when you think about the shape the mid market was in, the mid market tax break there was a conversation about attracting businesses through incentives. and i think that, again, putting my planner hat and reflecting back, i think from my perspective, it's had a mostly positive impact on the environment. created a phenomenal amount of jobs. some will argue it has had negative impacts on environment pressure on housing market and other impacts but when we are thinking about that particular area, and that particular incentive, if i were to look back i would say we are going to attract thousands of employees to be there. at the same time we want to think about the ground floor retail and how we will activate that retail and how we will get people out on the street, more eyes on the street, more people activating and interacting in our community and so that's the perspective i approach this with along with my colleague.

also thinking about what is the fabric that makes san francisco special. people come from all over the world to appreciate our culinary cuisine. they come from all over the world to appreciate the small businesses that dot the backbone of our economy in san francisco. so much of our industry is about tourism, right? when people think of san francisco, they think about the things, these small mom and pop, these locally-owned businesses, the culinary, the retail. things that make san francisco special. so when we are designing and building cities and thinking about policies that impact our cities, if we are thinking about keeping thousands of employees inside in an internal environment, that, by the way, is an appropriate model maybe in an isolated business park. -- office park. when bringing from silicon valley to the city you have to

adjust that model. i think, at least from my perspective, there wasn't a tremendous amount of thought that went into that so that's what we tried to infuse with this legislation. i know we are taking a hard line saying we want to ban them all together. i appreciate the report, and we have gotten a lot of feedback. this has gotten not just local attention but national attention and it started a national conversation. because these types of cafeterias are all over the united states and what kind of impact they are having on the local economy, positive and negative. yes they are creating stable jobs for those that work in the cafeteria. they are working with people and businesses that source to support those and i'm sure you will hear from some of those folks that source these cafeterias.

but when thinking about the impact, mid market, there's still a lot we need to do to infuse and change particularly the ground floor retail. if you look at some of the buildings these internal cafeterias are located in and you talk to the ground floor retailers whether it's a restaurant or otherwise, part of the reason why they were attracted to come locate there is because they knew there were thousands of employees and you talk to them directly and they will say, they're not being patronized by those businesses, by those employees because it's hard to compete with free. you have heard that a lot, in terms of what's being offered. so i think the positive is yes, there's stable jobs. they are paying above minimum wage and i know the restaurant industry is a very difficult industry, small business in general. but from my perspective as someone who represents a part of town, a lot of what we know famous small businesses or institutional san francisco

businesses, those folks live in my district. and you are creating wealth and stability in something that is special about san francisco. i will just name a few. la victoria bakery. owner lives in my district. casa sanchez. guacamole and salsa. the casa sanchez is in my district. la paloma. all those owners live in my district. so i'm also thinking about what that means and how it impacts stability wealth and also those that are, it's a different thing to work in a restaurant and have a stable job and also to own something. when we have had these conversations we have talked with places like la cocina. they are interested being part

of the conversation and what it would be like to be inside these businesses where they would be able to offer some of their, not employees but their entrepreneurs an opportunity. so one of the things that happened in the meantime, this is not a novel idea, mountainview did this in 2004 as a result of facebook moving into their downtown. they wanted to protect their downtown businesses and ensure their downtown businesses would thrive. so they did this back in 2004. and so the day before we announced our legislation being introduced, actually, it became something that was talked about more in mountainview because it was beginning to actually have an impact there. because businesses were located in the downtown area. it's not a novel idea. i think it's worthy of some serious debate. i appreciate the report you did. i like some of the ideas. i like the idea and because

there's been time since we have introduced it we have gotten a lot of feedback even from employees of these businesses where they have said yes, give us money for a voucher. don't take away something we have as part of our benefits package. give us an opportunity potentially to go patronize businesses in the area or have that as additional income. or just give us the money. some of the businesses where these cafeterias are located actually will say when some of these internal cafeterias shut down once or twice a month, they see a major surge in the amount of people that are patronizing their businesses. i think that's a worthy piece for conversation. i like the idea of opening these to the public if we move forward with these. what is the argument of keeping them isolated and internal. there's a cafeteria in the federal building. we can all go access that cafeteria, if we want to.

