>> president adams this is a regular meeting of the small business commission held on monday, march 26th, 2018. the meeting is being called to order at 2:01 p.m. the small business commission thanks media services and sfgovtv for televising the meeting. members of the public please take this opportunity to silence your phones and any other electronic devices. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker, unless otherwise established by the presiding officer of the

meeting. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. please place speaker cards to the right of the lectern. speaker cards will be called in the order they are placed in the basket. sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. great. welcome, everybody. it's our custom to begin and end each small business commission meeting with a reminder the office of small business is the only place to start your new business in san francisco and the best place to get answers to your questions about doing business in san francisco. the office of small business should be your first stop when you have questions about what to do next. you can find us online or in

person here at city hall, and best of all, all of our services are free of charge. the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses here in san francisco. if you need assistance with any small business matter, start here at the office of small business. welcome, everybody. >> item 1, call to order and roll call. >> commissioner stephen adams. >> here. >> commissioner kathleen dooley. >> here. >> commissioner mark dwight. >> here. >> commissioner william ortiz cartagena. >> here. commissioner irene yee riley. >> here. commissioner miriam zouzounis. >> here.

>> next item, new agenda items. discussion item. >> do we have any members of the public who would like to make comments on anything not on today's agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 3, approval of legacy item. the applicant is kabuki springs and spa. >> thank you, commissioner. like superman each time. good afternoon, president adams, commissioners. office of small business staff, richard corillo. sfgovtv, i have a powerpoint presentation. the application before you today is for your consideration for the business to be included

on the legacy business registry. the application was reviewed by me for completion, then submitted to planning department staff on february 7th for their review. historic preservation commission heard the application on march 7th and made a positive recommendation to the small business commission. for the applicant, the commission has been provided a staff report, a draft resolution, the application, a case report from planning department staff and rose lution from the historic preservation commission. there are copies on the table for the public. the applicant is kabuki springs and spa. the largest japanese bathhouse and spa, known for communal bathing facility, world class massage, skin care and body treatments. the business was developed in 1968 as an essential part of the japan cultural and

"tradecentre". kabuki building which was a separate development featured dinner theater, sushi bar and bathhouse. kabuki bath springs was seen as a new and uncommon business and it became popular for young americans looking for a unique experience. the spa under went a major renovation in late 1998 and reopened february 1999 keeping the footprint of the bathhouse and bringing the ethos of the communal bathhouse into the 21st century. co incidentally this wednesday, march 28th is the anniversary. in partnership with the city and county of san francisco, japan town merchants association, the japan center malls, residents, merchants, non-profits and spiritual leaders will celebrate the anniversary on wednesday at

11:00 a.m. at japan town peace plaza. remarks by city leaders, and a blessing. it received a positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission. after recommendation from the h.p.c. staff finds it meets the criteria for listing on the legacy registry. note that a motion should be in favor of the resolution. in the resolution, please pay close attention to the core physical features or traditions that define the business. once approved by the small business commission, the business must maintain these physical features or traditions in order to remain on the legacy business registry. for kabuki springs and spa.

this concludes my presentation, i am available to answer any questions. and i know there are members in the audience who would like to speak. >> president adams: any comments from commissioners before public comment? >> i just want to say how important it is, this was one of my mentors. on the rare occasion we didn't provide the utmost service in our hotels, kabuki springs was some of our service recovery. i'm glad to hear that you are here. thank you. >> president adams: any other commissioners before we hear public comment? okay. that makes me want to go over there and get some hot rocks on my back. [chuckles] let's have public comment. >> i have four speaker cards. sandy maury, ingrid summer

field, greg moratani and cathy nelson. >> my name is sandy mohry and i chair the board of directors for the task force which is a non-profit organization based in japan town. our mission is to try to maintain and promote economic development. the san francisco japan town is one of the three left in america. the other two are in san jose and los angeles. i'm here to ask you to support the resolution prepared for you to support the kabuki springs and spa. this particular business has been a very important cultural heritage role in our community. thanks to cathy nelson, the owner and manager of the spa, she not only runs the spa but she is very active in the community. she participates in the cherry blossom festival in its planning efforts. she has been on japan center board of directors and now on

our newly formed japan town community benefit district board of directors and we always welcome her participation in a very active way. so as you see in your write-up of this particular recommendation, the authenticity of this spa is very crucial. the whole idea of communal bathing facilities, the massage services especially shiatsu and steam room and tubs, japanese baths. thank you, commissioners for allowing me to testify. but i highly recommend this particular project. >> president adams: thank you. next speaker, please? >> good afternoon, commissioners, i'm ingrid summerfield and i've been involved with kabuki spring and spa probably 15 years.

