us to have influence and slide 12 just sam ar eyess and weight management and physical activity and healthy eating and emotional well-being and the organizational caring and those things are highly correlated if they're good well-being is good and well-being and associated and productivity measures of absenteeism and performance and costs things like higher preventative screening rates and hospital costs and workers com many in the research we do not have that data to look at that in our population at this point. that is what we started with looking at how we happened in our population and then it takes you in to our mission because

one of the things that we didn't start with and we've really grown in to is who we are and in 2017 we defined well-being as living and feeling and being better every day and understanding that when we do that there are things that happen today, today we have more energy and we feel better and that's where you really see those enhancements on your productivity and tomorrow, hopefully those things accumulate and in to us preventing health conditions and berman age health conditions and in the long-term really allowing our quality of life to improve and so that's where our mission came from. on slide 14, you have those factors that are associated with well-being and a list of the some of the programs we offer to address them and you will get my usual overly long annual report in the new year that summarize

those programs and how they've been doing and we report on them as they come up and lots of different data points for you so there's no one like look at that and we did that for well-being it's all of these different programs and it's all of these different concepts they're all driving that number so they all play a piece so i can't just give you one. i am working on being more brief >> are there questions from the board. >> i forget some of your methodology of the assessment on the numbers look great but i don't know how many people harmed so it would be helpful to add a little n equals 3 for the healthy and equal 700 for the unhealthy, whatever, just because it gives us a sense of the magnitude and maybe how we

can look at the whole populations so that was just one suggestion. >> yeah, definitely. >> take a minute to review the methodology but maybe for the few. the other question i had was having just finished the two hour training on harassment, which took three and a half because of the system i understand weight and height are protected catagories so i i just am curious with all of these how we protect against harassing people who might not be eating healthy or consuming five you know, and serveings of vegetable and fruit there's an opportunity for peer harassment or manager harassment or whatever, if people we think gee, you should be in our healthy eating program and you are not and how come? harassing people and i'm just curious how the well-being program accomodates that.

>> just high level 20% of our employees took the survey so that is the underlying and why have the catagories off the top of my head. to your second point, a couple of things. it's definitely the tone that we set and with my previous employer, the companies that we worked with very often took a approach of you have to do these things to get this premium, right, and that creates a culture of people judging and forcing, and a lot of negativity and a lot of stress and a lot of those factors you brought up and the approach that we have taken is everything is fun, everything is optional and we admit openly

that not every program is for everyone that our program is about being better every day and whatever that means to you and we want to you live healthy, we want you to feel good and get care and we know that well-being is this huge concept and everybody is working on different things at different times so opening the program with the well-being assessment defines well-being like that instead of saying our well-being program means you need to have these numbers and you need to be a healthy weight or if you are not doing these things you are driving up our costs, right if we had taken that approach that's the culture that you create but we took a very different approach and it's slower, it's harder, it's harder to explain to you being having an impact when you take that type of approach but if you set the culture wrong on the onset, it is so hard to take that back.

>> other questions. thank you for all of your efforts to you and your team and we look forward to your report in january. and soy understand that there's part 2 and that's the diabetess. >> yeah, so today we were excited that the timing of the data report actually coincided really nicely with us getting back the initial data for the diabetess prevention program which was a partnership with kaiser and the division of research to really target a higher risk group so a group that is at risk for diabetess they're not diabetic but they're at risk for diabetess and so two years ago, we set out on this journey to recruit participants to see if a work place-based program or an online program worked better and the program

regardless was the established diabetess prevention program which is a proven program that came out of n.i.h. and c.d.c. research and is a crediting programs all over the country and c.m.s. is looking at the importance of including diabetes s prevention programs so it's not like we made up an intervention we took an intervention and testing is it better in-person at the work site or is it better when delivered online so that was slide 16. slide 17 shows we were able to recruit 158 people and we, i didn't, i had nothing to do with it, kaiser division of research randomized them in to two arms and 80 people and 78 people and of those folks, we asked them to give us their initial measure ment and they attend 12

