co-sponsorship i know he is very committed to the goals of our ordinance. i also want to take a moment and appreciate the extensive involvement of city leaders from truout city government, starting first with our city administrator, naomi kelly, the dozens of departmental staff who have worked on this and of course the local small business community, particularly the coalition for economic equity and the lbe advisory committee. i also want to take a moment and thank idera taylor, our deputy city attorney who has been invaluable in this process of moving forward what has been a complicated piece of legislation. colleagues, today i'm going to make some brief comments and then ask that the legislation be continued to the call of the chair with the intention of hopefully scheduling one more committee meeting on this item while i am still on the board for possible vote november 25.

we often say small businesses are the backbone of our economy. small businesses that employ less than 50 workers comprise 95 percent of all san francisco's businesses. our local small businesses contribute billions of dollars to our economy every year. but we have not often been focused on how our city's contracting dollars which also constitute billions of dollars every year can be used to support our local and small businesses. three decades ago this board of supervisors recognized that local governments passive and sometimes active practice of discrimination no longer had a place in our city and that millions of dollars that our city spends for goods and services could be a powerful tool to invest in helping disadvantaged minority and women owned businesses enter the economic mainstream. that first law represented our city's now long-standing commitment to economic development in this area.

chapter 14b has fostered an active network of small and very small businesses in our city. chapter 14b now helps all small businesses offset their often higher costs of operating and paying taxes in our city. the current law can help level the playing field as small businesses compete against larger businesses that are not often located outside san francisco. when this law works, our city's public contracting practice that favors local business enterprises can help tax dollars at home where they will do the most good for our city. this legislation will help to reform and make the law better. let me just highlight some of the provisions in the legislation. part of what we're trying to do is establish a new overall city participation goal of 40 percent for all contracts. our reform legislation also increases discounts and lbe

certification size thresholds for microand small hbe's, it requires the city to make good faith efforts to obtain at least 3 accounts from microor small lbe's for contracts under a certain size. it establishes a mentor program between successful contractors and lbe's, implements a contractor advance payment practice to fund loans to subcontractors to address what we have often heard from some of our smaller subcontractors, it cleans up modernizes 14b and formalizes the transfer of chapter 14b implementation from the human rights commission to the city administrator. it would keep the limit up which the city would guarantee as part of its surety bond program as $750,000, it keeps the mayor as the official who resolves matters when the awarding authority and the director are unable to agree

whether to divide a contract into smaller contracts to maximize the opportunity for lbe's to participate. it changes 14b.5 on puc regional projects that are 70 miles or more outside san francisco or force the costs to be shared and it corrects a number of drafting issues that we have in the version that we had originally introduced. so, with that, what i'd like to do is ask bill barnes representing our city administrator to make a brief set of introductory comments and then we can move on to public comments. >> good morning, bill barnes on behalf of city administrator kelly. first our thanks to president chiu and his staff working on what's been an extraordinarily complicated piece of legislation. prop 9 does not allow us to use race and gender even though discrimination continues and we're working hard to figure out how to help every local

business to participate. we hope we can get this done before president chiu leaves the board and we are available if any members of the public are interested in discussing issues off-line and look forward in seeing you again in maybe a week. >> sorry, i just wanted to thank bill, naomi kelly and all the staff who have worked hard with us and all the community in moving this forward. >> this item is now open for public comment. you will have two minutes. please come forward. >> good morning, (inaudible) discrimination only exists legally woman team, man team. the sacred creation between woman team/man team. they have

differences. also the (inaudible) nonconformity american government law principal with exception objection so we have to make use of all the team to support the high level of special holy principle of all people and better deal with problems. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, supervisors, orren selfstrupl the coalition is an umbrella coalition of

numerous trade associations, we were instrumental in passing the first city ordinance back in 1984 and have worked continuously since that time to strengthen and defend the ordinance. we want to first thank supervisor chiu for his leadership on this issue as well as the hard work that has gone into this ordinance from the city administrator's office and the mayor's office. there is a lot in this legislation that we are very excited about that will really modernize the ordinance and bring it into the 21st century. some of the key items that supervisor chiu mentioned are critical to the small business community, setting the 40 percent overall goal for contracting, something that we have asked for and is in this legislation. mandatory contracting minimums, something that says for any city contract there should be a minimum amount of local business participation, something else that we have been strongly advocating for that is in this legislation that we're very excited about. we do agree that there are some additional work that needs

