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tv   [untitled]    February 8, 2014 10:00pm-10:31pm PST

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to support the middle income families that are going to live here. the second issue i want to make is garbage in and garbage out. the data we've gotten is unfortunately difficult to make sense of. so, at the end of the day, the data that we get, we can't do very much with it. so, therefore, we're just calling it garbage in, garbage out. the problem is that the information is too complicated. just make it simple. we need a simple auditable program that can work for all of us. so, that's why we're looking at a proposing a simple 40% number that can be audited on a budget basis at the end of the year. that's all we're asking for. thank you very much. >> actually, we thought the local hire legislation would have lbes getting works. they will promote that legislation as well, but there is clearly more we need to do to support specifically lbes. thank you very much.
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is there a time here? i want to be under time. >> okay. well, i might go a little quickly. supervisor chiu, supervisor avalos, my name is josh chen, [speaker not understood], i'm president of [speaker not understood] lbe subcontractor that does do construction. i just have a few points to make. one is about the agency -- the department needs to be held accountable. just to give you a state of the union what is going on on the ground, i've seen some 0% requirement, 10%, some like goals. if they don't meet the goals, hard requirements. if they don't immediate the hard requirements. we're asking for a stronger lbe program, some repercussion for agencies when they don't meet the requirement or goal.
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we've done work and oakland in other locales. their lbe requirement is a hard 50% lbe requirement for local lbes of oakland. that gives you a comparison to inconsistency in ag is. what eric said, it is a good ordinance. it definitely helps lbes, but some time the bigger contractors will go right to the unions and to the local residents to get the local hiring. a lot of the [speaker not understood] lbes have 90 to 100% employment. so, they can help to meet that requirement. right now there is no heavy industry. while it is not the end of the world, i think we can see it from here without a strong lbe program that can bolster kind of revenues for these lbes, i think they're going to see a time when the successful lbes
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move out and the not so successful lbes disappear. there is no traction or capacity for lbes. we're seeing our membership invest. last one. we heard 90, 95% of the lbe dollars are going to outsiders, so, we'd like data to support that. >> thank you. i support that goal. next speaker, please. hello, my name is susanne a [speaker not understood] and i'm representing bad specialty, inc. you already heard spencer crowtion speak about the difficulties a small business can have. when working with someone, a contractor because they know they have to bring an lbe in for contract proposal to get work in san francisco. but they don't want to work as partners and often put up obstacles and put pressure on
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small companies. at the end of the day we're competition. maybe we're small, but we're competition. basically these companies without enforcement mechanisms inside of 14 b, these companies can actually afford to squeeze the small local business out of business. that's the experience we're having. we can share details and a suggestions to [speaker not understood]. these companies can out spend us on attorney's fees every day of the year. so, that's the kind of risk right now that lbes are working under. so, i know that everyone around wants to see lbe's succeed here. i'm a native san franciscan. my family is here. we want to stay here. again, we can't do business under these conditions. so, we hope you'll listen and
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that we can see some change in 14b to help protect lbes. i should say good evening. thank you guys for staying here and listening to us. my name is ann cervantes. i've been in business as an architect in the city and county of san francisco for 21 years. i need to let you know that our businesses -- today i'm representing the san francisco latino builders association. we plan [speaker not understood]. we're not doing well in the city. there are a lot of contracts that have gone out that we can't participate in. specifically, the lennar project that is at hunters point. their contractors here that had to leave.
