press pound, then pound again to be added to the line. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussion, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. if you dial star 3 before public comment is called, you will be added to the queue. when you are called for public comment, please mute the device you are listening to the meeting on. when you're asked to speak, you will be prompted to do so. best practices are to call from a quiet location and to speak clearly and slowly and, again, turn down the device you are listening to the meeting on. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker unless

otherwise established by the presiding officer of the meeting. an alarm will sound once the meeting is finished. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. sf gov tv, please show the small business commission slide. >> today we will be with the reminder that the small business commission is a public forum on policies that effect the economic vitality and small businesses in san francisco. the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in fan during the local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephone. as always, our services are free of charge. before item number one is called, i'd like to start by thanking media services and sfgov tv and special thanks to

others for assisting in tonight's meeting and the public comment line. >> and, mr. president, i do have a correction. i was not able to get this to you tonight in time, but we also have jim smith assisting us as well with the public comment line. >> president laguana: thank you. our special thanks to jim smith as well, of course. please call item number one. >> clerk: item number one called to order and roll call. [roll call]

>> clerk: and, mr. president, you have quorum. >> president laguana: thank you. before item number two is called, commissioner huie has a statement to make involving anti-asian hate crimes. >> commissioner huie: the san francisco small business commission and the office of small business condemn the surge and disturbing attacks happening in our asian communities in san francisco, the bay area and across the country. we stand united against anti-asian racism. asian american small businesses have been some of the first to be impacted by the pandemic. as a result of covid related

racism. stop aaci hate, a national coalition aimed at addressing anti-asian discrimination amid the pandemic released a report last week citing california as the top state with the most hate incidents reported. businesses are the primary site of discrimination followed by public streets. to our asian american community members, business owners, workers, colleagues, friends and families, we stand by you. despite already struggling due to the pandemic, many small businesses are worried about the safety of their families, store fronts, and employees. the level of ignorance, hate, and xeno phobia are unacceptable and far from any goals of equity and justice. we encourage you to continue to support our small, local, asian-american and pacific

islander businesses. they contribute to the vibrancy of our community. small businesses can succeed and flourish in our city while the office of small business provides equitable services to entrepreneurs and small business owners in all of our communities. we stand in solidarity with asian americans as well as all communities of color and our allies. we will continue our work through the advocacy of small business legislation and policy matters to help san francisco and our small business communities move toward greater racial equity. here is a list of local resources provided by abc 7. as always, we're here to help. contact us by phone at

(415) 554-6134. or e-mail sfosb@sfgov.org. small business commission and office of small business in solidarity. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. i'd like to also thank o.s.b. staff in drafting their statement. thank you very much. please call item number two. >> clerk: item number two, a presentation from the office of economic and work force development. it's an update and report on the invest in neighborhood's current and up coming programs. this is a discussion item. presenting to you this evening is diana ponce deleon, acting director of the invest in neighborhoods initiative of the office of economic and workforce development. and, diana, i will transfer the call to you.

>> president laguana: welcome, diana. we're delighted to have you. looking forward to your presentation very much. >> all right. and it worked. thank you. before i begin my presentation, i just want to say on behalf of o.e.w.d. we stand in solidarity with our a.p.i. community and standing against acts of violence and hatred within our community. so i just wanted to make sure we stated that and we will do as much as we can to support as we all move through this difficult time. so thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. >> so thank you commission for having me today. as you all may know, i have just transitioned into the role previously held by. almost about a year now, i have

almost a year have been supporting of the covid command center really trying to get us back right into recovery phase and really combatting covid-19 and really assisting some of our most impacted neighborhoods. so i'm happy to be back. i have also as many of you and many of our businesses and organizations have had to shift roles to help support this pandemic and really fight so we can be back to this point. i'm very excited to be going into the orange tier and then hopefully soon after that a yellow tier. so i just wanted to make sure i stated that and it's been almost a year and i've been looking forward in this new role and working alongside the commission to support our small businesses and recovery. so as invest in neighborhoods our division support program and increasing the quality of

