[inaudible] >> to start the meeting. >> i think so. right? >> this is a special meeting of the small business commission held on april 13 of 2020. the meeting is being called to order at 11:02 a.m.

the small business commission thanks media services and sfgov-tv for televising the meeting and helpinging to run the virtual meeting, which can be viewed on sfgov tv 2. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presenting officer of the meeting. [clearing throat] all right. sfgov tv, please show the office of small businesses slide. >> we begin with a reminder that the office of small business is the only place to start your small business in san francisco. today we will start with a reminder that the small business commission, official public forum -- is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small business in san francisco.

and that the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the current local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters, you can find us online or via telephone. as always, our services are free of charge. before item one is called i would like to thank the mayor for granting us a special authorization to hold this special meeting. i'd also like to thank media services and sfgov tv for coordinating this virtual hearing in the live stream. a special thanks to tom, michael, jason and sean. please call item number one. >> item one, roll call.

>> we will come back to you. >> he is trying to log in so he can have a voice. >> ok. [roll call] >> mr. president, you have a quorum. >> great. thank you. please call item number two. >> item number two. overvo*u hview of the local, state federal response to the disruption of the covid-19 emergency, discussion and possible action items. today we have the office of economic and workforce director joaquin torres. >> great. director torres, thank you so much for taking the time to

present and take some of our questions today. we know your time is short and that you have a hard stop at 11:20. the floor is yours. >> well, thank you very much, commissioner. can everyone hear me ok? >> yeah. >> ok, great. am i on screen? i'm not able to see if i am or not. >> you are. >> great. all right. thanks. i just wanded to say hello, everyone. i hope you and your families are safe and well right now during what we know is an extremely difficult time. that's why our office of economic and workforce development has been just tirelessly working across teams to make sure that we could affectively be responsive to small business community needs. and i really just want to thank very very much you, president laguana, for your leadership as well as the leadership for all of your commissioners who i know have been responding to deeply to the needs of the

small business community. i also want to give a huge, huge shout-out to the leader of office of small business for the work that you have been leading, the insight you've been providing and, of course, the extraordinary work of your staff, stretching -- [phone ringing] themselvess to the limit so we could -- [phone ringing] so that we could effectively respond to community needs. the support needed right now is deeply, deeply important and extensive. we know that the widespread impacts that we're experiencing here in san francisco are unprecedented in nature. we know that we have not seen the level of unemployment in this city in over a 50-year period of time. just based on the number of applications we were seeing at national level in terms of even just unemployment relief. we know that the information --

we know the information that we are currently receiving only applies, for example, to businesses with employees of 50 or more through our notices. we already know -- we already know that we -- we have seen over 8,000 people be impacted thus far we know more to come in the coming days and weeks. so, the pain that is being felt is very, very real. which is why i'm very proud of the efforts that the mayor has been taking, not only to support the small business community, but all of our communities here in san francisco. we've had some initial conversations with some partners who let us know that we've been citying city-wide merchant sales down on an average of 70%. that changes in some areas more than others and not fully conclusive as it does not represent every single merchant in the city but rather a sample data set that is pretty

informative about what's happening. we know because of the public health order that some industris are shutting down entirely. music venue, restaurants and bars that have not been make a take-out model work and we have been shifting our resources as well to help meet the need. on march 11, three steps were taken and together with some of you and the director, a deferral of business taxes until february of next year. as well as fees being deferred for a quarter. that would have a significant impact on small businesses as merely a first step in the work to be done. at the time we announced a million dollars in resiliency fund grants that would benefit small businesses individually in the amount of up to $10,000 per each, we have over 2,000 applications that we have received thus far.

you know that more are being count more. i'm sure we'll have more once we have folks looking at applications that will come in over the weekend as well. to be sure that we're being responsive to all of those folks. about $400,000 of that first initial $1 million has already been provided to small businesses. our partner there, many thanks to them -- northeast federal credit union. the next stage for us is really going to be the second million dollars for those grants which will serve a little over an additional 100 small businesses. those small businesses, it has been a priority for our office, the mayor's office, your office, the supervisor's offices, in making sure that we have an equitable approach to half those resources. we're very much looking forward to providing you, commissioners, with an update on that work once we have a plan put into place. to complement that work, we also know that facebook is

planning to launch their grant process and their application will be going live next week and we'll have more details specifically on that program. in addition to the $10,000 grant program through the local initiative support corporation. these are nonconclusive in terms of the other additional resources that may be accessed through private companies to also support these efforts for small business relief. we know that's not enough. the state knows that's not enough. the federal government knows that's not enough. it is one of the reasons that we launched -- made an announcement of a $9 million loan fund for private philanthropist that will be made to the mayors and the cities give to s.f. philanthropist fund. to date, we have raised $1.3 million for specifically that loan program. our partner is main street launch and they will be

providing loans of up to $50,000 per business. that is a 0% interest loan. we know that is not enough. which is why in partnership with many of you with the office of small business and with small business leaders, we have been advocating both at the state and the federal level to make sure both businesses and employees are being served in this time. the expansion of unemployment benefits, we've seen a number of weeks be expanded and we continue to advocate for additional relief at that level. we know that individuals will be making not only the 450 cap, but also have an additional investment of $600 per employee, bringing the unemployment benefits to over $4,000 per month or possibly of over $4,000 per month. that is a major benefit to us, but we also know that that's not enough. and the federal government knows that that's not enough.

the small business administration's two loan programs, one of which is newer, that has been announced and has been troubling for us at times, which is why we've been in conversation with many of our financial partners here in the city in partnership with the treasurer and tax collector's office and the assessor recorder's office in reaching out to financial institutions here in san francisco and making sure that they're aware of what our priorities are in ensuring that our small business communities are being served by these products. we were very heartened to hear that it was also very clearly on the speaker's mind when we took part in a town hall session on monday of last week, monday evening when we talked about the importance of our financial institutions doing everything they can to be deeply engaged in this process and providing access to the small business community. just kind of as an anecdote, i've had conversations with some small businesses as well around this specific issue.

