>> we are readty to start the meeting. this is the regular meeting of the small business commission held on monday, may 13, 2019. the meeting is being called to order at 5:30 p.m. we thank media services and sfgov tv for sell vising the meeting and live streamed at sfgovtv.org. members of the public, please take this opportunity to silence your phones and other electronic devices. public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer at the meeting. speakers are requested but not required to state their names, completion of the speaker card and while optional will help ensure proper spelling of the names in the written record with the meeting. speaker cards will be called

order in which schearer they are placed in the basket. >> welcome. it is our custom to remind that 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 american here at city hall and best of all, our services are free of charge. the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that effect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with small business matters, start here at the at small business. >> item one, call the order and

roll call. commissioner adams. commissioner dooley is absent. commissioner dwight. >> here. >> commissioner laguana. >> here. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> here. >> a commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> here. >> commissioner yee riley is gone. >> and number two is public comment on items that are not on today's calendar and suggest new items for the future consideration and discussion item. >> do we have any numbers of the public who would like to comment on any items that are not on today's agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item please. >> ie them 3 is being moved to the next meeting. >> you need to read it. >> recognition of traci teraoka, president of the sacramento street merchants association, discussion item. >> i continue to move this to the next meeting since traci is

stuck in traffic and cannot be here tonight. >> second. >> all in favor? aye. next item. >> item 4, approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. discussion and action items. the presenter is richard kurylo, legacy business program manager, office of small business. >> good afternoon, president adams, commissioners, office of small business staff. richard kurylo, legacy business program manager. sfgov tv, i have a power point presentation. >> today i have five applications for your review for the legacy business registry. the applications were reviewed by me for completion submitted to planning department staff on april 3 and heard by the historic preservation commission on may 1. for each applicant, the s.b.c. has been provided a staff report, a draft resolution t

application, a case report from planning department staff and a resolution from h.p.c. there are copies on the table for the public. item 4a is butter bar and restaurant. the business is a bar established in 1999 by two brothers who were san francisco's top house music promoters. they created san francisco's first d.j. house bar dedicated to promoting the house techno sound. they were financed through a crowd funding campaign decades before the term and concept were ever coined. the brother ses cured a space and long-term lease under the pure entertainment llc. butter is a quirky, anti-establishment dive bar with a lively clientele, cheap drink, and late night karaoke with a d.j. station and kitchy restaurant with deep fried twinkies served out of an

airstream that was converted into a kitchen. the slogan is two turntables and the microwave sand the birthplace of the vodka red bull. they pursued other adventures and turned over ownership and today vlad cud is the primary operator. it is not 30 years old, but it is at risk of displacement. >> item 4b is california choppers. the business is a motorcycle store established in 1975 as a small, locals only store front shop under the name frisco choppers. the shop began by selling used parts for the harley davidson motorcycle rider. the business changed locations, name, and ownership several times. through the transitions, california choppers maintains while evolving into a san francisco institution. and when current owners wayne and ron purchased the shop, the business was struggling. they spent a lot of time and effort expanding the shop and service, developing it into a

profitable enterprise. and california choppers is known for the parts, excellent service, high quality of bike, and full line of california choppers clothing. item 4c is natural resources all families foundation. the organization known as natural resources was founded in 1988 as a for-profit business and originally called the natural resources pregnancy and childbirth resource center. they believe that pregnant women should have the natural resources to be informed, responsible, and creative during this time of personal transformation. natural resources is san francisco's oldest pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting center. membership allows people to access classes, lectures, and other resources. they offer doula training and their own line of herbal products.

in 2013, jeannie zeppa, mother of two, purchased the business and in 2015 natural resources became a nonprofit organization. item 4d is ocean cyclery. the business is an independent, family owned business, family owned bicycle sales and repair shop in the engleside neighbor and has been in business since 1996 and is a neighborhood institution. ocean cyclery was found by jeffrey farrow when he purchased the lease and no mad cyclery that had operated at that location since 1989. the shop carries many high quality brands with an extensive line of safety gear like helmets, gloves, and pads. they provide bike builds and rest raugs, bike assembly, repairs and as justments, tune-ups, wheel building, bicycle classes, and consulting services. ocean cyclery's employees are

