small business commission meeting. the time is now 2:07 p.m. and the meeting is being called to order. before we begin we would like to thank city hall media service and sfgovtv for their continued support of our meetings. we would like to ask members of public to turn off your

cellphones and digital devices. first item, roll call, president adams? >> here. >> commissioner white? will be joining us momentarily. commissioner dooley? >> here. >> commissioner dwight? >> here. >> commissioner o'brien will be joining us. commissioner ortiz-cartagena is absent/excused. [skph-eurgs/] yee commissioner yee riley. >> aye. >> commissioners we have a quorum. >> thank you. first item. >> commissioners, item 2 is general public comment, this allows members of public to comment generally on matters within the commissioner's purview and suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. do we have any members of the public who would like to make a comment on anything that is not on today's agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next all right. >> commissioners, this places you on item no. 3, discussion and possible action to make

recommendations to the board of supervisors on board of supervisors file no. 120 996 administrative code healthy food retailer incentive program, ordinance amending the san francisco administrative cold by adding chapter 59, sections 59.1-59.9, to establish a healthy food retailer incentive program to oversee and coordinate the city's incentive and assistance programs for healthy food retailers. explanator documents is the board of supervisors file no. 120996 and presentation by nickolas pagoulatos legislative aide to supervisor eric mar. >> thank you again for this opportunity. this is a revised version of the original legislation that you considered. it's improved in some

significant ways. primarily we have had an opportunity to work with both the community, as well as to reach out to other supervisors, particularly those supervisors who would receive the most benefit from this legislation. so as you will see, we do co-sponsorship from supervisors from districts 6 and 10 and we had the opportunity to examine the questions and suggestions made at this committee, specifically as to how we could improve the legislation and we have incorporated some of the suggestions that were made into the revised version that you have in front of you. the goals remain the same. we wish to support small businesses in san francisco in this case particularly convenient stores and convenient stores in those parts of san francisco where there is a lack of access to

healthy food. again, that right now would primarily be in the tenderloin and bayview districts, but we are also looking at other areas of the city where the program could be expanded. the outer richmond, which we discovered through the work of the department of public health, where there is had a lack of access to healthy food and visitation valley, where there is a lack to healthy food and in the future we would like to expand into those areas. but for now, what we're going to be doing is focusing on where resources are currently being deployed by the city. the way the legislation works is fairly straightforward. we are going to be working primarily with the department -- i'm sorry with the office of economic and workforce development and using the resources that are already at

play through the invest in neighborhoods program to help store owners who wish to turn their stores around and become less reliant on alcohol and tobacco and really become healthier, not just in terms of what they are offering to the community, but also as examples of how stores can become different. how change can happen in neighborhoods through existing businesses. it's an idea that came to us, as a result of looking at what was happening in san francisco, as a result of the expansion of formula retail. a lot of our small businesses are being adversely impacted by formula retail. one way of approaching the problem is to build up the capacity of our existing businesses by making them more competitive by meeting the demands of changing demographics in neighborhoods. and also by giving them the ability to provide products

that may be in demand in certain neighborhoods, but that just aren't present. so we are going to be piggy-backing on work that is already happening through oewd, through the department of public health, and just as importantly, through community-based organizations like the southeast food access coalition and the corner store coalition in the tenderloin that are working not just with merchants, but also with the community to show the benefits of healthy eating to work with community members to show them how to cook with healthy foods, with fresh foods and how to store fresh foods. so it's a really comprehensive program that is going to be housed in oewd. it's going to provide a one-stop resource center, where a merchant, who has an interest in making the change can come, and get information not just about the technical aspects of it, but how to access that

community support to get his customers to really see the benefits of healthy eating and make sure that there is going to be a demand for these new products. the other thing that i wanted to mention is that we did listen to some of the concerns that were raised at the commission the last time we were here. there was a desire to have ongoing input from an advisory group. oewd is going to be charged with convening such a group that is going to consist of again community members, merchants, and also just as importantly, we're also going to be working with consultants in the field who have done store makeovers,, as well as food distributors, fresh food distributors, who can help us to work out how to get price points down. so that this merchandise cannot only be accessible to the merchants, but can also be sold at price points that are going to be