weeks of classes and hold line or in-person every week for 12 weeks and then they go every other week for a few months and they go once a month for a year so we asked these 158 people to do something for a year which is why we're reporting this out to you two years after we started and it took a long time to get those folks and check them for a year. at the end of the year, we had 43 of the online folks show up again to get measured and it doesn't mean they completed it and it doesn't mean they didn't complete it it just means they shove off measured again and we had 54 of the work site folks so all the data you see really comes from those folks who showed up at both points. it isn't uncommon to have this drop off and it probably is

somewhat took tell tale there was unanne drop off and the other thing that you have here, are the list of locations and i included that not just as a thank you to those departments and those champions who actually found rooms for these things, can you imagine trying to book a conference room once a week for 12 weeks and every other week for a year in the city where we're so space constricted, it takes a lot of work but it also shows all the different types of workers so we were out at dp yard and we were at the library and we were at laguna honda so a lot of different work environments in this study. so slide 18, of those folks and we lose weight what percentage of weight did they lose and some say d.p.p.66% of them lost

weight so those in the online d. p.p.63% of them lost weight and that's of the people who showed up at the end to get measured. on slide 19 the average weight loss so we measured them at six months and again at 12 months and it's really important to see if it was holding up you expect a bigger weight loss at the beginning of a program but sustain tag isn't as easy so what we saw was at six months, they had about a four to five pound weight loss and the online group started to regain by the end and the work site group lost a little bit more so most importantly they sustained that after six months because you don't expect the biggest amount of weight loss in the first six months. slide 20. this is people who participated that were over weight versus obese because there are -- it's

incredibly important looking at those high-risk obese folks trying to reduce them because they're probably closer to becoming pre diabetic or diabetic than the over weight but they're also, they tend to respond differently so what was great to see was the work site program both over weight and obese folks lost five to six pounds but you did not see the obese participants lose very much weight at all. slide 21 is, i bet you had to read this one twice. so this is about how many pounds they lost. so based on how many sessions they showed up for so in theory if they come to more sessions

they're do better. the people in the work site program who didn't come to more than eight sessions actually gained seven and a half pounds which say negative seven and a half pound loss and the people who came to eight or more sessions averaged the weight loss of seven pounds and looking at slide 22 we asked participants what they liked and what they didn't like six and 12 months so some of the helpful features that showed up or having a lifestyle code so both programs had a lifestyle coach but one was in-person and one was e-mailing with you, right. and tracking food intake was a key factor and the content people actually learning the educational information behind all of these classes was really important to folks and some of the barriers to participation

was the farm at and some thought it wasn't conducive to them and another barrier was they lost interest and another barrier was poor resources so you can see that there was the folks in the work site program reported the helpful features a lot more frequently and the people in the on online program reported barriers more frequently. >> on slide 23 you have a quote that i could have just not given you any of this presentation and just given you their quote sums up everything about the on site program that was successful. and slide 24, we asked them why they participated and -- when we asked them if being offered by the employer was important 83 to

86% that was a major motivator for them and having no cost was a major motivator for them so some of the implications of this incredible long is that i am person programs are an important component of an he can tive well-being program and it doesn't mean that online programs aren't going to be an important part but when it comes to something as important as a very integrated behavior change like weight, this study showed that the i am person program was substantially more helpful, folks appreciate no cost programs this program in the community cost $400 and just that up front cost can be a huge barrier for folks. sometimes i equate the work place to schools if you want to teach kids something you get to them at schools if you want to tell adults something get to them at work and people hearing things from their employer because they spend most of their

time and so it's just important that the employer be promoting resources whether it's something at the work place or just what the health plans are offering and it's important that we continue to communicate and through the employer it's the flyers in their office and it's the champions telling them it's not just unfortunately it can't just be things we mail home to them it has to be things they're getting at work. and hopefully you took the time to watch the video and we have seven different videos up on our website now and as we look for a different reason we were looking for videos when people wanted to be the face of our better everyday brand and it just happened she was in the diabetes s prevention program and it had a big impact but her story talked a lot about how her work place makes it easier are for her to engage and it's been a big opportunity for her but