that's a strong recommendation if we are to move forward with these. also i want to be clear, there's conversations about unionizing. there's 44 of these that we know of in the city. only one or two have been unionized. so there's a whole room to grow in terms of the conversation about unionizing employees. we support that conversation, but out of 44 of them, only one or two have a unionized workforce. so i think this has also shone some light on that conversation, which i think is healthy for that debate. but yes, the idea of having an internal cafeteria, with a stable good paying job an also an ability free from interference, i think that's a benefit for these cafeterias. i also think having the conversation where they are located.

i talked about mid market where we want to see that retail activated. there's a lot of small business that have chosen to locate there. versus other parts of the city more isolated where they are planning to locate that might not necessarily have the same access to small businesses or retail and then the conversation of catering. i think that's a positive thing. i think businesses that want to access catering, i don't see that as necessarily a work-around, i see it as an opportunity to provide another avenue for people that might want to start and venture out and support their own small businesses. i just want you to understand the perspective that we are coming from. we started a working group with some of the impacted or

potentially impacted businesses. and also those that might benefit from potential changes to the ordinance and legislation that want to be part of the conversation. we think it's a worthy, worthy debate and conversation for san francisco because we are at the center of the types of businesses that house these employee cafeterias and how that impact might have for the rest of the city. one thing that is interesting, looking at what the warriors did, i know a sports arena and a place that has 4,000-5,000 employees is different, it's a smaller scale. but what the warriors did in a very thoughtful way and they have unionized employees they have gone out and made agreements and opportunities for small businesses to be part

of that arena and they did it in a very thoughtful way, so potentially there could be balance and compromise. an example of that would be, we went to one of the companies that doesn't have an employee cafeteria but does have cafes. not just a break, but an actual cafe where you can go order like a limited restaurant. thinking about that as an opportunity to promote small businesses to be part of that wealth created for serving 5,000-6,000 employees, i think that's a worthy part of the conversation. i just wanted to throw that out there. we would certainly enjoy the support and recommendations you put forward. we intend to continue the conversation and working group. we will work with unionized labor and small businesses that might want to be part of this conversation and we look forward to your recommendations

and hear what you have to say. so thank you for your time. if you have any questions, i'm happy to answer. >> president hillis: okay. are you going to stick around, or do you want us to ask questions now? >> if you can ask questions now that would be good. >> president hillis: anybody have questions for supervisor safai? >> my staff is here as well. we appreciate your foresight and thought and thank the planning department for the the recommendations. i thought they were well thought out. thank you. >> president hillis: we will move to public comment, mr. sanchez. >> okay. >> president hillis: i've got a number of speaker cards. if i call your name you are welcome to lineup on the screen side of the road and we can speak in any order. jackie castillo. [reading names]

go ahead, any order is fine. welcome. >> hello, everybody. good afternoon, commissioners, my name is markus mac. i grew up here in san francisco, i no longer live here, i live in hayward because of the housing crisis. i'm a line cook for bon appetit. i've got a bit of the jitters, this is my first time being up here. >> president hillis: you are doing great. >> thank you. i want to express my concerns about the legislation. i grew up here, i have seen the way the city has changed. i do understand that local businesses are affected but i also remember back when you would be able to get a super

burrito for $7 and now it's $13 anywhere. and i also cook for a living. having that type of experience, knowledge and care, and actual thrill that you get from cooking up and preparing good food for people and for me, it's kind of a competitive sport. i don't want to feel like supporting business, that we have to make these adjustments to support local business. i feel if you make good food people will buy it. it's very simple and straight forward. so the people here at airbnb or myself and a few of my other committee members here, we started a local union group. we actually unionized. and i actually took down a couple notes from, i forget the guy's name. >> president hillis: supervisor safai. >> i took down a couple notes

he wrote. probably going to touch on a few of them. but unions was one of them. i worked in the food industry, food service industry for a while. it is really tough. the industry is really tough. and it's hard on its workers. these workers deserve protection. we just got our local up in march, local 2051, with the u.a.w., we are new and proud of it. we got some of the highest paid food service workers in all of california. unionized, locked in. it's not going anywhere. if they want to change anything they have to come to us, the people who work here to make any type of adjustment, changes. [buzzer] as far as housing, i grew up out here. it's hard. it truly is hard.

