take mayor breed, dr. colfax, and dr. philip, for your time. for future questions, please e-mail dem press at sfgov.org. thank you, and have a nice >> this is a special meeting of the small business commission, february 8, 2021. this meeting will come to order at 4:33. members of the public who will

be calling in, the number is 415-655-0001 then (415)655-0001 again. access code is 146571 -- sorry. they changed it. hold for a minute. access code (146)278-9246. press pound and then pound again to be added to the speaker line.

when an item of interest comes up, dial star three. you will be added to the queue. call from a quiet location and speak clearly and slowly. three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer of the meeting. speakers are requested but not required to state your name. please show the office of small business slide, sfgovtv. >> today we will begin with a reminder the small business commission is to voice opinions and concerns about policies for the economic vitality for small

businesses in san francisco. it is the best place for answers to do business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters particularly at this time find us online or via telephone. our services are free of charge. before item 1 i would like to thank media services and sfgovtv for coordinating the hearing and live stream. special thanks for assisting with the public comment line. call item 1. >> item 1 call to order and roll call. commissioner adams. >> here. >> commissioner dickerson. >> here. >> commissioner dooley. >> here. >> commissioner hule. >> here.

>> commissioner laguana. >> here. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> here. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> item 2. introduction of new commissioner lawanda dickerson. >> commissioners i would like to take this moment to warmly welcome lawanda dickerson to the small business commission for her first meeting. she is the owner of u3 fit in bayview. i am thrilled to have her join us. i am ex streetly pleased to report that she is also an experienced and accomplished drummer. that is very important. commissioner dickerson, would you like to say a few words? >> i would love to. thank you so much. i want to say greetings to

everyone on the commission. it is an honor to be here. i am excited to be part of this small business commission just because of the experience that i have had being a small business here in the bayview san francisco. i have had the amazing privilege and so much has been invested in me with all of the help i have received through oewd and spdc and the different organizations in the city and county of san francisco. i know my heart and passion is to see that everyone gets the same opportunities that i received and to support small businesses, especially coming out of covid. we want to make sure we get as many small businesses up and running. those who didn't have hope to

every start again. we want to be the driving force to get them up and running. san francisco i believe small businesses people rely on us. it is my honor to be here. i am so excited to participate with you all and to be part of the team. thank you so much. i feel welcome. >> very well said. thank you. the, commissioner dickerson. any comments, commissioners? >> wouldn't say welcome. i look forward to working with you. i am really excited. we have somebody from bayview on this commission. it is long overdue. i just love what you just said about coming out of this, giving

people hope who didn't think they had hope. it seems that is the theme today. i dealt with it at work a lot, and i see the light at the end of the tunnel. now we have to get to the end of the tunnel. i appreciate your thoughts. welcome. >> thank you. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> i want to welcome you. it is a pleasure and honor to welcome you. welcome aboard. >> if thank you. commissioner dooley. >> i am excited to have a new commissioner with new opinions. that keeps the commission vital and ongoing. welcome, welcome, welcome. thank you.

>> thank you. vice president zouzounis. >> thank you. welcome, commissioner dickerson. we are excited to have you. i hope you are ready to go to work. i am excited to collaborate with you to make sure we represent all of the san francisco small businesses. welcome. >> thank you. commissioner hule. >> welcome to the commission. i look forward to this year. i am excited to have you on the commission. thank you for joining. >> thank you. commissioner dickerson, we have had a chance to speak. i am thrilled beyond words to have you here. you will bring a new exciting

perspective to the commission that is timely and particularly appropriate given your operation of physical fitness studio that has been a subject that has come before the commission in several different ways as we navigated the public health crisis. i just know you will be fantastic, and it is going to be a lot of fun. welcome to our particular circus, and hope you will join in the fun and games. we are very much excited to have you. with that is there anyone else on the line for public comment? >> there is one person in the queue at this time.

>> hi, commissioner dickerson. i am the legacy program manager working for the office of small business. you can see my name here in the meeting. i want to just congratulate you and welcome to the small business commission. i am not presenting. i do present every other meeting and work closely and under regina. i just wanted to welcome you and looking forward to working with you. thank you so much. >> thank you. commissioner dickerson, heads up the legacy business program. normally you would meet him and the staff. of course, nothing is normal now. we have to deal with these zoom introductions. he is fantastic and real asset to the office of small business. we are lucky to have him. any last commissioner comments before i move on?

director. >> i want to welcome you to the commission. i look forward to working with you. facilitating your interest in what you want to get accomplished. working with the commission and working with the staff of the office of small business. welcome. enjoy your first meeting. >> all right. thank you. next item, please. >> 3. presentation 13 fund. update and report on 13 fund's philanthropic investment

thesesis on small business development. jason, i will show the presentation. >> let's see if this works as is. if not, i may have to -- they tried to tell me to quit out to enable sharing. i might do that at this time. sorry to give you one more hiccup. >> not a problem. you can also e-mail the files and say next slide. we have done that in the past as well. >> i will give this a quick try and come back. >> we will tread water. welcome both of you. we are happy to have you here. i don't know if you want to set up with a couple words beforehand, but i will open that opportunity up to you if you want to take it. >> jason will give it more

context. i was born and raised in the bay area, lived here most of my life. worked with nonprofits and the obama administration as well. kind of coming full circle. we have been entrepreneurs for a while and now focusing time on how to support the local communities in san francisco and new york. i am excited to share with you. >> jason, are you able tolgain control? >> it looks like i can share my screen now. this is exciting. >> assisting restaurants in the pandemic. i will cover this introduction which sounds like it is started.

i will let him go into the details. this is our presentation for today. can you see my screen? >> you are good. >> fantastic. we are both entrepreneurs. i did grow up in boston, but i spent nine years in the bay area. you can say my formative developmental years of college and young adulthood. that is where we first got to know each other. we started a nonprofit in college exactly or about 13 years prior and it was to raise money for micro finance loans to small business owners.

it is quite incredible how life takes you for a loop. last year in the rounds of march, april, may we exited our companies and started tech companies at the time. obviously, there are a lot of challenges. the country and people were facing and business owners were facing. while we were grateful to have this financial windfall, we certainly were feeling and recognizing the pain that a lot of small business owners were facing. we wanted to give back to the communities. i live in new york and we are very close friends but separated by distance. this is a way to find an opportunity to invest in communities we care about. we did set up the 13 fund to

make a minimum of $100,000 charitable gift over the next four years to a series of causes that we feel are important to our community. that includes small business development, affordable housing, mass incarceration and causes we continue to flush out. one of the things we wanted to do with our -- there are a number of generous benefactors for our cities and one of the things we wanted to do was to really understand the problem area and to be transparent about how we were learning from our research. we have this process where we first research the problem area, interview directly people who are impacted or affected by a challenge. we talk to experts, we talk to

public servants, folks trying to make a difference. we wanted to break down those key challenges. publish it publicly. there is no reason why anyone else can't have access to what we are learning. we are all smarter and more effective working together. we look for organizations that are addressing the problem area with these key challenges in mind or who we feel are connected directly to the sort of root causes or most critical issues of that problem area. we are in the evaluation phase. we reached out to about eight organizations. we are in the process of selecting a small number for zoom interviews and to make a

donation. between san francisco and new york. why restaurants? specifically, one in seven small businesses closed across the country. one in three were restaurants. few other industries were as immediately affected. it is a major loss in the cultural energy and reasons why our cities are considered some of the best places to visit among the world. we both come from immigrant backgrounds. he is from pakistan, i am from a chinese background. our communities are entrepreneurs, food entrepreneurs, many of them. this is their livelihood. we knew that, obviously, there was an anti-asian sentiment among restaurants, among the

public. that definitely hurt those people. this is what we have done. i will turn it over to bilal to highlight those areas and the solutions we have come up with. >> thanks, jason. we have conducted over 28 interviews with a lot of research. we had our volunteer that worked with public and market data to come to a conclusion about the primary challenges restaurants are facing to come to a conclusion where it might become self-evident what solutions we can help with. in this context we came to four conclusions. one of the primary things before the detail is there is no silver bullet. i think a lot of people we were

talking about what is one thing to do to save restaurants in san francisco? there is no one thing to do. it is many different factors from many different angles, and it is going to be a lot of lead bullets to get to the actual solution. to encapsulate the scenes that we saw. as we walk through this, i am sure a lot of you are familiar with these components. the first theme is sales. everyone knows there is a reduction in sales. the trends how sales were changing in that context. second is limited access to capital. basically that restaurants specifically face a larger barrier to entree and access to

the capital to survive the pandemic and other businesses i will talk to you about as well. the third is the interesting finding we discovered. there is a lot of discussion publicly of text flight from the bay area. one of the discussion is labor flight from small businesses and restaurant goes with permanent impact. the last is rent debt, one of the top issues. we will get into that as well. i think everyone knows that sales are falling. we have shelter-in-place orders that are for an important reason, it is hurting restaurants' bottom lines. the important thing to recognize

is that one shift is that some of this change is going to cause from our perspective looking at data and trends a permanent impact after the pandemic in terms of patronage accessible to restaurants. the data here is the primary sources of revenue. it differs by suburb goes with in the city. in urban areas it was tourism, conferences and office workers. tourism will return by 2021, conferences by 2022. that is a big share where the restaurants get patron age. the last is office workers, companies based in san francisco now are working from home. as things are changing unsure

when they will return not at the level before at least for the next three or four years. it is going to be awhile to come back. with that capacity we basically there are too many restaurants this year relative to supply and demand. over the next couple years it is going to, unfortunately, continue to be the case. it is not going to return for a long time to pre-pandemic. it is interesting as well with in the different communities and districts within san francisco and outside of the bay area, it is because of the patronage is from people in conferences. we noticed restaurants moving out of soma to other suburbs to other regions in the bay area. the restaurants in suburbs are not hit as highly by the

pandemic of sales because the patron name is less based -- patronage is less based on conferences and companies working, it is based on homes and families in the suburban area. the third issue we noticed is that the issue of shelter-in-place and unpredictability of outdoor dining going up and down has hurt a lot of ability for restaurants to plan. restaurants only have on average two to three months of cash reserves. the larger ability to predict revenue is extremely important. inability to predict or forecast that revenue is severely hurting their ability to run operations consistently. those kind of things holistically we are finding independent restaurants will

probably consolidate from represent 43% by the end of the year of restaurants. another interesting finding has been that the types of restaurants affected are the ones that are not -- you would think fine dining because they are all indoors. fine dining would be more hit but they have less closures. in terms of the solutions what are the lead bullets to do? there are a lot of factors and it is not easy to one. one thing is the pandemics will go up and down for six to nine months. if outdoor dining could remain indefinitely and related to that relaxed health code to enable

more street food or food trucks, it would be a significant boom to enable them to function in an outdoor dining environment. covid does not spread as much outdoors. ideally the next time we have another shut down the outdoor dining component can remain to enable these sales as much as possible. that is the co-opponent there. -- component. access to capital. there is a public conscious that ppp was in place and that would involve problems. the challenge has been because the restaurant margins are only 15% with three month cash reserves. they don't have a cushion for

emergencies. only those with access to capital to get loans they needed to actually kind of per assist. that was -- persist. we found the closure rates for fine dining establishments were like 2x less likely to close than fine dining. they had relationships with banks or wealthy clients. most restaurants are immigrant owned or don't have -- where english is not first language they don't have relationship with the bank. they are hurting the ability to get the large disparity in the context. when they do give loans not in the increments that restaurants need it. when they do it can be high interest rates to put people in

debt. the last point is a lot of the federal programs are covering employee payroll to cover that component. the problem is restaurants as compared to small businesses have a higher percentage of undocumented workers who do not qualify for ppp which makes it difficult for the restaurants to cover expenses. the recommendation is a ideally if there is a government sponsored or state-sponsored lawn programs or grants -- loan programs or grants so it doesn't put them further into debt. the complex component to fast track grant approvals. the time to take to get the

grants is all a ticking clock. most restaurants only have two to three months of cash reserves on hand. it is a clicking clock. anything to fast track or listen to the approval process is a significant boom in terms of capital in this context. next slide. these were surprising but deeply concerning. these are going to affect the restaurant industry after this year. number one problems restaurants impressed. it was competitive to get labor in san francisco due to housing pricing and commute time and resources available. in that context the restaurant is the primary lever to reduce cost is labor.

