say that i understand where the heart of this legislation and you passed many legislations that has the best feel for the city. so i want to thank you for that. i did have a question, coming in from my small business owner cap. and a this legislation ordinance and the measure passes and it works as intended is there any studies in jurisdictions where it is implemented of the administrative costs just the paperwork of you know everything works out and there is just a continual denying request because the people views and the business needs and especially a small business don't fit but the administrative costs don't have a department so it is probably the manager or the owner of the business and do to all of these requests and all of this paperwork. >> let me just say a couple of things that i have circulated to the fact sheet. there are studies of the

experience of the countries that have been commissioned by the chambers of commerce and the other business organization and other countries have shown that the benefits have been, very positive, and the administrative costs have been extremely low, for example, the percentage of complaints brought against the employees have been extremely small. and by and large, when you create a safe space for an employee and an employer to have this conversation, the right type of conversation happens and the type that conversation that commissioner o'brien said that the soccer schedules are changing because of the fall, those often lead to good places. and when we talk about specifically what is in the administrative burden, it is as follows, if i worked for you, i give you a piece of paper on day one that says hey, commissioner, i would love to shift my hours, i would like to go part time for the summer. you have a couple of weeks to give me back another sheet of paper that says, either i accept this, or i could work with it under these parameters or i deny it because we just don't have anyone to cover that

shift. if i get that second piece of paper back and i don't like that answer, i say, hey, commissioner could we sit down and talk about it. >> that is the administrative burden and that is what many employers do. whether we should give the administrative burdens on the smaller business and should we raise it from ten to 20 employees, when you get to 20 employees you have more of an hr structure and willing to consider that if that is something that is important to the commission. >> commissioner o'brien? >> yeah, i was interested to note that if it goes to an appeal that after they make the decision that the hearing officer and it seems like it is deliberate and it does not have

to be an attorney or labor expert. >> it is an officer that will be well versed in these issues which is how more of these proceedings take place any way. so it would be someone who is sensitive to the various labor and unemployment laws that we have. >> okay. >> any other questions? >> i am going to open it up to public comment. >> i want to thank the commission for consideration and i am going to sit down and have my own thoughts and comments about it. >> members of the public i have a list of speaker cards, and if i will call the names in the order of the speaker cards that i have and once we call all of the cards we will have the opportunity to folks to line up on the side and take

everybody's name and a public comment will be limited to three minutes. there is a timer, and i will start calling the names. emma bryant. >> julia, perish, and henry, coleowitz, mark, climan and steven cornel. >> and if you can, state your name when you start speaking so that i can make sure that i have the right person. >> my name is emma and i work with the department on the status of women and before beginning the work with the department i had the sunset san francisco was losing many of its families, growing up in the city myself, i watched as many of my friends packed their bags and moved to bay area suburbs with their families. i remember over hearing our family friends telling my mom that it was just not possible to live here with kids me more.

i was fortunate enough to have two loving parents, who had the flexibility to be at home for me when i needed them. my mother being a psychologist and a private practice, was able to choose her own schedule. allowing for her to pick me up right after school. >> if for some reason she needed to work late my dad a professor at sky line schedule could leave work early to take care of me. this afforded me many advantages, i was able to go from school to soccer practice and dance because my parents could give me a ride and i did not burn myself on the stove because my parents were there to monitor me. >> it was normal and it took me a few years to realize that this was not the case in most house holds, although it is true that it does not work for every occupation, there are countless benefits for employers who do adopt flexibility.

my parents freedom to chose when they worked meant that the employers could count on them because they could stick with their jobs as opposed to having to jump around as i know that many of my friends parents did. this lifestyle has allowed us to stay in san francisco for my entire life. my hope is that the ordinance will give more families the option of staying in this beautiful city. that i think we should find a way to make this be the new norm for everyone, all people deserve to have these options if possible for businesses. >> julia parish and i am a attorney in our work and family project. we get the calls from people struggling with fat.ly caring obligation and jobs and, too

often they are forced to choose between the family and jobs and this is true for low wage workers who lack access to flexbility and sometimes the opportunity or courage to make these kinds of requests from their employers. there are laws that provide time off from work there are not any kind of laws that allow care givers to access workplace flexibility and predictbility that they need. it has changed in the model where there is someone at home to take the children to school and to juggle medical care for an elderly relative is just a thing of the past and we need to catch up. a recent caller to the help line from san francisco was trying to navigate her return to work with her care for her newborn baby. she was not eligible for any more time off from work, her baby was two months old and she needed to stay and leave work

