that describe the impact on city departments, the police department, park and iraq, and it -- park and rec. over the six seasons, the direct payments range from $14 million up to $20 million per season. a full season is 22 episodes. "nash bridges" which ended 11 years ago, the budget was about $2 million. $2 million we are proposing to extend his merely just an invitation that san francisco is welcoming the industry here. it's not a make work by any stretch of the imagination. money comes back to this city as everyone has pointed out and i just wanted to share that with

you. supervisor chu: just a few more cards. next speaker. if i could ask folks who heard the name called to line up in the center aisle, that would be great. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is to the spratly tyson and and the vice-president of the san francisco film commission. i would like to -- i would like to echo what everyone has put forward today. it's critical to filming in san francisco and the knock on effect on the tourism business is a measurable. thank you for the support you have given this initiative to date and we ask you continue to support the extension. thank you. supervisor chu: next speaker.

>> good afternoon. my name is catherine howell and i am currently the co-president of the san francisco local of screen actors guild. we represent over 3800 actors here in the bay area and i am here on their behalf. no one becomes an actor by chance. it is a profession that requires years of steady, train and diligence, practicing the craft before you get to be a professional actor. we eat out are living through various jobs and it is extremely important to us that these films come to town. for many of us, it's not just a salary we make when we get a job on these films, it is the

contributions to our pension and health that go along with that and for many people, it is residuals down the line. on behalf of the actors, i'm sure you will be hearing from various members of the community, i encourage you to approve the extension. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, board of supervisors. i'm a mother and actress and i moved here in 1999 from los angeles because i fell and love with my san francisco husband and i fell in love with san francisco. i thought i could be a working actress appear -- up here. slowly but surely, jobs kept getting fewer and fewer. that i had to travel to l.a.,

away from my children, and now i have to go to mexico and louisiana to try to get work. i'm just asking you to please accept this rebate because it will create more jobs for us, it is great for san francisco, and it has helped the whole business. it is for the greater good of san francisco. thank you very much. >> my name is debbie brill baker. and the executive chairman of -- debbie brill baker. i'm a film commissioner for the city of san francisco. i'm a single parent, putting a child through college right now. i have to say this rebate program really did save my life

and a lot of ways. i worked on a lot of the movies that came in that worked with the rebate program and i know how close some of them were to leaving. it makes a huge, huge difference, the amount of money that comes in. you have heard it all here. it is a wind situation for so many that i hope you will extend the program. -- it is a win situation. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm the manager of public policy at the san francisco chamber of commerce. the san francisco chamber of commerce urges your support for the extension of this film reprogram. extending this in san francisco will have a positive impact on the city by continuing to restore production and acting

jobs, stimulating economic activity and reinvigorating the film industry. since 2006, films using the san francisco rebate program have been responsible for thousands of jobs in san francisco and more than $40 million to our local economy. these fellows attract tourist dollars spent in our local hotels, restaurants and other businesses. comparatively, other states and cities are aggressively luring productions through large tax credits of up to 35% as you saw earlier. to keep a competitive edge, the extension of the film reprogram is critical. the chamber of commerce urges your support for the rebate extension. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. i have no other speaker cards before me. if there are any other individuals who would like to speak, please line up in the center aisle. >> good morning.

i am the assistant executive director of the san francisco local, a result of the merger between the screen actors guild and the american television artists. you have been hearing from people in this room whose livelihoods are made because of the television and film industry. those are important stories. we represent almost 4000 members in northern california and i may voting resident of san francisco. i speak in support of extending the scene in san francisco rebate program. it benefits working families and the community at large. this is not a program that is to the benefit of a select few. projections have budgets and bottom lines and while san francisco may be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, it is not enough. production's get lured away to other locations that offer tax

incentives and we need to be able to compete. local production means real work for not only actors but other jobs. businesses benefit, people all over the world see images of san francisco in television and movies and this makes san francisco a tourist destination. we cannot rest on our laurels on such iconic movies and televisions -- television shows as "streets of san francisco." we ask you to extend rebate program because it makes sense and means a great deal to working families. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> i am a freelance location scout and manager. i worked on about 150 different advertising accounts and still photography and television commercials every year. one of the big reasons my

clients continue to come to san francisco, the art directors, producers, photographers, is that they see it on the big screen. all of the buzz is created by these programs that these wonderful people make and feature films. even though i have not worked on a feature film since 2001, i still recall the benefits of that and all of these projects keep coming in because of what they are doing promoting the city. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> i work in the grip and lighting department. i want to bring up the fact that i have met so many wonderful people in these departments. is a very tight-knit community and on top of everyone being friendly and welcoming, they are very hard working and that's a rare quality, to have someone so hard working and they want to

make sure the production goes off smoothly and the lighting and grip department, people don't think about those when they think about movies. i would hate to see these talented people have to search elsewhere to get work. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm is second-generation of organized labor with my father being two generations ahead of me. anytime you can bring money in revenue into the city and this program can, i think it should be passed and pushed forward and on behalf of the teamsters of san francisco, i recommend we push this forward. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. are there any other members of the public who wish to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed.

