. >> clerk: the meeting is being called to order at 5:31 p.m. the commission thanks media services and sfgov for televising the meeting. members of the public, please take this opportunity to silence your phones and 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 complete speaker cards which will ensure proper spellings of the speakers' names in the meeting. speaker cards will be called in the order placed this the basket. additionally, there is a sign-in sheet on the front table. sfgovtv, please call the small business slide. >> welcome. it is our custom to begin and end all small business meeting with the statement that the small business commission is the only place to start your business in san francisco and the best place to get answers about your questions for small business in san francisco. you can find us on-line or in person here at city hall, and best of all, our services are free of charge. this is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about the policies

that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with small business matters, please start here at the office of small business. first item. >> clerk: item one, call to order and roll call. [roll call] >> clerk: mr. president, you have a quorum. >> great. and i want to welcome commissioner sharky liguana to the small business commission, so welcome. >> thank you. >> and welcome to your first meeting. >> well, i hope i don't screw it up. is it appropriate to take a minute -- >> yeah, take a minute. >> first, i guess it's an honor and privilege to be appointed by the mayor, and for me, it's

certainly meaningful. i have come to know through reading all the minutes and the biographies of my new colleagues. i'm getting to know you, and it's clear i'm the newbie. with that said, when i moved to the city, i was a homeless musician. it took me a long time to figure out how to get from step zero to step one. first job for 15 years was working at civic center and market. so what i hope to do is during my time here is help make it easier for folks to make it from step zero to step one, because that's certainly been very impactful in my life. the other thing that is

important to me is most of the first half of my career was as an artist and as a musician, and i have bemoaned the damage to the arts community over the years as it's become progressively more and more difficult for folks to live here. so i'm hopeful to help the small business owners and the arts community make some progress there. and then finally, the third and last thing is, you know, obviously, i'm a small business owner myself, and continue to face tremendous challenges staying in business. just took out a home equity loan last week to make payroll, so it's an ongoing challenge for me -- yep, i hear you, i see you. so opportunity to speak to that

and hopefully make things better for the folks that are similarly positioned, i'm looking forward to work with the opportunity to have that impact and make things better. so thank you for welcoming me, and i hope to be worthy of everyone's time and attention. >> great. well, thank you very much and welcome. >> welcome. >> okay. next item, please. >> clerk: we just completed item number two, so let's move onto item number three. item three allows members of the public to comment generally on matters that are within the small business commission's jurisdiction but not on the calendar. discussion item. >> do we have any members of the public or comment on any items that are not on today's

agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: item four, approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. discussion and action item. the presenter is richard kurylo, legacy manager, office of small business. >> good evening president, commissioner, office of small business staff. welcome, commissioner laguana. richard kurylo, legacy business manager. sfgovtv, i have a powerpoint presentation. my apologies. i thought this was item three. if i had time, i'd go in and change it. this is item four, but please excuse the changes. the applications were reviewed by me for completion and

submitted to planning department staff on january 23 for their review. the historic preservation commission heard the applications on february 20 and made positive recommendations to the small business commission. each applicant the s.b.c. has been provided a staff report, a draft resolution, the application, a case report from planning department staff, and a resolution from the h.p.c. there are copies on the table for the public in the public binders. item 4-a is bi-rite market. the business is a full-service grocery store founded in 1940 at 3639 18th street in the mission. the market was founded by brothers bill and joe cordano, but it's been in the maganam family since 1964 when brothers

jack and ned bought the business and the building. the business is now owned by sam maganam, the second generation to open the market. the store was a pioneer in the farm to store movement. in 2013, a second market opened at 550 divisadero store in the divisadero street corridor. under sam's direction for the past 20 years, bi-rite has become a family of businesses, creating hundreds of jobs, providing small business owners an opportunity to grow their businesses and being committed to a mission of creating community through food by teaching, feeding, and giving back to the community. item 4-b is la mediterranee. business is a restaurant founded in 1979 at 2210 fillmore street in pacific

heights. by the way, my brain can pronounce all these names perfectly, but my mouth has not practiced them at all, so there might be a couple more of those throughout this presentation. la mediterranee lafeatures mide eastern and is prepared daily using the freshest and finest ingredients and local purveyors. a location in castro street opened in 1981, followed by a berkeley location in 1982, and a location on powell street in 2011. la med is known for original recipes and healthy cooking techniques. they believe that quality ingredients are mandatory.