and been able to support them in conversations through their lending institutions. the biggest thing really has been about clarity and clarity of access in ensuring that people will have access to those products. when they are unable to do so, we encourage everyone to reach out to our office a, which brings me to the next piece. and a lot of where the relief of where the work has been done, where people have been dedicating their time to the weekday and weekends. i don't think many of us know what day it is anymore. many of us share that perspective. in terms of being available for immediate responsiveness, whether you're a small business owner, a business owner or employee. through the office of small business and the office of economic and workforce development. the workforce line or the business line. those are seen on the small business side along, over 1200 calls or nearly 1200 calls to date. and e-mails. and i know in my testing of

doing that work, i received a call back when i'm sure what was a busy day in just a very short amount of time asking me what else i needed to know. so, please do refer small businesses to those hotlines and please do let us know, commissioners, how well that is going. i mentioned very briefly on the worker front the advocacy work that has been done to date, both at the state and federal level, our conversations with the employment division at the state level as well to make sure that they're doing everything proactive as well. we were alerted by the governor's office just on friday that an additional 850 workers were being redeployed to support those efforts at the state level so that people trying to get through will find a better time doing so. and we're very, very happy about the work and the effort that the governor has done with his administration as well. we also knew that there was a question of what the shelter in

place order would mean to employees and also how it was going to be important to craft a policy around paid sick leave that would benefit small businesses. i really want to thank regina again and also our deputy director of the workforce cad daniel for developing a policy and program in partnership with many other city agencies and city attorney's office to provide a program source with a $10 million allocation of general funds to provide employees an additional outlet and employers an additional resource to provide their employees with paid sick leave up to 40 hours could be reimbursed for a week. 755 applications have been received to date. more than 85% of those applications come from businesses with less than 50 employees. right now we're oversubscribed by about $1.2 million. but as we go through this process and people submit their

applications, we will also be working with those who have applied and maybe aren't on a wait list at this time to make sure that if we are able to, we can serve them as well. again a $10 million fund, almost immediately within a week, fully exhausted. just again to highlight what the need is right now out there. in terms of rapid response work that we've done, we've had 10 webinars that have served 46 employers and about 240 individuals. on that work force hotline, similar to the small business hotline. about 1100 calls and e-mails that we've responded to. everything that i'm talking about right now is identified on our website and i just want to share that upfront again. oewd.org. oewd.org/covid-19. click on our button and you'll get a list of resources for employers, employees, businesses employees as well as nonprofits to make sure that

we're framing where relief can be found and also for us to have through those phone numbers and those e-mails a way to have some feedback about what is and what is not working on our end or on our partner's end. on the state and federal level, we have the private sector to connect displaced workers with job opportunities and those providing essential services. it's a one-stop resource for people here in this state impacted by the job loss due to this pandemic. at the same time, you've already heard me mention emergency paid and sick and paid family leave bills. we've also talked about unemployment extensions and expansions for that 13 more weeks of coverage and two additional resources. we've touched on the forgivable loans to cover fixed costs at the s.d.a. level as well as the

already existing emergency disaster loan program at a 2.75% interest rate -- sorry, 3.75% interest rate for businesses, 2.75% for nonprofits. in addition to that $10,000 advanced grant being provided. the federal reserve's main street lending program has not yet been launched but we're looking forward to providing you with up. dates here at this commission as well as on our website. as i mentioned to all of you, we know that this is not enough. but i do want to thank you, all of our partners at the chamber, at our ethnic chambers, our chinese chamber, filipino chamber, african american chamber, hispanic chamber of commerce and all the work that our [inaudible] have done to make sure we're addressing these issues holistickly. it has been a very, very important time for us and i have to say how extraordinary

it has been to work with so many of you and our partners to make sure that we're delivering the resources as we can. we know that it is going to be a long road ahead. which is why we're looking forward to beginning conversations around recovery, through the mayor's recovery task force. we are hoping to provide additional updates to the commission at a later time in terms of when we will know the competition of that task force in addition to when the dates will be taking place. we're in conversations now with two city chairs, jose cisneros, carmen chue, in addition to the mayor's office to be co-chaired, of course, with rodney fong at the chamber of commerce and rudy gonzalez, the head of the labor council here in san francisco. and then i don't know if regina will have an tounl share with all of you the april 10 letter that they -- that frank cisneros and assessor chui sent out to financial institutions. if there is any feedback there, please do let us know.

hello. hello. [laughter] again, if there is anyone who needs support out there, immediately, please do go to our website. please do call our hotlines. please do let us know what is or is not working. we're here to provide a human level of service here during this time when we know in this hyperautomated world right now that can be hard to find. we want to make sure that we're a voice for you that you can connect with. and ensuring that we are being responsive to small business community needs. again, mr. president, to your fellow commissioners, i can't thank you enough for how involved all of you have been involved and commissioner cartagena, i want to say what a long road it has been from where we started doing a walk highlighting the program at the mission. i understand the online work of the program has been going quite well, but what a strange environment we find ourselves in right now.

but i just want to reinforce to all of you how committed we are to addressing this crisis together, how important it is to be doing so and i'm very much looking forward to the work ahead as we continue to advocate at the state and federal levels to the state and federal resources that we believe are important for the small business communities and make sure they have access to those resources so that they benefit our economy comprehensive and equitably. thank you so much. happy to answer any questions. >> i know you have a hard stop at 11:20. it is 11:22. do you have time for a couple of questions? >> sure. sure. i would be happy to stay on for a few minutes longer. thank you very much, mr. president. >> ok. commissioners, any questions? commissioner yekutiel? >> i don't want to jump the gun too much. i know you don't have a ton of time. i have two quick questions.

