own love on hate as well as i am i am vice president of the ashbury association and i would like to really say thank you for the safe sleeping site and that helped out a lot during the pandemic and i had a heavy issue outside of my shop. and they have helped out and what we are dealing with now and a new fresh round of homeless youth that i haven't seen before. and i am wondering to encourage people to do something to get these new homeless youth into the safe sleeping sites and i am going to reopen the next few days. and the condition of the street just really matters being able

to not have to walk around feces, not having to walk around people. and it would be really helpful if we could get the conditions of the street better and the difference made since we have insurance and everything. and giving more than $1,000 which isn't the deductible for the broken window. and things that i personally would like more effort given to the conditions of the street as my personal opinions. thank you so much. >> thank you. next comment please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. and the co-chair of the sfpd school business forum. and with the vice president of

association and a number of other things and the issue with the crime and predominantly repeat offenders and notice the revolving door and just go in and walk out the door. and from that sort. the commissioner said. and all kind of things getting out there. and vandalism. they are not stealing anything and most of the time and is really crazy and consequences and you can't keep doing this over and over again.

somebody comes and in is an assault and is really terrible and i know it's terrible and i bet every one of the folks and what they can get away with. and until there are consequences, it is really terrible. and just want to mention some of the homeless situation. and the trash and everything. and so dpw says, well, we can clean up around them a bit. and you have the thoughts and outside of the small business and provide a place to, fine. and help them clean up and that also impacts and more concern and as we have the impact to get

back to resolving door and consequences. >> next caller please. and good afternoon. my name is steven cornell. i am a former owner of the hardware store on polk street for 40 years and a member of the polk street merchants association and member of the council district merchants. i have heard the stuff this afternoon and heard it for many years and we have to rely on what we read in the newspaper and big corporations and walgreens and c.v.s. have closed their businesses and mainly because the crime issue that people come in and steal things and nothing happens. and that is pretty devastating to us. and we end up thinking, if they

can't do it, what can we do. and so a lot of times crime gouz goes unreported. and nobody bothers with it and we all perceive that nothing is going to happen. and the board president shark shark mentioned earlier, a lot of this stuff seems to go unreported. and with the to talk about the clearance rate and the report isn't taken initially or gone or followed through, and keeps the clearance rates much better. and i think we have to look at how much crime is out there. and next caller please.

my name is charlotte and i have three gyms in san francisco and i have been broken into and vandalized and customers assaulted and seen people masturbating on sidewalk, and drug dealings and overdoses in front of my business. and the small business owners have probably also experienced it as well. [inaudible] crime is getting worse and moving out of lower income neighborhoods and maybe it's the d.a.'s approach to crime and i don't know if there is a problem that is getting worse. and i have a few questions related to the past experiences that i have had with police. and the first is about police reports. when i need to file a police report and to dealing with the aftermath of the crime with the broken window. in order for the report to be

filed and the person that was a victim, sorry, and. most people and they are busy with work and getting the business fixed. why isn't this process automated for the police? and the reports are automatically filed at the time of the crime to speak out with the police. and the police say the best defense is security cameras and this is a huge expense for small businesses. and this cost is usually more expensive than any of the damage that we have experienced. if you multiply this by all the businesses on the commercial corridor, it is the small fortune for all the private surveillance each year. and why isn't the city installing police cameras on commercial corridors that this is what is needed by police to solve crimes which i have been repeatedly told. thank you. >> thank you. next caller please.

>> caller, please mute your device. >> caller, can this caller be muted? >> thank you. >> caller, i'm sorry to have muted you, but the tv was on. next caller please. >> that was the last public comment. do you want me to try unmuting them again? >> i guess so. let's -- it sounds like they were at the end of the prior commenter's comments. hello. >> please mute your computer or tv in the background. thank you. you are here. please make your comment, caller. >> hi. lloyd silverstein calling.

and i have three different devices trying to get in. so first of all, thank you for letting us participate in this. i'm sorry that d.c. lazar and the d.a. are not here because i feel like i am preaching to the choir a little bit. i wanted to repeat some of the things that some others have said regarding prevention more than what can count on from the police. we have heard the same thing in our neighborhood. i am in hays valley and head of the merchants association with autumn. people don't want to report crimes and don't feel it will go anywhere and is a cumbersome process and my daughter lives in the neighborhood and she has given up and if you look next door and from that neighborhood and we have one out of every three businesses that were vacant. and nobody wants to be in the neighborhood and step over drug addicts and dirty streets all the time.

and privately fund this enormous undertaking and throw out there and there is a safe city camera program that is chris larson's program. and i smoke to him several months ago because his program is active in the b.i.d. and civic center and is not in the right area here in hays valley, we don't qualify. one of the things to find private financing for this. and as a small merchant association which is still in formation, and we don't really have that kind of access. and wondering if the small business to help us and video is what is needed and hang out with the understand the rights to privacy issues and what we are

talking about constantly is getting access from our videos to the police. and if you don't have a video, you can't give them anything. from what i understand in neighborhoods with these program, it is video take that is difficult to get the break-ins to police. and i want to stamp my name with hays valley to get the help we can get and cars, broken windows in front of my store two or three times a week. we had a beat patrol for a minute and a half and they're gone. anyway, thank you. >> thank you. was that our last commenter? >> yes. that was the last public comment. >> commissioners, did you have any other additional thoughts before we go on to the next topic? >> commissioners, vice president zouzounis. >> thank you. thank you, president laguana. thank you to the public commenters and the presenters.

i just kind of wanted to sum up some of my thoughts around how we're going to -- some next steps i think for our commission. i'm glad we have this high level conversation about the landscape and the tools that sfpd and the district attorney's office has and i would like to have a follow-up conversation around how d.p.w. and d.b.i. and sfpd and maybe the cbd's are coordinated with ease of business and wonder with solving and trying to prevent property crime. and what i see is that businesses need to board up the win dose and install a gate and running into a slew of issues that fall into d.b.i. and

d.p.w.'s hand that are preventing them from protecting and i think we need to advocate to get rid of the abatement fees and businesses not occurring with fines and the new sense of abatement at the time. [please sta

then be told, there's nothing that can be done because the crime has been committed. i'm just thinking couldn't we find a way to have some sort of online service that says, you know, car break-in in front of my business that would capture some of the information. but, you know, i don't blame for not reporting it, they know nothing generally is going to happen unless it is pretty major. but the little things for all of

our businesses really add up. i'm just putting that out as an idea. i just think it would be helpful. get the stats to be more realistic. >> i think president laguana is having technical issues.

>> vive president zouzounis: did we have any other commissioners who would like to give comment before we close this item? can we call item 3 please? >> clerk: item 3 presentation, local and regional stay at home orders and vaccination plan and update on regional and local stay at home orders and vaccination plan and discussion item. the presenter is dr. susan philip, san francisco department of public health. >> this is susan, if you can

give the control over to me, i will share. >> clerk: absolutely. >> thank you. good evening vice president zouzounis and commissioners. thank you for the opportunity to be here, i hope president laguana is able to rejoin. i'm dr. susan philip, and i'm happy to share an update with you today. i still don't have the button available to me, but maybe it is coming. >> clerk: it's on its way. >> thank you. are you able to see the presentation? >> clerk: yes. >> great. thank you so much to be here. i have a brief presentation. i want to have you all know where we are and then looking forward to questions and discussion. i want to start by saying, i

know what a difficult year this has been for the community, it has been difficult for everyone. and i have been listening to some of the conversation, i know that there are multiple ways it has been challenging and the public health restrictions we're trying to balance preserving life and health in san francisco are very, very difficult. i know that the community has really been enduring a lot and that people are challenged and frustrated. i'm so happy i can come here today and we are going to be moving to open up many of the businesses according to the purple tier in the state's system. that is great. and we can certainly talk about that. we really appreciate your patience as we have tried to make our way through the pandemic and realizing there are no true right or wrong answers to this. there are only trade-offs and all of the decisions have come with a cost.

i want to show you the data though and show you the sacrifices everyone has been making over the past year has saved so many lives in san francisco and now we have the promise of vaccines. it is not immediate but it will be our ticket out. i wanted to go ahead and start the presentation and just to say this is our picture of our first mass vaccination site at city college in san francisco. we'll talk about our plan. the first piece of what we hope is a massive city-wide effort to get vaccine to every citizen and person who works in san francisco who wants it. we want everyone to want it. we'll need your partnership with that. i'm going start with just giving an update of where we are. we'll talk about where we are with reopening and then talk about vaccines. so where are we by the numbers?

all of these are available on the sfgov website for people to review and updated daily. we have just under 30,000 cases reported in san francisco. unfortunately 293 san francisco residents have died of covid-19. we are now averaging about 261 cases per day. we are testing more than any other city or county in california and we have been doing about 8,000 tests per day on average. and 195 people have been hospitalized as of the 21st. so, you know, the numbers are not as meaningful, except in comparison to what we could be, so when we look at san francisco compared to many other major metropolitan areas, what we see with the exception of seattle, we have the lowest cases per

population. what we really care about is death, preventing having our hospitals overrun and preventing people from dying from covid-19. when we look at that, by far, san francisco compared to all the other cities here by far have the lowest deaths and people are less likely to die in san francisco than other cities when they become ill. our testing is very, very high and explains why we see so many cases. covid-19 is asymptomatic 40% of the time. unless you're doing a lot of testing, we're likely to miss many cases and it will just be the percentage of people who have symptoms or become very ill. all in all san francisco from a public health standpoint has done very well because of the collective actions and sacrifices of all of your members, of the small business community and so many people

throughout san francisco. but with that good news and the good news of opening, we have to continue to remember that our case rate remains very problematically high. what that means, there's more virus circulating in san francisco now than there ever has been before. one of the key messages we want you all to share with your constituencies as leaders is that just because we are reopening, doesn't mean that all activities are now safe. it's going to take a great deal of care and caution as we proceed to ensure that we don't have, again, a rise in our hospitalizations and very sick people who go on to die that could cause us to have to roll back yet again. so we use a series of health indicators grouped across five areas to monitor our covid-19

status in san francisco and we want to know how our cases are doing and we want to know is our health system able to handle the pandemic. what we don't want to have happen is what we saw in the spring in italy and new york city, where the hospitals were just overwhelmed with the number of sick patients and no one was able to get adequate care, whether you had covid-19, a heart attack or motor vehicle accident. we have to preserve that healthcare capacity. when we look right now to see where the acute care beds are, is there a hospital bed if you need it, we are exceeding our goal here and if you need an icu bed, is that available? that is also exceeding our goal. that is very good. what gives me pause, and make us all feel cautious, the number of new cases per day is 30 and,

again, out of context it is difficult, but just to say it is twice as high as the last time we were in purple and we were opening. so you're twice as likely to encounter someone with covid-19 who may be asymptomatic than you were the last time we were starting to reopen businesses, outdoor dining, personal services and other things. a lot of experts will say if you have greater than 25 cases per 100 a day, that is the tipping point for uncontrolled spread. this is to say we're at a very precarious point. we understand that economic health is public health and people need -- we need to have people employed and have economic engines that small business provides as quickly as possible. but we have to do it with caution. and so that is going to involve all of us and you as leaders

messaging that, reinforcing that with employees, peers and across the city as well. so if we look at where we are, i talked about how our case rate here during this peak were way higher than the summer or spring peak. you can see that here. what we saw as we expect, this virus takes opportunities and advantage of when people come together and we saw this surge in cases right after thanksgiving and then we saw somewhat of a decline and then another slight surge at christmas and new year's. fortunately because of the care people were taking and because they were heeding messages, we didn't see as much of a peak as we were concerned we would. unfortunately what we're seeing now, the case rates are coming down. that is very good news.