she's one of our big success stories with the 23-pound weight loss during the program and so take a look at that and hear it from a real people and the real workers. >> i would like to have the representative from kaiser to come forward for just a few questions that i have and i thank you stephanie for the overview of the program. are you doing this type of program with any other of your employers, this type of not approach or pilot? >> sure a number of employers are interested in this and some are -- we have not done this sort of a formal research study with any other of our employer customers. >> to the degree that there's any other comparative data with other employers within your contractor to partner and what is your plan, what's your larger outcome here from your standpoint? >> we're enthusiastic about it

and stephanie and what is in it for and you what do you plan to do with it and. >> we're looking at how we offer the program -- >> the ymca who delivered the program here and they are nationally going to leader in this program so we right now are

looking at 9 learnings using different models and they will help us formulate with our strategy. >> members any questions? >> i have a couple questions, one is i'm assuming that the class ideas on the employee's own time that they were not provided during working hours? because i mean the -- i want to know what the average age was because you know, if you can do it any time and go over with your coach at 6:00 in the morning for the young technology people what's the age and make sure i'm clear about the on sight timing of the classes. >> i'll have to full the average age we have all the demographics and we are looking to publish soon and i have some of these findings but, to answer your

question when it was offered it was offered during the work hours at the dpw cesar chavez yard it was at the beginning of the day before they went out so it was slightly different and it was designed to be facilitated by bringing it to you by making it free but it was not designed to take away from work time. >> the other question i have, as a diabetess prevention study and we know that weight is an important part but insulin resistance is related to exercise, tolerance and lean bod owe weight so do you actually have the ability to get a hemoglobin a-1c and the active participants or some other objective measure that would

actually relate directly to diabetess or pre diabetess as a opposed to just weight? >> so, the screening was weight plus the cdc weight screener and we chose not to do a blood draw because of the realities of recruitment are hard and it's very hard to get people to show up to an information session to commit to a 12-month program to come once a week for 12 weeks to be like and we're going to take your blood twice was more than we thought we could handle and the screener is approved way of doing it according to the diabetess prevention protocol so we opted for the screener instead but it was looking at other risk factors in addition to weight. but that is why we don't have the hemoglobin a-1credit data. >> you presented one aspect of

the screener which was weight, i gathered. or weight change. as opposed to you know, b.m.i. or any of the other parameters on the screen so you have the other parameters to look at in this group not just their absolute weight gain or loss but also some, something else that might be associated with elevated blood sugar. >> the other outcomes that we have everything was also done in b.m.i. i felt it's easier for people to wrap their head around a five-point weight weight loss than a .1% reduction in b.m.i. was harder and they are correlated and we also had had waist circumference change so there's trouble there and what we don't have yet but we will have is the report physical activity which will be really

valuable as well. there's a lot of the survey data that hasn't been processed yet and we only had the pre imposed physical assessment data in. >> commissioner sass. >> just wanted to get an understanding of how you collect some of the weights. if people are coming to a work place session are they being weighed in each session? is that done or is this monitor ed and tracked? >> yes, so the folks who participated in the work site program were encouraged to weigh in each time. >> what about the online people? is this an honor system? >> they self-report that. >> we can't really validate the two -- it's an honor system online and how do you really draw conclusions between two different kind of methods for

determination. >> it's a job of correctioning. >> throughout the program weight was tracked in those two different ways but the six month and 12 month assessment everyone came back to be physically measured. >> other questions from commissioners. >> well thank you for your initial efforts in this area and we look forward to more. to the longer report andel correlations and comparatives with other employers and we appreciate your partnership with us on this project and these are public comments. thank you, again. >> all right. we are ready to move on to item 10. thank you. >> clerk: item 10 discussion item network and heath plan issues if any. >> network and health plan issues. and this is normally where we have our perspective plan

