supervisor chiu: good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, june 19, 2012.

madam court, could you please call the roll? >> [roll-call] mr. president, you have a quorum. supervisor chiu: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag of the diocese of america and to the republic for which it stands -- i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation, under god, indivisible, with

liberty and justice for all. can we approve that meeting minutes? without objection. are there any communications? >> i have no communications. supervisor chiu: could you read it the special order? >> the opportunity for the mayor to engage in formal policy discussion and answering eligible questions from supervisors representing the even districts. the president will begin on -- begin by recognizing supervisors from district 4, 6, 8, and 10. discussion shall not exceed five minutes per supervisor. supervisor chiu: mr. mayor, welcome to your favorite time of the month. are there any comments you would like to make? mayor lee: i would like to acknowledge the board on their hard work that they have started. i look forward to working with

you and meeting with the committee as you deliberate on the final outcomes of our first two-year budget. i also want to take the opportunity today to mention the historic performance of matt kaine. if you know anything about baseball, you know how difficult it is to have a perfect game. i want to acknowledge that and in light of a comment made by a local state legislature and that got a little fun in the press, i will not make any further jokes and get that press myself. let's move on with questions. supervisor chiu: with that, let's hear from our colleague, supervisor chu from district 4. supervisor chu: our last question to you covered the topic of your commitment to the goals of the ocean beach master plan. a frequent problem in our district has been the

encroaching sand dunes on to the great highway. this past year was particularly problematic, necessitating more than 65 non-scheduled closures on the great highway, many for multiple days. while the department of public works has just completed their annual send maintenance project, more needs to be done to manage this and both near and long term. one of the near-term goals of the ocean beach master plan is to work with the national park service and up -- on sand management and relocation. can you provide an update on the status of the agreement? mayor lee: thank you for work on making the ocean beach something for all of us here. i was struck by the challenge the encroaching sand dunes are. i know of this problem firsthand as your former director of public works and your city administrator, but this year seems to be particularly bad

year force and a buildup along ocean beach and it has caused a significant gain in its effort from the park service and city maintenance crews. as you mentioned, the great highway was closed for more than 65 days this year due to sand accumulation and is up 40% this year over previous years. however, we are making progress identifying a potential solution to sand management. the san francisco public utilities commission, the department of public works, and the national parks service have been working out the details of relocated approximately 200,000 cubic yards of sand from the northern part of the ocean beach in front of the sea wall where the sand build up is at historic levels and transports the mess and to the area of the beach south of a slope where there has been a significant beach erosion. the idea is to use the same staff -- the same santa to

construct a dune that would serve as a bluff to protect waste water infrastructure. this is referred to as a soft solution. historically, we have used part revetments in that area but this soft solution is favored by the public and the national park service. it could be a win/win. we could move sand from one part of the beach where we have too much to another part where it could have some real benefits, including protecting some of our waste water infrastructure being threatened and at the same time prove public access to the beach at both locations. since the city and national park service could cost share, it could save money while beginning to address the problem. the park service, along with the severance is the public utilities commission and dpw have a sketch that with the public -- with the program should look like. have sketched out a program to

see if there is support for the idea. the next step is to get a series of approval from the national park service and the california coastal commission. if people get behind the idea, we could complete the planning over the summer and move this and in late summer or early fall. i welcome your continued engagement in making this reality and as far as a long- term solution, i remain committed to moving it forward a recommendation of the ocean beach master plan. supervisor chiu: our next question is from our district 6 colleague, supervisor kim. supervisor kim: our office does want to thank you for your commitment to the mid market corridor and we want to think a new partner we have been working with, the city office in the mid market area. as many of you know, we have been a laying the groundwork

