and prior to commissioner yekutiel, commission sharkey and huie, we have had extensive discussions with the commission about the ballooning obligation, potential ballooning obligation, especially around the business assistance grant. so with the rent stabilization grant, when a property owner applies for the grant, they can apply for it either up to ten years or let's say there's three years left in a lease and they extend it out for seven years, and they can apply for seven years. we are not -- the way the proposition j was written, again, is how much funding is there and so it will be allocated proportionally, though, with the rent stabilization grant, we are to do our best to fully fund the earlier grants before we take on

new grants. so we will be having future discussions, because in the next year to two, we will be meeting, if we are to fund new grants, new rent stabilization grants, then we will be exceeding the $1 million. but that's a future discussion to have. >> so that introduces another question. so last year we had the $500,000 add back. when there's more money to distribute, i assume there's more administrative workload on o.s.b. staff. was that fair to say? >> not necessarily more money. so if it's the rent stabilization grant, if more money gets allocated, that's a pretty simple grant to administer, and not much time. that's involved with it.

it's the business assistance grant that is more administratively cumbersome, because we have to work with each business that applies and work on their calculations of their equivalent full-time employees and make sure that that's accurate in terms of what they're reporting. so as we add more businesses to the registry, more businesses can apply for that grant. and it has been the case. so that our obligations, the number of applications have gone up each year. so the amount of time administering that grant then just grows as well. >> so the legacy business program, none of the money earmarked for the legacy business goes towards staff salaries, correct? >> out of this million, no. correct. >> right. so that has to come out of the o.s.b. budget. so if the legacy business program introduces more

administrative overhead, that correspondingly reduces the amount of staff time that's available to help folks coming into the business assistance center or the other services that o.s.b. provides? >> no. right now if the program grows, then what it does mean is that the processing of the registry applicants. >> takes longer. >> yeah. so businesses are waiting in the queue longer and longer to get on to the registry. i can't redirect any of the business assistance -- i mean, rita does help with the press releases and does do some social media posting after the meetings when you've placed businesses on the registry, but that's all i can afford in terms of having another staff help. >> thank you.

>> and then to highlight that last year the mayor's office -- not the mayor's office, the board of supervisors provided the office with an add back of $500,000 to be put towards the business assistance grant program for legacy businesses. and so in doing so, that allowed that grant program to fund $350 per f.t.e. and just to take a moment to talk about sort of the budget process, so the first stage is me coming to you if there's -- to talk about next year's budget, have some discussion, get your approval, working with joaquin and the mayor's office through the budget phase and then after the mayor submits the budget to the board of

supervisors, the board of supervisors then, their budget and legislative analyst takes a look at each department and looks for budget cuts in each department to recommend to the board of supervisors so the board of supervisors has the authority to also make budget cuts. and from these budget cuts creates the pool of money for the add back dollars. >> commissioner dooley. >> do you have the information on among the legacy businesses that have received either business assistance or rent stabilization? how many have applied for renewal, and how many just did it as a one-time thing, like they needed a new awning or something like that. >> it's a rough number. just give us a general sense. >> i would say -- i would say for those that applied for the business assistance grant and

then renewed, i would say 85 percent renew. and what i will say is also for the very small businesses, it may have one or two employees, we tend to see those are ones that are not applying for the business assistance grant. >> does the commission have the authority to make adjustments to the rules regarding, say, how many years you can -- or how many renewals you can apply for? i'm just thinking about this from an equity perspective, you know, can the funds be distributed to those that really need it versus those that have simply mastered the system? >> so we cannot, and therefore some earlier discussions with

the commission is -- but we will likely not do this for this coming fiscal year, but the only way we could administer a grant program that provides either limitations or some other sort of qualifications, we would have to establish a new grant program. we can't modify this existing one, because of it being created by the voters. and that i will tell you, was through months and months of work with the city attorney's office. >> okay. you may have answered this question just now, but i'm going to raise it slightly differently, random chance that i'm onto something. is there a possibility that every year the clock -- the board is wiped completely clean, and no particular preference is given to renewals over new applications? or is that already what happens?

>> so for both grants, so for the rent stabilization grant, the property owner has to reply every year. they don't just automatically get the grant. they have to remediation aapply every year -- same for the business assistance grant, they have to reapply every year. >> so they have just as much chance as a renewal applicant? >> yes. so with the business assistant grant, well, for the rent stabilization grant, i'm going to say that's the only one where where if there isn't money left in the rent stabilization grant, because that's -- so by renewals and news, if there isn't then we can say there is no money. though there is sort of this

also fallback where if a business is in crisis and there's a lot of pressure, we could go to the board of supervisors to ask for a accept lamental to add money -- a supplemental to add money, and that's only for the rent stabilization grant. for the business assistance grant, the application period is between july 1 and september 30, so whatever number of businesses apply and then the number of s.t.e.s in there, whatever pot of money is, and whatever amount of money is put into the business assistance grant program, then gets distributed based upon f.t.e. >> so i remember this conversation from last year. i was here for some of this. so f.t.e.s are limited to 100 or less, correct? >> correct. >> and there's, again, this is probably the question you just

answered two questions ago, but there's no opportunity to sort of change the number of f.t.e.s, say, for instance, we couldn't set a limit at 20, or could we? >> not through this particular grant program >> all right. so we couldn't say it applies only to microbusinesses, per se, it has to apply to all businesses with up to 100f.t.e.s, and we can't make any changes to how, for instance, i'm imagining a round robin approach to allocation, where each business gets one f.t.e. and then we go back again, it's business by business, there's no way to sort of equitably distribute the f.t.e.s so it's not being