life and economic opportunities within our neighborhoods. very specifically, we also focus on opportunity neighborhoods. those neighborhoods that have historically been disinvested in and so that is part of our framework as we focus our services and really develop an economic strategy around some of our commercial districts. so i wanted to start off with an overview of some of our program areas and how we are organized as a unit. so our resources again, our program and our staffing. so we focus on providing small business services and very much in coordination with small business. we're reading about the programs that supports small businesses whether it's community development grants and building those service providers that provide technical assistance to our small businesses, training, all of those programs. we also provide loans and

access to grants and capital and we work very closely with our small business development committee. sf shines focuses on improvements for their store fronts. our public space initiative which is a city wide initiative on activating in a positive way our public spaces to help support also vitality in our economic corridors. our construction mitigation program is a really close partnership with sfmta where there are major projects that will be impacting our commercial corridors. we have a staff assigned who help oversee the connection to our small businesses and helps them really coordinate and bring investment at that time. we also in general where there is funding, depending on every budget year and it fluctuates also put out grants for many

different programs around the city to support economic development and marketing, sometimes even activate events. that's another big part of our portfolio is management of those funds to our community partners. the national commercial corridor strategies, again, really focus on be neighborhoods that have been historically deinvested it and so this is our work. and so this is some of the corridors we have high touch in. general central market tenderloin, chinatown and fillmore. so this is just an example of some. it's not all-inclusive, but these are just some of the partners on point in time ground. i emphasize the word "partners" because we work hand-in-hand. they are our ears, our eyes on

the street, as well as our interpreters to make sure we are supporting across, you know different languages, different capacities, and so we really work hand-in-hand with our partners and support them in the way that they need to. and, i just wanted to highlight that again, to call attention to the fact along with our regular programs and with our partners, we've had to shift the work. right. when we were impacted by covid and had the shelter in place, we've had to reorganize ourselves and restructure. in many areas out of the pandemic, we work with our partnered to allocate funding so we could provide relief and support to small businesses and we've had to interpret very complex public health orders along the way. we've had to, you know, obviously we've worked hand in

hand with you in terms of the recovery taskforce. we've supported our neighborhood corridors and our neighborhoods to make sure that they had proper access to vaccines and testing in addition with all the economic support. so i'm here today to just present a quick overview in terms of what has our relief looked like over the past year. specifically related to covid. in total as of this point in time, we've invested about $24 million in loans and grants through our division and so that has helped support or will help support 3,370 small businesses and this is the split and this is how we've allocated the funding. so our small business resiliency fund, that's about $2.5 million.

$1 million in neighborhood mini-grants and women's mini-grants. $1.6 million in sf shines for re-opening whether that's outdoor eating or other things related to ppe and modifications they've had to make in order to adhere to public health orders. and our loans. sf help loans. african-american revolving loans and latino small business fund. just as a point of comparison, we know that the need is vast. we know that our small businesses closed across the city and that we've lost many of them. and so we tried to really focus the resources that we have on some of the highest need or very targeted of businesses because we know that the federal government is the one that will have more capacity in terms of funding to get those

dollars out and spread out and support that in a much more impactful array with a volume in terms of more volume to our small businesses. so, in comparison, our local resources have been invested in the amount of $24 million and so far, as of december, the federal dollars in terms of p.p.p. and e.i.d.l. has reached 37,000 businesses here in san francisco. however, again, our approach is really targeted. we want to make sure that our dollars are invested to fill gaps where people aren't able to access resources at the federal level where regulate -- like the rules or criteria don't allow businesses

so in terms of how we've been prioritizing our dollars with our opportunity neighborhoods, we want to make sure we're providing some level of coverage ensuring that all districts can have access to it. those businesses that are most in need, the low-income business owners and house holds, those that are on the smaller side of our small businesses making $2.5 million in gross or less. and, again, that's having been able to have access to those other federal resources. and, also by industry types. so those that have been impacted because they've been closed the longest. they found the shelter in place orders. and then along the way whether it's the lottery or first come first serve and as we've gone along we've modified and change

again based on where the needs are. so last week, we had a hearing on -- or we were at the budget and appropriation committee to share an investment of $20 million for small business grants and loans. and, in preparation for that, we actually conducted surveys with small businesses, spoke, you know to stakeholders about their thoughts on the current grant applications. what that has been for them, some of the challenges, some of their thoughts about future funding, how we should be thinking about it and this is what came out. obviously, people were tired of applying. some people were not getting it. given the vast, like our resources don't match the need. so definitely understand that. the small award amounts, that was frustrating to businesses. they felt like a $2,000, $5,000

