the physical process itself to starting the business and so many hurdles that business owners face that we want to map out and looking at the gaps and trying to close up those efficiency gaps so we have a more stream lines process and we can automate some of the work flow and that is something i will be working on for the next couple of years and again making future state recommendations and stream lining. lastly i just want to thank the commissioners. every single one of you have given us so much support over the last couple of years. when this idea was first talked about to the times that you've all given us your support in securing funding and allowing me to take the leadership in creating this port al. i heard from kids that it takes a village since i don't have kids. this is my baby.

it really takes a village. it's not just myself. the team you see here, all flt small business leaders and some of them actually spoke earlier and all of you guys, we couldn't have done it without you. thank you so much for your unwavering support. >> congratulations. >> this is fantastic. i know start up technical companies take a lot longer. the fact that you did it inside of government is even more remarkable. i think it looks very modern and very up to date and i love the fearful it and looks like some of the best websites. it does look like it's going to be very easy to navigate and something that is going to be frankly just a great way of off loading some of the work that's being done in person today because i think it's very self service oriented. >> it's not perfect and still

not done, there is still so much more work that needs to be done. >> i would like to say this is fantastic. i can't wait for this to be launched. as i open another business, i will wait for this. >> it makes you want to start another business. >> i hope that the next phase is where it can connect the dots with the back end of where a small business could come in and see their account and pay their bill. that seems like the most logical thing. i had a question for you. is it possible to connect new users as far as new businesses with this to move forward with, connecting the dots on the back end or is that just -- like for example, not existing businesses already, but new businesses that would sign on there, could they get their business number. is there a link that can be linked to?

>> not yet. the currently officers doesn't have the new business registration online because there are hurdles with things like signatures. so we are working on that. i certainly don't want to over promise and under deliver. those are some of the dreams and goals that i stay awake and think about and wouldn't it be great if everybody had something online. it's something that we are going to work towards even if it takes small steps and this final implementation just taking these small steps forward every little step will add up and eventually us being a world class city delivering services to our constituents, we'll get there. >> it will show that we are obviously going to get there. this is going to be great. >> commissioners, as part of your role is to provide some guidance

to this city. so as you work with that site and you see that these are the next needs that it's certainly a directive, a directive or request that the next phase is that the city needs to be supporting the funding or the needs to do the research and what needs to happen with that to support that to make it happen. it's been your support to continue to push this and to get the services that we provide online so we can service more people and we saw with license 123, in a way we double the number of individuals that could get information by being able to access some of the information online. so this is now going to as commissioner dwight said, it's going to dramatically increase the numbers because not everybody could get to us from 8-5, monday through friday. again, it's under your purview as a small business commission to say these

are the next directions that we want the mayor and the board of supervisors to support and fund. >> yeah, it seems like the most efficient way to go moving forward. >> want to mention one more thing, this project has been a great great success because of the collaboration between the office of small business, between the department of technology and also office of economic and workforce development. so it's been really great to see everyone come together with this common objective and with the support of all these different departments, and me getting resources from the department of technology, that's what's helped this move so quickly. >> when they are going to the site are they required to give at the e-mail? >> only if they want to contact us because i really didn't want that to be something that would be prohibiting them from wanting to use this site. at this point we are not

requiring that people submit their e-mails. but we are tracking on the back end with google analytics and we are looking to using another tool to track some of the activity that's going on in the back end to do analytics on the click where they are going. google analytics i can see when someone enters the portal where are they going next, are they going to the permits and licensing section are they navigating and going into resources. so having all that data will make things even better. >> is there a button? the reason i ask because for small businesses is about getting information. so collecting as much data. in my website, would you like to join our newsletter? is that the type of business you are that you can e-mail? >> we don't have a newsletter and that

would be the fingers of the office of small business. all over this portal you can see the osb contact information on there. we are really not collecting that. >> but i think that's the point to take commissioner white, in terms of the next sort of level of enhanced features of how to better connect. because i don't see that as at the news letter but if you would like to be updated on small issues, click here. >> got it. hopefully right now that function is on osb website. i will make sure that we make that very clear. if you would like to stay connected and i will port them through and get them to the osb site. >> thank you. it's fantastic. >> great job. i logged in and it's very user friendly. >> good. thank you. >> i second that opinion and

i thought that it was a very crisp, the colors were very crisp and very modern and very intuitive. i like the flow of the site and i think there is a lot of information that comes out. so congratulations. it's a beautiful site and there is a lot of room to devil up as you were saying. i have a question regarding the content management and content update and how do you see that happen and who is going to take care of that and so, in your plan, in your timing, who is going to keep on checking the information, the forms, the legislation and in your opinion, what is that going to require to do that? >> that's a great question, commissioner. right now it's myself and my