consumed by a fairly small number of businesses while there's other smaller businesses that aren't getting anything because -- i mean, would it be possible to switch to -- do you know what i mean by a round robin approach? >> i do. and under a newly-designed program, we could consider that. so the way the program is set is that the money is distributed be number of f.t.e.s total. and then so, like, the 500,000 created the ability -- by the total number of f.t.e.s we were able to allocate $350 per f.t.e., so if a business had 50 employees, it was 350 times 50. so, again, the city attorney's

interpretation has been of the grant program because it was voter, that we have to be very -- we have to just stick with what is there. >> right. under. if we did want to redesign the program, what would the process be to make that happen? would that require a ballot measure or no? >> most grant programs, like with oewd has a lot of new grant programs, it's really designed sort of what is the program you want to design and then kind of what's the funding that we want to be there. what do we hope to achieve, what do we want to do? >> as a commission we could potentially design a new program, submit that to the supervisors, the mayor? >> we would probably -- we would work with, first work with the mayor's office. >> okay. that's an interesting question possibly for us to consider during the retreat. commissionerly doey. >> after all the years of

discussing this, i was always under the impression that the people who had received grants previously, the previous year, had precedent in if they replied, they were ahead of anyone new applying. am i wrong now? >> that's only with the rent stabilization grant, not with the business assistance grant. >> so but it is true with the rent stabilization, anyone who got it once is jumped ahead of the queue to get it again rather than being on equal footing with everyone who applies? >> yes. there is the way it's written is that those that were previously funded in the previous year have priority. >> does it seem to me like -- >> [off mic] >> yes. it sounds like that's something we should really consider redesigning. am i wrong?

>> isn't that part of the -- the voter's are we allowed to do any changes in that area? or does it have to be a whole new thing? >> it would have to be a whole new thing. >> well, we can do a whole new thing. >> yeah. >> we'll do this and then a whole new program >> yeah, do all of it. >> okay. >> [laughs] >> fun discussion for us to have. >> we'll have to figure out what our priorities are. >> this is foremost on rick's and my mind about how we want to find a way to sort of meet the voters' intent, but the voters didn't quite understand the program, the grant program that they were approving. and so -- >> it's hard to believe the voters intended to award just a

couple random businesses this permagrant at the expense of all the other businesses applying. and given how long this grant program lasts and how many years it extends out, it seems to me that it would be worth our time, granted i don't know how much time we are talking about yet, but that would be what we would have to have a conversation about. but it seems to me that we should -- if in any way possible, revisit the program and design it to be what i think seems equitable to all of us. it should be everyone who applies has an equal chance. it shouldn't be this permanent bestowment upon the lucky few who navigated the system and now

all roads are blocked to everybody else. that seems wrong to me. >> yes, and i think part of our early discussions with, i mean, that the commission had, predominantly with the business assistance grant is that those who were fortunate, no one sort of worked any system, but those who were fortunate to be nominated at the beginning of the program are more likely receiving the full benefits of the program. and so how do we design something so that ten years from now, 25 years from now, those who are coming on to the registry are able to derive some benefit. and that's not to say that we might also want to reevaluate some other programs that we think that aren't necessarily designed in this particular way can derive equal benefit. >> last question, are you aware of any other government body

administering a similar legacy business program? is there any sort of established best practices or other grant programs that you have encountered that perhaps we can learn something from? >> we're generally advising new municipalities. >> okay >> so advising them on the complications around what we experience with this particular -- >> so we have a unique opportunity to establish best new practices for the country going forward. i love it. >> we do. >> great. >> so next slide, commissioner yekutiel, i just, i have taken our business case numbers, our client service numbers, and i will be issuing you a very sort of plain document. we've closed out the fiscal year 18/19. so we'll give you a lot of the

demographic data of what we collect for the client services. but just to let you know, over the last -- i mean, i took since 2016, but we've been substantially increasing our numbers. and in the first six months, it's also increasing as well. we've definitely seen an uptick in businesses coming to the assistance center being now in the same side of the tax and treasurer's office where businesses do their business registration. we were just across rotunda, somehow not having to walk across the rotunda has brought more individuals to the office, which is a good thing. so that we are able to help provide businesses sort of on the right footing of how to

engage with the city, because we are -- 60 percent of who we work with are businesses in their pre-prestart-up phase. so these are just some demographics, these are some of the numbers. this includes our walk-ins, e-mails and phone calls. it does not include our martha teaches the class is he s.b.a. every month on starting a business at the renaissance center once a quarter. so it doesn't include those numbers. and then -- >> i think this is where i probably plug come to manny's on the 11th to lead a session on how to start a small business. >> excellent. that's something that needs to be brought up during new business. i'll point out it means that 15 businesses per business day, give or take, are coming into

your office. quick question. perhaps we don't collect this data at all, but what demographic data do we collect about the people starting businesses? >> we collect by district. we collect by language. we track it by, yeah, language. we also sign up with language lines. so we are able to conduct services in english, spanish and chinese. but we have the language fine in case there's another type of language that it would be helpful to have that assistance. so language and then we have ethnicity as well.

and we might be collecting by gender. >> [off mic] >> and then we collect by sector what they are coming in for. >> the naicis. >> yes. and are they in their prestart-up, there are businesses that come in that are asking information, and they are ready to get their business open, and so for those predominantly in the food business, and we make a direct connection to katie in oewd so that commissioner yekutiel worked with katie. so for those businesses, then really when they are really ready, to make sure that that process, because it is a very permit and application complex process.

