>> good afternoon, welcome to the monday, october 22nd, 2012 small business commission meeting. the time is now 2:08 p.m. and the meeting is being called to order. at this time if you could please turnoff all your cell phones and electronic devices. there's a sign-up sheet at the front table if you'd like to be on our mailing list and speaker cards are also available. item 1 is roll call. commissioner adams? >> here. >> commissioner o'brien? >> present. >> commissioner dooley? >> here. >> commissioner dwight? >> here. >> commissioner

ortiz-cartagena? mr. president, we have a quorum. >> great. next item. >> item 2 is presentation of the small business commission certificate of honor recognizing a city employee (jennifer matz) as part of the sbc "city employee recognition program". i believe director dickens has some opening remarks. >> yes, thank you. so, jennifer matz, please step up to the podium. as part -- the small business commission has the recognition program for employees of the city and county of san francisco who have really -- who have either support our small businesses and in your case you have been a real champion for the small business commission and our office. so, commissioner mark dwight has nominated you to receive recognition from the small business commission, and he is going to be presenting you with our certificate of recognition.

>> okay. now, the official business here. certificate of honor -- where is the camera? [laughter] >> okay. so, this is the official certificate of honor, small business commission of the city and county of san francisco acknowledging jennifer matz from the office of economic and workforce development, on this monday, october 22nd, 2012, the small business commission is proud to acknowledge the contributions of jennifer matz, office of economic and workforce development, has made the small business in the city and county of san francisco. the commission recognizes that through your leadership as director and deputy director of the office of economic and workforce development, the city significantly increased its services and support to the small business community. the expansion of the enterprise zone program, creation of the small business assistance center, creation of the neighborhood marketplace

initiative, introduction of the mayor's revolving loan fund, sf made collaboration and numerous other programs and policies were initiated under your guidance and leadership. your leadership has contributed to the economic diversity of san francisco and has create aid healthy economy that successfully weathered the worst economic crisis since the great depression. the commission wishes you well in your future endeavors including shepherding the iconic waterfront development the mayor has tasked to you. thank you very much. >> thank you. (applause) >> and on behalf of -- i present you with this gold sf made tin. >> thank you so much. >> can i take a minute to thank the commissioners? >> yes, please.

>> i was really very delighted to hear that i had been nominated for this and i am very, very pleased to be recognized by the small business commission. i started working for the city about nine years ago for supervisor alioto-pier, and one of the first things we worked on together was proposition i that we took to the voters that included the creation of the small business assistance center, and really aimed to dedicate more resources to small businesses. and i consider myself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of you directly. some of you worked indirectly worked with regina many years, to. worked with commissioner e. rely on the formation of the small business revolving loan fund. obviously to have worked with commissioner dwight on the sf made collaborative. commissioner dooley and i have worked together on numerous measures that have come before this commission over the years and it's really been a pleasure to oftentimes work in the early stages of a program or a

concepts and shepherd them, help give them some form and launch them and hand them over to folks who really spend their lives day in and day out working with small business. the neighborhood economic development work that the office of economic and workforce does affecting probably the most meaningful and impactful work that we do that really touches the most people and it's really the work that i found myself extraordinarily attracted to, but couldn't necessarily dedicate as much time to as i would have liked. and it was always such a comfort to know that there was a commission of such skills and dedicated folks, a staff in the office of small business, a staff working in oewd doing neighborhood economic development that could be counted on to be the front lines. so, it's very heartening to receive this recognition for the larger kind of policy work that i try to help shepherd. and while i'm now focused on three larger scale projects, there will be opportunities for

small business to influence the development of those projects and some of the priorities. and i look forward to continuing to work with you in the months and years ahead. thank you very, very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. (applause)

>> next item. >> next item, item number 3, introduction of office of economic and workforce development director todd rufo. director, did you have any opening comments? >> i'd like to introduce you to todd rufo who has taken over for the director of office of economic and workforce development. and since many of you -- we became very familiar with jennifer matz when she was the director and deputy director because she was before the commission, remember, as she said we worked on many projects together. so, i wanted to have an opportunity to make sure that you got to know our new director for the office of economic workforce development and for todd to introduce himself to you and give you a bit of his background and perhaps some plans that he might have.

