years. hotel tax revenue is up, 8.1 percent, to 607 million dollars and tourism jobs have increased to 3.8 which is a total of 76,834 jobs. and hotel room rates have also risen, 12.8 percent to an average of $207 per night. and even though we see all of this growth in the millions of dollars, being spent right here in our city. some groups are not seeing, or reaping the benefits overwhelmingly these groups have included specifically the african american community. and earlier this year, a coalition of leaders and businesses, governments and industry, and education, all convened, and lodged the city's first initiative on equity and inclusion in san francisco, tourism and hospitality industry and in this working group issued a report that

outlines a framework and tangible commitments that the city can make to enable and support the inclusion of the african american, and the african americans in this respective industry. this hearing is timely and as i introduced and passed with all of high colleagues sponsor ship, legislation to commemorate the freedom trail and to highlight the social, and the psycho, social and impacts of the african americans, community inside of the city. on education, on entertainment, and as well as civic life and so colleagues and also, san francisco and members of the public, we are here because the people in the african american community are missing out on the employment industries and the booming industry, when as in the african american

unemployment rate is close to, close to 3 times that of the other racial dem graphics and so we have a major problem here and we have to begin to turn the tides and so the purpose of the hearing is not only to highlight the important work that the working group has done, but also to discuss the obtain able recommendations within the report with an effort to take another step, or to take the other steps toward equity in our city and to increase diversity in these important industries. i have a few presenters lined up today to talk about the work that was done, and i am going to call them up one by one and i would recognize theo miller from the mayor's office to give us a brief summary of the work that was done and we will have john from sf travel and a moment from (inaudible) who is a native of local two, and

carroll represents the hotel council and fred jordan is the chair of the african american chamber of conference. >> before miller gets started i think that david chiu and i want to just say a few brief words. >> i just want to be brief and we will get started with the presentation, because i know that all of you are anxious to provide feedback with this hearing, and i want to thank, supervisor cohen for her leadership on this matter, this is definitely very important issue, and i know that there is a number of leaders here from san francisco, black chamber of commerce, and the folks from sftravel, and working together, and i think that we could make sure that the industry is opening its doors to the african americans for employment opportunities and other things that exist, all over. and thanks, for the leadership and i am looking forward to the presentation, and looking forward to the feedback on how we can work together to make this city more open and

inclusive to the african american, and president chiu, would you like to say a few words >> thank you. >> i also want to say that i am happy and i want to thank supervisor cohen for calling this hearing, this is actually a topic that we have discussed a number of times over the past year. my district includes our major tourism industries and supervisor said, we talking about an over 16 million tourists every year and 9 billion worth of revenue and we need to make sure that this economic engine for our city is with all of the folks and as someone who first moved to the tourism neighborhoods that i represent to work for an organization, in this select community, this is a very, very important topic i think for all of us, and i think that i found the stake holders that are here to have the opportunity to have a discussion, both with the tourism, leaders as well as business, and chamber leaders from the african american

community and i do know that there have been organizations and we have much more progress to make, and i look forward to new ideas that come out of this and i want to mention a few years ago, the number of leaders from the fisherman's wharf came to my office and wanted to think about the out reach to more diverse job applicants and we worked to kick off a job fair in the day view and the plaza and we are continuing to do these out reaches throughout the city and but this is just one of many ideas that i know have been discussed and we need to do more and we look forward to the conversation that we have. >> i am giving out the report. >> thank you. >> chair, and supervisor tang, and chair, and cohen, and chiu. we are so excited to be here

this morning to present to you what we think is a successful model and we know that we thank you all for your leadership on this issue. and we think that this is a model that can actually work and change the tide and equity and inclusion in this city and in particular with the respect of african americans to participate in the higher wage and growing industries and also, coming out that this has been a cross racial coalition, and we think that it is a model secondly for that, that it is across a group of stake holders and who are outside of the government. and that have successfully implemented or started the implementation activities for something that is persist ent in the city. and so, we will move to the presentation. and the general structure that supervisor cohen mentioned is that i want to give the different information on the contributers in the background and we will give a little bit of a supervisor breed in