representatives to come forward and we have one coming. please do. and you are -- >> would you -- >> i am lisa and the company that provides the online voluntary benefits enrollment services. >> i'm going to ask you again to just don't be afraid of the mic, bend the head so it's right at you like you are getting ready to eat it. >> ok. >> all right. >> so we provide the online voluntary online enrollment services as well as third party administration services to reconcile the payroll and pay the carrier invoices so the two issues we feel we need to bring fourth to make you aware and one is last thursday e.b.s. experienced a reduce in force and i want to assure the board

and the city that the people who were let go were not part of the team that takes care of san francisco and their employee and we'll be able to continue with our services. and customer service call center or any of the people that are behind the scene taking care of the city's benefits. >> so you had a reduction force but not impacting in the service staff that are working with us. thank you for that notification. >> and the second issue is part of what we do on the third party administration site is pay the carriers and we have additional benefits that we provide to m.e. a. and one of the carriers that we work with the westbound -- benefits are grandfathered so they're not offered anymore and we changed

our payment method and went from paper check to electronic and a. c.h. and this is recent and it's across board with all our clients having a hard time applying the payments so there's about 15m.e.a. members in this group of about 200 that we're working on to fix. >> all right. so with the system change and the payment system you've run in though issues and i'm sure that director greyson and the staff have been working with you on these items? >> all right. >> can you remind the board how long they have been provided services forks h.s.s. in the city? >> and last year it was the first year we decided to provide volunteer in the city and they

administered that for us. >> well thank you for giving us a heads-up to both of these issues. we appreciate it very much. that is a sign of a true partner >> the m.a.a. for this member? >> say that again? >> have you reached out? >> i am reaching out. i've got about, i've been through about half and i'm working on it. >> because m.a.a. might be able to provide you more help because they have more information about their members and they have a monthly meeting and they could sell it out to their members. >> thank you. >> all right. >> thank you. >> i'd like to speak from united healthcare. >> united healthcare is there anyone here from united healthcare? >> commissioner breslin has a few questions, comments or observations. and you are -- >> shannon hoff united heath

care. >> so anyway, i got many phone calls, complaints from members saying they got these phone calls constantly about signing up for the home visits. to the point of they feel harassed speaking of harassment, yeah, and so i mean, you have to have someway of making one call knowing it was called because people don't pick up their phone anymore and they say it's just like these robocalls, they don't even, you know, and then i personally got five at least and i don't know how many more but five for sure and then i also got three for the flu shot so i said can't you make a note that you made the call, left a recording and that's it. i mean -- >> i can take that back. >> i don't understand the whole visit thing, who is it benefitting? someone is making something from this or planning something from this? >> so we did pull some calls and

we had 5,000 house calls completed this year and we would like to come and do a presentation to the board on the house calls program and bring a house calls nurse to speak about the program. >> that's fine but don't keep calling members. >> i can take the calls back so based on the complaint that came out of the october board meeting , we did pull the calls and we did find that there were three to five calls made i think there was a back and fourth some were calls in to united healthcare and some were calls out but they were looking at that and they are looking at the out reachs and a member can always request to be put on a do -not-call list and they should cease. >> it's alarming because you have an important message for you about your healthcare so some people are like oh, wow, what's the matter here so you know it's that thing like it's

an emergency. >> i can take that feedback back >> it's not good it's annoying. >> any other comments for united healthcare? ok, thank you very much for being here today. any other reported issues from any of our planned representatives? things we ought to know about or things that you are thinking about doing and have done and wish you had, would be doing in the future? none of that, all right, thank you. we'll go to discussion item -- is there any public comment? we do have public comment. ok. in the next item. discussion item number 11. >> clerk: item 11 discussion item opportunity to place items on future agendas. >> den he is cruger active retired firefighters spouses. happy holidays to everybody and seeing how this is the holiday

season i have a wish list. >> well, all right. >> actually noted. >> real quick. for next year rates and benefits this is just a pre notice, i'd like to see him look in to improving the hearing aid situation. i think it's archaic that you get one hearing aid every two years and it is possible that as soon as you get a new one your old one dies. i'd like to see something like three years for two new ones and maybe a co pay back if you have to get another one in between that and half of it a quarter of it would be nice. >> hearing aid benefit. >> number two, cater aks which i am now experience and i think it's also a shame that with our insurance they start out, this is what you get for a cataract operation and now if you have $5,000 more for each eye you get the best.

