>> for an emergency planning communication is very important, and so i can't stress enough the importance of figuring out a communication plan for your family, and for the department. that is why we are practising today how we communicate and interact with each other, how we share information, and how we use that information, and then for the city as a whole, so that the city as a halt knows what is going on as well.

>> -- a lot of messaging about new year's eve, and the fact that things are closed, to continue to be responsible, and i think as much as we can get that message out outside of the business community, that's really, really important because we just want to avoid any kind of illegal indoor gatherings during this time, new year's eve especially, because that could create another surge. just as we're hoping that

doesn't happen with christmas, the same with new year's. you'll see a lot of messaging around that. our inspectors will be around new year's eve, as well, just wearing the sirt hat. sirt has been busy with the regulation changes. that's all i have for you this evening. let me know if you have any questions. >> seeing any questions here, i have none. is there any public comments on director weiland's report? >> clerk: i'm checking to see if there are any hands raised, and there are no hands raised and no comments in the chat box.

president bleiman, i believe you're on mute. >> how long was i on mute? >> clerk: the entire time. >> okay. we'll call item 5, the deputy director's report. >> okay. good mornin good evening, commissioners. if you have the enforcement report pulled up, i just want to mention the sound complaints

that we've been receiving have been few and far between. since we last met, we've had a total of nine complaints lodged, which is really minimal. of those nine complaints, seven were taken care of. the only one remaining is business bodega at 700 columbus. i only mention this complaint because there is a neighbor that is complaining about this business. bodega does have a jam permit. we did respond to this on friday evening, and inspector f fiorentino found they were in compliance with their permit. it's no surprise we are seeing

less complaints with outdoor dining and the majority of our activities suspended at this time. >> all right. any questions for deputy director? okay. is there any -- i don't have any, so thank you for that. kind of quiet couptime. is there any public comment? >> clerk: i am checking. there is no hands raised, and there is no comment. >> okay. i'll call item 5. discussion and possible action to send a letter of support to policy makers for specific policy recommendations from san francisco's economic recovery task force as well as the proposed relief package and

policy solutions from the san francisco venue coalition and the independent venue alliance. >> this is in response to the last two meetings that we've had on november 17, and december 1, where we heard from the san francisco venue coalition and the independent venue alliance both locally coming together, asking local government and the entertainment commission to support specific policy proposals that i put forward. and then, we put a little bit more staff into those policy proposals and just ensure that we're putting out a larger message to the community, as opposed to saying, this is what we support in full. do some policy proposals and let the mayor and board of

supervisors know what our statements are, and then do a little bit more analysis from assessor recorder chu and what you've heard in the economic task force report recommendations. so what we did was we combed through all of the arts, culture, hospitality, and entertainment recommendations, and just as a reminder, president bleiman and i served as members of the task force as well as many other people in the industry, and pushed forward what you see right now. what you received is a five-page document that i sent towards all of you with recommendations for, you know, discussion and potential approval along with a draft letter that we will send to the mayor and board of supervisors

kind of outlining the problem and how we researched this issue. let me know if you have any questions. happy to review this with you, especially if there are changes that you want to see, and then, what i informed president bleiman just for process tonight, we don't have to make a really long motion separately here all the changes. let's just discuss it, and if we can get some solid agreement, then you can make a motion to direct staff to implement the changes that you discuss, and then, we can send out a new recommendation to mayor and board of supervisors tomorrow. so go for it. president bleiman? >> yes. i just want to turn it over to commissioners. i believe we've all had a chance to read this. i've gone through it pretty extensively, and i've spoken to a few of you who have mentioned the same. i don't have any specific questio questions around it, but i just want to turn things over to the

other commissioners and see if anyone has anything they want to specifically bring up or ask questions about it. one thing we might ask, you know, is what the next steps are after we send this out and what that might look like. do any other commissioners have any questions, comments? >> i think the document covers everything that, i think, even, you know, the situation and how much night life has brought to san francisco, and how that's important. i have a question. is this only going to the mayor and board of supervisors? are we going to be able to send a copy or anybody can send a copy to, maybe, the governor's office because he's got that $500 million set aside for small business maybe? are we only stuck on sending

this to the mayor? >> well, i will say that our escalation priorities on this is if you scroll down the letter, on page 2, we've listed out andre powers as well as edward mccaffrey. he's tracking all of that and has relationships with our lobbyists in washington and lobbyists at the state, so that's kind of the path we go? however, i will note that this is already a public document. it's already on-line in draft form, and once it's finalized, it will be uploaded to the website. so as commissioners, you could share this beyond technically. one i thing that i will just flag that i would love for the commission to make sure is added is i want to formally

c.c. martha cohen from the mayor's office. that was just an oversight on my part, but she's, you know, in charge of events on part of the mayor's office. let me know if you have any questions, commissioner lee. >> you covered it. it looks like you got everything. >> yeah, i just wanted to say thank you to director weiland and staff. this is exactly what i was looking out, and i was hoping we'd go through and pull out recommendations and put it in put it in this format, so i'm happy to support this going forward. president bleiman, do you want to put forth a motion? >> i just want to see if any other commissioners have any other comments, and also, i

want to echo the sentiments that you just made because i think it's important that we have kind of a consensus agreement on what it is we should be focusing on as a commission right now because i was talking to commissioner wang today, and we have two responsibilities. one is to mitigate night life and sound, and we're always trying to find ways to promote. and since covid happened, everything has been just flipped on its head. other than the time spent by support weiland and the sirt team, we're thinking about only how to promote and save night life, and we have a role to play in that that is the

greatest crisis ever to face night life in san francisco in the history of this city, so it's now or never. so the idea that we have a working document that we can use now as kind of a guiding light in the advocacy of what we want to do, and having read it, it's perfect. it's the exact document -- sorry. she won't shut up until i do this. this is a living document, so thank you for working on this and coming up with this. any other commissioners have comments? >> thank you, director weiland. i think it captures everything that we were saying at the last

meeting, and i think, ben, what you were saying is i think we were more of a role of advocates, so to the scent that you were helping to relay this information to the mayor and board of supervisors, please let us know if there's anything we can do to support that effort. >> is there any public comment on this agenda item, senior analyst rice? >> we have one person in the attendee list who has raised their hand. casey loudermilk. i'm going to allow casey to talk. so casey, please unmute yourself and let us know if you're here, and then, you have two minutes for public comment. >> yes. excellent. can you all hear me?