well trained and knowledgeable at the bike frames and models and not just the ones they have in the store. they provide expert diagnostics and bike repairs. the business is not just 30 years old but recently provided a 10-year lease by the landlord with the stipulation that the business would apply for the legacy business registry. item 4e is soko hardware. the business opened in 1925 by a husband and wife team mr. and mrs. ashizawa who emigrated from japan in the 1920s. it was the first hardware store in japantown. soko is the old name used to reference san francisco. the store closed for several years during the imprisonment of japanese americans during world war ii, but started up again in 1946. then in the 1960s the redevelopment agency levelled most of the buildings in the neighborhood and required them to tear down the existing building and rebuild it to the

agency's requirements. and the store was located temporarily until the building was rebuilt to the we development agencies. and development and tools and housewares specific to the japanese culture and and teacups and appliances. and the founders and grandson phillip and his wife eunicn. and received positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission and after reviewing the applications and recommendation from h.p.c. and staff finds the businesses have met the three criteria to qualify for listing of a legacy business registry. there are five draft resolutions for consideration by the small

business commission and one for each of the legacy business registry applicants. note that your support of the businesses should be an a motion in favor of the resolutions. in the resolution please pay close attention to the define the business and businesses maintain the physical features or traditions and in order to remain on the legacy business registry. for about bar it's motorcycle store. and for natural resources it's services, pregnancy, and childbirth and early parenting. and the ocean cyclery and bicycle store and soko hardware is hardware store. this concludes my presentation. i am happy to answer any questions and there are business representatives in attendance who would like to speak on behalf of the applications. >> great. thank you. commissioner dwight. >> just to clarify on ocean

cyclery, you are counting from inception in 1989 as nomad, correct? >> no, from when they switched over to ocean cyclery. >> it's substantially less than 30 years and is 23 years. >> they are eligible for listing on the registry if they are over 20 years old if they are at risk for displacement and being listed and the registry would help them, which it has. >> i want to make sure we don't set a precedent for landlords strongarming us, the commission. >> i know. >> and they were working closely with the city to help them. >> you reminded me of the essential qualification. >> this was a little unique and it kind of happened before they got on the registry, but we have been working with them to get them there. >> all for bicycle stores. >> we don't want to wait on that one and as soon as we get that lease in place would be better. >> u an any other commissioner comments before we go to public comment? >> okay. let's open it up for public comment. >> any members of the public

would like to speak on behalf of their businesss? come on up. this is your chance. >> good evening, commissioners. members of the panel and counsel. i am vlad kud, the owner and operator of the butter bar. we have been here since operating seamlessly without close since -- well, this is our technically our 20-year anniversary month on the 21st of this month will be exactly 20 days since we opened without interruption. -- 20 years. not days. and butter bar is unique in san francisco in many ways. we have been the nucleus and epicenter of so many things that have coalesced in san francisco's networking through the dot com and through the tech industry and there is y yelp and

vodka red bull was invented and organize today. and butter represents whatever san francisco stands for and then some. >> and we reflect a lot of that from our roots and the underground and in the late 80s and that is represented at butter bar through the operations and the overall acceptance of anybody and everyone. as one of the few businesses that pays homage to the fact that san francisco has played such a huge and vital role in the development of electronic and dance music oen a global scale. we're happy to kind of wear that honor. and as far as being here today, i thank you guys.

and i specifically thank rick for all his work in helping me dial in the presentation and making it so sharp and awesome. i loved reading it and made me fall in love with my bar more so again. and i am happy to answer any questions you may have. >> nope, we're good. >> that is awesome. thank you. >> all right. thank you very much for your support. >> next speaker please. >> president adams, commissioners, i am jo lo, the staff of president norman yee and the board of supervisors. we nominated ocean cyclery for your consideration today, and we can't imagine ocean avenue without this shop. it is probably one of the only black-owned business in our district and perhaps in one of the only black-owned cycleries in our city. what i love about ocean cyclery is they are so embedded in the community. they specialize in serving youth