excuse me, i do get the jitters. knowing that and keeping that in mind, i feel this would be very harmful and detrimental to local san franciscans, people who grew up out here like myself and businesses. we are planning to open [buzzer] a new location in the next couple of months. that's 100 plus jobs that we will be out of. >> president hillis: thank you, mr. mack, your time is up. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, my name is dante ballard, i'm a senior supervisor, vice president and chair of u.a.w.2501. today i come to ask you reconsider the proposal about the cafeteria ban in san francisco offices. this will discourage the

creation of new good paying jobs. earlier this year we entered into an agreement with the u.a.w. as unionized cafeteria workforces, we are now some of the highest paid workers in california. our entry level employees earn an average of $19.50 an hour and managerial staff start at $50 k a year. it would make it hard for employees to gain experience through the company when airbnb opened its second office this year many of us were able to benefit from promotions. we should keep this so they have a chance to advance in their careers. we should encourage, not discourage with good benefits. we have stable hours, we don't work weekends and we get all of the holidays off paid. none of this happens at a restaurant.

personally, i feel this has changed my life. i'm able to provide a worry-free life for my kids based on the income i'm able to sustain from working in a unionized cafeteria. though i do understand restaurantuers side of the story, i don't think our side has come across as well. [ please stand by... ] .

and begin cafeteria office space is not the answer. please consider this proposal. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. next speaker, please. >> commissioners, good afternoon, and thank you for having me. my name is todd ruben. i'm president and owner of the republic of tea. we are a family-owned local bay area company, and i'm here to share my concerns with this legislation that would ban new private office cafeterias in san francisco. this bill threatens the livelihood of hundreds of small businesses and vendors like my company that provide premium teas and herbal teas and supplies to offices and cafeterias throughout san francisco. at republic of tea, we enrich people's lives through our

premium teas, herbs, and education. we were founded in marin county in 1992, and we're mindful in how we impact the greater community. we actively support local philanthropic organizations, like big brothers and big sisters of the bay area, and we were recently ranked as one of the top philanthropic companies in the bay area by "the san francisco business times." i take great pride in being a local, family-owned business that provides customers with our premium teas, but this ban would make it harder for businesses like mine to grow. businesses that buy local should be applauded and supported at a time when big-name competitors are threatening small business, it is imperative that we support local vendors, not make it harder for them to succeed. supporting restaurants in the hospitality industry in san francisco is important, but there are smarter ways to do it, and it should not be done at the cost of small businesses like

mine. please reconsider this proposed legislation, and thank you for your time. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> thank you, commissioners. my name is matt middlebrook. i'm with airbnb. it was my mistake to follow our employees, dante, paulo, who i think did a terrific job and summarized key issues, but just to give additional context, i appreciate supervisor safai's focus on the small businesses on the streets and restaurants. we are concerned about the unintended consequences of this legislation. in part, as you heard some of, we currently employ 135 unionized employees on our kitchen staff, in addition to 21 managers in our current cafeterias, which would not necessarily be impacted by this current ordinance. however, just for our company alone, we are in the process and already have building permits to

build and open a new office that would employ 110 additional unionized kitchen staff, and so those are the jobs that we would be prevented from adding to our company. as was mentioned, these jobs pay $19.50 an hour to start with, well above minimum wage. they have benefits, 401(k), paid holidays, and as they said, you know, these are dependable in terms of hours and unique among food service jobs, they have, you know, weekends off to spend with their families. we believe that, you know, the city should be encouraging the creation of more of these types of jobs, instead of, you know, blocking their creation through these means, because we're really proud of these jobs and these types of jobs and the quality of life they provide for the people who hold these jobs. and they are an invaluable part of our company. not to mention, as you just heard from one of our small vendors, airbnb alone last year

spent $7 million in food from bay area businesses, buying food from bay area businesses. mostly small providers. $2 million of that was spent with businesses located in san francisco proper. and so all of those would be impacted. our expansion allows our ability to help them expand through more purchases. this would prevent that growth and from us further buying from those local venn divorce, and buying from local vendors is a big priority for us. so while we understand the intent, we think this will have negative unintended consequences. just from airbnb's standpoint, in recognizing the importance of small businesses, the past two years we've partnered with the small business organizations. we take our host in san francisco on a merchant walk on almost a monthly basis out to different merchant districts. each and every month focusing on different ones to introduce them to restaurants and small businesses, so they can in turn refer those to guests, which has resulted in hundreds of hosts

getting to know hundreds of small businesses, which has resulted in thousands of recommendations to visitors to san francisco. so we understand and believe in the importance of small businesses. we think this is the wrong approach and will, in fact, hurt employees and small businesses that we support through our purchasing. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello. thanks for the opportunity to talk. i'm the owner of five mountains organic tea. coincidentally, previous speaker also was a tea company owner, so i'll try to not be redundant and just read from a couple notes here. my wife and i own the company. we're san francisco based. we have three kids under the age of 3, so we understand hard work, dedication. i think the bill is very well intended. i'm just concerned that it might be misguided for the following reasons.