but we are still in a tenuous space and this could easily tip up again into a higher number unless we're doing the things that we know decrease the threat. that is, keeping distance as much as possible, keeping face coverings on and really trying to do hand hygiene, the most important thing is masking and keeping distance.

we have seen the hospitalizations peak and come down. that is excellent news. we don't want to strain the healthcare system we all need. we have 194 hospitalized patients and 53 in the icu and three we're taking care of that have come out of care. i think some of you have heard of this concept of the reproductive number. we want it to be less than one. if the number is one then for every one person who has covid-19, they are transmitting to one other person. if it is above one, it means there's going to be growth if each person is transmitting to more than one person, it multiplies. if it is below one, that means the pandemic locally is shrinking and numbers are getting smaller. we do that by each person, if they test positive, isolating

away from other people so the virus can't spread beyond that person. by distancing and people isolating when they get tested positive, by doing the amount of testing, the sheer amount of testing we have done, san francisco as a whole has been able to bring the reproductive number down below one. that is good, that means the numbers are shrinking as we saw in the graph. that is what we need to keep happening but we were above one right before the holidays, the december holidays. we need to be very aware that keeping the number below one is so important. as we go back up, that's when we threaten our reopening plans we want to stay in place. let's talk about reopening. i know it's so important to the group and i'm glad i can come

here on a day that mayor green and dr. colfax have been able to announce the good news. we are no longer subject to the california regional stay at home order and that was the state order that really prescribed what we could and could not do. we tomorrow will find out what tier we'll go in, we expect we'll be in the purple tier given the very high case rate. that is the most limited tier. and that will happen tomorrow. our goal is to very much match as much as possible all of the sectors and activities allowed in the purple tier. in some cases we may have additional safety limitations to stop the spread of the virus in san francisco, but for the most part, we'll follow the tiers. if you remember, the last time we had tried to open, we had been trying to stay one tier behind. we were sort of artificially going behind what the state would allow us to do. this time we want to match what the state is doing and that's

going be the region as well matching the tier. we know it was challenging previously and we're hoping this is a little more simple to understand and to follow. again, i have to say that cautious approach has saved lives in san francisco and we know it is very challenging for business owners and residents. we're going to try this approach going directly to the tier and it is going to take all of us doing our level best and influencing everyone to keep it going. there will be the quote unquote 10:00 p.m. curfew or close will be in effect at the time being and hotels can resume for tourism but local travel quarantine is going to stay in effect. if you leave the bay area and come back in for certain non exemptions for essential travel. if it's vacation, people have to

quarantine for 10 days and some of that is because of the new coronavirus variants and concerns of bringing in additional cases. we want to give san francisco the best chance to be able to succeed with reopening and we don't want to import additional cases from outside of the area. recognizing that our neighbors, southern california and other parts of the country have rates much higher than we have here. we'll issue the final health order on wednesday and become effective the morning of thursday. that's the timeline we can expect. we are reopening again at such a high case rate because we recognize that economic health is public health. i want to say that directly. we know it is very important to do that. people have been struggling and challenging for so many months. and again, this is only going to help if -- work if we're all

helping and putting in a new level of effort into it. i know it feels overwhelming, people are so tired right now. we can see the finish line with the vaccine so individuals and business vs. to work together in ways perhaps we haven't done before to make sure it is successful. this is the most ambitious

distribution plan we've had in city's history. some of this is not at our control. we're trying to control every aspect we can but the chief thing we're facing right now is not having enough vaccine. this is not just san francisco. this is true every where. we are hopeful we'll see changes and better understanding of where the doses are and when they're coming and -- but we haven't had that kind of insight right now. it's challenging for public health. the state and federal government control the allocation and we are required to follow their recommendations for tiering and for how we ask and invite people to get vaccines. we are ensuring healthcare workers per the state's guidelines and expanding to older adults, most at risk for

dieing if they become infected. we are creating a lot of options for people to get vaccines. they are safe, they are effective. these are very large and rigorous trials. some people may have concerns about how did it happen so quickly, how did it happen in less than a year and that again is unprecedented but it is not because any of the steps in the usual vaccine development process were skipped, it's because of the fda used the same requirements but allowed the manufacturers to overlap some of them. we were starting in the phase 2

trials before they realized the initial phase 1 studies would work but got good signal at every step and allowed them to compress the timeline and they weren't starting completely from scratch. the coronavirus causes the common cold. so they were starting from a good base of knowledge and then had innovative help in the regulation to do it as quickly as possible. serious side effects from the vaccines are rare. the general population is likely going to have access to the vaccine the summer and latter part of 2021. some of it depends on how quickly the manufacturers ramp up and when we find out if there are other vaccines in the pipeline that are effective. the more plants we have making vaccine and bringing them online, the faster we can get them out.

all vaccines for covid-19 are free. that's an important message to say. it doesn't matter the type of insurance or if you don't have insurance. this is available to everyone who works and living in san francisco. how does it come into san francisco? this is important to understand from a concept standpoint. we don't control all of this at public health. we're happy to give these slides for everyone to look at them afterwards but starting here in the blue on the left, the federal government purchases and allocates the vaccine supply from the manufacturer. for their federal entities like veterans affairs, va medical center, the federal government allocates those directly. it goes straight from the federal government to the federal entities. we have a va in san francisco and it is getting its own

vaccine from the feds. and there's a federal pharmacy partnership with cvs and walgreens and that has been -- those have been contracted to go into the most at risk facilities for the residents and staff of the skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. that partnership is directeded by the federal government but happening in san francisco. another portion of the vaccine goes to the state. and then they go on and allocate a couple of different ways. they give vaccine directly to multi county entities. these are the large health systems. kaiser and dignity, they all receive vaccine directly from the state. it doesn't come from the san francisco department of public health. but then another part of the vaccine from the state does come to local health departments like

dph and get the allocations to distribute to remaining healthcare partners and we can direct back to the larger multi county entities as well. just to say there's a lot of complexity to the logistics and allocation, this starts with control of the federal and state government. and we are following the guidelines. we're required to accept and follow the guidelines set up by the state. so we are sharing with one medical group, chinese hospital and we do have a dph of san francisco network that has a hospital at zuckerberg general and primary care clinics and doing vaccinations for those patients as well on medicaid or uninsured. there are phases to the rollout. that is necessary now because there's not enough vaccine.

as the supply increases, the restrictions are going to loosen up as well. but right now while vaccine is limited, we need to target the vaccine to first the healthcare workers to preserve them to take care of any of us for any reason and the people most likely to get sick and die. if you look at the age distribution here on the right in san francisco, the median age of people who die of covid-19 is 82. 83% of deaths are 65 and older. that is why we are prioritizing giving vaccine and the state has said this is the correct priority to help healthcare workers first and then 65 and older. this is phase 1a, which is really where we are now. and that is the phase we are on. no other populations right now

or phases are currently eligible. there are about 90,000 people in san francisco in phase 1a and more than 110,000 people age 65 and older in the city. our challenge because we have a large population and still working on them and we don't have enough doses. but our strategy is going to be to build the capacity to get the vaccine out quickly to people once they come. we have to build the infrastructure and when we get the vaccine, we'll be able to give it out. and the state and federal guidance is always evolving. we're monitoring closely and setting up systems. so this is in san francisco, the eligible population that needs the first dose or a second dose. remember both of the approved vaccines, moderna or pfizer

require two shots. if there are more than 210,000 people in san francisco that are currently eligible for vaccines, 65 of age or older or in phase 1a, each person has to receive two doses, so we need 420,000 doses to complete 1a but the city has only received 123,000 doses total. that is every where. it's in every state, every jurisdiction right now. in general our goal is the vaccine is available from where people get health services from and ways that are most

convenient. it could be a large drive-thru or clinic or local pharmacy, your doctor's office, vaccination site that might be at a transit hub. we're in the process of building those out now. the high volume sites are being done in unprecedented collaboration between the city and our health system partners and we're building sites such as the picture i showed you at the beginning, a partnership to staff and really set up that site and there are others coming online as well. the high volume sites are for everyone. when it is your turn to get vaccine and we're at the tier that you're in, there's the semi permanent access point. if it's too difficult to go to a high volume site or they would rather be in their

neighborhoods. and we're partnering with our community partners who best know the neighborhood. we're going to look at this with the neighborhoods with the highest rate of covid-19, primarily in the southeast part of the city. and we're working to make sure uninsured populations receive it as quick as possible. this might be through an existing clinic or mobile vaccination teams and there might be hubs or different ways, non traditional settings where people can get vaccinated. with the pharmacy partners, we talked about how the pharmacy is going into skilled nursing and long-term care facilities for the elderly to provide vaccine there, that's really important. but additionally we're going to provide pharmacies like walgreens and safeway with additional vaccine where any of

us could walk in and get the vaccine. we're not there yet. but as we stand up the processes, this is just a flavor of the options you'll have in additional to potentially your own doctor's office or healthcare system set up. supply, supply, supply is our biggest challenge. there's no national approach that's unified yet. we are hopeful that will be coming. we are not sure how much vaccine we'll be a lotted and when. and even the state doesn't know when the federal government is going to distribute. the unpredictable flow is impacting our city healthcare systems and partners and providers as well.

our priority for the allocation, just a small amount. we don't see how much is going right now to the pharmacies or long-term care facilities. we don't have full insight right now into what our healthcare partners are receiving directly, all they they have been great partners working with us. we have a health order in place as well that gives a picture to the data. the counties around us are moving at different speeds and i know sometimes that can seem confusing. part of that, san francisco is such a mecca for healthcare and we have large health systems and our population of healthcare workers is much higher than anywhere else in the region. we have that volume of people to vaccinate in that group. i will tell you that we work very closely across the region, our goal is to get everyone in the bay area vaccinated as soon

as possible, which is why all of the counts are vaccinating people who live or work in our county. there are options for people who live in other counties but work here. we have a partnership and collaboration with other health partners that we have not done before to stand up the unique and large systems to get vaccines to people. but there are multiple issues to do that. we would like unified scheduling so it is easy to figure out where they can go. but there's scheduling issues. we need two doses for now. there are issues with transport and storage of the vaccine at ultra cold temperature for the pfizer vaccine. and we don't want to waste any vaccine. all of these things make it an operational challenge.