let's do wash is item 4-c. the business is a nearly 3,000 square foot laundromat located at 2735 balboa street in the outer richmond and was founded by a german immigrant cup wioun 1996. it features about 30 washers and 30 dryers and is open from 5:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. the couple installed boom boxes throughout the space and played elvis tracks, attracting music enthusiasts to the space. they then opened a 500 square foot studio space and residency program for professional artists. let's do wash also features a garden and a large screen movie

wall. the business has operated continuously in san francisco for 23 years and faces a significant threat of displacement. item 4-d is make out room. the business was founded in 1996 at 3225 22nd street in the mission by principle owner martin rapowlsky and coowner michael cheskey. the interior features high ceilings, dark, moody walls in red and green, and a sparkly chandelier amidst banquettes.

make out room is a main stay in mission entertainment, night life, and community. item 4-e is mon sing noodle company. the business, established in 1932 is an artisannal noodle business, specializing in egg noodles and includes a product line of issue i don't know noodles, won ton wraps, egg pasting and italian past a. the business located at 1950 innes avenue number three caters to culinary businesses in the bay area. they have a craft of noodle making starting in hong kong a couple of generations earlier.

they purchased mon sing in 1989 and another company that may come before you in a few weeks in 1994. march is national noodle month, so happy national noodle month to all. all five businesses received a positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission. after reviewing the applications and the recommendations from the h.p.c., staff finds the businesses have met the three criteria to qualify for listing on the legacy business registry. there are five draft resolutions for consideration by the small business commission, one for each of the legacy business registry applicants. note that a motion in support of the businesses should be a motion in favor of the resolutions. in the resolutions, please pay close attention to the core physical features or traditions that define a business. once approved by the s.b.c., the businesses must maintain

these physical features or traditions in order to remain on the legacy business registry. for bi-rite market it's grocery store, for la med, it's restaurant featuring med terranean quisine. for let's do wash, it is laundromat, for make out room, it's bar, and for mon sing noodle, it's noodle company. this concludes my representation. i'm happy to speak. there are business representatives present who would like to speak on behalf of the the applications. >> do we want to go right into public comment? okay -- >> just -- i had one question for martin, the owner of make

out room. >> mm-hmm. >> first, not that it's critical to my decision, but do you still reserve the right to refuse service to dave kaplan? all right. i think that's important. and second, would you consider the right to refuse service to parker gibbs? okay. i just want to make sure before we vote. >> okay. any other questions? okay. i first want to call up supervisor fewer, sandra fewer. welcome. >> hello, commissioners. i'm honored to be here before you for all these businesses. i love all these businesses.

bi-rite actually fed my daughter. she lives in that district. i just want to say i am honored to bring before you a legacy business applicant that i recommended, which is let's do wash laundromat. in my district, 65% of my neighbors are renters. and so these laundromats, these coin operated laundromats are actually so essential to my neighborhood, but let's do wash is more than just a laundromat. it is actually a gathering space. it is little funky, but it is very, very fun. they have a large movie screen, which community comes to watch movies. there's a tranquil garden in the back that people doing their laundry that they can partake in. and they are under a significant threat of displacement. they have been in business 23 years. their landlord just told them

they will raise their rent by 50%, so when the term -- their lease ends february 19, 2020. these institutions are not only serving my neighbors but they are building my community, so i ask you to approve the legacy business of let's do wash coin laundromat out in the outer richmond on balboa. their essential to my community. not only do they serve my community and residents well, opening at 5:30 in the morning and staying until after 11:00 to serve my community, but also an essential community gathering space out in the richmond. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. come on up. this is your time to talk. >> thank you. my name is alicia, and i'm with la mediterranee. i've been employed by them

