>> is beautiful. quarkrights i would like to come here and join them >> >> good evening. welcome to the joint meeting on the status of women and the small business

commission. today is april 8, 2013. the time is 6:00 p.m.. first item before we begin we would like to thank sfgtv for continue support for our meetings and media services. the first item is call to order and agenda changes and we will have a welcome by president adams from the small businesses commission and first we will go through roll call for the small business commission. president adams. >> here. >> vice-president white. >> here. >> commissioner dooley. >> here. >> commissioner dwight. >> here. >> it commissioner o'brien. >> here. >> commissioner oritz-caragena. >> here. >> commissioner irene yee riley. >> he. >> for the commission on status of women president julie soo will join us shortly. commissioner kirshner-rodriguez. >> here.

>> and commissioner sherter. >> here. >> we have another commissioner joining us shortly did you do you have any remarks? >> this meeting is overdue and welcome. this is an exciting meeting tonight because women in small business play a very important role here in san francisco. you know we have -- i want to acknowledge commissioner dooley and commissioner white of the small business commission. their contributions that they have made and commissioner riley in business, and we got some very cool presentations, and i really want to welcome the commission in this joint meeting today. >> thank you. i have several agenda announcements. under section a new business --

section a for starting your business item four la cocina will be moved to item number one. for item number three regreena dick-endrizzi will be presenting instead of martha yanez for the economics one ms. jones will be presenting. national association of women owners and sf made will not be presenting tonight but they will be making brief remarks. at this time mr. president of the small business commission we can take a motion to approve the agenda. >> do we have a motion to approve the agenda this evening? and we can just do a voice vote. >>i move. >> i second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> motion approved. next item

please. >> commissioners we're under section two which is commission overview and we will begin with the small business commission and i believe president adams you have some remarks. >> yes. thank you. and i'm going just going to give a quick overview on the small business commission. the small business commission was chartered by proposition d in november of 2003. the commission consists of seven appointees and mayoral appointees. the commission oversees the office of small business which is the city central point of information and referral for entrepreneurials and small businesses located within the city and county of san francisco. by championing business friendly policies marketing the contribution of the small business sector and developing appropriate system programs the small business

commission and the office of small business work to support and enhance the environment where small businesses can succeed and flourish. the small business commission reviews pertinent legislation and policy matters and make recommendations to the sponsor of the legislation including the mayor and the board of supervisors and other city agencies. the commission, the office of small business and the small business assistance center are staffed by an executive director, a commission secretary, senior policy analyst, a project manager systems analyst, case manager, project manager and case managers and the small business assistance supervisor and case manager. our commission meetings are held the second monday of every month which is today in city hall in room 400 beginning at 4:30 p.m. and the fourth monday of the

month in city hall in room 400 beginning at 2:00 o'clock. less otherwise noted. all our commission meetings are open to the public and broadcast live on channel 26 which we are tonight and i want to thank sfgtv for all their support. last year the commission heard flea 33 ordinances and make recommendations. >> >> many which were adopted by the board of supervisors on key legislative measures. the commission has heard 23 policy measures in 2013. the office of small business serves 190 clients in 2008 and 2009 and we have increase that volume -- last year we served 2800 small business clients. the office and department is working on a

number of projects right now and programs. we are doing a rebranding project. 88 outreach and technical projects, streamlining retail, recycling, long-term vacancies, small business priority processing at the planning department. we are involved with implementation affordable >> care out and the gross receipts and i want to note that 30% of all the businesses in small businesses in san francisco are women owned and are consistent with the state wide average. i look forward to hearing from the presenters on ways to improve this number and increase women entrepreneurialship among women so thank you. >> thank you mr. president. i

want to make an announcement that president julie soo has joined us and if it's okay we go back to item one and if president soo would like to make some opening remarks. >> thank you. i apologize for being late. we are pleased to have this meeting today and we have been instrumental in equal pay for women and what was launched recently with the gender equity principles to balance -- have a work place balance and that includes men and without the support of the entire city and the agencies we couldn't make this work possible. as you know we do work on domestic violence and human trafficking and for the domestic violence victims psychologically it's difficult to leave a united states

