finish her questions. vice president covington, my apologies. >> commissioner covington: no problem. chief, can you tell me what the top three items are regarding the budget, what your top three asks are right now? >> chief nicholson: are you talking top three in terms of dollar value? >> commissioner covington: in terms of importance to the department. what is it that we absolutely cannot do without that we may need to push a little more on? 'cause i've met with you and other senior staff and two of the supervisors who are very, very confident that they would be able to answer if people had questions. i think it's important for the public to know if there's a

priority, what the top three things would be. >> chief nicholson: so everything i asked for in the budget i felt was an absolute necessity, and as you know, we didn't get everything that we asked for. i think that we absolutely need fleet replacement and equipment, as well as our hose tenders. we absolutely need e.m.s., and we need fire prevention. really, we need more than everything we're asking for. >> commissioner covington: certainly, we've been running at a deficit for quite some time -- and i mean across the board. so these asks are very serious, not just for fleet and e.m.s.

and fire prevention, but there are just so many things that are going on. and these are flush times in the city, so now is the time when we need to acquire these materials and so that we can do the job that needs to be done in order to protect the citizens and the visitors of our city. so -- oh, that was one thing. and then, i wanted to mention that i received a letter -- i think all rate payers probably received this letter from pg&e. it was in the letter yesterday, and it was regarding pg&e's public power shutoff. they're warning us about

rolling blackouts and that sort of thing because the grid might be overloaded. and i thought, this will increase calls to 911, so i was thinking we could have some discussions about the system, so it doesn't get clogged up for people calling for fire and medical emergencies. i think that this is something that the san francisco fire department and all of the regional departments in the bay area need to get together so that people aren't calling 911, thinking that it's a possible

terrorist attack or something. you see what i'm saying? >> chief nicholson: yes. chief cochran, could you get up and talk about what it is you're going to be talking about tomorrow? and then, i understand you have to go to a debrief. >> yes. tomorrow, there's a preparation coordination workshop with -- being held at the bill graham center. chief bell is going with me. a lot of those questions will come up. a lot of the conditions will be there. we're preparing for it if it is going to happen. there's a lot of issues that need to be addressed to keep the fire department functioning, so that starts tomorrow citywide, but we've been planning already. >> commissioner covington: is there anyone particular we're asking pg&e in terms of their communications with the public so that, you know -- we're

downstream, so that we're not inundated? >> so we're getting together with different counties. we've started preparing those questions and documents, and like i said, ma'am, tomorrow, they're all going to be asked -- or maybe not answered, but presented. >> chief nicholson: and if i can just say that i'm working closely with mary ellen carol frcarol -- carroll in terms of getting some answers from pg&e. we understand the need for up-front information from pg&e. we get it, and we want some answers, too.

and so like i said, i am working with mary ellen carroll, and we will be meeting with some of the higher-ups from pg&e. while this is going on tomorrow, we're looking to have some meetings with some of the higher-ups with pg&e. >> commissioner covington: okay. i appreciate you having a list of questions to pose to them. it would also be good to have some suggestions to give to them as to what they can consider doing so that we're not slammed. >> yes, ma'am, i agree. >> chief nicholson: and chief cochran has been working on fuel, where we're going to get our fuel from, to all sorts of things. we don't just come with questions, we come with

solutions, as well. >> commissioner covington: thank you. >> thank you. >> president nakajo: vice president covington, you've concluded? >> commissioner covington: yes. i'll just have my discussions off mic. >> president nakajo: all right. thank you very much. we have additional questions in terms of category of chief's report. commissioner cleaveland? >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you, mr. president. one quick question regarding the grant writer, and maybe mr. corso can answer this question more directly. i know in the report from chief rivera, several of the items that we're doing currently to reduce pollution in the city, reduce carcinogenics in the

public, a grant writer can help us with some of this. just want to know when we can anticipate having a grant writer on board. i'm sorry to put you on the spot. >> good morning. mark corso again. we have previously posted the position of grant writer. we are doing a little more outreach and providing more information for potential candidates, so working with a couple commissioners on that right now. we're very close to posting that again, so we should hopefully see a bigger pool of applicants right now. >> commissioner cleaveland: so if there's somebody watching this program right now that wants to apply to be the grant writer for the fire department, how would they do that? >> so i would say keep an eye on our website and our twitter feed. we would, as we did last time, post a link to the job

