>> good morning, everyone. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors budget and finance committee meeting fo forethursday i'm joined by supervisor eric mar and supervisor john avalos. thank you to the staff >> mr. speaker, do we have any

announcements. >> yes. please silence all electronic devices. items acted upon today will be on the supervisor agenda unless stated. >> mr. clerk call item number. the film rebate program >> colleagues that is legislation that i introduced a little while ago. it continues to attract both film and production in the 76 san francisco. the most recent legislation was to rent space that helped to get a series and it's stemmed to have an estimated $12 million no our city. this includes the web series among eligible productions and

it's through june 30th, 2014, and authorize additional funds into the program. again, we're not going to fund those budget it will be next year but it will put the cap. we're seeing that the web series are 0 popular and we need to continue to make sure that is adopting to the film destroy to capture all the film in our city. in the about jobs and our after the community and continuing to promote the on screen productions pr it's a streamline of web tv. and rising in popularity through a lot of net flicks and house of

cards which is an amazing series my wife and i got addicted. and it's about thanking susan robbins for her hard work running really san francisco's kind of film industry and grabbing hollywood. susan if you want to come up and talk about this and thank you for your hard work >> thank you, very much. i appreciate that. good morning, commissioners. as you know i'm director of the film commission and i appreciate you let me speak here today. as you know filming and production for tv and commercials contribute to san francisco in numerous ways provides local jobs to crew and

background jobs and contribute to worldwide recognition. this is one of our tools for tourism. san francisco is the location for some of most recognized films from streets of san francisco to bullet to vertigo to milk, gnash bridges and even more recently woody allen's movie. in addition the money is put into the san franciscan community it is spent on hotels and door rentals and hardwood and wardrobe purchases and gasoline and except rentals and, of course, our cities services. since it's inception in 2006 the

rebate program has had a total of 14 rebates totally more than $100,000. they've spent a lot of money in san francisco. nearly $12.8 million was spent on the salaries for background extra jobs and other folks. the rebate program is more and more important between fiscal years 2006 and 2012 we had 8 productions take advantage of our incentive but just since fiscal year 2013 we have had incentives with 3 more to be

rebate in 2013 that's a total of 9 new productions shooting her in the past year and a half. we're ploy more crew and background extras showcasing television shows like food networks and the upcoming series looking. which by the way, airs on january 19th. we're asking for 3 things. first to lower the cost of permit television series fees from $100 a day to $50 a day to include web series and the type of production that are giggle for the rebate program and to extend it to january 2013 and

there the fund by $1 million. to reduce the costs of permit fees we're been talking to production companies. i speak to groups of filmmakers and a lot of the small productions still don't take out permits with our office. in fact, i was on tom cast about flvm in northern california and two filmmakers who shot in the city hadn't taken out permits. many smaller independent folks have minimal budgets and we're going to lower the budget for those people to bring the money into our city and to support the

the filmmakers. we're proposing this because the web series are not eligible for our incentives, however, this type of production is the way of the future web series are meeting the increased need of filming on computers. the global index was related by real a california based company that specialize in videos. the amaze of video increased by one hundred percent. amazon and net flicks are pursuing their own series like the emmy house of cards and orange is the new black and

amazons by the time to see. and a there are more to come. productions like this very often have budgets that employ many crews and actors. we want to attract that new wave to san francisco. last we're asking for an estimation that is to sunset on june 30th, 2013. we want appropriations up to $1 million for this that will enable us to look at the approximates that we have the desire to continue the successful programs. studios and production houses look ahead and need to know the incentive their counting on will still be available when we actually shoot here.