-- abusive relationships and it's difficult to leave the situation. we are impressed with programs like the womens' initiative which launches entrepreneurial programs for women and in particular immigrant women. what is impressive after the intensive training they do have the ability to open a business within one year and after five years those businesses are sustainable which is very impressive given the atmosphere that we have today so i look forward to working with the small business commission further. we have heard and will hear from the human rights commission in terms of contracting for women owned businesses. we have taken in voluntarily data and businesses have to select a women owned business or minority business owners and we have asked business owner what is is more

advantage us to? and seems it's the minority owned businesses but we want women to have the best opportunities. we are looking for trade associations to train women in skilled occupations in skilled labor where there is a shortage of women and we're also promoting young girls to entertain the stem curriculum which is very big right now, science, engineering and techcology and mathematics. we want to make sure everyone is equipped for every job possible and our technology sectors there are is not enough women in the population in general and there are a lot of openings in the computer science field so we look forward working with you to open up the job sectors for women. >> thank you. >> thank you president soo. with that commissioners we will return to section two which is

commission overview and we're on item b which is the department on the status of women and we have director murase. >> good evening everyone. so thrilled to be here. this is really a historic moment. we haven't had a joint meeting with the small business commission so we're excite body today r tonight. i want to thank your director regina dick-endrizzi and others that were a pleasure to work with and they put in many hours to see that tonight worked smoothly so i'm going to give a few slides based on our annual report what it is that we do. the commission of status of women was established by the board of supervisors in 1975 and was a permanent in the charter in 1994 so the focus areas are

gender equity in the work place and anti-violence and gender analysis and what is the over arching umblellia is the ordinance and the elimination of discrimination against all women. that was a un convention and signed by then president jimmy carter. anybody remember jimmy carter? it's never been ratifyed in the u.s. senate and states have ratified it, signed it with the exception of the united states, so in 1998 women of san francisco said that is not good enough. we're going to create our own ordinance reflecting this international bill of rights for women. next slide. so in terms of work place you will hear a little bit more from our policy director ann lehmas who is going to step in for someone who had a last minute something come up but we

launched this initiative together with cal vert investments and a human rights monitoring organization to help our employers create gender equitable work places, and for that work ann and i went to miland italy to receive an award from the italian government for the international work life balance award. we also work for working mothers. we working on lactation accumulations and guidelines in what employers have to do with moms and accommodating them and we're are putting together a brochure on family leave policy. next slide. the other area where we do a lot of work is in antiviolence against women. commissioner shorter chairs our panel on domestic violence reform and from the year 2000 a

brutal homicide of a san francisco mom by her ex-boy, mr. raer ez. there have been recommendations. we did audits and it's been a wonderful collaboration with the criminal justice agencies. as a city we invest $3 million annually to anti-domestic violence and assault programs and shelters and hot lines counseling, prevention education, and finally the third aspect of our anti-violence work is our family violence council. we meet on a quarterly basis and the courts and the school district scption all the agencies that touch violence and the consortium and child and elder abuse agencies and very, very proud to announce through this work we have totally eliminated domestic violence homicides in san francisco in 2012. 10 years ago

we had about 10 a year, mostly women, and in past few years we had one or two but as of last year we had zero and we're still counting. we're in month 15 hoping that we can keep to that. final area in anti-violence -- next slide -- is human trafficking and unfortunately san francisco has the distinction of income the fbi's top hubs, l.a. and san diego as well. the average age of the trafficked child is travel. an annual salary of a pimp on the streets of san francisco -- you know this person could be a woman -- controlling four women on the streets can make upward to $700,000, single person controlling four women and they have to feed and clothe and house these people, so let's make it a $600,000 tax free.