to be done hopefully over the next week. this is a very complex ordinance and even small wording changes can have a tremendous impact on implementation. so we look forward to working over the next week to hopefully bring it back to the committee for an ordinance that can be passed that we can all be proud of and further small business goals. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is miguel garza with yerba engineering. i spent a lot of time on legislation and wanted to share quickly, thank you again for all the great work in writing the legislation and for the support the mayor on down to all the supervisors and their support. obviously this program is one of the best in the country. having worked in multiple states throughout the united states, there are very few programs that enable small business to participate to the extent that san francisco has

allowed their small businesses to thrive in san francisco. there are two or three very key issues that i want to make sure that we cover. 14b3, size threshold, the base line used for the determination of 17 percent was 2005. keep in mind that was when it was last sunseted. in fact, the last time that size thresholds were increased were 1988 so i think if we're looking at size standards and the amount of increase using the base line of 1988 would be more appropriate. no. 2 would be 14b7, increasing the 5 sba goal to 5 percent from 2 percent would be instrumental for businesses that have grown out of the size standard and then enabling them to compete in small business, keep not guilty mind that the 2 percent goal with other sba's

has never been used and no contractor has ever won a sba goal so 2 percent might now help them have a greater advantage. thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> supervisors, president chiu, chair breed, i want to introduce myself. my name is julianna choice summer, i am president of the asian contractor association, also an own or of a microlbe i want to thankment chiu for introducing this legislation and to the committee for hearing and considering it. because this is a carrot to the lbe community. we are not used to carrots, we are used to sticks, lots and lots of sticks. the lbe community considers the current draft i would say not a full carrot, it's carrot-ish, it's got the shape

and form and it's orange like a carrot but i would encourage you to make it a full carrot to encourage another round much dialogue and clarification. thank you, president chiu, for continuing this hearing so we have another week to refine certain points. i also want to, since i have the podium, to thank the lbe community in particular, you have been so instrumental and thoughtful. i want to particularly make sure there is clarification regarding the process around oversight of the cmd, the cmd director, the office, i want determination how conflict is resolved among lbe's and the cmd office stuff, how escalation is taken care much as well. i look forward to seeing this move forward to the board and thank you very much. >> thank you, next speaker,

please. >> good morning, supervisors, my name is wayne perry, i own a company here in san francisco called cornerstone, i established it 29 years ago. we are an lbe and we also have the privilege and the distinction of being able to compete for larger contracts that normal lb's do not compete for. i am also a member of the lbe advisery committee but i'm here today to speak on behalf of myself and other lbe's who have the capacity to compete for larger contracts over 10 million in the proposed recommendations before you there are already in place incentives for companies who come in and team with local lbe's for contracts under 10 million, but for contracts over 10 million there are no incentives to speak of. so i am here to encourage you to consider offering a 2 percent

or greater incentive for other firms, bigger firms, to come in and do joint ventures and teaming arrangements with lbe's because we don't want, my encouragement to you is that we don't keep a limit of 10 million dollars for lbe's and other companies to come in and want to team with lbe's, we should actually provide opportunities for lbe's to compete with bigger firms and the only way that's going to happen is if you consider offering some sort of incentive, 2 percent, 5 percent, something, to help lbe's compete with bigger firms for contracts over 10 million dollars. >> next speaker, please. >> good morning, supervisors, my name is ken castle, i'm with a company called oho technology, we are a california certified small business and federally disadvantaged small

business enterprise. specifically our company is a computer engineering based integrator of physical security systems including video, access control and intrusion. among our recent projects is the pier 27 justin r. herman cruz ship terminal and a number of muni light stations below market company. we were fortunate to win contracts largely as a result of our dbe certification. i'm here to encourage you to reconsider the qualification for dbe enterprise, specifically to set up subsidiary offices or joint ventures and thus become eligible for joint certification. city agencies are frequently challenged to find qualified san francisco companies in our space to on projects or perform maintenance, particularly when specific engineering certifications and skill sets are needed. we as a small business who go looking for subcontractors for our work

also have difficulty finding companies in san francisco. the major barrier of entry to us would be the requirement to move our corporate office to san francisco. wouldn't it be of a value to the city for us to open a satellite office and hire local people to perform the work that is in such demand and why shouldn't that type of presence qualify for lbe status. in sacramento the qualifications to have an lbe office are merely to joint venture with an existing company. let me tell you one issue that occurred under your current system. we know of a company that is 150 miles away from san francisco that was awarded a city contract on the promise this company would relocate its corporate headquarters to san francisco. the company got the contract and leased a tiny space. >> thank you, sir, your time is up. you can snit your comments in writing to us as well. thank you, next speaker,