what's important about this property, it's authentic, it's part of the community, part of san francisco, part of the neighborhood. it also really keeps its prices and affordability low for people to be able to enjoy. and i full heartedly -- not full heartedly, wholeheartedly support this project and the legacy. i think it's good business for the community. thank you. >> president adams: thank you. next speaker, please? >> greg moratani. before cathy took over there were few who knew who worked at the spring and spa. her outreach to the community has been simply the kind of thing that invokes community spirit for everyone. i also want to recognize richard for his fine work. he has been real helpful.

cathy has always said he answered everything and helped as much as possible. we believe that with the fact this will be the first legacy business, private business operating in japan town if so designated we look to others who belong there too, the hardware and some others. we hope when they find out the benefits and the promotion that legacy business provide, and with the announcement hopefully on wednesday that the first one, 50 years old, is now on your registry. so we look forward to a favorable decision. thank you. >> president adams: thank you. next speaker? >> thank you, commissioners, for hearing me today. i want to say, thank you, rick for all your help in all this. it's been a real interesting process. thank you very much. it's so important to me that within japan town that we are

the first legacy business to be announced and in two days with this 50-year anniversary, i think it's coming together in a very fortuitous way. i'm very excited about it. i just want to really say that i hope that kabuki can remain that place for san francisco and san franciscans for the place of wellness, and emotional and physical healing that it has been for 50 years and that it's going to continue to be. thank you. >> president adams: thank you. any other speakers? okay, seeing none, public comment is closed. any other commissioner comments? commissioner dooley? >> i just wanted to say yet another extremely deserving business will be hopefully added to the legacy and this is what our city is really all about.

>> president adams: commissioner dwight? >> yeah, this is great. i want to thank you all for going through the process. i know it's laborious and tedious but i think greg stuart is helpful. spread the word amongst your fellow businesses in japan town. it would be great to get some more. i know there are some businesses that have been there a long time, so let's try to build out a business in japan town, thanks. >> president adams: any other comments? i would like to comment myself. i love kabuki. i'm a customer. and the whole japan town center is like one of my favorite places in all of san francisco. when i bring people from out of town, they go there. when my parents used to visit they used to spend the whole day at japan town shopping for christmas items. so japan town is very special to me when i lived here, i lived in pacific heights and that's where i would go every

night for dinner, i discovered sushi and noodles and all sorts of good food. the stewards of japan town, keep doing what you are doing, because it's a special place in san francisco. and kabuki bathhouse, you keep going. i want hot rocks on my back right now. [chuckles] it's a very, very special place. congratulations, and thank you for even going through this process. commissioner riley? >> thank you for coming. i'm not a customer yet, but i'm sure i will be. thank you very much. >> president adams: do we have a motion to approve kabuki hot springs? >> so moved. >> second. >> we have a motion by commissioner william ortiz cartagena, seconded by commissioner mark dwight. roll call. commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dooley. >> yes. >> commissioner dwight.

>> yes. >> commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner zouzounis? >> yes. >> motion passes 6-0. thank you. [applause] >> president adams: next item please. >> item 4, board of supervisors, file number 180053 planning code, massage establishments union street neighborhood commercial district. ordinance amending the planning code to conditionally permit massage establishments, as defined, in the union street neighborhood commercial district, affirming the planning departments determination under the california environmental quality act, making findings of consistency with the general plan, and the eight priority policies of planning code section 101.1, and findings of public convenience, necessity and welfare under planning code, section 302.