earlier one day a week than she had in the past and the employer refused to discuss this option with her and she tried to offer to stay later on a different day, and she needed to align care giving for her infant with her other family members that could help to care for her. and she was crushed that she was unable to work this out with the employer and had to go through a struggle managing her transition back to work with such a young child. other countries have implemented provisions like this one helping millions of parents make requests for flexibility that they need such as alternative work days, part time or tele commuting, when employers and employees have to sit down together and think about a solution for a problem it benefits everyone and they can come up with great ideas, and great solutions and they know their work schedules and their businesses and it is really a wonderful idea for everyone to facilitate this kind of conversation that allows everyone to meet the needs. the flexibility is not the only need that the care givers face

or is addressed by this measure, some are forced to accept unpredictable schedules and this makes it difficult to arrange for quality child care or care giving needs when you don't have any advanced notice of when you will be required to work. >> familiaritilies workplace policy recognizes these vital needs of the care givers in san francisco and i believe in the society that we strongly support this and i want to thank supervisor chiu. >> and members of the public if i could remind you to please turn your cell phones and electronic devices on silent please? >> welcome. >> good evening, commissioners, (inaudible) president of the merchant associations. i just have ordered today, with the worker's comp person, and she said that you know what, we have just cut off a lot of jobs and people are now working from home and there is actually looking at why don't you get your work done at home and then

and go do your order td once you leave the home and rather than going to an office and or to an office and it is sort of a preferable way to do it. and so, with the flexibility, and with the companies however, you have to look at, the construction industry and in particular, with, you know, it is really hard to predict, what is going to happen next week. if it is starts to rain, well, then, sorry, i do need need you, you can't have the time off. i think that we are all for, you know, the right to ask. and there is no repercussions on that and no retribution and i think that is really important. so we really have to think at that part of it and otherwise, for many people, in the small business world, this does come to be a very burdensome legislation that will impact and also what it does and equal playing field and what happens to the people that are not in the city and then i am going to fall under this and they are could say that we don't want to work in staoet and we will move

the office to the city or south of san francisco. and lastly, a lot of the employees that work for particularly in the construction industry and also the restaurant industry, are not from here and most live out of town. and they live in freemo*nt and pleasant and okay land and all over the place and they don't live in the city, and just from the folks that i have talked to in the county. however, we are for the right to ask, and that is important. thank you. >> next speaker please? >> good evening, commissioners, my name is mark, along with my wife we run the pet camp and over night daycare facilitis for dogs and cats in san francisco and also a member of the small business advocate and co-chair of the chamber of

commerce, i along with my wife and four children actually live in san francisco, certainly wish that my wife could have been here tonight but a 5:30 meeting started and family friendly it conflicts with the kid's dinners, it is self-evident that san francisco is not family friendly, and this is anything that any parent could have pointed out. there are million of things in san francisco could do to be more family friendly unfortunately this is not one of them. this is drafted as being more family friendly as an employee employer issue. it is clear that the majority of businesses already have this and we want to meet their needs and be as accommodating as possible, whether it is a care giver's schedule for a parent

or a kid or even as a student who has changing schedules at sfstate or a city. and it is not a problem. and so, as such it is really unclear what this ordinance was intended to do. there are still concerns, people have said that it is rushed and unclear who is covered by this, if you work in san francisco, no matter where the company is based, if your company is based in san francisco, no matter where you employ or work, do you have to be both san francisco base and do the work in san francisco? and more importantly from my perspective, if this is supposed to make san francisco more family friendly, it should only apply to employees who are san francisco residents. there is also the issues of what reasonable notice is to reduce shifts. and the possibilities of disputes about that. what is reasonable notice in one industry or one business is fundamentally different than what it might be in the next. my personal business we can predict a couple of days out, if you are a painter you may not be able to predict until

the morning and that is going to create uncertainty and burdens, if the goal was to create a safe space and a right to ask, let's focus on creating that. no one is going to object to someone saying to me i want a flexibility schedule or i need to change something could we have a conversation about that. that is reasonable. >> but the rest of it creates unfair burdens on small businesses and i urge you as it is currently drafted to reject the ordinance, thank you. >> thank you. >> following this speaker, rich gun, rafty burtking. >> michelle pliner? >> good evening, steven cornel and i owned a business for 37 years, 108-year-old business. and i think that i know a little bit about dealing with employees but tonight i am going to be talking as a member of the small business advocates. we have big problems with this.