achievable in the neighborhoods that these stores are in. we also examined the issue of establishing a safety net for the businesses that do choose to embark on the path of becoming healthy food retailers. initially the idea was to let's look at perhaps tax breaks to create a safety net for those businesses, that see a drop in income after the first year of embarking on this path. we looked at that with the tax assessor's office and we looked at that with the city attorney's office and frankly, it's just not -- it's not a benefit that would benefit as many of the businesses as we would like because of the change in the city's tax code. a lot of these businesses are not going to be paying that much in taxes anyway. so in its stead what we decided to do was offer a three-year commitment on the part of oewd and the department of public health so if a business starts

on this path and runs into problems those departments and all of their services will be there for a minimum of three years to ensure that technical assistance will be there for them all the way down the road until they achieved the goals that they set out for themselves. as i said, we have been working very closely with both city departments, as well as community members. today we are going to be joined by jorge rivas from oewd, who will talk about the role of oewd in this program and susannah lavery, from department of public health, who has done the work on the ground and she will talk about what is already happening in the bayview and in the tenderloin and we're also going to be edby larry brucia

who can talk about how it happens and how feasible this sort of change is and finally, i wanted to bring up camell, former president of the american grocers association who has been tremendously helpful in helping us to make it better legislation and he is going to talk about how the merchants' community views this legislation. so thank you very much again for this opportunity. i am looking forward to any questions that you may have and hopefully for your support. thank you very much and would like to turn it over to jorg rivas from oewd. >> commissioners, thank you, nick. my name is jorge rivas with the office of economic and workforce development and we're just here to show our support

for the legislation and illustrate some details of how it will be implemented from our office. our office has committed funding for the next fiscal year, to support the program. oversee the implementation of the program through the investment framework and in addition to that, we'll be paying for the consultant. some of the technical assistance that will be provided to small businesses and in addition to that they would pay for interventions that the businesses are interested in. phase 1 is the assessment of these businesss and with our community partners we would select the businesses that would like to participate and go through the assessment and secondly, second phase they will be provided with the actual technical assistance and terventions of the program. so again, the money will go -- first fiscal year, and the

following year will be in charge of monitoring and making sure that the businesses are successful. and i will be around for any questions, if you have any. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon commissioners i am with the department of public health. so our motivation of course has been public health and the link between access to healthy food and chronic disease, of course especially in neighborhoods called "food deserts or food swamps." and one area is corner stores and we have been looking at research about this. there are other efforts along the lines across the country in improving access to healthy food can have a significant economic and health impact. there is research from philadelphia, for example that shows that a comprehensive approach to working with corner stores can actually address

disparities in low-income communities, working with corner stores and schools as well and stores can make money by selling healthy foods and they look at the profit margins like fresh breads and low-fat milk and fresh produce and things like that. the most effective scorn store programs are comprehensive and that is what we have been piloting here in san francisco. i will describe it quickly. essentially there are two main components, the third would be a policy, like this. but there is the community side. so in the bayview there is a team of young adult professionals called the food guardians who are from the community and actually drive this process and work with the corner stores and work with the corner store owners and do the campaigns and link up the stores more effectively with the faith-based organization, et cetera. they do door hangers to hang in the community for folks to shop in the stores. the second piece is the business side, which i won't

say much about, because larry brucia here to speak to that. looking at redesigning the store and freeing up space so produce and other healthy products can be highlighted and works very closely with our food guardians. in the tenderloin there are five leaders who have assessed over 50 stores in looking at ways to improve the offerings at those stores and work with studio. i just started to work with the american grocers association. so i just wanted to say that our idea around this comprehensive approach is to support the small mom and pops while addressing health inequities and strengthening community and promoting economic development. so i am available for questions after. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is larry