application. that's on the city's job board, as well. i would also say when it comes to grant opportunities, we have been working with the chief on a number of grants that are specifically designed for firefighter safety and health, and there's another one coming up in the fall that we will be looking at most likely in the fall. >> commissioner cleaveland: i think this commission is very interested in that. keep us posted. thank you, chief. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner cleaveland. we will proceed with the report from deputy chief wyrsch if there are no longer any other questions. thank you, deputy chief wyrsch. thank you for your patience, in terms of everybody else in this room. two-plus hours at this point, and we do have a closed session after this session. >> deputy chief wyrsch: good morning, commissioners, chief

nicholson, maureen. first, i would like to commend this chief that she's taken the baton and run with it at a speed that enabled me to keep going. i have to thank each and everyone. and also, with all these reports, i have to give kudos to our i.t. manager, jesus mora. i don't know if you know him, but we ask him something, and he gets it. et -- it's because of him that we're able to compile all this data, so that's great. this is my report for may. we have had a total of 13 working fires for the month of may, with two greater alarms. i apologize, your pacts were

seal -- packets were sealed and went out on friday, and all of a sudden, i would have sealed them and yedited them a little better. the first fire was 1557 innes avenue. assistant chief calis was at this fire. this fire and the next fire started at the exterior of the building which presents a problem, so the outside turns going to the inside, and the detectors go off, and people go inside, so a lot of time, that's why these turn into second alarms. it was reported by a neighbor that there were three children in the upper level of the

building. they cleared the building. a little after 4:00 a.m., a second alarm was called. there were three hose leads, one in between the buildings, one in the building and one in the exposure d building. with the second alarm, those companies took control of the exposure, the fire, and they stopped it from reaching the attic or the interior of the exposure d building. there was no injuries, but 12 people were displaced. i love this picture. if you can see it, i love when there's this many ladders to the building. that's examinimperative for a means of egress for firefighters on the roof, and also, if something goes south on us, that the firefighters can evacuate themselves from every ladder, so this makes me

happy. the second greater alarm -- oh, and also, i was at that fire. i can't help myself. usually, i'm supposed to go to third alarms or greater, but i miss going to fires, so i'm just going to go to a lot of them. i can't help myself. the second alarm was at 1635 golden gate. again, this was assistant chief calos. this is a fire -- this was a fire that was mainly in the rear of the building. as you know, we always bring interior crews in, . we always want to push the fire from the inside out. once we brought lines, we extinguished it. when we realized there was zero property line and possible

fire. i have to commend a lot of these pictures of this fire. i'm super happy that firefighters aren't pulling out their phones and taking pictures of the fire. so we get these from the public, and they're usually after the fact. just a couple other fires. 11 other fires that we had, which i'll talk about in a second. we had -- rescue 2 was responding to a call, and at 280 off ramp, when they were responding, they witnessed a head-on collision. they were able to use the new jaws, and they were able to

rescue an unconscious and trapped adult, and a second adult. both will be okay thanks to that very, very fast response and the capabilities of deploying those new tools that we had talked about. we had a report of an active shooter on the 21st of may. it was at 350 rhode island. luckily, it was a false report, but the units worked very well with sfpd, and these calls are an invaluable training tool for us, so even though it was a real call, the training was tremendous. also, notable incidents we had, on the 1st of may, we had a cliff rescue, where we rescued one person.

on the 3rd, we had a third alarm fire at 732 treat. may 3, we had a wildfire at allemeny and 280. on the 5th, we had a first alarm fire, no injuries. the 13th, another fire at 594 valencia street with no injuries. may 18, a first alarm first at 635 velasco, no injuries, and that fire is still under investigation. on the 20th, we had a cliff rescue. 20th, coastal rescue where the fire department boarded a ship and we worked with the united states coast guard and worked to package a patient to hoist

them out from the deck and transport out to a hospital and that victim will recover. we had another fire on the 22nd of may, pier 39. no displaced. that fire is still under investigation. on the 29th, we had a coastal rescue, surfer. on the same day, we had a coast rescue. a person was stranded on seal rock. and we had another rescue on the 29, and a wind surfer was rescued and will recover. so may 20 to 25 was e.m.s. appreciation week. it was titled "beyond the call." starting with youth interactions, coffee with the