since 1997, so this is my 22nd year. my first boss were lavon and his basis partner, david wright, who is the drummer in the flaming groovies. long time san francisco band, so we have a connection there. i'm here to represent la mediterranee and represent lavon who is the owner of our family operated restaurant. it's a family not only of his son who continues to work for him but also his employees, many of who have been with us for 30 years. we have a number of cooks who i may mention by name when i get there, but who have been with us for more than 30 years, and i've been with them 22 years. we have servers who have been with the company, as well.

lav lavon, moving here was a dream to seek a better dream. he arrived in chico, california, and moved to the bay area and had a dream of serving his family recipes. he started off servicing family dinners and dances, then he and a dishwasher and david wright who had recently broken up with the flaming groovies started working at la med. it was a new cuisine to the city, and it was a policy of if you don't like it, don't pay, but it is lines out the door. a year later, he and david opened the noe location and brought on a partner. so in addition to the cuisine of la mediterranee, he also had the idea that there would be a brite spot in community --

bright spot in the community, so supporting arts in the community has been one of the projects of the restaurant since then. we went through the 80's aids crisis with our restaurant donating to the shawntee group, as well as patrons that were ill at that time. since then, we take part in the sf film fest since 1982, continues to support public elementary schools such as clarendon, sherman. we try to host monthly dine-in fundraisers for the public schools, so we believe in giving back to our community. many people have been eating there since they were kids, and then, they bring their kids, and everybody brings hummus. >> thank you. >> thank you very much.

okay. it's an honor. >> next speaker, please. >> hi. i am martin rapelski, the owner and operator of the make out room. i'm slightly under prepared for speaking, but i just have a couple of questions for commissioner laguana. first, is there a creeper lagoon reunion in the works, and second, can we do a concert if need be? >> unfortunately, during public comment, we can't answer questions or comment on anything else. >> okay. i don't have anything else to say. i thought i'd just bring that up. thank you. >> okay. thank you. next speaker, please.

>> so awesome. my name is sam maganam, and i'm the second generation owner of bi-rite market in san francisco. and i'm, like, super honored to be here today, and i wish my father and uncle could be here today. they couldn't. they're both getting old and retired, but they're still alive and they're extremely proud of what bi-rite's become. they i emigrated here from palestine in 1961 and three years later saved up to by the building on 18th street, and they built a building and a business in the process. still today, i have folks come back and tell me how wonderful they were and how generous they were, especially after the loma prieta earthquake, after they didn't have power and running water, and my father game them all the food and batteries they

needed to get through that crisis. such an important time in san francisco. i was very fortunate to, you know, like many children of immigrants that grow up working it, and i started working in the market since 1974, so i've seen the neighborhood around dolores park change dramatically in the last 46 years -- or 44 years. i'm pretty excited about what it's become, and how many people we've employed and fed and continue to feed every day with really good, delicious, healthy food. any way, i appreciate you all for doing what you do. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. good evening, dear commissioners, thank you for giving me a chance to introduce

myself. my name is connie huang, and i am the owner of among sing noodle in san francisco. running a business in san francisco is not easy. my husband, aaron, and i work every day. start in the early morning, go home late at night, but we enjoy to support the good noodles to the community, and we feel proud and -- to be sf -- part of the legacy commission business. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and i'd like to introduce my daughter, ginger cole. >> thank you. hi, commissioners, it's nice to get out once in a while. my name is ginger kong, and i'm a fourth generation noodle

maker. my grandfather and great grandfather had a noodle factory in hong kong. when my parents came to san francisco, they continued the tradition and started mon sing noodle company in the 1980's. i remember dad started the first batch by 4:00 a.m., and by 7:00 a.m., we had a line of customers waiting at the storefront. if you pass by our shop, and you'll see a line of people wondering why because we don't have a sign for our store shop. if you try coming after work, you'll find we are closed. with these conspicuous hours and no sign, we were san francisco's best kept secret for many years. this was way before social media. today, we still make the old-style noodle, a san francisco original that dates back to the original date of our shop, 1932.