the biggest problem, of course, is the rush. we always want to be in front of legislation, we want to be part of legislation, we don't want to be the nay sayers afterwards. this legislation is rushed. one thing that we would like is to put it off until next june, that all of us can get in there and come up with some legislation that works for all of us. given that, here are some of the problems that we have. it is only for san francisco businesses. it is put us in an unfair position, let the playing field... part me, we have heard that this is wonderful in england and australia, and this is san francisco. it is 49 square miles. we are in a competition with people in oakland and those people will come in here and they do come in here now. so it is not the same. we are not talking england and

we are not talking new zealand, we are talking san francisco. and we have a problem with the definition of number of employees. is it just the san francisco employees? or is just in the total number of employees throughout the united states? it should be consistent with the other legislation. we have. a lot of the legislation says number of employees in the whole united states whether it is one employees or 50 somewhere else and they come under the minimum. we as a group will not oppose this legislation if it boils down to employees have a right to request time off or change in their schedule without retaliation. that is what we would like for this is something that good businesses do all of the time. you have heard that. we do that. and having that legislation, legislated is what we would like, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please?

>> hi, my name is rich gun and i am a cpa in san francisco. my firm is (inaudible) and we have 200 employees and i have clients that are all over the city from bay view, out to the great highway and, practically every neighborhood. and i talked with them about this potential legislation and what they think of it and a lot of people were angry. and i didn't understand their anger at the beginning because when i asked them about their practices? and i have observed their practices and i always thought that they had a very flexible work arrangement and were very generous to their employees in these situations they were angry that someone at the city hall wants to sit behind their desk and dictate how they do their job and dictate how they run their business and when i have the potential clients from outside of california and outside of the country who talk about where she should open up the united states operation and ask me about all of the

mandates that san francisco puts on them that other cities and counties do not, they view this as a hostile work environment and may not be the worst legislation that you have seen. but it is one more thing that makes doing business in san francisco more difficult and the perception of a hostile business community and in the relationship to city hall. and in terms of the costs, anything that takes time away from my business, costs me money. in terms of families leaving san francisco, this legislation anot going to do anything that bad. they are leaving because they can't afford the house heres and because they lack faith in our public schools this does nothing for that. >> most of my clients, this is dealing with not the big problems of san francisco, this is sort of window dressing. and why don't people at city hall who are writing this, really tackle the tough issues that are really making people leave san francisco. and if you go, to your compute and her google, the biggest

problems in san francisco, i thought that i would take 20 minutes to do this i spent three hours, this never came up. >> ten or 20 clients today and this was never a priority for them. most clients have the technology and the concern and the care to be competitive. this is not going to change that. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker please? >> rafy, (inaudible) and i am the son of a small business owner as well as there was a time in or during our (inaudible) that he hit a rough patch in his own business. and my mom had to go and find employment of her own. and now, while she was doing her work, the schedules were

very unpredictable and it has come down to the point where my brother and i occasionally would have like i would have to miss school certain days to take care of my little brother because my mom's schedule. and while he was sick. it is moments like these that makes me really think about how we can, you know, help, you know, wage workers, and wage earners, and how we can help families, you know, cope with the moments where they can't, where they can't deal with these unforeseen circumstances, when you are having the people set up, the schedules for you, and maybe, with the week or less in advance, and it makes for a very difficult situation when you are trying to plan for your family. and i know that my mom in the time that she had to spend while my dad was out of town, had to deal with this on

numerous occasion to work with the employer to get time with us. it was important and needed it at the time and now that we are putting it up for a decision in san francisco, i highly suggest that you guys accept and help us push forward with this campaign. happier workers, work better, my mom could be a test to that and it is not just my mother, i have run into numerous families before the numerous people, my brother who also has a very unpredictable schedule as well. we just as other family and other people who have to take care of that i grand parents that i know here in san francisco. it is a highly important, legislation, and it is very important that we push it forward. and yeah, thank you very much for your consideration. >> thank you. >> next speaker please? >> following this speaker,

aaron conna, hongtran, elizabeth, lapier. michelle mix kency. >> hello, my name is michelle and i am in support of this bill, sometimes i am helping my parents when they are sick and both work as do i, but i am a part time employee because i also go to school. and so, my job has very unpredictable hours and i would like some (inaudible) and this bill seems very fair thank you. >> good evening, thank you commissionerers, my name is aaron can and i'm recent transplant to san francisco and i have work as a data and survey evaluate or, specifically examining the qualities that make small businesses around the nation positive. and competitive workplace environments and one thing that