public, awards ceremonies, and more. here is just a picture of we're working with john o'connell on the high school e.m.s. day, which was a success, and a picture of some of the command staff and a member, danny grazia attending a barbecue at station 49. it's very great that we're spending sometime with the members at 49. the interaction has been working really well. like i said, the coffee. we had -- starbucks sponsored a coffee with a paramedic, one day with each of the providers. so king american had one day, a.m.s., and r.f.f.e. it was well received. here, we have members of the public committee, loss prevention team, who staffed a

safety booth at this year's carnivale at the mission. we'll talk a little bit more about that later. our community outreach continues. this is engine 23 with many of the p.i.o. community outreach events. this was a safety event. whoops, use that slide. district safety fair in the mission. this was a success, and with many community members, we're learning life safety and disaster preparedness with the tools. we've seen this picture before, but in light of some of the events this week, we're -- i want to reassure that we have an aggressive safety campaign with the national parks service and we're increasing our safety and our messages, creating a huge presence along our waterfront. and this year's coastal safety summer kickoff, we had 11 news

members at that event, but we're working to get our message out to the public with training efforts. san francisco continues to provide great services in response this month to p.i.o. and community prevention team participated in the annual safety fair at s.f.o., and this is bringing education and safety tips to employees and the visitors. more community outreach. this is from engine based to prescheduled events. the san francisco fire department's excellent community outreach to all its members, and this is from engine 43 in the excelsior all the way to city hall, so we're covering the entire city with all of our training. like the chief mentioned, we are getting around to all the fire stations, which has been

important, but we also made a presence and c.d. 1 and c.d. 3 got a chance to address local union at their meeting, and announce a game plan and answer any questions that the membership had, and that was well received. department was also involved in a two-day notification seminar to build on our capablities to reach those in need in a disaster. r.p. went to a mast notification 'em -- mass notification seminar. and then, we continue to practice skills at our national parks. and here's a look at one of our four graduating rescue swimmer classes. station 49 members were requested in the committee meeting to teach stop the bleed, and this is a valuable

skill that will definitely save lives. and for upcoming events, one of our events is a class for our first responders and law enforcement to learn to communicate spanish for those that we protect, and that's being put on by los bomberos. again, this is some of our social media outlets for people to gain information on their own. functions, the p.i.o. facilitated a ride along with the mission high school teachers that'll be facilitating the first ever e.m.s. program. we're looking forward to that at mission high school. on the 15th of may, supervisor matt haney visited the sffd

training school at treasure island. he visited the recruits and the training facility and got a chance to see what we do. on 5-27, the command staff and chief nicholson went to several events and i got to march in my first parade. i see that, many, many, many. okay. i am not going to take away from sandy tong's report because i know that president nakajo has asked her to give a comprehensive report at the next commission meeting, but i've included it in here, and all the e.m.s. data is enclosed for you to look at. i just can't help but give kudos to the e.m.s. 6 report. as you'll see, successful again. some notable events or that the frequent callers, we went from

the top caller to 21 calls in may. in april, the second caller had 18 calls to zero. and the third is 17 to 6, so a massive decrease in the calls for the frequent callers. fire marshal dan dicozio put together a lot of data for the report. if you have any questions, you can ask him, but -- but the community outreach presentations, which some of those i posted on, we had one on the 1st at 2:30, the 2300 block of folsom. i mention all these because of how many people that they're accessing. we had one on the 2nd, 711 eddy, and that was a fire safety in the homework shop.

we're giving packets in several languages, safe tip sheets. there's approximately 85 attendees. on the 4th, 18th avenue at the richmond rec center, we provided life and safety information. it showed them how to use fire extinguishers. we handed out 48 smoke alarms, which is good, and there was approximately 450 attendees. on the 4th, 23rd, cinco de mayo, and we reached out to 2,000 people in the community. i think that's huge. 566 bush street, same type of workshop, 80 attendees. on the 14th, 2901 irving, and that one, we handed out 75 emergency hand crank radios for

emergencies, 18 smoke alarms, and we had 70 attend the sfihhs workshop. we showed a little bit about the airport. what was notable about that, our safety event there, we handed out more than 100 smoke alarms and contacted approximately 1500 community members. 201 turk, 30 attendees, and then carnivale, we handed out 22 1340 22 smoke alarms. and last, the janet pomeroy rec center at stye line, approximately 100 attendees, so we are eat getting all over -- we're getting all over the city. the ace here is under -- on page 34, the plan check section update. this is staggering.

