>> so if you know someone that needs spanish or cantonese please call (484)544-3328. when you're connected, please enter the pin number 72 721609895#. for spanish interpretation, please call (319)382-9697.

when connected, please enter pin number 665996976 #. this message will be repeated in cantonese and spanish. [speaking cantonese] >> [speaking spanish]

>> great. thank you to our translators, interpreters. i call the special meeting for wednesday, july 1st, 2020, to order. misses could co, please have roll call. >> thank you. miss collins? >> thank you. >> mr. cook? >> here. >> miss lamb. >> here. >> miss lopez. >> here. >> mr. maliga? ms. norton?

ms. norton? mr. sanchez. >> here. >> thank you. thank you. >> thank you. good afternoon, everyone. and welcome. welcome to superintendent matthews, all of our board colleagues, district staff and the general public in attendance. thank you for joining us for two important actions that we have for the 2020-2021 school district budget. we adopted the operations written plan in place of the lcap, which is now due in december of 2020. thus, this afternoon the board will focuses on the adoption of two adoptions. the sacks code and the s.f. recommended 2020-2021 budget. we're going to take the resolution first. and then we'll follow the -- followed by the recommended budget resolution.

and we will start off with the staff presentation, then open for public comment and then with the discussion and any questions, final questions by the board. and lastly followed by action. and i would want to open this afternoon up with extending deep appreciation on behalf of the board to superintendent matthews, our chief financial officer megan wallace, director of budget services anne marie gordon and deputy superintendent mi young lee and the entire budget analysts team for their intensive and careful work in providing us with the 2020-2021 budget documentation and documents overall. with that i'd like to begin with the special order of business resolution 206-23 s02. the adoption of the fiscal year

budget for the san francisco unified school district and the san francisco county of education in the standardized account code structure, the sacks format. the official state form prescribed by the state superintendent of public instruction, in accordance with the california education section 3129 and 42127. and it looks like at this time since we didn't have a prior motion, we will need a motion and a second to this item. >> so moved. >> second. >> thank you. and at this time i'd like to call upon superintendent matthews to introduce the designee for presentation and read the recommendation into the record. >> thank you, commissioner lamb. president sanchez, vice president lopez and board members present, commissioners present, thank you all for being here. as you have just heard, there are two items, one is around the sacks code. the second is around the budget.

we have posted all documents, including a summary presentation regarding the budget, and i'm not sure if commissioner lamb, we posted the summary presentation. it's four slides and a cover slide. i didn't know if you wanted that at this time or if you would prefer to go straight to questions? but if you wanted the presentation, that is available. just didn't know what your preference was. >> is that for the -- i'm sorry the presentation you're speaking of for the sacks or more broad adoption of the budget? >> it's for the more broad adoption of the document. >> let's wait until the second item for that presentation. >> with that presenting regarding the sacks code will be our chief financial officer. >> thank you. >> great. good afternoon, commissioners and dr. matthews. so for this item, this is

actually my first time through here. should i actually read the item itself to put it on the record? >> yes. >> requested action. >> yes. >> okay. great. so this requested action is for approval of the fiscal year 2020-2021 adopted budgets for san francisco united school district and the san francisco county office of altercation and the standardized account code structure form. and as prescribed by the state superintendent of public instruction and in accordance with the california education code sections 33129 and 42127. and with this the board of education would approve the adoption of fiscal year 2020-2021 budget and we recommend moving it forward.

and in terms of more specific, you know, kind of explanation of what this is, is that the california department of education does require school districts and county offices of education to provide our budget, as you've seen in the district format. but in the standard form so that all districts and county offices follow that standard structure. >> thank you. at this time i wanted to open up for public comment. again this is specifically for the item of the sacks code format. mr. steel, do you want to see if there's hands up? >> sure will. thank you, commissioner lamb. please raise your hand if you'd like to speak on this item. hello, michelle.

are you there? michelle? >> no. i had my hand down. sorry. >> clerk: no problem. thank you. >>fy need to, i'll raise it again. -- if i need to, i'll raise it again. >> clerk: hello, julie. >> caller: >> commissioner haney:. this is julie roberts fund. just a question. i'm wondering if this is the first time that our budget has been presented in sacks format? or if not, can clarify where we'd find previous versions. i'm also curious if this brings us into alignment with the presentation format that other districts around the state use and if this will be a common practice for us in future years? i'm wondering if we'll be able to get this information earlier

than the -- a couple of days before the final budget meeting. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. hello, susan. hello, susan. >> caller: yes. thank you. mr. steel, so this is susan solomon, president of the united educators of san francisco. and i'm addressing issues about the budget. i hope that's appropriate. i got on a little late. so before and during the pandemic, sfusd leadership and and rank and file have continuously approached contract negotiations -- to the length -- >> clerk: susan, i'm sorry to interrupt. we took the second item, the special order of business first. >> caller: okay. i apologize. i got on a little bit late. i'm happy to wait. >> clerk: okay. i'm sorry about that. >> caller: no. my apologies.

>> clerk: all right. that looks like it was for this item, commissioner lamb. >> thank you. so at this time i'd like to open up if there are any additional questions by the board. okay. seeing none -- >> sorry. >> gabriella, sorry. >> just similar to the public comment that was made, how is this different, or what -- what introduction is new to us. if we can get a brief explanation. >> yes. i can speak to that a little bit. although i may need to lean on debby, superintendent lee a little bit more for the historical context with the district. but this is the standard format that's required across the state. and it's really intended to create an apples-to-apples

comparisons of budgets for all school districts, that anyone with knowledge of how the budget is structured could look at any school district and read this document. and have some clarity of what the information we're sharing. and i do know that we historically have posted this information and received, you know, approval from the board in this same resolution format. but i'm not quite sure how many years we've actually been required to provide it in this format. superintendent, do you happen to know that information? >> i can give an approximate timeframe. the state adopted this standardized account code structure, i believe it was somewhere 2002-2003 or thereabouts. and that was about the -- that

was a big transition for most school districts, including ours. and that was the timeframe that i believe that they started requiring that districts submit budgets in this format, just to add one other point. the timing of this type of action, in prior years, has corresponded with the second reading of the budget. so that's -- that's not unusual, as you heard from chief wallace and others last week, when -- i believe it was last week. when the second reading was scheduled to take place on the 23rd. on that occasion, the sacks forms were not -- were planned to be lagging a bit. and not to be ready for a board vote to accompany the second reading. i think the plan was to bring

the sacs forms back for another meeting on july 14th. but given that there was a delay in the actual vote on the budget, the staff worked incredibly hard over the past week to prepare the sacs forms so they could accompany the second reading of the budget. >> thank you. just a follow-up, given that it's -- it is a rubric, there are pieces that aren't filled out, especially on the county side. it seems like none of it is checked. does that have any -- does that matter? like what are we following -- how are we following up? >> so we are meeting the criteria. we were focused on the providing the core budget data, so you can see the sources and uses and application of fund balance to our proposed budget.

but staff has continued to complete the various forms that show that we're meeting that criteria. so the submission will show that we are meeting all of those requirements. >> okay. thank you. >> can i also ask a question? >> go ahead, commissioner collins. >> thanks. i'm also understanding you have been making changes based on our feedback, as of last meeting? so that would also change -- would that change any of the -- of what you were entering in the document as well, we just met last friday, right. we've been changing it, it's not like it's a set budget conversation. it's been moving a lot in the last few weeks. and i just want -- if that's the correct thing, i also want to acknowledge that you can't give us, you know, -- things have been moving every week. >> yes.

so the sacs form does reflect the key changes that we discussed last week. and we worked to have the documents posted on boarddocs on sunday to meet the 72-hour act for a standard meeting. and so as of sunday, when we posted these documents, we did reflect the learning lost revenues, as well as the reserve -- the covid-19 reserve of $27 million and building in a place holder, approximately $22 million of savings. so we will be pursuing and further identifying. so over the course of the last few weeks, we've had a lot of conversations and staff have been working diligently to try to reflect all of those elements into the budget documents that are before you today in both items. >> thank you. soy just want to acknowledge for

-- i mean, obviously it would be great if we could have more advanced notice for the public to review these types of documents. i also want to honor the fact that staff have been responsive and had to make changes and to get those done in order to make -- so because we've had input, things were changed and so now we don't have -- we haven't had as much time to review, that's because we're trying to meet these deadlines. >> thank you. any other questions? comments? okay. so at this time dr. matthews, you don't have any comments? final comments. i'd like to call a roll call vote. >> thank you. >> yes. >> mr. cook? mr. cook? >> yes. >> thank you. miss lamb? >> yes. >> miss lopez? >> yes.

>> mr. maliga? >> yes. >> miss norton? nope. >> mr. sanchez? >> yes. >> great. thank you. our next item is the proposal 206-9sp-2. recommended budget. we already moved and seconded on june 9th. so at this time i'd like to call upon superintendent matthews to introduce the staff designee and read the recommendation into record. >> as i was saying earlier, we have a presentation. if you want that, that was the question i was asking. if that's the case, we have a short presentation, very brief. and then our chief financial officer megan wallace will be reading the recommendation into the record. >> yes. if we can have a review of this brief staff presentation, reading into the record and then

we will open up for public comment. >> ms. wallace? >> oh, yes. thank you. all right. so could we go to the second slide, please, justin. okay. so the budget before you today is based upon the final state budget. the governor gavin newsom signed the budget on monday, june 29th. and in anticipation of what that budget, you know, contains, we were able to fold in some major assumptions around revenue. so what we found is that this budget is most likely -- the legislature's approach, which assumes stimulus funding will be received by the state and passed along to school districts. and in the event that that doesn't happen, the state would

rely upon deferrals of apportionments or cash payments to school districts. so we'll need to manage our cash, but it's not as much of a budget problem as before, because it does restore lcff, but does not contain the cost-of-living increase that we had originally anticipated when we started down the path of developing our budget. so we are looking at $535 million of to yo -- of our local control funding dollars. and in addition to that, the state took action to provide school districts with additional learning loss funds. our district is anticipating just over $45 million or $45.3 million. $23.1 million of which is based upon our supplement funding and students for disabilities funding, that's based on our

census enrollment of ages 3 through 22. as well as $8.3 million to our district, based upon our lcff or average daily attendance with approximately -- with $165 per a.d.a. so while this is very good news in the scheme of things, what we have discussed over the past few meetings, is really the improved outlook does not fully cover the costs associated with our districts current budget condition. that we are seeing a lot of local loss in revenues due to covid-19 impacts on our economy. and by building in anticipated cost of $27 million for reopening our schools, we're actually definitely offsetting the majority of the learning loss funding that we're receiving from the state.