unfortunate universal metric of restaurants they monitor performance by sales per labor hour. the only primary lever they have when sales goes down is labor hours. they have to reduce accordingly the labor hours. in doing that, though, a lot of labor is moving outside of the bay area where shelter-in-place is not as strict. a lot of the restaurants are worried even after the pandemic goes away, these people left permanently and it will be harder to find talent in that context. recognize there is no silver bullet. the large level issue in improving affordable housing and programs the city is investigating can help to retain the workers who work here to

maintain a living wage to continue to work here and be a central component of our community. last is rent debt. this was affecting a lot of restaurants. we couldn't find a strong solution to get it fixed. the number one issue you are worried about today and after even the sales go back up. after labor flight or before it was fixed cost. it is the one cost that can't reduce by changing hours or their amount of food or any kind of issues. in one server 80% will not be able to make rent payment. they are taking on debt if they can get access to the debt. a study a couple weeks ago where

japan town shut down for this reason. they can't agree with the landlord. some land lords are thinking more long-term but obviously if you play the long game there might not be any restaurants to pay the rent over time. this is becoming worry some. a lot of restaurants are not paying rent or it is accumulating debt they will never be able to pay back. some solutions we are thinking of are moratorium on commercial leasing or property tax credits. more at the federal level for rent forgiveness. it can help incentivize landlords to be more generous and thinking long-term rather than short term eating up costs. in summary, supplementing

restaurants is superimportant to the city. the series of factors and changes to make to ensure restaurants sub assist at least through the next year and try to think ahead how to set them up for success once everything returns to relative normal to help them succeed going forward from there? i will take any questions. i will take feedback or anything that we can help with. >> commissioner, thank you very much. this is a very interesting presentation. i want to go back to the rent debt portion really quick. i am a landlord. i have 36 restaurants.

over several properties mainly in california and hawaii. i am working with every single one of them. i think outside the box. the one thing that you should add to the rent debt that you didn't mention is some banks aren't willing to work with landlords. that is i think the bigger problem out there. i think landlords would work with most of them. i work with mine, but i see other people where banks are not working with them. that is causing a problem. one of the things i am taking percentage rent right now. instead of fixed rent we are doing 10% whatever you do or we

move people's tables and chairs. we get them to do as much outdoors as they can. but the bank part is the biggest part. that is something that it does need to be addressed on a federal level, i believe. state and locals are under federal law. i see that out there and i have seen it more this time around than in our great recession, you know, 10 years ago. >> that is great feedback. there are multiple players and components. one of the reason the banks don't give money to the landlords because of the risk of real estate or interest rates.

>> interest rates are low. that leads to my next comment. in spaces where restaurants are going out of business and we have had restaurants just shut down prior to the pandemic, the interesting thing is in the last few months i am seeing new restaurants come in. because i have the stove and fixtures still in the restaurant, they can't open up inside. there is a lower cost to get in. i have a couple restaurants now with the same deal. i am not charging rent. here you go, here is an empty space. most of these are young people who are enthusiastic. they use social media which is fascinating and very interesting

to drive traffic into their businesses. percentage rent and see how it goes for the next year and hopefully, things will stick. it is interesting. the interest rates are incredibly low. if you go and the banks, the ppp, they have been very good with ppp loans and state grants and california have been very good. it is the mortgage payment on a mixed use building and a bank says we don't want to deal with it you have to make the payment, you have property taxes, insurance. that is where i think a lot of the issues lie.

>> commissioner dooley. >> thank you for your presentation. it had a lot of interesting details. i had one question about your suggestion about changing parts of the health code. do you mean for food trucks or also for restaurant? >> for food trucks and street food to make it easier for restaurants. there have been some that enabled shares spaces and what not, but a lot of restaurants we talked to wanted to branch out to do a food truck component of the business or just serve food outdoors more on a street food basis and navigating the process was pretty complicated for a lot

of them. it is a suggestion what is the hope? it is getting too complex and given the next year where most of the food is going to be served outdoors, how do we make it easier? this process is hard. >> something interesting about food trucks, too. you can move to where the people are. a restaurant is trapped in this place that used to have office workers now it doesn't. if you can put the restaurant be on wheels you can find the demand where it is. >> exactly. especially we noticed and i think the data suggested closures on polk street are less than soma.

nob hill is used to more families and suburban traffic. restaurants in soma are consolidating that no longer have a lot of foot traffic they can have a food truck in the city where they can get that traffic instead. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> thank you for the presentation. i was very, very interested in all of the data. [indiscernable] in the bay area the restaurants,

all of these companies the population. [indiscernable] because of the grants is there a program. [indiscernable] what happens is the fine tuned mechanism. [indiscernable] it is catastrophic. the population in the region for

like oklahoma, ohio, kentucky. i think this is going to have a catastrophic effect for years to come. [indiscernable] >> unless you talk to people, you will not hear this because a lot of the workers are undocumented they are not going to show up official reports. just looking at the data, i work in artificial intelligence data. i will tell you data lies. often times the real story comes from talking to people. that is why we mixed the data analysis and talking to restaurants. the actual issue you have to talk to people to understand it.

100% agreed. >> commissioner hule. >> thank you very much for the presentation. i was reading a little bit about your partnership and everything. i am wondering. it sounds like you both have put in to or committed to, is that right? i love the idea of like using a new kind of model, private model to help with a public greater good type of thing. i think that to me seems like the future of where business has to go. especially as we recover, is that when we think about business it also has to consider the social good for the social

kind of impact of what we do. i love that you guys are kind of sharing the ideas from different places to solve this problem. that is what i gathered from my little bit of reading and your presentation. how can the commission support the work you do either in helping with scaling or, you know, advocacy? i think this is really nicely presented and it is a lot of things we have all been kind of thinking about and dealing within our own communities. i would love to know what you guys would love to see out of your presentation today. >> what we would like to see if you can tell us what you need to make this become a reality, and we will help do that. one is we have a different

proposals at high level details. we are less familiar with what it takes to get it into execution and practice. maybe helps to know which you think are more plausible to get something done in the next couple months, and then what would you need from us to help build that case? in terms of research or public research for a better case for that. where there is not enough information provided, that would be helpful. second we would love to see whatever your commission things is possible even getting a couple of these will help. what you think is most possible and what is missing to drive to

the next. second. our vision is to develop the 13 fund and the start up world your company do angel investing. apply that model in a similar cop concept to philanthropy. it is a new thing. giving circles. we want to set a precedent so people in our community and other entrepreneurs would have an easy way to donate. what we plan to do is set up a sin do cat that we will donate to. this is what we think will

succeed. we can then publish a new report that says who else wants to join us? we have several people who said as soon as we choose we will donate to. in that component i don't know what you are promoting getting more like when we do the announcement to get more people involved to put money into that same effect. we love to have non-profits address these problems. the latter stage of evaluation. any non-profits that can help. we found access to capital and sales and new deal and working with ccdc and organizations that you are familiar with. i think the issues we haven't been able to find anyone helping with is the rent debt problem. that seems more of something the government can incentivize or

not. if there are non-profits that can help us talk to them during our evaluation process. does that help or make sense? >> that helps a lot of what i notice is that there is a disconnect between these different communities. i feel like people working in the tech factor and finance, especially like tech finance there is like a bubble there. the people doing like community service work in the community-based organizations there is that bubble. it is like there is often times no real opportunity for those two to come together in a meaning full way. >> everyone in tech community is working in the apartments and

not leaving. it gets worse at this point. the clubhouse right now. it is fascinating that there are rooms having public conversations with people both sides. immigrants speaking about their stories and political advocacy. it would be interesting to have that type of forum but public if people would be interested in that, i am happy to host to get more add row cassie for the work -- advocacy for the work you are doing. at least if you have a broader audience it will help bridge the divide. a lot of people are interested in helping but there is a lot of inertia.

we are willing to help but don't want to put in the effort. our goal is to reduce that and turn to energy. one of them is what we are doing now. more engagement would be helpful. >> i am happy to support and i think it is great. looking forward to reaching out after the meeting. thank you. >> i will follow up. >> one of the things that is part of this idea of angel philanthropy that i think i will speak for myself. if i want to make a larger contribution and understand what is happening to it and how it has the process, the change is going to be to develop a sense of conviction. i think a lot of reasons people get excited about angel investing is to be that person

to discover something new and using your brain to think about it. it is like a puzzle. we think there is an opportunity to do that same thing especially if they discover something and then all of a sudden not overwhelming but meaningful amount you have the opportunity to create a real amount of change, but there is this research component which to some degree is necessary to uncover the kinds of insights that undocumented point we heard that, but, yes, it is not always as obvious. the human research. >> are you done, commissioner hule? >> yes, thank you very much.

>> commissioner zouzounis. >> thank you. that was a great presentation. a couple things. i do think there is a big component missing with how we are assessing the state of small business and who is getting support and who needs support and who is alive and well and who is not is not just basedded on the identity of the business owner and determining that but also the demographics including economic status of the customers they serve. i think that piece is missing. all i have seen around covid focus on identity, not on class, and not on small businesses still being a vulnerable

population. i would love to talk about how we can produce data around that. i know that in the family business i am part of we -- the people on the front lines know what they need best. i think it is great you have case studies one-on-one. i would encourage you to talk to the trade associations, merchant-led organizations which are not profits. i would definitely encourage whatever benefits come out of your communications with folks to look at the groups as who you are looking to support. one thing that i realize in conversations with technical assistance or as nonprofit. they are -- they now have

trouble with the technical support, city, federal or locally funded. they need clients. they need to build up their connection to those small business networks, informal groups that businesses are congregating in. there is definitely a gap of communication between technical support and any business. that is one thing to think about to talk to and who receives some benefits. >> setting up the websites?

>> technical support has become a catch all term for services for small businesses. there is, you know, obviously getting online, traditional tech support is a big issue, especially for, you know, immigrant businesses and what not. i mean who do i contact for what violation i got and there is no contact? what is my permit? a lot of these things are done through the office of small business but also a lot of organizations like the san francisco economic developmental line which is a coalition of technical support organizations that serve impacted entrepreneurs and small businesses and help with financial management, where to

start if they want to add to their business. it is really everything. >> commissioner dooley. >> i just wanted to follow up on the things miriam was speaking about. where the angel money might go. with the business association to work on a project where we could put together online shopping sites for different neighborhoods. i go to hawaii a lot. i am still shopping at very tiny stores that have grouped together. i am doing this online. this is something that would

help any of our neighborhoods by highlighting what special things they have. now this isn't restaurants. there is a lot of things that could be put online fairly easily with a relatively small amount of money. that is something i would love to talk to you about. it is a very positive thing. people like to shop online now. why not enhance the bottom line of some of our small businesses that way? >> i will give it something to look into more. in the direction which comes from tech. my first reaction is i should do this. my concern is that i am not sure how much the benefits are going

to help the restaurants for all the reasons we talked about. i will give an example. one data point -- not to contradict, how do we have the highest impact for the dollars spent? we look at how much the proportion to off and on site dining. pre-pandemic the proportion was 10 to 20%. 20% of the revenue off site. post-pandemic most severe shut down orders it was 80% -- 60 to 80% off site to on site. then as outdoor dining opened

again, more 60% on and 40% delivery online. in terms of the margin. the margins of the restaurants the revenue they were making is only 30 to 40% of the revenue they were making just at the same time last year. despite the shift to online ordering the revenue has not compensated to their original labels. i have to say everything from delivery fees like door dash and uber charges. 50% cap, i think. it is something that should help

businesses with online ordering. the issue i think is that i am not completion convinced that it is going to solve the problems of restaurants which is the patronage left. it can help with the margin level. i am still struggling with what has the largest impact to what we are looking at. >> thank you. i must be misspoken. with the idea of angel investors we need to keep in mind all of our businesses aside from restaurants are suffering. it is an idea. i have seen how successful it is in the state of hawaii. it was actually a lot of the money came from the state. i am throwing it out there. i have seen how successful it

is. >> restaurants are harder. other businesses, yes. shop i fi. they have done well. they shifted to digital. some restaurants have done well in shifting. the restaurants shift in restaurants is a kitchen of baked goods. for a traditional business not food oriented it can be a lot easier. you are correct. >> no other commission comments. i would like to commend and thank both of you for spending your time and your money trying to tackle this problem.