the mask has to be on unless you are drinking or eating. it's a different sense of urgency. restaurant patrons should have masks on unless actively eating and drinking and it is a different type of behavior so it will take all of us reinforcing

the messages and being able to do that. it is important to also feel comfortable with the information about the vaccine and safety because when we get a high percentage of people in san francisco vaccinated and i know we can do that in the prevention effort, we are then going to be able to achieve herd immunity in the bay area and be much more able to open freely and then deal with small pockets of infection that may come up one by one but rather than taking large measures to shut down businesses and schools and other activities we know have to stay open for our community's health. and to let us know, i know we have good lines of communication through our leaders and partners and being able to really know what you're hearing from the community so we can adapt the public health messages and hopefully have you as messengers

with the key messages as well. my goal is to keep moving forward with opening. there are so many things unknown and remain unknown with the virus. i issued briefly the issue of variants and whether they can spread easier and make people more sick. we're in a race to vaccinate before we find more of the variants spread. anything we can do now to decrease the spread will decrease the likelihood of having the variants. the more we have circulating mutates and then we get the variants. everything we can do now we need to do and prepare for vaccine as the ultimate answer to this pandemic. i want to end there. thank you very much and looking forward to the discussion and i will end sharing now.

thank you >> president laguana: great. thank you and i am back from a mysterious power outage. the entire neighborhood was flickering on and off. thank you. so, commissioners do we have any questions for dr. phillips. well, sometimes it takes people a little bit to formulate the questions. i wrote down a few to get started and if somebody wants to jump in. here we go. commissioner dooley. >> commissioner dooley: yes, i have a question, which is we're still seeing a lot of resistance to mask wearing. especially with the initial situation from the mayor's office saying if you're outdoors and exercising you don't have to wear a mask, which people are taking outrageous liberties with.

i would say no more than 50% of people on the street i see are wearing masks. i'm just wondering if something could be done to make that something that needs to be enforced a bit. i know where i work, we get resistance from people to the point where they're yelling and screaming at us because they don't want to wear a mask when they come in to shop. so it just seems like there's a bit of a message missing right now in the city that we need to sort of address. i just wonder what your thoughts are on that. >> thank you so much. i think mask wearing as you're saying is such a crux of what we have to have people do. i don't know, i would be interested to hear from you commissioner, do you think as we have talked about today, this is really the key to being able to move back towards keeping things

open, opening further, keeping cases down. i don't know if you think that would be enough -- we do have a health order in place that requires masks outside of the home except in certain situations and that includes for kids older than two. so, i'm hope to hearing if you have suggestions for what else could be helpful to do. >> commissioner dooley: i'm not sure what it would be. when i try to politely address it, i've had terrible incidents with people where they told me they wanted me to die. we have all experienced that kind of thing. and i just would like to have us figure out how to get a handle on this and with our businesses, it puts our businesses in a very difficult position.

>> president laguana: commissioner dooley, i just want to say, i know and interact with some folks who are anti-maskers if you will and that's a pattern we saw back in 1918 during the initial flu. there seems to be a mindset that really struggles that doing something simple and small is such an imposition to protecting public health. commissioner adams. >> commissioner adams: thank you. to commissioner dealy's thing, in our neighborhood, we have seen more people wear masks in the castro. if you're not wearing a mask, it seems like the other people on the street are mask-shaming you. and that just something i'm

proud of this neighborhood that we have seen more and more especially lately, since this last surge, i can tell you more now people are wearing masks than three months ago. three months ago we had the problem that commissioner dooley just spoke about. something happened, especially in december, now somebody is on the street not wearing a mask, the rest of the public starts coming out. and i know we shouldn't be vigilantes in the world but maybe that's what you have to do. i'm seeing it more and more, i'm grateful because i think people really want this thing to be done and taking the measures to make sure we can end it. i think what you're doing at the department of public health,

it's rough. to say the least. i'm happy about restaurants being open for outdoor dining now, not only here but in other parts of the state. the holidays were very, very rough. a lot of people didn't even know about ppp until two weeks ago. i appreciate your comments and we're all in this together and if we all don't get in it together, commissioner dooley, i would start the public shaming and maybe it's the tenderloin. i have seen it over there. but in this neighborhood, people really started to get down on people not wearing masks and it seems to be working and i'm very proud of that. in a weird way. >> commissioner dooley: it's not working here. i would say less than 50% are wearing masks. >> commissioner adams: wow. >> commissioner dooley: i feel it is getting larger, the amount

of people not wearing masks and yes, i do work in the tenderloin, two nights ago we had an incident where someone wouldn't wear a mask and spat all over our guard before they left. i'm not seeing the compliance with the mask thing, i'm just not. and i sure would love to get some advice because when i personally have spoken to people, they haven't spat on me yet but they have been extremely aggressive. frightening. so, you know, now i never say anything to anyone except our poor guard at work is the first line of defense and he just deals with abuse constantly. >> i'm sorry to hear how challenging it is. i think that it is helpful to

have other messengers but we don't want them putting themselves in difficult positions or in a position to be spat on. that's terrible. any ideas you have -- i think people are doing this, our reproductive number have gone down. maybe the norm that commissioner was speaking about is true in some parts of the city and maybe if we can amplify that a little bit, there will always be people who refuse to do what is in the public's interest but i'm open to ideas about how we can partner new ways to try to reinforce that. thank you so much. >> president laguana: thank you. vice president zouzounis. >> vive president zouzounis: thank you. and thank you for your presentation. i have a couple of questions. logistically we know the layout you described of how it's going

to be given out to the public, the idea that you need to sign up is not a precedent for receiving a vaccine, correct? that's not going to put you in a different order or anything? >> thank you for the opportunity to clarify that. so, there is on sfgov website, if you google san francisco covid vaccine notification, you'll come to the correct site, if you put in your information, you will get on the list to be notified. all that says there, it says it on the website, when it is your turn, when you are eligible based on a set of questions you would answer, then you get notified. you might get several notifications because your healthcare provider might notify you. this is just an additional way the city will say as we go

through the tiers, you will be notify. it doesn't jump you to the head of the line but puts you into the group that gets the e-mail when we get to your particular time to get vaccinated. we do appreciate that's challenging for people because they don't know when their turn will come, but i want to make clear our goal is to get vaccines to anyone who wants it. we are hoping 100% of people who live or work in san francisco will want the vaccine and as it comes in, we're pushing it out and trying to move down the tiers. we have a ways to go but we're building infrastructure.

>> vive president zouzounis: i'm worried about those not through a city plan, how they're going to be accounted for. >> in terms of receiving vaccine and getting vaccine, anyone who works in san francisco no matter where they live to get vaccinated at one of our campuses when it is their turn. i would say that those individuals may -- whether or not their usual healthcare is could be getting notified through that route but should sign up to get notified through the city as well. here are all of the options you have in the city, there may have additional options with their provider and pick the one that

is best for them and their family. that is our goal to get people all of the options. >> vive president zouzounis: would you recommend to the public listening that if you're an essential worker to make sure to have your healthcare provider know that information and if you're part of the city, to know that information -- i'm worried about people not identifying to healthcare providers that they're essential workers. >> when we get to that point, past all of the people over 65 and healthcare workers, we will be putting out as a city more information about how people can seek that. we are not -- at this point, we are not expecting to have people show us proof they're essential workers. we will likely partner with businesses that do essential work and associations that know who those people are to make sure we invite the right people.

we're not going to require proof of someone to say whether or not they qualify. we'll lay all of this out. i think it's not a bad idea to open the line of communication with your own healthcare provider to find out how is the system notifying people when vaccine comes available but it's a little off in the distance right now. the providers themselves for the most part aside from the very large systems don't have vaccine coming to them. being provided to know what is my healthcare provider planning to do is good and you have the city as the other back-up to know the city is going to be informing people when they are eligible for vaccines. >> vive president zouzounis: thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. so, a couple of follow up

questions from that. is the notification program just really a notification of eligibility or indication that if you go to the city testing -- vaccination site, you'll be able to promptly get vac put thatted. >> thank you for that question. efforts for vaccines, we can have people line up and do this. most likely, make it through an appointment and they're probably going to be really quick appointments. so what the sign up for eligibility does, it really just notifies you, hey, you're now in a group eligible for vaccines, here are the ways to access vaccine. but then it will guide you through here's what you need to do to sign up at the time of your choosing and place of your

choosing. we don't want to put people into something that doesn't work for them because it's across town. it allows that flexibility when it is their turn. that's the goal. >> president laguana: that makes sense. so it's not specifically looped into supply at any given location or what have you. it's purely eligibility notification in case you missed it. >> it is. and the partnership we have with the health systems, the city, this is all to say it should matter. that's an important distinction. if you are not uc patient and you go to city college run by ucsf, you will get vaccine. this is why it's unprecedented. you can go to the site that kaiser may run and get it even though you're not a kaiser patient. in this way, we are trying to make it any door is the right door for a san francisco resident or worker and we think that the right way to do it.

>> president laguana: that's good to hear. i didn't know that. you talked about allocating the mt's and local health departments allocating to enterprise i think it was. i was wondering if it went the other way, if kaiser was sitting on more supply than they could put out, would they allocate to local health distributors. >> they might but we're designing it over the large through put center. they would get as many people through as possible. rather than the health department -- we're going to have a focus on communities, equity and doing sort of very smaller scale but focused work to get vaccine out and these large sites are for everyone. so i think it would be very rare that kaiser or uc or dignity or any of the large places would be allocating to the health

department. they would probably do it at the site in which they are working and anyone they process there, it serves us well as the city to have that approach. >> president laguana: and you mentioned during your presentation, you think we all know there was a pretty lack of guidance from the federal government and i guess a hope that that is going to change soon. are you hearing any rumors or rumblings of anticipated change in federal policy or more guidance on the way? >> i don't have any special insight into that other than what the administration has publicly announced and we have every reason to believe that's their intention, do everything they can to increase accessibility of not only vaccines but testing and ppe and all that.

we are hopeful but i don't have any specific information at this point. >> president laguana: one thing i think we have all noticed, there's an uneven distribution of covid cases specifically in the mission. talking with some of the community leaders there, they have indicated that they really need an expansion of low barrier testing. is dph, is there progress to report here, can we expect to see more in that area and can we expect to also see resources in terms of vaccinations being deployed where the -- it's the highest?

>> yes, the sites mayor breed and dr. colfax have announced are in the middle of the city, city college and bayview. it is really recognizing just what you said. in terms of testing resources, we have the most recent for high volume sites. (please stand by...)