the first, joaquin, is how are you going to make sure that there is a small strong business voice and representation on the recovery task force? the city is assembling. that is the first question. >> certainly. so, on that side, every single time that we're talking about this, one of six principles at the top of list, one of the first words small business so you can be assured that there will be representation and also a focus on how we support the small business economy. and small businesses through that work. >> can you assure us that there will be a small business owner on the recovery task force? >> i have to get back to the small business commission on that. i'm certain that there will be. i want to -- once it has been confirmed, i want to provide that to you. that is the intent, commissioner. >> i know the intentions are good there. we have a lot of people who advocate for us. but it would be good to have us advocate for ourselves on something as important as this. >> i think that's extremely important and i rest assured am certain that will happen. >> the second -- thank you,

joaquin. the second question is, you know a lot of work has been done on our part, per our responsibility of understanding what small businesses need to go into this letter that we're going to be reading and talking about afterwards to be submitted to the mayor. how are we going to know that the letter has been submitted to the mayor and how will we know what the mayor's response and reactions will be in a letter that we work sod hard to put together? >> certainly. we'll be reaching back out to the small business commission and coordinating with the mayor's office so you are aware of what communications are taking place with speaker pelosi's office. she has been extremely responsive to the requests that we have made. i think many of the items that have been shared not only there, but in conversations with the hotel council, with the golden gate restaurant association, with the chamber are ones that we've already seen address through the speaker's efforts. of course she has to wrangle

with her fellow colleagues across the aisle, which is no easy task. even in an emergency environment that we have right now. >> just to put a fine point on my question, the letters will go to you to go to the mayor. >> you're submitting this letter directly to the mayor. is that correct? >> is that true? >> i deferred it to regina. >> regina, are we submitting it directly to the mayor's office? >> that -- yes, you can. and that will be determined by the action the commission makes. >> ok. thank you. >> great. manny, are you done? >> yes. >> are there any other commissioner questions? ok. not seeing any just yet. so, i have one question for you, director torres with this. how can -- i think this is a critical importance to the

commission. how best can the commission serve you and your office and the board and the mayor. what are the most impactful things that we can do to help our community? >> i think one of the most important things you can do is something you're already doing which is to ensure that there is a small business voice and representation when we're talking about recovery and also, more importantly, i think also what is the equitable approach that we're going to be taking in terms of the resources that we provide both directly and also the resources that are provided by the private sector partners that exist out there. one of most important aren'ting for us being able to sit down with our ethnic chambers to get insight from them and also this body to gain insight from you about what is the most appropriate approach to take when it comes to the resources that we have available to provide.

some modest relief for small businesses in this environment. >> thank you. before we let you go, i just want to check with the commissioners to make sure everybody got their questions in. >> i have a question. >> ok. go ahead. is that commissioner dooley? >> yes. >> ok. great. please. >> joaquin, i'm just wanting to know specifically about the many, many self-employed people that are out of work now and, you know, they can't apply for a lot of these grants because they maybe only work alone. and so i've been talking to a lot of those people and i just am won'tering where we are with help for the self-employed. >> certainly. i think that is where we have one of the gaps, commissioner dooley. i think that is absolutely correct. the focus of our efforts has been on our brick and mortar businesses here in san francisco. that has been a priority for, i

believe, all of us with the limited resources that we have available. that is why we're grateful for the expanded benefits at the individual level. i think also for those sole proprietors, in addition to new products that we want to launch, that is one of the questions that we're asking of our providers how can they support self-proprietors in this environment. how can we be sure that they're supported with those efforts that we can provide in addition to what's available at the federal level. if there is also some feedback about how people are interfacing from the self-proprior to community with the s.b.a. products, that would be great for us to know from your perspective. >> i find self-employed, and unemployed people are now feeling like they're part of this situation. and they really don't moe what

to do. even myself, self-employed, the only thing that i thought i could apply for was the s.b.a. loan, which [inaudible] as a grant. but this is like everyone i know who is self-employed. we're just a little confused. >> what i would ask, commissioner, is that for those individuals who are looking for support to please reach out to our office and go to our website. because then we can do something perhaps tailored to that community so we can answer questions directly. >> ok. thank you. and thank you all. again, thank you so much, regina, and commissioners. much appreciated. director torres, thank you for taking the time. thank you to you and the staff of the oewd. i know you're working night and day and we appreciate everything that you're doing. >> thank you very much. ok.

no we'll open it up to public comment. is there anyone on the line? >> do you still want to have -- oh, yeah. >> actually, there's generally one public comment under one item -- this is regina, director -- we do need to move into commissioner laguana, the memo. and then after discussion of the memo, then we open it up for complete public comment on both items. >> ok. great. thank you. i think i will open this by providing a little bit of context here. the commission is composed of small business operators, small business owners, people with direct overlap with small business and, as commissioner dooley mentioned, sole proprior

tos and folks that are self-employed. we have all -- i just want to say to the community that we're all enduring the same effects of the virus that you all are. and we are struggling mightily to try to chart a path for the entire community while presiding over our own losses of our businesses, of our employees and of our staff and struggling to maintain all of this simultaneously. it's a very difficult task, but it is a responsibility that we agreed to take on and so we've been trying to do our best to rise up to that responsibility and represent the community as effectively and impactfully as we can. to that end, staff has reached

out, and myself has reached out to as many members of the business community as we could find time to speak with. and specifically with an eye towards what are suggestions that we could make towards -- to speaker pelosi and her office regarding future stimulus packages as well as addressing modifications to the current stimulus package, which is the cares act. we have collected a large number of items that were compiled into a memo that can be found on our website. i'm going to jump past the preamble and the memo and get to the suggestions. there's quite a few so it might take a little bit of time. and also i don't have the opportunity of explaining what

each one of these items are, but you're welcome to reach out to us afterwards and we can try to explain what the context is for the suggestions. we've broken them into several categories so i will start with naming the category title and then explaining -- lifting each of the items underneath it. so the first category is to extend, expand and refine the paycheck protection program, also known as p.p.p. the first suggestion is to extend the p.p.p. through december 2020 with corresponding increases and eligible, forgivable loan amounts. the next is to extend the rehire period requirements in the p.p.p. through the end of the calendar year with corresponding increases in eligible, forgivable loan amounts. third is to reduce the interest rate of the unforgivable portions of the p.p.p. loan to