so i just -- i will continue to overly emphasize that we do continue to have a structural imbalance in our budget. next slide, please. so this is the layout of our budget, prior to rolling in an offset. as you can see, with all of our revenues anticipated, as well as expenditures that the learning loss funds actually placed us in a $4.7 million surplus, due to -- with that increase. we're anticipating $18.9 million of a beginning fund balance. that's really that we're going to balance the current fiscal year to meet that 2% economic reserve. and so while that would give us

an ending fund balance of $23.6 million, we'll have to continue to hold back $18.9 million of those funds in order to maintain our operating reserve. and then with the application of a $27 million covid-19 reserve, which will allow us to have a bucket of funds to support additional costs, due to reopening schools, that all of those things together leave us with a $22.3 million operating deficit. and then as you can see in the ongoing fiscal years, with that deficit continues to grow, and the key drivers of that are particularly related to our revenues, that the learning loss funds are only counted for one year. so you can see the revenues do drop significantly, going

fy21-22. we are anticipating costs will continue to grow. so this is where we have our structural imbalance within our budget. but in the proposed budget before you, we have built in a $22 million operating offset, that we will continue to pursue and identify savings, in order to balance. that savings is assumed to be carried on throughout the following two fiscal years. however, as you can see, we would continue to have a greater shortfall that we do need to work to resolve over the course of the coming fiscal year for those following two years, in the projections. next slide, please. some of the key changes that we've built in our budget, over the course of our discussions, include $7.1 million of savings from reductions to our

programming that we had to cut costs, in order to align with available peace dollars and we had built in an original assumption that we would absorb those costs within the general fund. we made the decision to just go ahead and cut those -- those expenditures from our budget. and transportation has a $4 million savings assumption, that a fair amount of work still needs to be done in order to implement those savings. aligning our schedules, looking closely at areas where we may need to shift the way we deliver services to various groups of students, that we think that through a combination of those things that we will find $4 million of savings in our budget. we did end up adding $2 million of costs to our budget, by recognizing that there were

staff that had been reduced from school sites, primarily that cannot be laid off, but they no longer have positions in order to maintain them. so we have actually added those funding -- that funding back to our budget. and then as i mentioned, the $27 million reserve for covid-19 costs. between now and the end of july, our district is going through the work of determining what the fall will look like and how we will, you know, -- we will reopen schools on august 17th. but what to degree is distance learning versus on-site and what are the variety of costs that will go into either or a combination of those scenarios, that this reserve is in place to allow us to do that planning. and know that we have resources to turn to-go implement. however, the budget also includes a $22 million place holder between now and august,

when staff is recommended that we actually return to this board with with an updated budget to account for our reopening plan and to show our savings, the implementation plan for those savings. that we will have followed for that place holder come august. next slide, please. so just next up recommendations and next steps. today is july 1st. happy fiscal new year, everybody. we do recommend your approval of the budget before you. staff will be submitting the budget to c.d.e. today, upon your approval. but looking ahead through july and even all the way through september, we do have a fair amount of work ahead of us. again just identifying our balancing reductions. we have a place holder.

but we have work ahead of to us figure out exactly what those savings will be in july, coming back with a reopening plan. august 11th would be the closest board meeting to within that 45-day window of of the governor something signed the budget, that we would want to bring a budget re-certification for you at that point in time. and then september 30th is the deadline for school districts to submit our learning continuity and attendance plan. we notice that comes out to lcat, the acronym, that this is a requirement for us to be able to use those learning lost dollars. so that's certainly a critical one for us to have on your radar. so with that thank you for all of the discussion that have been brought to the table. this is a very meaningful and

critical conversation for us to have around our budget. and i welcome your questions at this time. >> president sanchez. >> yes. thank you for the presentation. i know we're going to go to public comment. i just want everybody to understand, public, particularly a number of attached -- or accompanying documents, a lot of important dacs that need to be reviewed. a lot of it around central office cuts. just to note that the work that's been doing to -- staff has been listening to the board and to the public and i think there's been some headway made in that area. so if you haven't reviewed that part, you should take a look. thanks. >> at this time, i'd like to open the public comment. i do want to -- depending upon the number of participants, we'd

like to also limit the public comment at this time. >> clerk: okay. thank you, commissioner lamb. so if you would like to speak on the budget today, please raise your hand. we'll kind of -- we'll wait a few seconds to get an idea of how many people are. >> okay. okay. >> clerk: seven right now. eight. continuing to grow. >> okay. let's limit to -- let's see. let's do 20 minutes of public comment. and at this time let's do one minute. >> clerk: okay. thank you, commissioner lamb. okay. hello, susan.

>> thank you. so sfusd continuously approached contract negotiations in the pandemic through the lens of what's best for our students, especially students of color, newcomer students and students with i.e.p.s. after covid hit, proposed a two-year contract extension during negotiations. clear, we weren't asking for anything. we weren't asking for a raise. we wanted to or benefit increases. we wanted to focus on our students. this was an extremely difficult decision for our membership to make, that we even had to scale back on some of our hopes and dreams for our students, in terms of increasing services for them, with what they deserve. but we know we have to weather this storm together. that's what a community does. so instead of the district reciprocating saying let's work together, what we were hit with last week, the district's demands for huge concessions called labor contributions. which is going to make it really, really hard to support

our students. we have made enormous contributions to our students. that's our job. that's our passion. it's our mission. it's what we want to do. we didn't get any proposals for concessions until june 23rd. the budget numbers seem to keep changing, the concessions being propose ready huge. you know, we're actually bewildered and confused. we don't know why the budget is taking the turns it's taking. we want to know what the board is going to do to make sure our students receive more support and not less. you've heard that on monday afternoon we released the petition. it already has over 2500 signatures and support of us approving an interim and final budget, that's aligned with our values of the community. so we're calling on you today. we're imploring you, let's move forward together, approach this process together with more transparency, both in our public spaces like this meeting and at the virtual bargaining table. thank you. >> clerk: thank you.

hello, megan. >> hi. i'm the analyst with the school district. i wanted to give my appreciation for all of the work that's gone into this very difficult budget process, from everybody involved, including all of the speakers that have come to these meetings religiously, to advocate on behalf of the students in san francisco unified school district. i'm sure you understand we're extremely passionate about ensuring that the children we serve are served well. and to the greatest extent that we can, within the circumstances surrounding the whole world. and i urge the board and the district to continually push themselves to think outside the box, to meet our values, where we stand. it's so important that we keep students at the center. and that we keep the cuts as far

away from them as we can. and i hope that as we move forward in the next month, and start planning for next year more deeply, that we can connect our values to how we balance our budget, other than balancing our budget before we understand how we're going to serve our students. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. hello, jan. >> hello. i'm work with sfusd and the d.o.t. tent and also the president of the local 20 protest local 21. and we're concerned that any of our union staff, that might be laid off, will be replaced by outside contractors. we in local 21 have already seen so much of our work privatized,

in particular, the occupational therapists. we're asking the board to save our jobs and restore -- to find solutions to this budget crisis, that does not jeopardize our income on or our health benefits during this pandemic. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. hello, joan. hello, joan. >> sorry. okay. can you hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can. go ahead. >> good afternoon, president sanchez, superintendent matthews and commissioners. i am joan helperly, uasf coexecutive director. on behalf of the united administrators of san francisco, we're asking the budget with no layoffs of educator or support staff, every school employee, as well as employee support schools are essential to the health and safety of our students. if you do have to make budget reductions, we want to emphasize

that you start by reducing the costly outsid contracts and consultants. if it's essentially to do reductions, we're asking it be done in an equitable manner. both the interim and the amended budget should reflect our values and commitment as a district and ensure the essential cuts are made for students and classrooms. we are requesting they advocate for more funding and the stakeholders support the district's quest for additional central funding. it's critical that the funding of the district deteriorateses the racial, social and emotional insubstitute for our communities. w and to create safe and secure school communities for our children. in closing, it is impair ephiphany these values be reflected in the district's budget to support the resolution the board has adopted. thank you.

>> clerk: thank you. hello, julie. >> can you hear me? >> clerk: yes. >> this is julie roberts. i appreciate board president sanchez's shout-out to take a closer look at the central office staffing. the report that was uploaded to boarddocs -- i'm wondering if you're referring to something different. it did have the detail about the number of f.t.e. and the lead team removed, though. and from what i can tell, the cuts to school sites still remain the same, carver still expected to lose 2.6 staff, drew still expected to lose 4.8. so i would love to have more clarity on the movement that's happened between friday's meeting and this meeting.

and last i want to appreciate the budget staff who are looking into the discrepancy that we discussed last week with reading elementary. we are losing 1.5f.t.e., even though the report that was shared shows us gaining .5f.t.e. so i'm looking forward to having that resolved in a more accurate representation. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. hello, shelley. >> thank you so much, president sanchez, commissioners of the board and superintendent matthews. i'm shell wiener, i'm the sect of the sfusd chapter 1021. i would just like some clarification on the doc that was uploaded called fy2020-2021. on the second page, the bottom

line is facilities. and it says slow cleaning cycles for sites, which we would appreciate as we represent custodial, what that means. further, in the other document that was the concessions and adjustments made to central office, there are only 83 custodians listed. and it is our impression that with 163 schools, plus other sites, we certainly have well over 300 custodians and we're interested in what that means. lastly, legal is adding two manager and one executive director and we're just wondering, not that we don't have plenty that we need legal for, why we're adding three more positions in that department at this very bad time. thank you so much. >> clerk: thank you.

hello luis. >> hi. good afternoon, dr. matthews, president sanchez, vice president lopez, commissioners. my name is lewis rodriguez and i'm the president of an elementary. i speak today as an administrator and a director of an executive board of the united administrators of san francisco. just to comment on the budget situation, the state legislature and the governor came together and found a solution to spare mostly k-12 public education. that's great leadership. the same type of leadership i think we have in our district. therefore, the invitation is for your leadership to come through and find innovative and creative ways to avoid further cuts that may go against what we say we stand for. every single school district employee from the classroom to the cafeteria, to the yard and even to the departments removedd from this school sites is necessary to support the academic and nonacademic growth and development of our school communities, especially during

the pandemic like the one we're going through. it's unfortunate that the city and county of san francisco does not invest more heavily on the most vulnerable and promising members of its population. children are our present, effective and creative leadership should ensure that they are also our future. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. hello, kimtree. >> hi. thank you very much. i also want to just support what our secretary shelley wiener called in to say. and then add to that, you know, when we see there's an increase in certain departments and then one of the most important departments and services, our custodians provide, what are we doing cutting them? especially right now. that makes no sense to me. i'm a field rep for tender one,

we represent custodians, school nutrition workers. those departments should be increasing their staffing exponentially. by the way, we still don't have a negotiated covid for hazard pay for our members. and we've debunked every excuse that's been given to us. why can't we get this settled? it makes no sense. we've given you every opportunity. please give these valued members of the san francisco unified school district community, doing front-line work, what they are due. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. hello, miss parcel. >> oh, good afternoon. just a second. good afternoon, president sanchez, vice president lopez, board of commissioners, superintendent matthews, our beloved esther.