>> i totally recognize that the incident rate among essential workers is much higher than among the public as a whole. by virtue how closely they are working with each sore. it is certainly a vector for disease transmission. with respect to the public and outdoor dining, have you seen or

are you aware of any tracing that indicates outdoor diners? >> there have been those types of studies. they are very involved. they are not the data we get from the usual public health work. we are focused on reaching as many people as possible and telling them what to do to stay safe that is our focus. there are case control studies for those that are positive and those that don't. you find out what activities they did or did not have in common. cdc has published in the premier journal about studies of different activities that people have done among a large group. there was outdoor dining not as

strong as indoor dining but higher than other activities. i believe the data are convincing, also, based on my sign terrific training why that might be so is also there. i understand outdoors is safer than indoors. we start there. anytime two people from different households are together and removing masks, that is a time for a set up for transmission. there is some risk. it is not completely safe. it is safer than indoor dining. i think that is what we have to accept. there are trade-offs. we will make it as safe as possible for people who are older than 65 or people who have underlying health conditions.

it may not be the right time for them to outdoor dine. they need to think about their risk if they become infected with covid-19. >> you know, i want to emphasize, you know, we have had an epidemic, if you will, volunteer epdemmologists. i tries to not be infected by that and not substitute my judgment for people like yourself who have devoted their entire lives to studying these issues. i am very respectful of what is weighed here. in our role on the commission, i ask questions on behalf of the community. i hope it comes across and iscomming from a place of deep respect and appreciation for the work that dph does.

couple follow-up questions on outdoor dining. to what degree are we worried about the emerging variants, particularly from california and how that might impact some of this loosening orreopenning? how deep is our concern right now. >> i touched upon that in the talk. it deserves discussion here. we don't know. the california variant is called l452r. certain mutations have occurred in the virus. we don't know. it is concerning it popped up to a higher percentage in the specimens tested by colleagues. we don't know if it means because we are not testing every specimen with that specialized

testing. we don't know if it is the specimens that tested. it requires more investigation as to whether it is truly becoming more prevalent in our community the way the u.k. variant has. it is likely some of these variants because they are transmissible will be the predominant strain in the united states by march is what experts are saying. i think we are waiting for vaccine. now we believe the vaccines we have will be effective against the u.k. variant and the california variant as well. there is evidence of decreased effectiveness against the south african variant, but they believe the initial efficacy is so hi, the vaccine will be good on the population level and the manufacturers pfizer and moderna

are adjusting the formula in case they need the additional dose. the scientists in vaccine development are thinking the right way. we have in our hands the ability to really tamp down these variants right now. we don't have to wait for the vaccine. the less transmission occurring. every time the virus goes to a new person and circulates that is when the mutations happen. if we tamp down the numbers the way we have done in san francisco that is the best thing to do to improve the chances of holding the line until we can vaccinate everyone. >> the question. i have to be careful how i phrase this. this is sometimes used in bad faith by folks who just want to complain about masks or generally don't agree with health policy. i think there is a good faith question in here which is to

what degree -- i will use the fancy word exogenous factors weigh? outside the context of the virus and illness. for example, rates of depression or suicide or economic impacts, you know, inability of people to get access to edd or funds, food insecurity, housing insecurity. to reemphasize this is a question from a good faith perspective to get an understanding to what degree that this impacts dph decision making around public health policy? >> you know, on the slides you did put the economic health is

public health. mental health is public health. i should say that as well. the mental benefits, social benefits of being connected to feeling secure in your business or paycheck, those things are important for public health as well. there is no absolute answer. we could save every life by locking down from here until everyone is fully vaccinated. that is not the best way to optimize health in san francisco. we are trying to walk a very difficult path, which i know this group appreciates. i know it feels like we are going too far in one direction and forgive us for this. we are trying to reevaluate the data and weighing lives. this is an issue of livelihood.

i want to say i hope all of you know in the commission in public health in our department we value this very much. we know that economic health and mental health is such a part of public health in san francisco, and it is not a small thing. it is not just about what we have in the neighborhood. this is about being able to maintain the health of the residents. i want to say that. we will start from that point and consider it. it is very, very hard. we are moving forward at a higher case rate than before because we recognize at this point we can try to engage people around masks. not everyone will do it. we can engage around vaccines. we are at a different point when we had to shut down again in the spring. we are moving forward with

optimism but we need buy in 110% from everyone to make this work. >> to that point, i think, san francisco has had extraordinary success for a city its size. that is no small part due to the participation of the small business community who have really taken it on the chin and then some. you know, like i said, the question was asked in the best possible faith trying to get a better understanding of the decision-making process. a couple quick questions. thank you for your time. i know this is probably late to meet with us. i appreciate that as well. for our restaurants without door dining, there is now a six foot

rule that is very frustrating for folks that have the dining spaces within six feet but a size barrier. can you walk me through what the thought process is there and is there a likelihood that or is a possibility the barrier could be judged sufficient at some point? >> i want to give a public health answer. i want to say i did reach out to state colleagues. this is one of the state requirements in their outdoor structures. it was not an individual decision. i will tell you the reasoning for that is that again trying to maintain as much as possible a different ventilation, airflow between parties seated at different tables. recognizing the closer we get to

those barriers, first of all, if they are low, they are not effective between tables. if they are too high they might increase the concentration of virus at the table itself because now we are allowing up to two households, party of six to it is together for outdoor dining. the concern is the barriers are too high you increase the risk. it is a trade-off. those are the public health and scientific reasons. what i hear from colleagues at the state. this is a challenge and concern for small business owners across the state who have invest understand the barriers. they were permissible previously. i apologize. that is a complete frustration and difficulty. it is yet another challenge.

>> i certainly appreciate you asking about that, and i would appreciate you continuing to ask about that going forward. for folks that invested in shared spaces and outdoor spaces it is not something to change very quickly, and if the risk differential is not hi, then i think this might warrant consideration of the economic cost or impact. really my last question, and thank you for your patience. i know so much what is happening right now is based on projections, kind of the sense we are skating where the puck should be and not where it is. do we have a sense, and i know nobody can predict the future.

we are small business people and we hope to have as much insight into planning as we possibly can. do you have a rough sense assuming there is no rapid new variant that changes the picture. do you have a rough sense of when we might reach the next tier down? when we might get to red? >> i think that is a great question. we knew the minute we announced purple that is what people want to know. that is good. we have to push as a city to get there. i think some will depend on what we see happening. we know that it is very likely cases will go up. that is not a problem. it really depends on the speed at which it is rising. does it seem to have an impact? we are meeting as a scientific team in the city to think about that. to think what might that look like? in terms when we might be able

to get to red, i think you have got to look at the parameters of the state. we have to acknowledge that by re-opening, resetting back a little bit. we hope between all of us masking. i will say we will get there. then increasingly getting vaccine as more and more supply comes into play that decreases the virus circulating in the city. actions not safe now dining closer than six feet may become safer and indoor dining may become safer. less virus because fewer of us will get infected. that is the goal. i don't an exact time, but i am happy to come back to the commission and give updates where we are to reproject that. i think i would be doing a disservice if i tried to guess

at this moment. >> i have to ask you. there are so many people dying to know. i did have one more quick question. a lot of people were relieved to see the city largely stick to state criteria. do you have a state on the dph intends to continue with sticking to the state tier system going forward? >> that is our goal to be able to do that. we know it may beings it so much easier for small businesses, large businesses, residents to understand what we are doing and why. we are frying to do -- trying to do that at this point. there are reasons for not doing that. there was a lot more uncertainty with the winter surge. now we are on the down slope and we hope to go into purple with

optimism and full determination we are going to make this work together. >> great. with that, i appreciate your time. we are going to go to public comment. >> thank you so of an again. -- so much again. >> caller, please proceed. >> good evening, commissioners, i am the president of the council of district merchants. thank you for having this meeting and thank you for attending and for the department of public health. thank you for everything you do.

i know you catch heat from us. we all understand we are partners. i have two remarks and one question to make. one is that please keep in mind there are over 200,000 chinese business employees, 43500 small businesses with less than 10 employees. if you average that to five each that is 200,000 people that somewhat aren't part of the big picture. many are essential workers and many are front line workers. not only are they exposed. they can be part of the problem if the vaccination is not a priority. remember the little guy because they add up to big numbers and can be a big part of the solution since they works for smaller businesses without the best outreach, infrastructure, p.p.e. applies or anything like that. please keep that in mind. one other consideration is that

small businesses dramatically impacted when announcements are made in the negative effect of shut done -- shut downs. this has many businesses scrambling to get open, call back employees, come back if they left the city or have gone elsewhere. vendors are overloaded with supplies to get their economy back up and running. the last thing to hear is two day notice. the businesses are shut down with two weeks of supply of inventory and one week supply of perishables in refrigerators. if there is a way that we can watch the needle moving as we progress towards shut down or hopeful expansion of the openings, small businesses can be more prepared and something that can be broadcast on a

broader level. we would have less panic and frantic and more effective openings. other than that, thank you for your time. thank you for your hard work. i look forward to seeing us getting into the lighter colors. >> thank you. before we close the item. any last commissioner comments or questions? okay. dr. phillips, thank you for your time and patience. we appreciate you so much and look forward to hearing better news in the future. >> thank you. looking forward to the partnership with the commission and constituents in the next phase. here we go. next item, please. >> item 4. approval of legacy business

registry applications and resolutions. discussion and action item. legacy business program manager. you should be able to present. >> rick, you have the floor. >> good evening. richard carillo business program manager. before you today are five applications for consideration for the legacy business registry. each includes a staff report, draft resolution, application and case report and draft resolution from planning department. they were submitted to planning december 9th. heard by historic preservation

commission on january 6th. item 4a is 24th street dental. the business of the dental practice in the mission district owned by dr. gonzalez. he became a fixture of the local music scene and known as dr. rock. he served as manager of the mountain group and organized the annual benefit voices of latin rock for 10 years. he is involved in significant mission cultural activities. in 1981 he helped produce the 24th street fair for the merchants. he became the president. he created the culture association. he produced a fundraiser event for autism for the influential voices of latin rock book which

was very successful. this started to latin look to preserve the music associated with an ongoing basis in different forms from past to present. it must maintain on the registry. item 4b american conservatory feature foundation. business is a nonprofit organization founded in 1966. it is the governing body of the american conservatory theatre which opened in 1967. act is a theater company which includes the geary and strand treatter and conservatory offering educational activities for adults and young agoors. the geary theater purchased in

1967 is the flagship theater seats over 1,000 people. 3,000 students every year. danny glover and dan sell washington are among the former students. the program moved to the americans actor training serving as an engine for local talent. they partner to introduce students to live theater as artists and members. act has been severely affected by reduced sales due to covid-19. the core feature must retain is theater. item 4c is "bladerunners" hair studio. hair studio opened by david wilson 1981. he founded the salon to carry

out exemplary client service. it is to the neighborhood identity. in addition to the salon, it has served a large clientele it offers an apprenticeship which allows students to get paid while they learn the craft of hairdressing. they have hosted local artists for art shows. donated gift certificates to school and fundraisers, purchased in merchant discounted and donated use of soace to nonprofits. it has an iconic english bulldog. first jake the bulldog and currently gabriel. it is a hair salon.

item 4d. central hardware and supply company. this business is a retail hardware store opened in 1946 with roots dating to two hardware stores founded in san francisco in the late 1880s. they became as center hardware. it is one of the largest independent hardware stores in san francisco. hosting aninventory 100,000 different items from a diverse aware of hardware brands. there is a wide range of customers, businesses, property managers and more. they donated materials and tools to local high schools, space for makers tosem products -- sell products and events celebrating trades. center hardware maintains a collection of antique tools and machines which is displayed

within the store. center hardware is family owned by the family since 1980. the core features tradition it must maintain the store. 4d is pipe dreams. retail smoke shop in hate ashbury opened in 1978. pipe dreams is the oldest smoke shop and among the five oldest smoke shop in the united states. strong connection to the former business called the phoenix, the first smoke shop in country. they sell tobacco and glassware and accessories crafted by local artists and clothing brands, greeting cards and photographers. pipe dreams has a wellness corners for the health items

including cbd based products. they have been active in the events including first friday and other events promoting local businesses. they donate to the larkin street youth and homeless youth alliance. they must maintain the smoke shop business. all five businesses met the criteria for listing on the legacy business registry and received positive recommendation from historic preservation. we recommend adding to the registry and we drafted five resolutions. the motion in support of the businesses should be a motion in favor of the resolutions. thank you. this concludes my presentation. i am happy to answer any questions. i will bring this to business representatives on the line to speak on behalf of the applications during public comment but i do have comments from two of them to read in case

they have difficulty getting online. >> rick, in the interest of time. can you introduce the written comments into the record. we have had a long meeting. if they are able to make it we will hear from them. commissioners any comments? >> seeing none. are there public comments on the line? >> two people in queue. >> thank you. >> good evening. thank you very much for doing this for us. i am the operations manager for american matthew -- american conservevatory theater we thank you for helping

us with our application. >> next caller, please. >> please proceed. >> hello. sorry i know you have had a long meeting. i will be brief. written statement. i wanted to say thank you. it is an honor to be considered a legacy business in san francisco. the best city in the world and we are proud to represent the eight ashbury district. >> call in if you want to use the whole time. it is the best city in the world. any other callers on the line? >> no other callers.