it's an enormous amount of money so we're really trying to surface this issue to have a response as a city, and since 2010 we have been working with the san francisco collaborative against human trafficking and commissioner rodriquez has been very active in that. moving on to gender analysis we have been looking closely at city commissions and boards and every two years we conduct a gender analysis. we are very pleased to see gender balance on the small business commission. not all of our commissions are gender balanced although the last time we did our report it was about 50% but still there is under representation of asian americans and latinos compared to the numbers in their population. we also recent did an update on girls in san francisco. we saw a 51% decline in teen pregnancy which was astounding. however a rise in

poverty among african-american girls which is unacceptable and finally we did a section on lesbian lgbt young people, girls, and we found that 53% of lesbian girls are considered suicide so clearly they're an under served community. next slide. sometimes with the outreach most is in the gender equality initiative and this work and also the other areas that i touched on and finally in terms of our staffing we are small but mighty. i have five staff not all whom work full time. amy allison is the outreach director and ann lehmas our policy director and we have a grant administrator and we're lucky to have interns and fellows interesting several

people at this time and unfortunately [inaudible] couldn't be here tonight so ann lehmas is going to step in and say a few words about our very latest initiative. >> so we're launching a new initiative next monday with the mayor at 1130. you're all welcome to come in room 416 and it's called the gender equality challenge and what it is we're basically asking san francisco businesses to enter their model practices that create gender equality in the work place. now we are focusing this first year on large companies, but we do have any number of small companies that work on our council. we have a child care center and a advertising agency that are both very small companies that work with us on this, and we expect that in the near future like next year we

hope to look at different sizes, but the first year we're launching this and basically the thought is if we take the model practices and share them both in forums and roundtables and on the web that are reputable other businesses can then implement them and it will be spending the gender equality in the work place so we are launching that program next monday and we hope that you can help us spread the word. >> great. thank you. okay. do we have -- we need to take public comment now on item number two, so do we have public comment on item two? seeing none public comment is closed. next item. >> commissioners this puts you on item three joint consent agenda and on the agenda is a resolution recognizeing may 13-18 as san francisco small

business week 2013, and that's in your packet, and just to summarize the -- just to summarize the resolution. the resolution is on behalf of both commissions. the resolution begins with several clauses that describe san francisco specific demographics and figures. then it discusses some demographics that relate to national statistics. then we provide some specifics on what would be the shift of funding from large chains to small retailers followed by some demographics and statistics on women owned businesses, and then be it resolved that the city and county of san francisco small business commission and commission on status of women recognize this week as san

francisco small business week with the theme "small businesses shaping our communities" and further resolve that the city and county of san francisco small business commission and the commission on status of women encourage entrepreneurs and small business owners particularly women to participate in small business week events throughout the week. with that mr. president and ms. president i recommend public comment and then a motion to adopt. >> okay. do we have public comment on item number three? okay. public comment is closed. >>i would like to move the resolution. >> i would second. >> all those in favor? >> aye. >> thank you. unanimous. >> thank you commissioners. that puts you on section four which is new business and under

section four is item a. it's starting your business and we have several organizations along with the office of small business. each organization has been asked to provide background on their organization programs that they offer, some specifics on women owned businesses and entrepreneurs. we asked them when appropriate if they could make policy recommendations. as announced at the start of the meeting the first presenter will be la cocina. we have caleb zigas, executive director. >> welcome. >> and let me switch microphones and commissioners i could also add for this presentation along with several other presentations in your packet we have a copy of the powerpoints. >> yes. hi guys. thanks so much for having me. i hope i'm doing the presentation right here. i am caleb and i am from la cocina and a nonprofit

organization located in the mission district here in san francisco. cool. so i think i was going to talk about what la cocina does just in case some of you don't know. hopefully in the off chance that you all know and maybe about what we see as the barriers existing and the potential solutions but our mission is help treps and providing commercial space and technical xeaft existence and access to market and capabilities and focus on immigrant women and women of colors and born out of initiatives for women so overall the goals is improve profits and enhance quality of life for families and local community. the history of la cocina is that was born out of san francisco

