most of the time. not always. i would be very scared if it was

always unanimous. it has been good that we have been able to get consensus of a lot of the times. some of the more important items that i think we have addressed the i have presided over, i believe, to some degree of success, recommendations that we made on the health care security ordinance. and comments that were made during the hearing of the proposed legislation that was taking into account by the mayor and when it was put forward by supervisor cohen and supervisor david chiu. the first, as i mentioned earlier, the first version that came out would have quite a brutal impact on the small business community. we were very instrumental in getting a version that ultimately passed.

we had a discussion on yellow page legislation, a discussion on fliers, a discussion on pet stores. we saw some problems with that -- what we discussed tonight. also instrumental in opening up a new front, i don't like using military terms, but starting a dialogue to discuss matters matter of mutual concern. these would include items like formula retail. and permit issues. i would recognize, coincidentally, my colleague and fellow nomination, commissioner dooley is well-versed in these

items as well. it is an even situation there. but we also oversaw the logo and branding for the new office of small business. we also dealt with legislation with scott wienreer, just to mention a few. these are all important items, many important different people throughout the city that we have dealt with. in the future, i am looking forward to working with the president and working on the planning code legitimization for eastern neighborhoods. it reopens impact fees.

some people think that is just a development fee. we saw the bowling alley that was an attempt to be started. also, we literally afford to being involved with the proposal for the new charter amendment, giving focus to the small business commission, something that i alluded to earlier, having looked into for quite some time. i pride myself on remembering to remember those that are being overlooked in the very small businesses. they don't maybe know that there is such a thing for a small business commission that arrived here. i pride myself in remembering after everybody has late in -- weighed in, that their voices are heard.

items that are brought to me by the public, it concludes my statement. it is time for commissioner comments. commissioner clyde: i would like to speak about my nomination of commissioner dooley for the coming year. i would like to recognize her work over the last four years of service. commissioner dooley, you have i think single-handedly turned out more people on various issues through your advocacy of the ada, the pet stores, the small pet stores. you'rr organizing with them became a force. who knew that this little group of pet shop owners could have such a dramatic impact here at

city hall? it was your advocacy and leadership with them that brought an entire new constituency into city hall. your work on out reach, i believe your work with commercial corridors again, not just your own the no. waterfront neighborhood, it really qualifies you to go forward. commissioners, i think we need some diversity on the board. i see rotating leadership and it is important. it is a sign of strength. i believe that a stronger commission can take my place, i am stepping off of this commission because i have to for personal reasons, but i am not afraid to step off of this commission. we have to look at broadening our leadership.

it is time that both sides of city hall have representation at the top leadership. i have great respect for commissioner o'brien's service. he brought himself very well, and his advocacy along with the work of every commissioner and the work of the small business community that didn't turn out in force with the very important issues -- when the small business community gets a b and thereby, they turn themselves out just fine. -- gets a bee in their bonnet, they turn themselves out just fine. i have to give the credit to the broader hong small business community and business community there. from retail, we have not had a

business leader at the top, the executive positions, as you would say, is from ground-floor retail. we really need to look at that and we need development in city hall. the liquor lobby is very strong. there is a lot of money there to have that advocacy. little retail stores don't have the same power. they don't have the same resources. they don't have the same organizations. when you look at someone who is basically a citizen that owned a flower business who can do the work and to reach, i have to say, i think going forward, commissioner dooley would be an excellent representative of this body for vice-president going forward.

it pertains particularly when it comes to bridges across the aisle. commissioner riley: commissioner o'brien, you did an excellent job of being the president last year. when i found out they you were interested in continue to serve, i am happy to nominate you. you have very good common sense and you have proactively worked on a lot of legislation issues. i support you. president o'brien: any other commissioner's comments? below open it up for public comment. -- we will open it up for public comment. >> please speak your name clearly and it will be limited to 3 minutes per person.

>> my name is john, i am the former president of the save san francisco coalition. i think i have been there plenty of nights, it is nice to see you. i have had the good fortune of meeting commissioner dooley over a year-and-a-half ago when we were fighting for that expres project that we ultimately lost. we had a fighting chance there. soon after that, we had the monumental battle in front of us. it will abolish two or three pet stores around the area, one of which was mine. if it wasn't for commissioner dooley coming to all the meetings and advising her our coalition which i am here

representing 15 stores. we would not have any kind of a chance to push back any of the biggest threats to come to our business and our neighborhoods that we have seen in quite a long time. in the future, what is happening, there are other huge challenges in front of us and we need a commissioner that is going to be there for the small business, not only in mind but in presence. it was vitally important to have that happen. i think she embodies the spirit of this particular commission which not only benefits the commission, it benefits the city and it benefits the small businesses ub sab -- in san francisco.