grant really, you know, it's great, but it doesn't, you know, we need more than that. again, in terms of areas of access. being conscious making sure there's language accessibility, the digital divide. thinking about financial need, prioritizing that, but then also thinking about our long standing businesses, our anchors in our neighborhoods and communities. and how to make sure they've stayed strong. they've been able to employ so many over the years and survive so many things. so how can we make sure we're prioritizing them. and obviously our entertainment venues that have been impacted by being closed the longest. so, with that, we put forth this proposal where $12.4 million would be invested in business grants.

$7.3 million in small business which would be expected to be three to five times more what we're investing and then 300,$000 to help support business technical systems, marketing around the program, and access to resources for small business. especially in preparation with the federal support that's going to be coming down the pipeline. so here on the right, you'll see, again, this is sort of across the three grant programs. these are the awards that have gone out so far. this is just for the grant piece and then the new proposed investment, how that compares to based on what we've been able to put out. so we've been putting in grants $12.4 million. it will be the new allocation. and, so far, our existing grant amounts have been a total of $4.9 million. so it will be a little bit under triple the amount.

and then, the grant award amounts that we are proposing for the new grant program are in the amounts of $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000. so we've broken up the grants into two categories. definitely, the focus is going to be on store fronts and supporting those that are most in need. low-income households in the amount of $5,000. and so the criteria is going to be businesses that have been closed for six months or more due to shelter in place which we know our gyms, our bars, our tattoo parlors. those that have not received any prior grants and those focused on supporting our neighborhoods and low-income areas.

so opportunity neighborhoods. so that's the criteria for the $5,000 grant. $2.5 million or less in gross and, again, low-income business households. for the community store front anchors, again, supporting those that have been either 15 years or older in our communities, entertainment venues, those located within cultural districts or opportunity neighborhoods. and once again those that have not received a prior loan or grant of a certain amount. sorry. the last one is not correct here. i apologize for that. the "no prior loans or grants" is not criteria for this category. it is okay if they have received prior loans and grants but there is a capacity amount. so this is what it ends up being for that investment of $20 million across or a little bit under. it's $12.4 million for the

grants and then -- sorry. let me rephrase that. this is only for the grant program. this is for the $12.4 million in grants. $4 million in the $5,000 category. $7.4 million in the $10,000 category and $1 million in the $20,000 category. for the first $5,000 category, there is no employee restriction. it can be owner operated or, you know, have as many. but, again, in that category it's specifically for low income business household. and i think i've already gone over this through my comments in terms of what the minimum requirements are for each month, but this is how they compare when you put them side by side. so definitely a minimum criteria, they have to be store front businesses open to the public with less than

$2.5 million in gross revenue for 2020. so that is new. the numbers are going to be based on 2020. they haven't received the first category. obviously, they haven't received any loans or grants and in terms of the loans, no more than $20,000 in loans. so they could have received loans, but just on the smaller side of the scale and then grants of more than $5,000. they wouldn't qualify. they'd receive a $10,000 grant. i think in some of the state grants that businesses that started between june and december were not qualifying for that funding. so then we made sure that we included that as part of this

qualification. so on the loan size, again, to the left, you'll see the $14.six million investment loans across the three loan products. we're proposing an additional appropriation of $7.three million which will leverage three to five times more over the next year. and, that's in partnership with the california rebuilding fund where the maximum loan amount would be $100,000, interest rate would be 0% or close to 0%. so that's been brought down from 4.25% to make that product more accessible and attractive to small businesses. the terms are going to be five years or three. there's no principal payment for the first 12 months and then some examples of how this can be used. it can be used pretty flexible across many areas. and these are the eligibility criteria for the california rebuilding fund.

so it's 50 or fewer employees prior to march, gross revenue is based on 2019. net positive income and then here's the website to look at more detail for what the requirements are. and that's it. >> president laguana: great. thank you so much. commissioners, do we have any questions? i can certainly get us started if nobody's ready. oh, good. everybody's ready. commissioner huie, please proceed. >> commissioner huie: thank you, so much for your presentation. that was really helpful for me to be able to see kind of like the overview of everything that's happening. and, yes, welcome to our meeting. thank you for being here. >> president laguana: commissioner, can i interrupt briefly for one second.