team of two. so the three of us have committed to at least for the next two 2 years we've set up a whole document where we are tracking every single piece of information on the portal and if it is required that we update it or check it every quarter we will mark that off and put oh n a date. we will go through a meticulous process to make sure this stays current, but it is something that needs to be kept up over the years which is why we are also creating a user manual and training so we can hand it off some day if we are not doing this anymore. but it's going to take a lot of work and just maintaining the content on the portal itself and not even growing it is already a huge piece, but if we would like to grow it and again if we could advocate for more funding going forward that's definitely that will help keep this relevant. that's the worst thing for any user to go on the site and see

outdated information and you automatically lose credibility. that's a great question and something that will be a challenge in this upcoming years in the next couple of years, but i really hope to cement a process and make sure that this does carry forward and not something that will disappear in a year or two. >> thank you, you have a beautiful site and to maintain it and to maintain the traffic, this is an aspect that we have to think about and how in growing and preserving and updating the data. thank you. >> thank you. i really hope that when other departments see this it will change your thinking because this is really the first time that us as a city government took up a user centered approach and we really looked at how does the government interact with our users and how do you make that a little friendlier.

hopefully this will be a piece that the other departments will look at and model after. >> just to piggy back on what he was saying, is there a way to off load that impact of keeping that updating on your department and shifting the rest onto the other department. my business give mess -- me just a little quarter to update my part and maybe you can give it to them for them as a requirement. maybe it's that little piece that they can go in and upload just their forms. >> that's a great suggestion and i will definitely look into it and it's willing lcfs -- also a

matter of building trust and creating the portals and our key licensing departments are looking at this and saying, "wow, this is an initiative that we can get behind" if this is something they want to make sure your department is correct, you don't want to look bad on anyone else. we look forward to building those relationships as we move forward. >> any other questions? i just want to say, jane, this is awesome. great job. i agree with what everybody says, i like the look and feel and it's clean and very professionally done and i feel like you just brought us into 21st century. the thing i thought about while you were doing this presentation, when you were with the office of small business and your experience in the office of small business led

to this being successful because you know what people want, you know what they are going to ask for., and i just want to thank the city for recognizing your role in the office of small business and having you work on this project because this is kick ass. excuse my language, but this is really really cool. and, like you said other cities, you know, this is what makes san francisco special. we are the technology capital and they couldn't have had a better person on this project than you because you know what people want, and you designed this what people want. so instead of somebody going on there and getting upset. with the folders, i love that. so, i just want to say, great job great job. >> thank you so much. when we go for the full launch looking forward for you guys to getting the word out to the community as well.

thank you so much. >> and you should get a raised. >> wait, was that recorded? >> [ laughter ] >> should we take public comment on this in anybody want to make public comment on item no. 9? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you, jane. this is awesome. >> thank you so much for your time. >> okay, next item, please. >> next item is item no. 9, the directors report. so commissioners, i just want to provide you with some quick updates on current policy. our programs are going to be developed that came out of legislation that has been before you. as you recall supervisor tang had the legislation on the abandoned commercial front and maintenance fees. this week along with our department and neighborhoods were

meeting to set up and discuss an outreach efforts to especially targeted around small property owners because we do have storefront sf which is a listing site that small property owners can use without having to work with brokers. next, the small business development center, we had to slowdown the interviewing process for the director is still under way, although it slowed down a little bit but we target to have this position on board in november. the soft story mandatory retrofit program, the office of small business, they invest in neighborhoods met with the two gentlemen who run that program and we are going to be doing an assessment as to how many of the buildings that have ground floor commercials that are going to be required to do the mandatory retrofit

reside and the areas and how many reside outside and put together the informational piece. both for the property owners and the information about how the seismic story retrofit program works. there is some misinformation, i think some small property owners think they are going to have to clear out their ground floor commercial space to do the retrofit work and we have been hearing from some businesses who have been informed boo i the -- by the property owners that they need to clear out to do it and as i understand it and have been informed by trat -- patrick nealy that they are not always required to move out. in addition to that, there will be the requirement to do disability access upgrades and so helping the

property owner and the business to navigate through that. we want to reach out and let them know that our office, the investment in neighborhoods team is there and we have resources for them to help them through this process. next is small business saturdays coming up at the end of november and both our office and the invested neighborhoods are assisting with putting up new banners for this year and working with women impacting public policy who is leading the efforts the council of merchants chamber to work on this program. i will be meeting tomorrow with supervisor farrell's office and the department of public health to move forward your recommendation to revise the point of sale regulations or registration requirements still maintaining the integrity of ensuring consumer protection but

making it less onerous on small businesses and the department. formula retail, the plan was to hear both supervisor mars and the planning for legislation today. i don't think it occurred but i wasn't able to complete hearing the land use committee meeting today but it will be up soon. once that, the determination is made about the formula retail and decision between those by the board of supervisors between those two 2 pieces of legislation, then my understanding is that then the legislation for the formula retail workers will then move forward. next, i wanted to let you know that you may have read in sf gate last week

that supervisor campos has plans to introduce legislation to establish a business program. one of the elements discussed is to do incentives for property owners as a property owner rebate for tax for the business. and currently the legislation hasn't been finalized but the thought is to house the legacy of the program in the office of small business and we can work to in addition to that one potential benefit for the property owners, but to also really connect them with other resources so if it's a family owned business, the family business resource center has a supportive program to help legacy families businesses transfer their