75% of our annual revenue comes from tea sales to companies in san francisco, where companies with enjoy our tea on site. some examples are airbnb, uber, dropbox, square, thumbtack, u.s.f., i don't want to mention anymore, but those are some of the key ones that are probably the most applicable to this circumstance. i understand the frustrations of dedicated restaurant owners in the supervisor's district, and i get that it's competitive. i do think that it's an overreach and a slippery slope, though, if the city starts getting involved with telling people where they can eat. i'm a big believer in the competitive spirit. in fact, the supervisor said that people in his district own restaurants can't compete with free. while i was at cpnc hospital, my wife was giving birth to our twin girls a couple months ago, they offered us free meals four days in a row. i had none. i walked two blocks away to get

the kind of food, coffee, and tea that you wanted. you can actually compete, and i do think the competitive spirit is the way to ultimately offer the best product and service. the feedback we get from a lot of these employees is that the city still has a ways to go cleaning up the homeless issue, some sanitation issues, it's inconvenient for them to venture out. it's not that they don't like the food, it's just that it's not practical and convenient to actually leave the, you know, their own site, their own breakrooms, refreshment centers, and cafeterias. i'm not saying i have the solution for all of these things, but i don't want to start putting band-aids on a bigger problem. i think suggesting banning a cafeteria in a private company to me seems like kind of an overreach and a little bit too drastic of a measure. i take great pride in being a local business owner. we provide quality products. i think this ban would make it harder for businesses like mine

to grow. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hi, guys. i'm a little nervous. i'm also a san francisco native, so i grew up seeing the different changes that happened in san francisco, but also one of the reasons why i feel concerned about banning our cafeterias is because it also, like he said, gives us stability, but i do also have home issues that i can take charge of. like, for instance, my mom had a stroke a few years ago, so it gives me time to think about her and the kids that are also involved. also, it takes a lot of weight from having to think about what i'm going to buy and figure out what i could do to keep our family together, you know, some of those things also play a part in a lot of people's roles, and thinking about going to school and finishing a degree, so that i could further my life. so i think that is one of the

things that should also be included, that it's not just about keeping the community together, but also thinking about the broader problems that are in other people's lives. so having stability does help a lot. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is jen, i'm the executive director of s.f. city. for those of you that are not aware, we are san francisco's tech advocacy organization here in town. so, there's been a lot of really great points covered today by a number of our members and their workers, and i'd like to kind of cover a little bit more of a larger ecosystem. i, fortunately, as the industry representative, am able to take a look at many different companies and really get a feel for the impact of this legislation. so we represent tech companies both big and small.

many of the companies that are here in the room today. we have been able to gather some data that's, you know, quite significant. there is hundreds of jobs so far that we have identified that would be at risk with this legislation. these are really good jobs, as we've covered already today. some of our employers are paying on average 30% more than the market. we also have really good opportunities through these jobs for people to be upskilling and breaking into the tech industry. many of these different employers have great programs for employees that start in the kitchen to move on up to other departments. i actually just spoke with a company yesterday, where they lost one of their best chefs to become a customer service manager. so there's some really cool opportunities that are happening in these companies, and we really want to be cognizant of just how good these jobs are. and on the other end, as you guys have heard from the tea companies here in town, obviously, there's a lot of tea

here in the room. there's a lot of vendor contracts that are currently being held with these employee cafeterias. i don't have the exact number, but i can tell you that there is tens of thousands spent at some of these cafeterias just at san francisco businesses alone on a daily basis. these are not small contracts. and while the legislation is meant to affect future cafeterias being put in, as you guys know, tech is always changing, and, quite frankly, pretty much every tech company in town is either looking to move, expand, or has growth on the horizon, so it may not affect existing cafeterias right now, many of our members are going to be affected either in the imminent future or down the road. a few other things that i wanted to cover with these future plans to move, there's going to be a number of jobs that are in the pipeline that are going to be quashed. at least 350 that i've identified. in summary, we support small