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the cmpc, there's no participation. they're just beginning to take a look at it. i want to let you know that they've been in the last five years increasing competition and there is a lot of business outside the city. yet if you see the contracts that a lot of people are getting contracts here, they're outside the city. and the way they service sector is that they have restrictive criteria for a byness that you have to have five housing projects the last five years. come on, it's been a recession. you have to look at the criteria that's coming out, but also -- >> you have 30 seconds. what i'm going to say is also you need to take a look at the nonprofit housing developers. right now you guys are going to be letting out -- looking in for the transition for the san francisco housing authority to privatization. you need to make sure our local
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housing nonprofit housing developers are being considered and not overtake not by somebody outside the city or the larger nonprofit housing. anyway, you'll be receiving a letter from us. thank you. good afternoon, supervisors. thanks for having this hearing which i think in many ways is about addressing the small business displacement at this moment in san francisco. my name is joshua arce representing the latino owe democratic body club. we seek to give voice to latinos living in san francisco and the way it reflects the interests of all american people. we have four points we want to make and it's in a letter to the board. thank you again, supervisor chiu, for calling this meeting, supervisor avalos. we support the ideas that have been stated by supervisor chiu, by many others and we want to add four other points.
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one, is the idea of a new category of small local businesses the small local resident business? and that is a business which is owned and operated by at least 51% san francisco residents as ownership. around that, too, the idea of preference points an additional utilization and bid discounts not only for 40% utilization, 80% utilization. let's make sure we include this new category, small local resident businesses, san francisco business owners struggling to stay in the city. it's not just about where your head corners. another good nonprofit housing, five set asides for local business enterprises. set asides are critical here, we need to look at agencies that haven't met their goals and data coming out of their hearing.
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supervisor avalos showed you can successfully move the needle from 20% local hiring to good faith to -- supervisor avalos's law went into effect, we now have 35%. i think i have five seconds and let's to that to construction. let's do it architecture, engineering. you can see the mandates work to help [speaker not understood]. >> thank you for keeping the two matts. i have a letter here for the board. supervisors, my name is gary gee, president of asian american architects here in san francisco. we have approximately 120 members of lbes. i just wanted -- we solicit input from bev of our members. many of the points were given [speaker not understood] and protect from retaliation their generalizations and i just want
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to talk quickly on 5, 1, getting work doesn't mean you get the project. after the project is signed by the prime, many of our members express that they were notified their work was not needed in the contract and essentially they didn't get any work. two, there has been no protection even for joint venture. this has occurred also in joint ventures where the contract is awarded to an agency -- by an agency in san francisco. the prime goes out with the joint venture and renegotiated the terms of the joint venture where the local lbe gets less work and less contract dollars. three, the overhead multiplier, you get points for in design work for lowering your overhead multiplier. some are 2.0. what we've seen is some members reporting the renegotiating after the contract is signed and makes the lbe accept a lower rate. 4 is the concept of lost share where it's a prime is working
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on the project, there is an overrun on the budget. they come back to the local lbe who may only have 2% of the total project and also ask for discount in a reduction on their contract. and 5, the demonstration of similar projects and which was also mentioned by ann cervantes, some agencies issue a pre-qualification of firms which are much more complicated, some are five years experience, some are 10 years experience. it can't be supported by local mbes. this allows the primes to import their own local subs instead of outside of san francisco and this money is not awarded to these local companies. thank you very much. >> thank you for the letter. next speaker, please. president chiu, supervisor avalos, first of all, thank you for the sticking with us after a long day. you're the only guy right there now, so we appreciate you
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hearing us out. my name is julianne summer. [speaker not understood]. i'm also president of the american asian contractors association. i'm part of the talks the various business organizations had about 14b and i just want to reiterate a point that president chiu made earlier as well as a few other speakers. we know anecdotally there are many stories of lbes being put in awkward situations, possibly being, you know, not in favorable positions under larger gcs and anecdotally we know that there are many situations like that, but we couldn't get them here necessarily to speak or put their name to paper. so, you know, just as the previous speaker spoke about possible retaliation with a project that he's currently
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negotiating with, we need full protection. it is very important to all of us. as agencies are hope gli going to be held more accountable, hopefully as we begin to mold policy and further developed, they're going to be outliers and they may not want to follow the rules and so these policy breaker need to be called out. please remember we do need the board protection moving forward. >> before the next speaker, i want to just take a moment and mention i just had a conversation with our deputy controller and given the challenges that we've had in tracking our data, tracking our numbers, i have asked her if the controller's office might be able to work with our contract monitoring division to help bolster some of the analytics and quantitative analyses we need. do you have a comment on that? >> yes, president chiu, supervisor avalos, monique zamuda from the controller's office. we would be happy to have an analyst work with the division to take a look at the data, the
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source data, the reporting and ensure that you have the kind of information that you are looking for without having to do calculations and so forth. and we can also validate the source data to be sure that it's reliable. >> i appreciate that. for folks who don't know our controller's office, yes, you should be clapping. clam clap >> our controller is chief financial officer for the city and responsible for managing all of our city's finances and they have a reputation ~ within the city of having the top analyst on the information. i think it would be great if they could help our staff who i know are really just coming up to speed with the new systems we have. so, thank you for that. i know you need to go. i just wanted to say that while you were here. let me hear from the next speaker. let me call a number more names. lena [speaker not understood]. frank fong.