diana, could you please close the screen sharing or whatever so we can see everybody. great. thank you so much. >> commissioner huie: let's see. so i have a few questions. you know, this is kind of like i don't know what round of grant funding this is now since the beginning of kind of the recovery process. i think we've seen the city kind of roll out multiple rounds of grants of different denominations with different requirements. i'm wondering if there has been any followup with some of the grant recipients to get an understanding of, one, you know, when they receive an infusion of $5,000 or, you know, $10,000, what are they doing with it and how successful are they at in kind of building upon the funds that were given to them? >> so that's something we will be going back to anecdotedly,

we have heard what some of the businesses have done. but we will be doing a more comprehensive reach-out and survey to know exactly how they used the funding. for example, some have used it for rent. others have used it, for example, some people had to change [inaudible] take-out. so even across the board, they've used it for multiple things. >> commissioner huie: i think it would be really interesting to see what the different outcomes are depending on different variables. because specifically speaking to the small business storefront opportunity grant, i think, there are certain rierms. the requirement is for a recipient to have a certain level of income, to have a alternative level of closure, revenue loss. given all those requirements and then receiving a $5,000

grant, how is that going to refill and replenish that, you know, that bucket for that person? i just want to -- i guess i'm just trying to kind of really understand the outcome because i think like for many businesses, if you're behind on rent, one month of rent on the low end might be $4,000 and if that grant is $5,000, that's a nice band-aid in that, but given that that grant is only allotted to people or awarded to people who have not received other grants, then you're not really compounding multiple forces of, you know, of like recovery money or mitigation money. right. so i'm kind of just curious as to how people, like how effective giving out $300

something $5,000 grants or is it more effective to give people $10,000 or is it more effective to give a neighborhood $20,000? i definitely think like many businesses could really benefit from, you know any infusion of cash, any help, any support, but i feel like we're kind of far enough along to be able to find some true evidence what those intersections might be to be able to make the greatest impact or have the greatest outcome just from maybe a little bit of data surging after. >> absolutely. yeah. so we will be conducting that survey and we'll be happy to show that as well once we've done that, but we are working on -- we're going to be conducting a survey. >> commissioner huie: that would be awesome. that would be great because i

just feel like there's so many different denominations of help and kind of like what is that magic key? not that there's any single one, but, you know, what are some of the things that we can really do to really revive our corridors and revive our neighborhoods and really give people help. and, in addition to that, i'm curious as to finding out from business owners because they are so creative, so innovative, that if somebody gave you $5,000 and you took it and did these awesome, amazing things with it, i want to know what those are so that we can keep doing them more and more in every neighborhood. so that would be my ask too is to find out, you know, how people are leveraging the money that they're being able to access and how are they leveraging that into multiple, you know, [inaudible] -- at the end. and, let's see, yeah. i think that's pretty much my

question is really wanting to know more about, you know, really how much do people need and how do we multiply that need instead of just kind of giving people, you know, band-aids to stay around today. i want to see our neighborhoods really be able to flourish and grow with the investments that we're making into them right now. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. commissioner dickerson. i'm sorry. commissioner zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you. my question, this is all great stuff and i'm looking forward to sharing more info, but my question is regarding the $300,000 that's allotted for

technical assistance and application assistance. is that going to be issued as r.f.p.s for which category of partner type? >> so i think it's going to be a combination of our existing partners especially i think with the language capacity because that has been some of the highest need and especially as we prepare for federal resources. so keeping that in mind and so we will be using existing contracts because we want to get that out and that capacity going now and leveraging that. but, in addition, what we've also been hearing is that there's a need and also the b.l.a. did a report last week and we agree with some of the recommendations which is that we need to do more marketing for businesses around the products that are available and in a better way and so i think it's going to be spread across those things, but i think that's only making sure that some of those resources are

invested in our partners that provide the language capacity for our small businesses and then in combination with marketing strategies and communication. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. that's great. i would love to see that report if it's something you can share with our office of b.l.a. reports. i agree, i think something that would be very helpful is not every business and community is represented by existing trade partners and organizations that receive o.e.w. funds and so unless that is who gets r.s.p.s and where those resources are housed are made available to business communities at large or cultural networks that don't necessarily have an official sector-based organization representing them, then they will be able to access them more because what i see is a lot of times these are rewarded a consultant that's not