0%. next is to incentivize local financial institutions such as community development financial institutions to fund administered p.p.p. loans. next we'd like the require a more equitable basis for the distribution of p.p.p. funds including preferences or set-asides for women, minority and veteran-owned businesses. currently glishl-speak businesses around those with relationships to major financial banks and consultants are favored. next is to provide small businesses with technical assistance needed to access p.p.p. lending via financial technology, such as strike, paypal or square. i was informed this morning that conveyor is now an s.b.a. approved lender. next to >> to allow small businesss to apply for additional p.p.p. loans if there is a demonstrated need. the next category is to extend, expand and refund the economic

disaster injury loan, known as the eidl. the first is to increase the emergency grant amount to $15,000. next is to allow eidls administered due to covid-19 to be used for prefinancing preexisting debt. next is to address or -- sorry, to reduce the interest rate for eidls due to covid-19 to 1% for small businesses and nonprofits. next item is to extend the application period for eidls through the end of the calendar year for all states. next is to ensure that loan distribution is equitable [inaudible]. the next category is private sector assistance. we would like to encourage the tech sector to develop smart phone apps for small business to utilize in applying for major federal assistance programs, including the paycheck protection program in eidl.

the next category of business interruption insurance. we'd like to require insurance carriers to pay out business interruption claims due to states and localities prohibiting access to their businesses because of the spread of covid-19. at the same time, we would like to stabilize the insurance industry by creating a federal backstop for insurers facing an increase in business interruption claims and to support those pay-outs. the next category is mortgage and commercial renter relief. we'd like to require incentivized [inaudible] due to covid-19. we'd like to establish protections for small businesss that own property from seizure or forced sale. small businesses that own property, especially in prime commercial real estate markets may feel pressure to sell or threatened of seizure due to mounting effects of the covid-19 crisis.

we'd like to extend the federal moratorium on mortgage defaults to commercial property owners and allow the restructuring of mortgages for commercial property owners whose income are affected by covid-19. the next category is investment in economic development organizations, otherwise known as e.d.o.s and nonprofits. we'd like the provide financial assistance via grants to organizations that support small businesses with technical assistance for accessing federal and other government programs and services. e.d.o.s provide direct support to small business owners who have language and cultural barriers that prevent them from expeditiously accessing aid. they provide critical roles to providing jobs in disadvantaged communities. we would like to expand elgability for p.p.p., eidl and other economic relief to 501-c4

which are -- i forget what 501-c4 was. this is from memory now because it is not in the memo i'm reading. they include, i believe, councils and other business organizations that aren't organized at 501-c6. we'd also like to expand eligibility to 501-c6 organizations that are known as business leagues. this includes the chamber of commerce and destination marketing organizations. these organizations not only employ thousands of people but they significantly support our local economy. next we'd like to increase the universal charitable deduction from $300 to $2,000 for contributions above the standard deduction. and we'd like to temporarily expand the cap for property owners exempt from 501-c3 public charity lessees of commercial property. the next categories we'd like to provide support for essential business workers.

we'd like to fund personal protective equipment for home health care workers, workers and essential businesses and industries and businesses who continue to produce, distribute and sell food to our households, homeless shelter provides in addition to first responders and health care professionals. the next category is support for the sector and workforce transitions. we'd like to invest in training and technical assistance to manage the transition from a storefront business to a delivery-based business. like investment in training and equipment to manage the transition to work at home. and fiberoptic infrastructure to support home internet particularly from more vulnerable business districts. we'd like to ensure a strong post covid-19 economy and workforce. to do this, we would like to make the following suggestions. extend unemployment insurance benefits authorized under the cares act through the end of

the calendar year, including the $600 weekly enhancement. next suggestion would be to expand aid to include those paying taxes via the individual taxpayer identification number, itin, which is often used by taxpayers who are not necessarily citizens. we'd like to create a small business payroll stimulus program. small businesses deemed nonessential and those forced to furlough their employees due to their respective state or local stay at home orders will need to rehire their employees if limited with any capital. we'd like to support a national shop local campaign to bring small businesses back to life post crisis. the next category, traditional areas of support for small business. we'd like to create a federally managed secured asset buyback program. certain capital intensive small businesses may be temporarily

oversupplied with fixed assets and/or inventory that are secured by debt and for which there is an active resale market. examples would be vehicles or specialized restaurant equipment and other high-end inventory. we'd like personal guaranteed protections for small business owners. many small business owners are required to provide personal guarantees in order to obtain debt financing. these guarantees, though well-intentioned, leave small businesses at risk of losing their homes of small business owners at risk of losing their homes, their retirement savings and children college savings. finally, we'd like to enforce and bolster anti-competitive business practice policies and protections to prevent overconsolidation and industry from a rush of small business sisterings. so that is the staff memo and recommendations that were made in the memo.

dominica and regina, is now the appropriate time to take public comment? >> this is regina, director. unless the commission -- because the order is generally presentations, commissioner discussions, public comment and then commissioner deliberation. so, if the commission -- the commission can go into public comment first and then have questions and deliberations or there could be some questions, discussions prior to going into public comment. it's your choice. >> ok. great. so i guess -- sorry. it's an unusual process that we're doing here. i guess now we open it up to public comment. is anyone on the line? operator: you have two questions remaining.