so we do direct handoffs, and then we also have businesses that they want to have -- they're having a business formation change, whether they do or if they are closing their business. so we categorize them at whatever stage they are in, coming and accessing information. >> and do you have a sense of what those demographics for the people taking advantage of the business assistance center, how that stacks up against the demographics of business registry? do we collect the same information for all business registrations or just what's in the assistance center? >> just within the business assistance center. i mean, the business formation is tracked by the treasurer's office. and also employee size, because we have the payroll, but that is not public-facing information. >> so surely we collect, i mean,

at least ethnicity when somebody starts a business, do we not? >> it's voluntary. >> i see >> it's voluntary. but we ask -- we have it there and ask them, and we tell them that it helps us. >> no, i meant at the treasurer >> no. >> nothing at all? >> not even gender. >> i guess what i'm driving at is it's been my observation, and certainly seems to be backed up but what you have said to me in the past, that the business assistance center is extraordinarily helpful as just sort of an equity issue, it's perhaps as relative to the business community as a whole, disproportionately maybe disproportionately is the wrong word, but is taken advantage of

by recent immigrants, english as a second language or maybe not even english as a language, and so it's a tool for that really addresses equity, and it's one of the few tools we have that's sort of specifically addressing some of those equity issues with relation to small business. so it seems like that's something perhaps we need to highlight, i guess, is, you know, i know every time i walk in, i don't feel like i'm looking at some young tech start-up trying to figure out the business process. i feel like i'm seeing -- i'm not sure what i'm seeing actually. that's why i was asking the questions. it seems like it's a really

important tool for equity. >> it is a very important service that the city is providing in relationship to wanting to deliver on our equity constituents. and we can have further, more detailed conversation about that and have a full presentation just on -- i'll be sending out to you what we call our dashboard. so last year's dashboard on the clients served, and we can have a more thorough discussion on that, either at a commission meeting or at the retreat. >> great >> and then lastly, the mayor has set some budget priorities. and so aligning our budget with her budget priorities as we move forward into the next four years of dealing with budget. >> sorry, one second.

commissioner, did you have a comment? >> i was just curious as to what percentage of businesses that are formed in san francisco actually come through the business assistance center. >> i can't answer that question. i would -- it's hard, because even for us, we still have a hard time sort of dealing with the tracing of being able to trace a business when they come in, because many times they are coming in as an individual, and by the time they start their business, they may be an entity. so i think like commissioner sharky wants to start off the meeting highlighting new businesses, so just even pulling the number of new business registrations in the month of january, that was a little over

1,000. but a lot of those are transportation, real estate, technology-based. and so there's 1,000 in the month of january, and we see 3,000 in a year, then it's a small percentage. and it's something that -- >> not that small, 25 percent. >> but if we are talking about, if it's 1,000 each month, then that's 12 -- >> 25 percent. >> you are really good at math. i am i am not good at math off the top of my head. so i would say maybe -- we could facilitate more, because there have been times, especially when we've had to reduce budget, we deuce stab because of the budget situation, our numbers go down,

so it is really -- it is a number of individuals being able to service -- we could service more, and we could also probably do satellite hours out in different neighborhoods from time to time to be able to reach the districts that are further away from city hall. so just to sort of begin to frame some context of what we'll be looking at for budget priorities in the future, is these are the four key budget priorities for the mayor is clean and safe streets, healthy and vibrant neighborhoods, and so i've put under there, the business assistance center and policy, so as legislation comes before the commission, you can think about how does this legislation affect healthy and vibrant neighborhoods. accountable government, again, that's a policy to work with, and, again, through the

legislation. and then equitable outcomes, that is with our business assistance center, and that's also a lens the commission can start utilizing as it is reviewing policy is what are the equitable implications for businesses in the legislation that is coming before you. so that concludes my budget report, and any additional questions at all? >> thank you, regina. that was excellent. and super educational. do we have any public comment on the director's report? seeing none, comments closed. next item. >> item five, approval of draft meeting minutes, action item. >> draft minutes from january

january 27. who was -- were all of us present? does anybody have to recuse themselves? okay. do we have a motion? >> i move. >> i'll second. >> motion by commissionerly doey to approve the minutes -- commissionerly doey to approve the minutes. the motion passes 5-0 with two absent. item 6, director's report, update and report on the office of small business and small business assistance center, department programs, hearings scheduled before the commission, policy and legislative matters, announcements from the mayor and announcements regarding small business activities. >> i want to start off my report

congratulating congratulating commissioner zouzounis for her reappointment. will you please let dominica know if you are not going to be here march? we want to schedule photos. i will not be here on march 9. i will be in london. >> then we can't do it, director. you're an essential piece. >> well, there's pictures that we take of you on the d.a.s. and all of that. on the dais and all of that. next we wanted to take an opportunity to review the hearing on the delivery act virtual kitchen that's scheduled

for february 26. so dominica has been doing a lot of work with this, commissioner sharky has been providing some guidance as well. so i would like to just turn it over to you, dominica to give a quick framework. or would you like me to? do you need a copy? >> yeah, i don't have one. >> i have one right here. >> thank you. >> the meeting on delivery virtual kitchen on the office of small business commission requested in december is set for wednesday, february 26 of this year in city hall, room 408. it will be held from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., and will have a hard stop at 4:00 p.m., so the duration is three hours.