on behalf of the san francisco alliance of black school educators, we appreciate the work of the budget committee the past couple of weeks. we especially support the concerns of uesf. and we just want to reiterate what was said in the past couple of meetings that what we call first responders, everyone you see running the schools from the principle to the teachers to the parents, the custodianses, to the cafeteria workers and everyone in between. we beg the board not to make any cuts in those areas. they're a group of educators -- they're a group of staff who call themselves chiefs. we understand they make six figures. i've listened to commission colleagues try to give those figures. everything that we do is transparent. you can rarely see what a teacher makes, what our principal makes. number one, the word chief of next school year will change that across the country. we check in with all of those

offensive names. calling our financial director chief, it really bothered me to this day. next year we need to look at taking away that name. but also make it public. what's that group of 12 chiefs make, so we can see their salaries. thank you so much. >> clerk: that's time. thank you. hello, tom. tom, are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> clerk: okay. go ahead. >> i'm tom, i'm a special educator teacher. and i'm this is my fifth year teaching there. i stayed there of the culture, the community, the parents. i'm struggling to find where the culture in the sfusd is.

i each year get parents and other teachers cut and then it falls on my shoulders. i would urge you to please, the board, consider that each person at a school site makes a difference. their smiles, talking to students and changing lives. we're not justin -- just cogs in the machines. come to the schools and you'll see that each person does matter. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. commissioner lamb, that concludes public comment. oh, actually. i'm sorry. i missed one. oh, no, i didn't. hand went down.

that does conclude public comment. >> thank you, justin. so at this time i'd like to just ask my colleagues of the board if you have additional questions or just discussion. sorry, i can't see your hands. i see lopez, cook and me. >> thank you. i can see you all. let's go to commissioner cook. i know he has limited time, too. >> i just want to say briefly, my apologies as everyone does. you know, this is still the time where we have to work. and so i have to step away at 4:00. i planned to vote "yes" on the proposed budget, as has been submitted. i just want to say that briefly before i stepped away. if the meeting is still going after my work meeting is going, i'll be back. i'll reserve my further comments for that time. >> thank you, commissioner cook. commissioner maliga.

>> i don't have any comments right now. >> i'm sorry. sorry, lopez. commissioner lopez. >> thank you. so i'm very grateful for the work that's been done and the unlimited amount of hours we've all spent on this, especially staff that is seen by us, by the public. and i just wanted to note that. one thing that's really sitting with me, from friday's meeting, was the fact that, you know, after a certain amount of time, given the rights that employees have, which i am also behind, we can't really make choices regarding administrative versus school site positions, right. so i think i also am going to vote on the budget, of course. but i really do want us to think about the timeline that we are limited in making our choices, when we're thinking about the

future. and this is like beginning in january of next year, right. and just to get that information. i'm -- you know, i didn't have that as a commissioner. and it makes sense. i understand that process. but it does create the scenario where the people who at the bottom, who make the least, are most at risk of being let go. and i want us to just address that in the future. so i'm making a note of that. and i hope that given the discussions that we've had now, and the transparent process we are building out, that will be included in future conversations. >> thank you. commissioner collins. >> thank you. and i do want to acknowledge, i think there was comments -- it has been kind of confusing budget season. i think that's true for all of us. and i want to acknowledge that that is -- you know, this year. it has a lot to do with covid, our economic shortfall that we

had before and then after covid. and just -- i also think there's been changes that are positive, although stressful, due to the fact that as commissioners we've been pushing back throughout the year to ask for, you know, we revised the weighted student formula and mtss. and then there was feedback about that, whether commissioners felt that that was adequate and then the budget office came back with additional -- you know, with additional numbers. and then, you know, so there's been an iterative process. this is not normal in a lot of budget years and definitely before i joined the board. a lot of times the commissioners would get a budget and then just approve it. that's what happened when we came on the board last year. and this year was i think, you know, multiple revisions. and so i do want to recognize that that is stressful for the public in a sense, because it's

-- it's hard to keep up. and then also there's been just, you know, at the state level funding has been kind of, you know, there were threats of 10% cuts by the governor and then the legislature and then, you know, all of those conversations, all of these things are coming down to the wire. and i think -- i just want to commend the budget staff and recognize the fact that i do think, as a district, you know, we should continue to make things more transparent. but the amount of work that they have been doing this year, like i'm just thinking about the whole year, is pretty immense, considering, you know, i don't think we've ever been through a budget year. and young, you can chime in, i don't think we've been in a budget year where we've had this many changes to the way that we budget, to the way we share information about our budget and how many times we have actually, you know, the budget team has put together a proposed budget and then gone back and made a

change. so i just want to recognize that. additionally, i guess i have some specific questions. there's $27 million for reopening schools. and i wanted to know. nobody has ever -- has that ever been explained. how did you guys come up with that number, where does that come from? i'm happy to address that. i don't know if this is a complete answer. but i believe in a couple of our previous conversations, we've alluded to a study that a.s.a. produced a few, several weeks back. this is just one of several methodologies that different organizations have produced. but aasa is a national association of school superintendents basically. and they came up with a

methodology and published a report that, long story short, estimated that the costs of reopening physical -- physical return to campuses would be -- i think it was $490 per student. and that's a national statistic. so definitely a somewhat crude number, -- >> that's probably going to be low, right? >> yes. >> considering higher -- our cost of living is higher. >> our cost of living is higher than the nationwide average. with that caveat, that figure of $27 million is approximately a little less than $500, applied -- per student, applied to our population. as you said, commissioner, that is probably on the low side for us. in this late stage of the budget, and as you pointed out, with all of these moving parts sitting, landing really late in the state budget and these

learning loss funds being estimated or kind of taking shape really late, like literally within the past week or so, we have used this figure, this $27 million as sort of a working number for now. but for reasons that we've articulated in the past couple of meetings, it will be important, to as chief wallace mentioned in the presentation, to incorporate better information about covid costs, better information about our efforts to identify cost savings and any other material developments in the amended budget that we will be bringing back in august. so a lot of -- a lot of parts are still moving. and that is one of them. >> so just out of -- in that estimate of $490, does that include increased custodial costs and staffing? you know, i mean, it's not just hand sanitizer. i'm assuming that's why, you know, we have a higher cost of

living. we pay staff more money, because it's more expense -- than say, i don't know, arkansas. that's my assumption. is that why if we were to just take this number and say, well, you know, we're assuming it's going to be higher. is that why it would be higher? >> that is the primary reason why it would be higher. and those are the most significant costs actually. the cost of people and whether it's for physical distancing or additional, enhanced cleaning efforts. those are the investments that i think would take the most additional costs, as opposed to cleaning supplies or hand sanitizer. i mean, all of those things are important and for some folks it's most obvious. to tell you the truth, they're probably the left costly

elements of covid response. on the other hand, that national statistic does not include some good news that we've received from the state, that is pitching in and providing supplies of p.p.e. and cleaning -- i'm sorry, of masks and thermometers as well and sanitizers. so there are some things that we will not be completely on our own to secure and pay for. but again it's sort of a raw number and there's a bit of better news for us. >> but still it sounds to me like -- hand sanitizer costs the same across the country. >> right. >> but staffing costs are different. like it costs more here. and if -- so this doesn't necessarily reflect what we'll -- if we wanted to, you know, include all of those staffing costs across the board, it might be considerably higher because that's where we end up spending a lot of money is staffing

costs. is that correct? >> that's correct. and commissioner, just so you know, -- to the extent we've been citing the report and their methanol, we have been, -- and their methodology, this is a national study and we think it is probably an underestimate of actual costs that we'll see. >> do we have a guesstimate on what would be a good conservative number for us, you know? >> we don't have a specific figure yet. a lot of that will be driven by, as our plans emerge. and that's going to become clearer over the next, as you know, over the next several weeks. >> okay. >> the end of july. so knowing whether we're going to be -- whether and to what extend we're going to be discussing or you'll be

considering physical return to campuses in part or, you know, substantially, that's a huge driver of these costs. >> right. >> so part of our efforts are to inform those discussions while they're happening with cost estimates as well. so they're both parallel discussion topics basically. >> so in a sense, rhyme, we've got to get this budget in. this is kind of a place holder. but as we get more information about our plans, as we hear more from the state, and get more information about what even we need to consider in our planning, that's going to basically over the next few weeks we're just kind of -- i just want the public to know, because i wondered, you know, how did you get that number. that this is -- this isn't based on any specific plans. it's based on just a guesstimate from a good source. and that's why we're going to be kind of reevaluating our budget

and then resubmitting with a lot of other factors in the august -- august 11th, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> okay. thank you. i appreciate that. also i just want -- so there's also -- for the public, i want to -- there's -- i want to recognize the fact that we have put back about $2 million into this budget, because we didn't want to cut staff. and i just want to clarify that. is that correct? we saw that there were family liaisons and some roles that received consolidation letters and we actually put them back in the budget. we have to find a way to pay for that. but we have included that -- we've put them back. and so that's a recognition that we do not want to cut, what we consider essential staff and support staff at sites.

that is correct, chief wallace? >> yes. we did -- $2 million back to our budget. i think maybe to put a little bit more framing around the particular population of employees we're talking about. we're looking at employees who were cut and absent, you know, we were given them opportunities to find other jobs, like rolling through the consolidation effort, looking at other openings within the district. so this pot of funds is particularly for those folks who haven't been placed in another position within our district, that we would have funding to create positions and keep them employed. >> but it doesn't -- does that mean, though, that a school might lose a staff member? that was -- find a position some place else?

>> i think that's where i may want to defer to deputy superintendent lee, if i may. >> so, commissioner, so for the time being, the fiscal team has re-established those -- the costs of those positions into the budget. and have begun to engage our colleagues about the actual assignments and whether the individual positions will be, you know, centrally funded back in the same roles, et cetera. so to tell you the truth, i think we have to discuss that a bit more, in order to advise the employees appropriately. but for now we've basically taken the step for the purposes of budget to reflect the cost of those position being maintained for the current year. >> okay.