>> caller: yeah, good morning. it's henry [inaudible]. it looks like i got through. anyway, my question that came up was about these s.b.a. loans that -- well, the forgivable loans of $10,000 for people who owe loans [inaudible]. and nothing has happened just yet. i did speak with julie krause with the s.b.a. and she has no way of finding out what's going on with -- don't know if anybody else has [inaudible] or not or what's happening. i would be interested to know if there is anybody that [inaudible] forgivable loans or not. and then also having heard of anybody [inaudible] or any loans from the city that the

[inaudible]. that's my question. >> thank you. next speaker, please. operator: you have one question remaining. >> caller: hi. my name is candace collins, owner of the [inaudible] spa and i'm a board of the member of commission [inaudible]. and i'm completely lost. first of all with what henry said. no one is getting that $10,000. the s.b.a. [inaudible] never meant to give that $10,000. it's just [inaudible]. i don't know anyone who's gotten it, first and foremost. this morning my accountant said because i laid off all of my people, we cannot get -- we cannot apply for the p.p.p. because of that. so [inaudible] the grant, nothing is coming down the pipeline. nothing. i'm paying bills, just like everyone else. paying bills and everything else. so, what do we do? i'm lost.

thank you. >> thank you. is there any other -- operator: you have zero questions remaining. >> next speaker. >> members of the public, there was a typo in the agenda, which i believe the access for the public comment line is 310-7452. president laguana, if you will allow for it, maybe a minute or two to allow other public commenters to call in to the line in case they had the wrong access code. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. of course we will. >> again, the correct code to dial in the

>> 310-7452. >> and once you are in the queue, press 1-0 to be called next. operator: you have one question remaining. >> next speaker. >> caller: hi, this is candace [inaudible] again. not a lot of people are maybe on here. i can keep going. [laughter] >> no, i'm sorry. each speaker is -- i believe

regina or dominica, correct me, but i believe everybody is only allowed -- operator: you have zero questions remaining. >> yes. unfortunately it is the process. that each public commenter has one time to make their public comment. >> yeah. i'm really terribly sorry about that. but candace, if you e-mail the commission afterwards, we can -- staff will reach out to you and do our best to assist you with the questions you raised. ok. i don't -- -- operator: you have two questions remaining. >> oh, good. next speaker, please. >> caller: hello. this is amelia lindy from the s.f. chamber of commerce, small business and [inaudible] team. itself just wanted to speak in

support of this letter [inaudible] on this movement on addressing what recovery will look like and addressing what the [inaudible] start to see more of an improvement in the covid-19 situation. it's really important to have these structures and the [inaudible] in place ahead of time where we can re-open and then find that we don't really have the structures and safety net set up for everybody. i think it is really important that the [inaudible] commission is adopting this and i would address a couple of comments on this. i know there's a lot of confusion as we work with small businesses. a couple of questions, if anyone wants to reach out to the s.f. chamber of commerce, there were a couple of questions that were raised that i have specific answers to and can help direct the info i got. but i just want to keep working on this. of course we know that the

journey is not over until we get there. thank you all. operator: you have one question remaining. >> caller: hi. this is jennifer. i wanted to ask where can we find the memo to speaker pelosi, the commissioner referenced? i tried to go on to the [inaudible] website and uld continue find it f. you can give the link, that would be great. my second question is, i know there is a [inaudible] moratorium for small businesses. i was wondering can small businesses get late fees for also being unable to make rent and is there anything that is in the works to help with that for -- you know, is there a [inaudible] for how much they can charge small business owners because they're getting charged 10% for late [inaudible] and i don't know if that is allowed or what is the

cap. thank you. >> thank you. operator: you have zero questions remaining. >> because of the typo, i'm going to leave it open for one more minute before proceeding. >> as a reminder again, the public comment line -- there was a typo in the agenda and the access line is 3107452. and once you are on, please press 1-0 in order to enter the queue.

operator: you have one question remaining. >> next speaker, please. >> caller: hi. steven cornell here. i don't know if it's appropriate [inaudible] to comment on joaquin's discussion. i think that this is the time. is that right? >> it's your comment. >> caller: my comment is that he talked about -- quick things. he talked about the sales down in the various neighborhoods. do they have any sales of what online sales should be in san francisco and how much the city's actually down in sales as online sales replace significantly retail sales, number one. number two is there was comments on one of the commissioners with joaquin about the post-committee for when they start up again. that there should be a small

business person on this. i highly recommend that since most of the work is going to be for the local people. operator: you have zero questions remaining. >> thank you. ok. so before we move on to the commenter that commented on not being able to apply for p.p.p., having laid off their staff. i will say that i was forced to lay off a lot of my staff simply because i did not have enough money in the bank account to continue paying them. and i applied for a p.p.p. and was approved. so i do believe that your accountant is probably mistaken. please do not take this as legal advice or an opinion of the government.

but i'm just relaying my personal experience. two, the speaker that was looking for guidance on the late fee. you can call 415-554-6134 or call sbc@sfgov.org, an e-mail. is that sbc or sbac, regina? is that a typo? >> it is not a typo. the sbac goes directly to the business councilors. >> ok. i apologize, then. you can send an e-mail to sbac@sfgov.org for any questions ton commercial moratorium. and so with that seeing no more public commenters, public comment is closed and i'm going to open it up to commissioner discussion.

oh, sorry. and i -- i'm being advised that i want to clarify that the memo that we have was written to the commission and not directly to speaker pelosi. so with that, i'm going to open this up to conversation and discussion. any commissioner comment? >> hi. it's cynthia. >> hi, cynthia. >> hi. is it ok if i go? do we just jump in? >> as far as i'm concerned, think it's fine. i don't think we have to do the formalities. if you have something to say, just say it. we can -- we're all adults here. we can handle it. [laughter] >> ok. great. thank you. so reviewing this memo, i am --

yeah. it's very comprehensive and i feel like i've been in meetings since this situation, you know, started, since the shelter in place started and prior to that as well. i can do a little listing of some of the meetings i've been in. i met with the merchants, of course, that's like my neighborhood merchants association and then also the west portal merchants association. i've also been speaking with several professional organizations, some just because i run an oral surgery practice and so i have a lot of service providers that are either closed or functioning as essential businesses. i know our practice is open for emergencies right now so that is kind of an interesting pivot. but pretty much what i heard

across board is very much this, you know, the same that i'm seeing in this memo, that the access to the p.p.p. is, you know, they're only serving a portion of small businesses and there is a huge percentage of businesss who are not able to access any of the funds. so that morning that it was announced, i think i got -- i don't know how many text messages i got where i've been up since 5:00 when i was trying to get into something. and that really hasn't let up for some people. i think there are some instances of people where they've been consistent and very loyal to certain banks. but because of the criteria, the access right now, they are not able to -- they're not able to get into the p.p.p. program right now. another thing that i really appreciate in this particular memo is something that i've been giving a lot of thought to