essentially the scope will be to better understand how virtual kitchens and delivery platforms currently and locally regulated and to provide restaurant and the retail community an opportunity to share what their experience in working with virtual kitchens or delivery platforms has been like and to also gain a better understanding of virtual kitchen and other delivery-focused models. with that being said, the goal of the meeting, as i understand it from your perspective is to gather meaningful feedback from the small business community and stakeholders regarding impact that delivery companies are having and to prose initial recommendations. so the tentative agenda for the three hours that you'll have will involve presentations from departments. right now it's the department of public health and the s.f.

planning department who we are still waiting on confirmation that they will be in attendance. and we'll have presentations from the business community as well. and there will be approximately 30 minutes for you to provide -- to ask questions, public comment will be limited to 60 minutes given the time frame we are working with and for commissioner deliberation, you'll have 45 minutes. >> for other presentation, i think i spoke with you about this regina, i think during our call, we were thinking we were going to be short on time. but there's a possibility that the new executive director for the g.r.a. is also a restaurant owner, so she could wear both hats as both an operator and

spokesperson on behalf of the gra. perhaps for other presentation, we should consider inviting one or representative of the delivery services, whether it's -- >> is that why they are not represented, because of time? >> yeah, it's just -- >> are they interested in participating in this? >> i think so >> do we need an hour of public comment? i mean, i just have to say, it seems like a missed opportunity if the company themselves want to be represented, and we're saying no because of time. >> i agree. i think when we were originally talking about it, we were concerned that for one, these companies would have the opportunity to speak during public comment, so it's about whether or not we are earmarking five minutes in the schedule for them when what we're really wanting to hear is how this affects the business community and not necessarily how this

affects the tech community. but -- >> do we know they are coming to public comment? no. >> so what i'm suggesting is that we do invite them to -- if any of them -- the other question was there's i think three major, four major services, and there's no natural industry spokesperson the way we have with the g.g.r.a. so who do we invite, how do we establish -- but i do think it would be helpful to have them come and answer questions as well as, you know -- >> i wasn't a part of the deliberations so forgive me for trying to insert myself at the 11th hour. >> you are welcome to. >> but having said that, it is important to hear on the public record how this is affecting small businesses, and also this is probably going to be our opportunity to suggest,

emphasize and maybe interact in a substantive way with the businesses that are affecting our community. so my strong opinion is that it is a missed opportunity to not at least have their ear while we are all here. >> i agree, and that is why i suggested to regina that we should reconsider that decision. but i completely support what you are saying. you're right. >> just to be clear, they are interested, they want to come? >> i do think so. i cannot definitively say that they want to speak publicly. but we can -- we'll invite that, i mean in terms of a presentation, they might make public comment. i know that some have -- are going through some changes, so they want to be more quiet about, you know, about things.

but new york, we can follow the -- we can do a couple things. we can follow the new york model and ask for written -- give them a list of questions and a written response. i think what would be good for me to hear from -- as you in the businesses of -- there has been contact with door dash, post mates and brief kitchens, and those contacts have denied in relationship not to our hearing but to supervisor safai's hearing. so i think it would be good for us to hear from you what you think might be a good first for us to reach out to, entity to ask for a presentation. >> well, i don't see the issue with asking supervisor safai if he would be willing to share those contacts with us, and if there are other organizations

like uber eats or grub hub, we should make our own contact. >> no, they've contacted us. >> those same people? >> yes. those three is byes have contacted, because we were listed in supervisor safai's. so we have contact, and we can work to get contact with other entities. i'm just asking if there's a specific one of those that you would prioritize doing a presentation or first over another or else we -- >> i think i'm the only restaurant owner sitting here, and if you'll give me 24 hours, i could do a quick stop pal of restaurant owners in my district which see a huge volume of this and figure out which would be the ones best represented. i could do that easily. >> great. >> and commissioner, just to reassure you, to whatever extent you may have some concern, understandably, perhaps you may have some. commissioner ortiz was the one

who sort of initiated this. and then as part of the agenda planning, both i and commissioner had to coordinate with commissioner ortiz, that was three, we couldn't have four. >> i'm not offended or anything. i'm glad we're all open to this, because i do think it honestly doesn't reflect well on us as a body. i think it reflects better on us to have them there. it makes the whole endeavor, the three-hour endeavor, be, i think it could be a lot more productive. so i'm more than happy to help at this 11th hour to see if we can get voices in the room. >> it's not the 11th hour. >> we have three weeks, two weeks. >> and your input, particularly your public input as the only restaurant owner on the commission is very much strongly

considered and desired >> thank you, commissioner. >> yeah. >> can i ask when the this date was decided? i will not be able to attend. i have to work. i can't not work. i have my work from 2 till 11 on we see wednesdays. >> we are limited by the availability of hearing rooms, and i think the commission wanted to post this before supervisor safai's meeting. >> so i'm just letting you know i won't be present, and i'm extremely disappointed. >> i'm sorry to hear that. >> can i get an understanding of what supervisor safai's hearing is about? are we having the same meeting twice? or what is -- >> we haven't had an official meeting with supervisor safai's staff to discuss what exactly the ask is for his hearing. we know that the office of small