we serve generations of customers and are looking forward to support many support. so with your support, we will be the first noodle factory celebrated as a legacy business. and with your help, we will celebrate many more. thank you. >> thank you. any other members of the public that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? anybody want to say anything? commissioner yee riley? >> yes. i just want to let you know that i've been to bi-rite market on divisadero. it's nice and clean, and all the products seem to be very quality products. and like supervisor fewer, i also buy a lot of noodles, the fresh ones. it's something -- it's nice to have because you only have to cook it for, like, three minutes and it's really crunchy

and it fills your stomach, so thank you. >> thank you. commissioner ortiz? >> just real exciting to hear these businesses come up. when they come up, you're like, they're not already legacy businesses? like, the make out room, it's a real pride. one of the owners is salvadoran. i'm salvadoran, and we've got to support our businesses. and then, you, you caught me because la med, like, you spit out school's names, and that's community. like, you didn't rehearse it. you were like, da, da, da. it's in your mind, so i'm just happy to have you guys present today. >> thank you. commissioner dooley? >> i want to add of course how bi-rite is.

that ice cream is worth the line, just to get a taste of that amazing product. la med is great. i know ellen a little bit, one of the coowners, and it's so happy to see you're thrill thriving and growing, and everyone else who's here today, congratulations, and well deserved. >> commissioner zouzounis? >> thank you all for coming and sharing your inspiring family and generational stories with us. i love it, and, you know, it's so close to home because i'm still working in my family's business. i see a lot of small stores and restaurants that are struggling, and i think the work that you do in just coming here and, you know, sharing your narrative for the public record helps other people be inspired. and kind of the skill sharing that a lot of you do. and i want to give a shout out

to commissioner fewer. you come to support every time the business that you nominated. so good luck to you all continue being small businesses in san francisco. >> commissioner laguana. >> so i echo everybody's comments. just really remarkable and what a wonderful opportunity to be on this board being presented with five fantastic businesses. i'll mention that two schools you mentioned, clarendon and mckinley, my children went to. we used to live on cumberland and would go there -- kids demand the ice cream. make out room, i think i've already had with you martin. this is my first time about hearing about let's do wash, and supervisor, thank you for coming in and supporting them.

and finally, the noodle company. as the owner of a family run business myself, i can just smell the amount of work and tears and effort that have gone, and i appreciate you coming in. thank you. >> commissioner dwight? >> well, congratulations to all of you for 30 years plus, and here's to 30 year. i want to especially thanks bi-rite market on behalf of all the s.f.-made small businesses you support by stocking your shelves with locally produced artisannal products, and thank you for that as the founder of that organization. >> okay. and i want to echo that. thank you, sam. small business week last week, you were the highlight, and it was just an honor hearing your story last year. i have my bi-rite sandwich card

that i use at both locations. so i'm not going to say enough. we're gushing over bi-rite, but we all shop at bi-rite. la mediterranee, the noe location, you guys helped me when i was establishing the castro farmers market. ellen was the first one who came out and said yes when all the other business owners were saying no, and we finally opened it, and the business owners said oh, by the way, our businesses are up on wednesday nights. and when we had stuff going on in the castro, whether it's at the castro theater or down at the center, you low, la mediterranee is -- know, la mediterranee is always catering it, and so we thank you. i can't tell you how many parties i've been to at the make out room, good and bad. so i'm just going to leave it at that. [laughter]. >> and i really appreciate

supervisor fewer's let's do wash coin laundry. in this town right know, we have a problem with we have a lot of coin laundries going out of business and closing. in my neighborhood alone, there used to be three within a half a mile of my house. all of them are gone. and my neighbors are going to other places and other neighborhoods to do their laundry, and that's a crime. so i really appreciate the fact that you're going out, supervisor, you're nominating them. we've got to keep them in the community. they are community gathering points. when i first moved into my place and i had no washer and dryers, that's how i met my neighborhood and that's how my neighborhood started. that's how we maintain these mom and pop coin launderets.