particular, less of the data and so we will give the data on the snapshot and what we see is the hospitality, and we will turn it over to the colleagues, and findings that we do have the supervisor's request and the suggestions and the thoughts on those steps to the board of supervisors. >> so, in terms of contributers, as supervisor cohen mentioned, this has been a coalition of over 60 leaders representing san francisco community faith based community, that is the sf travel and the naacp and the chamber of commerce from the beginning and i am the senior advisor to the mayor. and the african inclusion and i also serve at the public utilities commission as a policy and government affairs advisor and so the city was really second to the party if you will and this was a community-driven, from the very beginning and continues to be

implemented in the city. and so these are just some of the stake holders who have come to the table, local two, and the hotel council, and university of san francisco and so many more. in terms of the background and timing, time line, this process started in earnest in september of 2013, showing the community engagement from the naacp and the president brown, and san francisco african american chamber of commerce and conversations with sf travel on how can we open it up and be more ininclusive and it started out is how can we market more of the diverse community into the growing industry? >> and this, was all of us were in gaged in the mayor's office sxh in the course of january to april, of 2014, there was a formation of the broader coalition, in many ways, and we discussed the coalition of union and hotel, and the

government leaders and the stake holders, where through a community process, we formed working groups, and established implementation structure and also because the contracting was key to this process, of the services and inclusion in this growing industry. we really needed to have the leadership of the dpw at the table. >> and over the last, couple of months, or the few months, we have continued to present, the working group findings and the implementation activities and we have had the briefings with the mayor in the mayor's office and the board of supervisors many of who have been so supportive of this and the formation of an executive steering committee is due out, by the beginning of august. and this will, over see the continued implementation of these recommendations. in terms of the snapshot and why this was such an important opportunity for the city, and many of these data points have been alluded to in terms of the disproportionalty in terms of poverty, and 71 percent of the

african americans in the city are extremely poor and low wage working and personality in terms of unemployment and of course the disproportionalty of meeting the households and we know that at migration, but, the city's population has grown, and the wealth has grown, every other ethnic group in the city with the exception of african americans, whose median household income has declined since 70, and we decided that the stat says that almost 17 million visitors spending 10 billion dollars and generating almost 300 million in hotel tax revenue and we feel that we have many opportunities, and many of our historic african american communities including the bay view and the fillmore. so meeting forward, this process was set up with five working subgroup and committees, excuse me, and the

inclusion, and secondly the subcommittees met no less than five times in the period of five months to figure out the implementation of the activities and the cost of neutral way, and we will get to that in terms of the recommendations and this is the development of the technical assistance. i will return for the closing meants but i would like to give to john, to talk about travel and diversity and inclusion. >> thank you. >> it is a pleasure to be here, john from san francisco travel and thank you for calling the hearing. first of all i would like to thank the naacp, the african

american chamber, and the organization as well as all of the other organizations that participate and became our partner and we appreciate the partnership because it is through this collaboration that san francisco has been able to improve our efforts and further our mission of attracting visitors to san francisco. when we first began in pro-stes about a year ago at our offices of san francisco's travel, we saw that there were two faces of travel, and tourism that needed to be addressed and the first was the external face, and how san francisco is portrayed to the rest of the world and the world that we felt copluld a significant role in. and we are blessed in that historically, san francisco has been viewed as an ininclusive and welcoming to all of those, and all walks of life.

and examples include, the welcoming of immigrants, and china town, and north beach, and the mission, and these would not be what they are known for today, without the chinese, italy an and the latinos immigrants who were welcomed and we have the assets of the fillmore and the bay view and the western edition to help to celebrate the contributions that the african american community has brought to san francisco. so, in order to live up to this promise, we need to attract, a diversity of traveler not only to add to the vibrantcy, of the diversity of our city, but also to support the small businesses and attractions that speak to and attract, the multicultural heritage visitors including the african american visitor, and so as a result of this pro-process, san francisco has a commitment to ensure that diversity is celebrated. and when we have taken the

steps to actively promote the city assets that appeal to the multty cultural heritage traveler. and to keep us focused and to keep us honest in this effort, we are establishing a diversity of advisory council, which will, be connected directly to our board, with the board participation and the requirement to report to our board. and now the second phase is that we are internal phase, what would be the workforce in san francisco when it comes to diversity. and it is through this, examination, that we have identified, a role, to help address this issue, and that role, is to help connect tourism to neighbors traditionally known for their ethnic and cultural diversity including the fillmore, western edition and bay view, and some of the steps that we identified are the creation of the supports for the creation of the community benefit district in the fillmore and the support for the products that appeal to