business has been invited to present on this. i know that the office of labor standards and enforcement has been asked to present, and i believe s.f. planning is also asked to present. so it seems like the presentations at that hearing will be focused on report backs from various city departments. >> so this is kind of like the information gathering to be able to create the content for that? >> right. >> and i just also, you know, there may be follow-up with more departments from our initial hearing as well, so that doesn't mean that this is the one and only, and we can continue, because, you know, what we hope to get out of this from you is a good, solid direction and sort of input in terms of what we can report to supervisor safai's office, but you may determine that you still want a few follow-up presentations before we solidify -- before you

solidify any official recommendation. so this is, you know, don't think that everything has to be accomplished with this hearing, we are trying to just sort of maximize and get, like, the most important bit of information. and dominica has been following what new york has been doing, so we can ask for written -- for departments that can't be there, ask for written answers to questions ahead of time for you to take into consideration ahead of the hearing. >> thank you for all the hard work you are putting into this. i know it's a lot. >> i was going to say the same thing, thank you very much. that was a lot of reading for me that really framed a lot of this issue. so thank you very much. it was super helpful. >> so i think one thing too that we may want to think about as we

are planning the agenda of the commission is -- sorry -- >> you have to get up in it. >> we need a longer microphone for you. >> just go for it. >> i like the relaxed, lean back approach. >> that's not good for the public to hear what you have to say. >> maybe they're lucky for it. so one thing i would encourage the commission to think about, something i've been giving some thought to is the sequence of testimony, because that will -- you know, and again, going back to when we were weighing how to -- who to invite and what is the criteria, what we were trying to be careful to do is be sure that we had sufficient time for our questions and also i'm imagining that this will be a well-attended meeting.

so that's why left a lot of room there for public comment, because there's -- i imagine, folks that want to talk about their personal experiences. but going back to what i was saying, we may want to think about the sequence of the agenda in terms of the presentations, for instance, do we want to have the individual restaurants present first and then conclude with the departments or do we want to start with the departments? >> [off mic] oh, sorry >> no, it's okay. the point is if you want to ask informed questions, sometimes after people make their presentations, then they leave. would the department, in this, if the department of planning went first, would they stick around until the very -- okay. so then, all right. scratch that. go ahead. >> do you know what the department of public health and

s.f. planning has been asked to present? like are there specific questions that we ask them? or are we just saying we are having this hearing, you have five minutes? >> i can send you what i sent them. i described the genesis of the request, and i included some more general questions with regard to how they're currently permitting the policy and department of public health policy, virtual kitchen specifically. and so i'm sure that you'll have more specific questions once you hear their presentation. >> okay. thank you so much. >> all right. anything more on kitchens? >> the one thing that we may also have to send you some of the permitting process to read through. so i'm just -- to add more reading, both for restaurants

and for local food just so that you have where we see potential discrepancies in the permitting process. and then also the golden gate restaurant association did have a hearing with supervisor fewer, focusing on the city's regulations, so we'll send a link to that hearing. it was a fairly long hearing. but due to a lot of public comment. but, again, sort of taking into context, you know, there's two pressures happening with our food-related businesses in relationship to that, and that's the external pressures from these -- from the private entities and the pressures from city government. >> is it helpful for us to let our communities know that this hearing is happening? >> yes. >> yeah.

i think we definitely should. >> sure. >> i mean, i just wanted to kind of put it out there, i guess that maybe as commissioners we should let our communities know. so even if they don't want to provide public comment, to be a part of this discussion at this juncture because it's already happening. >> and they can provide public comment in written form ahead of the meeting. >> that would be great. >> are we allowed to create like a facebook event for something like that? >> yes. we can say we are having a hearing on it through our office. and -- >> i know it sounds super millennial of me, but for some people, social media is how they are figuring out how they spend their time. >> i'm wanting the z version, i want the instart in-- insta sto.

>> i think there's nothing preventing you fromming frommins saving as a commissioner we are looking forward to this hearing. >> i know you're probably very comfortable creating facebook events, so if you would do us the honor of creating one, i think that would be create. >> can we check in with the they attorney and just around communication rules and who can create what event on behalf of the commission? like we have an official facebook account. >> but this is open to the public, any member of the public can create an event about anything they want to. >> that's true but it's probably stronger to come from o.s.b. and add us as cohost. >> there might be specific rules. i have to cross check that before anything happens. >> and to add to her, i have seen other commissioners post and tweet about things that are coming up at their hearings, but

then i think also what's, like, if there's conversation happening, then does that conversation somehow need to be linked with the public record conversation that happens? >> look, let me -- if you are determined to investigate, i won't get in your way, but this is a public meeting. there's nothing wrong. there's not any coordination happening. there's not any discussion of agenda items. there's nothing wrong with letting the public know, as just a citizen, that, hey, there's going to be this meeting. and we are blessed on this commission to have somebody that's very skilled at creating events. i would -- if you are really having red alarms going off. >> i am. we have an ethics department, we have a city attorney. this is the first time during my

tenure that this has been a suggestion so i would rather do the right thing first and just verify that it's okay. >> then let's do this, if we are going to do that, let's get the city attorney to weigh in on whether any commissioner. we'll coordinate offline about what the actual question is. but let's just get it clear and simple. because it is a major goal of mine, high top priority to increase communication. >> definitely. >> i don't want to get -- >> but there are rules in the city, there are laws and state laws so let's make sure we are in compliance with all of it. >> and i think to dominica's point, if you are posting

something factual, that's hard pressed but likely okay but we will confirm, but you have to make sure that you are not doing anything other than saying we are having this hearing, and we want to hear from the public, but you are not expressing any opinion. >> for what it's worth, i think it's more appropriate for o.s.b. to put this out, because then it seems like it's yekutiel's hearing and it's not and i think the question is important when asked, we should know the legalese about it, but o.s.b. should be the one pushing the share button. it's not manny's event. it gets into complicated things. we are all on the same page here. >> anything else? >> no. i think that that's it. thank you.