business, and we support bringing different initiatives to grow the local community and work with restaurants, but, quite frankly, this kind of job loss is not the way to do it. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. hi. >> good afternoon. my name is alejandra, and i've been a cafeteria worker at facebook for almost three years now. i'm a member of unite here local 19, and we're against this proposed law. before i worked in the cafeteria at facebook, i worked in a restaurant doing food prep for about three years. when i worked in the restaurant, i didn't have a regular schedule, i didn't have secure hours or any benefits or guaranteed raises. the working conditions aren't always the best either. i was working in a restaurant when i was pregnant with my daughter, and i tripped over a cable in the kitchen and i fell. i didn't want to get sent home, because then i wouldn't get

paid, so i didn't do anything about it, just hoped for the best. i was on medi-cal when she was born. now after my coworkers and i organized the union in the facebook cafeteria, i can see a career in this job. i enjoy what i do. i can strive for a better position. we have guaranteed raises. i finally have health insurance, and i don't have to be stressed about money or what to do when my daughter gets sick, and we don't have to rely on public assistance anymore. i have job security that my family can rely on, and most importantly, i now feel proud of the job i have. i'm proud to work at facebook and proud to be part of the growth that's happening. not only has my life gotten better, but hundreds of my coworkers and their families' lives have gotten better, and here's just a few of them. food service workers like me can only benefit from the growth of the tech industry if they are organized. now that we organized, we feel like we are part of the team and we can grow with the company. i want my future coworkers in

san francisco to have the same opportunities that working in a nonunion restaurant didn't give me. please vote no on this proposed law. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. okay. you can use the other mike there, too. [ speaking in spanish ] >> translator: good afternoon,

i'm a cook in flagship facebook in menlo park, and we are opposed to these proposals, because cafeterias are an important source of good jobs for our families. [ speaking in spanish ] >> translator: i have been with the company for almost eight years, and i'm one of the workers with the most seniority there. throughout these years, i've seen how facebook has evolved, and i've been able to live through the changes that happened since we achieved the union contract. [ speaking in spanish ] >> translator: i have benefited by getting a pension. in the future i will have social

and economic security. we have also achieved better treatment from the managers towards the workers. now we have respect and dignity. [ speaking in spanish ] >> translator: the most important part is that we have much better health insurance. before the union i used to pay $180 a month just for myself, and it was too expensive to get coverage for my wife. now i have good health insurance for the two of us for only $17.50 a month. [ speaking in spanish ]

>> translator: and this is very important for me, because my wife right now is going through a health crisis. i want the cooks of san francisco to have the same opportunities that i have had with the cafeteria and the union. thank you for your time. >> president hillis: thank you very much. appreciate it. >> excuse me, folks, if we could refrain from the clapping. >> president hillis: next speaker, please. >> edin louis, hotel and restaurant workers union, we represent 4,000 food service workers, and he's not here right now, but i want to appreciate what commissioner richards said at the outset about equality. we can create tens of thousands new jobs in the city and it will only make problems worse. every crisis facing our city from housing to health care traces back to income inequality, and the only way you address that is by finding ways

to support workers who want to organize into unions and fight back for good jobs for working-class people. we have 2,300, almost 2,500 workers on strike right now in the streets trying to raise the standards in the hospitality workers industry. this is a massive distraction. what our city needs to be doing right now is figuring out how we create more good jobs for working-class people, how we organize into unions. and i'm not here to say every corporate cafeteria brings a good job. there are many corporate cafeteria companies where working conditions are terrible, frankly, but from first-hand experience, workers in that industry have a better shot at organizing into a union and winning the respect from their employer that they will not campaign against them when they try to organize. than in restaurants or in catering companies. the union's standard in

cafeterias in san francisco, $20 to $23 an hour, depending on your classification, free family health care, a pension when you retire, medical coverage when you retire. those are standards that let people continue to live in san francisco. again, not every corporate cafeteria brings the promise of that, but we have a fighting chance of making this industry that leading edge that we need in the city. don't roll us backwards, especially now when our backs are to the wall fighting tooth and nail to raise standards. come and help us. don't obstruct us. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm here on behalf of the golden gate restaurant association. the golden gate restaurant association supports the intent of the cafeteria ban to apply only to nonretail corporate cafeterias, be applicable only to new buildings zoned as offices, not prevent the provision of free food or snacks, rather the building out of a full service nonretail