mon sing noodle, i've actually had your noodles, too. they have a lot of asian employees, and i've seen your packages in our lunch room. so congratulations and very well deserved. so do we have a motion? >> move to approve all five businesses? >> second. >> clerk: motion by commissioner dwight to approve all five resolutions as legacy businesses, seconded by commissioner dooley. roll call vote. [roll call] >> clerk: motion passes, 7-0. >> great. thank you. congratulations. next item, please. >> item five, cal savers retirement savings program. the cal safer retirement

savings program is an automatic enrollment deduction roth ira for california provide sector employees in a convenient, voluntary low cost manner. the program helps workers who do not have access to an employer sponsored plan to save money for retirement. discussion item. the presenter is katie salinsky, executive director, retirement savings program. >> thank you, president adams, members of the commission. i'm the executive director of the california secure choice retirement savings investment board, which is the board that oversees the cal safers retirement savings program. good evening and thank you very much for having me here to present the program and how you might be able to engage with us. i will note that -- you'll note on the -- let's see...on the

powerpoint presentation, you'll see the sale of the office of the state treasurer. that is there because our board is chaired by the state treasurer, fiona mah, and she sends her greetings. so what is the message that we're trying to address? unfortunately, many californiians are retiring in economic hardship if they can retire at all. we define that as two times the federal poverty level and below. it is really a profound, profound problem we have on our hands. we also know that a large part of that problem is driven by an access gap. in california, 7.5 million californiians go to work every day, follow the rules, and don't have access to a workplace-based savings program. of those, two thirds work for small businesses, and we define

that as 100 employees or less, people of color, and 58% are women. in the bay area alone, 66% of employees lack access to workplace retirement savings program, and in san francisco county, it's 140,000 workers who work for about 7,000 employers who are estimated to be eligible for cal safers. so locally here, we have a huge opportunity to make a big difference. dive into that a little bit further. this is a more detailed profile of the san francisco county group. you'll see in the group of businesses that have 5 to 49 employees, that's 94% of the total pool of employers fall into that category.

4% have five to 100, and then just 2% have more than 100 employees. so really, this is a problem that requires a solution for small businesses. now we know from polling and from anecdotal evidence and working with stakeholders that small businesses are not offering retirement vehicles because there are some major, major hurdles in front of them. three main ones. cost. so the fees that are directly leveed by the small businesses. two, the administrative burden, figuring out which plan they should pick, how to keep it going on an ongoing business, and three, the fiduciary

business. we're going to get into more about what cal savers actually is. but the fundamental premise of cal savers and senator de-leon considered when they came up with this bill is they're 20 times more likely to save if it's an automatic enrollment, if they have to opt out to do it. that was really the fundamental fact around which the program was designed. very brief history, i'm not going to walk-through all of this. senator de-leon started looking at this ten years ago, consulted with all kinds of advisors in d.c. and across the country. the first version of the bill was passed in 2012, a

feasibility study was done, and a final version of the bill was pass the in 2016, and -- passed in 2016, and i was hired in 2017, and we've good night working with the -- been working with the board and stakeholders for the past two years. this is our board, these are my bosses, my nine bosses, chaired by the state treasurer, as i said. all of their biographies are on-line if you want to check them out. the other fundamental -- so the first automatic enrollment is really key for savers success. the second kind of main rather ambitious feature of the cal savers legislation is that there's an employer requirement and this is what will be important for you and your small business colleagues throughout the city and county. by statute, all private sectors