and families, and in this city we are trying everything to keep our families here. and the neighborhood in ocean is fast evolving, but we have so many working class and middle class family there is. we would love to keep ocean cyclery as a staple of our community. we thank you for the consideration and hope you approve their legacy business application today. >> great. thank you. come on up. we'll do soko hardware first. thank you. >> my name is phillip. i am the owner of soko hardware. i am really honored that members of our community thought highly enough of the hardware store to convince me to come up and do this presentation. because i don't like speaking in public. but soko hardware is just kind of something -- it's what i do and i have been doing my whole life from when i was a little

kid playing with toys on the office floor to coming into work after school and during summer vacation. working full time after i graduated college and then finally taking over the business. it's been a big part of my life. but i really grate to feel my parents and my grandparents because they are the one who is did all the hard work especially during and after the war when they were forced to abandon the business, but they were able to come back and get the business running again. that's where the legacy really began. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is neil ballard and i am here from the ocean avenue association. we helped ocean cyclery prepare their application for tonight, and just keep my remarks brief about them. ocean cyclery is a classic neighborhood bike shop that truly serves the neighborhood as well as the city and the bay

area bike communities with clientele ranging from racing enthusiasts to commuter rs and everyone in between. so the ocean avenue association is proud to support jeff and sabina in their legacy business application. i frequently see jeff, sabina and their kids on ocean after knew and they are very involved and supportive of our events and promotional efforts. we're truly grateful to have them. i encourage you to give them a positive recommendation. thank you. >> great. thank you. >> and hello, commissioners. jeff farrow, owner of ocean cyclery. started the bike shop in 1996. i have always loved bicycles. it's something like the hardware store gentleman, i have always done since i was 12 years old and i was tuning up my bikes.

being in business, really my mission is to help anybody that wants to ride a bicycle. i am open to anybody that wants to use my craftsmanship to better their bicycles and maybe they need to know about bicycles and we teach. we repair bicycles. we get new people started on new bicycles. i feel that the legacy and the opportunity to be a legacy business will help us and give us the tools to continue on as we have been now for 20-something years. it's been a great experience, and i would like to stay on the block as long as possible. thank you. >> thank you.

>> good evening. i am one of the owners of california choppers. i just wanted to say we're probably the only harley shop left in the city and even the dealership has moved out, so we're very happy with what we do and to serve the public and it's been a long road. we have been doing to for over 40 year, and i have been working on bikes for over 55 years. we're happy to do it and want to continue. that is all i have to say. >> great. thank you. any other members of the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. any commissioner comments? >> i have two. i want to give a shout out to ocean cyclery because before we came up here tonight, they were honored as district 11 small business of the year, so

congratulations for that. soko hardware, when i lived in pacific heights, i used to frequent your hardware store quite a bit actually. and actually remember the gentleman that came and spoke because you are always in that shop. and your story is remarkable. i almost came to tears when you talk about your parents and grandparents. what you went through, what your family has been through, on top of the war and everything, and you survived the 1950s and 1960s redevelopment. and you're still here today is remarkable. and i am so honored that you being a legacy business. we should have done that a long ago. but you and your family is what america is all about and you stayed and fought and you won. congratulations. >> do we have a motion or any

other comments? >> commissioner zouzounis. >> thank you, everybody, for taking the time to come here and share your stories with us. really moving, of course, and the multi-generational business and people talking about their grandparents and it is hard for me and folks come into my family store and still tell stories about my grandparents and gives you purpose. i love that. thank you and shout out to west alma businesses in the neighborhood butter bar and california choppers. >> a commissioner laguana. >> it is a tremendous honor to come in here and hear these remarkable stories of these small businesses against all odds in the city that is just filled with money and tech and ever rising rents and challenges with keeping employees. obviously everybody on this dais can relate to it. we're all in the same boat as you guys. really appreciate you fighting

it out. and helping keep a vibrant community and not making this all just a sea of large corporations and particularly like to thank jen for coming out on behalf of the supervisor and always appreciated. and as well as the gentleman from the ocean avenue association. it is nice to show you have good community support. but bottom line is it's an honor to be up here even hearing your stories as the privilege is ours. thank you. >> commissioner dwight. >> well, just a shoutout for soko hardware. my son -- one of my son who is loves all things japanese, and i spent many an hour at your store perusing the specialty items from japan. and it is always fun to go into a hardware store with things that the other ones don't. tremendous store. and butter bar's comment about falling in love with your