the data has overwhelmingly shown time and time again is that the businesses with formal flexible workplace policis in place, do have a competitive advantage over their competitive. the businesses with these policies have a much higher retention rate and leads to lower cost of high turn around rates from a qualitative standpoint, the employees who work at these places are happier and much higher rates of job satisfaction. and a hr departments asking the policies have gone into place have noted that productbility has increased substantially and most significant is that this is something that we are seeing that the workers, and particularly the workers in my generation are to expect and i bring this up until today i had

not seen it in the conversation surrounding this measure that this is not just something that has the potential to make the sense that is more attractive to families but makes the businesses more attractive to the top talent to the nation when they are deciding where to do and this is something that has to be considered. thank you. >> good evening, my name is hong tran and i have been here in san francisco for about a year. and i'm a full time working woman and i am in support of this ordinance, just standing in my mother's shoes, growing up, she had a very unpredictable schedule and she only had her schedule every thursday which was put in place by her employer and it caused problems where i had to sometimes cut back on school a little bit to take care of my

brother or maybe even was frowned don by taking off of work, it is good to have the employees to have an environment to request the flexible work schedules and i don't think that caused problems for the employers and i think that this will be a benefit to everyone. both employees and employers and there are facts behind that. thank you. >> next speaker? >> michael mackinzie, third generation business owner i have kids, they are eat and fixing their own food. >> so i just want to say i am all for a flexible work schedule and i agree completely, and you keep the employees and it is great. but what i have a problem with is that it is being mandated.

and it is burden some on the paperwork and we are going to have to keep some type of paperwork on this, we do already for health ordinance and we do for all sorts of things and i am a bit confused as to how this will work with cfra and fmla and family leave act that exists, and if you have employees asking for those leaves, which are extremely urgent in many cases and you have other people on flexible schedules already, where does that stop? and what are your obligations as an employer? >> i like to mention that 85 percent of the employers in san francisco will be excluded from this if it is ten employees or more and so it will be bringing to 20 employees i don't know where that level is, but if you are a larger employer, where are 70 people? and we have a flexibility work program. i think that you find the larger employers do that and they can and it only makes

business sense. excuse me, i was a bit disturbed by the fact that this is the right to ask. this gives the employee the right to ask. i would think that the employee has a right to ask for a flexible schedule. from anybody, whether you are 5, 10, 15, i don't see, and it should be an open door policy, if you don't have those policies, i think that you have larger problems in your business and this ordinance will not fix any of that. and it all only covers care givers and they may want to pursue a hobby and may want to go back to school. we accommodate all sorts of flexible schedules. it may help someone who is not a care giver a flexible schedule, because someone else that is a care giver who asks

for it, to me, it is not fair for those who are not care givers they will obviously take priority in this case. and so i am just a bit confused because it is so rushed. and we really, i know, think that we need to sit down and take a look at more depth as a business community because we have yet to speak to our supervisor about this as well. i would ask that propose for a flexible work schedule and this is too rushed and needs to be addressed by the business community as well. >> thank you. >> next speaker please? >> elizabeth lafier, keith goldstein and kelley dwight. kathleen cole? >> keith? >> good evening commissioners, i'm the president of the (inaudible) patch merchant's association we have 160 small business members and i am the

owner of (inaudible) water proofing and i have about 65 employees and i run the business in the city for 37 years now. and i'm no hard line business owner, and i actually considered myself a progressive. and i find that most issues i stand just slightly to the left of the reverend al sharpton. >> and i will provide the flexible work outs where it is possible. i think that paid sick leave is a great program. i paid 100 percent of the employer's healthcare from the day that i started my business. and i don't explain about the 40,000 that i pay each year in payroll tax to me that is the cost of the privilege of doing business in the wonderful city. i am like a company and i have been threatened to leave the city if i think that it is a special tax deal. but i will be forced to move my business from this city if this guaranteed scheduling requirement remains in this legislation. i was surprised to hear

supervisor chiu say that he ran a business because if you do run a business you would understand that a like mind and like most of the members of the organization you would understand the problems of trying to guarantee a schedule, i am a contractor two weeks ago it rained out of you blue, am i supposed to guarantee that it is not supposed to rain? sni. i got a call from the companies, his truck had broken down and no skaf ford and no work. >> my friend that runs a catering company she gets a call that there is 50 less attendties should she staff the ivebt at the same level? there are numerous reasons why schedules may change, there is no way that most employers can guard against such unforeseen events. and so it puts us at enormous disadvantage and what the employers that i have heard already is that the members are going to guarantee