brucai and i started in the natural food industry with the invention of trail mix 40 years ago. 8 years ago i got to purchase the design-build company. we look at the corner store markets in a very unique way. we remodel and design all of the independent markets and, in fact, you probably have not visited a retailer in san francisco that we haven't probably touched one way or the other. but with the corner store markets it's a challenge. because they are very small, and the challenge is to be able to fit in produce and natural foods in a way that will be successful. so what we do is that we look very closely at the store and we do all the measurements within the store, and then we come up with a way to bring in fixtures and

shelving systems that allows them to keep the same products that they have, but now to be able to add to those products produce and natural foods. this way here, they don't alienate their existing customers and still keep the customers that are coming to their stores, but at the same time now, they are introducing and showing these new products to the neighborhood. and quite frankly, i haven't seen a store yet that hasn't had a customer base that wants to buy produce, because it's really a universal language of food all over the world, and we know it's not only important to get the store designed correctly and show how the products will fit and be there, but more importantly, it's a sustainability of the idea. because once that store is reset and looks great, now the challenge is to maintain it. so studio associates working with the san francisco public health department and the food guardians will continue to visit that store for the first

eight weeks. and then we will visit that store each month for the next three years or actually two and a half years. this way here, we continue to help the store owner understand how to keep that produce and those natural foods selling, sustainable and being relevant to the customer basis that they are in. so i think we have worked already with three stores in san francisco. the first store now we have actually we went from one 4' product section to two 4' produce sections in a very little store and we're very excited about that and the food guardians have been tremendous in following up with these retailers. so we're glad to be able to help the small business markets and delighted to bring natural foods into the little corner stores that sometimes get neglected. thank you very much and i will be available for questions. >> thank you. >> my name is camil, a board

member of the american grocers association and i am here on behalf of the board and members to support this program, because we see that in the interest of our members and in the benefit. thank you. >> thank you. any other speakers? great, commissioners any comments or questions? commissioner white? >> what is the typical budget to overhaul a corner store? >> as i mentioned we have been doing this as a pilot using grant money, which is why this is the logical next step.

and it's about $16,000 to $20,000 and that includes equipment. so shelving. produce bins, aisle tables, as well as the technical assistance. the actual time of the food guardians, and our time is in-kind from the department of public health and the food guardians comes from health promotion grants. that is separate. the way we have set it up, part of the $16,000 would be a grant and part of it is a loan over the 3-year period, which may be forgiveness, depending on the standards that are reached. >> okay. >> just so what we do is that we'll go into the store and we'll actually measure the complete store. so we now have what is called an as-built and we can put that on auto cad and

relayout the store based on that and determine the refrigeration and equipment and shelving. that is part of what we do in getting the store to look the way it needs to. >> thank you, commissioner dooley. >> can you tell us a little more about the centralized resource center? is that like a brick-and-mortar spot or online portal? what is that going to be like? >> thank you. actually, we were thinking about a centralized resource meaning the consultant, small business development center, our community partner, which we provided grant funding for this program and other programs in our office. not a location, but a place, where somebody can talk to you to guide them through the process. >> great.

thank you. commissioner yee riley. >> i want to know if there are any new staff requirements or just going to use existing staff? >> this is going to utilize existing staffing. and we have a $60,000 commitment that is in the mayor's budget right now. that money is going to go for the consultants, the staffing that is going to be coordinating is between dph and oewd is already there. >> the $60,000 is for additional staff? >> for consultants. >> for consultants? >> yes. >> so the gentleman before you is a consulting group that does all of this for a fee? >> correct and it would be an open-process for once the program is up and running for consultants to work under this program. right now there is no program. once the program is up, that money is going to get rfp'd out. >> thank you. >> commissioner dwight. >> the upgrade funds, i guess in the form of a grant and loan, is that from the