business as a result of this process, i want to thank all of you for going through the process. i am a small business owner myself and we so often are caught up in the moment and thinking about what's happening tomorrow that we don't think about the past, let alone document. what i lover about this process is that, like you and all the people who have come before you, i think there's a great appreciation once they really sit down and look through the old photos and collate everything for the generations ahead. because i know when my parents -- i think about, goe, how little we know about our parents and what they went through. and this way of codifying that especially through family and businesss is really special. so thank you, all, for doing that, for this program, but also i hope that it is a legacy you can pass on to your kids as well. thanks very much. congratulations. >> okay. any other comments? do we have a motion? >> move to aprovince each of --

the entire slate of -- how do we call them? nominees. the entire resolution. >> second. >> motion by commissioner dwight to approve all legacy business applications and resolutions. seconded by commissioner laguana. roll call vote. commissioner adams. >> a yes. >> a commissioner dwight. >> a yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> a commission commission ortiz-cartagena. >> yes. >> a commissioner zouzounis. >> yes. >> motion passes 5-0 with two absent. >> a great. congratulations. [applause] >> a next item please -- >> back to work. >> item 5, report back, small business week and mayor's small business policy roundtable. discussion item. so commissioners, i am just

going to lead us -- the mayor had a small business policy roundtable, excuse me, last thursday, as part of small business week. i want to thank commissioners adams, dwight, and ortiz-cartagena for being in attendance and representing the commission. before you is a document and for members of the public, there is copies on the table that says item number 5, small business week, mayor's small business policy roundtable report back. so this is kind of an unofficial because of the quick turn around time, but just quick snapshots of some of the reports that came out at the meeting for each of the categories, and we'll do more official report in the coming weeks. so under store front vacancies,

i am not going to read through all of them, but i thought that we would pull out some highlights and give consideration and hear from you in terms of things that would be of particular interest either through either the commission exploring or recommending the city to explore and prioritize. so i think a couple under is store front vacancy that are potentially interested and interesting is for allowing for pop-ups. that is one of the temporary initiatives under the mayor's vacancy strategy is to do pop-ups. and the pop-ups do have fees. so not charge the -- still dpo through the regulatory process, but not charge the regulatory fee since those pop-ups may be

there for a couple months. and we might have more of them and might have more activation. potential subsidizing of tenant improvements. and then this came up twice, but issue temporary permits to operate to help businesses get into the space and operating as they complete -- now, the details of that would have to be fleshed out, but operating while they complete the process. so this -- and also for insurance, it was noted that businesses node a little more help in counseling for insurance. also it was brought up that the soft story work qualified for business disruption insurance. and under streamlining the process, a big item that came up was having consistency with

changes of inspectors and also with inspectors and what was improved at plan check. so this tends to if there is a change in inspector or an inspector doesn't agree with what was approved at plan check, this often causes delays and costs. and there isn't an internal process within the department to handle that. and so it's left on the business to absorb dealing with it and cost in time. another element that as laws are changing and zoning laws and other regulatory laws that they are coming midstream and held to

the requirements that they first got their permits under. and then i had not realized this that is interesting and probably important for the businesses with 20 or more employees and the controller's office issued different for minimum page and this is challenging for businesses to kind of with what the city is going to charge us and the ability to offset

expenses to raise costs and a lot of businesses and with the regular c.p.i. adjustment and the federal level and we say it's 4% for this. and it's hard for businesses to be able to make -- to raise that amount or to be prepared for it and that is a particular issue. as we have been hearing from the smaller bids with very small projects and small offices, that requirement will be very costly. and those are a couple of thing there is. and for hiring and retaining talent and labor cost compliance, that is challenging

and the truly livable page is unattainable for many retailers in hospitality positions to pay that. and in dominica, chime in since you chaired that table. affordable child care was an issue what was -- which was interesting. and some felt that the definition was too broad and understanding that the majority of businesses have 10 or less employees and how ray boar laws are dealt with in relationship to applying to the majority of the businesses that have 10 or less employees. and compliance is difficult to