presenter is ellie miller hall, legislative aide. >> thank you. >> thank you, my name is ellie miller hall. thank you for hearing this today. this allows massage establishments on union street to be conditionally permitted. currently they are entirely prohibited. we support a path to contribute to our local economy. we support this process only apply to the union street n.c.d. and for the limited time of 18 months. because massage is currently not permitted on union street these businesses wouldn't otherwise have a path to legalize. a few existing businesses continue to operate. thank you. >> president adams: that's it. that simple? we go from honoring a massage establishment to granting possibly another. any commissioner questions on

this? you want to permit with a conditional use massage establishments on union street and union street n.c.d.? >> yes, that's right. >> president adams: are there any other there now? >> there's three currently within the n.c.d. that are operating right now. >> president adams: so they need this to continue operating? >> correct. >> president adams: okay. any commissioner questions? >> will they have to go through the c.u. process or be grandfathered is this ? >> diego sanchez from planning could help answer those specific questions. >> diego sanchez, the ordinance allows them to do a neighborhood notice, not do the conditional use. >> okay. >> president adams: any other commissioner comments? commissioner zouzounis? >> yes. i'm just seeing this as kind of a trend where we are having to have supervisors come in and

make conditional permits that are amending a code on the books for businesses, for individual businesses. i'm just wondering if the supervisors are having that conversation as a whole looking at planning code that restricts certain licenses, whether massage or tobacco and why we have to keep going back to make loopholes and maybe reassessing some of that legislation that creates those obstacles? >> it's my understanding this is a neighborhood generated. moratorium. isn't it? they decided in that neighborhood they didn't want massage parlors in that area. this points to the problems that we have when we have moratoriums in n.c.d.'s and community benefit districts and parts of the city. thinking that, oh this makes sense now but not thinking forward where we might want to readdress this. this is not so much -- this

has not been generated by the supervisors or by the legislative process. it's been generated by the people in the neighborhoods who have wanted this. >> but there are more examples, correct? >> correct. >> president adams: this would be a great discussion for our next item, item 5. the n.c.d.'s came about in 1988 and the world has changed since 1988. >> that's why i always caution people who come here with those types of proposals. >> president adams: so speaking to this item only, if we don't have any more questions by commissioners, can we open it up to public comment? do we have any members of the public who would like to comment on item number 4? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? >> well, i move to support. >> second.

>> clerk: we have a motion by commissioner yee riley, second by commissioner dwight. roll call. commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dooley. >> yes. >> commissioner dwight. >> yes. >> commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner yee riley. >> yes. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> yes. >> motion passes 6-0. >> president adams: a+ for simplicity. thank you. item 5. please. -- 4 please. >> small business feedback and recommendations to the state of retail sector report. regina dick-endrizzi director of office of small business. >> i'm sorry, i intended to get this to you last week but things got a little busy. so at the top of the document

are the recommendations, programmatic recommendations that amy cohen provided just to review. and below are the commissioner recommendations. and i just bulleted them out based on the commissioner that proposed them. they are similar things. so before sending onto the office of economic and workforce development, the recommendations that you provided them, to amy and to joaquin last week, or last meeting, i wanted to just take an opportunity to just review them and if there was any -- and allow you the opportunity if there was anything in addition that you might want to add and affirm what your recommendations are. >> the one item, and commissioner zouzounis did bring it up in our last

presentation, you know, it seems like we do these one-offs on each districts on the n.c.d.'s with changes. and the one thing they need to do citywide is to relook at the city n.c.d.'s that are named and are specific. i know castro upper market, we have been wanting a vet in our neighborhood. and in the commercial zone, the 1988 plan says you can't have a vet hospital in upper market or in the castro n.c.d. so it's those little things i think need to be reviewed citywide with all of them. you have several neighborhoods that ban banks and banks are going away. why even have that on the books any more.

>> okay. >> i think in terms of -- i think it's good that neighborhoods revisit their n.c.d.'s regularly every couple years. a sweeping generalization that goes across all n.c.d.'s because everything has a different story but think we really need to get it out there to these n.c.d.'s that say if they want -- they want to change the veterinary to allow what they need at this point to go to their supervisor and -- >> president adams: i appreciate that. you said something that's very key. san francisco is unique and every single neighborhood is unique and different. and they shouldn't do everything as a blanket to copy each neighborhood.

i believe each neighborhood should have a say and get the neighborhood together. and a lot of the n.c.d.'s still need changes. i'm sure north beach there are things you don't want now that you have too many of, that you want more of. >> we just revised it in 2017. we review it every couple of years. >> president adams: we tried doing that in the castro and we didn't go anywhere. i think it's one of the reasons we have a vacancy problem in our neighborhood. >> so with the recommendation, the city support to the merchants and residential neighborhood surrounding to take a look and revisit. >> president adams: more neighborhoods are more proactive than others. ours is pretty active but the person handling ours passed away in planning. i was trying to think of his