we're confirming our commitment and hopefully landing more production. i you am sure you want to join me to encourage the economic development here in san francisco. we have that opportunity by adjusting the terms of our counter legislation. thank you and a colleagues, any questions or comments? supervisor mary >> i'm happy about this and i think realizing technology challenging i'm a big fan of erroneously is the new black and hopefully, there will be more companies like that that choose san francisco. i'm wondering the bigger companies would afford it more and did you consider having the

support of the smaller companies while allowing the bigger companies to pay without the rebate >> this will - i mentioned the larger ones so we all have an idea but this will support local extinct filmmakers and they're eligible for the same pile of money. actually our rebate program not only supports productions like the woody allen films but we've had one called saltwater which will be final cut very soon and a film called test that premiered at the film festival. they were able to take advantage of our program and web series

that might not have the budget of a net flick series. but we don't want to miss out on currently there are incentives on a state level that are offered by louisiana, georgia and new york. unfortunately, the rebate programs across the country are more competitive so for instance, new york has $429,000 per year to incentive vices the programs that were california has $1 million and it's used up the same day. we're lurz this to new york and they have 23 tv series being

shot there because of that >> i understand we're competing with other renditions and cities and this is an estimation of one year but it will help to put san francisco back on track. i wanted to reveal i did a lot of extra series when i was younger i was in the abyss but they cut it out unfortunately. i'm for reestablishing our city for new productions as well. thank you >> i think we have entered the abyss of city hall. >> all right. colleagues, any other questions? supervisor avalos. how come nobody mentioned what's up doc

>> it's barbara streisand and ryan o'neill the car chase maybe the copy bullet. i'm waiting for the budget analyst to provide some of emphasis analysis. the question is whether we need to raise the cap to $3 million based on especially spending for i'm fine with every other aspect of the changes being proposed and looking into smaller production outfits and on and on online content makes sense we can draw in the production outfits >> can i speak to that. >> sure. >> so my understanding from the report that was done by the office what that we had a fund

balance of 1 million 4 hundred and to the call of the chair, $80 4 hundred and 12, $80,000 and as of early 2014 we extend to pay anti an additional $775,000 in rebates those are productions they're not turned in all their paperwork. and that would leaves us with $6,300,000 if we extend it a year. >> we'd make our appropriations for this not in the middle of the year but during the budget season so we couldn't put any money into the program until july of next year. >> that is sort of your dog

tagging the money is to be potentially used but not actually put into the funds but it's a consideration when the budget cycle comes up we have the consideration of a million, but what i'm 99 percent sure of between now and the next fiscal year 2014 i will have used up that money like that with one production. and i have 3 other feature films that are circling us and by looking at this ahead of time letting them know we have potential funding for this they'll be able to see if this is a viable thing here rather than negotiate in louisiana

>> okay. let's go to our budget analysis report mr. rose. >> yes. mr. chair and members of the committee ann as shown in table 2 during the 6 year rebate the city rebattled 8 productions for money. and we report in fiscal year inner initiating and fourteen those rebates were for 6 instruction that in table 2 on page 6. so the fund balance as of february 14th is shown in table 3 on page 7 of our report plus the proposed increased authorization would make available up to $3 million for

the remaining for mark first through june 30th, 2014, that were our recommendation on page 8 is because of the proposed ordinance would expand the division of the existing rebate program extend the program and that is by $1 million subject to board of supervisors approval prior to the initiating issuance which will report to the results of the rebate program we consider approval to be a policy decision important the board of supervisors and if you have any questions, i'll be happy to answer them >> so my concern is how the cap really works. from the beginning to the end no

more than $2 million will be available now we're going to extend another year and we'll say overall from the beginning to the end the cap will be $3 million we're not going to say there be $3 million to cap i'm okay with that if that's the way it works and that's my understanding >> colleagues, any further questions? >> at this point open this up for public comment. i have a number of speaker cards. please lineup against the wall and as soon as you hear your name couple u come up and speak