along the mid market corridor along with the economic development piece we're moving a forward with along with establishing organizational partners, we want to make sure we are creating opportunities for our smaller arts non-profits in the tenderloin south of market. how can we create a feeder model for these smaller arts nonprofits, those operating with a budget of $500,000 or less, to sustain themselves in the neighborhoods they surf, either through partnering with our larger anchor tenants or dedicating space for their programming through existing city-funded programs? mayor lee: thank you. our strategy includes many different programs and activities meant to cultivate and sustain a thriving arts district. our goal is to strengthen establishments like the exit theater, the luggage store gallery, and hospitality houses

community our program, for example, while bringing in new community oriented arts organizations who will be able to stay for a long term. we have engaged in dialogue with community arts groups through the central market economic strategy process. community coffees, which i have myself personally attended as well as other outreach activities. our assistance will continue to come from the office of economic and work-force development and grants for the arts at -- that help fund improvements to space-enabling groups like the ones i just mentioned. also to boxcar theater and piano five productions, we want to help them become more financially viable. financial support comes in the form of technical assistance through our partners at the northern california community program which assists nonprofit arts organizations with financial and real-estate issues and has a focus on central

market and sixth street. it comes in leasing assistance from northern california community loan fund and urban solutions, who have been helping to negotiate good long-term leases. it comes from grants for the arts project in the tenderloin for a multi use facility that will stabilize and number of community-oriented arts organizations for a long time. we have been working to cultivate support from private philanthropy and have encouraged a number of foundations to fund this work. oewd has made up to $11 million available for nonprofits in the long program. these funds could assist

nonprofit organizations with acquisitions and may be of use in the multi-tenant art facility project i just described. finally, the benefit of a redevelopment is we have a tool to capture the future tax increments from private development and as debt -- as a city, we are looking at other public finance tools to accomplish a similar goal. i believe there may be an opportunity to provide financial system -- financial assistance to community-service parts facilities through this mechanism and i look forward to a dialogue and to such a market area and with your office as well. my proposed 2012-13 budget has a dedicated fund for central market that will fund the various types of assistance as i detail. i look forward to working hand in hand with the arts community and with you, a supervisor, and beginning implementation. supervisor chiu: our next question is provided by our district eight colleagues,

supervisor winner. supervisor wiener: good afternoon, mr. mayor. only a few days after the opening of the wonderful new children's playground at the morris park, neighbors awoke one morning to find that it had been covered in graffiti. since then, etchings, damaged features, and other acts of vandalism have been perpetrated against this beautiful community asset. similarly just days after its ribbon cutting, another park was also covered in graffiti. you and i are both at these openings celebrations as they serve to -- serve as testaments to let it happen when neighbors, businesses and the city family come together to make our city friendlier and more inviting to children. sadly, the city has been able to ensure adequate protection of these valuable assets. the department of public works spent more than $20 million

annually on graffiti abatement along our streets and recreation and parks departments spend much more. these wasted tax dollars could be used to repay our streets, higher recreation managers, and keep our landscaping beautiful and healthy, yet year after year, we divert these funds to repair the work inflicted by vandals. we need to send a strong message that this type of anti-social behavior will not be tolerated in san francisco. mr. mayor, will you help me ensure the police department arrest these perpetrators and that the d.a. filed charges against them? will you also help ensure we have adequate law enforcement, boasts -- both s&p and parked patrol on our streets and in our parks? mayor lee: thank you for your important question and the answer is yes. crimes of the vandalism and graffiti are assault on our public resources and it is shameful people are destroying the city -- the infrastructure we have invested in for our

residents. thank you for recognizing this as a priority for all of san francisco. our city is blessed with incredible open space. trust for public land recently named it san francisco is the best urban park system in america, with 12 percent of the city's land, however, our parks are not immune to vandalism. i firmly believe we must prosecute those who did vandalize them. i spent many hours myself removing graffiti, educating people on how to prevent it. a good way to keep our parks safe and graffiti free is to keep them activated. the recreation and park department has entered into several partnerships with food vendors, bike rentals, farmers' markets and buy time sports, all of which offer happy and healthy part uses areas that might otherwise be prone to vandalism. recreation and park cannot do it alone. they must work in partnership with the police department and the community. to help, the permit will fill up