name. nepscott. >> i know. >> president adams: we were in the middle of it and i can't think of his name and he passed away and it just stopped. i know that affected everybody in district 8. >> uh-huh. sort of leading to that, one of the things that i also somewhat observed attending the council district merchant meetings over the years, a lot of the merchants associations don't even understand their planning code of the n.c.d.'s >> i agree. in our n.c.d. we have people on the merchant board and on the

residential board who specialize in this and are available to talk to prospective business owners on the business side. review zoning for residential and have regular meetings where planning and zoning meetings, that's all they do is invite people that maybe want to start a project or whatever to come present it and let them know if there's anything that could be a problem or hiccup that will delay their progress. i think we do need to encourage the other n.c.d. groups to find someone and you know, maybe give them a seminar or whatever. i think it is essential that people in the neighborhood know

what the planning is, what the code is. just to prevent problems. you know, good and bad. some days we can say you can't really apply under this designation, but how about this one right here? that's a role i think the organizations need to take. >> president adams: commissioner ortiz-cartagena? >> i agree with commissioner dooley. i think there should be like, like all the recommendations should run parallel because each n.c.d. is unique and merchant is a separate network. i want to say a lot of things we pass like item 4 is always reactive and somewhere down the line there's a small business that wants to come into place or is impacted. at the very least we should come up with another strategy, or a strategy that allows or enables small businesses to counter the n.c.d. regulations

that are in place, zoning regulations at a faster pace. i know we have the c.p.3 -- >> c.b.p.3. >> [chuckles] c3po? >> that should run parallel to something that is a little more -- you know, if your corridor wants a vet hospital, it shouldn't be burdensome. that alone, just going through a conditional process shouldn't discourage a potential business. if i was going to open a business, i'm not going through conditional. conditional use is hard. even when you have the support of the community it's still hard and it's costly. just to keep that in mind as we keep the recommendations parallel. >> when the commission heard the revisions to the massage both health code and planning

code regulations, you know, you did specifically mention the fact that places where it is non-permitted, while they were retaining that, but i don't think there was an opportunity to really meet with each of the n.c. districts to ensure that's what they had intended and wanted. so you had made the recommendation that -- you had made the recommendation back then that it should be conditional use, you know. >> i think another thing is -- >> [off mic] >> i think another thing we need to talk about is -- >> president adams: commissioner dooley? >> is that the planning department desk? i have heard so many times that the people working there are actually not very well-informed

about n.c.d.'s and just issue things and don't let them know what's actually in the code. it's like they should have a copy of the n.c.d. and hand it to the person who is going to apply. i just heard many errors that have lead to disappointment or problems. people need to be informed right up front what the n.c.d. they want to go into allows, or doesn't allow. >> president adams: any other comments before we go into public comment? commissioner zouzounis? >> yeah. i would just like to state again that i would be in favor of not more resources but more mitigating fees, as a general theme in this. i think really putting that to the culture of, you know, the

supervisors that a fee can't be used to balance the budget any more. small businesses can't be the crutch for balancing the budget in the city any more. and we can save money on expending more resources by looking at the fees. >> and i do want to just provide you with an updated, through the svet program, i think you addressed this last time, commissioner riley and zouzounis, but not as broad of a scope is that through the svat program there is a looking at redundancy of fees and processes with food and beverage and entertainment. so we should be expecting some of that to come down the pike, you know, within the next 4-6 months.

>> president adams: commissioner dooley? >> i think also, it's a huge element with a lot of our vacancies in our neighborhood now are landlords are choosing to leave their storefronts empty, or asking rents that are not equal to the foot traffic of what's in the neighborhood. i just feel like that's just the huge elephant in the room. these folks they don't want to rent or say i want $50,000 a month rent and it just sits and it's really a blight on the neighborhood. >> president adams: we did discuss that. we were discussing that, you have two types of landlords, the landlords who live here, who know what's going on. and in the study it says the landlords who are local tend to renew their leases at a fair market rent.