>> welcome aboard. >> thank you so much. thank you, commissioners. and thank you, regina. todd rufo, office of economic workforce development. it's been five years since i've been with office of economic workforce development. those entire five years i worked for jennifer matz so i've worked with her closely and have to say that it's been an inspiring and incredibly rewarding experience being able to work for her those five years. i'm so thrilled about her new role leading the weighter front development which is so critical to this city. so, thank you for everything that jennifer and i learned from you and the opportunities that you gave to me. so, thank you for that. commissioners, you know, the city just last week we announced the city's unemployment rate, it was at 6.9%. that's down from 9.6% in january 2011. so, it's crossed that 7% threshold, which is more psychological than anything. we continue to lead the nation, the metro area, san francisco metro area, lead the nation in

job growth and that's ahead of number 2, silicon valley number 3, sugar land texas, sugar land houston, texas. number 3 in the state of california. nevertheless, the unemployment rate is still relatively high. there is much work that still needs to be done which is an area that in taking on this role that i focus on a great deal. one of the things that from my past experience working in the manufacturing sector to working with the small businesses and my past history working in new york or in san jose, i care deeply and love deeply the opportunities and challenges that our neighborhood businesses, our small businesses, our neighborhood commercial corridors, our local manufacturers, that they face. and take to heart and take to being critical as part of my role in this -- leading the economic development team to not only ensure we create the conditions for success for small businesses, provide

strong assistance for them, good programs that make a difference, but that we're also connecting san francisco businesses and residents for the small business we're creating. long-winded way of saying i'm looking forward to working with the commission. and just want to say thank you also to regina and her incredible team of chris and christian, martha and jane who all really are incredible staff members who regina works with closely. and i think it makes a difference in the city. >> okay, thank you. welcome aboard. >> thank you. >> look forward to working with you. >> thank you, todd. >> next item. >> commissioners, item 4, approval of the september 10, 2012 meeting minutes; explanatory documents; draft september 10, 2012 minutes. >> do we have a motion to

approve the minutes? >> i motion to approve. >> second. >> roll call. >> would you like a roll call vote? >> yes. >> okay. on that motion, commissioner adams? >> aye. >> commissioner dooley? >> yes. >> commissioner dwight? >> yes. >> commissioner is absent. commissioner o'brien? >> yes. >> commissioner white is absent. commissioner [speaker not understood]? >> yes. >> commissioners, that passes 5 to 0. >> great. next item. >> commissioners, item 5 is general public comment, allows members of the public to comment generally on matters within the commission's purview, and suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. >> do we have any members of the public here who would like to comment on items that are not on today's agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please.

>> commissioners, item number 6, discussion and possible action to make recommendations to the board of supervisors on board of supervisors file no. 120880 [planning code - valencia street neighborhood commercial transit district]. ordinance amending the san francisco code, section 726.52, of the zoning control table, for the valencia street neighborhood commercial transit district to: 1, permit personal service use on the third story and above with a conditional use authorization; and 2, make environmental findings, planning code section 302 findings, and findings of consistency with general plan and the priority policies of planning code section 101.1. this is a discussion and action item. >> welcome, hillary. >> hi. >> we see a lot of you. i love it. >> thank you for an opportunity to come before you and just tell you a little bit about this legislation which is a pretty simple piece of legislation. this issue came to our attention when one of our constituents in the mission who runs a massage training school

was unable to get the permits that he needed in order to open his school on the valencia street corridor. the reason -- well, there were several, there were several reasons. i'm trying to sort that out. what we came to was that a personal service use on the valencia street corridor was not allowed on the third story or above in a building, and he wanted to open his school on that third story. and, so, when we investigated the reasons why these uses were prohibited above the second floor, the reason had been previously that they wanted to ensure that there was enough housing in the valencia commercial corridor district and didn't want to see a lot of business above the first and second floor. however, prior to those controls being -- after those controls were put in place, there were other measures that the planning department put in

place to ensure that enough housing was being built in the neighborhood. and supervisor campos does feel like those controls do the trick. and, so, that the controls that prohibited pursuing use service above the second floor were really out date and had didn't make sense to have them any more. so, what this legislation does is it allows a personal use service above the second floor, so, third floor and above with the conditional use permit in the valencia street corridor. that's it. >> any commissioner comments? >> there is still a way to -- i mean, this is a conditional use. so, you still have to go through the approval process. >> that's right. >> commissioner o'brien. >> was there any outreach on this proposal done so far for people -- i know david is pretty good at reaching out to the community. he's local, connected with his community. i imagine he's got very few

people that have a problem with it. he would have found out if there was. just curious. >> we made some phone calls to merchants in the area, to housing advocacy groups and did not hear any complaints about this, given that it's a conditional use permit. if there was a problem that anyone had about a specific project, there is a process in place that they can go through in order to oppose a particular project, but to link the prohibition use of this third floor, that didn't make sense any more. we did not hear any complaints. >> and, commissioner o'brien noted in your binder, we checked with valencia street merchants and they didn't take any formal action on it, but were fine with it. >> okay, thank you. >> and this item has not been heard at planning yet, so, there will be further opportunity for anyone who does have any issues with the legislation to express themselves. but we have not heard anybody that has any problem with it.