the fire plan check for the permit applications, they reviewed 1,164 applications this month, which is up from 1,080. that is -- that's a tremendous amount, and it's generated 1,022,183-so kudos to them for getting that done. their construction permits in the last ten years has gone up 100%, so it went from 6500 to 13,000. also, their inspections in the last ten years went up 15%, from 17,000 to 26,000, very notable. what included is a data form for captain mike pat on the large community development projects, the data from captain coughlin for the port.

also kudos to the bureau of fire investigation. i know in past years, we are over 400 open reports in the past, and we're still down to 43, so they're closing them out, doing a good job, working hard. they responded to 18 incidents this -- this month. also fire prevention, they're on track to finish their annual high-rise and school inspections by the end of the month. just so you know, that includes 622 high-rises and 141 schools that are being inspected, so kudos to them. there's also the transportation advisory safety committee data from chad law, and here, we have the airport activities from a.d.c., kyle lee. i have to say that the chief and i went to the airport on the 17th and got a chance to meet all the members out at the

airport and all the stations. it was very cool, yeah. we enjoyed ourselves, and i don't think they had seen c.d. 1 and 2 for a long time. it was very educational for us. and then, on the 31st, we got a chance with kyle lee, we got caught up to speed. also i was asked at the last commission meeting for -- there was a concern over the homelessness at the airport. there's a report in there if you want to look at that, and the rest of the data is, that's it. that concludes my month of may operations report, if there's any questions.

>> president nakajo: thank you, chief wyrsch, for your comprehensive report. at this time, we're going to ask the commissioners if they do not have any questions at this particular time to contact you in terms of any questions that arise from that. i'm going to call for public comment on your report at this point. seeing none from public comment, public comment is closed. we do have a little pressure from the commission that we need to do a finding of fact before the noon hour, so i'm going to try to go through the rest of the commission meeting agenda items, point of information in terms of my request, chief nicholson, i'd like to time that with your report for, when you're next up, on the 10th, for your

report with chief tong. >> of course. >> president nakajo: thank you, madam secretary, we have a few other items before we go into close. >> clerk: item 7, report on commission report. report on commission activities since last meeting on may 22, 2019. >> president nakajo: i'm going to ask for the public comment on the commissioner's report, item 7. seeing none from the commissioner's report, public comment is closed. i do not see any items from the commissioners. madam secretary, next item, please. >> clerk: item 8, agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> president nakajo: i'm going to ask for public comment in terms of that particular item. we will coordinate and discuss with you, colleagues, with commission secretary to put the agenda together for the next commission meeting. other than that, may we move to item 9. >> clerk: item 9,

correspondence received, e-mail from dalf jackson. >> president nakajo: other comments in terms of correspondence received, e-mail from dalf jackson? any comments from public or commissioners? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, madam secretary. >> clerk: item 10, public comment on item 11, public comment on all matters pertaining to item 11 below, including public comment on whether to hold item 11 b, c, and d in closed session. >> president nakajo: is there any public comment on item 11? is there a motion to move to go

into closed session. >> commissioner cleaveland: move. >> commissioner hardeman: second. >> president nakajo: moved by commissioner cleaveland, seconded by commissioner hardeman. we're going to ask the public to vacant this room so we >> clerk: okay. we're back in open session at 11:44. >> president nakajo: we're back in open session at this particular point. >> clerk: hold on. your microphone's not on. okay. >> president nakajo: madam secretary, we're back in open session. i'd like to have a motion whether to disclose any or all discussions held in close session. >> commissioner hardeman: i move, mr. president, that we

not discuss any items discussed in closed session. >> commissioner cleaveland: i second. >> president nakajo: okay. before that, i need to ask about public comment. seeing none, public comment is closed. i've got a motion by commissioner hardeman, seconded by commissioner cleaveland. all in favor? opposed? okay. at this point, we'll move to adjournment. >> commissioner covington: so moved. >> commissioner cleaveland: second. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner cleaveland and vice president covington. we are adjourned. [gavel]

>> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families

together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar. we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to

hanhang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. >> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. i hope people shop locally. [ ♪ ]

>> good morning, let's get this press conference started. hi, everyone, i'm mary of the city and county and san francisco, and also resident. welcome to the lower hate, everybody. i am here with sorrow who is the owner of café international, which is really an important legacy business that really holds this community together, and your supervisor, vallie brown. [applause] >> you know, this café is one of the small businesses around our city that are more than just a small business. they are spaces for our neighbors together across close-knit communities, they are where young people get their first job opportunities, and they are an important part of our workforce. as i said, they are where zahra,

the owner of were of café international, and in immigrant who can create new opportunities for themselves and countless employees. well we know that small businesses in san francisco employ more than 350,000 people, and make up 95% of our businesses, and generates millions of dollars for our economy, what i love most about our small businesses is the opportunities that they create for the people. the opportunity to grow a community, grow our skills, and grow our people -- our future. from here in my home district of the western addition, lower hate neighborhood, out to the excelsior. we have hosted roundtable meetings with small business

forms to provide faces -- spaces were businesses can talk about their concerns and their challenges. today, i am so excited to announce that we are working to make it easier for small businesses to not only survive in san francisco, but to thrive in san francisco. that is what today's announcement is all about. is not just for people to open and run their businesses, but for people to find employment at small businesses and for small business owners and employees to have a seat at the table where we are having -- making the decisions about our budget investments. first, let's take a step back and think about what it means to start a small business in san francisco. i hear from people all the time what a great idea and new innovation they want to do. then they are confronted with bureaucracy at city hall. it is such an incredible

challenge. san francisco has loan programs in place that help people through our office of economic and workforce development. we have issued more than 20 million dollars with 90 4% repayment rate, which is incredible. these loans have estimated to create 1300 jobs. this includes our revolving loan fund, the fund provides low interest loans with flexible terms and support for small businesses that help to keep them stable and to help them grow. with my proposed budget, we are adding an additional $1 million to this incredible program. this funding will support city sponsored small business loans that will help more small businesses to get out and run and create more job opportunities. finally a small businesses grow and thrive, sometimes they need key improvements. one like we were able to do

right here at café international , which is now a.d.a. accessible, and i'm so excited about that. even though people have always found a way to get in there and get their coffee and their snacks regardless of the barriers that existed, but heck, why not make it easier. so part of our investment will include new things like awnings and doors and windows, and upgrades to interiors, new equipment, or improvements to me businesses a.d.a. compliant so that people with disabilities can access those businesses easily. through our invest in neighborhoods and the s.f. sign program, we have business -- we help businesses cover some of the costs to make these upgrades because when our businesses shine, our communities shine. that is why i am committed to providing an additional and this year's budget $2 million this is

with specific focus is in the excelsior, the bayview, the lower fillmore, and right here on the street. we know that when we make the small business investments that our community succeeds. let's say, you open a business and you go through the registration process and many of your small business owners have told me of these experiences and only to have the doors shut in your face because of what you did or didn't have, and you're told you will have to pay hundreds of dollars for a permit or a fee that you didn't even know existed if you are a small business owner, right -- raise your hand if you have encountered that. exactly. if those registers -- for a permit for the fire department, for who knows what else and i

want to be clear that these fees that the city charges is not intended to make doing business in san francisco harder, but we know that that is something that we need to address, so i was really determined with what i heard from small businesses to eliminate all city fees, but my staff wouldn't let me do it. so instead, until we can basically do the report, do some more investigation, determine what is needed, in the meantime, i'm allocating in this year's budget, $2 million in funding for relief for small businesses for refunds for some of those fees that we know are challenging for people to do business. with our proposal, we estimate that more than 8,000 businesses, almost 9,000 businesses will qualify from some sort of