and i think i'm really -- i understand now some of the funding that seems to be available and now i'm thinking in terms of recovery and how does that look? and i kind of want to just put it out there that, you know, there are other countries and places in the world who have opened and closed again. i do appreciate that this memo looks at a longer term. i think that is something that i've been cautioning. businesss that i speak to personally is to, yes, let's try to get the funding for the p.p.p. and whatever it is they need to keep their business afloat. but what are the long temple. what are the cash flows you need for the long-term. because this situation is not just going to be over in eight weeks. you know? there are -- there are going to be challenges that are going to affect our businesses for much

longer period of time. so those have been some of the conversations. i know some of the more immediate concerns that people had also were toty about safety. i think everybody is kind of seeing spots of things happening and different corridors. it sounds like hopefully the merchants association if they can work closely with some of their foot patrols, beat officers and also come together in this time and really communicate when things happen with each other. there is essential businesss that have reached out to me in terms of helping with boarding and things like that. should there be a broken window? should there be -- at least having those -- having those recourses available so that you don't feel like you don't know where to go. i think that is one of the most challenging positions as a business owner is that things

happen every day and you just kind of have to go with it. it feels much more supportive and re-assuring if you should have those resources available. i encourage associations or other organizations and have resources available for all different types of situations so that merchants can feel supported. and things may not happen for that. but should they do, they know where to go. what else is there? i am concerned about the equity piece in terms of how the national government is dispersing funds. i have not -- i think that it's awesome that you got approved for your p.p.p. already, sharky. congratulations. [laughter] >> well, to clarify, i am

completely upside down and deeply in debt to a small community bank that is an f.d.a.-preferred lender. so, they were incentivized to process it quickly. i do know of many other businesss that have received approval, but there is no question about it. it's a giant mess. it has been a giant mess every step of the way. and i think some of that mess is just a product of how quickly this all came about and not really having time to properly plan or come up with a program that can be administered properly. but that is not to excuse the powers that be, but rather to say that those of us who are charged with representing the

community now have a responsibility to do, as you are doing, to let the powers that be know what is not working and help folks, first of all, work their way through the process. and second of all, to help the government develop better manners and procedures for moving through this and i do want to commend you, commissioner huey on your work. with that being said, i think i just want to remind all the commissioners that at least for this portion of comment we do have to stick to the four corners of the memo so for anybody else wanting to join

the conversation. and then i'm sorry, i'm trying to review [inaudible] while talking at the same time. >> i'm sorry. i totally didn't realize where i was going with my comment. i forgot where we were in the meeting. >> don't worry about it. we're all deeply disadvantaged. we've never done this meeting to mat before. and we're trying to figure this out and then it is also, i mean, it is not like it's not a global pandemic and we have a lot of things on our minds and trying to navigate this is this as well and get the process and procedure right. i don't think it's that important sort of quibble over the details. but i know you've been doing a ton of work so i want to commend you for that. and i think your points are well stated that we do need to think very carefully and closely about the equity portion here.

there are constituencies that are not equiped to speak up for themselves and one of the roles of commission is to make sure that we speak up for them and i think that advice is well taken. i think some of that sentiment is reflected in the memo and hopefully we will be able to do a good job at representing the folks who are not as equipped to represent themselves. i think that is actually really critical and probably even more critical because the contributions of those folks to those disadvantaged communities, as a percentage of the value to that community is actually much higher. so i think it's -- if we're going to have a healthy, functioning economy, that health and that function needs to exist at all layers in

society, not just among the people that are well-positioned to navigate the process. so do we have anymore comments or questions on the memo? commissioner yekutiel, please. >> thank you so much for all the work compiling that and putting it all into one format. i know there is a ton and ton of backwork to national convention happen. my question is about process moving forward. and specifically just making sure that the intention of the letter of providing what the needs of the small business community are that get to people that will be in a position to act on them. and i guess just wondering once we -- give than we approved the letter, what is the next step that happens with it and what does our feedback loop look

like? >> sure. so, i can tell you first of all i'm not an expert on this, nor am i an attorney. but i'll give you my best understanding of the city charter. and what i -- what i understand the process to be, what the caveat that i could be wrong. >> ok. >> so first, the commission under the city charter does not have the ability to interface directly with state or federal authorities. so it would not be appropriate for us, or even legal, for us to send out a letter directly to speaker pelosi. under the city charter, the only official authorized to authorize federal and state authorities mayor breed. so the appropriate way to move forward with this is to submit

these suggestions to mayor breed for her review as well as her state and federal lobbying teams that help advance us through the process. we heard from director torres that we will be getting feedback on how that's going and how that process is moving forward. with that being said, i think it is also important to note that, in addition to being commissioners, we're also obviously individuals and constituents and we have the ability to skenl and write letters ourselves as individuals to the speaker's office so i will tell you that i sent a letter to speaker pelosi's office listing those concerns yesterday morning after the memo was made public

and that letter was written as a constituent, not as president of the commission. it was co-signed by a number of business leaders and business groups. so to get to any -- i think what you're sort of speaking to is the [inaudible] of the question, right? moving from point a to point z, how do we make sure that point z happens, that it gets in front of the speaker's team. but i think the most effective way is to get it in front of the mayor, from the commission's standpoint. but from an individual constituent's standpoint, you can, of course, always communicate directly with your representative. >> i guess my question is, like have you and regina schedule add phone call or meeting with the mayor to review the memo after we voted on it so you can actually speak to her directly? i trusted the mayor's staff is taking what we're doing

seriously and wants to make sure that it gets into her hands and at the same time, i understand that the mayor's staff is quite busy doing what they're doing and managing a pandemic crisis and i think it behooves us, given that regina is the director of this office and the president of this commission to schedule a conversation directly with mayor breed to go over this memo and make sure she hears it from us directly and if she has questions for the small business commission, and the office of small business she can ask those questions directly from the people who represent the small businesss in our city. are you guys scheduling a phone call or meeting with the mayor? >> i think that's certainly, you know, something we can look at. i would say first we -- i believe we need to take a vote to send the letter. >> right. just that we approve it. >> what's that? >> presuming we approve it. >> assuming that we approve it, i think there will be -- it would certainly be appropriate

to follow up. there's clearly a public health crisis going on, so i don't want to speak for the mayor or the mayor's office in terms of what their scheduling is. and where we [inaudible] into what's the highest and best use of the mayor's time. but i think -- i'm confident that our letter will be taken seriously and, you know, certainly we can explore whether that is something that could work for the mayor and the mayor's office. >> have you and regina had direct conversations with the mayor since the shelter in place began? >> i have not. le >> [inaudible] solutions for small businesss? >> yeah. you know, the mayor has 30,000 employees. and i'm just a volunteer.