>> commissioner. [indiscernable] congratulations. [indiscernable] thank you for that. >> thank you. any other commissioner comments? i will just say it is wonderful to see american conservatory theater in front of us.

what anincredible cultural institution. certainly we want to do everything we can to support our cultural institutions. with that do we have a motion? >> motion that we approve them. >> second. >> motion by commissioner adams to approve all four resolutions. seconded by commissioner dooley. >> roll call vote. [roll call] >> motion passes 6-0. >> thank you so much. congratulations everybody. very much appreciated. next item please.

>> item 5. office of small business budget fiscal year 2021-22. update on the proposed budget. discussion and action. >> just to be clear. is it through the participant drop down? commissioners, good evening. i will try to -- this is not very brief. i will be as concise as possible. i will share my screen. all right. what i am presenting for you

today, while the item is an action item. i am actually not requesting any action from you this evening. we will we having one more hearing. we are now obligated to have two hearings at the commission with the department's budget. what i am going to present to you is an overview. first step in the budget process due to the exceptional situation we are in as a city. we will be taking a look at what is being asked of each of the departments in terms of budget reduction. we will be looking at fiscal year 21-22 that starts july 1. you will often hear it referenced as fiscal year 22. that is the year that the fiscal

year ends. then also fiscal year 22-23. i am starting out with you to just review the rent stabilization grant. what is ahead of us for the two fiscal years coming up. 21-22, 22-23. this has relevance in relationship to the considerations that i will present to you soon. as you can see, we have this column here, and hopefully you can see the cursors i am using. right now we are in 2021. the legacy business grant program has $1 million in the program. we have funds -- enough funds to be able to fund current

obligation for rent stabilization and projected new grants coming in on average $171,000 around 12 new grants each year. >> excuse me. just to clarify. we are looking at the rent stabilization grant for legacy business program, not overall budget for the office of small business? >> correct. you will see that in just a moment. we are just looking at rent stabilization grant. >> fiscal year 21-22. we will be adding 12 new legacy businesses eligibility to receive rent stabilization grants will then exceed the

$1 million so in fiscal year 21-22 if we just have a budget allocation of $1 million in the legacy grant program we will be short $16,000, a little over $16,000. moving into fiscal year 22-23. if we follow sort of the same trajectory. we will have a budget shortfall of $204,543. i just want you to keep in mind the projected budget shortfalls that we will have with retaining the legacy business grant amount at $1 million.

next, i am -- i thought i had sized it to see everyone be at once. we are moving into the budget. excuse me. i have a screeching dog. at the top of the budget disability access funds. this is part of the budget operations but separated out because this fund is a fund that comes through a state mandate where the local municipalities required to collect $4 with every business registration annually. right now, and we are required to send those -- spend those

funds by either supporting certified access certification to the employees that do accessibility work as with the department of building inspection, department of public works, mayor's office on disability. we do some of that funding does go to those departments. we work order it over per the request and on average that is about $8,500 per year. right now we have about $500,000 in the budget that we need to allocate through our disability access or programs that support businesses that do disability work. it is prescribed anniversary strict -- prescribed and it is

restricted. it specifies the funds are spent in those two ways. what i have done is in most cases as the city we would probably set up the fund to be administered by a third-party. if that were the case, there would be some administrative costs associated with the administratorring those funds. therefore, since we are doing that in house, i have set aside $54,600 to help offset one staff's salary to administer these funds. moving down into -- and you will see -- excuse me.

>> is it visible? moving down, we have been told by the mayor's budget office the amounts of funding we need to cut. that is 7.5% of our budget for fiscal year -- first fiscal year and then combined an additional 7.5% for fiscal year 22-23 which is a total amount of 15%.

i have been given these exact budget dollars of which i need to work to account for. i have provided subtotals, and this subtotal in this row is just the osb, operational budget with the commission work and -- i am so sorry. not my strong point here. so i have provided the subtotal for the department operations

minus legacy business program and that is $1,257,000. which that cut would be 14% of those operating funds, adding the legacy business brings the total department budget to $2,353,000. if you move to the fiscal year 23, again, it is pretty much i don't anticipate any radical changes to our budget, increases, decreases, but we are being asked to have 15% budget reduction. moving to the operating budget, our labor and personnel. this is including the 7 staff of

the office of small business and funding one person in the spdc small business development center to assist with technical assistance and helping businesses with technical assistance for those businesses that may need assistance in drafting their narrative and as assisting rick on the rent stabilization grant. that is the cost for the personnel. in the column to the right, i'm calculating the projection where i might -- where we can do some budget cuts.

i am doing this -- i apologize. i am doing this on my home computer. i have a different adobe program i am not used to working with. i have projected that i can do budget cuts and salary savings of $90,000. that is due to the offset from the disability access funds of the $54,000 of administrative costs and then in discussion with the position at the abdc -- sbdc that is not utilizing its entire time doing just legacy business work. they are doing other general support work with the small

business development center, that is about 25% of their time. another $45,000 being offset from that position to help do the salary savings. again, i won't be able to do -- i can't cut personnel any more than that or offset the salaries any more than the $90,777 so looking at fiscal year 23, it is the same amount. budget and overhead. i have put in the overhead which pays for the shared administrative costs with oewd for hr services, payroll, finance, contracting, other things. i am cutting our amount of our

overhead contribution. i do think we are being charged a little too much since we have very little contract work. much of the oewd work and the work force side, their work is done through contracts with nonprofits to facilitate their work. most of ours is done through our staff. again, it is the same projected overhead and so i am calculating the same reduction for fiscal year 23. i don't see that we can make any budget cuts in our nonpersonnel services, which is more like operating costs, which is for things like translating, copy

machines, printing, various things like that, materials and supplies pays for office supplies and for our technology software. then other services falls underpaying for the commission meetings, paying for other digital services that provide ongoing support to the office. for the legacy business program, we have this year's -- fiscal year 21-22. we have the legacy business grant program at $1 million. nonpersonnel services which are

operating costs that pay for the things like the window clinics, certificate, other supportive items and we will be applying this funding to help pay for the plaques that are in design or actually in development. they are designed and are in development and within the next few months we will be able to start placing them on the outside of our legacy businesses, which is very exciting. rick and i have taken a look at this budget, and we have determined that for this next fiscal year we could -- if required we can reduce by $10,000. then we have the programmatic

project. this is a new budget that came about through the ad backna supervisor peskin provided last fiscal year intended for a staff position to help support with the business assistance grant. that position did not materialize because of the current budget situation that we are in, but because it was -- there was funding for three years we have the $75,000. we are currently, rick and i, are currently working with commissioner huie on a marketing and promotion program for the legacy businesses that is lacking right now from the

program. we have determined that for our project needs, we still do need some funding from 21-22 year but we could reduce by $33,000. going over to fiscal year 22-23, again, if we must, we could reduce the $20,000 by $10,000. again, this might start to slow down our ability to be able to pay for plaques. right now it is important for our office to be able to pay for plaques to put on the front of legacy businesses while we are in the economic situation. if must, we can then afford to not spend the $75,000.

with those reductions, we are still for the 22-23 year we need to find $137,000 to reduce our budget by. that means the only place that one can look to is the legacy business grant program. we the legacy business grant program with this program just so that you are aware is that we can't just say we are not going to be accepting any new applications the way it is written in prop j. each year any business or landlord that is interested in

applying, they can if we don't have money in the budget they don't get funded that year, but they get added to the pool of grant award des for the previous year. if we are still working with $1 million it starts to beginning to shrink down the amount of funding each grant recipient applies for. i will leave this up. well, i could stop sharing and go back to sharing if needed. actually i will open it up to see if there are any questions that you have. >> are there any commissioners with questions? >> while i wait for them, who determines the size of lsb

budget overall? where is that determination made? is that at the mayor's office, oewd? who decides what the gross budget is. >> before i answer that, this is all general funded except for the disability access fund. that is an important note in terms of all of the funds that our office operating with is general funded. in terms of who makes the decision, it is the commission that actually has working with me and also working in consultation with the mayor's budget office. because we are under this larger umbrella of oewd it happens

simultaneously as well. it is really the commission who has the final authority on stating whether you want to. final authority or direction to me, i should say, as to how, one, we deal with budget requests, reduction requests and two, another phase with the budget process is dealing with you can it enhancements that dealt with it separately than this particular process. budget enhancements are things a proposal is put together and then, you know, it needs support and backing from the commission and then discussed with the mayor's budget office. >> there is a budget

reconciliation coming up next month, i think, then the next serious bit of budget work happens june, july, towards the end of the fiscal year, is that right? >> the next, well, the mayor's phase is where -- the first step is departments discuss with the mayor in terms of budget situation. even with the reduction requests and/or enhancements. next phase is with the board of supervisors. the board of supervisors are still when you go before them with your department's budget, they are still asking for you to -- and i am saying the department but this situation with the board of supervisors

phase they are looking at -- the office of small business is a small department. we are part under oewd to have shared resources for hr, payroll and finance team to help monitor stuff. usually the board of supervisors will look at oewd. there is the commission, the work force side. look at it globally. they have a goal that they want to cut the mayor's budget by a certain number. they use that number for their add backs. >> i know how that part works. that is where the supervisor money from the cuts.