so that's confusing to me. because my sense -- my understanding was, you know, there are staff that are really essential to schools, right, if we're student-centered. so if a school had a family liaison, i heard like at carver, the family liaison position was cut from one f.t.e. to .85. so, you know, like my -- the way that i've been understanding things is like if you've got -- if you want to support students and you have a family liaison that's serving a specific role in the school, and then that position gets cut, then that makes it harder for that school to provide that service to students. and so i was thinking of it as service to students and kind of ensuring that those students were maintained, as opposed to -- i also do want to preserve, you know, i want us to be equitable in how we think about cutting staff or reducing staff and make sure that we're, you know, we're not just cutting the

folks that are the lowest paid. you know, and so -- but it sounds to me like you all are saying that you're going to preserve the staff, but they may not be able to stay sayani site where they're considered a vital resource. that seems like, for the public and for me, when i hear community members say, you know, we need support. you know, i have heard a teacher say i have lost paraeducaters or i have lost, you know, if we lose our family liaison, makes it harder for us to meet the needs of families, that there still may be people leaving school sites that were consolidated. >> so the positions that were cut, what we have done is we have put those others back. what we don't want to do is say if a site -- if a site says we have made these determinations, made these decisions and in many cases it was a tough decision and it was an essential resource. if they say, yes, this was an

essential resource and we definitely want this resource back, then that resource will be returned. we know some sites have made strategic decisions and they may not. so if we have restored a person to full time, then it will be okay. they're half-time here, the school says that, and then we would move that other half resource somewhere else. so they -- so when i'm saying is that we put the dollars back. but a school may not -- we don't want to say, yes, definitely that person is going back, especially if a school made a strategic determination that that isn't how they want to best allocate the resources at their school. does that make any sense? >> so say a school said, you know, we actually don't need a nurse, we want a social worker and that's just their decision, they need those those changes. you're saying a site -- well, mostly principals, right. because school site counsel hasn't -- like i heard haven't all been able to meet. and so principals are kind of

fighting this, is that correct? >> no. i wouldn't say that. mostly where school sites -- school site council determination. yes, if they've made another determination, we don't want to say we're going to force this back on you. >> okay. so i just want that to be clear and understood for the public. that we've put the money back in to maintain positions where they're wanted and then it sounds like principals are leading the decision-making around that, whether that is maintained or not. >> that's not my understanding. but, yes. as i said, it was school-site council. >> okay. but they're not meeting right now. it's principals, right. let's be honest. is that -- they're not meeting. we're not meeting in the summer. >> right. right now. >> you can't guarantee that. >> right now at this time, yes. >> so thank you. so i would love to get follow-up

on that, all of those positions. i'd like to ensure -- i'd like to keep track of that. i think other commissioners would probably also like to see that. let's also make that clear to our labor partners, because i want to make sure that, you know, we've worked really hard to make sure that folks, you know, we aren't -- you know, we are cutting staff where we can. and that should be very clear to the public. so then i guess the other question is, there's i keep hearing, well, the state and the legislature came to an agreement. so they're not cutting our budget. so why are we still making cuts. okay. that's a consistent question that people ask. and so i know we've presented on it and i think commissioner lamb had asked. is there a way for us to get an f.a.q. or some questions. we get repetitive questions. it's been hard to follow this conversation, if you don't follow every single meeting every time. you know, you may miss it.

so, chief wallace, if you could explain. my understanding is, just to restate, and you tell me. i'm checking for understanding, right. if you could restate if this is correct. we're going to get basically lffs is roughly the same, but we're not getting cola and that's cost of living. is that correct? if so, can you explain what is the impact of us not getting the cost-of-living adjustment. >> sure. yes. you are correct. so we are getting our lcff restored to the same level as what we're receiving -- for fy19-20, the prior year. the cost 6 living railroad increase was 2.31% of that. that would have been worth about $12 million to the district. and even when we had the higher level of lfff with that cola, we

still had a deficit as a district. without that cola, our deficit deepened and we had learning loss funds. that closed the gap. >> lcff is the same. we also are getting less money in some areas, that we normally would have gotten, right. so the cost-of-living and also peep is another, that's city money that we normally get. and because of revenues are down, peef is going to be down. normally we use those funds to pay for people that people think of as normal stuff so like librarians and arts programming and social workers and other things that are considered the basic things. they don't feel like extras. just essential things. shift some of those costs into the general fund, is that

correct? >> that is correct. yes. because we had cuts to peef and we had to rebalance that bucket of funds. we also open -- actually the primary impact to us, as shifting costs, peef was no longer part of the solution. part of our balancing plan to shift some of our unstricted general fund costs over to there. and to drawn down those available balances. but because those balances no longer are there, it contributed to the ongoing deficit for our district, on unrestricted general fund side. >> so how much less did we get, after we got i think about

$80 million in peef dollars. what did we get? you know, what's the difference between what we got last year and what we're anticipating in the coming year? >> it was just -- it's just under $77 million. >> okay. 80 before? >> right. but it doesn't sound like a significant decrease year-over-year. but we had anticipated upwards of $90 million, due to the accumulation of fund balance. you know, through -- and estimated growth in peef overall and the accumulation of fund balance, because we received one-time dollars of erath that came from the city. >> so we got extra money as well from these, you know, from previous years. that's also having an impact --

if we're not getting as much? >> that's right. >> we were getting it last year. >> that's right. so the overall amount has gone down year-over-year. and we're no longer getting that surplus. really i will say because we need to use it to help us balance in fy19-20. we thought that we were going to have more accumulation of funds to go ahead and apply in fy20 fy20-21. so it was no longer part of the solution and we had to do some juggling around to make sure that peef balanced. i admi-- to make peef make more. when you look at peef, i think we were successful in realigning those expenditures so they're more coherent. and that expenditure plan makes a bit more sense.

but it is part of the overall movement that i think contributes to some of the confusion for the public. >> and then prop g that was another thing that we decided to spend our rainy day funds. we were spending rainy day funds on that. we've drawn down that money, right? so we don't have that next year, like as -- we had a pot of money that we were pulling out of. and so next year is that gone? and, you know, is that also a part of the problem and how much is that? that covers. >> so we have about $34 million left in our rainy day reserve. in addition to that, the mayor's budget currently includes $6 million of erath. so that will help cover approximately $40 million budget. for our living wage for educators' act programming. so salary increases and professional development

expenses. [ please stand by ]

. . . >> continue to engage and back to us and and prop g successful and generate and cover expenses. and advertise the future and it won't pay back any of the money that we need. >> and the funds and would be rolled back to the school district and we would have to pay the city back for any funds to help close the gap and overall funding of what we have over the last few years and that otherwise any surplus of funds would be restored to the raindy

nay reserve and make decisions around how to expend the dollars. >> if i can chime in on this, i want to clarify there are two different questions related to prop g. one is about the ballot measure that will be on the november 2020 ballot. and if that measure is successful, which would require 2/3 vote, then that would basically create a funding source beginning fy-21-22 and subsequent years. that ballot measure by itself has no bearing on what happens to the already collected amounts in the three prior years. 18-19, 19-20, and 20-21. so what i think chief wallace was just referring to is if the litigation ultimately resolved in the city and county's favor, that is active now, that there

is a superior court ruling and they're still -- there are still unexhausted processes that still have to be resolved if that litigation is resolved in the city and county's favor, then the revenues that have been collected over the course of three years, those would be unlocked and made available again. just want to -- >> those would come back, but right now we are in a holding pattern and still have o get a budget for next fall without knowing about any of these kind of funds. and even if they are favorable, they are not coming in by the fall. they would be coming in for the next calendar year. >> the next fiscal year. >> a fiscal year, yeah, okay. i want that to be really clear for folks because i do -- i want to recognize the fact that i am -- as a board, i think we have been active in advocating for no

cuts to site-based staff and i think based and where we are at right now, i think i am going to be -- i am not letting the state take over our district. i am not letting -- i have seen oakland how that was and had a board that basically made no decisions. we as advocates are an active board and we listen and go out into the community. we are making decisions around trying to be very responsive, and none of that will happen if the state takes over. i want to make sure that we are able to make those decisions in the best interest of our community. so i think i know folks want us to say no cuts. that is not a reality at this point. i can't promise that. so at least i want to be transparent with the public. i am not going to promise something that i don't think -- maybe it can happen. i am going to work as hard as possible, but it would be

irresponsible of me and i think it would be irresponsible of our board to not put forward a budget right now. and we're going to continue to work on it, but i want folks to know that the worst thing would be if the state took over and nobody makes any decisions. nobody gets any input. so i just want to make sha clear. >> commissioner collins, thank you so much. i think that is a really important perspective. if i can, i know that president sanchez also had a comment and question and of course come back to the next round for commissioners. president sanchez. >> go ahead. >> all right. may i add one really quick point? this is also to the question that commissioner collins asked about state budget versus other changes in other funding source and i also wanted to mention there is a significant impact on a couple of other local revenue

sources, namely sales taxes and a drop off in interest earnings and a drop off in tuition payments for our early education programs. so all of those are total up to several million dollars of additional reductions and have nothing to do with the state budget. it is all other local factors, local revenues, that are also contributing to us having a larger gap than we otherwise would. >> thank you. >> is it possible for somebody to in a very simple way kind of put some of the things together? i think our costs are the same. our staffing costs are the same. but our revenues have come down. and i do think it is helpful to have just year to year comparison. those people can see that.

they have a summary of the major changes and line item revenues and for the sake of the board and public to provide more details around the revenue changes. >> all right. with the deputy with the commissioners and concerns and that cuts need to stay as far away from the classroom as possible and as commissioner hollins just said, that may not always be possible, but we will work as hard as we can to assure that reality. and the commissioner and lopez

mentioned this in the comments which is around making earlier decisions around staffing so that we protect the folks that earn the at least and have more proximity to the students. that is a structural issue that we have to address but i think we can do it. we might mean two-year budgeting cycles to do that. so there will be a lot of conversation and a floor plan and what do all schools have to have as a with the baseline and is worth noting and commissioner collins talked about the property redo and the budget outlook is something that we all

work really important and fiscal ballot measure to be concentrating on as well. the other question from the public and asked specifically around the salaries and the transparency of salaries and particularly around our chiefs and so i don't know if you can answer that now and if you can place people in the right direction about how to see those. i am pretty sure they are public. and then she did mention the problem addict term itself of chiefs and that is not germane and it is something we might want to look at and change the gnomen clay sure around. so thank you.

>> if you could respond to that one question, that would be great. >> president sanchez, you are referring to the question about salaries? >> yes. >> or the terminology? >> not the terminology. >> i appreciate for what it's worth, i want to thank mrs. marshall for that comment as well. especially about the terminology. so regarding the salaries, i believe our chief general counsel is not here and every

time this takes place and the salary cable is made public and the contract and the salary table is made public on board docs. >> i don't know if it is on board docs, but it is a public document. >> i think it is in the closed section documentation, but not sure if it is accessible by the public. >> is the it possible to have it just easily available? >> every public california employee including ms. marshall and every public salary is available and that is all of us, every dollar if it's paid for with public dollars is available

online. so to speak to that a little bit and we have it and it is broken down here. and it has all of the job codeses and all the positions and the average salaries anded the benefits. it is and i found this for 20-21 and to point people in the direction of where this lives and that might help, president sanchez, but one of the questions i had is if why some positions are under central office and school budget and what the difference is in that. i'm sorry i jumped in, but i know that it exists, for what it's worth.