>> clerk: yes. >> yes. thank you, president bleiman and commissioners. i'm casey louder will milk, an representing the san francisco entertainment coalition. just tonight, supervisor haney introduced a san francisco independent recovery bill, so there's traction thanks in no small part to your efforts, so i urge you to keep this going. thank you. >> clerk: okay. next up, we have duncan. duncan, you are unmuted, and you have two minutes. >> great. thank you hear me?

>> clerk: yes. >> okay. thank you so much. my name is duncan [inaudible] from piano fight in downtown san francisco. i also want to second the statement from casey loudermilk. taking off the venue hat, i've lived in the bay area my entire life. my first concert was in 1992 was beck on his midnight vultures tour. venue and entertainment has always been a part of my life, so this is not just about my job, this is also really, really close to my heart. so thank you for taking up the cause, and i urge you to fight

on with us. >> clerk: there's nobody else with their hand raised and no chat. if you want, i can flash the information again on the screen, public comment. >> that's fine. >> clerk: all right. there's still nobody with their hand raised and no chat in the chat box. >> all right. we're going to close public comment on this agenda item. i don't usually do this, but i would love to personally motion to support this letter -- to vote to support this letter, and i hope i would get a

second. >> seconded. >> second. >> third. >> commissioner wang got in there first. >> you've got to be fast with the buzzer around here. >> so it has been motioned and seconded. >> all right. [roll call] >> all right. thank you very much for the staff's incredible work on this. i know how hard you worked on it over the weekend and for that, so thank you again. that's one small step for humankind here. all right. i believe that's the last item. all right. so the final item on the agenda tonight is number six, which is

commissioner comments and questions. surely we've got something. anybody have anything interesting? >> no, other than merry christmas, everybody. we won't see each other till next year, right? >> i'm sad to miss our annual holiday party. >> yeah, that's true, too. >> me, too. >> so i just had one thing to say. so i know how hard our leadership in the city is working, and i did write a letter to them not in my capacity as entertainment commission president but in my capacity as a civilian business owner in asking them to forego their 3.5 week vacation to work on timing solutions to help small businesses, especially in the hospitality and

entertainment industries. specifically, i asked them to hold a hearing as soon as possible before the end of the year that would do two things: one, it would give the health leaders an opportunity to show us actual data on outdoor dining and how stopping outdoor dining would lead directly to a decrease in covid. i was really clear that i'm not skeptical about it, but i just would like to see some hard data because the impact on bars and restaurants in san francisco of losing outdoor dining is so significant. it definitely would require a little more communication, little more information for everyone, and just anecdotally, having seen the absolute vacuum

of information that was provided from that outdoor dining shutdown, like any vacuum, it got filled with some of the worst possibly information, and i am seeing conspiracy theories and very, very cynical -- very cynical takes and very cynical prescriptions as to what's happening because there was such a lack of data and such a lack of communication, and i think that's a detriment to our ability to operate together in the city. that's one side of it. and the other side that i asked for is to find actual financial relief for small businesses, especially ones that have been prevented from doing outdoor dining in san francisco. no one is being hit harder. we don't have any time left, many of us. bankruptcies are happening, closures are coming, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse, and the city needs to find sources of income,

whether it's public-private partnerships, matching funds, unlocking the $500 million in accounts that's sitting unused that could immediately go back to the workers. it's supposed to support, especially undocumented workers, who are unable to access state or federal unemployment funds. and meanwhile, we have $500 million sitting in someone's account, possibly accruing interest for somebody, maybe the private company that manages it. i don't know. i'm trying to get answers to this. so the two sides that i asked for are data around outdoor dining close you ares -- not indoor, but outdoor, and finding funding sources. and this is -- this is something that we have to pay attention to right now because

we are in a very critical time between now and, i'd say, three or four months, where we can take measures right now that would actually save a significant number of night life businesses in san francisco or we can continue to say we can't find any money or we don't know where the funding would come, and we're going to watch them disappear forever, so this is it. it's kind of like -- i'm reading obama's book right now, and it's kind of like where he had to make the decision of saving the auto -- the big three auto makers and there was a lot of anger, and it was a difficult decision, but he made the decision to save them. i'm droning on here, but this is really important to me, and i just want to use my public comment time, my commissioner public time to call it out. now is not the time to take a vacation, now is the time to

directly address the issues that are in front of us and help us right now because it's now or never. it's going to be too late if we don't. is there any public comment on commissioner comments and questions? >> clerk: i'm checking the attendance list, and there's no hands raised, and there's no chat comments. >> all right. in that case, i'm going to close public comment, and we will adjourn this meeting at 6:00 p.m. everyone, it's been a pleasure. this has been a really hard year, and i believe we'll see you again in the new year, which is going to be totally different, because it's 2021 and not 2020, i guess, but thank you all for your commitment and your work here, and we're going to adjourn the meeting. be safe. >> thank you. happy holidays, everyone. >> thank you. >> happy holidays. >> happy holidays. >> happy holidays. >> thank you, everybody. >> bye.

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