employers in the state with five or more employees must offer some sort of 401 k or facilitate access to cal savers, and we will talk about the roll out schedule for that requirement in the next slide here. so as i said, we are in pilot. we're in a six-month pilot that ends at the end of june. starting july 1, we are open for business statewide, meaning any mandated employer, so any employer with five or more employees that doesn't already offer a saving vehicles can register and begin their participation starting july 1. there's a three year kind of staggered deadline for employer compliance. the first deadline is a year from this july for the largest employers. the second with a one after that -- is a year after that, and the third one is a year

after that, so about 3.5 years from now with employers with five or more employees. so what actually is cal savers? it's a very simple roth i.r.a., so it's governed by the same federal regulations that governs any other roth i.r.a. in the marketplace. again, the key feature, it has automatic enrollment, so that means if employees, after receiving the employee information packet don't opt out within 30 days, then, their employer will begin facilitating payroll contributions on their behalf, so that's really key, and that's a very powerful nudge, so that's based on kind of what we know from the best of behavioral economics that people may not always do -- take action on things that are best for them, they just need a little nudge. so that's what that action is based on, but it's completely voluntarily. it's portable, from job to job,

so we have gig workers and modern contemperary workers that we thought of they can feed all streams of income into the same account, and there is zero cost to the state or taxpayers. by statute, we have to be completely sustained by the fees, so we have to keep our fees low. it is a public private partnership. we hired a firm named acensus is actually running the accounts and state street investors are running the investments. we just have a new option by newton, and that's an e.f.g. option, and it's governed by a transparent state board share

by the state treasurer. a few important features from the perspective of the employees. because it's automatic enrollment, it's important we have default settings for those people who enroll and don't -- may take a couple years to go on-line and claim their account and tinker with their settings, we have to have default settings for them. so the default contribution rate is 5%. they can change that at any time, reduce it, increase it, as long as it's within the i.r.s. maximum dollar amounts, which is $6,000 a year. the default i.r.a. is a roth i.r.a. we heard it was important for savers to have access to their funds without penalty or taxes which is by and large how a roth i.r.a. works with some exceptions. there will be a traditional pretax option available at the end of 2019 for those individuals with higher income.

we have five investment options. the default for the first $1,000 is a capital preservation fund, which is intended to, you know, really withstand fluctuations in the market, and then all contributions after that go into what we call a target date fund, which is an asset allocation which is appropriate based on your age and adjusted automatically every five years over time as you get older so if you never look at your investments and you participate for 40 years, you're probably going to be in an appropriate asset allocation, and then, there are a couple of others, including that socially responsible one. we have the most declining fees in our peer group. details on that is in the back of the presentation. and then we're laser focused making sure we're culturally competent, available in multiple languages. there's a mobile app available in english and spanish. we have an amazing customer service center. you can dial in and access any

language at all, absolutely any language. our website's currently available in spanish, english, and simplified chinese. we worked really hard to engage with small business advocates and stakeholders over the last couple of years to design the program and really the -- you know, interface and the system and the portal with the owner in mind -- small business owner in mind knowing that they wear many hats. pretty minimal administrative requirements. you've got to register, which takes a couple minutes. you have to upload your employee census and maintain that over time, and then, every payroll, you're facilitating those contributions through our website portal. and i'm sure you're all

thinking right now, how does this interface with the payroll service companies, and that's -- we are in the throes of working really closely with the payroll companies so that it's really, really easy for employers. but going forward after that first registration where the employer uploads the roster, we take care of all the interaction and registration with the employees. we get them enrolled, answer their questions when they want to change their settings, we do all that. the employers don't do that. ongoing, i kind of covered this already, but the bottom half of this slide is important. employers do not make a contribution, they may not. some of you, for better or worse. i have mix views on that, but in order for us to stay in our