the multicultural visitor, such as the freedom trail, which we appreciate your efforts supervisor in create thating and look forward to bring that to fruition, and i will conclude by saying that san francisco travelers are proud of our participation in the working group. and we are encouraged by the work of the working group and we will look forward to implementing the final recommendations that are in the final report. and happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. >> thank you. very much. >> next speaker, kevin carroll from the hotel council. >> i am sorry. actually, sense you are here, you can go ahead. >> pines, you will be next. >> okay. >> good morning, supervisors thank you supervisor cohen for calling this. and my name is kevin carroll and i am the executive director and impart of the working group that is called that is regarding this report that we are talking about today and i am also a member of the subworking group that has been put together, that includes the

hotel council, and 7 of our major hotels and the hr directors and the local to kasey and pines and as well as thomas from the office of economic and workforce development and we have been leading and developing the process, right now. and the first thing that we did was finding way to attracting and having the opportunity for not oebl the community based organizations but the off can americans to learn about the hotel industries and the jobs available, and so the first thing that we did was developed a show case, that we invited, over 60 community based organizations to, and we held that on may 14th. and at that event, we had both hr directors there, for this community based organization to meet in person to be able to connect with them. 12k3 we had a panel of employees within the hotel industries, and including african american employees that were able to talk about the experience in the industry, and share their insights into the

hotel business as well. and pines, from panel, and helped work with the group. and then at the end, we had a networking session to allow all of the groups to interact and that we felt was a great first start to be able to get the individuals into the same room and be able to talk about the programs that are available and make the connections which are already paying off. >> second what we did is we created a second internship program this summer and we planned to repeat it every year and that the combined, effort between ourselves and the hotels and the local, two as well, and funded both from both organizations, and that is out reached through a diversity that was taught on may 29th. our intentions is to be allowed

to learn about the industry and as they apply for the positions they have the leg up working in the hotel and understanding which part of the hotels will be important for them to work in as well. >> and then after that, we will continue with the annual plan of doing them and inviting them in to work with us and we published and work with a team on the communication's plan to make sure that all of the job opportunities that are available in the hotels are pushed out to all of the organizations in and involved and we have been working closely with the office of and make sure that all of the hotels are getting the information out more organizations are finding out than have been available in the past and that also includes the hotel council and we are now the members of the organization and push the information out and giving it out to the membership as well and sharing

the information back and forthwith the group. and we are proud to be working on this program and we have been learning a lot and been able to meet a lot of connection and make the connections for the organizations as well. >> i am curious to know whether the restaurant world is doing something similar, around job fares, and recruitment, or whether the entertainment and night life world is doing something in that area, if there are other ways to use this model and what you are doing in the hotels to expand it out to other spaces. and i do know that the information about the job fares that were held on the fisherman's wharf that we are helping to connect and to get

that information out as how it will help as well. >> i am happy to get the help out, with the job fares and i know that supervisor cohen and breed and others, and i think that we would all be happy to co-sponsor the fares and get the word out to the i mention one that happens to be in supervisor cohen's district which is the old school cafe and i think that you know that this is an organization that is train young people who otherwise have come from challenging backgrounds, to get them ready to serve in the front to the back of restaurants and i think that it is a really interesting model, and one that i have really tried to promote with the neighborhood restaurants in my district that they partnered to bring these young people as the next generation of employees, and the more that we can do, on

this area to really build in the pipeline is a good thing and i think that you are familiar with some of these motles and i just want to mention that as something that we out to focus on as well. >> thanks. >> thank you. >> next speaker, will be alfonzo pines who will be representing low cal two. >> not here? >> okay. >> and is there any representative from local two here? >> all right we will just keep going. >> next, we will bring fred jordan who is the chair of the african american chamber of commerce. >> my name is fred jordan. >> could you speak into the other mic? >> supervisors, madam chair, thank you. the san francisco african american chamber of commerce,

acknowledges that the passed six months has the potential or had the potential of being a major, game changer, right here in the city and county of san francisco. we have seen major team effort, major team effort. to rectify the disparities and the inequities and the disrespect and the discrimination and the jobs and contracting and the segregation and housing and the oppression by the police and the see agencies, and to a major extent to look at the benign neglect by the san francisco board of supervisors over the past years. the buck stops here. we are in the legislative chambers. the buck stops right here. now i thank you for allowing me to present today and we have great plans, and we have been working very hard in the past

six months. and the proof will be in the taste of the implementation and we do have the plans. and in the city, we and the economic prosperity, there is the accountability for all of the citizens. and the reason why we are here today is the african american community has been a lost tribe. last week i was in chicago for the conference of the national black chamber of commerce, and the government, of illinois came in and he announced that 30 percent, 30 percent of the state of illinois, went to some of the business and went through the minorities as black folks. and the next day, the mayor of chicago came in, and he announced, that he would set a goal of 50 percent, in his city.