that is very commendable. it is very welcome. i took great interest in your presentation. a couple things. a little points to steer towards to help you. on the commercial rent which i agree with usa vexing problem, in part, as commissioner adams pointed out, the banks are constrained themselves with their own regulatory burdens to meet. sometimes they have flexibility and sometimes they can't. that creates a dynamic where it is hard to move forward. you mentioned property tax in your footnotes. property tax forgiveness as a

possible way to incentivize banks and owners, really owners how to move out. you might be interested to know if you go on spur. org. i was delighted to help create and hosted a stakeholder conference with banks and landlords and small businesses. the actual paper is keeping the lights on. we did that conference december 1st. one thing which came out of it. you might want to check it out. it is a line drive. it was submitted by the c.e.o. of fidelity bank, i think, paerr

proposal. essentially a much more detailed sort of explanation of that issue. i thought it was really interesting. i have been trying to get the state elected officials to take a close look at that idea. it is a bit completion. what i want to highlight. i want to amplify what vice president zouzounis said about really being thoughtful about how you approach equity issues. one thing that might come up for you in your small business research is that it has been disproportionately african-american and female owned businesses that have been hurt as a result of the

pandemic. one thing i noticed as sort of general economic principle. the shaller businesses, the more likely a small grant will have a material impact on its ability to survive and help. if you are looking for biggest pay on your investment dollar you might start prioritizing that equity piece of it. i think it may reveal some businesses that would becle positioned to -- be positioned to benefit and have disproportionately positive impact on the community precisely because of communities harder hit. you know, just a couple quick questions. i read your piece that was very

interesting. just to make sure i understanding this correctly. it sounds like you want to make sure that you are giving away at least $100,000 but you hope to create a angel list for gift giving? is that the idea? syndicates? >> the circles is more common term in the community. >> i would just, you know, be delighted to help with that. also, you point out there is already an enormous amount of existing research around what can really help. i wanted to echo and amplify that you speak with some of

these business association leaders who are really boots on the ground. they have seen a couple things. they have tried a few others. there are some things that seem attractive but they are dead ends or are too difficult to lift. there are other things that seem sort of like perhaps not as sexy but they deliver material results. i will be delighted as well to connect with you guys offline and perhaps help introduce you to some of these folks who would welcome the effort. finally, i will notice that the city itself has a program called give to sf. my understanding is that soon there will be an ability to give within that program. i am not 100% sure on that.

i can tell you the city processor identifying where to be of assistance and what works even if you don't choose to give to the city, you can learn a lot from how they analyze the problem because it is a lot of experts who likewise have a lot of experience and failed a lot. i know that is something we all learn from tech. an important qualifier for future success. you have got to make sure you fail enough, otherwise, it is unlikely you will hit it out of the park on the first time. finally, i have a invite, but i found it challenging. you have to be willing to interrupt people. maybe it is being on the

commission, i just even if i am in the speaker's area, i rarely speak. you have to ram your way in, but i would be delighted to join. >> it depends on the moderators and how much interaction you have. the type of people in the room and how combative or less combative they are. we want to be intentional about that. the worst is when the moderatorrors have their own opinions. the rooms we are hosting we are trying to listen to people. on the early point as well. to talk to those associations the focus is to support the

non-profits. specifically how funding of less than a certain amount. to your same point we want the dollars to have more sizable impact to the organization. also, because they are nonprofit industry. it is significant numbers that goes to the individual and there is important. [indiscernable] >> clarification. you use small businesses and non profits interchangeably. you want to give to non-profits who help small businesses or give directly to the small businesses. >> our giving efforts we are constrained to 501 c-3 as some

kind, not directly. >> that helps clarify. >> what about a 501c6? that is a trade association. are you donating to them? >> i believe so. [indiscernable] >> yes, there are limitations. >> okay. >> once again, thank you for choosing to engage and get involved. i am sure several of us will try to connect with you offline. i will say as a point of information for any commissioners, i have more clubhouse invites than i know what to do with. if you are curious, i would be

happy to send you an invite so you can see what we are talking about. >> it takes about a week to figure out what it does. lower signal to noise ratio. you have to follow a bunch of people you are interested in. i found one or two rooms each week. >> if you start with me, you will be in good hands. i am kidding. in all seriousness. if you are interested shoot me an e-mail mail or text. i will hook you up. we should check for public comment. any public comment on the line? >> there is no one in the queue. >> seeing none. public comment is closed. gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. appreciate you stopping by. i look forward to working with

you in the future. >> thank you so much. >> next item, please. >> item 4. child care support for small businesses. discussion and action item. >> so commissioners, this is the first of two resolutions we are contemplating today. this one takes up an issue many small pest and most vulnerable businesses attempts with, particularly women of color. that is child care. we know women are more likely to be the primary caregivers for children and depend on affordable child care options to participate as workers and job creators. we know that moms starting and building businesses necessitate child care, particularly single moms who are predominantly black and latino.

prior to 2019 the net majority of new businesses were started by black women and latino women. i will add that because i say this at every turn that i get, every chance i get. the fastest growing sector in the u.s. economy for the past two decades has been women-owned businesses. really facilitating female ownership of businesses is really great for the u.s. economy as well. with reliable child care available to them, black women and latinos who start the majority of new businesses can contribute to economic recovery and insure economic security. we know fellderral support did not reach women and people of color. women owned the businesses in industry among the last to

reopen. food service, retail and personal care. that is why we raise the issue today and urge more support in the child carell many for women and small businesses. do we have questions or comments or discussion about the resolution in front of us? >> i have a question. i know there has been at least two pieces of legislation in the last couple years in san francisco related to child care. one of had do with amending the planning code to allow for ground floor child care. that matters if we talk about commercial corridors.

i wonder if there is legislation related to funding or to point the city in this direction to supporting this resolution. do you have any feedback on that? >> commissioner, there was a ballot measure to increase moneys toward child care. that was one of former president yee's big initiatives during his time on the board of supervisors. what we can do is get that information in terms of status. how much money come in, what are the plans, where is it going. perhaps take a look at that

dovetailing with the recent legislation and how those two might interplay with each other so we can follow up with you on that. >> that is great. thank you. >> i will add that small business owners are typically stuck in a neither here nor there place where stuff that and resources and benefits that are available to workers are sometimes not available to owners in the same degree. i think this is a worthy resolution. we are talking about making sure that business owners have access to child care and education and i think given that so many

businesses are female owned and we want to see more, i think that this is -- i am very supportive. i don't know if i am allowed to see that before the vote but i think it is a good thing. >> any other commission comments before public comment? all right. any public commenters on the line? >> no one the queue at this time. >> public comment is closed. i am going to move that we accept and add don't the resolution. >> second. seconded by laguana. commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dickerson.

>> yes. >> commissioner dooley. >> i have been kicked off. >> we can hear you now. >> commissioner duly. i now have to reenter. >> i will come back to you, commissioner dooley. >> commissioner hule. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner yekutiel.

>> yes. >> commissioner. >> i am voting yes. back on the video. >> commissioner dooley we can see aphear you. >> i can't see anything. it is asking for a password to log in. >> motion passes unanimously. commissioner dooley do you need support? >> yes. >> you are already in the meeting. we can see and hear you. perhaps you have the window hidden behind one of your other windows. >> not that i can see, but it just threw me off. let me look. >> if it threw you off you would not be heard in this meeting. >> when i look it still says sign in to web ex.

>> well you are signed in to web ex and you are in the meeting. what happens if you close that window? >> all right. i am back. i don't know what i touched. >> okay. >> next item, please. that item passed. >> item 5. prioritizing customer service for small businesses. discussion and action item. >> so commissioners, this second resolution some of you may recall there has been a few items in the news plus we

received a few e-mails about businesses that have suffered vandalism and then they try to recover from that. they are putting boards up on windows. they get griffeyty. dcw comes along with a violation notice. that is very firm and stern. it gives the business owner the impression that they are about to get a very substantial fine unless they take care and remedy the condition in question. graffiti or broken windows. when we have reached out to d.p.w. they are not that interested in finding folks. they are more interested in helping and working with them. that is great but the form

itself does not in any way or shape or form convey that intent. it is a much more frightening how the form is crafted and, of course, if you are a business owner who has been struggling to survive through the pandemic, then hit with vandalism apbroken windows and the city comes along withinsult to injury. this resolution is encouraging d.p.w. to work with us and work with the community to modify this form and adopt a more customer approach in working with small businesses.

treat small businesses the way they treat customers with respect, care, love, attention and help them to succeed and get through this. i have always said i am of the opinion that if you are a small business and you are working with the city, it should feel like slipping into a hot tub, not a pool of hot lava. this resolution is asking that the d.p.w. share resources to help businesses so they know who will help them. we are asking it be updated to language service for non-native english services. a moratorium be placed on the abatement until we are past the emergency. right now every single small business is a precious diamond

that we must seek to preserve and protect, not just for the sake of the business but for the sake of the workers who work there and the economy as a whole. that is my appeal, commissioners, welcome your comments and feedback. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. [indiscernable] i know you have a job to do and you have to do your job. this is where you get. [indiscernable] think about that. it is for all small businesses. you know, they are holding on.

>> thank you. vice president zouzounis. >> i support this. my family business got one of those notices a couple weeks ago. the community benefit districts have been struggling with ppw in terms of their communication with the cbds themselves in trying to allow the cbds to help the small businesses in the district solve graffiti or sidewalk issues before they get a notice. this is very timely and i think we will get a lot of support from the community and i believe the elected. this is about how we treat our

small businesses and giving them the opportunity to move in compliance as opposedded to coming at them in a punitive way. i support this. >> thank you. commissioner dooley. >> yes, i agree this is extremely important right now. i am sure we have seen the graffiti monsters are out tagging everything. our small businesses cannot be victimized twice. first by gang graffiti then giving a fine and threat. that is not how our businesses who are trying to survive should be treated. once i totally support this as being very necessary. >> okay. not seeing anybody else. public comment.

is there any public comment? >> there is no one in the queue. >> okay. public comment is closed. do we have a motion. >> i will motion. >> commissioner adams. what is the motion? i am motioning to approve the s.p.c. resolution prioritizing customer service for small businesses. >> is there a second? >> second. i want to invite commissioner dickerson to make a second if she is so inclined. >> that is fine. >> i would like to second that. commissioner adams to approval resolution seconded by commissioner dickerson.

roll call vote. [roll call] [please stand by]

proposal of the amendments in the agenda. >> this is regina dick-endrizzi, director. we have spoken of this numerous times that we're officially changing the meeting start time from 5:30 to 4:30 and the rules of order will now acknowledge this which we officially have to do. once you pass it and approve it, we will no longer do the notice of the cancelling of the 5:30 meeting and scheduling this as a special meeting. it will be considered a regular meeting. >> to add a little more color to this, as many of you are aware,

we've had fairly lengthy hearings in the past and that required moving the schedule up or otherwise we're here at 10:00, 10:30. it's excessive and hard to stay focus and provide good feedback when we're here too long. and while we're having a public emergency and don't have to actually physical be in chambers, the earlier time kind of winds up being around the time i would have to leave my house in order to get down to city hall. hopefully it's not too much of a disruption to everybody's schedule and makes our lives easier if we don't have to show the cancelled meeting and then the new meeting. with that being said, i do want the commission to have a meeting time that works well for everybody's schedule as best as

possible. once we do start meeting back physically at city hall, fingers crossed, hopefully sooner rather than later, i'm certainly happy to talk about a time that works better if this time is challenging. i don't want anybody to get the impression this is permanent. it's just where we're at for right now. it seems to be working well for everybody but it's not permanent. i don't want anybody to get the wrong impression. any commissioner comment? okay. seeing none, is there any public comment on the line? >> clerk: we have no public comment at the time.