i think the intent is just to start, again, early discussion so that's beginning to frame so that you have as much preparation time, and if there's anything else you may need from us in doing so. we have one piece of legislation that has been referred to the commission regarding the planning code for the bayview industrial triangle cannabis restricted use district. that's the only legislation i know that's coming up in the next couple months. also so i did for this last time, so just supervisor safai has a hearing similar on the topic, and then also due to --

oh, i did not add the use hearing, which is the 27th, which is a hearing on the deemed approved use, which is something that has been developed out of the tobacco economic mitigation working group supervisor fewer has taken the lead on that with supervisor walton's office, and so dominica has been working with the two offices on prepping for the deemed use. and then supervisor mar has -- so that's that one, excuse me, and so supervisor mar has called for request for a hearing to apply the same kind of concept of deemed approved use to -- >> follow up on the report.

>> it's a follow-up on the b.l.a. report around tobacco permits. >> what's bb.l.a.? >> it's the budget and legislative analyst office, and it's a follow-up on a report that was issued in 2017 on alcohol. and it's how much it cost the city to address incidents of alcohol-related incidents. >> oh, i i know what this is about. >> there are recommendations that they are following up on to see whether and how those recommendations have been implemented. >> this is scheduled for the 27th? >> we don't know when it's scheduled. >> so the one that's on here, the hearing on restricted -- restrictions and challenges facing small business, this is the one, this hearing is developed out of the economic mitigation working group.

and then supervisor mar is also called for request of a hearing that as she said, is coming from the b.l.a. report. but it sort of has an overlay with the deemed approved use. >> when it says scheduled for 2/27en, what is that referring to? >> that is the deemed approved use. it is scheduled for a hearing february 27. >> at the board? >> well, the committee of the board. the public safety neighborhood services committee. >> so is this something that we want to weigh in before the 27th? i know this is important to commissioner zouzounis, and she has to leave. that's why i'm asking. i can check with her. >> it's something that o.s.b. has been asked to present on. >> i mean we could, you know,

the presentation that would be given at the committee, we can provide a presentation to you at the 24th meeting. >> well, let's put a pin in that. i want to check with vice president zouzounis and see where she's at on this. >> and this falls part of one of the objectives out of the tobacco economic mitigation group is to sort of, so make some recommendations around streamlining or removal of permit fees or reduction of permit fees. so this particular, the deemed approved is falling in that category of potentially making a recommendation of dealing with this fee. and so i think it might be good for the commission to kind of, if you are not familiar with this fee, which is just applied to businesses with off sale liquor licenses types one and

two, i mean 20 and 21, excuse me. at least it might be good to get an education on it, that information. >> great. is that it for director's report? >> that's it. between now and the next meeting, i'll be working with president laguana about looking at dates and times for retreat. and so -- >> sounds fun. >> i think it will be. >> resort town. >> so -- >> not that kind of retreat? okay. i was thinking kawaii. >> so just probably next week, i'll be reaching out to you after we have our weekly check in on friday. so, to schedule time.

all right? >> looking forward to that. >> any further commissioner comment on the director's report? is there any public comment on the commissioner's report? seeing none, comments closed. next item. >> item 7, commissioners' reports, allows president, vice president and commissioners to report on recent small business activities and make announcements that are of interest to the small business community. discussion item. >> do we have any commissioner reports? commissioner yekutiel. >> i have four quick ones. one that with the san francisco treasurer department, to talk about a unified portal for businesses to pay all their fees that they owe to the city. it was a really awesome meeting, and the person i met with is going to take my idea up the chain and see if it's doable. also right now there are three numbers you need to use to even

log in to the treasurer's portal and considering how one might make that easier as well as facilitating outreach to small businesses when they have a bill that's coming up. right now all the outreach is on paper, but if it was moved to e-mail, it might save the city money and help businesses that don't always read all their snail mail. another thing is a lot of people probably heard the chair of m.t.a. said he wanted valencia to be car-free very quickly. i'm on the valencia merchants association and facilitated a meeting between the bicycle coalition and the merchants and they are going to be speaking to the merchants at the next merchants association meeting so i'm excited about that as well as s fm ta. i'm on the construction mitigation working group. i wanted to take a second to make it clear publicly to all

those who own small businesses on 16th street that the 16th street improvement project is coming very quickly, the city is currently choosing its general contractor, and it's going to be a big project, and anyone that's interested, any small business owner in particular, that's interested in being part of the working group that's going to advise oawd and sfmta to let them know or let me know because i'm part of that group. the last thing is on the 11th i'm hosting an event with osb and oewd on how to smart a small business. it's martha from the small business assistance center and katie from oewd for anyone interested in starting a small business. >> the unified portal, that's amazing progress. if there's anything the commission can do to help or if there's an opportunity for us to get involved, please let us

know. i think that would be a huge asset to the small business community to just consolidate, streamline and get the communication paperless if we can. >> yeah, i mean so one is making it easier for people to pay their bills, and one is how that communication goes out, and you know, i'm going to take the treasurer's office at their word that they are going to look into it and see what is doable, and when they come back to me and let me know why it's not feasible, i'll let you know why it's not. or if they say they can do it, then we can all celebrate together. >> okay. awesome. i went to the gross receipts tax presentation by the city controller and tax office. >> city controller and then the city chief economist. >> right, ted.