(calling names) so, please come on up you'll have 2 minutes to speak today >> at the for your attention. i'm deborah i didn't i'm a local line procure and i've made my career working in san francisco over the thirty years. this is a very important program. a few years ago when my son left the nest i decided to stay here and grow san francisco and, you know, keep everybody working here that's my goal. with the rebate program i'm able to tell folks around the world about this they're interested

because truly even though san francisco is san francisco having that extra entitlement makes a huge difference to each year e exceptionally all the people i work with to be gainfully employed and that speaks for myself too >> thank you. next speaker, please . if you have are here to speak on item 3 i might have called our name wrong but go ahead and speak >> i'm jim i'm a former san francisco commissioner and here to speak in favor of the rebate. i'm not going to get into the detail. but one of the main things about filmmaking in san francisco is that it will continue to not only create jobs here while the film is being made but the

re1i7b8 films. so there's many things filmmaking creates thousands of jobs and brings in moifld jobs. i was first appointed in 96 and we saw a boom a lot of filmmaking but we need that rebate program actually, we need more than that. there is no cap over across the country and we're losing out we need to protect that industry. thank you very much >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, i'm ed i'm here on behalf of the of the teamster's. net flick are delivering

programs service to cable and network television. they're helping to fragment an audience such a tom cast tv the net flicks budget has really approved and they've attracted 1 billion more subscribes and amazon series by the time to say being filmed in san francisco and los angeles. amazon is spending million dollars dollars. the original web the time that people spend on traditional viewing is declining. 18 to 24 years old this is a continued to decline.

this is for internet companies to lure the views. the bottom line this is an emerging force and it's incumbent for us to stay ahead of this endeavor. thank you >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, i'm madeline. i work at an independent production company in los angeles and we have a movie that's shooting in san francisco soon with alexander scarf and it takes place in san francisco. now that i've been up here dislocating for locations it's remarkable you can't create that

landscape it's a competitive place likes up in canada to recreate san francisco or other cities elsewhere and the rebate is making a huge difference in our finance plan it's making us able to come up here and shoot the movie so i'm in support it. thank you >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i'm here or in on behalf of the actors as well as producers. we're producing a web series so we got to come to the area and we realize we're missing out because we can't be part of the rebate program. we're going to be shooting a film in marina county and going

into the south bay because we're able to get better deals. we're shooting this pilot to get a budget ever maybe $400,000 to shoot our whole season. we really want to shoot in san francisco. so it's forcing our hand to do other things. i can't tell you how many movies i've been on they come in for 1, 2, 3 days they get their establishing shots and go to canada or new mexico or new york so we don't get jobs. i go down to la to get more work we can't get the work up here. but i see more and more film companies that are actually interested in coming up here oh,

but if only san francisco would give a little bit more here. thank you very much >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello i work for sagging air force traffic i represent 4 thousand actors. some production means union jobs for hotel and restaurants workers while shoots are in town. we have day players and not the budget folks coming out of little bay area. i want to read a statement due to an auction i'm unable to come to the meeting such is the life of over 4 thousand members. we live from job to job so secure health coverages. each project that comes to the

town is our lifeblood. please expand the rebate program. web series are the wave of the future and let's not lag behind. we have to make sure we're not priced out of the market. we need this for the better time of the community as a whole. katherine howe local president of sagging, air force traffic >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, i'm janet. i'm on the sag conservative. i'm a sag actor. i see your competition is louisiana. a sag actor wants my vote now so i've been seeing a lot of movies

their filmed in louisiana louisiana don't have a cap so why do we. that's one question. the other one is i work bet a the other day it's going to be filming mainly in la they're up here for a total of a week. i was wondering do the police get time and a half for that. i'm not sure if they had, you know, they get fed so well, and they move cones like a few times (laughter) and i'm not a huge fan i mean, i love texans to meet them personally but it's my opinion sometimes they screw up administrations so i was just wondering if that was something

pledged by the last mayor that we get time and a half. i'm thinking there's ways to do this. >> thank you. next speaker, please good morning islam erica perez. i'm a actor in the bay area. we're very happy when they come and shoot a movie unfortunately, we only get background work because they don't want to pay all the taxes. yes. i support in but i also support my coworkers here janet mentioned why is there a cap. if we want them to come and spend their money on hotels and restaurants ail those businesses and they will - the more movies