>> president laguana: seeing no public comment, it is closed. commissioners do we have an action? >> i'll motion for the change of the rules of order on the proposed amendments. >> clerk: is there a second? >> i'll second. >> clerk: motion by commissioner adams to approve the proposed amendment seconded by commissioner laguana. (roll call) motion passes. >> president laguana: fantastic. thank you everyone. next item please. >> clerk: next item, item 7,

budget of 2021-2022. second update for the proposed budget of office of small business. presenter is regina dick-endrizzi, executive director of office of small business and director, i will pass the presenting controls over to you. >> thank you. all right. commissioners, i'm going to share my screen. all right, commissioners, this is the second presentation in regards to the office of small

business. again, to identify the fact that the city is definitely running a substantial deficit, each department is required to present, proposed budget cuts. the amount of the budget cuts per department has been allocated by the mayor's budget office and so we did have a preliminary discussion around this, and the implication. and that and the final documents that i sent over to the mayor's budget office will be reflected. i want you to know that i did, in working with oawd finance team, office of small business is under the larger umbrella of oawd to work to have shared resources in the finance team at oawd is a shared resource that

we have that tracks our budget and our finances. so, i did have to adjust the personnel because last fiscal year i made some proposals around offset, utilizing the disability access fund and reduction in technical services for the legacy business program. and so those, if you look at the column of fy 22 proposed, those are reflected. i'm no longer going to be utilizing the offset to do account for where we need proposed budget cuts. the overhead for the office of small business last time i initially proposed a slightly higher cut in the overhead.

this week, in charge of the disability access fund, we started taking a look at what we want to do around grants for -- to support businesses and doing accessibility improvements and really want to try to get the money out the door more quickly than we have been. and therefore, we'll likely be utilizing our finance team to help facilitate getting the money out of the door more quickly. so moving down to the legacy business program, and the business assistance grant for fiscal year 22 and i apologize commissioner dickerson, when i

say fiscal year 22, just to clarify for everyone that the city fiscal year runs from july 1st to june 6th. so we are currently in fiscal year 2021 and these we're looking at the budget for fiscal year 21-22 and 22-23. so the proposed budget cuts for next fiscal year will be a reduction of 103, close to $104,000 in the legacy grant program. and 63 in the budget. the 75.5 is here for a temporary period of time. as i mentioned last time, through -- we are utilizing the funds to develop the marketing

promotion component of the legacy business program. we will be completing that in fiscal year 21-22. and have budgeted out that we need about $12,000 from that line item. so we won't be needing the rest. so, with those three categories of the proposed budget cuts, that meets the required amount of 178,877 which is 7.9% of the total general funds for the office. moving over to column fiscal year 22-23, so, again, the overhead will be the same amount of cuts but this time we'll be taking a larger amount of the

legacy business grant program, $270,853 and doing a full reduction of the 75.5 and then we'll meet the required budget cut amount of 357,753. my next slide will discuss the implications of the legacy business grant program as a result of cutting this grant program, but i wanted to see if there are any questions you may have over the operation -- the full operational budget before i move on to that slide. i can't see the chat so president laguana if you can

monitor that. >> president laguana: there's no chats at the moment but i will offer a question of my own. to make sure i understand it right, the part that is highlighted, for the legacy business grant program, the amount that would be available to distribute it as grants in fiscal year 22 would be a little under 99,000. 98,713. and in fiscal year 23, we would be looking around 729,247. is that correct? >> uh-huh. >> president laguana: all right. understood. great. commissioner dooley. >> commissioner dooley: i have one question on the personnel piece. so i see the 22 is 904 -- does

someone have their -- there's a lot of feedback. are those raises, what will you make -- >> right now those do indicate step increases, so raise increases, yes. it's staff increases. >> commissioner dooley: thank you. >> so the next slide i want to show you is the legacy business grant program. so right now, the grant program is just funding the rent stabilization grant. by the end of this fiscal year,

we anticipate -- i'll start with -- to do our budget projection and kind of project it out grant obligations, we -- rick has that the average square foot per each legacy business rent stabilization grant, the average is 1,370. on average we get about 12 grants per year. so that comes to a total of each year adding about 171,180 dollars -- grant obligations to the grant program. so you will see in this year, we

project an additional $171,180. again for fiscal year -- same for the next fiscal year 21-22 and again projecting that amount for 22-23. so at the end of this fiscal year, a million dollars has been allocated. that is sort of the committed amount each year for the legacy business preservation grant program which right now we're just funding using the grant program to fund the rent stabilization. at the end of this year, the grant obligation will be -- there's a subtotal of 752,521. and then we will have -- we did

have a price consumer price index adjustment for the current fiscal year that we're in. our total obligations at the end of the fiscal year will be around $803,879. so moving into fiscal year 21-22, that obligation before the consumer price index close to $934,000 with the consumer price index, it will be just over a million dollars in terms of our obligation. so with just the million dollars being allocated each year, this will result in a 16,000 short

fall, adding if there were no -- if we weren't having to do any budget cuts or anything, we would start to begin to be in a short fall of the rent stabilization grant obligation. adding the proposed budget cut will bring us to $120,158 in the budget short fall for meeting our grant obligations for fiscal year 21-22. and then if you move over to fiscal year 22-23, the total will be $475,296. the key thing that, you know, the key challenge that will be ahead of us dealing with the proposed budget cuts and even if

we were moving -- we wouldn't have to do budget cuts, we would still be having a short fall in the $1 million allocation. in preposition j, we can't say we're going to stop taking new grants. the way it's written is if there are no funds, this particular year, we are to continue to take applications. if there are no funds, then new applications that come in during that grant year are put on a list and then the following year, they're added to the list of grants that are eligible to

receive funds and so therefore, that increased number of grants will be proportioned out by the total amount of funding we have in the grant program. so what will happen is in fiscal year 21-22, 22-23, the grant amount will start to -- it will no longer be 450 per square foot. that's the full allocation amount. it will start to reduce. proposition j did allow for property owners to put in a clause into the leases that the property owner has with the legacy business program that should for any reason that the grant is not fully funded or not funded at all, they can void the 10 year obligation of that

particular lease. we have about four businesses that that will affect and we also have numerous number of businesses that -- where there is a granted clause that if for any reason, the city is not able to fully fund the grant, then the business will then pay the additional -- the amount of money. and that is being done in the case where the grants are off-setting the rent that the business pays. so with that, i will stop there and see if there are any questions. president laguana, if you could see if there's any in the que. >> president laguana: commissioner adams? >> commissioner adams: so the total short fall we can take a year at a time, just a little

under 600,000. now, with the presentation we saw earlier tonight and some of the other things that i'm getting involved with outside of the commission, so would it be possible -- i mean, what you have done here i think is good. it's reality. you know, considering what's happening here and every where across the nation. i'm wondering if there's -- the legacy business is our cornerstone and i'm just thinking and just thinking outloud and as you are talking. once this goes through, going forward, if we could apply for a grant, to help our grants, because i know there's some stuff out there right now. i don't know how that would work through a third party entity or

what, but it's not that much. it looks like a lot, it sounds like a lot but if i start dialling for dollars, i could get that money, you know? so that's just a thought. would it be legal to raise that money to help this program? >> i think those are conversations, you know, it's still to be determined as to whether the proposed cuts are going to be -- are final. but i think earlier president laguana mentioned it, there are conversations around the ability to give to the program to create something special to the legacy business program. i know rick and i have started

to have a conversation. there are more and more cities creating the legacy business program. they're having their own legacy business program and so, rick is going to explore discussion with the league of cities and these different cities to see if there's something that can be done at the federal level to create a particular grant program at the federal level under historic preservation. so there's ways to take a look at exploring where we might be able to possibly generate additional funding. >> commissioner adams: i know there's foundation money out there. i have seen it in other cities and not to give too much away, but i know there are other cities in california that do have similar programs and i know that a lot of this stuff is funded out of big foundations.

maybe you, rick and i can talk off line about talking to some of the foundations. that's specifically in their giving program, especially with historic reference and what we have started here with the legacy businesses. you are seeing it in other cities now, without a doubt. >> i think if there are efforts where we can minimize, the requirement of the general fund to fund the program, then that is potentially more sustainable and puts less pressure on the general fund. >> commissioner adams: thank you. >> president laguana: commissioner adams, i'll just note, i know from my work on the venue recovery fund, when the city creates an account, there's an actual account where the money sits and presumably can be deposited to.

i think your question is a really good and interesting one. and as a side note, i'll note that supervisor chan has recently opened some communication around expanding the legacy business program from the city-wide stance and so, that may present additional opportunities to enable outside foundations and large financial interests to help support our legacy businesses.

it seems unfortunate to me that it is set at square foot and there's nothing in the charter amendment that encourages looking at it through an equity lens in terms of how the funds are distributed. there's very little, from what i can tell and director dick-endrizzi correct me if i'm wrong, there's very little changes the commission can make to where the funds are allocated to. i think it's first in, first out. if you're in there, you're good up to 15 years and if there's not enough money to go around, it kind of goes by seniority.

is that right? >> and rick if you're still on the call, feel free to chime in here since you know greater detail than i do. to a certain degree it's first in first out in the sense that for let's say for this fiscal year, rick is telling me it's only seniority by year grouping. so, for businesses or property owners really that are currently receiving a grant for the legacy business program, they in a way they have seniority so if for any reason a property owner wants to apply for the rent stabilization grant and let's just say we may or may not have enough money at the end of the fiscal year, then those who

applied for it first at the beginning of the fiscal year will be able to receive a grant. once the funds are no longer there, then the future grantees will not receive a grant but then they're added to the seniority que for the next fiscal year and the grant amount we have will then be divided amongst everybody equally. >> president laguana: i think i'll pursue a cleaner explanation of all this off line. >> in the information i have provided for you is that if i read it, maybe it will be more

clear. if we don't have sufficient funds to pay all prior year landlords, we would pay them less than 4.5 per square foot for the reapplication. or if we do have it, we'll pay them that but if in the next year we don't, then we will still -- if we have it for this year, we'll pay them. if there's new applications coming on, which creates a larger pool, the next year we may not. once we capped out at the amount of money and it has been expended in that year, we will still accept new grant applications but we would not pay the new applications. the following year, the new applications from the prior fiscal year will be included amongst the prior year's landlords in terming how much each landlord gets per square

foot. >> president laguana: so a hypothetical question, this program started in 2015. no business is allowed to participate in it for more than 15 years. that's what it has in the text of the law. so let's imagine a business applies for or a landlord applies for a grant stabilization in 2016 and now in year five and another landlord applied in year 2020. if all of the money is used up in 2021, or let's look at next year, 2022, is the landlord that applied in 2016 that originally applied in 2016 on the same

level ground as the landlord that applied in 2020 and the landlord that applies in 2022 in terms of access to the funds? >> yes. i mean, it will be proportionally rated. are they on the same level ground in the sense that property owners that were able to apply for the grant early on, they would have received full funding of the grant for the years that we were able to fully fund it. so, it's not that -- if we look at fiscal year 21-22 and our obligation is greater than the amount of money we have in the fund, every landlord will be paid the same amount per square foot. >> president laguana: i guess what i'm asking, the landlord

that applied back in 2015, you know, the first go around, they're not going to get more money or have a higher likelihood of having their grant approved than a landlord applying in 2022. >> correct. they do have to reapply each year. they do have to reapply each year, it's not an automatic -- it's not automatic. and -- >> president laguana: there's no preference given to prior successful applicants or additional waiting is there? >> i'm not sure i follow the line of questioning. >> president laguana: so if i applied in 2020 and was successful, that's irrelevant when i apply again in 2021.