where the landlords who are not here, hear in the media about what's going on in san francisco, and think they can get twice as much. and then you have that space stay vacant and then you also have developers who are building new sites that are way too big for small businesses. so it's a combination of a lot of things. but i'm glad that point was brought up and you do have those landlords and those places are sitting vacant and the studies show the places that are vacant is the likeliness the landlord doesn't live in the area, which is interesting. and the ones that are full, the landlords live in the bay area. >> can i add? >> president adams: yeah, go ahead. >> i think that it also hurts because there are a lot of new

incubator-type businesses that would be huge benefits to neighborhoods and you know, the fact that so many of these landlords want a high rent commensurate with a very well-established business. and i think it really is a negative in terms of what type of new businesses that come up. you know, they need a space to go and we need to give these guys a break in some way. >> president adams: director dick-endrizzi. >> one made a recommendation that the city develop a legitimate and trusted way for landlords to come up to speed. this is really talking about non-local landlords on the current pricing pressure. so you know, why do we have downward pressure on commercial real estate at the same time we have upward pressure on

residential. there is something that is said in terms of how these two things co-exist and are happening. so that they have the ability to have a more realistic expectation of what commercial rent should be. we can move that up into, i can move that into an official recommendation from the commission, if you'd like. and then another note i just wanted to highlight, i did attend valencia street merchants association last week and they had mission local come and do a presentation, because mission local keeps track of what businesses are coming in and what businesses are leaving or moving and one of, while not -- an interesting theme that came up was that there are new and this was to commissioner

dwight's -- some of commissioner dwight's comments last time, is that local manufacturers, and online retailers, are looking to valencia as starting up to have that retail front. so their flagship stores. so it's an interesting sort of concept there may be areas that are sort of more akin to have that kind of retail experience. and how do we -- to commissioner dwight's point, some of them may just want a very short lease and window just to sort of again get more notice and recommendation, so there's perhaps a way to look at the city in relationship to supporting our online retailers and manufacturers in a way.

i thought that was an interesting sort of perspective as to who was coming onto the street and one clear example was ever lane just opened up a big store on valencia, well not a big store but a decent-sized space on valencia street. >> president adams: and our cbp3 program, it goes back to what commissioner dooley says, when somebody comes to apply at planning, and they are a small business, do they know there's a fast track c.u. program to get through? and i do think you do need the front line at planning, they do need continuing education. >> okay, i will make a note of that. so joaquin did say, and i'll work with him for a report back on the cbp3 program. we will work on that. and then he also said he will

provide a follow-up on the pilot program around working with small businesses around technology and new technologies -- so those were two report backs he said he would provide. >> president adams: okay. any other comments before we go into public comment? do we have any members of the public who would like to make a comment on item number 5? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> this isn't an action item, you provided your recommendations. it's just an affirmation they are captured correctly and to forward it on and if there was any addition to add anything. >> president adams: there was also the one here, i want to make sure it's on there, commissioner zouzounis, what you talk about, people agreeing on things and the department of public health just comes in and

kills it. [chuckles] you know? >> that, yes, i did capture that. and i think you also made note of that as well, commissioner adams. so the cross-referencing of that. >> president adams: okay, great. thank you. any other comments on this before we go to the next item? okay, item 6, please. >> item 6, director's report, update and report on office of small business and small business assistance center, department programs, policy and legislative matters, announcements from the mayor and announcements regarding small business activities. discussion item. >> commissioners, so between last meeting and this meeting, a lot of focus and attention has been given around the successful business entrance program. so our office starts sending

emails to business and merchant associations to let them know either our office or a larger presentation with the department of public works, d.b.i. and historic preservation, a full on presentation could be made. so sending out those invitations so you should be -- so for those who are on boards should be seeing those emails coming out. director hooey from department of building inspection, and director bond and i met with supervisor tang to discuss extending the time line for submission for checklist of categories one and two. so she has agreed and we have all agreed there will be no more requests on this end, but to extend the time line for submittals for category one and two checklists to january 1. we are also going to look at the opportunity, if there's anything that needs to be

legislated to ensure that this is as simple of a process. so that, and work that's only necessary around doing the upgrades for accessibility improvements are what is triggered in the permitting process. that's it. i also attended a merchant walk on friday with supervisor tang to do some outreach to business and property owners in her district. and then i wanted to just really acknowledge the golden gate business association for their western regional conference. it was an amazing success. and i attended the luncheon. it was very inspiring, for one.