it's so sad that there's something in between our insurance that can't be halfway up to that $5,000 per eye. and then the third one, seeing now we're doing so well with delta dental, possibly a two-tier dental system i know it's a lot to work around, the same as we have a two-tier vision system and happen owe holidays to everybody. >> thank you very much for those suggestions and we'll take them under advise. as we look at benefits design in the future. discussion item 12. >> clerk: opportunity for the public to comment on any matters within the board's jurisdiction. >> is there any public on any comment the board has under its jurisdiction? hearing and seeing none, on behalf of the board we want to wish everyone a very happy holiday and this meeting stands

adjourned.

>> good morning, everyone. my name is todd rufto of the workforce development program. it's great to be here at the san francisco museum of ice cream. i want to thank the entire team

here for hosting us for this event. this is a special day. we are doing the fourth annual launch of the mayor's shop and dine in the 49 local shopping campaign. this is a really big deal because it is a partnership between a great many members of the small business community and the neighborhood throughout the city focused on helping san franciscans spend more money in our local commercial corridors and at small businesses in san francisco. but it is also an opportunity to celebrate the entrepreneurs that are making -- that keep san francisco strong, that are keeping the city thriving and vie brand. one of the things that i'm really excited about and want to focus on today is the incredible partnership of all the members of the small business community that are here today. where are you, jason? raise your hand. hi, jason from shop small saturday. thank you very much for your partnership and continued klb

ration. -- collaboration. we have mark quite thesing, regina dickendreezy, the council of district merchants has been a critical partner of ours as well. we have the council district of merchants here as well. juan of the things that we're really proud of and really inspired by is our mayor, ed lee. the mayor came to us four years ago, the office of economic workforce development and said i challenge you to create a program and campaign that gets more shopping done in our local neighborhoods. increase the amount of spending to support jobs and small businesses and also support taxes and the vitality of our neighborhoods. and we, through the incredible work of mariane thompson and gloria chan, joaquin torres in the office of economic workforce development launched this program to do exactly that. to encourage and challenge san franciscans to do more in our small business community. mayor lee has done more than

any mayor that i know to invest and support in small businesses, directing more money and investing more money than any administration in the city's history to support small businesses through the invested neighborhoods program, by launching a small business portal, by meeting constantly with our small business leaders and as a tireless advocate for the issues that they care about most. it is my honor and privilege to introduce mayor lee. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, todd. good morning, everybody. let me correct todd because i want to make sure you understood the challenge. i challenged him to find me more ice cream. that was the real challenge. and i'm really happy to be here. at the ice cream museum. this is one of those innovative ideas, very unique to the city and, of course, they're getting booked up like crazy and we're in the heart of our shopping and union square and, of course, the chief and i already have enough chants.

we need some opportunities to smile and, of course, we're about to jump into this speckle pool. forgive us if we have too much fun. the holidays are beginning. we're going to have lots of fun. i want people to not just come to the city but take advantage of really supporting the backbone of our business community and small businesses and people here, karen fled knows union square is at the heart of a lot of things that we do during the holidays. you have jeffries toys, my favorites. they're a legacy business in the city. and keep supporting them. [shouting] we'll have all of the different business associations that are working together with us. but the experience is all about fun. safe fun. and that is why the chief and i will be doing a lot of things over the holidays to make safe shopper programs, to provide the safety level that people have. reduce the harm reduction program on our streets. make sure people, as many people can get off of our