duplicative and inefficient. healthy san francisco is hard is to administer and for employees to access and small businesses would like to have the form that says i am receiving coverage and is challenging since many of the businesses are less than 10 employees and understanding the h.r. requirements and don't have the ability to write employee handbooks. so more desire for h.r. services and a way to look at that so that businesses can write when employment laws are implemented to help them roith them for the employee handbooks. and construction and the

citywide communication that thought they should have more authority and coordinated communications between departments and the increased use of email and text was also noted. establish a comment means of deliberation and departments and d.p.w. and public works and sfmta, some are taped to a pole, some walk in and tell you the information and some are mailed to you. develop the comment means and more communication in different languages and interest in the ease of being able to know what is going on by having things

organized on sfgov and have support for the merchants association and targeted communication so the city developed the data skills that social media has to target information and communication and early engage. , infrastructure projects, various things. lease negotiations and contractors don't engage in a meaningful, good faith effort to hire locally. and not making a good effort to find alternative parking spaces during the construction project. timing needs to consider and off

season as a construction mitigation issue and not just infrastructure. and that small businesses are seen as a protected class and need to be insured to preserve them. and also to, again, if there is any -- if the city has damaged anything or caused any sort of economic parm and to go and retrieve and timely and complicated and so this discourages and is there any feedback you want to provide? >> this is a nice summary.

i would like to recommend we wait for the official report and two, that we all have time outside this to read it ourselves and to then come back and discuss it in context of the planning for the policy objectives to spend in the process and spend an hour on any one of these tonight and i would rather not do that since this is an unofficial summary from the roundtable. let's wait for the official summary to read it on our own. and some things we are not going able to do anything about like the cost of living in san francisco and we could probably advance with the help of the mayor's office and in the interest of saving time with

something that we are seeing and more official item coming out with these items bigging deeper to let everybody know to make this transparent, excuse me, and take this make a difference of here in our commission. to make the changes. commissioner laguana. >> one quick question. the employee count and gross count receipts. was the session that gross receipts be included and is not currently?

>> was that one you shareed? >> they default to back to the state definition of small business which is 100 employees or less and i am not sure about gross receipts or not. and that they look at it. >> they are -- as a remember, they changed it from we went from a payroll receipt to gross receipts and with some of the commissioners and to learn about that discussion in detail. and prael broad. >> i didn't mean to open this up. and some of these were comments by individuals who may or may not know exactly what the

implications are. so just needs to be processed a little bit before it's a public document and one that we even should be considering for policy. >> the other thing is a brief comment is i love the section on communication and outreach. that is one that has a big issue, too. that is something that we should -- i appreciate that because that is something that with leg notices when i owe money. maybe they are a model to follow. >> and i think maybe one thing to lead the charge for and

communication in context and this is one that will definitely fabbing strongly. >> any other commissioner comments before public comment? >> do we have any members of the public to speak on item number five? seeing none, public comment is closed. any other discussion items on item number five? that was a great -- i would say the people who turned out was a great cross section of everybody. for the first time it was one of the small business gathering where you had everybody there. a cross section of all the different communities. and the feedback -- i had people come up to me saying they have been wanting to get involved with something like this for a long time and they felt very included.

i actually thought it was done very well. i want to give a shoutout to maryann thompson and the mayor herself for paul ryaning it and doing it the way they did. people felt they could speak. i know, william, you were there. do you have any other comments on that? >> i think i echo the sentiment. it was just real small business and the people of all the stakeholders were actually there. and just to see both sides really participate and engage. we came up with really good stuff. good work. i am excited to see it out and hopefully implement some of this stuff. >> that is right. everybody had ideas. that was the best part about it. a lot about ideas. okay. any other items on item number five before we move on? okay. item 5 is closed. next item please. >> item 6, fiscal year 2019-2020 policy priorities, continued discussion from april 22, 2019,

retreat. discussion item. >> commissioners, this is a continuation from the april 22 planning session. so currently what is on this list are items that have either come through new business or are issues that we have been, like the recycling crb has been an ongoing issue that we haven't really gotten -- we have not gotten to a full resolution to so it stops being an issue for small business. so i wanted to know if there's any particular feedback or items that you want to prioritize. i started listing out by

department and we have our c.r.v. and so senator waner passed a bill that i a louse for pilot projects. san francisco is one of the cities able to do a pilot project in terms of collecting recyclables for redemption. and so department of environment has been working on a pilot program. i did have a discussion with kevin drew and they have some money for it, but they do need more money for it. it's developed on the concept of a mobile recycling program, so it does involve purchasing trucks and things of that sort. so they are working for funding and we hope by the end of 2020 that this could be fully implemented.