and so that document was created with a request to get a summary of all the salaries based on the job codes in the district. that is an information request from him and the reason there are two different columns when it comes to the budgets process and in central office and based on actuals and the actual salary and that is what you have to cover when you balance the budget in central office and for

site and recognition there is a range to avoid perverse incentives of having to pay more for different teachers and depending on their years of experience and for all teacher-related job codes with a level where every regular classroom teacher has the same salary and benefits cost with the same budget and the same rates. so that is the two columns. it was going to take a bit of time to figure out how to land on one number to get you all quickly, but that is why there

are two different column. >> one note that i want to make in that report is a certificate job code and an example since one commissioner just mentioned this and classified chiefs and certified chiefs and i want to give you that heads up that the titles appear twice in the report. >> i just found it on transparent california dot com and you can look by district and the with the c.f.o. megan

wallace and the concerns about the structural benefit and looking ahead to the year in front of us that starts today and the next few years. are there between now and august and one includes congress if they take any action, but any potential new information that would have an impact or changes to the multi-year projections? >> definitely still on the state side and really understanding to be held with no cola and still not clear to me if we should be assuming and in years two and three and applied an active

approach to the numbers of keeping revenues flat. as we get more news about the inflation rate will be, that will improve and also on the local side, we are waiting for the city and county which is delayed from our process and i hope we will have much more information about the local revenue projections that we will build to our final budget. and actually, sorry to hop around a little bit, but on the state side, there are many other we are gathering about and build in placeholder assumptions but we are basically putting a

marker down and this is one milestone and between now and august we will be doing a lot of work to further that revenue assumption on central federal, state, and local. >> i appreciate that and that is something to convey to the public. and what wefsh through as a district in the last couple of months and is felt like whiplash and riding a roller coaster, at the same time it seems like we will be in this face for a moment and similar to commissioner colins to express the deep concern around fiscally not only what we are having to decide for the district and really the implycations at times

that are beyond our control and curious to look at how covid continues how that will impact the economy over a long duration of time and longer and very cares you to see the august numbers at the state level as well as the local level. so asking the public to understand that this is going to beager -- this is going to be an evolving situation and with the public and staff working with this board and superintendent around how to really mind the most sustainable solutions while holding our students at the center. thank you. with that, additional last, final questions. remarks.

okay. all right. >> really quickly. as far as the timeline goes, we approve this and it goes to the state and then august 1 # 1 is the resubmission time and having conversations and engaging with public between now and then that staff is taking time away and summer schedule and plan for reopening and restarting schools. i want to get a sense of the process and that goes to the staff as well as commissioner lam. what are your thoughts on how to continue to share information with the public? to build that resubmission plan. >> go ahead. staff wanted to jump in and president sanchez, too. we can also answer.

>> i was going to lead with the larger planning process and figuring out what the right approach is and a large urban school district and unique needs from other districts and the other areas with the savings and to have a discussion and a number of meetings planned along those lines with our groups.

so i do want to encourage us that if we do have opportunities for budget and business services committee meetings that we also have staff eager to engage in deeper dives on the budget discussions in advance of the board approval. >> we all know that the board is meeting in july and we have two meetings in july. we normally don't meet at the beginning of august, but we might have to as well. and obviously commissioner lam and it is true that the opening discussion is so intertwined with the budget and we won't know a lot more about what the state has in mind until basically mid august and it does a disservice to us. and we have to play by those rules. so i imagine we will have ample

opportunity to meet and engage with the public on those discussions. >> and also wanted to note that as susan and the labor communication and that will be the continued discussion and to come in the coming months and looking at what the solutions will be to arrive at. and so thank you to everyone. superintendent, do you have any final comments? >> no. roll call vote please. [roll call vote]

that is seven ayes. >> thank you. >> thank you. so at this time i business of the meeting is completed. we will see you at the next regular board meeting scheduled for july 14 and hope you all including the public please stay safe and rest and meeting adjourned.

>> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi.

so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar.

we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals.

>> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. i hope people shop locally. [ ♪ ] valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. the first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is the major north and south bike route from the mission neighborhood extending from market to mission street. >> it is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute hours. >> from 2012 to 2016, there were

260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. the mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m.t.a. to put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [♪] >> valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in san francisco. it has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday. we promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. valencia is our mission -- fits our mission perfectly. our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes. whether you are going there for

restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. >> i have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. during that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. >> we have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. one of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. >> the most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. >> we kept all the passengers -- the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see

out here. >> most people aren't actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. >> half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6:00 p.m., so could be used for five-minute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. >> the five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. >> one of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. >> we worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. >> on this lot, there are a few schools. all these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. to address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings -- railings that channel -- channeled a designated crossing

plane. >> we had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons? >> i do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. >> we have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the right-of-way so they can cross the roadway. this is probably one of the most unique features. >> during the planning phase, the m.t.a. came out with three alternatives for the long term project. one is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to one another against one side of the street. a two-way bikeway. the third option is a center running two-way bikeway, c. would have the two bike lanes running down the center with protection on either side.

>> earlier, there weren't any enter lane designs in san francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for san francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesn't exist already. >> with all three concepts for valencia's long-term improvement , there's a number of trade-offs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. when he think about extending this pilot or this still -- this design, there's a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. >> the pilot is great. it is a no-brainer. it is also a teaser for us. once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of valencia street. >> what we're trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. the pilot project is one of our first major improvements. we will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out here on the roadway, and to make

any adjustments to the pilot as needed. this fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. by spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about long-term improvements. >> i appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the community workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. >> we want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. there's a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. we will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [♪]

>> what we're trying to approach is bringing more diversity to our food. it's not just the old european style food. we are seeing a lot of influences, and all of this is because of our students. all we ask is make it flavorful. [♪] >> we are the first two-year culinary hospitality school in the united states. the first year was 1936, and it was started by two graduates from cornell. i'm a graduate of this program, and very proud of that.

so students can expect to learn under the three degrees. culinary arts management degree, food service management degree, and hotel management degree. we're not a cooking school. even though we're not teaching you how to cook, we're teaching you how to manage, how to supervise employees, how to manage a hotel, and plus you're getting an associate of science degree. >> my name is vince, and i'm a faculty member of the hospitality arts and culinary school here in san francisco. this is my 11th year. the policemrogram is very, ver in what this industry demands. cooking, health, safety, and sanitation issues are included in it. it's quite a complete program to prepare them for what's happening out in the real

world. >> the first time i heard about this program, i was working in a restaurant, and the sous chef had graduated from this program. he was very young to be a sous chef, and i want to be like him, basically, in the future. this program, it's awesome. >> it's another world when you're here. it's another world. you get to be who you are, a person get to be who they are. you get to explore different things, and then, you get to explore and they encourage you to bring your background to the kitchen, too. >> i've been in the program for about a year. two-year program, and i'm about halfway through. before, i was studying behavioral genetics and dance.

i had few injuries, and i couldn't pursue the things that i needed to to dance, so i pursued my other passion, cooking. when i stopped dance, i was deprived of my creative outlet, and cooking has been that for me, specifically pastry. >> the good thing is we have students everywhere from places like the ritz to -- >> we have kids from every area. >> facebook and google. >> kids from everywhere. >> they are all over the bay area, and they're thriving. >> my name is jeff, and i'm a coowner of nopa restaurant, nopalito restaurant in san francisco. i attended city college of san francisco, the culinary arts program, where it was called hotel and restaurant back then

in the early 90's. nopalito on broderick street, it's based on no specific region in mexico. all our masa is hand made. we cook our own corn in house. everything is pretty much hand made on a daily basis, so day and night, we're making hand made tortillas, carnitas, salsas. a lot of love put into this. [♪] >> used to be very easy to define casual dining, fine dining, quick service. now, it's shades of gray, and we're trying to define that experience through that spectrum of service. fine dining calls into white

table cloths. the cafeteria is large production kitchen, understanding vast production kitchens, the googles and the facebooks of the world that have those kitypes of kitchens. and the ideas that change every year, again, it's the notion and the venue. >> one of the things i love about vince is one of our outlets is a concept restaurant, and he changes the concept every year to show students how to do a startup restaurant. it's been a pizzeria, a taco bar. it's been a mediterranean bar, it's been a noodle bar. people choose ccsf over other hospitality programs because the industry recognizes that we instill the work ethic.

we, again, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. other culinary hospitality programs may open two days a week for breakfast service. we're open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days a week. >> the menu's always interesting. they change it every semester, maybe more. there's always a good variety of foods. the preparation is always beautiful. the students are really sincere, and they work so hard here, and they're so proud of their work. >> i've had people coming in to town, and i, like, bring them here for a special treat, so it's more, like, not so much every day, but as often as i can for a special treat. >> when i have my interns in their final semester of the program go out in the industry, 80 to 90% of the students get

hired in the industry, well above the industry average in the culinary program. >> we do have internals continually coming into our restaurants from city college of san francisco, and most of the time that people doing internships with us realize this is what they want to do for a living. we hired many interns into employees from our restaurants. my partner is also a graduate of city college. >> so my goal is actually to travel and try to do some pastry in maybe italy or france, along those lines. i actually have developed a few connections through this program in italy, which i am excited to support. >> i'm thinking about going to go work on a cruise ship for

about two, three year so i can save some money and then hopefully venture out on my own. >> yeah, i want to go back to china. i want to bring something that i learned here, the french cooking, the western system, back to china. >> so we want them to have a full toolkit. we're trying to make them ready for the world out there.ly app state leaders supporting us during these unprecedented and uncertain times, and thank you to the industry for your support and your continued support and for coming out with your questions and being certainly engaged in this process. so first i want to thank our

esteemed guests today. we have treasury fiona mah. we have state senator scott weiner and senior advisor to the governor, nicole eliot, and i will briefly read their bios for you and then we are going to sort of jump into it. i know we have about an hour. i want to make sure that we use our time wisely. i'm marissa rodriguez, the director of the office of cannabis. we also have eugene hillsman, deputy director of the office of cannabis and jeremy schwartz who is a permanent analyst with the office of cannabis as well. so fiona mah was elected to serve as california's 34th state's treasurer. the state treasurer's office provides financing for schools, roads, housing and other critical infrastructure projects that better the lives of californians. previously treasurer mah was a member of the state assembly

from 2006 to 2012 and prior to serving there, the treasurer served on the san francisco board of supervisors from 2002 to 2006, representing district 4. thank you, treasurer mah for being here. it's so nice to have you and it's so nice to have one of our own as everyone on this call today. so if you'd like to take this time to share with our community your thoughts on what's happening right now and any support for the cannabis community that you'd like to share. >> sure. can you hear me? >> -- our own, everyone on this call today. so if you'd like -- take this time to share with our community

your thoughts on what's happening right now and any support for the cannabis community that you'd like to share. >> sure. can you hear and see me? >> i can. thank you. >> all right. there i am. thank you, marissa, for pulling us all together and for everyone who's on the call who has been staying in touch and keeping in touch and very, very frustrated during this time where the federal government is helping most everybody else except if you're in the cannabis industry, which is not very fair, as we all know. over a year ago i testified in congress on the bill, the safe banking act as some of you remember. it finally did have a hearing earlier. i think it was -- was it when the democrats took over congress again and it got through the lower house, but it is, once again, stuck in the senate.

i know that some have been trying to get cannabis in some of the stimulus packages or assistance, however, because cannabis is still a schedule 1 drug, they are not eligible for many of the assistive programs that are coming out of the federal government. however, california is a little different, as we all know. not only in california can you deduct your ordinary and necessary business expenses against your income, unlike at the federal level, but we have really tried to move this industry forward the best that we can, at least here in california. so many of you, all of you, should be paying your tax, your sales taxings to the california department of fee administration. there was a 90-day deferral on paying and filing your first

quarter sales tax return. in addition, if you do need working capital, you may qualify to take a $50,000 loan and defer payment on a year. your annual sales revenues have to be less than $5 million, so that may not pertain to some of the bigger companies, but some of the smaller companies may be able to take advantage of this. and you need to call the california department of tax and fee administration and register for this program. again, it is interest free, $50,000 loan for up to a year, and you need to call sdtfa to figure out and sign up for their instalment plan. so unfortunately that's kind of the only program that is related to some sort of relief for the cannabis industry.