streets. while work on those hard things. in between those difficult, challenging things, we want to work with our business community to provide safe fun for the kids that will be here. thousands of kids over the holidays, families. people from all over the world that are taking advantage of this wonderful city that we have. and we're doing this with programs, yes, that we funded but we want to make sure that everything else is working for folks on the long-term. small businesss are so important to cities like san francisco. more than the backbone, they provide the innovative, the cultural diversity all over our neighborhoods. this is one big area. but listen, shop and dine in the 49 is about shopping in all of our neighborhoods. allow them to give you cultural innovation, small business innovations, shopping small innovation because when people put their entire lives behind their small businesses, you

should see the innovation that comes out of their ideas, their service, their good patronages of products and designs that are locally sensitive and culturally rich. wanted to say thank you to this museum for starting out their innovation. i think kids already have ice cream in them because they are jumping up and down before they come in. to our restaurants, our golden gate restaurant association will be very full this year. probably hard to get reservations. but persevere. use every app that you can or, like i do, walk in with a $5 bill or something and hand somebody. then they will give you a seat. the old-fashioned way. but i know mark is excited because small businesses really are our engine and creating even more and they not only love our support, we love supporting them. but i want to emphasize shop and dine in the 49.

go to that app. if you really want to have a lot of information about those stores. and we'll be on the streets to make sure everybody is safe and enjoying themselves. of course, this is thanksgiving. so, we're going to, just after this, we'll be handing out a lot of turkeys to people if their need. we have fire victims up north that are in need. we have people on the streets that are in need. i want to make sure that the spirit, the principles that we operate on, are right in front of us. right in the front of everything that we do, that we support, everybody that needs that help and that's why these -- this is so wonderful because they are often the untold, unknown heroes that come out and do a lot of gift donations and support that never gets covered and i want the media to cover them. cover all of our small businesses as they really are

the help that we want to have. so thank you very much, everybody. and shop and dine in 49. happy holidays. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. as the mayor said, this holiday season is about shopping local and shoppinging safe. it is my honor to welcome our fantastic chief of police, chief scott. >> thank you. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i couldn't have said it better than mayor lee. [kids shouting] and this place is fun in here. i'm not a big ice cream eater, but my entire family is. i'm sure i will be here many times during the holidays. this is my favorite time of year and it is my favorite time of year because the holiday season, thanksgiving, the holiday season, it brings out the best in communities. it is a time where we're selfless, we give, we come together as a community. and definitely shop and dine in the 49 is, i think, the way to

go. this time last year, even before i got hired by mayor lee to be the chief here, we were here during this period last years and i remember walking around, basically walking around this area and just going to the different businesses and it was an experience. for those of you who have lived here all your lives, when you come here from another city and experience this great city, it is really something to behold. so, we want to make sure that that experience is shared and that people can do that safely. i have a couple of tips that i want to share with you. i have a long list. but i'm going to be very quick in reading -- rattling off this list of safety tips. first of all, cell phones. we all have 'em. we all use them. and sometimes i'm as guilty of it as anybody else. i'm walking and texting and on the phone and i'm not paying attention to what i'm doing. take a minnesota pay attention to your surroundings.

i know we're a cell phone generation. we live on these things but they can be distracting. it is really important when you are shopping, particularly going to the bank and the a.t.m., buying things for your family and loved ones, pay attention to your surroundings. there is nothing more important than vigilance. if we are to be a resilient city, there is some basic things that we can do. if you're using your a.t.m., block your p.i.n. number so it is not visible. really basic thing. but unfortunately we still have people if our society that will make a living and make a profit off of stealing p.i.n. numbers and then getting into your bank account and taking your funds. block your p.i.n. numbers. make sure you look at your surroundings when you are at the a.t.m.. no matter what you are, look at your surroundings. if you are driving to your location, number one, public transportation is great here. take advantage of public transportation. but if you are driving, make sure you lock your car, first of all. make sure that you put things away that are visible.