business from one generation 1 generation to the next. the legacy family business center has been in conversation with them as well. >> good. >> last week supervisor chiu introduced another component to the formula retail employees formula retail entities in regard to their employers mandating or you know having employers give two 2-week notice for work schedules, notices of changes of schedule, compensation for schedule changes. i'm not going to read the whole thing. i have the legislation here to hand you to provide to you. so both now supervisor david chiu and eric mar now have legislation that is for dealing with formula

retail plows. doctor employees. the only other thing is the neighborhood street commercial district and i did a quick scan over them and it looks like the commission heard these back in 2012. the only thing that i think is different is those that banned formula retail and it will reflect what is in the planning code. so in preparation with the business portal going live we've been working on our website. so next tuesday we'll have a new look and feel to our website. it will still currently house all the information we have. so just until the business portal is up and live and fully functioning, it's set up that once that

is, then we'll be able to extract that information out from our website. so, it's primarily the new information but it will have the same look and feel. i want to let you know there are two fall in terms, martinez and stephanie nichols. monique comes from the schedule of entrepreneurship and she will continue to help around the work of sales and supervisors wiener and i are interested in this to provide support of research information that needs to be done and stephanie nichols was referred from would it robot who gave the presentation to the commission on the point of sale back in august.

and is from the the law school there and so i'm having her do some clean up work around business formation and also wanting to put together a plan before the commission since we are now doing gross receipts to see if the commission wants to establish some criteria around revenue in addition to employee side for small business definition. then, i also wanted to inform you that i met with rebecca pro zan who some of you may know but she was with the district attorney's office and she's now the government policy at government affair at google to discuss different types of business opportunities, things that programs,

so there will be future things coming. i don't know exactly what yet. but i was very appreciative that she reached out and i also wanted to again, i think that, i would like to get some feedback from the commission of this list i have about potential presentations. the hcso, the new changes ha that needs to come before you. the health department is changing, due to the amount of over time the department is maxing because of some of the weekend events, they are changing their inspector schedules. so some people work monday through friday and some will work thursday through saturday and what this is likely going to mean is there will be some inspections especially in restaurants

on the weekends. so you are certainly welcome to invite the department to come in and have them tell you what their plan is to if there is concerns about the business impacts. i have been hearing some concerns, you know that upon passage of the short-term rental that the planning department is going to be overwhelmed with request to do investigations and so what does that mean in terms of how will planning handle the staffing. so not to impact from our perspective small businesses the process they go through. the invest in neighborhood from the micro loan program and merging program and the ada assessment program and

the plastic bag and work programs. so happy to hear from you in terms of if there is priorities from things that you would like to get some presentations on soon. >> okay. thank you very much. >> i have a question for you regina, last month there were announcements for the small business fair at for fort mason did you go there? >> yes. we had a table. there's a decent turnout, but it's not a great location. so i don't think the attendance was as high as i would have expected. there were a number of people from the bay area and it was good outreach also for dealing with the new business packet because there were people

conducting business with the city but didn't know they had to be registered. it provided some good outreach for us in that respect. >> thank you. before we move on to the president's report i would like to take item no. 3 and forward that to our next meeting. i would like to move item no. 3 to october 27.th. >> i think we might have public comment to the directors report. >> okay. public comment on the director's report ? >> good evening. steven gornl. one of the best thing i have heard is that the health department is going to move their inspectors to different days. i think that's a great idea since many retail businesses and many

businesses now are open seven days 7 days a week. and that might be something that could be encouraged to other different departments in the city that might affect us. we are opening even banks, some banks now are open sundays. the government might be doing that also. i think that would be good. it's great that came up and it should keep going. >> great, thank you. any other public comment on the directors report? seeing none. public comment is closed. okay. i would like to make a motion to move item no. 3 to our meeting on the 27th. >> second. all in favor say, "aye". >> aye. >> any opposed? >> he couldn't make it. so he gets a pass for that. next item, please. >> all right. commissioners, we are now on item no. 11, president's report.

>> i just have one thing to report. i attended the merchants event at flora grub in the bayview. i have to tell you, i really, that's like an awesome place. i was surprised and how thriving that neighborhood was. all the little businesses around there. it was really cool. on behalf of the office of small business and it was a great event. so other than that i have nothing else. >> next item? >> item no. 12 is vice-president's report. >> nothing on that, other than i'm glad you went to the event. thank you. >> next item. >> item no. 13, commissioner reports?

>> commissioner riley? >> i attended the california business summit reception at the hotel. it was a great turnout. a lot of businesses were there and i met a lot of people that i know. it was a great event. >> any other commissioner comments? i also would like to report too that commissioner riley and i attended the asia inc. event on friday night which helps a lot of small businesses. okay. next item. >> item no. 14, is general public comment. >> do we have any members of the public who would like to make comment on future items for our meetings? >> hi, again. steven cornell.