cafeteria operation. we're still encouraging on the catering of food from local restaurants and caterers and providing the local goods from those restaurants, caterers, and small businesses, and we're not asking to impact existing businesses retroactively. i'm here to address creating health code amendments to differentiate between cafeterias that operate as a full service daily nonretail cafeteria, versus a kitchen that may be used for cooking and preparation. in addition to changing the health code, we'd like to address other options. as far as catering, we'd like to support the idea of catering to have local businesses be more involved in these cafeterias and these small and larger buildings. as far as the impact on jobs go, while it is true the restaurant jobs have less ideal hours since their busiest times are evenings and weekends, there's a massive shortage of workers in the industry. if you were to search restaurant jobs, you'd find everything from neighborhood coffee shops to

michelin-star restaurants across the city that are starving for talent right now. additionally, according to the commerce and inventory, even establishments represent more than 35% of all retail sales tax in san francisco with more than 4.7 billion in taxable sales that supports our local economy. the survival and vitality of the restaurant industry is critical to san francisco's overall economy. traditional restaurant jobs create a path to other jobs that have much higher wages. with the tips and everything involved and have good compensation or the small business ownership of opening restaurants and small businesses in parts of the city or the bay area itself. as the commission considers what happened in the mid market area and promise of central soma rezoning, we think it's a critical time to think about the ground floor experience in our city. vibrant communities have the promise of new jobs in the context of the greater economic

impact they have on the local ecosystem. the notion of the ban is a consideration of whether the requirement of mixed-use zoning can actually achieve the city active street scape that we're hoping for, that our general plan contemplates, and we hope after careful consideration you support our recommendations. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, my name is marta. i'm working for the cafeteria, this is very important to us working in the cafeteria. working in the cafeteria is better for me, because i work before seven years in the other business, so for now in the seven years that i was in there, i didn't have, like, a lot of wage, so right now i'm working in this cafeteria. i have more benefits for my family and more time with my

family, and also they were granted free hours to have more money for my family, and the other business, sometimes they don't have, like, a lot of hours to offer for my, so i have to look for two different jobs. so this one is better for me, so it's better to have cafeterias for now, and this company, all the people that we work, the coworkers and the managers, they are very nice persons, so the other ones sometimes are more -- sorry. for me, can you please consider it to have cafeterias? the small business is good also,

but for us, the cafeteria is very important. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is sagita. i work in the cafeteria. i am against banning the cafeteria. i have some story to tell, and i work for this company, the company is very nice, they treat us very well, and my story is i live at costa bay and me and my sister work for this company, and we work different hours. the most important thing for us, flexible hours. i start at 7:00, she starts at 10:00. my sister is very sick, she's sick in bed, she's very sick, and my brother works at night. so me and my sister, they have kids, and then early in the morning my sister takes in the morning because she starts at 10:00, and i get home early, so i get home in the afternoon, at

night. so besides doing very nice, they give us a good faith and also i don't have to worry. i leave 4:00 in the morning to get here at work in the morning, so we get to eat here. and they are very nice, and we have the weekend off. that weekend i get to help my brother. if we didn't have the flexible hours to work for this company, would have been big trouble, so my brother would not be able to work at night. thank you very much. >> president hillis: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is justin. i also work in one of the cafeterias. i've worked there for about three years now, and it has been the best job i've ever held, and i cannot believe i work at somewhere so special. i think one of the things we really do is we also have a big impact on the local community, as well as our employees. we heard from martha. i've actually worked with martha the past five or six years. we started a different company

together that i left to work where i am now. she was one of the people that i wanted to come and work with me, just because she had such a strong work ethic, and i knew that this kind of style of working and hours would really benefit her life and her growing family. in addition to that, we also partner with some amazing people, not just the tea companies that are here today, but companies such as 1951 coffee, which is across the bay, which is -- has a program right now to help train refugees from other parts of the world, of course, how to become baristas. we celebrate them. we've also hired a few of them into our own staff to give them stable employment in a time of transition, as well as work with other tea companies such as the phoenix collection. i wanted to just say that, because they are local, and david hoffman is a really amazing guy. and -- excuse me for a moment. places like seneca fosters