>> correct. >> president laguana: okay. >> it's only relevant in the sense that you are in the pool of -- you're in the current pool of grant applications that are eligible to be funded. whether you get full funding or not, depends upon how much money is in the grant fund. >> president laguana: and the number 12 here, that's how many grants were issued. how many applied? >> we average about 12 a year. sometimes it's more and sometimes it's been one or two less. >> president laguana: so only 12 landlords applied for a million dollars fund. so -- >> well, i mean it's cumulative and rick, do you know the total amount of grants we have. it's in your legacy business report and i'm sorry i don't

remember the number off the top of my head. >> president laguana: it's okay. >> there's 12 per year but rick, do you know how many we have? the number of grants -- rick is going to check to tell you the total number of grants we are currently paying. the reason it's likely it is 12 a year, on average we put 60 businesses on the registry per year. and people -- businesses are in their lease cycle and so, their lease cycle -- and part of the requirement is that to receive the grant -- we have 42 grants issued thus far. so, the landlord has to basically to be approved for the

grant basically has to issue 10 years, a 10 year lease. so they could be in their final three years and they extend the lease another seven years or -- but it has to be equivalent to 10 years. >> president laguana: so the program is only available to registered legacy businesses who must have a 10 year lease to get the rent stabilization grant and of the 60-some odd legacy businesses, on average plus minus one or two have 10 year leases that are eligible for the grant. >> or they sign a new lease. they sign a new lease for the grant. >> president laguana: i won't take up anymore of the commission's time. i think i should follow up with

rick and gain a better understanding of the program and i think -- go ahead. i'm sorry. >> i think the tricky thing is that both with the rent stabilization grant and the business assistance grant as it was designed under prop j, this is sort of exceptional circumstances that grant programs were designed and placed on a ballot for the voters to approve without really -- for the voters to approve. usually grant programs are not designed that way. so, down the road, it may be that there may need to be a reassessment as to whether this grant program is continued on or

phased out with another grant program phased in that allows for a little more flexibility. just the discussions rick and i have had with you regarding the business assistance grant. >> president laguana: i understand we need more flexibility in the program to be more effective. that's why i'm hopeful supervisor chan's initiative will hopefully perhaps jump-start some conversations to create flexibility. commissioner dooley has been patiently waiting. >> commissioner dooley: so i'm seeing this as the situation is, unless we receive more funds,

we're going to be accruing larger and larger shortfalls, which is incredibly concerning, especially say for example if the people that have already received the grants go ahead and reapply. i'm not sure how much more flexibility we have right now for anyone new who is in an even more dire situation with their landlord. i'm just very concerned about where we're going with this. i think it was steve or someone was saying, i know the planning commission has a group called friends of the planning commission. i would think we should really research if we can set up something that would allow us to get more funding besides what we're not getting from the city. and you know, even 22-23, we

don't exactly know where our budget is going to be. i am just -- just a comment, i'm just very concerned about where this is going. >> president laguana: i think that's a fair concern. how can you look at almost half million shortfall and not be concerned. >> all right. i'm going to -- if there's no more questions about the rent stabilization grant and projected shortfalls, i'm going to move on to the disability access fund. this is not general funded. the disability access fund is a state -- funds that are collected through state mandate that requires local municipalities to collect $4 and we collect it through business registration. currently we have just over half a million dollars in that

budget. we are taking 65,000 of it to do what i call the salary offsets for one of our business councillor's salary and as part of the mandate, we have to have funds available for city employees that want to become certified access specialists and or need to be recertified. so these are employees that are in -- that are eligible for the funding are in dbi, public works, the mayor's office on disability, the mayor's office on housing and so to ensure that we -- the city has the certified access instruction to enable the highest level of

accessibility. the departments have been averaging around $805,000 in requests in funds for the certification or re-certification. at first, we were retaining the funds to help businesses that may have been required to do the improvements under the accessible business interest program. that was -- that is a program that is still in existence. it requires property owners to make their entree way accessible but we know certain property owners will require the business pass on the obligation to

businesses. that program was really just kind of getting off its feet when the pandemic hit. the discussions we're having and we're starting to see calls about businesses interested in opening. we know restaurants are businesses that are highly targeted for lawsuits. and probably have the highest degree of accessibility requirements. we want to make these funds available for newly businesses to help offset accessibility obligations that they will incure as they're doing their build out and opening their business and of course any business that would want to do accessibility improvement.

the one thing to -- so this will be a bit of work to try to get this money out the door. it could greatly help, especially newly starting businesses with their ti expenses. the other thing that is somewhat of a factor and why i don't have a dollar amount in the proposed fiscal year 22-23, with the deferments and the fee waivers, we don't know whether -- we don't know what the reduction in collecting the $4 fee will be. and i do also want to note that this $4 fee will -- the collection of the $4 fee, unless the state extends it is due to expire december 21st, 2023.

so, we have essentially two years -- two more years we can collect the funds and help businesses with accessibility obligations. lastly, president laguana has asked to take a look at potential budget enhancements around staff positions. our current staff, we have one department head, which is me. commission staff, policy analyst, commission secretary, we have four business assistance councillors, one business legacy coordinator and advisor in business development center.

if we look at what -- some potential enhancement, it's to add one more commission staff to take on the commission secretary administration duties. potentially business assistants. we do have two spaces allocated at the office one stop permit center. in the task force recommendation 1.2 it does recommend the expansion of the services for small businesses. it would increase the budget $380,000 including salaries and benefits for the three positions. i have also included in terms of

climates, the last four years we have seen steady increases and fiscal year 19-20 because of the pandemic, we've had a substantial increase. now this may -- i don't anticipate we'll continue to see a 66% increase, but our january, which i will provide for you in the director's report but our january fiscal year, january numbers are up 41% over last year's january. we were at capacity prior to the pandemic waiting to get services when the business center was opened.

so, is there any questions on that? because we are in these extraordinary times of being in an extraordinary deficit, departments do need to present reductions but based upon the city's priorities and needs, it's not to say that budget enhancements can't be put under consideration, but handled in a separate process. >> president laguana: so commissioners, i'm sorry. commissioner adams. >> commissioner adams: i just want to echo what director dick-endrizzi said. i have been through some of these budget cuts per se in the past.

especially like i remember 2010-2011 and i know commissioner dooley you were involved in some of this, we had to make cuts and at the end of the day, we ended up having to lobby members of the board of supervisors at budget times to keep intact and add money to help small businesses. you know, through the president, you know, that's one of the things that us as commissioners are going to have to do. we all have relationships with members of the board of supervisors and we have to champion for our constituents. so, what director dick-endrizzi is proposing here is what they have to do because they have to do it, doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen. but in order for that to happen, we're all going to have to sit

there and lobby and lobby hard this time. so that's my $0.02. thanks. >> president laguana: thank you commissioner adams. so, i'll say that going through this pandemic, we have been going through -- i'm sorry, if you could keep that up just a hair longer director. all right. it's fine. going through this pandemic, we have had a single person dominica serving as policy analyst and commission secretary. and commission secretary has to type up all the minutes and do the agendas and coordinate logistics and reach out to everybody and we've been blessed with somebody as extremely

capable at their job but nonetheless, we could have done more if we had a full time policy analyst to just focus on the policy and full time commission secretary that just focused on the business and logistics and all the work of the commission. and that is not abnormal in any way for commissions within the city. given our work over the past year, i don't think this is a big ask. i think we have shown that we would be careful stewards of the additional expense and the city would get value justifying it. with respect to the councillors, i think as the pandemic hopefully starts to come to a close with vaccines starting to

rollout, it doesn't take a genius to realized we're probably going to have a lot more people try to get permits and start businesses and try to figure out how to get things going again. it is in the city's best interest to make it happen as quickly and efficient as possible. i would say our request for three additional people, given that small business has been on the leading edge of the impact of the pandemic, i think this is a very modest request, and i have started to bring this to the attention of various influencers and policy makers within city hall and commissioner adams, i can't thank you enough for pointing out there's a role for all of us to play in helping to make sure everybody understands the work

of the business assessment center, helping new businesses get started and the work of the policy analyst who helps us figure out how to be effective in our policy. and this next year, the next two years is going to be determinative for whether we come out in a good place after just a year or two or if we'll spend the next decade having a lot of issues and problems. i am a big fan of making sure that our policy team is fully staffed and that our -- i think this very modest increase to our permit center will help. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: president laguana, obviously we're preaching to the choir

amongst ourselves but just for the record, this is a chance like you just said for elected officials to be about it, not talk about it. if you really want to help small businesses, give us more tools. i would advocate for double of that, you know what i'm saying? this should be a no-brainer. i just want to put it on the record like everybody else. >> president laguana: i appreciate it. to be honest, i thought about asking for more, but i wanted to make a modest implausible request, so that we -- i just worry if you ask for a lot, it's easy to discount the whole thing and just say no. if you're just asking for a little bit, it starts to get harder to say no, especially when it's such a reasonable ask. that was my sense as we get one

swing at the bat here. if it was a conversation, i might start bigger and set the anchor price a little higher, but this is more about our presentation and we're hoping it's well received. so far, i will say all of my conversations it has been well received. so i am optimistic that this will have a good result. >> president laguana: all right. well thank you commissioners for that feedback. we do need to take public comments on this and then the commission, it is an action item. you don't have to take action but you can in terms of making note of being okay with where

we're going to project the cuts. the projected cuts and then affirm both present laguana and i working on the enhancements. >> clerk: we have no one in the que at this time. >> president laguana: i'll make the motion that we accept the director's budget as proposed and further affirm the enhancements as suggested. >> second. >> clerk: motion by commissioner laguana as presented and seconded by commissioner huie. (roll call)

>> president laguana: great. next item please. >> clerk: item 8. >> president laguana: this was a suggestion by director dick-endrizzi that we provide a little bit of outlook -- offer a little bit of outlook. i thought -- ordinarily i would say it's a group discussion, i thought this time around this was appropriate because we have a new commissioner coming in, commissioner dickerson, very excited about that. and so, you know, i thought i

tended to agree with director dick-endrizzi that it might be helpful to have a discussion about in the next three, six months to a year, about where we're headed, what we're doing, what is likely to come up on our plate. so i'll note first and foremost that due to an upcoming staffing change, there will be probably a month or two where we're looking at primarily educational, informational presentations and not as many resolutions as we have done in the past simply because we won't have the bandwidth to be able to have that kind of output. in a lot of ways that's probably for the best. we have a new commissioner and it's an opportunity for us to

get educated about the city and how things work. i am interested in having the teds come back. to present to us on the city's budget. i think we're getting very close to the time where it is very important for small business to engage with the budget. historically small business has not been very proactive in engaging with the city's budget. it is something that happens to us instead of something that we make happen for us. i'm hoping that we can have a more proactive approach to the budget and carry a little more weight and speak a little --

with more authority. i think it would be wise and good for the commission to be well educated about what is being balanced and what kind of challenges we're looking at in terms of moving forward with the budget. and we also have commissioner huie and sf state -- i never get it right. university of sf -- you know what i mean. we have our survey and i'm anxiously awaiting to hear results from that. i think the results will give us a lot of ammunition for talking to the community, to the press and to our policy makers and advising them and guiding them on how to move forward. over the next month or two, i think we're going to see shared spaces which is outdoor dining and sidewalk dining.

that's going to be put into law. there's going to be an effort for that to be permanent. there's going to be a lot of interesting conversations happening around that that are really going to shape what our city looks like and how it interacts and who wins and who loses. (please stand by...)

>> we have the economic recovery fund. our under venues are going to need help no matter what happens and so i think it is likely, whether it becomes discrete fund

or not, i think we are likely to have a subcommittee to provide guidance to the city on how aid to venues should be distributed. that subcommittee will be made of members of this commission and then we will also include members from the live venue music community as well to make sure we have thoughtful input. there has been ongoing work around the racial equity subcommittee or equity subcommittee. when is that the first output of that due, director? when can we expect that. >> the first special committee meeting is next week.

wednesday, the 17th, i believe it is. the final completion of the work has to be done by the end of the calendar year. the subcommittee will take the first meeting will take a look at what is required, what each board and commission is required to do and begin to make the plan in working on those items and then determine if there is additional item that the commission may want to work on. >> great. i look forward to that. you know, pretty much i think all of you experience this when you talk to small businesses around the city. everybody has thoughts around the cleanliness of our streets and the appears of them.

i think there will be -- we recently had ppw come to present to us. we may do some more presentations around that. i think there will be opportunities to engage around making san francisco beautiful so that people will want to come visit. i will say that the tech companies leaving, there is evidence that is real. it is significant and substantial. i would encourage the commission to start paying a lot of attention to downtown, which is the small businesses in the downtown area are just devastated. that is where some of the biggest pain points are for small businesses in the city as a whole. we see failure rates approaching