please. >> good morning, supervisors, josh what arse, bright line defense project. we're excited about this. there's a buzz in the local business enterprise community advocates about all the work that you have been doing, president chiu, mayor lee and supervisor kelly and the stake holders and committee. we're here because we've been tracking it particularly around jobs, obviously the big impact of lbe participation is you get local job creation as well. we wanted to stop by, however, apart from offering support and excitement and entering a little bit further deeper into these conversations with some of the folks here in the room, we learned of an idea that we wanted to propose and i have a letter to do that. it's somewhat new but maybe not this much, this is copies for the committee members. we understand it's been discussed amongst the local business stake holders with some of the supervisors in some of these

meetings. we have had the chance to vet it with some of the building trade unions and that is a separate category for architecture services. right now throughout the definition through the criteria for microand small dbe and even the goals it bundles architecture with engineering. local architects get hurt. why it's important we reverse the hurt and promote the idea such as this creating a specific category for architecture is your local architects, we find, are more predisposed and adept in knowing what are the local community values in design, what are the ways that promote the local community work force, what is a way to promote the opportunities to increase the efficiencies of working with labor organizations, building trade unions, to create a partnership that is so great, can be so vibrant if we can

reverse that trend, promote our local architects before we lose them. >> thank you, are there any other members of the public who would like to give testimony at this time? seeing none, public portion is closed. president chiu. >> often times many of our proposals here are described with many words. i've never had legislation described as carrot-like but i hope the 76 pages we have over the next week with a couple tweaks can be formed as a fully fledged carrot because the intention is absolutely to ensure that our hundreds of millions of dollars of contracting dollars are used as an incentive for our local businesses and that our local businesses are competitive with businesses outside of san francisco for those awards. secondly i want to say as we proceed in the coming days what would be incredibly helpful if

possible are for any stake holders who care about any aspects of the legislation to provide us suggestions in writing as quickly as possible as we are mulling over the final version of the legislation and the third thing i just want to clarify is madam chair what i'm hoping to do is first move the amendments that i have circulated as i have described them and then ask that this be called to the call of the chair with the intention of having a hearing hopefully on november the 24th, which is not this coming monday but a week from this coming monday, to potentially be moved to the full board on the 25th. so that's what my intention is but at this point until i think our staff figures out schedules we won't know exactly what time that hearing will be. >> so can we move the amendments submitted by president chiu without objection? without objection, those amendments pass. and can we move this item to the call of the chair? without objection, this item is moved to the call of the chair. thank you.

madam clerk, can you call the next item, please. >> item 3 is a resolution authorizing the use of the special city seal for the i will peerial council of san francisco and declaring february 15, 2015 imperial council of san francisco, inc., 50th anniversary gala day. >> supervisor weiner, welcome. >> thank you, madam chair and thank you, colleagues for angendizing and entertaining this resolution today. colleagues, today before us is a resolution declaring february 15th, 2015 imperial council of san francisco 50th anniversary gala day. and authorizing the imperial council of san francisco to use the city and county of san francisco's official seal in connection with this important event. it is a big deal and not very common for us to authorize the use of the city seal but the imperial court is a big deal,

as is its 50th anniversary. the imperial court is one of the core community institutions in the san francisco lgbt community and one of the oldest lgbt community organizations in the world. next year it celebrates its 50th anniversary. the imperial court was founded in 1964 by jose saria, who recently passed away and was honored both before his death and after his death by the board. jose saria, who ran for the board of supervisors in 1962 and did very, very well in that city-wide race went on to found the court two years later and become its first reigning empress. each year the community elects a new emperor and empress who reign for a year and raise significant sums

of money for charity. over time the impeer yad court has raised a very significant amount of money for hiv services, breast cancer, domestic violence prevention and other significant community needs prf prf after its founding in san francisco, after the founding of the imperial court in san francisco, other imperial courts were founded in the united states and in other countries starting with vancouver, portland and seattle in the early 1970's. san francisco, not surprising given our city's long history of leadership for the lgbt community, has retained the role of mother court, meaning that our imperial court is at the apex of the interinactional court system. we should all be very proud. i will say that i have also been honored to have a long relationship with the imperial court, have gotten to see its work firsthand and how much good it does in the community