lane on federal law, employers may not make a contribution. they don't answer questions about the program. you refer them to us. you don't provide investment advice, and you don't encourage or discourage. for those of you who work in the community of sort of microemployers those with fewer than five employees, just wanted to make sure to note that we -- while employers in that category cannot serve as a traditional cal savers deductions, they may manage those if their employers voluntarily opt in on their own to the website and then come to the employer and ask if the employer would facilitate the contribution. the employer in that case can choose to either do it or not do it, just like you can choose to, you know, facilitate a united way charitable contribution or a parking contribution or something like that, but you can't -- those really small employers may not

do the automatic enrollment part. just a few more slides. expected impacts. a labor economyist at berkeley did a study showing the combined effect of cal savers and the state's minimum wage will have an increase of 50% increase to low young workers' retirement incomes, which is profound, and we are so excited to hear -- to read her finding there. this is another view of what is possible for a scenario where you have a cal saver who participates at age 25, for the default settings. this person is starting at a $30,000 annual salary. hypothetical rate of return of 5 mrs 5%, so showing that over that period of time, a person could

get to $350,000. unreasonable conservative earnings consumptions -- assumptions. when you compare this today that the average american households 55 and over has zero saved for retirement, this is profound. so what -- what are we asking of our friends in the small business community, and in your community that you are all leaders of? we -- for better or small with the state, as i mentioned, we can't cost taxpayers any money. so we are operating on a small startup loan from the legislature right now, all of which we have to payback with interest. we have one method of fees, which is interest from our savers. we don't have a lot of money to spend on marketing and advertising, so we are spending a lot of time -- my staff and i

are spending a ton of time with small business stakeholders, chambers of commerce, neighborhood merchants associations, small business california, scott's in the audience here, trying to spread the word. and so to the extent that we can humbly ask you for your assistance in not only being aware of the program, but helping get the word out in the san francisco and bay area. i'll be brutally tactical with you. if you have a news letter, we'd love a couple of inches in your newsletter. if you have a list, we'd love a blurb. if you have standing meetings, i can do this in five minutes. if you know a neighborhood association that, you know, we should get in front of, we would love any sort of ideas that you have to help us get the word out to the small

business community, really, because we know that they are key, right? we'll reach the employees and the workers and the savers through their employer. so here are some ideas. i think i just went overall of that stuff. to the extent that you're willing to engage with me and my staff, we would appreciate it. you're the influencers in this community, and to the extent that folks can be introduced to calsavers through all of it, it will come across much, much better than a bunch of bureaucrats from sacramento. that is the end of it. back here, you have some detail on our fees and a profile of population by industry, income, race. as i said, two thirds of our folks are people of color. a full 46% of latinos. day after tomorrow, we're doing a press conference with unidos u.s. for how we're going

to do outreach to latinos in the state. thank you very much for your time and happy to answer any questions. >> commissioner laguana. >> thank you. two quick questions about the requirement. is that five or more california employees or five or more employees nationwide? >> california. california employees. >> next question. if you have out of state employees, can out of state employees sign up for the program? >> they would have to sign up through the program as an individual participant. >> but not through the automatic -- >> but not through the automatic payroll, and then, they could request through the employer to have that deduction facilitated. >> okay. thank you. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> thank you for that presentation. it was very -- i learned a lot, and this is a great program. i'm curious where we can access that full study done at

berkeley. i'd love to look at it. >> oh, great. i will send it via dominica. >> great. thank you. real quick, also, is there going to be like -- you said you had materials and all that stuff. so, can you send those, as well, like, if there's one-pagers? >> thank you for the question. absolutely. we are finalizing them this week, in fact. >> commissioner dooley? >> following up on this, is there something that we can put a link on our merchant association website with a little blurb, explaining what you are and then link it to something more lengthy? i think that would be a good, certainly for my association, to get out there and -- >> music to my ears. yes, thank you very much. >> so who do we -- just contact you? >> my staff and i will follow up with you. >> thank you. >> commissioner yee riley? >> yes. thank you for presentation and also, i'd like to know your