mission's district and the womens' initiative and others were doing in writing plans with inspiring entrepreneurs. there are lots of informal entrepreneurs at the time and folks and mostly women selling food from the home or on the street to supplement the income they were getting. i think probably many of you know in micro communities is a really easy way for immigrants to enter into the marketplace and e conspire for women who are. >> home with the children or denied entry into the regular work force so seeing a need to formalize the food businesses and transition them into the formal economy so for instance work with a woman working successfully and making money for the family and transition her to income patching to asset generation. the idea in that sense they're are towns and

entrepreneurs. they found their market and margins and something they can bring and do so they're successful as entrepreneurs in the informal marketplace. the idea of la cocina to transit that into a broader marketplace and instead of dollars here or there and create the wealth with business ownership and has impact for them and families and communities. it's really moving over there on the screens. a lot of action. sorry about that. so that was the general idea of la cocina and we open our doors in 2005. you can see a picture if it stops moving over there but the idea is give that affordable kitchen space at a subsidized rate. you know it's incredibly difficult to get into the industry no matter who are you and there are barriers with cost and regulations so

the goal of la cocina is subsidize that with the kitchen space and focus on what some of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make entering the marketplace. because there is not a structured supportive business owners for new competitive business owners it's hard to navigate, what you can't navigate so la cocina besides the physical space are about the workings of the industry. we go from application to incubation and graduation and we are lucky to work with these organizations with la cocina and take the entrepreneurs with their ideas and solid business plan and bring them into the market place. we doe provide all of these things and important ment torships and

like minded business owners in the space. can you see a couple of the women that we serve here. right now there are 33 organizations in the business and 35 different businesses that use the kitchen and 33 receive technical assistance and had 13 graduate to their own spaces. 100% are low income. 97% are women and immigrants and count english as a second language and when we decided what to do at la cocina is identify what are the barriers to the food industry? so if you have seen rat tutuie it's difficult to get into the industry and as comical the movie is it's a real thing. they're long grueling days. they're competitive and a lot is not about what you do but who you are and behave in a kitchen space. moving up through family restaurants is nearly impossible to do and through large

industrial restaurants like the cheese cake factory has potential but there is limited opportunity so we are working with women who are talented cooks and start at the bottom of the restaurant and try to move up but are limited to the choices in front of them and how they act in the kitchen and how people perceive them to be. one example is veronica salazar and graduate and was cooking out of her home in the tender knob and working on the pant reef a couple restaurants in san francisco. she had a restaurant owning family in mexico city. she had been working forever in the lines not making more than $11 an hour and started this informal foot enterprise out of her home. without these groups

she would have remained in the home and we launched her at farmers market and she has a restaurant growing about a million dollars so these are entrepreneurs that are talented to begin with and we're are capitalizing on that. you can see some of the statistics there. some of the reasons we get women engaged in la cocina are the barriers to entry. i mentioned them and women are treated poorly in businesses and small businesses as well. the informal food economy is a really accessible place for people to start and with issues like child care and having to be the cultural expectation of raising a family informal food businesses offer supplemental income to women who want to spend time with their families. again this is moving from selling a couple of tamales on the street to owning a factory is a big leap but not one that is impossible and finally what i think is important a lot of the

women that come to la cocina what they have is incredible powerful and what a lot of entrepreneurs are looking for in san francisco which is a talent and product. there are restaurants built on marketing and perception and they're looking for a chef and we have women who are incredible chefs and don't have an idea how to bring that talent to market so we divide the business in a couple categories and i mention that because they're different in terms of getting into the marketplace. direct foods and direct to consumers and there is language around that in san francisco and why they do that but you will see a dirkt in san francisco -- not a absence but proportional of who is cooking at home and there is one of the that we try