supervisor kim: i know the comptroller's office did a report in december about the program and its ability to track projects and i and was hoping someone could speak to that. >> our office working with the film commission did prepare a deport -- prepare a report in december. supervisor kim: it would be great to get a summary of the findings. >> i don't have a summary but when i came on in september of 2010, one of the things i kept finding was when we had rebated productions, we were not collecting informations about their local spend. one of the things i started was we added an additional page to

that information they have to give us before we would cut a check to them and that itemizes all of their local spending so that we can keep track of it. i think maybe that is what we were talking about prior to this. supervisor kim: one of the findings of the report i have in front of me says wiley had significant growth in the film production industry overall since 2006 that it's unlikely that the rebate program has played a role in the growth and i was wondering if someone could address how this finding came to be? >> we gave the comptroller's office of our numbers for all the protections that issue here. there are far, far more that come and shoot than partake in the rebate program. that's because in order to qualify for the program, you have to shoot a majority of your

production here. the reason i had that finding is because overall, if you look at all of the numbers of everything that films here, the majority don't take part in the rebate program because they're just shooting a few days here. i still believe the rebate program was essential for "," which was here for over a year and employ people for the long term and had a large, erect spent. when you look at every single production shot here, the number of the rebates program pales in comparison. >> i am happy to see there are protections committed to the city of san francisco, but i have some reservations about increasing the dollar amount, saying that over the last year, we spent $1.5 million of the

$1.8 million we allocated and now this is a $2 million rebate program over two years. if we were to increase this dollar amount, i would really want to see some proposals in the extension and expansion to have some mandates, whether around local hiring or mandating these production companies actually use apprentices that we can develop in the trades and i know that with some of the production companies, they often have to bring employees from los angeles or other parts of the country because they have stronger industries there and have folks trained in that arena. but to me, the concept of supporting a rebate program is job growth in san francisco, not just the additional hotel sales taxes and those things that we get into the general fund. i would like to see a stronger

pipeline developed in san francisco for people to be employed in those industries. if we see an expansion of productions here -- that not sure if that could be developed. if we're going to do an expansion plus the additional two years. also, this is a separate issue but i'm glad to see we are hiring an outside production companies, out of the city productions, but i want to see how the film commission is committed to supporting local filmmakers here in san francisco. we have a number here. how we are supporting their work as well. >> we currently have the san francisco film collective, a program we started in the tenderloin. it's a program we started in

july of 2011. we just got approval to continue it for the next year. what that does is we run tell low-cost office space to independent filmmakers and san francisco. we currently have nine small production companies working with and our collective. we're very supportive of a local filmmakers and i think the other thing you will remember from last september, we asked to lower the fee to $100 for a low- budget film. we are doing what we can to support local filmmakers. >> that is great to hear. i was not sure if the space opened up. i thought there might be issues with the landlord but i am glad to see it resolved that i know that rent is one of the

obstacles and the city for office -- for our local filmmakers. supervisor avalos: thank you. i would like to thank supervisor farrell for bringing this board. we have to ask ourselves if it's worth up to $2 million for film in san francisco. i actually came to more accept this program and it was based on some of the experiences we had in 2007 and 2008 that attracted the production of "milk" that was able to attract a lot of business. it seems like the investments we made with the rebate program helped to make sure those films

came about and had a lot to do with hiring local residents, especially -- i was especially pleased to see that happen. it's not like an open-ended program. it is based on what we have available for the rebates, so up to a certain amount, i can accept it. what else can we get out of it in terms of later film productions? i'm excited about woody allen coming to san francisco and maybe he will reprise himself as virgil stark well or do something like a new production of "what's up doc" or vertigo. he needs -- we need something iconic to put san francisco on the map again and it shows san francisco in the greatest way, the beauty of this city is what