80%. something that i am thinking about is there is not much to do about the fact that much of tech is switching to working from home. they have discovered that works. they discovered that it is cheap, and you can't unring that bell. it is here. it is going to happen. i am thinking a lot about the fact tourism is such a big part of our city economy we don't talk enough about. i think when everybody starts traveling again, we have both a challenge and opportunity. the challenge is thanks to our prior administration, san francisco got a reputation as not being as clean as it could be and not being as desirable a place to visit or have

conferences in. we have to overcome that reputation. i think we have to work really hard to make san francisco a very attractive place to visit for people from all over the world because we are going to need that economic activity, particularly downtown area, to replace the economic activity we are losing due to people working from home. along those lines, i think we should be pushing for our cbds and business associations to receive assistance and funding from the city for street beauty fiction and cleaning. i think as we start to emerge out of the pandemic that we need to view this as an opportunity to hit reset button on where we are at as a city and try to turn

up the magic dial a couple notches to make the city attractive. that would be something that would all small businesses would benefit from, just having a vibrant corridor people feel safe in, they want to visit, walk around this, visit from other states and other countries. that is how i am looking at stuff. underlying all of this is part of the work of the equity commission, making sure that all of this gets viewed through the lens of equity, and that we are not leaving people out and that we are working on folks most left behind in making sure we lift them up to get back in

business and back in shape. that is it off the top of the head. i didn't write anything down. that wasn't the most thoughtful thing, i guess, but, director, is that what you were looking for from me? >> i think that is a good snapshot. >> commissioner adams. >> i appreciate your comments and everything. you know, it's a challenge for the next two years. i really appreciate your comments with the equity because that should be first and foremost, although i am not giving up on the financial district. i actually go to work two days each week. i am the only one in the office on those two days. nobody else is in the office,

but we have to rotate because we need somebody in the office due to the nature of the business. what was interesting prior to the december shut down with offices able to open up 25%, people started to come back. the mom and pop lunch places i go to get my lunch said it wasn't like pre-pandemic. i started to come back. no one is taking muni or bart. those are suffering. everybody was driving. it was hard to find a parking spot. even today when i was down there, i was on the lowest level and got there at 8:00 this morning. i think it is coming back. i think some tech will return. google is going to return they said to the office. they are not going to come from home. tech workers i talked to at

first liked working from home. after awhile, you lose something. a lot of people are jealous i go in two days each week. my point is that it is the mom and pop businesses in the financial district. you brought that up. those people need help, and they seem like they are forgotten. the neighborhood mom and pops are helped. the ones down in the financial district who do depend on that daytime crowd, they are devastated. commissioner duly sees that in north beach, and they get some of the triple down effect. i will stay optimistic with that one. i do think people -- we have to think outside of tech. there are other biotech is now

starting to take a lot of the sublease space that i am seeing. they have to be in the office so i just want to be there for the mom and pops and small businesses in the financial district. you have a lot of independent fitness places that love it. they are able to be on the sidewalk. thank god for that. that is going to change. i do think that is going to come back. it is going to be a couple years. it is not when this is over. it think it will be two to three years. i do think you will see a surge in tourism. i think you will see an explosion in tourism. people will come to san francisco. that's where i really appreciated your comments about the cleanliness. you know, because san francisco has been known for that. if you walk around lately it is not the san francisco. i know commissioner laguana that

we saw when we first came here how clean it was. i am from detroit. i came here in the 1990s and i thought you could eat off the sidewalk. that is not the case any more. we have to put our best foot forward. i think people will come in droves. we need to capitalize that and be ready i needed to vent. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner adams. commissioner hule. >> thank you very much for putting us on the path for the coming year and summarizing the initiatives you are working on. as a commission we have been working on. i wanted to just highlight i guess some of the things you had mentioned. one, the shared spaces.

you know, i think that gives us an opportunity to reenvision, which is like the biggest thing i feel like we need to do. a lot of our attention in the past year has been in recovery and helping the businesses there. earlier in the first presentation they talked about how new businesses are coming in. we have seen that in the office of small business. new businesses are coming in. it is unfortunate this has pressed people to closing their business prior to when they really wanted to, but i think it offers opportunities as well. we should be supportive of those opportunities. it gives us an opportunity to look at what had been broken in the past. i think everybody was hanging on. i don't think -- i think a lot

of people have been asking themselves prior to the pandemic whether they were going to make it. another year, two years? how long am i going to be doing this without seeing this real spike or increase in revenues or in profits or whatever? i think this has really brought us to the point of self-reflection in terms of small business community. we have seen a lot of people organizing, advocating, finding out what they need. what is the city need to look like and be like in order to support small business? i think we have seen a lot of energy towards that. that is amazing. we couldn't have asked for this in 2019 to have all of this input. this year we have some real interesting projects and

opportunities for the city to be able to reenvision things. i hope our leadership, all of our leaders, including the merchants have time to think about what they want the neighborhood to look like. are these streets working? how can it look different? i think that, you know, we have this opportunity to talk about tourism. i think in that we need to have the conversation as a city why san francisco is an amazing place to be in, whether it is on the weekend or to live in. i think that question is now like out there. it doesn't have the same answer that it had five years ago or 10 years ago. i think right now we are ready to figure out what we are.

i feel what is unique in san francisco is inclusivety. we are spending a lot of energy remaking city infrastructure to be more equitable. i don't really think a lot of municipalities are doing that. as difficult as these conversations are that we are all having in our circles within our structures, i think this is unique to san francisco. we actually want everybody to succeed. we want people to do well. we want people to have the subjects. i think it is very unique to san francisco. it is unique to business itself, and i think we should really lean into those as we start to think about who we are in san francisco. i also think that -- i went off,

too. those are the things that inspired me. i think the idea we can come together, dream together and think about was the san francisco small business community could look like. i think that is really going to drive the conversation about san francisco. the one thing that is very important is to set expectations. as we have conversations with different types of businesses and different types of entities going to come back to san francisco and invest in our neighborhoods and invest in our downtown and invest in our development projects like all of these things, it is totally fair for us as city to have some sort

of expectation. i think that was lost maybe in the last tech boom where we were move to san francisco and we will create community. that wasn't the emphasis why we wanted people to come to san francisco. we needed almost like an investment, some sort of financial investment in the city. we kind of did it without a real clear expectation. i think this time around i would love to see that expectation really be building our communities. i think that will help our -- not just structures but the people who live here. i think that would be my last piece. thank you very much. >> that is a very thoughtful point. commissioner dickerson.

>> oh my, thank you. i am full now because i have listened to you all speak really the heart of what i believe is forget that. when you think about this pandemic and all that we have been dealing with, this was forced on us. we have to remember this was not something we all chose. what i am seeing, i am a realist that sides on optimism. look at this pandemic. we were forced to have to embrace this shut down, but what came out of it was just unprecedented. what came out of what you would consider dust. you look at the creativity, productivity, you know, whether

survival or creativity, however you want to look at it. there was so much that was able to come out of this. i think the emphasis to bring in light of what you all were sharing is that there is really six basic human needs. i will not go to all of them. one of them which i believe is most important what you were talking about, cynthia, it is the human connection that when you are dealing with what is going on, it is the human connection that cannot be avoided or ignored. regardless of what your intentions were when you came to the city, the small business, in my perspective and yours as well, is the opportunity to enhance and broaden the human

connection. we didn't realize how important it was until it was taken from us. now that we understand the importance of human connection, especially through small business that is how you know that they are going to take care of your laundry. you have been going there for how many years? i deal with a large spectrum of clients from all ranges of economic scale, and it doesn't matter how much money you make, what job you do, the bottom line is the human connection. what i believe the essence of all of this even when you talk about d.p.w. and the cleaning of the streets and we talk about all of that. what i find is there needs to be a value placed on our community where we all take responsibility. i get it. yes, we need d.p.w., but in our communities we need to embrace

and take ownership. i feel like bayview belongs to me. not that i own it, but my area i have taken ownership over. ownership not in just making sure my area is clean. i want to also embrace the community of people that have been there for years and years even before me. it is embracing one another and saying you know what? we are in this together regardless of economic status how can we do this together? i believe that comes through small business, especially for san francisco. just hearing what you all are talking about in the heart of it, i wanted to simplify it. it is the human connection and the importance of it. i believe small business is that vehicle for san francisco.

i just want to amen what i was hearing, and especially forget if it was off the cut. it was rich. what you were expressing has to do with not making everything always about the lodgegistics. it is about people. that is the heart of it. that is what is in my heart. >> yes, very well said and very much appreciated. i wholeheartedly agree. you know, i think to commissioner hule comments, this is anincredible opportunity to reshape the city and we are well positioned to be part of that

conversation. even just with the conversation tonight is going to inform that conversation with the rest of the city. what a fantastic privilege we all have. i hope we can maximize that. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> i am always going to bet with my hometown san francisco. we have been through earthquakes and boom and bust. i will put it all in san francisco. small businesses will make san francisco. i love that we are pouring our heart out so small businesses can see you have a champion in us. we are not going to payed away. for the tech companies that left they were not san francisco anyway. guess what? when the people want the action that is san francisco you can't coupe up programmers they want to be in a class city. we have to make the streets as

welcoming as the people that reside and do business in san francisco. you have got my pumped. it is frisco, baby. >> that's right. the city has changed many times. it will change again. it is different than the 1960s, peace and love and hippies. some of you may remember they had a funeral service for the death of san francisco. they carried a coffin down eighth street. did it die? no, it didn't die. know no, it will be different and every time around we get better at it. vice president zouzounis. >> thank you. thanks for everybody's words. i am delighted to work with all

of you. a couple of things to say. i think that what would be helpful in the next year is because we have seen so many groups come on the scene and participate in the landscape of advocacy or adopt new technical services or creative needstor cash flow, i think it would be helpful to take a registry of that for ourselves and our commission we have a tool kit that we can easily refer people if someone wants to do planning to empower employees we know that project equity is doing that work and small business commission has a template, the office of small business has a how to manual for that.

when we just be able to know the different creative ways and organizations that are doing advocacy or projects like that. i would like to learn what our role as commissioners, as the commission is in terms of how we direct agencies and departments to better serve the constituents that we are trying to prioritize. how do we talk to shared spaces to make sure they are hitting certain businesses with their fee waivers or what not and building out our different roles so we feel like we can delegate and we are not taking the world on ourselves but we all have our lane and will be more efficient. i am excited for that work. thank you again for doing that

work with me. >> thank you, vice president zouzounis. commissioner dooley. >> great comments from everyone. what i wanted to just zero in on quickly is the tourism factor. tourism can be bay area tourism, too. we need to show our minority neighborhoods what amazing things they have to offer. i know for myself there are probably many things out there, many businesses, many activities that because i don't live in a neighborhood i don't know about. what i am suggesting is that we start a bigger bandwidth which would be for each of our community goes to start a program where -- i assume it

won't be paid for by the city but there are other sources -- that would put up web sites that say this is san francisco. then visit the bayview. then it lists amazing unique things in each of our neighborhoods that visitors, residents, tourists will look at that and say, yeah, i should go check that out. this is something i really want to work on, which is just having each of our communities, especially in the minority communities, have that out there to attract new people to their businesses and their neighborhood. i think that is going to be ongoing, and the state of hawaii has done an amazing job with what they have done for small businesses which i will send to

regina to look at. on any level if we can get something going. these are our amazing neighborhoods, come and visit. >> i was going to say commissioner dual -- commissioner dooley, if you type total into going gal under the krahn -- under google, have this incredible map which is the new 49-mile scenic right at sf chronicling. com total sf/home i have to say that for those

watching online. they have a map to take you through bayview, on the embarcadero, up market street, and back around fisherman's wharf and out to where the clubhouse and golden gate park and out to the west side where the zoo and coming down ocean avenue and all of that stuff. i think creative outside the box sort of apapproach of getting people to explore the city is what you are talking about. maybe there is ways to help amplify the work. it is funny and full of humor and excitement and i think perhaps the commission should work harder to integrate with

our tourism sector and see how we can be of more as assistance there in helping to drive that conversation in a way that is beneficial to small businesses. i support that 100%. i want to mention, commissioner adams, you are right about the growth. if there is one sector that has benefited from the pandemic it is biotech. we have some of the most extraordinary advances. my friend announced in the chronicling at u.c.s.f. a possible cure for treating coronavirus. not a vaccine but a treatment coming from u.c.s.f.

