please step on up. >> good morning, madame chair and board of supervisors. i'm an equity applicant, i'm requesting that the resolution or amendment be drafted for the $1.3 million in equity funds to be given directly to the equity applicants. i welcome the opportunity to work on any resolution regarding this effort. according to the city controller's report, there are 133 applicants who will not ever be able to open a cannabis business in san francisco. and it appears that we are to be regulated as only workers in the industry. a few equity businesses that have been opened had wealthy investors and they're not in abundance. equity needs location reduce lease or at least five years in order to operate and get a business established. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you

very much. next speaker, please. >> good morning, supervisors, my name is reese. i am equity applicant. i'm the first woman in san francisco, or the second to own a potential cannabis, where we're supposed to be open in october. and we're not able to open because of a process a judge put an injunction on us. but that being said, i am a native of san francisco. this the city took my whole family. when i come here, i have no one with me because of that. when i say the judge took my mom, had to bury her at 16. i have my grandma died from crack. my grandfather died from crack. my whole immediate family is on crack or died from crack. i have no support system. this is all i have. and the fact that i am able to

get this far in life and for my city to fail me with my family, and the only person that is really living is my uncle, he can get free needles, but i can't get a grant to continue to open a business that i raised over $300,000 so i can the first owner in the state of california as a woman. and i am having resources to get there is heartbreaking. it's heartbreaking. you guys already took enough from me. my son doesn't have his grandparents. and i think i gave him a great life, but we need these grants so i can be better and so i can show people we can do it. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> the city should be apr-- ashd

of themselves. only two supervisors are sponsoring this. i shouldn't be surprised considering they've only put $90,000 in funds in services and the equity fund remains empty. today i ask you to pass this legislation to fund applicants directly as the law states. i don't want the money -- the money shouldn't go to city services. if you're not an equity applicant like the woman who just came up, or not serving the center, this money is not for you. i remind you that we paid for this money. and damages from the effects that you've seen from her statement is paying for this. i ask that the money be distributed as fast as humanly possible with the resources and the full resources of san francisco to do that. i ask that the money go direct funding in the amount of 750,000. i ask that you have an equity

office space in the amount of $380,000. i ask that you put money for equity events and programming like the success center in the amount of $08,000. i ask that you move to have an equity permit expediter in the amount of $130,000. please move this to the board with full recommendation. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is langford brown. i'm an equity applicant. my issue is the fact that we all feeling a sense of being red lined. all over again. and so we're impacted and i feel like these funds right now, particularly, those of us who is in the second phase and have letter of intent, we now need that additional funding to help when planners come and tell us about the build-out and the startup expenses associated. we now need help for this. so this is where we're impacted.

we have letter of intent, but we need further funding to continue on. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much, sir. >> good morning, i'm amber morris. i would like to commend the office of cannabis for applying and securing these funds and request that the board move these funds forward. the well intended equity program is not working. we see people hemorrhaging money and we need to get them money as quickly as possible. we're requesting that the equity applicants are able to get direct grants. that the money be allocated for property that can be used to share spaces. and for an application expediter to help equity applicants with the application process. what we found, there is a lot of bureaucracy in the process and we would urge the supervisors to make sure there is least amount

of bureaucracy in the process as possible for getting the money to the equity applicants. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. next speaker, please. good morning. i'm a native of san francisco and equity applicant. the equity program is a wonderful program given the benefits that we've had to suffer through. we are doing our best by completing the application, going through the application process, being verified, out looking for property, trying to go through our incubators, working through all the steps they've put forth for us, but the funding is a problem. when we come into our startup. there is no startup money for us. if you think about it, we've gone through the trainings, we've gone to the colleges, we've done everything. i went to learn about the cannabis industry, but then there is funds to start the business. just to start, starting up llc

is a thousand dollars pretty much. with the permit process, not to mention trying to go through the incubator stages. the funds will help us to be able to start our businesses to be able to collaborate within san francisco, to be an effective equity applicant means that we would need the funds to be able to do that. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> morning. my name is angela. i'm from success centers and i work with equity applicants here in the city. i hear lots of stories like reese and they bring me to tears because we need help. and i'm so happy that the state has sent funds for equity, the equity community here. we need help to also continue our program to work with these folks that have been affected by