if you have a trunk, put it in the trunk. don't leave valuables if your car. we have a program we're calling park smart. it has been very successful. but that means to park smart. don't leave your valuables if your car for somebody else to take them away. the last thing you want to do have your hold day season ruined by somebody else breaking your car window and taking out the things that you work hard to provide your family and friends and loved ones. so park smart. the next thing, if you are shoppinging, make sure when you -- some people will shop and they'll go and load up their car and then go and shop. there are things you can do to prevent being an easy victim for that. if you are shopping, if you are going to load your car, take the time to move your car to another location. because people that are going to prey on innocent people, they do watch what you do. so move your car around. i know it is a little bit of an inconvenience, but it does help. if you're walking around with

packages and loaded up on the arm, again pay attention to your surroundings because you don't want to become easy prey. our city overall is a very safe city. but there are things that we can do to be resilient and individual lends and some of these things may sound like common sense. when you are caught in the moment of the day sometimes you lose track of what you are doing and you get distracted. the main thing is to pay attention. pay attention to what you are doing. if you do that your resiliency goes up and your vigilance goes up. the last thing is look out for your neighbors. if you see something, say something. the cell phones that i just mentioned, be safe in doing so. but if you have a situation where you need to call 3-1-1 or 9-1-1, do that. 9-1-1 is an emergency situation. somebody is getting a, thated f you see a crime in progress, that's a 9-1-1 call. if your car gets broken into and there is no danger, that is a 3-1-1 call. we'll get there and take a report.

or you can do that report online. i want to end this on a positive note. i started this with this season is all about giving, sharing and taking care of each other. i think if we do that, that is a resilient san francisco that we all know we can be. let's take care of each other and be a community and enjoy your holiday season. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, chief. as i mentioned earlier, the shop and dine the 49 campaign is a partnership with the small business community but also with other government leaders. it is my honor to introduce and recognize our s.b.a. district representive, fewly appointed just a couple of months ago. come on up, julie. [applause] >> good morning. first of all, mayor lee and chief scott for your great support of the small business community.

s.b.a. is really proud to co-sponsor, again, small business saturday with american express and women impacting public policy. they have been tremendous supporters of this initiative across the country. and i know jason and lynn are here today and we have a representative from american express. thank you for your dedication and your support of the small business community. we have been part of this -- or the small business saturday has been around since 2010 and it's really been exciting to watch this initiative grow year after year. last year was a record-breaking year with about 112 million consumers out shopping small and dining small across the country. they saw 68% increase in the neighborhood champions can. i know this year with all this momentum and excitement, maybe fueled by a little sugar from the ice cream, that we can even beat those numbers. i'm looking forward to seeing everyone out and about on saturday. in your various communities. so why small business?

i mean, we all know small businesses create jobs, they fuel the local economy, spark innovation. that's all true. but small businesses are more than that. they are actually what makes our communities unique. it helps us define our neighborhoods. so, when you support a small business, you are supporting your friends and neighbors. they tend to hire from a local community. they tend to support local initiatives. philanthropic events. so when these small businesses thrive, we all benefit. so, at s.b.a., of course, we're here to be your small business resource. so any small business loaners out there today, know that you have the skills and talent and ambition, but if you ever need a little bit of help, s.b.a. is here to help you as well, where you need counseling, training, financial assistance, or you're looking for new opportunities such as exporting or government contracting. please remember to call upon us. but the message for the takeaway today is saturday. please go out, take your

friends and neighbors and remind them it is small business saturday. go shop at your favorite local merchants, go dine at your favourite local restaurant and if you have out of town guests, this is the perfect time to show off all those fun places that you love and adore to patronize on a daily basis. so i encourage everyone to amplify this message and encourage all of your friends and neighbors to shop small and dine small. [applause] >> thank you, julie. as you all know, what this ultimately is about is about the small businesses and we're doing this to support them, to support their vitality in the city. it is an honor to be able to welcome up matthew lunn who's the owner of jeffery's toys. now jeffery's toys was nominated by mayor lee as a legacy business. they have been around since 1938 in san francisco. and that is a really long time. i know matthew is going to explain a little more action their story. but i want to welcome you up there to tell that story for all of us. [applause] >> thank you.