there is a lot of opportunity there. commissioner dooley, thank you for hammering on that. of course, tourism plays a fundamental role in north beach and chinatown and the cultural districts have so much to offer there. that is why it is so important that we protect them and keep them as cultural districts if not generic start up offices. thank you all. it is truly a pleasure and honor to serve with all of you and this next year is going to be fascinating as we navigate a new san francisco. i feel like the past year we have been in emergency rescue mode, and this upcoming year is about starting to tap into promise and possibility and opportunity. i hope we make the most of it,

and i am absolutely sure that we will. with that check on public comment. is there any public comment on the line? >> we have no public comment. >> seeing none. that is closed. no further comments from commissioners. next item, please. >> item 9. approval of draft meeting minutes, january 25, 2021. action item. >> okay. any members of the public to comment on item 9, craft meeting minutes? >> i see none in the queue. >> okay. public comment is closed. commissioners, do we have a motion? >> commissioner were you able to watch the meeting? >> i will recuse myself for this item. >> i was going to make that

suggestion after we had a motion. i thought the sequence. it doesn't make much difference. >> it is recusal and motion. >> commissioner dickerson has asked recusal. we need one commissioner to make a motion to recuse commissioner dickerson and then another commissioner to second. then roll call and roll call on the minutes. >> just as a point of version. what if we vote to deny the recuse sal what happens then? >> you will have to ask. >> all right. i will make the motion for commissioner dickerson to be

recused. >> i will second. >> laguana to recuse, commissioner dickerson. seconded by commissioner adams. roll call. >> adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dooley. >> yes. >> hule. >> yes. >> commissioner dickerson. >> yes. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> commissioner. >> yes. >> this means that approving minutes is going to take twice as long for a while now? >> no, we are all caught up on minutes. it is a great sense of pride for

me. well-done. do we have a motion on the minutes? >> motion. >> second. >> motion by adams to approve the minutes. seconded by commissioner dooley. >> commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dooley. >> yes. >> commissioner hule. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> 6-0 with one recused. >> great. next item, please. >> item 10. general public comment. members of the public comment on matters within the jurisdiction

but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items for future discussion. discussion item. >> any members of the public to comment on any matter not currently on our agenda? >> there is no one in the queue at this time. >> comment is closed. next item. >> item 11. director's report. update and report on the office of small business and the small business assistance center, department programs, policy and legislative matters, announcements from the mayor announcements regarding small business activities. >> thank you, commissioners. director of the office of small business. i want to start off with director's report by

congratulating mayor breed for the new position as recorder. that was very exciting today. to inform you the joint development division of the office of economic and worke forcer development is stepping into being the acting director until the mayor fills director's position. i want to, as i noted during the budget, small business assistance center. we assisted 453 businesses in the month of january. this is a 41% increase over january of 2020. i have mentioned in previous director's reports that our

sales force which we log the majority of our business inter action where we are able to capture a significant amount of data where we log and keep track of the individuals that we service and we have been operating under the classic version of sales force which was from i think 2009 or 2010, and sales force is no longer going to support that version. we have been working with the department of technology to upgrade ourselves to the sales force lightning version, and i am very excited because with this version and with the work and support with the department of technology we are actually going to now have some really

substantive data dashboards to be able to take a look at our data and services realtime. after this meeting i will be sending out the first report that carol from our office who does our reporting, she has provided me a good snapshot. it has the total number but looking at it by supervisor district, demographics and i will list out the top four business types of inquiries, and whether they are soul proprietor, llc. a significant number of the inquiries come from sole pro

vitores. i will send this to you for the next couple months monthly so that we can start looking at the information and then i will take your feedback and may provide you with it quarterly. key highlights that have transpired through the business assistance that i wanted to take the opportunity to provide you is we are again seeing an increase in the number of businesses interested in starting their business. we are also experiencing an increase in calls and information around the commercial eviction moratorium as we are getting close to the moratorium. it does expire at the end of march until the governor extends it. we are getting calls not only

from businesses about property owners and lawyers representing property owners for the details and requirement of the commercial eviction moratorium, and it is the office of economic and worke forcer development that is the entity that has some expanded rules and regulations around what the law is allowing for the city to do. then i wanted to make note that the california covid relief grant. we have not experienced this with our own city grants or loan programs and/or the p pp, but we are resulting in an unusually high number of businesses that are needing to access business registration information, business registration where it

is registered doesn't match the address that the individuals are putting on their application. these are issues starting to arise in whether an application is accepted. you know, we have had businesses that registered as sole proprietor that may have changed to llc. with the state never updated business registration. we need to go through that process as a city. we have never experienced that high level of degree of that level of detail and businesses not able to provide other means of being able to provide information.

i don't know if -- i am not going to say it is a barrier at this point in being able to access that grant program, but i think for the small businesses and definitely from those that where english is not the first primary language, it is making it a little bit more challenging. we are also experiencing not a high number but seeing a few businesses interested in becoming certified vendor was the federal government due to president biden's announcement wanting to increase federal government spending with small businesses. commissioners if there are any workshops or anything of that sort it would be great to let us know. the sba is primary entity to

help certify for the federal government. as noted earlier racial equity special committee will have the first meeting february 17th. a week from this coming wednesday. i will re-send out since we are getting close to embarking on the equity work the action plan that the office of available equity is requiring the commission, the initial work of the commission to engage with and that is not to say that the commission is limited just to those items. the commission can add other work that it wants to do so as this work embarks it may not be a separate agenda item each

commission meeting. the committee chair is vice president zouzounis. we will determine at the end of every meeting if we need a special report or whether commissioner zouzounis will provide a report under commissioner reports. i may have mentionedded at the last meeting that the planning commission is planning to conduct a hearing. i am looking at small business recovery initially scheduled for february 18th. it is now pushed out to march 11th. there has been some discussion to primarily look at commercial district. looking at the financial district i will make sure that

is also identified as an area to focus on as well. legislatively supervisor stefani's legislation for the waiver for business registration. the status tentatively scheduled for the budget finance committee the 17th. that is an update on that. tomorrow at the board of supervisors meeting will be the first reading on the san francisco music and entertainment venue recovery fund. that passed out of budget and finance committee meeting last week. we will be at the board of supervisors. in addition to the resolution urging establishment of special advisory committee on stimulus

spending for small businesses. those two items are assigned to the office of small business and particularly supervisor haney did re-introduce that resolution to expend out the timeframe for this advisory committee to report on through early march. it is a pretty short timeline. in addition with the recovery fund, the developing rules and regulars around the criteria for awarding grants, that will have a short timeframe. to note that those two things will be occupying a good amount of staff time between now and the end of the month. i think those are the key

highlights that i wanted to provide you tonight. with that i will take any questions. >> any questions? i don't see any questions. >> i want to highlight when you mentioned helping people with business registrations with the grants. that is case in point what we are preaching all night we need more resources. i am always disaster shopping. i take a lot of time having businesses get help. a lot of things you can't quantify the hours they spend case managing businesses. it is ridiculous not to approve

the modest budget. they should triple and quadruple the budget. i just had to say it. >> agreed. anybody else? okay. is there any public comment? >> i see no public comment at this time. >> seeing none, public comment is closed. i will add supervisor stefani fee waiver legislation was cosponsored by supervisor haney, chair of budget committee. at one point i was worried about the fee waiver. i am feeling more optimistic now. that is one worth keeping an eye on. it involves giving businesses

shut down refunds for fees they have already paid, which i am sure would be welcome. that is a good one. okay. next item, please. >> item 12. commissioner discussion and new business. discussion item. >> i have given my report. i am not going to take up any more time. anybody else here? commissioner zouzounis. >> i want to follow up on a couple items mentioned in the report. local sba office of san francisco is giving presentations to anybody who wants a presentation. any trade association, merchant group, neighborhood association that wants a presentation reach out to their office or to me to schedule a presentation on ppp

or whatever you want related to the federal funding. in terms of the error codes you may be getting, our office may be getting calls about related to ppp second or first draw loans, that is an it issue. i can send this as a memo to the office. basically, it is worked on in the back end. relax. there is nothing to do about it now. that is related to vin numbers not matching from the verse ppp. that is an it error code, unfortunately. the certifications contacting so i would encourage folks to look at sba and sbdc calendars. there are webinairs for

contracting all of the time. there was one planned for the venues in particular because that looks like it is going to be a precedent for receiving the operator grant. that is rescheduled. i will send it when it is rescheduled. it would be training to register with sam.gov for federal contracting. i would like two more things. for people looking to receive the idle advance which is the grant type program that sba has been administering, it is not something that can be proactively applied for right now. it is if you had applied for an idle grant or loan in the first when the grant was opened and

you didn't receive the full amount up to $10,000, you are going to be contacted by the sba themselves. you are on a list somewhere and you will be contacted to see if you can be made whole with the funds. unfortunately that is not something we can refer clients to apply on their own. lastly, i would love to know from the office how many independent contractors are also looking into what funds are available to them because the best advice is if you are an independent contractor uber driver or what not. make sure you have a schedule c. a lender will not take you underperformed pp without a

schedule c filed. that is best practices for 101. >> thank you. commissioner hule. >> i just have two items. they are indirectly related to the small business community. one is that san francisco has launched a street crisis team to address nonviolent kind of situations for people experiencing mental crisis in our neighborhood. i was able to get a presentation from a peer counselor. it is such a successful project, pilot program for the city. i know a lot of our new merchant

communities were directly tieded to our people like our community members unhomed. i think this is like a program that i felt gave us hope to be able to speak, how we could be addressing people in a humane way and going back to the human connection component. i urge you guys to get in the program. if you have any questions feel free to ask me. i can help you out with people giving presentations to your network in your communities. a lot of residents and small business owners would appreciate knowing there are positive strives to helping people experiencing crisis in that moment and how to diffuse the situation. we are learning through the pilot program. i am excited the city extended the program and there are going

to be new additional. the next one will service the castro. looking at policing how they respond in a more human way will be a real step forward. second, also highlighting that it is ongoing since the pandemic started. recently i feel all of my text messages are people filled with the anti-asian and anti asian elder violence happening in the community. it pains me to see our senior community doesn't feel safe going out right now. i just don't have any solutions to that. i am trying to bring voice to it. i would love for this situation at least to be highlighted. also, with a small business

component this has been a significant impact in chinatown in our asian corridors and things. i think helping to provide some sort of support in that direction would be something that i would like to see. thank you. >> i will note that both of those are public safety issues. for benefit of commissioner dickerson, we have the da and deputy chief lazar present to us through a joint presentation at our last meeting or the meeting before, last meeting. you know, i didn't include public safety in my little voter, but i would say that also belongs in there as part of ongoing conversation. i have been watching those

reports, too, with alarm, commissioner hule, and, of course, we all saw about the two children that were taken from -- in the stolen minivan while the door dash driver was making deliveries. i think the program that you spoke about is -- i am hopeful about that program. that is great to take mental health crisis out of law enforcement not really trained. that is not their primary training. it is good to see that moved to that program. i think we should maybe have a conversation about it, but perhaps that presentation would be of interest to the commission as a whole so we can learn more about that program and how to

help our small businesses take advantage of that program. i think it sounds like it has the opportunity for better outcomes for everybody. i appreciate you bringing that up. commissioner dooley. wait, commitner ortiz-cartagena. i didn't mean to skip you. >> i thought you didn't love my knee more, president laguana. >> you are the most sensitive commissioner on the board. i will be much more careful about your feelings and emotions going forward. >> three things. two just more for the record. one is today was the time day for the california relief grant for the second round. unfortunately, i did a quasi survey in the minority communities. this grant was not a first come

first serve targeted to minority and women owned businesses. in the bayview and mission we don't know of one business that got it. we have escalated where we work with assembly member clue's office and walton's office. this is for the record. i don't want to highlight the data. we asked linda. they are on the east coast. you won't like the data. it is opposite. >> if i could interject for a second. i am kicking myself. i meant to send e-mails about this. i know this by memory. we are 2.2% of all grants that were approved in the first approval rate, but we have 2.3%

of all businesses, which sounds like something. that is kind of close. this is the part that sucks. we are 2.7% of the working age population in california. we have lost half a percent. in perspective, about 1/4 of the working age population has been completely left out of the grant program. not because they don't want to give up the money. we didn't get the word out efficiently enough. all that has to happen is they apply. there is a geographic consideration. they try to distribute the fund is and we didn't good a good job of getting the word out. i didn't help at all on that front. i am sorry to interrupt. i happen to know those numbers.