organization, is it nonprofit or is it government agency? >> it is government. so thank you for the question. so we're a state government agency. we -- we are governed by the nine member board of directors, chaired by the state treasurer. so we sit inside the state treasurer's building inside sacramento, although we are technically an independent government agency. >> great. and at the beginning, you say there's no cost to the employer. and then, how do you fund your operation? >> there is -- there are no fees on the employer. the program is completely sustained by fees on the savers. right now, we are operating -- for the last couple years, we've been operating on a startup loan for the legislature that we have to payback with interest once those fee revenues start to come back in. we expect we'll be in the black on our legislative loan in the next few years. >> you also mentioned that the employer do not contribute to the savings.

i know other corporations, s.e.p. and the 401 k, they are allowed to contribute a certain percentage to match the employers -- employees. in this program, do they not allow to contribute and why? >> they are not allowed to, that's correct. and it's because of federal law. you may be familiar with erisa, which governs all employer-sponsored retirement savings programs. in order for us to remain outside of that world, though, it's very important that this not be considered an employer sponsored plan. it is not an employer sponsored plan. so for that reason, we can't allow employer contributions. it's one of the litmus test in the erisa regulations. you know, i will say that there are 7.5 million californiians who work for approximately 250,000 employers that don't offer anything at all.

this was designed for them, for those workers who are working for a small business or medium size business that for whatever reason hasn't figured out to design a program. it's designed and exist for them. we -- to the extent that there are other businesses out there that are offering 401 k's with a match, that's wonderful. we don't want them to walk away from those kinds of programs to join ours, and we are certainly not here to compete with the 401 k industry, we're here to provide a path to retirement security for workers and for small businesses that have currently, until now have really been left out of the marketplace because the industry hasn't figured out how to serve their needs. >> thank you. >> commissioner ortiz?

>> how does it -- is it explained in the collateral or in the information, maybe, like, different immigration statuses, like, a temporary status worker that does have an e.i.n. and is permitted to work? is all that information provided in the collateral? >> it is, yeah. so just to be -- it's very simple. you need either a social or an itin, then we're not going to be able to work with you. and we spent a lot of time at the board level with the regulations on this. the fact of the matter is these are i.r.a. financial accounts, and so the -- so the federal government requires -- >> so an itin will suffice. >> yeah. >> okay. perfect. >> i'm the last one. why don't we get them a link during small business week that are connected with that?

we're doing san francisco small business week the first week in may. >> perfect. >> and we have a lot of workshops and that, and i think you should at least table or be able to present in that. >> thank you. first weekend in may. i will follow up. >> maybe we can do a link on our small business website. >> we can definitely do a link on our home page. i was definitely thinking we should cut a snippet of this presentation just for people to be able to watch. so we'll work to figure out how to get it integrated with our website in the business portal. >> then, we can sentry minders to the -- send reminders to the small businesses. >> we sent one out with the last e-bulletin, but i think especially when language -- we get the translated into different language materials, then, that's also something for

us to have the business assistant center, as well. >> can we have a website? >> yes, calsavers.com, in addition to the government treasury website. that's where you can find all the board meeting materials, but calsavers is the website that's user friendly and has a calculator and educational materials and things like that. >> great. >> commissioner laguana? >> do you guys have any or plan to make any video materials explaining something like, on youtube, for example? >> yes. thank you for the question. we currently have some low production value presentations on our treasury workshop, but we're working on our script and blocking for our first high production video will be an animated one. so those will be coming soon, and we'll be adding those over the next couple of years. >> i that i that would be

great, and i know that a lot of our staff responds well to videos rather than boring text and reading stuff. >> okay. any other questions before we go into public comment? okay. we're going to go into public comment. do we have any members of the public who would like to make a comment on item number five? >> hi. my name is irene, and i was the first employment manager at sfhsp. and i debugged some of these up loaded spreadsheets of people. i really want to recommend against that. i have a whole lot of experience, and i can give you a lot of reasons why spreadsheets of employees go wrong and how many