the i-bank also has put money into a loan loss reserve for [indiscernible] however, the only way you will be eligible for that money is if your bank is accepting cannabis clients, and i know there's probably close to two dozen banks now in california that have legally applied to take cannabis clients on, so you all know who you are out there. but definitely check your -- the ibank.ca.gov and see whether your participating lender participates in that and you may be eligible and qualify to get certain loans from the i-bank. so that's about all i have to report right now, and i will be here for the duration to answer any questions you may all have. >> thank you, fiona. we certainly appreciate your leadership, your unwavering support of the cannabis industry. you were instrumental in this

webinar happening, so i thank you for that. we are live here at the emergency operating center for the city as we put this webinar out to our community. again thank you everyone for tuning in. next we have our senator, state senator scott weiner who was elected in november 2016, senator scott weiner represents district 11 in the california state senate. district 11 includes all of san francisco, broadmoor, daily city and portions of south san francisco. the senator helped to champion compassionate cannabis care programs by introducing senate bill 34 which was approved by the governor in 2019. prior to his election to the state senate, he served on the board of supervisors representing district 8. thank you and happy to have you on the call, senator. >> thank you very much for -- excuse me, for having me, and

hello remotely to treasurer ma and to nicole. and hello, i'm sorry to be here by phone, but i hope you can hear me okay. hello to the entire cannabis community. we're going through some really hard times right now as a community, and we all need to look to the light at the end of the tunnel. we are going to get through this, and our goal needs to be that when we do get through it we can get both individuals and businesses back up on their feet, and so a lot of the work that we're doing right now is just to try to preserve the status quo, to keep renters stable in their homes so we don't have mass evictions, either now or after the worst of the emergency when people have massive back rents that they are

expected to pay right away. we don't want that. we want to make sure that we're stabilizing people, and we want to make sure that we're stabilizing businesses in their spaces, and non-profits, so that we don't see permanent mass closure of small businesses and non-profits, and so we're working on a few pieces of legislation. on the residential side i'm working with someone on legislation to protect renters and i'm also offering legislation that's 939 to try to stabilize small businesses and non-profits in their retail and office spaces by saying no moratoriums -- or no evictions, and we're going to have to deal with how we look at back rent. and then we're going to have to particularly for hospitality businesses, like restaurants and bars, that when they do reopen we will be required legally to have much lower capacity so that their business model no longer matches up with the rent in

their lease, and we're going to need to address that as well. so we are working on these issues. specific to cannabis, we all advocated successfully in san francisco, and i know in other places it happened -- not everywhere -- to classify cannabis as an essential business, and that was a real win. and i'm glad that it happened. but i know that the industry is really struggling right now, like all small businesses are. and in particular not being eligible for the federal small business loan, forgivable loan program. i know that's a huge hit and just one more example of the irrationality of our federal law. can't get any of these benefits.

it's not okay. in terms of the legislature this year, we are going back into session. we've been in recess for about six weeks due to the pandemic. the assembly returns to session on monday. the senate returns the following monday, on may 11, and we will be pursuing a more limited policy agenda this year around covid-19, of course, but also around some of the highest priority areas, like housing and homelessness and mental health, addiction, wildfires and so forth. and so we're all reducing the number of bills that we have and making them much more focused. i don't know that this year is going to be a big year for cannabis. i know there are some bills that have been introduced, and i'm sure that some things will happen, but i was hoping that this year we would be able to,

you know, finally pass the tax reductions, you know, the tax -- the state taxes are too high and are i think really stifling the industry and encouraging the elicit market. so that's something we have to address. weren't able to get it done last year. and then we have to deal with the issues of cities just effectively banning cannabis, and big swaths of california where it's effectively illegal, and so -- but i'm not confident that either of those are going to get resolved this year because just of everything that's happening. but stay tuned. we'll keep working, and again, thank you to everyone for all you do. >> thank you, senator. we really appreciate that, and we certainly appreciate your continued support of the industry as well. certainly difficult times, unprecedented times. there is no one who's immune to

this, and we certainly appreciate that, and also appreciate the fact that we are deemed essential during these times. but you know, still, there's a huge impact and we want to see what ways and how we can support the industry to get through this. so thank you and we appreciate having you on this call. next we have senior advisor on cannabis to the governor, nicole eliot. we know nicole very well, and we are so appreciative that you could take this call today. ms. eliot serves as governor's senior advisor on cannabis. prior to her current post, she was appointed san francisco's first director of the san francisco office of cannabis where she helped to set up cannabis's regulatory framework and permitting process. she has worked in a number of capacities with city and county -- with the city and county of san francisco, including stints as a deputy board liaison and director of legislative and government affairs in the mayor's

administration. thank you for being here. this community really values you and appreciates that you are willing to talk to us during these hard times. >> sure, always happy to have these conversations, and really happy to be back with my bay area family. thank you for putting this together and for treasurer ma as well, for facilitating the creation of this. a lot has happened since i've left. first and foremost, i had a baby. >> congratulations. >> thank you! my first day back was the first week of the shutdown, so it's been a really interesting transition back to the work environment, but we really hit the ground running starting with obviously deeming cannabis -- commercial cannabis as essential for the state of california, and since then have really been working with our licensing

agencies, our partner agencies, like the treasurer, like cdtfa and others in trying to determine what we can do within the current framework and our current constraints to provide support for the industry, whether that be from a tax relief standpoint, which the treasurer really outlined in her opening comments, as well as from regulatory standpoint, and i'm sure some of you are very familiar with some of the regulatory relief that has been extended by your licensing agencies. so trying to figure out what we can do to be as helpful as we can sort of in the immediate term and figuring out what we can do in the long term to support what will be recovery, but i will quote the governor when i say that these are very sobering and challenging times. we started this year with a multi-billion dollar surplus, and as he stated in his press conference today, we will enter the may revised with

multi-billion, tens of billions of dollars to cuts. so it's a tough time for everyone. i think senator wiener really expressed the challenges that the legislature will be faced with when working through the budget, that there are a lot of priorities that we really sought to tackle this year, and on the cannabis side you guys are all familiar with those priorities, tax simplification. the governor clearly indicated a willingness to talk about the structure of tax and whether or not there should be a reduction, either permanently or temporarily, as well as consolidation. and so that's all being impacted by the environment that we find ourselves in now. so i look forward to addressing your guys's questions today. again, i'm really happy to be here and happy to chat with you guys, and of course this is always an ongoing conversation.

>> thank you, ms. elliot. i appreciate that. i want to jump in because i want to be cognizant of time here. i want to let folks know that, one, first of all, thank you for emailing in with your questions. they are really thoughtful, and they -- they are thoughtful and they span a lot of different categories, and so we broke them down by way of taxes, regulatory structure, compassion, unregulated market, the pandemic and banking. we have some general questions, we have some local questions. because i have the privilege of being able to be in touch with our community more regularly, i will leave the local questions to the end. if we have time, we will address them. otherwise we will send them out in a response separately. but we are going to start now, and the members of our team will take each section and questions just to keep it a little bit more lively so you're not just

listening to me the entire time. again, we are reporting -- we are live here from the emergency operating center here in san francisco where city employees in san francisco are keeping the lights on during this unprecedented time. and i'd like to start with the first question, and all three of you, feel free to answer this one. with the current lack of banking, covid relief opportunities for the cannabis industry are severely limited at the federal, state and local levels. while we recognize the legislature is tasked with the economic health of california, we would like you to talk about efforts under way by the legislature that would specifically address economic relief for the cannabis industry and the likelihood of those efforts being realized in the short term. we'll start with the first section of this question, which is what is being done at the state level to move forward equality for cannabis businesses, specifically in regards to access to covid stimulus relief, lowering the overall tax burden, access to banking, and market rate

commercial loans? and i know that the three of you did touch on some of this in your opening remarks, but if you could again just kind of share with our community just your thoughts and your feelings on this point. we can start with fiona ma -- pardon me, treasurer ma. >> that's okay, call me fiona. anyway, as you know, this has been a big priority for me, trying to get banking access since i was on the state board of equalization. i'm glad to report that there are more and more banks that are willing to take on cannabis-related clients. of course they want to maintain some sort of balance, so many of them will have a certain amount of cultivators, distributors, maybe put folks in test, and they are also looking for other private equity folks who are investing. so they really wanted to diversify their portfolio and risk a little more, but every

day more and more banks are willing and open to taking more cannabis clients. but it is slow, and i think this covid-19 crisis has shown how important it is, right, with all of the social distancing and not wanting to touch surfaces, that dealing in cash is more and more probably even maybe a contributor to the covid-19 spreading. so i think folks are realizing that it is so important that we try to bank this industry as soon as possible. however, we are still always stuck in the senate because the senate is republican controlled, and that is going to be the first step in november, if we really want to see changes to cannabis, we all need to figure out how to, you know, take back the senate in november.

>> thank you, fiona. with that, does anyone else want to respond? >> well, i'll speak to a couple of those points. obviously on the federal advocacy side, our federal liaisons are doing quite a bit as behind-the-scenes advocacy in d.c. around the stimulus funding to try to get cannabis involved in that and supporting the efforts of, you know, certain representatives who are pushing clarity via bills to incorporate cannabis as well. to the treasurer's point, it is a big challenge to get the senate there, but we've seen a number of senators engage, including our state senator, kamala harris, our state senator, i should say, and kamala harris, who has really engaged in that space as well. so grateful for those efforts, but do know that we are definitely working on that in

d.c. and then beyond that, on the taxes, i think, you know, obviously you heard earlier that the state has done quite a bit around taxes now, not speaking necessarily to changes to the overall cannabis tax structure, but really looking at the sales and use tax deferral, which the state, you know, believes applies to an extraordinary number of cannabis businesses if they are paying, if they are annual taxable sales, for instance, something like 77% of our retailers would likely qualify for that. so that allows for that deferral of up to $50,000 and provides a 12-month payment plan. i will note that i believe cdtfa is willing to on a case-by-case basis consider operators that have a high amount of sales, so i think it's worth engaging cdtfa on that opportunity if you think that you are eligible or

even if you feel like you might be on the cusp, do take advantage of that resource as well as you clearly now have time to file your tax via the tax extension. so to the extent that there needs to be more clarity provided to the industry on that, please do let me know because we will be happy to push out more information to you guys to make sure that all operators are taking advantage of the resources that the state is providing, that they know about it and that they are taking advantage of it where they can. and then when it comes to banks, i mean, we have an incredibly committed set of elected officials who are really clearly advocating for, you know, banks' involvement in this space. the administration is also working on that, also behind the scenes, to try and engage banks. to the treasurer's point about the small business finance