abuse, we have partnered with to celebrate foster awareness month, and interacted with some of our own people through the company that we are currently at to kind of help foster additional training for them. sorry, i lost my train of thought there. but yeah, so i see a lot of impact that we've done, and we've made a lot of differences all around the bay area. thank you very much. >> president hillis: great, thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is harry o'brian. i'm here today on behalf of first republic bank. we sent you a letter earlier in the week. i have some extra copies here just to be sure you see that. we're really here today to ask that if this legislation does move forward, that you recommend an expanded grandfathering and legitimization process for these cafeterias. there's historically been a lot

of confusion within the department about how to approve those, so as you know, there's a situation that first republic has, where the cafeteria was approved by the department, built out at a substantial cost, and then ultimately determined by the department that that permit was issued in error. we've been to you once to try to get a conditional use for that, and that was denied. we're in the process of developing a new proposal to come back to you, would incorporate some public access to the cafeteria, take-out window and public seating in a portion of that. we have a concern specifically with respect to that facility that if this legislation move forward quickly, we wouldn't have an opportunity to resolve that awkward situation before it came -- before the legislation became effective. so we would like to see an expanded grandfather legitimization process. also like to echo something somebody else mentioned earlier

about the difficulties then of relocating these facilities. if a company opens a cafeteria in leased space in an existing building, they would not be able to replicate that cafeteria in a different building, unless there was some specific provision made for relocation in the legislation. so, that's another way even for existing facilities that were legally established, that those jobs you've been hearing about could be at risk. so i think that would also be an important thing to address in this legislation. got a little more detail in the letter. i won't repeat all of that. thank you for your consideration. we appreciate it. >> president hillis: all right, thank you. next speaker, please. and if anybody else would like to speak after this gentleman, please line up on the screen side of the room. >> good afternoon. my name is zach burlich, i'm the chief financial officer and

owner of a company founded in san francisco in 1976 by my grandfather, and we've grown within the bay area from just a few employees to now having over 300 employees who all live within san francisco and the greater bay area. i know the restaurant industry is very volatile, and we take much pride in the fact that 80% of our customer base are small and dependent operators. but it's with partnerships with larger customers like the ones that are being talked about today, that's how we maintain stable business base through which we can afford to pay all of our 300 employees a living wage and ride out the ups and downs of the normal restaurant industry. as part of our contracts with these companies, we, ourselves, have not seen any notable contraction in growth with our other smaller independent operators, and have only seen

about the same to more restaurant openings since this phenomenon has hit the city. rather than our operators become a small percentage, they've grown and increased our business base, and i would assume it's because the amount of people these companies are bringing into the city. outside of this, the relationship with the tech companies help us in our purchasing power with our vendors, both local and national. the amount of product we purchase for these cafeterias allow us to exert some pricing pressure on those vendors and bring down our own cost to goods, which in turn we can pass along to our smaller independent operators, which we wouldn't be able to do if we hadn't been buying the volume we do with the larger corporations, and as you know with restaurant margins being so small, any cost decrease we can pass along to smaller customers because of the larger customers, it's a benefit to them and keeps them in business for longer, which is, i think, what everybody would like

to see happen today. outside of that, the companies that we contract with have made a great effort to buy local, from local vendors, and these vendors wouldn't otherwise be able to contract with a company like mine and, therefore, wouldn't be able to contract with the smaller companies that we then can offer their product to, since it was brought in for facebook or airbnb. when we bring those local products in, we can sell them. in closing, i myself am a proud member of the san francisco castro district. i live there, i've lived there for a long time now. i see firsthand the problems and the benefits of the tech industry has brought into the city, but as some of the other previous speakers, i don't think these cafeterias are really on the top of the docket that we need to address before we move on. thank you. >> president hillis: thank you very much. any additional public comment on this item?

seeing none, i think. yes, seeing none, we'll close public comment. thank you all for your input. we'll open it up for commissioner comments and questions. commissioner koppel? >> commissioner koppel: thank you, mr. president. lately we haven't been in favor of bans too often. last couple times i think we heard some potential bans over cannabis or hotels, and in interest of what we think is best for the city and this commission, we'd like to actually hear those items and have them earn the approvals. we're not up here handing out approvals for no reason. every thursday we actually want project sponsors or developers to come here with a really thought out, robust plan that's going to benefit the residents, the businesses, and the city as a whole. so i don't think a ban is going