so, i have not personally had a conversation with the mayor since the crisis began. >> and commissioner yekutiel, no i have not had direct conversation, but am working very closely with director torres with oewd on providing unified information in discussion with the mayor and the mayor's policy staff. and -- and utilizing -- streamlining the efforts so that, because as commission kerr laguana says, the mayor as a good deal of individuals and departments to be communicating with. so director torres and i have agreed that we'd work together on that communication. for our office to be focused on

providing the frontline services at this point. >> so that point, i've been communicating with director torres as often as scheduled permits. most of the past week has been engaged in speaking with the various business associations and trying to put all that stuff together. >> i think you understand where we're coming from. i think if a conversation is going to be had about small businesses, either regina or you should be in the room or on the call. because as capable and understanding and as brilliant as director torres is, and i believe he is, he is not a small business owner and he is thinking about a million other things other than just small businesses. so we elbow our way into a room, in order make sure that we are properly representing our constituents here. that is my suggestion. i think this memo provides a

very, very appropriate opportunity to say we like to have a direct conversation with the mayor or the board of supervisors. if they meet with us and hear the work that we've been doing. i think it would make sense for us to have that same conversation with the board of supervisors to schedule a meeting with president yee and i don't see why not. that is how i feel about this and i feel pretty strongly about it. >> i think that is actually really well taken. and to be honest, i hadn't thought about that side of it yet. most of my thoughts have been around appropriate policy and how do we get the policy in front of the most impactful person, which at this point in time, i think of speaker pelosi and how do we do that in the most impactful way. i think that this is the shortest path to it. you bring up excellent points and i think that is well taken.

and i will certainly do my best to try and make it so. >> thank you very much, commissioner. >> yeah. i appreciate that. do we have any other commissioner comments? >> i have something to say. miriam here. it was my understanding that we were also planning on sending this memo resolution to the board of supervisors in addition to the mayor's office. is that correct? >> we can see [inaudible]. but the board cannot be an interface with the federal government. so we can c.c.:them, but the appropriate person for the letter to be addressed to would be the mayor. does that answer your question? >> yes. i just know that they have been

making resolutions, recommending things to state and federal level, too. so i thought it would be appropriate if we could pass them to this as well. >> any other commissioner comments? ok. i'm just -- last call here. any other commissioner comment or questions? ok. so -- >> i just want to say -- i really like the point about how to give resources directly to people that have tax i.d.s that are paying taxes but may not have citizenship papers in order, because talking with a lot of our business consultants in the immigrant community, that question keeps coming up. >> yeah. i agree 1000%. and if we, you know, spoke

about vice president zouzounis, when we began our term, we were going to make an effort to be careful with every action that the commission took to make sure we also view it to a lens of equity and we certainly did our best to do it here. that not to say that we thought of every last thing that could be thought of. but given the short amount of time that we had available to us, and we are in a tight time schedule, just to sort of advise the public. at the time that we started compiling all this information, our understanding was that congress was going to reconvene on the 20th and so we wanted to make sure that we got this information to the mayor's office in time for it to potentially make it to the speaker's office so that they could digest this information and see what was a good fit for

federal legislation or negotiation with the senate side and the president. so, it's a challenging multifactorial problem andja say that we have -- we tried to be as complete as we could. but certainly i'm sure there are things we didn't think of or forgot and we encouraged both the community and the public to communicate with us if there is anything we left off, then we'll do our best to incorporate that into our list of suggestions. >> i have a comment. >> yeah. yeah? >> sorry. i was muted for some reason. >> hi, commissioners. i just need to interject one second. could you please state your name when beginning your public comment for the record and for those who may not be able to

visually see you on the screen. thank you. >> commissioner dooley. i wanted to comment on what miriam said because i know that a number of the supervisors have very strong personal relationships with ms. pelosi. and i think it's important for them to read this because they have personal contacts with the state and federal and should definitely let them knoll what we're doing so that they can perhaps advocate individually for what we're asking for. >> i agree. so i believe the memo's on our website. and i don't think it would be an issue to cc: the board in case they're unaware. i think it is important that

the entire community come together and work together. the only way we'll get through this is by all of us doing our best to help each other. and i'm commited to that. so thank you, commissioner dooley. that's well-received. so commission kerr yekutiel, you have a motion? >> yes. a motion that the memo be approved by the full small business commission, reviewed by president laguana directly with the mayor and be sent to the board of supervisors as well for reference. >> i second. >> ok. >> >> motion to approve the memo sent by o.s.b. staff by the small business commission. and to review and to have president laguana and director andrizzi review the memo

directly with the mayor and send the memo to the board of supervisors for their reference presented by commissioner dooley. roll call vote. [roll call] >> great. can we call item three, please? >> yes. item three, commissioner's 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. >> ok.

any commissioners have updates or announcements? commissioner huey, this would be the appropriate place to talk about the work you've been [inaudible]. >> i kind of already [inaudible] most of my report. i don't know if -- oh. i wanted to see commissioner dooley's comment about the self-employed. i don'ten if this is a commissioner report type thing, but it might be helpful to have a place on the oewd website that is specifically for people who are self-employed so the resources can then just be put there. so a button just the same as everybody else's button might help bring some clarity to what is currently available and maybe what resources might be lacking.