center and having support to back loans that are being given by lenders, we understand that there are not very many lenders in this space, and so we are working on trying to figure out if there are institutions that are willing to engage in that space, but as you all know, that's a challenging conversation. so do know that that work is happening behind the scenes. >> thank you so much. and where would you point folks to for information, the best place to start this process? >> so i would encourage people to visit cdtfa's website as a starting point, and again, if you guys need additional information, please do reach out so that we can make sure you guys are able to access all of those resources. >> thank you so much. and senator wiener, did you have thoughts on this as well? perhaps the connection --

senator wiener, are you on the line still? okay, we'll work on that and get back to you. and then let's talk a little bit about, you know, the industry is ineligible for federal assistance. any talk on the state level about perhaps programs, grant assistance, that can help with economic relief in this space? >> do you want me to take that? >> sure. >> okay. so again, i think i mentioned in my early comments to level set everyone's expectations and unfortunately to be the bearer of a lot of bad news, you know, the state has set a budget -- has indicated they will be engaging in what they call a workload budget. so no new expenditures. so it is highly unlikely we will see new programs stood up, and so when i talk to operators and

to additional stakeholders in the industry, i really talk about how we can leverage existing programs. but we have a very challenged general fund, and so additional money going out is going to be very hard to come by. to be completely honest. so hence really looking at working within our existing framework, things like what cdtfa has done around tax deferral. i know there have been conversations about licensing fees, on where we as a state have capital and how we can get creative with that capital that already exists. but it will be a challenge to put out an additional program. i'll just be very transparent and honest about that, while still flagging that those are ongoing conversations. >> thank you so much. no, we appreciate the honesty. that's why we're here and we want to engage in this conversation. and with that, thank you. we'll move now to a different topic. the unregulated market.

>> sure. one of the things that a number of our operators have been interested in is around additional conversations about the state's plan to give legal businesses a chance to really compete against an illicit market that still controls a significant portion of the cannabis market. can you discuss existing state enforcement efforts and how the pandemic might impact proposed efforts? we can start with senior advisor elliott. >> sure. so existing state enforcement efforts i think we're quite transparent last year the governor outlined multiple pillars for his priorities. enforcement is one of those, and there was a stronger effort to coordinate enforcement across a number of agencies, and i mean a number. it's a large amount. to really get at the issue of

the illegal market, the informal market. and so that effort will continue this year. i think our challenge will be how we do that effort within this new work construct, but that is a challenge that we are wholeheartedly embracing, as well as of course there's dollars within our budget to put towards enforcement that includes funding that will go out through the bscc, to local jurisdictions to support local enforcement efforts, and also to our department of fish and wildlife to support efforts on the rural cultivation side. but i think it's -- the governor has made it very clear, enforcement is a top priority, thoughtful enforcement is a top priority, and so that will be something we continue to pursue and coordinate this year. >> thank you very much.

and now we're going to talk a little bit about compassion. >> jeremy schwartz here. thank you, treasurer, ms. elliott, senator wiener if you're still there for making yourselves available. i would like to acknowledge that in getting sportsnet bill 34 across the finish line regarding compassion programs and tax savings, to that point, i'll share an anecdote which is pretty shared amongst some of the inquiries we received. so this gentleman said "i'm renewing my medical cannabis recommendation with my physician on may 1. however, i'm unable to renew my state medical cannabis id card because san francisco department of public health card office is closed during this shelter in place. is there a way that the state of california could temporarily amend its regulations or

otherwise allow medical cannabis i.d.s to not expire in the coming weeks with the understanding that i believe the state vital records office is closed?" so i know that was a mouthful, but any sense about the medical marijuana i.d. card program? >> well, i would just jump in that governor newsom has a press conference every noon called newsom at noon, and he takes this opportunity to talk about executive orders. i do think he has been exercising a lot of his powers in this covid-19 pandemic, and certainly i think if the industry gets together -- like, this is the first time i heard that there was an issue about renewing your medical cannabis card, that this is certainly something that should be on his

radar. but you all have to -- and this is why we're on this webinar here today, is to really hear some of the day-to-day inconveniences or barriers that you all have. but certainly that is a good point. i know i oversee affordable housing, and there is a process called tefra hearings that needs to be done every year, and a number of them were expiring, but unfortunately tefra hearings are mandated under the irs code, so the governor cannot do an executive order to overturn the irs, so i've been lobbying the irs to try to get them to extend the tefra expiration or hearing process because many of the local governments are closed, like you said, and therefore they are putting in jeopardy a lot of the affordable housing projects that are trying to continue to move through the process. so we are facing this type of, you know, issues when governments close and we still need to get certain things done.

you know, what is it that government or the state government can help with. >> excellent. thank you, treasurer. ms. elliott, do you have anything to add? >> i'll just add, i mean, i think this -- you know, i want to give credit to the treasurer for setting up this conversation. she's totally spot on, that these are the types of forums that really allow for these types of challenges to be lifted up and brought to the attention of the state. and that was something that was brought to my attention yesterday. so we are running that down and hope to have an update, but we're definitely looking into it. >> thank you, kindly. >> and this is scott, i apologize, i had to jump off for something, but i'm back. >> thank you so much. and i don't know if you were able to hear the last question. if you'd like to chime in, happy to, or we can keep moving forward. >> your call. i didn't hear the question, but whatever makes sense for you. >> no, that's fine. we'll keep moving forward. thank you so much.

we saw the california department of alcohol beverage control mobilize quickly to provide unprecedented relief for their licensees by issuing sweeping industry-wide relief. to date, they have issued three significant regulatory relief packages, including the extension of licensing fees. conversely, cannabis licensees seeking relief must individually request relief and oftentimes each business has to request the same relief every 30 days. can you speak to efforts under way that would streamline and expand associated relief and associated timelines for implementation? >> so i'm happy to speak to that. the fee deferral program is based on fees that are shocking to the industry, not as high as your fees, and they have the ability as a long-standing department or agency to weather the financial storm of fee deferrals. so it is not lost on us that that is a request of the

industry. that is something we are looking into, but it does take quite a bit of analysis to understand whether or not that's something that the state can sustain, because we are working with a finite set of resources, and those resources support the work of these agencies and the legitimacy of this market. so do know that that is definitely something that we are looking into, but the abc's process is slightly different than the three licensing agency process. it's a bit more challenging, as you all know. >> right. thank you so much. thank you for speaking to that. and fee deferrals, any thoughts on deferrals? >> are you asking me that? >> yeah, just as a follow-up. >> so that's exactly what i was speaking to. >> okay, yeah. okay. thank you. and i don't know if treasurer ma or the senator would like to speak to that as well. >> well, i would just say the

squeaky wheel gets the grease, as we have seen in the last ppp stimulus package, a lot of the small business owners did not get any assistance, and there was a lot of folks who, you know, called their congressperson, their senators, and then now in the latest ppp round of stimulus money, they are really -- the banks are really focused on small businesses because they didn't have the chance last time because of the way the system was set up, because everything was done so quickly. so i would just say, you know, keep advocating. reach out to your assembly members, your senators, obviously san francisco is really small, so we know who they are. and of course the governor's office, nicole, myself, so that when these issues come up we can also chime in that this was an industry that also needs to be supported during this time.

>> thank you for that. eugene? >> sure. we know that there was a previous announcement regarding the pre-existing cannabis state licensing agencies. question: do you anticipate that the consolidation of those licensing authorities will proceed as planned? and if not, how will that affect the kind of general com lines associated regulatory change to improve efficiency? and anyone who has some additional knowledge about that can provide some feedback. >> so i know that the senator talked through some of the legislative challenges and framework that he'll be working through during the budget, and that the consolidation was proposed in the governor's january budget. that conversation is happening in real time. we have a may revised coming out soon, so i don't have any news to break on that, but i will say

this: we all know that there is a lot of work to do on the stateside around streamlining, and a lot of that work can be done administratively and will be done administratively. so if that moves forward this year, then there will be a lot of work to do. if it does not move forward this year, i know that this is a concept that the governor is very committed to, and there will be a lot of work to do. so regardless of what happens, i do think that simplification and streamlining in some form will be on our agenda for this year. whether or not that's in the form of consolidation in statutory language by july 1, 2020 or july 1, 2021. so i'll leave it at that. >> and i'm sorry, could you repeat that question? my phone was cutting out. i'm having quite a day with my phone. >> sure. the question was about the governor's announcement about the consolidation of the state licensing agencies and whether

the pandemic would impact the timelines and what are other opportunities to increase efficiencies at the state level. >> oh, yeah, that sounds like more of a nicole question. i think we're all always taking a look at how we can make life easier for people with various regulatory agencies that they have to deal with. i just cannot speak for this year because everything is in such tumult right now. the administration is truly drinking water from a fire hose on covid, and it's just -- it's too hard to predict what else will happen this year. >> and i'll just add to that, as far as opportunities, i think what i was trying to communicate, and i hope i communicated, but i will be very direct, there is a lot of opportunity space here. we all know that, and we intend to pursue that opportunity

space, whether that's done statutorily, regulatorily or administratively. it will be pursued. >> excellent, thank you. and, eugene, if you would -- i think the unregulated market, perhaps we can shift the conversation in that direction for a moment. >> sure. so you know, we talked a little bit about kind of what the potential actions at the state level and how they might impact kind of operators and the existing resources that will continue to be dedicated to fighting enforcement, and we talked a little bit, i believe senator wiener mentioned the possibility for kind of new legislation was unlikely, but there was a specific question about the jones foyer and rubio bills and what the prospects of them passing this legislative

cycle. >> i don't know -- if scott's still on, but i know the assemble is going to go back into session next week, and the senate is supposed to go back the following week. as i understand, they are really going to focus on the budget and covid-related legislation. so we're not really sure what -- legislation will move forward. scott, are you back on? >> yeah, i am. yes, so there -- i can't tell if there's going to be differences in the assembly. in the senate it's been made very clear to us we're not limited to only covid-specific bills. we have some covid-specific bills and obviously the budget is a high priority, as bloody and terrible as it's going to be, but there are other non-covid areas where we'll be

able to do work. and i think i mentioned those earlier on around housing, homelessness, wildfires, et cetera. the assembly is being -- it has been much more putting everything on the committee chairs so they can hear what they want to hear and prioritize how they want to prioritize. and so those bills, those are enforcement bills. i don't know whether under normal circumstances they would have political support to move forward. i am -- i assume those go to assembly public safety or maybe to assembly judiciary. i don't know how the chairs of those committees are viewing this, so it's very unclear whether those bills will move forward.