and i was also honored in 2012 to be appointed on the recommendation of then-empress sabeline as the castro imperial prince for life of justice, prosperity and faith and i even got this beautiful medallion showing that i'm a member of the imperial court and i'm very honored to hold that role along with senator mark leno and our treasurer, jose sisneros and i'm very honored so thank you for that. colleagues, i ask for your support on this resolution to declare february 15th this special day of honor and to authorize the imperial council to use the city's seal. i know that the clerk of the board of supervisors is here who has an amendment she'd like to make which i fully support, an additional whereas clause, and

also be providing us a brief overview of how we deal with the city seal and i also want to note that president chiu has indicated he'd like to be added as co-sponsor of this resolution so if the clerk would add him as a co-sponsor. >> also before we take any amendments i'd like to take public comment. >> chair breed, i would like to say a few words of the city's seal itself if possible. thank you, chair breed, your honor, supervisor weiner, thank you for the opportunity to say two quick words on the corporate seal itself to distinguish the corporate seal, the administrative code authorizes city departments to create a logo that the departments can use in the conduct of their department business. the city's corporate seal is not a logo, it was originally created in 1858 and reestablished in 1900. it's considered a significant symbol of our city and if its use is authorized the seal is to be placed in a dignified manner.

the specific use is usually specified and limited in its authorization. the administrative code section 1.6 states the clerk of the board is the custodian of the city's seal and may authorize its use in conjunction with specific city business but when a request comes to the board of supervisors such as the request that's before you today, the board of supervisors deems the event worthy and the seal is authorized to then be used. the administrative code is clear that an individual who maliciously or who for commercial purposes or without prior approval uses the seal or any reproduction of the seal is guilty of a misdemeanor and there have been 12 instances when an unauthorized use of the seal has occurred. the clerk of the board has issued and at times with the assistance of the city attorney's office cease and desist letters for various issues and since 1969 the use of the city's seal has

been officially requested and granted 22 times, 14 by the clerk and 8 by the board of supervisors for such worthy issues as assisting san francisco with its night life, the key collectors international and the statue of liberty ellis island. the mayor's office of protocol was granted use for a limited period of time for crystal, brass or ornaments but was rejected for anything such as tee shirts, jackets or satchels and the bronze seal placed in the mayor's office was also approved by this department. should the committee approve the use of the seal, madam chair, i'm happy to come back and present the amendment at that time. >> i think it's fine to present the amendments now. we just will not vote on them

until after public comment. >> so my request is that just the language, the seal shall be placed in a dignified manner on promotional material, that it shall not be authorized for use on items that will be worn or items that would be meant for sale. i can work with the clerk on the appropriate whereas clause. >> thank you very much, madam clerk. colleagues, with that, madam chair, may we proceed to public comment? >> yes. >> okay, so we have several speakers which i will call up. i will call up speakers. first i'd like to bring up john weber who is the current chair of the imperial council of san francisco, followed by john paul soto, who is the current reigning emperor of san francisco, followed by donna sachet mr. weber. >> greetings, members of the

board of supervisors -- well, committee and supervisors. i rise in great support of this amendment or in this resolution. i want to say thank you very much to supervisor weiner's office who has been a very amazing support system in getting us through the process of doing this. we recognize the honor and the esteemed honor that it means to have the city seal afixed to any item. i think no recourse in my understanding that this event is one. most historical events that we can have. i wanted also to say for well over 50 years and i mean like half a century, the imperial court have raised lots of money for meaningful and charitable organizations and that's a charitable organization is a real honor to serve as the

leadership of this organization. for half a century since 1965 we have helped organizations from basically housing issues, hiv and aids, as well as just regular organizations of individuals who typically slip through the cracks. the mission of our organization is in fact to raise moneys in the most creative ways possible and we do that with the idea of having fun and as supervisor weiner mentioned he does have the honor of being a prince in our imperial court and we are very excited about having this opportunity to basically serve the community and recognize our 50th anniversary so we hope to god that you guys also support us in that effort and we have members of the community who are here to talk a little bit in support of it. so supervisor chiu, supervisor breed and supervisor tang and

supervisor weiner, thank you so much for the support. >> thank you so much. john paul soto >> hithere, good morning. my name is jake soto and i'm the reigning emperor. since we were crowned on february 22 of this year misty and i have been proud to represent our great city of san francisco within our city, the great state of california and other states including ska, ohio, idaho and nef. nevada. our official charities for the year have been breast cancer emergency fund, aids emergency fund, the arc and san francisco night ministry. we chose to support the smaller nonprofits and charities where a few extra dollars would have the greatest impact on the people of san fr