and two, it was fascinating to hear from our state insurance commissioner who actually publicizes their l.b.e., how much money they are spending with the various small businesses so i haven't had a chance to take a look at that but i thought that was inspirational item to hear there are actually state departments that are really actively doing that. >> president adams: we all should be doing that. >> yes. >> president adams: he was looking at the list with regina, i had the same take away. is that just from the governor's office. >> and our office too. so that just also ties back in with the recommendations from item number 5 that was actually there is doing more procurement with our businesses that the

city can do business with. in our neighborhood commercial districts. so and then i'm working with o.e.w.d. on developing budget items for helping with the accessible business entrance program and soft story so you will be hearing about that in the next month or two as we formalize our budget requests. and then i'm not sure if i informed you, but sb 1186, which created the cask program, the certified access specialist program had local municipalities collect an extra dollar at the business registration, or if the municipality didn't have a business registration then at the time for a permit with building inspection, to help

sort of do more promotion around the certified access specialist program. that started in 2008, i believe, and it was set to sunset this year, so we have been utilizing that funding to help subsidize c.a.s.p. inspection program. there recently was an updated legislation, s ab 1379 that increased that amount to $4, so when a business goes to register their business, in addition to the business fee, they are also charged $4. so 90% of the $4 is staying in the municipality. there's some criteria that's changed on what the spending needs to be on so it needs to

promote more certification and training so we will be utilizing that to try to promote more certified access specialists within the government. and i think we may need to look also in the private sector kind of bumping up the number of really local people not just regional people to have that inspection so we are working with d.b.i. and the mayor's office on disability to see if we can also utilize some of this funding to help do a certification program locally one time. we will continue to utilize the funding to help our businesses with the c.a.s.p. program as well. but it will be roughly, four times more money than what we had been receiving each year so, this is something that it's

nice we will have these funds to help our businesses get through the process of the accessible business program. >> president adams: great. thank you. any more questions for director dick-endrizzi. let's open it up to members of the public. do we have any public who would like to comment on the director's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. any other comments? commissioner dooley? >> you probably heard we had a large fire in north beach, recently, which destroyed about six businesses. >> excuse me, commissioner dooley but we haven't closed out -- >> president adams: we are still on director's reports. >> i thought this might be a commissioner report. >> president adams: no, i was asking if commissioners have any more questions. so do we have any other questions for director dick-endrizzi?

seeing none, next item, please. >> item 7, commissioners' reports. >> president adams: i did participate in the golden gate business association western regional conference two weeks ago. and i actually hosted the closing reception on friday evening where i hosted about 100 people from all over the western u.s. so that was very successful. i want to back up what you said about the luncheon and what davey jones said they were doing with the insurance commissioners office. i got a lot out of that and it was a very good participation on the local level as well. i was really impressed with the turn out in the l.g.b.t. community. so that was great. mark? vice president?

>> commissioner riley? >> yes, just want to report i attended the quarterly meeting with the interim mayor along with the other merchant associations. i thought it was a pretty good meeting. people have different requests and different questions and it went pretty smoothly, i think. >> president adams: good. okay, commissioner ortiz-cartagena? >> i attended excelsior sunday streets and it was really, really cool. big turn out. fun. i brought my kids. i had to carry -- pull the wagon though, that's the only complaint. [chuckles] >> get them on bicycles. >> next year. >> president adams: commissioner dooley? >> i just wanted to report we had a major fire in north beach and we're not sure yet right now whether the entire building will need to be demolished or

whether we can find places temporarily for the people who are going to be displaced at least for some time. so we will be looking to see if there are any empty storefronts that might be able to accommodate these businesses in the meantime so that we don't lose them as permanent businesses in our neighborhood. >> president adams: didn't o.e.w.d. activate -- >> o.e.w.d. did activate the disaster -- the city's disaster fund and then we should be activating based on the number of businesses, the economic relief fund. especially if there is relocation involved, the economic relief, i know license deli took advantage of the program when they had to relocate. so yes.

and o.e.w.d. is working with s.p.d.c. is working with each of the individual businesses. >> president adams: great. >> commissioner dooley, just since we are on tv and record, what are the businesses? quick liquor? >> tuck-tuck thai, rogue ale. the new [inaudible] restaurant. >> president adams: el pasto primovero used to be over there. >> and michelangelo was damaged also. >> really? >> he is closed about six months, he said. >> we will be holding fundraising in the neighborhood to raise funds. >> and water damage of adjacent buildings. it was like the second largest fire in recent history in terms of the water used to put it out.

>> i was over in berkeley. i could just see this. >> i was at tomaso's. in the restaurant. >> i wanted to bring up one other topic. i've become much more interested in the newly emerging cannabis industry and i would like to make a suggestion that the equity program expand somewhat to include older potential workers, retired people, people that are having a hard time finding work. the cannabis industry is very, very much customer sieve service driven and i think we should look to include that category of people who often have a very hard time finding work, even part-time. i just wanted to bring that up.