for the minority participation, and the minority business and participation. and i ask you to the chicago and veteran and san francisco. for all of the frustration, and we said, look, if we can't participate in this economy, then we are going to ask our organizations across this country, and the other organizations don't come to san francisco because they do not deserve your business. the private sector is not much better, we have been, the african american community in san francisco, has been designated as the highest

predatory loan community in the united states. and with this, the san francisco chamber has filed before the federal reserve board, several times, because we had that. but the big deal is, we have to have, we have to do something, to change this. and the board of supervisors have tackled many, many problems. and many problems. but over the years. the board has not tackled this out migration and this discrimination, against the african americans and i am so pleased to be standing here today and because we have a beginning. but just as the governor of illinois said, you cannot have capitolism without capitol. and i am saying, that we need, we need one half of one percent

of this hotel tax as an enormous amount, with over 50 million increase this is one half and, one and a half percent is a mere three or four million, that is not much to put in to invest in the black community. particularly when you consider that the exploitation of the black community is million and millions over time. and so we are asking for not a hand out, but a hand up to address these unequities of the past. we can't do it with dust. the buck stops here and that is why we are here asking you and thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. jordan.

>> so, to close, supervisors, and i know that supervisor breed asked us if we could just articulate some of the key working group accomplishments thus far, and so this is why i come up and this is the high level, overview of what we have done and, what we have done so far and, say that the local council partnership, again, it is hard to over state that i am sorry that alfonzo and mike are not here, they are probably at levi stadium or something, is going on. and the partnership has been incredible with them and the hotel council and the pipeline that president chiu sort of highlighted there with kevin has been critical and the neighborhood specific marketing strategy, these are things that have already launched with sf travel and the contract monitoring division has a dedicated personnel to expand the opportunity for the contractors and the department of public works has increased their market lbe set aside a program and actually doubled it to expand the opportunity, and

moscone has expanded the program and pipeline and so this is really the framework for something very, very successful. in terms of what we wanted to leave you with, suggestion and recommendations and we know that those of us who deal with the equity world, we understand the fatigue and we want to thank you the supervisors and we want to thank you for your continued attention to this issue as mr. jordan mentioned, we think that we could utilize an equity lens as we look at the transient tax goes forward and we are in conversations with the mayor's office of how we can think about a budget that was just signed, and where those dollars are going and how we are really looking at our budget through a racial equity lens and we think that there can be dedicated resource and many of these things are cost neutral to expand the type of partnerships, and it takes time

and resources to share information, on a legislative approach, and we think that the small business growth is critical and that there is an opportunity to think about the entrepreneur, and i know that there may be public comment about that and the sf travel which is really the supervisors created for the expansion, has really expanded, the tourism growth in the city of fung and we think that they have the models are really successful and of course, the third rail is proposition 209 and we think that the supervisors could really take a look at that in this climate now in san francisco that we could revisit and how we think about race and set aside from the city and of course, your continued leadership on the data gat gathering and it is difficult to get the numbers and who is hire and getting contracts and we think that the continued diligence will be helpful and, just as it is reflected by our board to continue to highlight,

the cross race and the fillmore and for example in the bay view to deal with this disproportionalty issue. >> i have a couple of questions, for sf travel. >> thank you. >> and if i could ask a couple of questions. >> sure. >> mr. miller, you made some recommendations to i guess, members of the board, supervisors, and i was wondering if you have utilized the resources that exist within the mayor's office, we are the legislative body, we are the policy makers and i get that and we take the leadership roles on trying to bring these kinds of things to the attention and try to resolve them, and with the legislative fixes, but ultimately the mayor has hundreds of staff people and the mayor has access to individuals who could potentially assist with some of these roles including data gathering, and including, preparing legisla