necessarily based in a community or organization that already has a set space and then there's still a huge amount of informal and cultural business communities that have no idea where to access these resources because they're not being reached out to proactively by awardees. so i would love to see that report and maybe we can, you know, implement some of those recommendations for how to market it. >> yeah. definitely always looking for additional partners. again, a primary focus is the need is always trying to expand our language capacity and how we service that. so, yeah, happy to talk more about that and what partners we may be missing. that'd be great. >> president laguana: great. thank you. commissioner dickerson. >> commissioner dickerson: thank you, diana, for your presentation. and, my comment and question actually has been answered and

elaborated on. one of my biggest concerns and what i hear a lot from the bayview district especially is accessibility to the resources, the information, how are we going to get it? how do people get this information? and, i know first-hand because i work with, you know, earl on e-dot and being familiar with the threerd street corridor, that's one of the biggest issues that we have is trying to get this information to people and because i think also there is some limitation i think with some people who are just believe it or not, i know we're in 2021, but we're just limited with technical resources and just the familiarity with language and knowing what the grants are. if it's a grant. if it's a loan. and some of these things have been very difficult and i hear it a lot. and so i'm really happy to hear

commissioner zouzounis requested knowing how that information's getting out and actually speaking as an owner of a small business on the corridor of 3rd street, you know, commissioner huie had talked about wanting to know how these funds are being used and i know for myself personally, i have never been qualified for anything and i have probably applied to about 19 and then stopped. so that's my personal experience. it just wasn't worth my time. i was needing to get real creative when it came to keeping my business and just my income and i had to get real creative technically and taking most of my clients online. and so, in doing that, i still had to have the time, the space, my building, things of that nature. so $5,000 i agree is and please

hear me, very grateful, is always going to be useful for a small business, but i definitely also side with commissioner huie in understanding maybe some creative ways to be able to get and i hate to say that because it's not about wanting to take anything out of someone else's hands, but the reality right now, a $5,000 is a drop in the bucket in comparison to what it costs to run a business and being a storefront. people aren't just walking in. so that whole part of the income that i know i had the retail aspect completely shut down which was covering the cost of two of my employees. so i'm just -- i mean, everything everyone has already requested is something that i was just -- i'm glad that it's open for discussion because it's definitely needed. >> thank you.

>> president laguana: thank you, commissioner dickerson. commissioner dooley. >> commissioner dooley: kind of along the same lines, it's all about the outreach and i'm wondering if you're planning to -- i would like to see the presentation you just gave us sent to every merchant organization because that's really where people are going to learn more about what's available. it can be passed on more readily that way. so are you going to be reaching out to all the merchant organizations and the counsel district merchants to make sure this information is given out to as many merchants as possible? >> yes. so um, as we will be -- so in terms of the timeline in terms of of the grant hopefully within the screen shot.

commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: thank you, president laguana. i just have a comment and a question. thank you for your presentation. i just want to [inaudible] . all our businesses in our neighborhood know you. you know our businesses as well. you and your team have done great outreach marketing in the community. i appreciate that in your capacity. one of the things i had the grant that you highlighted that's in the works for businesses that criteria is to be open by december 31st, 2020. so those are for those businesses that started during the pandemic. i know you don't know yet exactly, but do you have like a tentative date? i get that question a lot for businesses during the pandemic.

>> yeah. again, our grant, we're working on the application right now to go live in the next one to two weeks is our goal right now. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: okay. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. okay. it doesn't seem like there's any more questions from commissioners. so for myself, director, first of all, thank you so much for all the work you do and for taking on this incredibly challenging role and, also, i want to thank o.e.w.d. and invest in neighborhoods for that strong commitment to equity. the numbers speak for themselves really when you look at the p.p.p. investment versus what has gone to our opportunity neighborhoods and it's clear that it's filling a very important gap and i think that's fantastic. i'm really excited or was very