>> president adams: especially when 65% of employees need to be from san francisco. >> right. and i've been working a little bit at a cannabis dispensary and i certainly have found that many of the customers actually prefer to speak to a somewhat older person, just because of the -- their experience. >> [off mic] [inaudible] old hippies. [chuckles] >> yes, there's information that needs to be conveyed to customers. office of small business needs to offer some kind of basic workshop for people who would like to get into this industry. because it's extremely complex. there's a lot to learn. there's a lot of education. and i think that would give them a head's up in terms of

finding employment. >> president adams: okay. any other commissioner comments? commissioner zouzounis? >> yeah, i have one report back. the american grocers association got some media recently in the examiner on a predatory lawsuit that's been facing that sector and -- yeah. >> [off mic] from "the examiner" >> uh-huh. >> president adams: okay. public comment. do we have any members of the public who would like to make a comment on item number 7? seeing none, public comment is closed. any other commissioner reports before we go to the next one? commissioner ortiz-cartagena? okay. item 8 please. >> new business, allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration by the commission.

>> president adams: commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> i mentioned it before but we have to get rid of this paper. just tablets. all this paper i'm not taking home. camera see it. all this paper we are wasting. it's your guys' money. >> president adams: we have these new screens. >> right, it's not like we live in a technology era, i don't know. that's it. >> president adams: thank you. commissioner zouzounis? >> yes, i would like to follow commissioner dooley's kind of questions and inquiries around what can be added to the equity program for cannabis industry in the city. i think the criteria for equity applicants remains a little too narrow and some obstacles i've observed with potential occupants they will meet the residency and income requirement but the third is difficult to meet for people who maybe dropped out of high

school before they hit that five-year threshold or were home schooled or left the city during those school years. i would also be curious for a report on what the intentions of the pilot or criteria, testing program they are going into with equity applicants right now. and if that is going to be open for inwut or change following that kind of testing with the criteria and also a second item i would like to add to new business request, in the spirit of streamlining fees and good law making, something i asked for a while back and we needed to follow-up on is a report from the department of public health on the deemed approved off sale use ordinance and yeah, just looking at a fee

that is unfairly leveraged on businesses that don't need to be paying it, as there's a waiver option they aren't told about and some very outdated violations regarding that fee. and then the third item, i would like the department of environment to report to us where they are at with, now that the state legislation has been amended, the california litter and recycling act. i still have businesses that are receiving $12,000 invoices from the state for collection of cans and bottles for their c.r.v. redemption value. the businesses aren't really aware of what the city is doing. i think we need to send out some kind of memo to let them know it's being worked on or we need to do something in

conversations with the state to put those invoices they are sending on hold. >> president adams: on the c.r.v., it's interesting i was just in southern california when you said that. i noticed a lot of liquor stores had these machines in there that you put your c.r.v. in there and it spits you out money. and i don't see any of that in northern california. >> i think, just a quick comment -- >> [off mic] >> yeah. >> i can follow-up. >> president adams: we will follow-up with that. commissioner riley? >> mine is simple. i want to update on the small business week, where are we and is it the same, any changes? >> president adams: i will have a report at the next meeting. we are also having a meeting tomorrow on small business week

i will be at with director dick-endrizzi. we will put that at the next meeting. can we put that? >> uh-huh. >> president adams: any other commissioner comments for new business? do we have any members of the public bho would like to comment on new business? seeing none, new business is closed. next action item, please. >> sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. >> president adams: okay. it's our custom to begin and end each meeting with a reminder the office of small business is the only place to start your new business in san francisco and the best place to get answers to your questions about doing business in san francisco. remember the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. it all starts here at the office of small business. >> item 9, adjournment.

action item. >> i move. >> i second. >> president adams: all in favor? >> aye. >> president adams: meeting adjourned. [adjourned]

2018. i will remind members of the public that the commission does not tolerate any disruption or outbursts of any kind. please silence your mobile devices that may sound off during these proceedings and when speaking before the commission, if you care to, state your name for the record. take roll at this time. [roll call taken] >> we expect melgar and moore absent today. item 1, 13.1872, at 768 harrison street, discretionary review. at the time of publishing the agenda, it was proposed to be continued to april 19th. th