the thing we might want to take a look at is a resolution to the city and state electives to have all the fines that small businesses have been receiving as a result of the closures of the recycling centers be waived. >> yes. >> so to have them waived. so that is something that we can immediately work on. we still have ab161, and skip the slip and it's gone through reiterations and i still think there are some concerns and question to whether we can get to a different way of achieving some of the goals. the large refuse generators is legislation and he agreed to have the neighborhood grocery stores be at the end of the cycle of inspection. i just feel like i need to ensure that the department of environment is starting to meet

with the small grocers and make sure that they are putting together an inspection program that is doable for them. so that they are not dinged and fined and mandated to hire a zero waste facilitator when the garbage sits out on the street t refuse. we have our tobacco work that we have started that needs to be -- we need to finish the resolution. take a look and see if there is the ability to amend or modify the tobacco density permit in light of everything. and of course, work on some of the economic programs especially if the e-cigarette ban goes through. and amending the design code and we do have a legislative sponsor who is interested in working on

that. and so that is something that we have actually started initiating. and we have somewhat of a target of getting it through and october, november. p.o.s. systems have something that's been bane for our small businesses. and in light of ab161 and entities like amazon go, there really is a need to do a full assessment. and so do we at one end sort of look what we can do at the local level to minimize but then also encourage that the state really needs to do a total reassessment on how they regulate and regulate p.o.s. systems.

so then we have anything that might fall onto the plate or the priorities that you want to take on and either in conjunction with oewd or not in terms of the roundtable. and take -- perhaps taking a look at the communication and the ability to improve our ability to be able to communicate with businesses because that is obviously something that's part of the mission of this office and the commission. you did want to get reports on the construction mitigation so we still have that yet to schedule before you. and if you want just a plain report to what is there or if you want any research on what other cities are doing for ideas and or more research in terms of how the city could be doing more. so to support the work that oewd

is doing. >> especially around restaurants. i was shocked when she was talking about how they talked about retailers are covered but restaurants aren't. on some of the mitigation. >> interesting. >> i have it in my notes. i'll send that out. >> and then soft story is another concern. i actually did have an idea that i sort of ran by jauqin and perhaps we take a look at extending out the construction and the soft story timeline for the restaurant properties that have restaurants. so that we can actually put a better plan in place to help support the restaurants through

this process. so that's something that i ole be working on and look into that. and other things that the commission has brought up is creating a definition for formula and kind of like that can be used for formula retail for online retailers, large onheadline retailers. the planning department is not going to create a definition because online doesn't fall within their jurisdiction. so if there is interest of creating an economic definition that the planning department can use, park commissioner dooley was interested in getting a review and intent of park and how we are handling parklets. and then i just left on sort of the understanding how navigation centers are economically benefitting our neighborhood districts. so if there is anything else that you want to add, but if not, then if there is priorities

of things that you would like to start too see come before the commission being worked on, i would be happy to hear. >> construction mitigation sooner rather than later. this is good. and especially the soft storiry because that seems to be growing more and more every day. >> u an i want to echo the soft story. in the mission especially. >> that is where i am hearing a lot about it in the mission district. and it seems to move around the city. at one point it was a lot in the castro. and then a lot out in the sunset. and i don't know if all the building owners just do it that way, but you are right in the mission there's just a lot of soft story work being done right now. >> and a lot of the issues and the landlord is not telling potential leasees that this needs to be done.

there is -- they are doing buildouts or shutting down restaurants that just open that don't have -- was not required to tell in advance. we need to deal with this and a lot of small businesses that have leases signed and wasn't brought up in the leases. >> and no mitigation or costs, so they could close before they even open and get started. >> let's go to public comment. is there any public comment on item 6? seeing none, public comment is closed. any other priorities that we want to bring up on this? okay. item six is closed. next item please.