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nancy doningues. [speaker not understood]. jesus flores. andrew mellon. and those are the cards that i have. thank you. good afternoon, supervisor dado and supervisor avalos. thank you guys for staying and listening to us today. my name is rayana tong, kya, we are a small architectural firm in san francisco and today i will be speaking about our personal experiences with the lbe ordinance, specifically about the puc headquarters building at 5 25 golden gate avenue. ~ around 2001 ken young & associates was invite today join the joint venture team to design the sfpuc headquarter building. you were included in the architectural team to the prime joint venture design team. after the project started kya was never asked to perform any
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services. kya, did, however, perform some nominal services for which we were paid about 6 or $7,000 under another subconsultant. and then the project was put on hold. around 2003, the project started up again and the joint venture prime architectural firm called kya and told kya that we were no longer needed on the project, that kya already had enough work, and that kya should not be bitter about this decision. this decision was verbally reported to the puc director who informed kya that this was not a puc issue and that we should inform dpw instead. so, 2012 near completion of the project, hrc compliance officer called and asked whether payment to kya -- we were allocated $300,000.
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we informed the officer kya was asked not to participate. the compliance officer said the joint venture could be [speaker not understood]. the joint venture architect called kya and [speaker not understood] declined serving on the project. we feel like we were treated unfairly. that's basically the point of the story and we hope this solution can be solved in the future. >> thank you. (applause) >> next speaker, please. good afternoon. i appreciate an opportunity to speak here. i have a written statement to read and i will submit it. my name is nina tan, a san francisco resident and [speaker not understood] of construction management, inc., a small fee w non-lbes and 16.8% went to lbes. our question to you is whether
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17% local business participation is suitable and appropriate in our city. we ask that you rectify the situation in the upcoming legislative process amending the 13 b ordinance and to set the policy positions for the board of supervisors in enhancing local spending. thank you. >> mr. fong, can you share with us which department that is or is that information -- airport. >> okay, airport. you point out the statistic we got suggests the 65% is something, but you're suggesting something very different. there may not be a conflict there because what they're doing is aggregating between design and construction dollars. there are more construction dollars being spent to lbes than there are professional services. >> thank you. good afternoon, my name is dana doningues.