and i think that might be all that i have right this second. i may think of something later. thank you. >> great. >> i have a comment. a report. i've been dealing with the folks at the lower [inaudible] they're doing an outstanding job of helping out the merchants and providing resources. i just want to point out that is another type of resource to have a huge website up. and i think we should post that on the commission site because they are out there doing all kinds of things for the business community and i'm sure that's true of other [inaudible] so we need to include them all. >> i agree. and thank you for pointing them out.

i'd like to also commend supervisor peskin for being such a great advocate for small business as well as supervisor ronan who worked very diligently with the mayor to get the $10 million grant program established. and along the same lines, well, anyways, i agree. i'll provide my update at the end. is there any other commissioner reports or updates? >> president laguana, this is commissioner ortiz. >> welcome, william. please go ahead. >> i just want to also -- i want to thank everybody, our team at the office of small business. i know the extreme pressure and amount of calls that you're handling and taking. i want to thank you. don't think that your efforts on the street are not noticed. we appreciate all your hard efforts. i do want to echo commissioner -- supervisor peskin and ronan.

you guys were amazing to hit the floor running and get liquidity on the street when we needed it. obviously i represent the mission and the mission economic development agency and liquid thety for small business through an a equity lens is always something i'm going to champion. one of things here at meta we're working on is providing programs for people that don't have social security that their status is in question because a lot of our proprietors are immigrants and english is their second language. so we're a program that does that and we've been advocating for these funds to be administered by cdfis because we have a faster impact to those underserved communities and we could definitely have the capacity and the resources to execute at a much quicker speed than the larger banks and institutions. also, i think it's very

important for the city to reach out to the community's benefit organizations in every neighborhood and reach out and maybe revise a game plan. we and every neighborhood have more research and capacity. we have relationships with pretty much every business that could probably execute things faster. and this crisis that we're facing. it's getting help immediately. you know? liquidity immediately. so those are some of the suggestions and the reports we're doing here in the mission. >> yeah. commission kerr -- commissioner ortiz, i know you've been moving mountains for your community and we've been advocating nonstop. we've communicated a couple of times about all the work that you've been doing and director torres, also have commended you for everything that you've been doing. i agree with you on the cdfis.

those were included in the staff memo so that support has been passed on to speaker pelosi. i also agree with you that compiling the resources out there and connecting beam their c.b.o.s is an important part of the process. it's very much a work in progress and we're trying to figure out how to help the folks that are moving it forward and do it as expeditiously as possible without clogging up the works as it were. so thank you for being such an effective advocate and your comments are important ones and i think we'll need your voice to help make sure we see this through to the end.

>> one last thing, mr. president. and this is just a general comment for all small businesses. if you are negotiating anything with your landlord, get it in writing. just get it in writing for all of our small business community out there. make an addendum to your lease. just get it in writing. whatever you get in your moratorium. >> yeah. >> i have one more item that i wanted to bring up, too. >> sure. please. >> i just wanded to bring attention to some of the things that have -- like some of the e-mails and things happening in terms of violence and race during this period of time. i know in the richmond district

recently, i forget what day it was, maybe friday or so, we had four break-ins on balboa and i think three of the businesses were chinese-owned businesses. and i know in my circle we have been texting with family and friends and different community groups about the increasing violence and racism that we're seeing and i know like for some of my friends -- and i feel this also going out that there is -- even though we live in san francisco and we have this wonderful, diverse place, it's feeling increasingly uncomfortable, i think, in certain situations. and so i do think that the national climate -- you know, whatever it is, is definitely happening within san francisco as well. so i just wanted to kind of put

that out there while -- i mean, i guess during my commissioner report. but that's something that has -- i don't think we've addressed necessarily in the small business community. we've spoken a little bit in the early days about chinatown and the fact that it was happening in chinatown. and i guess i have to say that it's happening everywhere. for me to go out, i think two weeks ago wearing a mask, just because i work in health care, my family is very -- you know, we've been very conservative and i do have masks at the oral surgery office. i was wearing one aun, you know, there were comments that were made. things that made me feel unsafe. and i think now, you know, when -- now thae with have this larger conversation about masks, maybe that is a little bit better. but there is definitely a racial kind of component to

some of the things [inaudible]. i don't know exactly how the small business commission can, you know, deal with this. but i kind of want to put it out there that it's happening. >> just speaking for myself, i think that is critically important that can't be allowed. it can't stand. it's unacceptable on every -- it's completely unopposite to our values. i think -- i'm not -- you know, at this point in time, i'm ready to suggest a course of action for the commission. but i think the commission should take action. that is something that we have to address and so we should perhaps think about how we can address it and move forward in a future meeting. i'll add to that there is a

secondary issue here, too, which is many small businesses are having their stores and locations being broken into and vandalized. so, i think this falls under public safety and the safety of businesses and by extension the safety of our workers and our economy so i think one way we could start to explore that is get something on the agenda where we could meet with members of the law enforcement community and talk about how they can protect the community against both racism and racist acts of violence as well as acts of destruction. it's also possible that this might be an important topic to bring up with the human rights

commission. so, and we may be able to give advice or guidance to the human rights commission from the perspective of the small business community. i really appreciate you bringing that up. that's -- you know, it's hard to keep track of everything that is happening and everything that needs to be done. and the only way we're going get there is is with all of us firing on all of our cylinders all the time. so that is like really salient and important topic to bring up. i absolutely think that that is something that we should be digging our teeth into and doing our best to advocate for those folks. thank you, commissioner huey. >> could i just give a quick shout-out to supervisor peskin for what he's done for the flower market? he pretty much single handedly got it re-opened with all the

-- all the restrictions and that is applying at least 350 people getting their jobs back. >> absolutely. you know, generally i would say that i think the city leadership has done a great job and doing their best for the small business community, has been very aggressive. certainly supervisor peskin has and supervisor ronan and supervisor haney has held several small business hearings. supervisor fewer has done important work at the budget community. supervisor mandelman has written an op-ed along with other business leaders, including laurie thomas from tgra that i thought was very impactful.