we are going to make happen and that will have a great effect on this city and the city's economy in years to come and i think the art form itself is something to invest in as well. i do appreciate the concerns supervisor kim has around local hiring. i think the room is packed with people here who are local residents who i think expect to benefit from the film program. if we need to tighten up, and i sure if we do it in this legislation or separately, but it makes sense we invest locally in our protection element and staffing and services we have in san francisco. but i will be supporting this ordinance and i want to see a move forward and be successful. supervisor chu: thank you. supervisor farrell: a few comments -- i take your point

about the local nature of this. one thing to note is when we talk about the number of residents employed in the local wages paid, those all local wages put in the statistics. i worked very hard with susanna and we spent a lot of time with spread sheets to make sure we carved out what are the real benefits locally. if we're going to spend money on any programs, that we spend our money as efficiently as possible and get the biggest bang for our buck locally. a few other points -- although it's not a reason i would doubt this program, but -- without this program, but this is actually a moneymaker so every dollar we spent, we get more than a dollar back in general

fund revenues. it is mainly through permit fees, the substitute sales tax and what have you. it is expanding the money by getting it back in whole right now. it is a major thin margin and it's not a reason to promote this. it is something to be noted. the question was asked about the trend. we had $1.5 million over the last few years and why is it this amount here? you will see that based upon the great work, evangelizing this program in los angeles, middle of a producer's here in san francisco, the amount of productions has ramped up over time as the awareness of this program has grown. in the first two years, the same dollar amount was extended is because it was not adopted early on. if we can build on that

momentum, that is the reason we were building it out. in my opinion, why it is important, it is creating global jobs in late san francisco and i think that is of the utmost importance. this diversifies our local economy in a greater way. it's not massive, but it is real. these are real folks and we should be supporting them. one folksy -- one. the folks at the san francisco travel association made, -- does it promote folks shooting locally and having san francisco on the big screen and from a general civic pride point of view, having san francisco on the big screen, we don't disappoint and i think that's important for our city and i want to make sure i was clear on

why i think this is important. >> if i could add some comments -- she was just hired for the witty alien -- for the woody allen movie and they will be doing local hire. another local writer-director and production manager is local and they intend to hire local. very often, the key people have, the head of costumes and set decorators are often brought in from l.a.. but the more production we get here, the more these companies will see we have this talented group and with all of the loss of production to other states, so many of these people have had to go to louisiana, the mexico,

and new york and we have lost a lot of work force. but the more productions we get here, we can build that up and continue to hire more and more locals. supervisor kim: i want to appreciate my colleagues points. i see the benefit in terms of tourism in general fund dollars, but it's important week support employment growth in the city. i appreciated the points and i would love to see the numbers on that. i understand as you lose certain part of the industry, it's hard to develop an important part -- a job -- and employment pipeline. we want to make sure there is an existing supply of jobs if we're going to train residents in a variety of aspects of the technical and production areas. i would love to hear more about

what we can do to encourage the training of our local residents and hope. >> i don't know if you are aware that in order to qualify for the rebate program these companies have to interview for the hiring program. i know on "hemingway" one of the people they hired who never worked in production at all is now working consistently because he proved himself so and valuable. little things like that are helping to bring people up and i hope we see more of that. >> thank you for reminding me. supervisor chu: thank you for the work you have been doing attracting folks and getting the word out.

i think supervisor farrell described a lot about the diversity and the point about the more youthful, the deeper bashan have in terms of talented individuals and staying in san francisco and i am sensitive to the residual impact on the economy. but with regard to promoting the san francisco, we could not pay $2 million and get a potential advertisement for san francisco. these films hope to evoke a place these people want to see and have memories of. there are many reasons why filming in san francisco is beneficial to the city. given that this is a time limited piece of legislation, i would encourage the department to make sure you are familiar with the control offices report

and make sure you respond to some of the points that was made and share it with the board to make sure we are moving forward. i think it would be educational to know about the local hiring component. you have talked about the first source hiring requirement but the other things -- i think it would be educational and informative. also, the metrics going forward, i think you have talked about some of the new data you are requiring and providing information about various things. i think it would be helpful to understand what you are tracking and come to years down the line, we will have a strong track record of how this program is going and hopefully at that

point there will be no question about the benefits to it. i would just recommend we do that. we have this item before us that we have public comment -- do we have a motion to accept the amendments articulated -- there were three of them which were fairly straightforward. we can do that without objection. to the item as amended, we have a motion to send it ford? we have a motion to send the item for word and we can do that without objection. -- ford without objection. i would a asked to give redline copies to the clerk. thank you. any other items before us a? we are adjourned and we will see the committee members. back at 3:30. [applause]