>> in terms of the goal for our office with the mayor's office, anything finalized in the mayor's budget needs finalized by the end of february. >> got it. i feel like i have looked at enough of these budgets now that, you know, one thing i am surprised by is it doesn't seem like the operations cost changes very much from year to year. is that fair to say? >> it doesn't, but i will say that it may, particularly one thing that has transpired is -- i would say operations costs don't change much year to year,

though if the commission is interested without adding staff, if the commission is interested in having more policy research done, then that often can be accomplished by contracting and having a contracting entity do some of the policy research for you. then if that is the case and not adding a position you may want to add funding into the operational section. that is one example for the commission. it is the volume of work that needs to increase but you are not going to increase the volume by adding more staff, then generally you add some money to be able to do that work by contracting it out. >> i have some more comments. i see that commissioner huie

requested to speak. >> thank you. i guess i am wondering what type of feedback or opportunities we have. i am new to the commission, in terms of like analyzing and digesting the budget. i feel like i am looking at the budget and cuts in the context of the past year, and in the past year, i feel like the office of small business has been doing a tremendous amount of work to be able to support all of our communities and really support the anchoring of our neighborhoods through the work that the commission has been, you know, doing through the office. i am kind of wondering are there opportunities to make any sort

of pleas or adjustments to this? it feels like in my world, i feel like a budget is kind of a guide to your priorities. it shows where your priorities are. wherever you spend your money, and i think if we have been having conversations with our legislators consistently for the last

support of execution, i feel like for us to be looking at cutting programs such as the rent -- i am sorry -- the rent stabilization grant when we just had a meeting on how we want to expand the legacy business program, i feel like, you know, where is the real world? where is this all going to happen in the real world? we are going to expand the legacy business program but we are going to reduce the amount

of, you know, good stuff that comes out of the legacy business. i feel like this should be an opportunity for us, and i am saying this out of how -- i don't know how all of this works and i am just kind of putting it out there as a newer commissioner, but, you know, i feel like if it is indicative of our priorities and values, this is an opportunity for us to say that where are we going to do this? how will we get this done? we are having meeting after meeting to support small businesses and we are the one office of small business. i know there are many entities that support small businesses throughout the mayor's office and our city's structure, but we are the one called the office of

small business. we are the one that is the commission of small business? i think there should be some sort of, i don't know. i am not the wordsmith. what i am trying to say but i would love to see us walk the walk as we talk the talk. >> i am laughing at myself. the idea that anybody would say i am a wordsmith. i think you are exactly right. i think what i am struggling with here and maybe you can hear it in my questions is the small business community is in crisis where the department is tasked with helping that community. why is the budget the same? i people like this is the --

feel like this is the third budget that looks more or less identical to past budget plus or minus 50 grand or 100 grand or whatever. i think there is a lot to do to prepare for this particular meeting with dr. phillips, and i guess i didn't have much time to devote to thinking about the budget. we are going to spread this. there is no action item tonight that is the good news. i think a few phone calls need to be made and better sense of what the options are out there, what the possibilities are out

there, how our stance is with respect to how we are allocating resources. i think i need to, you know, each commissioner should take the time to review the budget. i get you are having problems with the app. i think if it was printed in front of me, it would be easier to digest. i think where i am headed is i am much more on the enhancement side of the fence than i am on the cut side of the fence. i don't see how anybody in their right mind could look at what we do and not come to that conclusion or look at our output over the past year or even just surmising what is likely to happen to the small business community if things come back online. they will need help, support,

services. probably at a higher degree than they did in the past. there will be a lot more people that are impacted than we have ever had in the past. i think we really need but before i get in front of the cart, i would like to have a better understanding of what a plausible recommendation would look like from the recipients and i would like a better understanding of the balance. this is going to take offline work to get to the bottom of this. >> most definitely, and i think it is important for you, commissioners, to share a sense of direction. commissioner huie, you shared a sense of direction knowing the

economic crisis that we are in. this seems contraindicated to reduce our budget at minimum so hear from the commission and that this is something both with the president and the vice president we can dive into this deeper and look at the budget. if there are ideas and suggestions that you have interest in terms of on the enhancement side, then this is something, also, to share with either ideas if anything comes to your mind now or offline. >> i have something real quick.

we can parking lot this. i really don't know if i have the knowledge to understand staffing right now in the city and what we have the ability to manipulate. i understand that departments were called on to send staff to the emergency staffing for covid and not all departments were doing that. i would like to inquire about the funding for those emergency services. i could advocate that we are part of that. >> i think there is all kinds of. that is a perfectly fine articulation for where the money could come from.

frankly, i think to cynthia's point, commissioner huie. we are the department of small business and there is a small business crisis happening. commissioner adams. >> i agree with commissioner huie, with president laguana and commissioner zouzounis. we should be getting more funding on an emergency basis. the city needs to really look at the priorities. i have always thought in the past the budget was too thin to

begin with. as i look at a lot of the -- you know, city workers, not that they don't work hard. they got raises this year. there aren't a lot of regular people who got raises this year. we are in a crisis. with that said, too, the city is in a horrible financial crisis right now. one of the things we may want to do. i have been thinking about this. i read this budget this afternoon when director sent it. i started brainstorming how to get more money in here. maybe with the new administration in washington, we can work on grants. we have a great new advo cat now at the small business administration. if the city would allow us,

maybe the commissioners could lobby to get more money directly to our office to address these issues. like you said, now is not the time to cut the budget. we are in an emergency state here. you go down the streets here, and it breaks my heart. we are at a small business crisis before covid. we are in a worse situation now. we about 200,000, 300,000 people. that is priority one. with the jobs comes other things to help the city. one of the things we may want to think about and i will take this upon myself. dealing with the federal government now that we have a

change of administration. let's try to start to get some of these funds. we have a vice president from san francisco. speaker of the house from san francisco. could on. help the people in your own backyard. we in a horrible, horrible financial crisis. i don't think any of us realize how bad it is. i come to the realizezation months ago. we are in trouble. not to be the bearer of bad news. we will see reductions in police, fire, we will see reductions across the board. i think we have to all come together as a commission to figure out what to do to save what we got. that is my two cents. thank you. >> that is very well said, commissioner adams. i appreciate that context.

i don't want to spend too much time on this. it is clear to me that offline work needs to happen and phone calls need to be made, some discussions mead to be had around the best path forward. i want to get in the path of promising the moon and not being able to deliver anything at all. i just don't know what constraints we are up against, but it seems to me again going back to what commissioner huie said. we are the office of small business and there is a small business crisis. this is self-evident we need to be more aggressive. i don't see how anybody can look on at the out pit in the past year and say we weren't doing our job or the office wasn't doing our job. it is ridiculous. we need conversations.

i think we should move to public comment because i think we are all on the same page about this and we all agree. i see commissioner dooley headache as -- nodding her head. move to public comment and close this item and have more discussions and reconvene at the next meeting on this. >> there is nobody in the queue for public comment. >> public comment is closed. next item. >> commissioners, i am going to call items 6 and 7 together and will provide some background and direction for the elections of the commission president and vice president.

item 6. election of offices president. in according to the rules of order 2 section 3. it must occur at the regular meeting of the small business commission held during the seconds meeting in january of each year. a term of one year elected upon a vote of the commission. that is an action item. item 7 is election of officers vice president. according to the commission rules of order article 2 section 3 election of vice president must occur at the regmeeting of the commission during the second meeting in january of each year. vice president shall eleven a term of one year and shall be elected upon a vote of the commission. the commission shall vote to elect a commission president and vice president under separate agenda items. for each office the commission secretary will call for

nominations. nominations require a second to be considered. nominees will be provided an opportunity to make a statement in the order in which they were nominated. after the nominee statement other commissioners will be provided a chance to comment. following the statements the secretary will open public comment. when public comment is closed the secretary will conduct a roll call vote on each nomination in the order each nomination was made. first to receive four votes for each office shall be deemed elected. the no nominee receives four votes it will be re-opened and the process repeated. if no nominee receives four votes the commission secretary may after not less than three rounds of nomination continue the election for one or both

offices to the commission's next regular meeting. commissioners, item 6. election of the small business commit president. is there a nomination? >> vice president the zouzounis. i would like to nominate commissioner laguana for another term of president of the small business commission. am i allowed to embellish or just straight nomination? >> you can embellish. >> i just wanted to say thank you, commissioner laguana for leading us through a land mark year. i am thankful for your leadership on and over line and encouragement of collaborating

with small business and community organizations. i move to nomination commissioner laguana to serve another term of one year of president of the small business commission. >> thank you. is there a second for this nomination. >> second. >> thank you, commission near dooley. i am going to open up for public comment. jim, is there anyone on the line for public comment? >> there is nobody in the queue for public comment. >> public comment is closed. >> is there another nomination or are we able to move on to roll call? i will begin roll call. commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dooley. >> yes. >> commissioner huie. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes.

>> commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> yes. >> congratulations, president on your election to another term as commission president. >> thank you. would it be appropriate to make a brief comment? >> sure. >> this has, i think for me and all of you, been the most challenging year of my entire life. i have had a lot of challenging years, but this took the cake. i just want to say i have learned so much from each and every one of you and have so much respect for each and every one of you. at least from my perspective to do my best to represent everything that each of you bring up, even just passing

comments that you think aren't that big of a deal, i try to make sure they are followed up on and supported. it is an incredible honor working with all of you. it will be an incredible honor to continue to work with you. i can't do this forever. i am not sure i have more than another year in me. this is a lot of work, but i am committed to doing this with all my heart for this year. thank you all for being such fantastic colleagues and making my work look so good by virtue of the amount of intelligence and experience and wisdom that you bring to it. it is a reflection of the body as a whole. thank you very much. next item, please. >> we are going to continue on with item 7. which will be the election of

the small business commission vice president. is there a nomination? >> i would like to nominate mirian zouzounis. her leadership in the last year is phenomenal. i am so so proud of her. >> can other people make comments? >> is there a second? >> i second it. >> okay. great. yes, you may make a comment. >> i have had the privilege of working closely with vice president zouzounis. she is really fantastic. you know, i just want to say that in a year where it is going

to be absolutely critical how sba interacts with the small business community, the fact we have somebody with both feet planted within sba is a huge asset to this commission and to the community. i have seen her put that to work behind-the-scenes helping, for instance the venue community get situated with webinairs and trains. her attention to details, you know, particularly with respect to how it affects the smallest businesses. i am so grateful for her lived experience, managing these and through the family business and her advocacy work on behalf of those folks. we have a fantastic group. it is an honor to serve with

her. i want to second and echo and amplify everything commissioner adams said. >> thank you very much. commissioner zouzounis, do you have anything to adds for your nomination? >> i am honored to take on another year of leadership for the small business commission. it is a privilege working with all of you and fighting for the livelihood of small business in the city. i do consider myself still a student in many regards, however, i am surrounded by mentors and i believe that we have a lot ahead of us in terms of leadership development in the small business community i am excited about. i am confident we can do this

and we are accountable. that is most important our authenticity because we are accountable to the base of small businesses. i thank you for the kind words and for everybody's hard work including the hardworking staff. we appreciate you so much. >> thank you. anyone on the line for public comment? >> we have no public comment. >> okay. thank you. i will take a roll call vote on the nomination of commissioner zouzounis to the position of vice president of the small business commission. commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner huie. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> absolutely, yes.

>> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> yes. >> congratulations commissioner zouzounis. it is a unanimous vote. >> next item? any closing administrative work related to this? >> administrative work related to these items is complete. >> next item. >> item 8 approval of draft meeting minutes january 11, 2021. action item. >> members of the public to comment on this item? >> we have no public comment in queue. >> public comment is closed. commissioners, a motion. >> i motion to approve the

motion. >> second. >> motion by commissioner adams to approve minutes january 11, 2021, seconded by commissioner laguana. roll call vote. >> commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner huey. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> commissioner ortizca take gina. >> yes. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> yes. >> motion passes 6-0. >> next item, please. >> item 9. general public comment to allow members of the public to comment on items not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items. discussion item. >> any members of the public to make a comment on an item or

matter not on today's agenda? >> there is nobody in queue for public comment. >> public comment is closed. next item. >> 10. director's update and report on the office of small business and the small business assistance department programs, announcements from the mayors. discussion item. >> thank you and good evening, commissioners. a good deal of -- not a good deal but a significant chung of the report was to review the key items from today's announcements. dr. phillips covered a good portion of it. i do want to note we will also likely have updates to signage and some minor changes to

operational requirements. as we are out talking with new businesses about moving -- with the reopening and moving to purple to make sure to encourage businesses to read both the social distancing protocols and different appendixes that govern businesses. my staff will do its best to outline those changes as they become available, but i like to remind businesses this is something that is to be done. i am not sure if you have read in the paper the flavor tobacco ban at the state level is on hold because of a ballot measure. i indired with the city attorney to get clarity -- inquired with the city attorney for the local

measure. it is not affected by the state bill. therefore, our local measure is still in place. it still holds. the state bill did not prevent local municipalities from being more restrictive. as a reminder that usually when san francisco takes the lead on these types of matters that there generally is a clause in the legislation that deals with our law will stay in place and be will be preempted by state action. i asked the city attorney whether the city attorney is going to provide public clarity about this and also ask that they speak to the department of public health city attorney.

the department of public health make sure they reach out to tobacco permit holders to ensure that they don't get confused by what is being stated in the media. no real updates legislatively at this point from legislation that you have heard and no new items of legislation that have been introduced since the commission meeting. i do not have anything in addition to add on that front. since the meeting is running fairly late, i will conclude my remarks there. >> thank you, director. appreciate it. any commissioner comment or questions? any public comment? >> no public comment in queue. >> public comment is closed.

next item, please. >> 11. commissioner discussion and new business discussion items. >> my power got cut off. one of the public commenters on the police. i didn't get a chance to talk about this. we are talking about automated police reports when you talk to the police officer. that was a good idea. the idea of grant funding for cameras. an idea i have been tossing around with small business advocates is trying to identify actual city funds for street beautification. all the different commercial districts certainly would appreciate having funds available for stuff to make it more inviting to the public. now that we have more people eating and doing commerce

outdoors, that has more elvens than in the past -- relevance than in the past. one thing for the attention of all commissioners and this is very important. you can ignore me the rest of the time. i think many of you recall that the mayor introduced $62 million loan program which includes $12 million in grants. in the fine print it said up to $62 million. that means that there is not a big pool of funds at $62 million that is just part of that grant program. there will have to be at some point an allocation request from the board of supervisors. i just want to flag this for all of you. this is something we will have to activate the small business community about. this is the biggest -- i forget

what they call it financial aid or plan. this is the biggest thing we have had since the pandemic started. we do want to make sure it gets complete and full allocation of funds. that will mean turning out all people in support of that. there are a few other items coming down the pike. i think in february fairly early in february you may recall supervisor stefani's fee waiver legislation. that needs to also get support from our board of supervisors. as commissioner adams pointed out, we are heading to very treacherous waters from a budget standpoint so it is very hard to free up money. the only way the small business

community is going to get anything if we addvo indicate loudly and repeatedly. i want to flag those two things. fee waiver we need to really support and make sure there is an allocation for that loan and grant program. that is what i got for now. if i skipped somebody, i apologize. commissioner huie. >> sorry. i was writing notes. i just wanted to revisit a few items that we had spoken about last year where one was i know we skipped a retreat last year. i wanted to put it out there that i would love to have some

sort of tie to be able to strategically plan and work together as a commission body. i feel like i got shafted and i didn't get a retreat. i want to push for one this year. >> i have only been to one retreat myself. it was great. we got sandwiching. it was exciting. >> i want a virtual sandwich. i wanted to push for that. second thing was i had really good conversations with community members who really felt like they wanted to give up their time in a greater capacity than what they have been doing. they have been providing technical assistance and watching the work we do as a commission body. i want be to revisit the yard of advisory -- the idea of advisory committee especially around policy analysis.

we have the funds to digest the work we need to go through. there are members of the community who reached out and want to be part of that so hopefully if we can put that back onto the agenda at some point this year, i would love to tohelp to recruit. something came up in my mind as you were speaking about opportunities. i think something that continually comes up is the opportunity for small businesses to be able to find meaningful partnerships with larger businesses in the community. if there was a formal way to make introductions in relationship to be able to find

needs. can we identify resources to meet the needs within the same community? that would help the city narrative of big and small business and everybody working together. i would love to see more communications and more, i think, you know, unity to work together. whatever you offer if it is a large service or if it is a neighborhood service. bringing larger and smaller businesses together in a more formal introduction is a piece of new business i would like to add. that is it. thank you. >> those are all great suggestions. i appreciate you reflagging the idea of advisory committee without side folks that have a lot of interest in the policy

work that don't have a seat but can make a big contribution. i think that is -- we have spoken about a number of different committees. i know that sometimes a formal committee can introduce a layer of bureaucracy so perhaps like advisory group might be a-framing to make it easier on staff so we don't have to do all of the things. i am thinking out loud about that. i really like the idea, and i think i am completely open to it being a committee. i want to be careful that we are not over extending ourselves in terms of resources. i know that has come up before in conversations with the

director. let's proceed on that. on the partnerships, that is really good. i think we should flush that idea out more. this reminds me of another idea and opportunity for an update. what is going on with the survey? >> i think we got like quite a strong start. i haven't been able to speak with the professor. in the first week we got close to 300 responses. i think that was through some of the e-mails and conversations and things like that. i think in the coming week i am hoping to be able to get some more outreach to business leaders. we all did that early on as well, but i think there is a lot

of leaders in our city. we are grateful for everybody. i think there are a lot of voices that want to be heard. i think that we are all happy with that response level so far. >> i thought it was very impressive, and i think much like what the shared spaces impact survey a rolling survey and they are constantly asking for input we should do more blasts around the survey. commissioner adams. >> i want to comment on the survey. i sent it out to a large group of people, and my surprise i did a follow up a few days later and every single one of them filled it out. they allstateed how much they appreciated it. it will be very interesting to see what comes back out of it. some of them used it to vent.

that is good. this is what we want to hear. i was very pleased, at least at my responses that i got to participating. >> you just don't know when you put something out like this. who is going to respond, whether anybody is going to respond. it is getting a lot of buy in. >> i was pleasantly surprised. when i did the follow-up, i am doing it this weekend. you know, the small business owner said did you do it? he says i filled it out. it is in. thank you. >> you know, --

>> i got a lot of responses back through e-mail or text saying, yes, i did it. people are excited to do it. i want to mention that the survey was filled out in several languages as well. i think the language component was phenomenal. that is something that to me was a little bit of a test. we are putting a lot of effort into this. is it fruitful? and the language was an important piece of this. >> i suppose we should give a shout out to the staff and tikely rhea in work facilitating that to make it happen. director, if you could convey our thanks to the staff.

we would like to acknowledge the hard work that went into this to make it possible. while we are on the subject, do we have a sense of when we should start to pull out results? has the professor given an indication? not a final statement of results but here is where we are at? >> let me talk to her about it. i will get a better answer, better game plan. i know the end product is supposed to be but i will speak with her about it now. >> i don't want to rush her. i just want a sense of what kind of timeline you can expect. it is nice to be able to talk to our partners. one other thing to mention is and i believe we have anincoming

commissioner being sworn in this week. director, is it prepiate to talk about this? >> i think the protocol is to make a note the plan is right now that anincoming commissioner is being sworn in. that is good. just leave it there. we will make the official announcement when that transpires. >> great. i am glad i didn't jump the gun. i guess you learn a couple things after you do this awhile. pretty soon you don't say anything at all. you are being appropriately careful. okay. anybody else? anything else?

public comment? >> no public comment in the queue. >> public comment is closed. next item, please. >> sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. >> we will end with reminder the small business commission is the public public forum to voice opinions and concerns about the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. that the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance continue to reach out to the office of small business. >> item 12 adjournment. action item. >> i move to adjourn.

>> second. >> motion by commissioner ortiz-cartagena to adjourn. seconded by commissioner adams. [roll call] >> motion passes 6-0. meeting at adjourned at 8:45 p.m. thanks to sfgovtv. many, many thanks. >> thank you. good-bye.

>> good morning, welcome.

i'm michael lambert, your city librarian. on behalf of the library commission, we're so delighted that you could join us today for this important announcement. i would like to acknowledge our library commissioners that are present, teresa, tanya, pete, john, and dr. lopez. thank you all for being here. madam mayor, welcome. we are so honored that you could participate in this event. we appreciate your leadership of our city and we are super excited about your announcement today. with that, i will invite you to get us started. maybe i was premature on that.

oh, there she is. [laughter] >> did we start already? [laughter] >> i was just welcoming you and thanking you for honoring us with your presence and your leadership. we're super excited about your announcement today. with that, i invite you to get us started. >> all right thank you michael. i appreciate that. good morning everyone. i'm really excited to share some incredible news. as you may know, before i was mayor and even before i was on the board of supervisors, i served as the executive director in the western edition. i saw how deeply important arts are and in creating a vibrant and diverse community. believe it or not, i used to sing in a choir, dance, and perform, but i was not the best at it. however, the arts connects us to one another. it bridges the gap in our

culture by helping us understand each other. they are how we express ourselves during our brightest and happiest moments, and sometimes some of our darkest ones. for people of all ages, arts and culture can help us navigate a world that can be confusing and strange. they can also provide opportunity not only for jobs and income, but for people who are in under served communities to find their voices and to make sure they are heard. that includes the role of our city's poet laureate. since lauren was made our first poet laureate in 1998, this prestigious honor has showcased san francisco's finest poets from many diverse backgrounds. their work has reminded us how it means to be a san franciscan, it reminus -- reminds us of our

diversity and calls attention to our most pressing issues and inspires us to create a more equitable and just society. it inspires young people to search for their voice in a way that may not have -- that they may not have thought was possible before. it opens doors of opportunities for them to pursue their dreams. that is why i'm so excited today to announce our eighth poet laureate. before we get to the big announcement, i would like to thank and recognize our outgoing poet laureate kim shuck for her imcredible service for our city. she represented our city beautifully through her work and has given her time over the past few years to serve our community. whether teaching at the local colleges, universiies and public schools or helping the library launch their first ever american indian initiative, kim

on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, thank you for your service and we would be honored if you close out your tenure with one last reading as poet laureate. >> thank you mayor breed. there we are. i do have a poem. it's called san francisco has a new poet laureate. pick any bench, stoop, any fourth star in this city or over it. sit quietly, you'll hear the water of time. keys rattling, heart and innovation, war and colonization that only grows on the south side of that mountain right there. you'll hear the poetry of place, popsicle sticks scratching on the curb, jump rope songs, chess

moves and love curses. every night in some back room, the future and past in autopsied words, gorilla words shouted at unsuspecting somewhere in north beach. the skyline mutters poems that have been and poems to come. if you stand at the cafe's door too long, you will hear what they choose to call in this moment a poem. old wives tales along valencia, you can hear the purring of fog as they pass through, the paintings comment quietly on every new show and if your hearing is very good, ambrose's dictionary runs on a certain bar on a certain bar stool and the faint laughter from one of sam's jokes will still grind breath. victims in more languages that you can see, and the unbound

seat 3. there are songs of varying and unbaring to found all over the richmond, every bench, every head stone under the sand. paula talks stories at state, at tables and cafes that turned to bars. john's words rattled justice and the voices of those taken in captain jack's war has made them into their own songs too. there is an eighth poet laureat of san francisco and with the title comes more wealth and words than all the great libraries that have ever been. i would like to add that you will hear a lot about honor and responsibility. there are a couple of tricky things. one of them is that people will steal your pens. i had some pens printed up. i'm not going to say what they say and i don't think they will prevent your pens from being stolen, but they will raise the

value of their resale on ebay. i'm going to share with you just very briefly what dr. jose said to me a couple of days after i was named the seventh poet laureate. he said that everything you have done up until this point got you here and none of that will matter. what matters now is what comes next. have a great time and you do know where my kitchen table is when you want to hide. take care. >> thank you so much kim for that amazing poem. thank you for representing san francisco so well over the past few years. we look forward to seeing what comes next for you. now, it is my great honor to announce our eighth poet laureat. i had the privilege of knowing this individual for many years as he worked and volunteered at the african american art and culture complex.