excited to see that page on the loan program. i work closely with then director torres and then assessor choo on bringing that rebuilding fund program to san francisco. so it was really exciting and rewarding to see in particular that what is now being continue plated is a 0% interest rate. i think that's going to make a huge difference for a lot of businesses that are weighing whether or not to take on more debt. and that, of course, is the challenge for much of our small business community that's already deeply burdened with debt. but with vaccines being distributed with increasing frequency, i think there's some reason to believe that we're turning the corner and hope is on the way and so if we have

some businesses that borrowing a little bit more money will ensure that they can survive and get to the other side and hopefully to an even brighter future than what we have in the past, that will be time well spent. so, with that said, a couple quick questions, one, with respect to application fatigue, has oewd considered making a straight forward unified application that can be kept on file for all businesses with? and then if there's any additional criteria that's required for a business, for a particular grant or particular loan program, then we only have to ask for that additional information? >> so we tried a variety of different things. so one is for some of our grant

programs, we've said, you know, we've taken the applications that we have on file and have tried to do some of that consolidating that way people don't have to reapply. so some we've pulled from existing. and this new grant is because of the criteria, the way it is, we're going to do a survey upfront thats and basic information before they are asked to submit an application. so that was one of the things that we modified. it will ask them basic information and hopefully we'll tell them whether they should move forward or not. >> president laguana: great. there's nothing more frustrating than spending a whole bunch of time trying to get a $5,000 grant and find out you've wasted $500 of time. that's great. on a quick sort of general question about the allocation of the $24 million to date.

so that's so far been distributed among 1,370 businesses. i get to a number of around 17,737 businesses. obviously, many of those grants were much smaller in the $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 category. i know the small business grant you showed in a later slide, you expect out of the $2.4 million, there's presumably the other $200,000 was in admin cost but 3.28 was going to be distributed which was suggested a $1.6 million admin cost. it looks like in terms of the $24 million that's been received or allocated or spent or given or perhaps it hasn't been allocated or given, but i guess what i'm trying to get an

understanding is are we being efficient in distributing the money that has been allocated for small business or, you know, is there -- i'm just trying to get a sense of how the distribution is going. >> so, yeah. so let me sort of explain a little bit, unpack that a little bit more. >> president laguana: sure. >> the $24 million has been across the grants and the loans. so, actually, a portion of that is not only for admin cost, it's actually for the interest buy downs for the loans themselves. and then we're able to also leverage more funding, that's private capital with our investment. so a portion of that goes there. also, in terms of what has gone out the door, if that's the allocation and total investment that we've made, i think what has gone out the door is still going out. so, for example, especially on our loan side, the grants

pretty much have been allocated, but most of the grants have had no overhead. we've been working very closely with our partners so they know the need and they want to just push out the dollars as much as they can to our small businesses. part of it has gone to buying down right for the interest rates for the loans. some has gone to admin cost, but i will say our partners have been pretty amazing in taking on more to distribute as much as possible so that it could go out and there are loans that are going out as well as we have some remaining grants that are still getting into the pockets of businesses. >> president laguana: that haven't been distributed yet. got it. understood. and then, on the priority grant factors i noticed that one of the bits -- first of all, i

appreciate you taking in the feedback from the small business community and i was there for and so i appreciate all of your service and efforts to keep everybody up to date with what we're doing. so one of the bits of feedback about -- it was unclear to me it was a grant factor, but jobs generated, if that job's generated on a going forward perspective basis or jobs in term of number of employees currently in the businesses? >> so for the grant portion, that's 2019, so pre-covid jobs dealt. so in a way is spent to give us

perspective on the ability that those businesses to hire before pandemic. so bringing them back up to pre-pandemic. >> president laguana: so one of the things that -- i brought this up with ex-director torres in the past and i imagine we'll be talking about this more at some point in the future. one thing i want to encourage you to keep an eye on as you're thinking about grant factors and prioritization. i've always struggled with these hard feelings whether it's $1.5 million and $2.5 million in terms of who gets the grant and who doesn't. because, in my mind, there's a big difference in a business that does $two million in revenue and has two employees versus a business that does $3 million in revenue and has 100 employees. naturally, i think the latter is probably more important to the city from a public policy

perspective and we certainly want to work hard to keep those businesses that are being efficient with respect to revenue generated per employee or how much of that revenue actually winds up in the hands of employees. you know, i'd love to have a conversation with you offline perhaps at some point and we can talk about that a little bit more because there is some curly queues to that and some twists and twirls, if you will. basically, i think our grant making assessment is very much a blunt instrument and i don't necessarily think we're being as efficient and economical in achieving our policy goals. we could be just by factoring two or three other factors that are already in our portion.