to solve the problem here. i really would like to acknowledge the groups that recently formed 2501. happy for you. i'm glad to hear that your voices are being heard, and you're actually going to get paid a decent wage. it's a very important deal for people to make a good income so they can stay here in san francisco, so they have enough money to also after paying their rent go buy food, go to the movies, go shopping, go down union square, and so in order for this city to function, we have to take care of our residents, take care of our businesses, and give the tools that enable them to succeed. i think time, time within the work day has a lot to do with this also. i think we'd all like to have enough full-time to go walk around, go have a sit-down meal, and then, you know, leisurely stroll back to work. in the construction field you only get a half-hour lunch, so a lot of times people don't have

time to go out and find a sit-down restaurant that's maybe not busy enough for them to have a quick meal and get back to work before it's time. i do think we should do as much as we can to encourage within the cafeterias the use of local businesses, local suppliers, and especially the local residents, paying them a good wage. i'd really like to see maybe some more information on the wages that some of these restaurants are paying their workers compared to maybe what the workers in the cafeterias are making, and then we can kind of go from there and see what the delta is right there. but i see this, i see the cafeterias, you know, mainly a lunchtime issue, and i don't think they are singly at hand for maybe a decrease in business at the restaurants. there's some restaurants in my

work neighborhoods that i've been going to for years and years, and the prices have just increased and increased, and sometimes it's cheaper and easier to just bring your own food. so i don't think everyone can afford to eat out at restaurants every day in the first place, especially for maybe multiple meals a day. also along the lines of kind of encouraging more local involvement, we do have seems like i'm seeing some real good partnership opportunities with possibly these restaurants that are saying they are seeing decreased business. maybe somehow the cafeterias and these restaurants can literally have a pipeline together so everybody's happy. but totally ready to hear what the other commissioners have to say. >> president hillis: thank you. commissioner johnson? >> commissioner johnson: thank you. i just want to thank everyone who came out today, especially those who shared your personal experiences and stories of working in cafeterias. it's incredibly helpful to hear.

you know, i think that this, as many people have said today, this is the exact right time for us to be having a community conversation about how we encourage a vibrant downtown in which people with lots of diverse backgrounds and experiences interact with each other and which we're supporting small and local businesses, in which we're bringing people together around food and culture and all of the things that make san francisco so wonderful. and so i understand and support the intent of this legislation to really take a hard look at that and try to work with the code to try to find ways to encourage that vibrancy. i have a unique perspective on this issue. i've always worked in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, but i've had the privilege of getting to work with a lot of companies that actually do have cafeterias, and i've gotten to see firsthand how they have used those cafeterias to spur job creation, to support our local nonprofits, to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for our local organizations, and

to connect the different parts of our community together. i've seen companies take on interns from local culinary job training programs to help people upskill and then hire those folks into living wage, good jobs that can really help stabilize and support their families. i've seen people transition from those kitchen staff jobs into the companies directly, and, you know, be upskilled into different types of positions and have their career trajectory and lives change. i've seen companies take chances on local small business leaders who are doing more cottage food industry stuff and pop-up stuff and hire them inside to have a stand or be a vendor to them and actually have spurred and supported their businesses. i've seen companies use their cafeterias to host local nonprofits' fundraising events, and as a nonprofit worker, being able to partner with a company where they are taking full

control and care of all of the events so you literally just have to show up and bring your donors and then have employees actually come and support your nonprofit and get exposed to your nonprofit, because you can meet in this really beautiful intersection of a community cafeteria has been really exciting to see. and i've also seen employees see it as -- see their cafeterias as a resource to help community. and one company in particular, there were a group of employees who were volunteering at a local high school, and realized that the local high school students needed to fundraise for food for their prom, and they decided to donate their lunch and cafeteria food to the local high school for their prom. all of this is to say that i've seen really creative uses for cafeterias as places of connection and local community support, and i think that those types of activities are the things that we want to

encourage, not discourage. you know, my own community organizing work i've found that it's important to know when to use the carrot and the stick to try to help to encourage the type of social change that you want to see, but i think instead of posturing ourselves in the perspective of a ban, we have an incredible opportunity with lots of different community members that want to be part of the solution of making our downtown vibrant, to bring them together, whether it's through a working group or a series of holistic initiatives to come together to figure out how we can revitalize our mid market area. and so i'm really hopeful that that working group will form, will expand, will bring the right perspectives to the table. and really, again, create an opportunity to encourage a thoughtful, more robust package of legislation and initiatives. i really do think that the