to nine vacant parked patrol positions this year that will help monitor our parks and strengthen ties between recreation park and our police department. the police chief will be deploying officers to the enforcement of property crimes such as graffiti. currently, several district stations are developing plans to focus on parks by using uniformed and plainclothes officers. once the arrests are made, the police to guard and will work with officers to prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law. i will also say we must work with our judicial system, particularly with judges to educate them. i've seen far too many of these cases get dismissed or the enforcement be so lax that all the punishment frustrates our prosecutors and the d.a.'s office as well. currently there is an ongoing investigation with the police department being led by dedicated graffiti specialist

who will continue to develop leads so vandals are held accountable in the cases you minted. it is my desire and this serves to remind us that we need to work closely with the police department to become more vigilant about watching our neighborhoods and reporting crime. i also ask the public to step in to be our eyes and ears on the streets and in our parks. the graffiti task force made up of apartments and volunteers are working every day on this issue and they have made the graffiti rewards program available to the public so that residents can receive a reward if they provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of vandals. supervisor chiu: our last question today is tax -- is asked by our district and colleague, supervisor cohen. supervisor cohen: in the last few weeks, s district and has

seen many shootings and many of the victims have been male, particularly african-american. with summer here and that they the police captain retiring, i believe that the end of this week, what can you do to increase the violence prevention funding and services in the southeastern a bread? mayor lee: thank you, supervisor. that is a very important question. preventing violence against our youth must remain at top of all our agendas and thank you for making one of your top priorities. first, in the bay view, want to recognize the contributions of the captain who is well- respected and highly regarded in the bayview committee. a trademark of his services is ongoing commitment to transparency and forging long- lasting partnerships with the bay view community. with its committee members and organizations like. we will miss his leadership and dedication to the public safety service and the process.

i share your concern about violence amongst our youth. it is a tragedy when we lose lives to senseless violence and i echo your concerns that violence prevention only works when we have opportunities available to our young people. to that end, the community response network, a collaboration between city departments, they view hunters point foundation at community partners has developed a 2012 summer coverage plan. the plan details specific street violence education at crisis response strategies for this summer. the san francisco committee response street outreach model is known for its specialized teams trained in our reach, conflict mediation, the escalation, and crisis response. in particular, the southeast community response network plans to implement a proactive solution that includes

supporting summer school transportation efforts, staffing team members at west point, harbor, alice griffith and sunnyvale. deploying to street outreach teams and staffing and on call crisis response outreach team with to evening priority groups, double rock and west point. the police department is also a key part of this solution. they will dedicate a significant amount of officers to the bayview district working from 2:00 until midnight on weekdays and at 2:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. on weekends. additionally, with it -- when its lateral graduates in two weeks, the entire class will complete their field training in the bay view during the important summer months. but the best way to prevent someone from committing violence is to engage that young person. that's why i have been

particularly focused on looking at different ways to get meaningful support for our youth the summer. some of these programs include a bill launch of our summer jobs plus program to create 5000 jobs and paid internships for city use at work in collaboration with the private sector. we have also focused on alternative activities like midnight basketball programs, and a special camp for juvenile justice system-involved youth. as always, to properly address public safety, the strategy must focus on of power in our communities to find solutions that work for them and i am thankful to have you as an ally in this effort. thank you very much. and thank you for your questions. supervisor chiu: i think that and said this month's question time. why don't we go to our consent a

gem. could you read items 2 through 11? >> items 2 through 11 comprise the consent agenda and will be acted on by single roll call vote unless a member would like to address one item. >> would anyone like to sever any of these items? >> [roll call] there are 11 ayes. supervisor chiu: those items are passed and the resolution is adopted. item 12. >> item 12 -- item amending the