he has mentored men young men and women that came through our doors and taught them how to find their own vote and make themselves heard. his poems are just one of the many ways he fights for racial justice, equity, and human rights. he has shown our community what it means to be a successful poet, as a black man from san francisco. we are incredibly proud of the work he has done so far, especially his commitment to inspiring black men and boys and providing support for young people in our community. he will continue the work that our ancestors did as they fought for their own voices to be heard. i am beyond excited to see what he accomplishes as the san francisco's eighth poet laureate. i am happy to present tongo

martin, the eighth poet laureate. >> thank you madam mayor for this incredible, incredible honor. i prepared some words that i hope i make it through. i'm already filled with tears. >> i'm going to let you have the floor, it's so great to have you. thank you for all the magic you created over the years. as i said earlier, when we work together at the complex, there were a lot of challenges, especially with our boys and we had unfortunately a lot of violence in the community and just seeing you as this literary figure and inspiring these young people to look at other ways besides, you know, being out in the streets and doing stuff that

was happening then, focusing on how poetry, how music is poetry, and how they can really shift their voices to tell their own stories. you brought that to their lives and i know they continue to carry it with them today. so, you have been an inspiration for so many years, directed at so many generations of people. i'm so grateful that you accepted this honor so now i want to turn the floor over to you so that people can know who you are. if they don't know, now they know. we're looking forward to the work that we know you're going to do to make san francisco proud. so the floor is yours tongo. >> thank you. thank you very much. incredibly humbled and honored. also, deep appreciation to the selection committee. i want to send love to my mother

and brother as i am only an extension of their love, imagination, and revolutionary commitment, love to my two powerful sisters and the whirlwind that has nothing on us, love to my family above mud and lava, love to my father and the rest of the village that is not here in the physical form. i would also like to thank kim shuck for being a leader of poets and beautiful force of the people. a poet of any station is secondary to the people. a poet of any use, that belongs to the energy and consciousness of the people, one of arts most

important incarnation is that expression of mass resistance but really what art teaches us with its dominantable energy, the indominantable energy of an idea is evident that it is oppressors themselves who are in the position of resistance. it's bigger than any imperialistic, cognitively reflected in any generation. the power is ours and it is oppressors who are resisting us, resisting humanity, resisting us pretty well. it's resisting our right to determine our reality, resisting a coming epoch of liberation. mass participation in art is

what is always created in san francisco, futurism. san francisco has legend too fearless for me to count myself as one of them. i am from this legendary collection of thousands and thousands of participants, revolutionary history and culture. i'm proud to be one of the anonymous thousands in san francisco who have road these buses all night, who has been raised in marcus's bookstore, who wants justice for mario woods and alex, who wants freedom. what the people taught me is that unity is the only thing and taught me that individualism, as it is practiced and codified, romanticized in this society is not really about your adventure

through life but at its core, unfortunately, individualism is about practicing the selective humanization. other people are only human beings when it suits individual interest. civilism of sorts, that is deeply connected to slavery, both from what the society evolved from and process that addicts you to and power struggle that alienates ourselves, and at no point do we find the dehumanization of other people, the deanimation of people acceptable, are let alone necessary for an individual journey. so as much as i would love to assign the rest of my days to an individual invention, that time is over. history is heightening, showing us more and more everyday that

we're part of people, a people beyond systemic description, and we need the entire pallet of protecting human rights and nurture human curiosity. the madness we see today shouldn't be surprising. these apartheid nativity scenes come home to roast and a capitalism in crisis, what is mixed in with the parole papers and the environmental racism and program deliverables and passivism. we're in a time of epochal shift where this is opening its arms if we don't open the historical process more critically. where do we go from here?

what is our revolutionary practice or more conveniently, it begins with cultural work. it transforms the way that we relate to each other, transforms the way we relate to the earth, to a way that is conducive to liberation. a poet belongs to the energy and consciousness of the people, respecting their spirit. my only aim as poet laureate is to join with that energy, join with that consciousness in order to create vehicles of unity. events, workshops, readings, publications, these are all just vehicles of unity. i will never tire in building as many as the city can handle.

so, meet me at the library. [laughter] >> if you can't make it, i will for sure meet you wherever you are. let me now say rest in power to cure junior and diane, and i will conclude with this poem titled faithless. a tour guide, through the robbery, he also is. cigarette stand, look at what i did. ransom water and box spring gold, this decade is only for accent grooming, i guess. ransom water and box spring gold to corner store, war gangs, all these rummage junk. you know, the start of mass destruction begins and ends in restaurant bathrooms as some people use and other people

clean. are you telling me there is a rag in the sky waiting for you? yes. we should have fit in. warehouse jobs are for communists and now the whistling is less playful and if it is not a city, it is a prison. it has a prison. it's a prison, not a city. when a courtyard talks on behalf of the military issue, all walk takes place outside the body. a medieval painting to your right, none of this makes an impression. you have five minutes to learn. when a man goes sideways barb wire becomes the roof. did you know they killed the world for the sake of giving everyone the same back story? watching indiana, fight yourself into the sky, oh penny for when. it goes up and over your

headache, marking all aspirations, the first newspaper i ever read and the storefront, they left us down where the holy spirit favors the bathroom. for those in the situation offer 100 ways to remain a loser. watching those clock, what are we talking about again? the narrater at the graveyard, 10 minute flat. the funeral only took 10 minutes. you're going to pin the 90s on me, all 30 years of them? why should i know the difference between sleeping and the pyramid of corner stores on our head. we die right away. that building wants to jump off other buildings, those are down tone decisions. what evaporated on earth that we can be sent back down? thank you all again, much love. i want to give the whole roll call right now but that's too

many. much love to all my family and thank you again madam mayor. thank you. san francisco for better for worse, which you are raised, you know? >> thank you so much tongo. just so you know, the chat is blowing up. there is so much love and excitement for what you will bring to san francisco and i just want to thank you so much. thank you for the incredible poem and your inspiration and just everything that you continue to do. i look forward to what you will accomplish as our city's poet laureate. i can't wait. it's going to be exciting, especially when we open up. when you talk about meet me at the library, it's like that's your slogan now. [laughter] >> so we're going to take it to another level. that's your slogan, meet me at

the library. hitting all the libraries all over san francisco. >> that's right. >> just inviting the people in and really bringing it back to some of the basics. you know, with the way technology is nowadays, sometimes we get away from just picking up a book or picking out a book or looking through an index card. i guess we don't look through index cards to find books anymore. sitting there and having discussions, i'm looking forward to what you're going to bring and really excited about that. i really want to thank the people that nominated you. you know, there was a really compelling, you know, letter of support that you know, went into all the details about your work. you have a lot of fans out there. i want to thank the selection committee, the people who served and had to go through all of those applications because i got to tell you, it was a hard decision and i was so excited that so many people in san

francisco, you know, really embraced and support poets in such an incredible way. there are so many wonderful nominees. i'm looking forward to you connecting with all of them as well and really the outgoing poet laureate kim shuck, thank you for that poem and your commitment to san francisco and the role you have played over the years. thank you to san francisco public library and the commissioners who are joining us here today and our librarian, michael lambert. so many amazing people and i think that based on your comments today, meet me at the library, that's going to be a new part of the campaign to really bring people together, to inspire and to really you know, set things off on a whole other level. thank you tongo for your work and commitment. we're so honored that you will be san francisco's eighth poet laureate and if there is

anything left to say, you're welcome to have the floor. if not, we can turn it back over to michael lambert. >> i just want to say much love and appreciation. >> great. >> thank you so much madam mayor. my heart is full, #meetmeatthelibrary. congratulations tongoo. i want to thank all of you for joining us this morning. our public affairs office is happy to help facilitate any interviews with our new poet lawyer -- laureate, thank you all and have a great day. [♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪] . >> you're watching coping with covid-19 with chris manners. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. today, my guest is phil ginsburg. he's the director of the san francisco rec and parks, and he's a national rec and park ranger. thank you for being here. >> hi, chris. thank you for having me. >> i've heard you have an exciting new exhibit that

features social distancing and is outside, so it's safer. can you tell us a little bit about it? >> the golden gate 50 anniversary wasn't the celebration that we hoped for, but when life deals you lemons, you hope to make lemonade, and we tried to engage people in the park in different ways. behind me is what we did. it's a public exhibit which has transformed peacock meadows into an enchanted forest of other worldly shapes and lights. it's to close out golden gate park's 150 years and to allow people to have outdoors

socially distant fun. >> great. and what are the hours, and when can people go see it, and are there access for wheelchairs and strollers? >> well, it will run until february 27, and the ways are wheelchair accessible. it will close in time to make the city's curfew. we're not supposed to be gathering. we're not supposed to be celebrating out there, unfortunately. it is a beautiful exhibit and is one that can be seen from the sidewalk or you can wander into the meadow, but we ask that people be really mindful of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. the most important thing for us

is to be safe and healthy. do not show up with other households. come and see it, get a little taste of the holidays and leave so other people can enjoy it. if it's too crowded, comeback because it's going to be around for a while. >> how long does it take to walk around the exhibit? >> well, you could be there for five minutes or 15 minutes or longer if it's not crowded. it's about in an acre of meadow, but it's very visible even from a fully accessible sidewalk. you'll get a sense of it. basically, there are sculpted trees, and it's gorgeous. i got an opportunity to visit it over the weekend.

the conservatory of flowers is there, and then, we have our amazing spreckels temple of music which was recently renovated and lit up in lights. >> i have information that it was created by a local artist. what can you tell us about it? >> well, it's a new concept, but the lights were previously installed in a park in toronto and also in las vegas. the installation has been paid for through private donations

to the golden gate park's san francisco 150 campaign. it reflects a culture steeped in science and history and culture. >> i can't wait to visit it. safely, of course. >> wear masks, distance, sanitize, and don't gather. >> well, thank you for coming on the show today, mr. ginsburg. i appreciate the time you've given us today. >> thank you, and thank you for giving so much attention to golden gate park which has been so wonderful for us during covid and deserves a lot of extra love and attention on its 150 anniversary.

>> and that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more information shortly. thank you for watching coping with