>> item 7, small business report card, continued discussion from the april 22, 2019 retreat. discussion item. >> i am passing down and taking -- i will wait until we have this. >> i like this. >> wow. so anyway, for small business week, i generally touch base with the tax and treasurer's office to get the number of businesses and so you will see that in 2017 there was a total number of 136,873. 2018 it went do to 104,520. and i do want to say that the 2018 numbers are probably more around where numbers have been in prior years before the t.n.c. drooirs and 2017 reathletics the t.n.c. and taxi drivers which

are reflected in the proprietor number, but because the state law was passed to say local municipalities cannot charge business registration numbers if the car is not registered if their jurisdiction. so there is a big drop in the sole proprietor numbers because we can no longer -- which is i think very unfair to other businesses, but we cannot require t.n.c. drivers that don't live in san francisco to register as a business. so to level the playing field for our taxi drivers, the tax and treasurer's office no longer requires them to pay. >> so just to clarify, is this business registration renewals and any new registrations that were issueed? >> correct. >> the combined. so one thing that we should try

to break out here is new registrations on an annual basis as well. how many new businesses are thinking they're going to give ate go in san francisco because you hear more and more anecdotal everyday that people are saying i am going to bypass san francisco and go elsewhere so that is not people leaving. but that is people opting not to start their business in san francisco, and that would be reflected in the numbers of new registrations. registration renewals separately is an interesting number because if those drop off, then that is a sign of people potentially exiting san francisco and can also be people going out of business because they are -- they didn't pass it on to the kids or whatever, lots of reasons for closing a business, but separating those two out i think is really important because it gets at different phenomenon. >> commissioner laguana. >> i am assuming or fairly

confident we collect naicf code when they register, correct? >> we do. though, it's not captured for all of them, so not all -- if you go to data sf, not all the business registrations and some of the older ones do not have the codes, but more and more t newer ones, yes. >> with respect to the new registrations, it would be interesting to see a demographic breakdown so that would capture, for instance, a surge in drivers. will that will be easy and plain to see, but there might be smaller surges or conversely, smaller bumps and both positive and negative that might be reflected in the data and indicative of either, a., some

policy that was proposed or b., a policy vacuum in addressing that. does that make sense? >> can you explain what that code is? >> the naics code is basically most businesses have a code that is associated with their business. >> oh, the type. >> oh, yeah. >> u a basically what i am getting at is what's the type of business. we should know what types of businesses are registering, and we should know what types of businesses are going out of business. and that what's nice about this -- it is hard to say. naics code is broadly categorized, so, for instance, everything in everything in transportation might start with a 5. and even though the codes get

crazily detail and a specific code for passenger van rental, for example. i am pretty sure we're the only one that has started in many years. you can see many businesses that have started and say category five and everything with 578. and so we could -- i should probably spend some time on sf data and tree and see if we can unwind how to break this down. but if you are going to do a report card, it seems to make sense that one thing --. >> one second. i would put on my list number of businesses add and closed before you even said that. right on. and the other thing i thought would be reflective of the overall health of small business is the diversity of businesses. >> and a sector analysis. if everybody is starting the same business whether it's cannabis or tnc, that doesn't

seem helpful, but if we're seeing flower shops and laundromats and insurance offices and all these other things, that maybe that's more indicative of health. >> right. so under this box, i have business data registration. we're selecting what is currently here. but then the change of percentage and number of business open. number of businesses closed. sort the above information by business industry sector and when possible, by supervisory district. and again, that could be provide some information data and relationship to vacancies that we're seeing and hearing and where trends are of businesses opening. on the back -- so that is sort of the data numbers that u think that we can at least gater from the business registration

information. we may need some cooperation from t.t.x. because data sf doesn't have the business identified by employee size. so we would still rely on the cooperation of ttx to help provide us with some of the numbers. >> i would also encourage us so there is like sort of a problem on the back end, right? you can actually father up so much information you can't absorb it and turn it into something useful. i would encourage us to figure out what are the top three to five things that we think are really important. and sort of zero in on those. otherwise we're just going to get even if we get the data, it's going to be hard to digest and do something meaningful with it. and we can dive in in a number looks weird, but get a broad number, that gives us an overall sense about it's like a condensed number.

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