yes. super interesting. they are making -- so what they are trying to do is consolidate a lot of input from the business community about making changes and updates to the gross receipts tax, so the gross receipts tax replaced what we used to have, was intended to replace what we used to have which is called the payroll tax. the hope was the gross receipts tax would replace the payroll tax completely there are still some folks paying payroll taxes. there's been a number of different issues. the gross receipts tax as it is currently implemented has creatm

only in a room that was probably too small for this hearing and i was too late to get a seat so i was standing the whole time. but pretty much everybody in the business community that i could think of were all there very engaged. [please stand by]

>> there was other commentary about different aspects of how that impacts smal small busines. it is really on us to pay close attention to what is happening here, and i think we have a responsibility to be deeply engaged especially given how quickly it is going to be moving. that is my report on that. >> any other commissioner comments? seeing none, any public comment? public comment is closed. >> new business. new agenda items for future consideration by the mission. >> do we have any new items?

>> i have just a couple of different things. one, i wanted to highlight an e-mail that i received from the california schools and local community funding act? did you guys see that? it is like. let me see. sorry, i didn't really come -- it is something they are trying to get some support around this terms of increasing -- let's see. >> i think it is some revision around prop 13, and so and around commercial and industri

industrial. while the commission can't weigh in on it, you know, well, it is more because it is a ballot measure, but it hasn't qualified yet, but there are numerous attempts right now. there has been numerous attempts to make amendments to prop 13 so the commission can receive an informational briefing, but somewhat interesting is that this is also potentially taking a look at eliminating the unsecured property tax for small businesses. you know, there could be a cost benefit, you know, or could be some sort of unknown issues in terms of the commercial and industrial properties and what that may mean.

>> presumably this would be a november ballot measure. >> if it qualifies. >> i didn't do a very good job but i want to put it out there on the radar. >> i didn't know about it. i appreciate you bringing it up. >> i don't know what. >> i guess the question would be as commissioners do you want an early briefing or wait until it qualifies? >> i would say let's wait until it qualifies before we commit any resources to it, and then by that point we will have had our retreat and our planning meetings, and then we as body will develop consensus about what our priorities will be for the next year. then we will see where that fits in our priority list. >> the other piece i wanted to bring up was i think in the

richmond district where my business is there is a place or son's belly that has been struggling to get the permits they need to be able to, you know, i guess serve and to be open. >> extend their hours, right, yeah. >> you know, i wanted to bring that up in the meeting today and see, you know, i don't know how we can go about supporting businesses like this, what our general thoughts are about it, and also . >> they are undergoing discretionary review. that is something allowed to happen, but i don't want to put

words in your mouth, and i don't want to create undue work when we have a lot on our plate. i think it might be an good time to look how the discretionary review is being used, whether it is used in the way it was intended to be used and what opportunities we might have as a commission to recommend its revision because orso n's belly is held up being discretionary review process, and some might say in an unfair way. >> a concern was that some of the complaints were about times when the restaurant wasn't even open, and it is maddening with as difficult as it is to operate a small business in san francisco that complaints that are sort of patently fraudulent

on their face can tie up a business. i think we absolutely should be taking a look at what assistance we can provide. perhaps, you know, it seems to me from listening to you guys that structurally i think we need a 60,000-foot view look at the entire framework that surrounds the small business life cycle as it intersects with the city and maybe that is a big huge project, but it seems to me that, you know, something is fundamentally broken there and needs to be addressed. >> i would like to know. in our neighborhoods what we are talking to people about our businesses. everyone is that is so great, i'm so glad you are here. we love small businesses. there is a lot of, you know, i

don't know, i have been getting that i am so glad you are here, but then i also get the flip side with the merchants association getting messages about these merchants aren't doing this. they are too loud and there is trash everywhere. you get this like, i don't know, to your face everybody loves having you there. on the back end you get a lot of push back about you doing business because with the trash situation we literally, i think our merchants do a good job of keeping things contained. we are a windy city. we have people who enjoy knocking offer a trash can or 10, you know, there are factors here that to me i would like to kind of see some, i would like to see numbers and data in terms of how much a healthy vital or

vibrant small business corridor can really impact the community, and i want to be able to say to people, look, we do these things for the community. we have been doing, you know, x, y, z, we are creating a huge benefit for our communities. not just in the and eckdottal -- anecdote. i don't know if that makes sense. i would like to kind of as this time goes on to really dive deeper into the positive impacts we are providing for the city because i feel like we have so many barriers and things to kind of overcome even today. this may be off subject, but even, you know, earlier today

talking about having to just go through the checklist. i mean when you are already full as it is every single day to go through another checklist, i think, is a whole other barrier. if people understood, maybe it is the financial impact of things, you know, what we bring into a community. i think that might help a little bit. >> i think what is particularly frustrating is when a business like orson belly is broadly supported by the community. 99.99% and it is just one person or one or two people that can really have a bad effect on the business and by extension the community that does support them. there needs a rebalancing there, certainly there should be an

opportunity for community input. it shouldn't be a heckler's veto where one person unhappy dictates for the rest of the community. >> have we done a meeting to bring in folks from planning to talk about the dr process? how many businesses are getting it, how is it delaying, what neighborhoods are possessing the most dr's, what businesses are receiving them? >> no, the commission hasn't had that. >> it is a live wire? >> it is a live wire. i think i have i think maybe around 2010 the planning defendant was going -- planning department was taking a look to see if there were reforms and it didn't go anywhere or minor