first up i want to say that my dad and my step mom are the owners of jeffery's toys. i'm here as one of the supporters of jeffery's toys. you know, when i was born, it was not -- it was pretty unusual that my parents owned the most family-run toy stores in the bay area. find that as a normal way to grow up as a kid. prison awesome when it is your birthday or a holiday, right? but my parents didn't start the toy stores, jeffery toys. my grandparents operated it before them and then my great grand parents are really the ones that started the toy stores. wow. what a great way to grow up. all that creativety and play and uniqueness made me want to continue to live a life where i could play and be creative. and i ended up working at pixar at the very beginning when the studio began. on "toy story." no coincidence, right? [applause] [laughter]

and you better believe when we needed to give reference on what toys would be in that film, you know the toy store we went to, we went to jeffery's toys "toy story" one, two, and three. i spends over half my life at pixar, which has been awesome. when i hear that the toy store was being closed down on market street, it broke my heart. i was like this cannot be possible in a city that is all about creativity and play and uniqueness. we can't lose jeffery's toys. that is when i came in and said to my dad and step-mom, there is no way we're letting this happen. and then with the support of the city, support of the mayor and the legacy program, we were able to just open up our toy store once again in the city, just a couple of months ago. so, we think -- we think we can still safely say we've been here since 1966. but, you know, in a world of amazon and wal-mart and all this, people still want an

experience. people still want to come in and be able to touch the toys, be able to touch the productses, to be able to have an experience. the same kind of experience you get when you see a film. right? people still want that. and in the city that is the most, in my opinion, the most creative, unique city in the world, we gotta have a toy store. we gotta have shopping and dining experiences that are one of a kind. so we're so happy to be part of this shop and dine in the 49 and, once again, since 1966, creating a fun place, a creative place for people to come and buy their toys. so, thank you. [applause] >> in closing, i think matthew hit on a good point which isn't just about shopping or dining, this is about experiencing in the 49. i obviously believe there is no better place to spend the holidays, but also year round than here in san francisco. and on that note, on the note

of experience, i think with the closing of this event, i think you are going to take us on a tour of the ice cream museum here and maybe the chief and everybody here can join the mayor and maybe we go and check out the sprinkle pole just down the way -- [laughter] and see everything that the ice cream museum has to offer. thank you for joining us today. thank you to all of our partners for your support. have a wonderful and safe holiday season. thank you. [applause]

>> hello, everyone. i'm supervisor katy tang. welcome to 12 days of kittens. my staff came up with an idea of hosting animals in our office so people can come and not only find animals that they might want to adopt, but we found it's a great stress reliever for people that work in city hall. they come around all day,

whether it's the shift department or upstairs or the mta, just want to pet the animals and it helps people feel better. a lot of people proactively ask us, are you bringing back the kittens? we've been doing this for five years. it usually culminates in a party in december. we'll see animals adopted throughout the year. if people are thinking about animals to adopt, they may go to a pet store, buy from a breeder, go to spca, but we want people to know that the acc has animals that need homes. >> every year, her office does the 12 days of kittens. and she picks up every morning cute, adoptable kittens. she has different groups of kittens every day and brings them to her city hall office and

they're there all day for everybody that goes through to see and enjoy. we adopt out 900 kittens every year, cats and kittens. we're working all year long promoting adoption, getting people in to see the cats. so it's a pleasure it have the opportunity to showcase some of them in supervisor tang's office. kittens love to play and they're frolicking and all that and it's super fun. >> sometimes they will roam around people's desks. if someone wants to adopt a cat, they can identify any of them that might be hanging around our office, but we have to go through animal care and control, make sure they pay a fee. it's very affordable, as well as they receive the proper vaccination. >> come on down, adopt a cat. there's a lot of kitties waiting for a beautiful home. >> how can you resist this face? >> i think everyone needs a pet in their life. it makes your day so much

better. i hope you will support us in

>> i would like to say good morning, but it's really not a very good morning. welcome to the san francisco county transportation authority for today. it seems like it's been a long day already, tuesday december the 12th. i just want to start the meeting by offering our condolences to the family of edwin lee, the 43rd mayor of the c