>> okay. >> any other questions? i just have one, and it's on the third floor and you see a lot of this coming up now, is a-d-a issues. and i just want to make sure that any businesses going into a third floor location, they are educated on, you know, the a-d-a issues and making sure they get a cast inspection and -- >> and we have been in discussion with the director tracy about this and we'll be working with your office on that. >> you approve somebody, and they can't open because of a-d-a. >> or they open and get sued. >> we don't want to have that either. >> absolutely, absolutely. thank you so much. >> okay. do we have any public comment on this item? commissioners, [speaker not understood]. this was brought to me initially with the gentleman who wanted to open a school up.

it's a legitimate massage school. and when we went to the planning department we found out that this was the case, we really couldn't go through unless we had some legislation written to change that. so, i've been approached, supervisor jane kim. and she said, well, with the redistricting, go ahead and talk to supervisor david campos, which i did do. and he was so kind enough to get onto this really quite quickly. so, i urge you to go ahead and approve this recommendation. thank you. >> great, thank you very much. >> i also want to finish up by saying, of course, we're going to be addressing the a-d-a and everything else. [speaker not understood]. thank you. * >> commissioner o'brien. >> just jumping the gun maybe, but if people have a comment to make, go ahead and make it, but i would make a motion to approve this. it seems to me to be a fairly common sense recommendation and

provided the a-d-a thing is covered i can't see there being a serious objection to it. so, i'd like to make a motion to approve it as stated. >> do we have any other public comment on this issue? okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> the motion is on the floor. >> i second it. >> okay. commissioners, we have a motion by commissioner o'brien to recommend approval to the board of supervisors the board of supervisors file 1208 80, seconded by commissioner driest. >> roll call? >> yes. >> chad? -- commissioner adams? >> . yes. >> [speaker not understood]. [roll call] >> commissioners, that passes +6 to -0. >> great. thank you very much.

next item. >> commissioners, you are now on item number 7, discussion and possible action to make recommendations to the board of supervisors on board of supervisors file no. 120965 [business and tax regulations code - prevent termination of payroll expense tax exclusion for small business net new payroll if voters adopt gross receipts tax]. this is ordinance amending the san francisco business and tax regulations code article 12-a by amending section 906.5 to prevent the payroll expense tax exclusion for small business net new payroll for years 2012 through 2015 from terminating in the event the voters of the city and county of san francisco pass a gross receipts tax. and your binder is the file number legislative digest, and we have a presentation by margo kelly, legislative aid to supervisor mark farrell. >> welcome. >> again, i'm a legislative aid to supervisor farrell. i'll be speaking on behalf of him today.

the legislation that is before you today, it's clean-up legislation to supervisor farrell's payroll expense tax exclusion that was before this commission earlier this year. the original intent of the original legislation was for small businesses to take advantage of this from 2012 to 2015. and it was actually drafted before the gross receipts ballot initiative that's on the ballot cycle, that language had been finalized, which included, if that had passed it, our legislation would not go into effect. but we realize now with the legislation, with the gross receipts file initiative, small businesses won't be able to have their payroll expense tax rate reduced until 2014. so, to stick with the original intent of our legislation for 2012 to 2015, this actually prevents the termination of the event -- of the gross receipts

tax passing. the original legislation and this legislation has the support of five of supervisor farrell's colleagues. campos, elsbernd, chiu, weaner and cohen. >> do we have any commissioner comments? >> just for my own education, how is this going to work in 2014 when -- [multiple voices] >> explain that to folks [speaker not understood]. >> small businesses will be able to get the payroll expense tax exclusion with our legislation through 2016. it won't be until actually february of 2017 when they apply -- when they let the tax collector know about their -- the actual amount that they paid in payroll out for 2016. so, they actually -- and as

gross receipts phases in, that will be starting 2014, their payroll tax liability will start to go down. so, in 2014 it reduces i think by 75%. so, it's 1-1/2% now and starting in 2014 it will be 75% of that. then slowly going down from there. >> thanks. >> any other commissioner comments? >> yeah, i would just say that this -- sorry to recap or go backwards here. it's basically to protect the small businesses to be not clobbered in the intervening years between now and when the gross receipts come into effect? >> it does. it helps the phasing in of gross receipts and gives small businesses additional relief on their liability for payroll tax. >> yeah, okay.