reforms were made so that certainly, you know, like a new business request is to receive a presentation on what is a dr process and get data and numbers on it. you know, if that is of interest to the commission. >> certainly there is the d4 and d11. this is fairly incremental and not really addressing the meat of the issue, but it helps in d4 and d11 they don't have to do neighborhood notifications if the use is permitted. that removes the opportunity for the heckler to, you know, gum up the works or doesn't create and invite an invitation for them to do so. >> i would definitely support trying to get us as commissioners representing the

small businesses an opportunity to be better informed about the discretionary review process and how it me be utilized to slow or stop small businesses from making it work. orson's belly, i used to go there all of the time. my x lived over there. i would talk to the owners. they had a foot traffic problem. they put their heart and soul in the part. the numbers wore not working. they finally are cutting a break and can't expand hours to take advantage of the opportunity to stay in business. it is a perfect example how we should help small businesses flourish. there might be processes making it unnecessarily hard. i would support bringing them in to talk about drs if that is something you want, inthree comr

hughie. >> i don't know what that involves but i would like to take a look at that process. >> by extension with the commission informed this is a good any to kind of work with the council of district merchants so businesses because i think sometimes businesses feel like they are out on their own and, you know, are connecting with our office or owd to see if there is support to lend to understand how to get through the process, you know, filling out forms, what to respond, what to address, knowing how the planning department and the planning commission think so and what the rules and regulations are, but it might be good to also -- i am very much a proponent on

educating the council of district merchants to be there as sort of the first line of buffer to help these businesses. >> i think that is really good. i recently just went to my merchants' association meeting to introduce myself as a commissioner, and that was actually really interesting because it brought to light that i would have actually not really known what a commissioner did or what we do as a body had i not joined the commission. i think to be able to kind of be in a community and say this is what we do, it opened a lot of eyes, and i think it gave people a sense of there is somebody who is like representing our interests, and as legislation is written and brought up.

i think just doing that like even talking to the council and other bodies about what we do i think is really important. >> right. absolutely. anything else? >> i think that is pretty much all i wanted. i wanted to go back to the point of data finding and fact finding. you know, i guess that was something of personal curiosity. how much do we know in terms of when about the small businesses and i guess sorry i should have prepared for what i was going to say. >> not a play, there is not

lines. just say what you are thinking. >> i just wanted to know more about small businesses and how many, you know, small businesses are slated for, you know, i am going to hold back on my comment actually and try to work without it. >> can i ask a data question? when looking at the data, we can look at sales tax data, revenue data, but also do we -- i mean is there any other type of data of interest in terms of new development, new housing, new, you know, things that sort of are future focus and not immediately happening now? >> something that always comes up certainly in my business. i don't know if it is a problem

for your business, when you talk about housing, i have lost employees left and right because i can't afford to live here. that is certainly something that impacts and i mean what data do we have around that? anything? >> i don't know, i am thinking because, you know, we worked with supervisor tang's office on home-sf designed to bring out into the avenue more development which then would bring nor individuals which then could help generate more business. i guess i am sort of thinking are there other metrics, not only like things that help bring vibrancy, because it can be ground for commercial with that or other types of spaces being

developed with that that aids in the vibrancy of the commercial corridors. >> that is one of the things we're were talking about during the ghost kitchens. that is a parallel concern. if somebody opens a ghost kitchen and the public can't access it, what does that mean for the foot traffic of the surroundenning businesses? -- surrounding businesses? i think given the impact and strength of commercial corridors as it reflects on the small business community as a whole, so many businesses are deepen debt on the commercial corridors, i think, you know, we should -- it would be great to have a more detailed data-driven approach to what actually

increases that vibrancy in those corridors, and i think housing is part of that, you know, planning regulations around what goes into and around the corridors, i think, is part of that. i wonder if that is -- periodically you generate reports. is that something -- stuff out there that oawd has? >> i imagine since the building housing is definitely a priority for the city that there is some sort -- there may be some existing analysis in relationship to this, i mean, because a lot of discussion around home-sf was taking single

story commercial spaces and building them up so i will explore that in terms of what exists. >> i think you should. we should gather what information is out there and then you can present it to us and add to our collective information about what actually motivates, invi invigorates our corridors. >> one piece of new business. a couple small businesses to adjourn the meeting in honor of. do i do it now. >> then on new business do we have new comments? do we have any comments from members of the public?

comments are closed. next item. sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. >> am i supposed to read something here? where is the part i read? >> good-bye. this is our custom to begin and end each small business commission meeting with a reminder 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. it should be your first stop with a question about what to do next, you can find us online or in person here at city hall. best of all, all of our services

are free of charge. we are the official public forum to voice opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitally of malbusiness in san francisco. >> item 9 adjournment. action item. >> i would like to adjourn in honor of five businesses that have closed or announced closing since did last. in the 400 block of castro and the burger joint. >> second. >> all in favor to adjourn the meeting in memorial of the businesses on the list. >> aye. >> meeting is adjourned at

8:15 p.m.

hmm. [cell phone beeps] hey! [police whistle blows] [horns honking] woman: hey! [bicycle bell rings] turn here. there. excuse me. uh. uh. [indistinct announcement on p.a. system] so, same time next week?

well, of course. announcer: put away a few bucks. feel like a million bucks. for free tips to help you save, go to ♪ feed the pig

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