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i'm a local business owner in the bayview district. i own a lumber company. i've been an lbe company about 12 years. i've been involved in the lbe advisory committee about 7. and i have benefited from the 14b in the past. i do work with public works, p.u.c., and i've done a lot of projects. what i'd like to see is more attention given to suppliers, more preference for suppliers. a lot of it has to do with contractors, subcontractors, but suppliers aren't afforded -- if there is no wording in a lot of these bids for participation for suppliers. i'd like to address the lennar development over at hunters point. there should be a little bit better oversight over there in how local businesses are being used. we're in the bayview. we employ all of our employees live in the neighborhood, and
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we still struggle to even get any luck or any kind of work from that development. so, i would like to just say that i think suppliers should be -- it should be addressed. the suppliers should be given discounts or contractors should give discounts for using local suppliers because we do employ local people. that's all i want to say, thanks. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good afternoon. gentlemen, you have done a great job of bringing out a very important item for community folks. let me first say that cmd actually is an improvement over whats was before. let me make that real perfectly clear. let me also say that cmd without the resources of compliance officers they will
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not be effective. let me also say that 14b should be used to enhance the community and in a lot of ways it's not. clearly we're looking at data where the percentages of not just contracts themselves, but the percentage of hours is a compromising issue. it's not just in one place, it's in all places. i don't think the department here -- i'm not the usual guy to [speaker not understood] the departments. but i'm going to defend the departments in the city for once and say that we also have to maintain and hold our contractors to whatever agreement that they've agreed to. and you cannot do that without having the proper staffing to do it.
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and, so, i encourage, you know, all of what has been said, the help, supervisor chiu. i encourage you to step in here because i think they would love to have your help. and, my friend over here, you know, look, if you're going to have local hiring, don't stop with just that piece. finish it off with having the system with 14b with a system that works. and i want to thank you all for your time and i want you to know i didn't leave all day. thank you. >> we're here. thank you. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is jacquelyn flynn. i'm the executive director of the a. philip randolph institute san francisco. first i would like to thank you, supervisor chiu and supervisor cohen for bringing this item to the city's attention. the city has invested in
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efforts to create access to small businesses. most importantly, access for minority owned businesses and women owned bynesses through the lbe program. allowing access to city contract for successful small businesses to build capacity and really thrive. over the last three years i've seen changes that came with the lbe program. i think that came with the contract monitoring division. and i myself have seen them take individuals in and provide one on one services, so, i really applaud those efforts. they've also done a lot of outreach to engage small businesses in the programs. but the city can do more than just get lbes onto the lbe list. they should consider access to the actual contract. so, i think we sort of really actually touched on that with the data that came out. we really need to look at
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ensuring that these lbes, mbes, wbes receive contracts upon successful bids even in partnership with the large contractors and the monitoring needs to go beyond just the bid package, but the fund are expended, the subcontractors should actually receive it. i just ask you to consider working models. there is a great example called the contract assistance center created by the puc that is in the bayview. they can -- they've been supporting local businesses in getting through the lbe criteria, but also accessing and unbundling the large and i would use [speaker not understood] to start, modification to be made, to broaden the areas that the lbe program covers. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please.
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my name is nancy croft and i'm going to comment, if i can, i'll just say one has to do with the statistics discussed earlier. and another is the silence -- for retaliation for disclosures that you need for handling the subject matter accurately. on the disclosures, the statistics, there is a mention that if a person has a business as a minority woman relative to whether she's a woman or whether she's a minority, well, this is fussy and it's very uncomfortable to try to do things with it. [speaker not understood] the sequoia high school district in
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san mateo county by reporting an argument, the statistics of the composition of the counselors and the teachers in the district compared to i guess the population. i have categories. they might be white women, asian women, black women, bi-race, ethnic, colored group, whatever itses was. not women versus men and then another one women are different colors or racial groups. it's much more intelligible when you get the combination. and retaliation is important and it's the lack of provision for remedy against retaliation shows in the situation in the homeless situation in san francisco.
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failure to give some remedy to people who are retal indicated by being denied housing because they report what goes on. it is preventing you from knowing how to handle ending homelessness. >> thank you very much. am i cross. next speaker, please. ~ miss cross thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today, supervisors. i'm going to speak to the small criteria for the lbe, specifically the public works and construction area. [speaker not understood] the annual gross receipt. my name is aaron [speaker not understood]. we've been a contractor in the city and county of san francisco since 184 when the
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original law was put in place. ~ 1984 the program has not expanded under infla