reimbursement for certain fees that have really impacted our small businesses, and it may seem like a small amount, but it will make a difference in our ability to allow small businesses to have the kind of support that they truly deserve, until we can eliminate the fees. when i think back, growing up in san francisco, i remember the small businesses. i still go to the same drycleaners that i have been going to since i could even afford a dry cleaner, i am still going to the same nail shop and the person who does my hair, my same dentist since i have had teeth. and when i think about san francisco, what i want to protect is what makes us a special and diverse city. it is our neighborhood. it is our small businesses, it is like knowing you can go to zara and she can basically give you advice on how to take care of your kids, how to discipline your kids, how to take care of

your mom and give you a cup of coffee at the same time. this is what this is about and protecting businesses are so important we are also going to invest an additional $4 million in grants for small businesses. grants to provide additional support for small business and nonprofit that want to relocate in places where we have a number of vacant storefronts. because we know that is another challenge that exists in our communities where you know that there are vacant storefronts and there is difficulty in accessing those storefronts. we have to do more, as i said, to make the kinds of investment that not only provide, you know, the support and get rid of the layers of bureaucracy, but we also have to provide the financial investments that are going to help businesses get into business, but also stay in business. these are some of the largest

investments ever made in this city to support our small business community, and we still know that there's more work that we can do to better improve what is happening in san francisco, especially when we make decisions, when we make policy decisions, and unfortunately sometimes, we lose a small business because of his bad policy decisions. as we work through the bureaucracy, as we work through making the kinds of changes that are going to make things better for small businesses, this is a first step towards demonstrating that we are committed to supporting our small business community, and we are here to receive feedback in other ways in which these programs are working and making a difference in your communities, and of course, there is still more that we know we need to do, but this is the beginning of what i think is a bright and prosperous future for our small businesses in san francisco, and i want to thank all of you for being here

today. and someone who has been an incredible small business champion on the board of supervisors, who is working on legislation around vacancy controls, who is working on making sure that we have opportunities to have more legacy businesses, and funding for those legacy businesses, which is equally important, is a committed former resident, but now living in another part of d5 , but you all remember her, because she used to pick up trash in front of your businesses, that is why we know, and we love vallie brown because of her commitment to the residents of district five. ladies and gentlemen, your supervisor, vallie brown. [applause]. >> thank you. i really appreciate everything you were doing, giving the funding forward so we can actually address these issues. i guess you i will have to legislate things to get that done, but i really feel that in

these times when small businesses are struggling, the city needs to step up and do better. we need to make sure that streamlining, when people get in , trying to open their businesses, it doesn't take them a year and a half to pay rent and open a business if they want to have a couple of businesses able to go into one bigger space , that should be easy for them. we need to make it easy. in these times are we have amazon and all the other home deliveries, we need to make it easy for businesses to not only survive, but to prosper. this was personal for me because i lived in the lower hate for 20 years. it is my heart. i have to join you -- tell you, at café international, over 15 years ago, and the patio, that

is where we started the first neighborhood association. we also started the first merchant's association. we argued about how many trees should we plant, and how many bar crawls should we have to get those money -- the money to plant the trees. all of this, the merchants were there, the merchants came forward with the residents, and said, your priorities are our priorities. the whole foods across the street, that is the original whole foods, everybody. there we are. yes, mike's barbershop has been there since the sixties, zara and café international, 27 years , has she been serving coffee to the neighbors, giving them advice, and also listening to their issues, and ricky records, two jacks, from 20 years plus. i mean this is the kind of businesses that we want and that we crave.

when i say to my friend, let's meet for coffee or dinner, i don't say, come to my house, i say let's meet in the corridors. they are the extension of our living room. they are an extension of our home. when we go out, i want to be somewhere when i feel like i am at home. where i can talk to mike at the barbershop or others. i can't imagine not being able to go out my front door and go to a store that i love, or a café that i love and then i can meet my friends, so i am here today to say, all of a sudden, we weave ourselves in the fabrics of these neighborhoods, and we need to be -- we need to support our merchant corridors because they are part of our home. i know you are nervous, but i told her, just pretend she is behind the counter, giving advice, and speak from the heart

i want to thank everyone here today, and i, as your supervisor , will be working on creative ways, legislating them, to make it easier for merchants, and to make sure our corridor thrives. thank you. i will introduce her. because she has given me advice many times. and even though i moved, i still come in here, and after a busy day, i sit there and say, tell me what is real. i will have few tell her what is real right now, and your beautiful café, after the renovation, it is amazing. i want you to come up and tell it from the heart. thank you. >> thank you, mayor breed and