>> yes, so that is calling for the record. hopefully next meeting we will get some money especially in communities of color. i know we have all talked about elected officials. small landlords to commissioner adam's point, i have been dealing with businesses and addvo indicating on both behalves. small landlords rving a rough time. we are forcing them to sell to bigger companies. the small landlords are essential for small be businesses. they work with small businesses rather than 100 or 1,000 properties. we need relief for small landlords. we need to do something to advocate for them. there are a lot of of them in

san francisco. there is a lot of small businesses that opened february, march 20th and they don't qualify for any of the relief mechanisms. you know, i don't know what to tell them. there is not one resource we can provide for them for the most part excluding what the city has done be to mitigate these. it is something to look at to see what we can do for them. >> we have advocated for that $62 million aid program to prioritize businesses that were not able to receive aid, but there is a lot more work to be done there. no matter how much money the city devoted to it, it is not

enough. we need help from the state and federal government. >> commissioner dooley. >> two things. the residents and some of the merchants in north beach are now seeing how dangerous it is to be out after dark. there are so many incidents now. it is hurting the small businesses in north beach because people don't want to -- normally they walk to wherever they were going. they won't do that any more especially if it is dark they don't come down. that i can consider a huge problem. my other thing just a word of warning. i received from the sba information on the loan i took out which i did not take out. it is fraud. i am just putting that out there

to warn people. they were like it was for my business, but i had never applied for it. just be careful out there. that is just what i want to say. >> i think finding a constructive and helpful way to participate in the public safety discussion is very politically fraught and challenging to be a helpful contributor to that discussion. i thought our session at the last meeting was very good. i got a lot of positive feedback from the business community. that was promising. there is more work that needs to be done there. it is interesting because i think some of this is -- well, i won't get into it right now.

there is a lot there. it is going to take a lot of work to really get all of the different groups in the city aligned around that issue. there are so many strong opinions. it is going to be really challenging to navigate that. okay. any other commissioner reports before we shut it down? seeing none. any public comment? >> there is no public comment. >> public comment is closed. next item. >> sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. >> reminder the small business commission is the official

public forum to voice opinions and concerns about policies that affect 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 with small business matters reach out to the office of small business. >> item 13 adjournment. action item. >> mr. president, this is director i want to extend congratulations to commissioner dickerson for completing your first commission meeting. >> i want to echo your congratulations to the appoint meant to city assessor. well earned and we are very excited for him.

we all know how brilliant and capable he is. it is going to be exciting times ahead for sure. do we have a motion to adjourn? >> motion. >> second. >> you have got to wait for commissioner dooley. you are stepping on her. >> commissioner adams to adjourn, seconded by commissioner dooley. roll call. >> commissioner adams. >> yes. >> commissioner dickerson. >> yes. >> commissioner duly. >> yes. >> commissioner hule. >> yes. >> commissioner laguana. >> yes. >> commissioner hule.

>> i think you got me twice. >> yes. >> i will explain why. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> we can't shut the meeting down we have to keep going on. >> commissioner zouzounis. >> yes. >> motion passes 6-0 with one absent. meeting adjourned at 8:13 p.m. >> good night everyone. >> san francisco mayor london n.

breed. for persons who wish to ask questions, include your name, outlet and up to two clearly stated questions in webex chat. and now we welcome mayor london breed. >> thank you so much. and good morning, everyone. i am excited to be here today because we know that most recently we have a vacancy in the city administrator's office, and i am so proud to announce that i am nominating carmen chu to serve as san francisco's city administrator. many of us know carmen over the years. she has served the city and county of san francisco since 2005. she currently serves as our assessor recorder and in that role she is responsible for managing a team of over 200 people. under her leadership, the aassessor's office has reversed a decades old backlog of

assessment cases and generating $3.6 billion in property tax revenue annually to support public services in san francisco. had it not been for carmen's leader snip that role, we would have a budget that was deficient in the amount of $3.6 billion. that gives you an indication of how amazing and how valuable she is to san francisco. such achievements have earned her office the prestigious 2020 good government award, an honor recognizing excellence in public sector management and stewardship. she currently serves on the san francisco employees retirement system board where she oversees the investments and policies of a $26 billion public pension system in san francisco. assessor chu has really stepped up during covid to lead our economic recovery task force as one of the co-chairs. this was not in her job description, nor was it her responsibility, but when i

called carmen to ask for her help because we needed all hand on deck to address the challenges that none of us thought we would be dealing with with covid, she immediately said yes. and with her leadership the task force developed 41 recommendations and policy ideas to make the city's economy stronger, more resilient, and more attainable. prior to the career as assessor, she was an elected representative of the board of supervisor. when she served as budget chair of the board of supervisors, there was no one who was more fiscally conservative and focused on equity and serving the public's best interest and made sure we understood the value of every single dollar we spent. there was no one more of an advocate in that role than carmen chu when he served as the budget chair of the san francisco board of supervisors. she also served as the deputy

director of public policy and finance for gavin newsom when he was mayor. she's been actively engaged in really changing bureaucracy in san francisco on so many levels. and just to go back to some information about the assessor recorder's office which was experiencing a lot of challenges, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion, the work that she did to put everyone for the most part on an electronic system and to re-organize the files in that system was pretty amazing. now, i know it's very bureaucratic and very technical, but to make san francisco work in a more efficient way that provides information to the public in a way that people can understand so that they can pay their taxes and they can do whatever business they do with the city t work she has done has really been about making sure that the average, everyday

citizen in san francisco who is not connected to city hall, who is not involved in city hall in any way, that they have a voice. and they have some level of understanding and access to the resources we provide. she is the only asian american woman elected as assessor in the state of california, and she is the daughter of immigrants. her family worked hard to make sure she had some amazing opportunities to succeed in life, and boy, has she made them proud. the city administrator's office consist of more than 25 departments and programs that provide a broad range of services to other city departments and the public. and ladies and gentlemen, i am so honored to introduce the next city administrator for the city and county of san francisco, assessor recorder carmen chu. >> good morning, everybody. first off, i just want to say

thank you so much, mayor breed, for your confidence in me. i am humbled and i'm honored by your nomination, so thank you so much for this opportunity. >> thank you. >> if confirmed by the board, of course, i look forward to working not only with you but also with the board to make sure that we continue to move san francisco forward. i want to speak a little bit about my parents as i start off with the this. my parents were immigrants. mayor breed spoke about this a little bit ago, and my parents had a small restaurant and we all grew up, my sisters and i, working in that restaurant. i tell you this and i share this with you because so much of our service and so much of what we do in life is grounded by our life experiences. how we were raised. the people who loved us. those who supported us. those were part of our lives. and what they taught me was the importance of making sure that we provide honest day of hard

work, and making sure you do everything you can in every single role that you play is important. but they also taught me the importance of helping those who are in need. mike like my parents, not everybody starts off with resources. not everybody starts off with money, with support, and not everybody starts off with even the ability to communicate or speak english. and i think it's recognizing that so many people start off from different places that it's a privilege when any of us have the ability to serve in the public capacity. it is this grounding, this belief that government can serve and the belief that government can help to support people, especially in their greatest times of need that gives me the privilege and honor of working as a public servant for the city and county of san francisco. first off, i want to recognize the people of the city

administrator's office. your responsibility is a big one. the span of your responsibilities serve as a backbone for all of the city's operations. and i really want to thank you, a heartfelt thank you, especially during this time this, time when we're asking you to not only carry on with that work that you do, but also to do double duty especially as we continue to respond to an active global pandemic. this is something that is not easy. and i know that san francisco is better off for all the work that you are doing not only in your existing roles but also in the extra work that you are doing to make sure that we respond to with the best way possible to serve is city well. to the people of the assessor's office, and i simply put and i want to tell you that i will miss you. we built a really great team in the assessor's office and we have accomplished so much. and things that seemed insurmountable to do and

reversing a decades backlog and exceeding revenue expectations in half a billion during my time. and making sure we are completely overhauling outdated tools and systems that we have in our office. these may sound boring to many people, but honestly, it is this kind of attention and this kind of work that really drives change and excellent public service. i want to thank each and every person in the assessor's office. i enjoy working with you on the professional growth and challenges that you took on and i hope you will carry on the accomplishments and legacy with you as you go forward. and finally, i want to close by recognizing and thanking the contributions as city administrator naomi kelly. i understand your decision was a difficult one.

and thank you for helping meet the needs of the city during the global pandemic when we needed the support to lift up so many things that we have done. the accomplishments are not to be diminished, and icismly want to say thank you. with, that i am available, of course, for any questions. and i am really honored for this responsibility coming forward. >> thank you, assessor chiu and we are honored that you are willing to take on this responsibility. i want to provide member of the public with information about the city administrator's office. they are responsible for overseeing animal care and control, the office of cannabis, the medical examiner's office, and the real estate division. the technology division. our community challenge grant, our grants for the arts program, the mayor's office on disability, risk management, and all of the things, many of the things that make the city run and often times we may have an

interaction with any of the departments and not necessarily fully aware that they are all within the scope of the city administrator's office. it is a major responsibility, one that i know you are up for the task. and i am excited and grateful that you are willing to put your hat in the ring and allow yourself to be nominated for such a position. so thank you so much again, aseser to -- thank you, assessor chu, and with that we can open it up to any questions. >> thank you, mayor breed. before we start the question and answer portion, we are going to take a moment to allow reporters to submit questions on webex.

. >> okay. no questions, leo? >> thank you. okay. when mayor breed, the first question comes to you from joe with kqed. mayor breed k you ask ms. kelly to resign? if so, or if not, why? >> well, many of you know better than to ask about personnel issues. the fact is we cannot discuss them. so we will not be discussing anything regarding anything that is personnel related. >> thank you, mayor breed. and should she be confirmed, are you tasks carmen chu with any specific tasks to address the

allegations of corruption within the city that would be in her purview? what are those tasks? >> so just to be clear, last year when many of these allegations first began to surface, i immediately sent out an executive directive asking our city attorney and our controller's office as well as all city departments to not only investigate many of the allegations but to also look at ways in which to strengthen our policies so that we can make sure that the things that we saw happen or that people were being accused of are not easy to be able to happen moving forward. so what we did was to make sure that people are on alert when they are making recommendations and changes to the policies for the department. and there is not a doubt in my mind that carmen chu will manage her department and make the appropriate changes necessary to

address many of the challenges that we have heard over the past year as it relates to some of the department. >> thank you. and if i could just add to, that i think in any person who is assuming a role whether you are leading an organization as the assessor or city administrator, one of the things all of us will be doing is looking very, very closely to make sure we have the systems in place to ensure that there is transparency and how we're delivering the public service and how it is that we run our organization. these are all things that i am absolutely committed to. it is a fundamental piece to make sure that we have public trust. >> and there is no public servant more respected, who has more integrity, who just basically is one of the most incredible, admirable persons that we have serving the city and county of san francisco than carmen chu. >> thank you, both. there are no additional

questions for mayor breed. the next question is for assessor chu from ktfs. as the first chinese female administrator, what does this mean to you? >> i think this is -- this is always a heavy responsibility. i recall back when i served on the board of supervisors. at that time when i was nominated to the role, i was the only elected, only chinese american supervisor serving in the entire san francisco board of supervisors. and since that time much has changed in the city, but i think any of us, any of us who fill these roles understand that we play a very important spot in making sure that not only do we lead the way but we also create opportunities and how people see no matter where you come from, no matter where you start from, there is an opportunity for you and a seat in government that no matter whether you had resources coming in or whether you were immigrants, that you have the

opportunity to serve. and so i think serving as the first chinese woman as a city administrator, i hope to be able to to put my mark on creating a san francisco government that works well, that earns your trust, that is delivering services that you can be proud of in san francisco. >> okay. one moment. >> an i thought someone was going to ask me about taxes. >> the only questions about taxes is why is my bill so high? >> indeed. >> and the next question is what's carmen's first responsibility after the nomination? and that comes from sky link.

>> i think immediately especially during this time when so much of the city's response to covid is important, it is very important to make sure we continue to deliver on what is necessary and respond not only from a public health perspective, but also to support the city in the economic recovery. first and foremost, that has an impact on the lives of residents and operations. a big focus right away will be starting to take a look t a making sure we continue to support the efforts. that we do that in an excellent way and we also look forward to the future means. in addition to that, we're going to continue to look for more efficiencies. what's going to happen is we're going to go through a very tough time. i think the city is understanding that not only are we going to be coming to recovery, but that will mean we have fewer resources at exactly the time when san franciscans need us the most. and that will really require that we do more, that we work harder, and that we're creative in terms of how we deliver the best services possible to the

city. so in my role we're going to be taking very much a close look at this recovery effort, how we support that recovery for the city as well going forward. >> there are no additional questions. this concludes today's press conference. thank you, mayor breed and aseser to chu for your time. if you have questions, email the mayor's press office at sfgov.org. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you again. . . . >> van ness avenue runs from market street to bay street in san francisco. south vanness runs from south of market to cesar chavez street. originally residential after the

1906 earthquake it was used as a fire break. many car dealerships and businesses exist on vanness today with expansion of bus lanes. originally marlet street was named after james vanness, seventh mayor of san francisco from 1855 to 1856. vanness heavy are streets in santa cruz, los angeles and fresno in his honor. in 1915 streetcars started the opening of the expo. in 1950s it was removed and replaced by a tree-lined median. it was part of the central freeway from bayshore to hayes valley. it is part of uses 101. it was damaged during the 1989 earthquake. in 1992 the elevator part of the roadway was removed. it was developed into a surface

boulevard. today the vanness bus rapid transit project is to have designated bus lanes service from mission. it will display the history of the city. van ness avenue.