san francisco business and tax regulations code article 12-8 by adding that section 906.5 to permit apparel expense tax exclusion for small business net new payroll for years 2012 through 2015. >> last week i made a call to delay this vote on this tax exemption. i did so because voting in favor of it at this time when the budget has been passed on from the mayor to the board of supervisors, to approve this measure would create eight efficent according to the controller. i have heard or between $1.5 million and $2 million. that would be revenue we would

be for going afford to improve a payroll tax exemption. ipad -- i have real concerns about whether we should make that type of decision when we are looking at our budget priorities. i would rather start a discussion about what the budget priorities are going to be while -- starting at 0 rather than starting at -$2 million. we also have a gross receipts package that would transition our business tax to a gross receipts tax with a small business tax exemption of $1 million. we are actually moving a forward changes to the business tax that are going to make this exemption not as important in the coming years. also, if we were to approve this business tax measure, the

businesses that would benefit from it would not be paying their payroll tax until february of next year. if we were to actually play this vote until november -- i'm trying to get online to look at when we have in november, the 13th or the 20 s, if the clerk could help me with that day, that regrate. we can vote on this measure knowing whether we have passed the gross receipts tax with a small business tax exemption and that is a way of looking at our business tax and exemptions and a much fairer way because it looks at the exemptions -- we're limiting taxes for small businesses and increasing taxes for large businesses that have the ability to pay, so i would like to think we could delay this vote, colleagues you have

expressed in your position on this measure by voting in favor of it 10-one, so it seems like businesses can anticipate there will be getting a business tax exemption based on whether we approve this in november were prove it today, there is no difference on when they are going to be paying the tax, there for a delay is not going to matter. we have indicated we are supportive as a body and they can benefit from the tax and hire people expecting they will get a break in the next year's business tax. that is my motion -- that's we can have a delay on the second reading of this measure until november 20 of this year. supervisor chiu: supervisor avalos has made a motion and a

supervisor olague has seconded it. >> this is the result of lots and lots of outreach in san francisco both in my office and my district in particular. months and months of hard work and the final provisions were made in collaboration with a number of community stakeholders, not only are small businesses, but it will ensure there is no wage theft going on. the boat -- the vote was unanimous and we voted 10-1 last week to make it happen. i appreciate the comments. he was the only supervisor to vote against it last week and i appreciate the fact he is attempting to delay or overturn this legislation.

but this is the exact same reason we should support this now. it should become effective immediately. we have a massive unemployment rate in san francisco, hovering at about 7.5%. thanks in part to the policies we have implemented in at city hall. we have tens of thousands of san franciscans out of work. we have tax incentives that we did for bed market regarding stock options but we have not done anything for our small business community. this is a statement that we support our small business community. this legislation is set to take effect right away. we want to create jobs now. if we delay this until november, we are kicking the can down the road saying to unemployed san franciscans, we support this policy but not until a future date when it's convenient for us. we should focus on them first and not us.

second, any gross receipts legislation does not take effect until 2014. delaying until november makes 0 cents. at a minimum, of gross receipts are on the ballot, which i am confident they will be in one form or another, it will not take effect until 2014. that means this legislation and incentive for small businesses to put san franciscans back to work will have a year and half of affect. we want to create jobs and supporter small business committee now, not kick the can down the road. as we have all stated, whether in the budget process or out of the budget process, it's a statement of our policies here at the board. i will stand with people here in san francisco that are unemployed right now. i stand with them as they look for work and look for city hall

to help them and i choose to stand with our small business community and i hope you do the same today. supervisor chiu: i have a question -- i think one concerned a number of us have had is that in the context of the upcoming budget discussions, this particular measure, if it ends up passing, will not impact of the work we do in the coming weeks. i know this has been raised whether we get the board but have to specifically replace the money come potentially $2 million, that this might cost in the next year. could you respond to that? >> thank you. if this legislation were to pass, something the mayor has indicated his support for for quite awhile now, he understands that a supervisor farrell