the war on drugs. and so i am very thankful to be here and very happy that you are going to release these funds to the office of cannabis. eugene and marissa have done an excellent job trying to do what they're doing without the staffing. so i'm hoping that we can get some things going so we can have a spirit of success that goes through with equity. so thank you so much for your time. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name is jocelyn. i've been working with oakland equity program through technical assistance and make green go. and what my company does is we provide all the data and analytics for the cannabis industry, so i've been working with the applicants personally and helping them answer a lot of the questions in the applications that are going to

make sure they're set up for success when they open. so one of the things that i've been learning as i've been working with this program, is that it's a lot of volunteers. and we need people that are actually going to be on staff and doing the executional work, because there are people like me going and providing consultant work, helping them understand the market, but there has to be dedicated people that are accountants, all the really execution work to help set them up for success. one of the things i'm concerned about in san francisco and i'm a resident of san francisco, is the high saturation of already existing retail shops. we have 37 shops here. equity applicants are the next round to get licenses, but with such saturation in the 7 by 7 city, if they're not set up for success in the beginning, their chances to compete in a saturated market is minimal. so they really need this funding to provide the actual executional work here.

thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. next speaker, please. hi. i'm a native of san francisco. raised my children out of the bayview. i'm a little emotional please excuse me. one of my sons ganged up and got into a bunch of problems and the other one didn't. the point i would like to make about the community, bayview hunters point, i sent both sons to college, both graduated and are successful. we're typically put in a box where there are things we can't do or figure or out. but we can do and figure it out. i got approved, my equity number got approved three years ago. i started my own business, so i can try to fund my cannabis

business. still unable to do so. so i would appreciate it if you would take a deep look at this. take a look at us without generating any negative opinions and give us the support that we need. we're awesome. we're creative. and we give back to our own community and those less fortunate as well as us. thank you very much. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, my name is joyce. i'm equity applicant. i'm here today to represent the equity program. and what i would like to say to the supervisors, would you guys have some consideration to release the funds that is needed for the project that needs to be done for the dispensaries or whatever the situation we might need help in. i think that the money needs to be released because it is hard out here without that we won't

even succeed in life with this program. it would be a failure if we don't get no help. and thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> good morning. my name is terrance. i was your chair of the san francisco cannabis legalization task force for three years. we developed a series of recommendations that we gave to the board and, of course, funding for the equity program was a priority in those recommendations. to give a little perspective to all that you're hearing this morning, it takes about $1.5 million to open a business in cannabis here in san francisco. and we're approving a grant for every equity applicant in this room and beyond that is less than the cost of opening one store. so i urge you to take this first step and to continue the promise

of follow-through so that equity is not a trap. and it is in fact what it was intended to be, a way out for everyone. thank you. good morning. my name is morris kelly. i'm a san francisco native, verified equity applicant. and i'm really able to stand here before you because of the support of my community, because we've been able to rally around each other, been able to teach each other, help each other. we've been able to support each other to try to get through this process. like one person said before me, we've had to be uber creative. we've had to be resourceful to even get to the point to stand here before you. because as you know, things happen fast for certain people

and slow for others. i feel like we are doing everything that is asked of us to make this program successful and there is not much more we can do. so without the support of the city, without extra help to the office of cannabis, we're just going to be sitting here coming to these meetings for another year saying the same thing. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. any other public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. any comments, questions from colleagues? supervisor preston. >> supervisor preston: thanks. i just want to be added as cosponsor and thank everyone for coming out and look forward to other ways to expand on this program. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. i also just want to mention that the office of the controller has done a report on this and also

given recommendations. i authored a resolution to create an oversight committee because we were not seeing action, any movement on the equity applicants. and also to have experts at the table to actually advise the board of supervisors. so i just want you to know, thank you for coming out today. we hear you. and we are, i think, going to have a hearing on the results of what the controller actually recommends and what the board can do to help. having said that, there is no b.l.a. report. i would like to move to the board with positive recommendation. take that without objection. please call item 9. >> item 9, establishing the proposal united nations limit of $5.5 billion for the school year