>> then again, this is democracy, and the legislators are coming back, so i would encourage you to, you know, continue to advocate on behalf of the important bills that you think are gonna move through right now. obviously not all the bills are gonna continue, but if you all as an industry can get together and prioritize, you know, these are the top three bills that we want to see, then it will have a higher chance instead of everybody just trying to, you know, support 5,000 bills. i mean, clearly 5,000 bills are not going to go through this year. >> we appreciate that, certainly. thank you so much. >> just to give you a sense, you know, i have -- and we -- and the senate, we're not like capping members bills, like you can only two five bills or four bills or seven bills or whatever, but we have been, you know, asked to really self-edit and to move bills that are in very high priority areas, that are time sensitive, and so

forth. and so i have jettisoned a majority of my bills, and these are some bills that i'm super-passionate about, and many of them i will reintroduce next year. but we have to be selective in what we move forward. we will have less legislative time, more focus on covid, and you know, it's going to be -- our proceedings are going to be clunky. like in the senate we're allowing remote participation. it makes things a little bit slower. so it's not going to be the -- as fluid and easy as previous sessions, so that's why we're really narrowing the number of bills. >> thank you very much. jeremy? >> jeremy schwartz here. so reverting back to banking, certainly an exciting development regarding the $50,000 -- the potential for up

to $50,000 for a bridge loan. treasurer ma certainly touched on increased operators perhaps providing some banking services, whether they are pilot programs initiated by credit unions. folks are wondering what this group feels is probably one of the most viable pathways forward for access to mainstream banking, whether it is a public banking option, federal intervention or other mechanism. >> well, i think during this time, you know, individual banks, as i mentioned, more and more are coming on-line, and many of them do have capacity. obviously they want those customers who have had, you know, a good track record, have been filing all their taxes, have all their permits in place. that's the easiest way for folks

to get a bank account in this new environment, and it is not easy because they do do an extensive background check, and if there's anything in your history, it may kick you out of, you know, their vetting system. so i would just encourage you to talk to your bankers, talk to other members in the industry who may have bank accounts. there's no list published. people, you know, still are being cautious in terms of how many accounts that they take, but clearly the industry is definitely moving toward opening up banking access for more cannabis companies. >> and i concur with that. i mean, i think if you're looking for the most expeditious pathway, it is really following the advice of our treasurer and trying to establish those relationships with banks that will learn to trust you as

operators but also will want to look into every nook and cranny, just like your regulators do when they review your licenses, your applications. so being transparent on that front hopefully will at least establish a banking relationship, understanding that lending is a bigger challenge in these economic times. you know, the federal government really needs to move on that to create a little bit more, you know, legal and regulatory certainty in the banking space to facilitate things like that. so continue to push your federal representatives and, you know, try to establish those relationships with your banks. >> thank you. again, i want to thank our esteemed guests today, treasure fiona ma, state senator scat wiener and sfr advisor nicole elliott. we are reporting here live from the emergency operating center,

and we are so thankful to have this opportunity to engage with our state leaders during these unprecedented times. i know i mentioned it earlier, but no one's immune to the challenges to date and ahead. one thing i do know for sure is that the industry has always been resourceful, will continue to be, and as a community we will work through these tough times together. it's been a while since we've had an opportunity to come together and talk about the state of our industry from a local level, so i wanted to take a few minutes now that we're getting to the end to talk to you a little bit about what's happening in the office. many of you know april marked my one-year anniversary, having taken over from nicole elliott, and thank you for standing up an incredible office, and it's because of that hard work that i believe we will be able to make it through these tough times.

we had the great advantage to be able to build upon a lot of that hard work, and this last year we had seen tremendous growth, momentum. we've built upon that, and we are proud of our numbers. of course we could never have imagined in a million years that today we would be sitting here telecommuting, having this webinar and dealing with a global pandemic that is going to impact all of us in a major way. and that means that during a time where things were booming we experienced slow process, and that was frustrating for a lot of our industry, and today that is not different. we will probably see more of that, but we will continue to work hard for the industry and to ensure that we are moving things forward. i want to take this time to thank our mayor, our city administrator, naomi kelly, our deputy city administrator for

their continued support of the passion and equity mission of this office. and i am grateful to all of our colleagues and to our industry for all of their support. we will continue to work hard and continue to be supportive of one another. that said, we'll put up our first slide. we'll share that for those of you who are calling in and can't see it. these are our numbers, just to get everyone caught up to date. we verified over 330 social equity applicants, which is tremendous hard work. we are very happy to announce that we met our q1 goal of -- excuse me, our q4 goal last year of permitting our first equity application. since then we have permitted four. i want to congratulate our last permittee, ms. reese benton, who i know is tuned in today. she has received her permit. that is four, and that is even during these tough times, so i know that we will persevere.

we have 15 applicants through the buildout phase. this number may look familiar. the reason is a lot of our important city processes had to be slowed in light of covid, and so getting those final buildout permits signed off is not happening right now, as you all know. so as soon as the shelter lifts, we expect to see a lot of movement in that space. we have 83 applications that were formally referred to the planning department for land use entitlement. that's incredible, and in fact there are six more on the way. we are able to continue to do our work. we are, as you know, six in our offi office. three have been deployed as emergency city workers. the others are keeping the lights on. we continue to engage. if you have questions, please, don't hesitate to reach out to our office. we will have meetings with you,

over the phone to ensure that you do still feel connected to our office. 83 applications formally referred to planning is huge, and we are very, very proud of that number. a year ago it was 24, and so there is momentum in that space. with our next slide. >> sure. so in addition to the general development of issuing four permanent permits, the office of cannabis also has about 160 temporary permits as a part of our amnesty program, which was an effort to bring the unregulated market into the regulated market as we continue to prioritize and process our social equity applicants. in addition, there are legacy operators, medical cannabis dispensaries who are able to sell adult-use products based on their progress towards the equity plans and commitments they've made to the city.

we have also developed some technical assistance resources. san francisco is one of the few, if not the only jurisdiction to partner with its county bar association, the bar association of san francisco. these fine folks panel with the bar, provide pro bono legal services to social equity applicants. to date about 250 hours have been provided. in addition, our partners at the office of economic workforce development have contracted with a law firm to provide additional pro bono legal assistance, which has started in about january/february, about 50 hours to date, for a total of 300 hours. and in addition, although there aren't events at this time, we did issue a permit for cannabis sales, on-site cannabis sales

and consumption at the music festival in golden gate park. this is a part of our pilot program which may be extended on a yearly basis through 2021. with that, i'll kick it back to director rodriguez to close us out. >> thank you so much, jeremy. i want to run through this just quickly. there were some questions on the local level for -- with respect to what is sort of happening during the shelter in place. people want to know whether they can have community outreach meetings. the answer to that is no. through june 1, community outreach meetings won't be happening. after june 1 we'll revisit that. there's questions about cannabis inspections, are they going to happen now. the answer to that is no. we are going to wait until the june 1 shelter lifts before we do that. once it's lifted, we will certainly start to bring up all of those things and start to see

some of that kicking off and momentum picking up. there are a couple questions with respect to the grants that i'm going to allow eugene to answer just so you can have some more information around that issue. >> sure. so i know folks have had a lot of questions about the process to -- [indiscernible] to our knowledge it hasn't been distributed to the city in the case of the fund, that they should be arriving any day now. we're really excited about the opportunity to provide some additional support to equity applicants who we know desperately need it. we're hopeful that those will start to be distributed in the summer of this year. the go biz fund which will require a resolution we're currently in the process of getting all of that information together. you may have seen the safe announcements regarding an additional $5 million of support that will be provided to the city and county of san francisco, so we're really interested and excited about the

opportunity to provide that money to equity applicants. we will need to enter into a formal grant agreement once the resolution is passed. it's unlikely that that will happen before june 1, but once the grants are dispersed, it's my understanding that those funds would need to be distributed in the next year. marisa, i can't hear you. >> apologies. sorry, i was muted. i want to give our esteemed guests an opportunity to close out, and i know there's a small surprise at the end with senior advisor elliott. for those of you who are tuned in visually and can see the screen. so let's start with treasurer ma, if you'd like to close out. >> thank you. i do have a couple more items i would just like to talk about with this group.

my website, www.treasurer.ca.gov has two links when you log on. one is to our covid-19.ca.gov which is our official excuse me, state website for health and other resources. and then i have a -- excuse me. covid-19 resources guide that is updated continuously for small businesses, tax relief, food, as well as individual resources, and so please log on. if you have any questions, you can email me at askfiona@treasurer.ca.gov and we will answer your questions as quickly as possible. be careful of scams these days as people are thinking they're going to get their $1200

stimulus check or other type of loans. government will never call you and ask you for your personal social security number or ask you for your bank routing number or ask you to pay over the phone. so those are all scams. and then if you could just take a couple minutes to answer the census questions, we count people every ten years. the federal government gives us over a trillion dollars to the states, and they allocate it based on some sort of census-related data, so every person that is not counted will cost us a thousand dollars per person for ten years, and we get a lot of money for everything from education to public safety to seniors to child care. and so please take a little time to do that. and then also the governor released this week a list of approved outdoor activities, so please google it. you will find the list. it's a pretty extensive list.

i know it's beautiful here in san francisco, and everybody wants to go outdoors, but the governor's really trying to make sure that we continue our social distancing so that we can continue to protect the health and safety of all the residents. so again, thank you all for accommodating us here today. i hope you all stay safe. be well. help each other during this time, and we will get through this together stronger. so thank you, marisa, thank you to the team and nicole and senator scott wiener and to all we're doing to get through this pandemic. >> thank you so much, treasurer ma. this would not have happened without your leadership, and thank you for continuing to support the cannabis industry. we really, really, really appreciate you. >> thank you. >> next i'd like to ask senator wiener to close out.

did we lose him? i know he was having some difficulty with his phone. okay. in that case, we will go on to senior advisor nicole elliott. >> thank you, guys, for putting this together, for having me. thank you to the treasurer for supporting the development of this discussion and to senator wiener for joining and all your advocacy behind the things that we collectively care about. and to the industry, hang in there. it's going to be, you know, a challenging couple of years. the governor's very -- clearly very committed to seeing legalization be a successful exercise, and so to the extent that you guys have more questions that we can work to answer or address, please feel free to reach out to me. i am a one-woman show, so i will do my best to respond as promptly as i can, but it's nicole.elliott@gobiz.ca.gov. and we have a special guest who

wanted to say hi to her san francisco family. lucy. >> ah! so sweet. >> she looks forward to meeting you all in person at some point when we are released back into the wild. >> that was our surprise. thank you so much. again, thank you, and i just want to double-check, do we still have the senator on the line? looks like we have lost him, but we just want to thank you, senator, for participating and, of course, thank you to nicole elliott and lucy for always supporting our industry and our community, and hailing from san francisco as all of these great leaders do, thank you all so much. thank you for tuning in. we will have our newsletter out next week, so you will be able to get more information about the billings under the office of cannabis in addition to answers to some of the questions that we couldn't get to today. some of them were bcc oriented,

so we will point you in the right direction and get that information to you, and i also want to remind folks that now that it's may and i think you can still get it, but the san francisco magazine has a story about our equity program and features some of our equity applicants, so make sure you pick that up and support the community. we thank you so much. thank you for tuning in to our cannabis webinar. have a wonderful day. ♪ ♪ ♪