supervisor brown for the introduction and for coming to café international for this very important announcement. through the mayor and supervisor vallie brown in the office of economic and workforce development, café international, we have received a lot of money. our beautiful interior and exterior, with has a san francisco shine. café international is not only a community hub. with the health and support in the city and the mayor, we continue to serve our community and keep it healthy and vibrant. mayor breed, thank you. supervisor vallie brown, thank you for all your support. these two people saved the café. thank you. and thank you everybody, and

come and get coffee. [applause] >> now we will have comments from mario who is the president of the district council of merchants. >> good afternoon, everybody. mayor breed, thank you very much for having me speak here, and supervisor vallie brown, thank you for all you have done for this neighborhood. this is kind of my stomping grounds when i was younger, and i'm proud to say that as president of the council of district merchants, it is a member of the council as well as upper. the council stands to represent those who are underrepresented, as the mayor has said earlier, small businesses have been struggling. that doesn't mean we're down and out. we are not looking for a handout , but we do need to help out. when times are tough, community -- communities need to get together. i commend the mayor for having

that roundtable that you had a few weeks ago. she gathered many of us businesspeople together and she hurried as speak, not only did she hear us, but she listened. not only did she give our complaints and concerns, bed we told her what things we contributed to the community as a small business merchants. it is a symbiotic relationship. small businesses would not be there without the neighbors and the customers. we pretty much defined the neighborhood. most of us adopt our names based on our commercial corridor. it is something that is precious to us, it is unique to us, and if it is anything else other than that, then we become a suburb. then we are no longer a unique city called san francisco, which is one of the most desirable cities in the world. i would also like to say that i commend the mayor for not just listening to our needs, but responding to them. when it comes to the shine

program, when it comes to the revolving funds, and also the assistance with fees, sincerely, mayor brown, i thank you, because we were heard. it was a gesture. i hope it was just a start, and i hope if you need any help with that legislation, i've got your back on that, too, but the fact that we were heard, the fact that someone acknowledged that there is a problem, maybe we need a little bit of help, it goes a long way. i am one of those people that said, it is necessary, but also after that dialogue, we need some action, and we need follow-up. it is, it is a symbiotic relationship. we all grow together, we all sleep together, but it is important that we are heard and now we look forward to working together, not one-sided versus the other, but as one team holding hands and walking through this process together because it does take a village. on that note, i laughed when i

heard of her story because i too am an immigrant. i beat her here by about 25 years, and i've acclimated quite well, but i walked up and i started chatting with her, and she started chatting with me in arabic. or arabic was much better than mine, but what got to me is when the mayor mentioned that you came over there and she started to give advice, because 35 years ago, that was my mom and her little corner grocery store. should be sitting there giving these guys advice on how to run their marriages, their households, and a couple of them were esteemed attorneys and appointed judges on the federal court circuit, so it was kind of funny to see where some of our leaders know where to get the best advice. on that note, thank you very much. thank you for having me, and a look i look forward to working with you. thank you. >> thank you for being here. i also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the new head of the san francisco chamber of commerce, rodney

phone, thank you for joining us here today, because it has to be about protecting and supporting our small business communities so we are all working together to do that. now that we are wrapping this up , a couple of things, get your food and your coffee from café international before you go back to work. if you need a haircut, mike will take care of you across the street. if you need groceries, you can go to whole foods, which is a local grocery owned place, and you will take care of their needs. everything you need before you go back to work, or you go home, it's right here in this neighborhood, at these incredible small businesses, usually staffed by the people who actually owned them and work day in and day out to take care of the people of this community. again, that is why we have to take care of them and make the right investment in our small businesses all over the city and county of san francisco so they cannot only survive, they can thrive, and we can be the city that we truly know how to be. thank you also much for being

here today.

>> welcome, everybody. we are going to get started. it is june 11th, 2019. roll call, please. [roll call] >> thank you. section a, general information, accessibility information for the public and teleconference information, there is none tonight. be as opening items, approval of board meetings with a regular meeting. we need a motion and a second