department of public health? and how many are you prepared to fund initially? >> well, we have been piecing it together. actually some of it comes from a kaiser permanente, and in the tenderloin it comes from dignity health and the san francisco foundation just gave them a small grant as well to replicate the same work there. >> so public-private partnership on a case-by-case basis or neighborhood by neighborhood basis? >> yes. to pilot also, we have been piloting for a couple of years to put this together to see how it works and to take it to a different level. >> there are three pilot sites? >> right now there are two stores. >> two stores. >> in the bayview that have been reset/redesigned. one is going to happen in the tenderloin in the fall. and then there is an additional one that is going to start in

september in the bayview. >> the two in the bayview that are existing how long have they been up and running? >> one since last august and one since january. >> and results there? we heard one is successful. >> yes, his pos, his point of sales system, they went from 0 produce, and added a category for "produce," and for the month of february, which is where we have the data shows an estimate between 60 and 100 pieces of produce selling a day. >> wow. >> the other is of purely paper format, so we have a different tracking system. >> i imagine this is a new skill for these new owners to deal with perishible products of this nature and are you coaching them through the business aspects of how to deal with that? >> sure, within the team is an individual scott schaefer who specifically knows produce extremely well and he is the

one working with the food guardians teaching them as they go into the stores. so the food guardians start developing the skills as well. it takes a number of years to develop that skill, but he is teaching them and they are there with him in the store as he is teaching the opener. >> so the food guardians are serving as detailers? >> that is right. >> okay. >> great. commissioner white. >> actually, commissioner dwight asked the question i was going to ask in regards to how many stores were being somewhat funded through the pilot program. going forward though in the certain neighborhood that you have identified, do you have corner stores that actually want to sign up for this program? that actually know about this? >> i spoke earlier by the two-phased program. this is implemented through the neighborhood framework and we'll go into these neighborhoods in addition to others as nick suggested and

create assessments. based on the assessments we'll see if they are prepared and have the interest and moving forward we'll choose 2-3 or 3-5 pilot projections where moving forward this will be implemented. >> so the funding is just for these? >> for the future, yes. >> great. thank you. any other commissioner comments? seeing none, let's take public comment. do we have any members of public who would like to make comments on item no. 3? step forward. >> public comment is limited to 3 minutes. we ask if you could kindly state your name, but you are not required to. >> yes, hello, my name is ryan thier, a community organizers with tmc and run the food justice campaign and served doing some of the project coordination with the tenderloin. i am glad to see this type of

work going forward through supervisor mar's office and really sets the way of how i think legislation and support should be developed and working to expand that. it's really something that we need to support in san francisco for the access to foods in low-income communities in particular is really not at the standard it should be for a city as wealthy and as resource-rich as san francisco. it was really something we need to work on and makes sense for the merchants. a lot of conception or misconception that healthy food and fresh product is not profitable is not true. we surveyed over 640 residents living in the tenderloin and find out that they are spending out half their money each month on groceries outside of the neighborhood because they are not able to buy healthy food purchases in the stores. they

have go to safeway and catch the bus and it's hard for people with disabilities and physical impairments. you have to search for healthy food products and we're guessing that people through the survey process, people are spending about $50 as half of their food budget and you extend that to 17,000 households that is $9,000 leaving the neighborhood. we can do that with this type of work. thank you. >> thank you. any other members of the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? commissioner dooley? >> i would like to thank supervisor mar and all of the departments for putting this

together. i know you have been working a long time and it's such a worthy project. you know, i just think it's a fantastic thing and i hope you all have great success with this and we can expand this throughout the city. >> commissioner dwight. >> i would like to commend you. it sounds like you have a good team put together, a multi disciplinary team and who is to argue with the goal here? more power to you and good luck and i hope that you find some private partners to step up in those neighborhoods and help you out. i think you already have a few with the vested interest in the health of the citizens of san francisco. so good go for it. >> my time comment, i would definitely support this legislation. we are resource-rich here and the majority of healthy food here is grown wi