so i just want to make that note and if you had any questions or response to that, that's great. if not, that's okay too. >> so i will say definitely for the loan products as we're looking. so this is just the initial piloting phase. we were looking at a bigger ceiling than $2.5 million. so that's still being worked out. i'm hopeful that it will be hopeful. >> president laguana: right. >> and then definitely again as we look at other -- explore other different products especially [inaudible] with this current allocation on the loan side of things. and then, definitely we'll consider that as we recover and things shift. and, also again keeping a close eye on where the federal dollars are landing and how we can right leverage and position ourselves and leverage our dollars to get those dollars also into the pockets of our

small businesses. so absolutely. >> president laguana: absolutely. it's a very complicated problem. just want to make sure we're not helping the small businesses with one or two employees over those with 20, 30, 40 employees who are often restaurants and that's where our unemployment is overwhelmingly concentrated right now as you know. and just trying to figure out how we're careful in our criteria so we're accomplishing our policy goals as well. so that's all i have for you. thank you, again, very much. and, unless there's any other questions, we will check for public comment. jim, are there any public commentors on the

in 2011, san sun restaurant was forced to relocate to 848 washington street in chinatown where it has remained since. san sun restaurant has been owned and family operated by the san sun family. maintain the restaurant featuring asian cuisine. the item 3 is uko. it opened in 1986 and was originally located on union street. in 2005, a second uko location opened in hazy valley which became the second location in 2015. when uko opened, it exclusively

carried clothes from japan. the store is a fashion and retail staple in haze valley stocking a number of items at a range price point. offering highly personalized customer service and guidance. item 3d is yadav diamonds and jewelry. originally located on market street. yadav diamonds and jewelry sells wholesale diamonds and other jewelry. it moved to its present location in 2000 in the san francisco gift center and jewelry mart in the soma neighborhood. they also have offices in los angeles, hong kong and mumbi. they source their diamonds and

materials from sustainable methods to reduce environmental footprints. they are conflict-free natural diamonds and lab grown diamonds and jewels. they have a gemologist to consult with the clients on what is a good fit. all four businesses met the criteria and all four businesses received positive recommendation. office of small business staff recommends adding the four businesses to the industry and drafting for your commission. a motion should be framed in motion in favor of the resolutions. i would like to take this opportunity to announce a new website by the office of small business for the legacy business industry. legacybusiness.org. on the website, legacy businesses are shown on a google map with legacy torches

as place markers. when you click a torch, business information pops up featuring the business name, address, phone number, established date, and more. you can also select legacy businesses from the business directory and you can search the directory by business type, neighborhood, or any combination of the three. some businesses are still working on submitting the pictures to the office of small business whether they are still included on the website. please visit the website and use it to patronize businesses and if you approve the four businesses tonight, we will add them to the website immediately. thank you. that concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions that might be business representatives on the line who would like to speak on behalf of the applications during public comment. >> president laguana: fantastic. and, what a great website. great job to the office of small business.

commissioner adams. >> commissioner adams: yeah. i want to echo that. thank you, president laguana. i've forwarded that link to so many people especially other legacy businesses. everybody loves it. all of them. so i just want to say good job on that and i like our four picks for tonight. i've been to san sun restaurant in chinatown. so i'm glad they're finally coming back. >> president laguana: great. so any other commissioner comment or questions? okay. seeing none. do we have any public commentors on the line? >> clerk: and, while we're waiting -- do we have some, jim? >> i'm seeing two and two and if they want to get in queue they need to hit star 3 on

their telephone or their device. it looks like they hit it twice. now we've got two in queue. shall i unmute them? >> president laguana: please. >> i will need to be the host and make me the host, regina. >> i have made you the host. >> i'm not seeing the notification. you're still host, actually. you'll have to right click on my name and change my role to "host." >> president laguana: director, you are on mute.

>> thank you. you might have to walk me through this. >> okay. or i may be able to claim the host role. let me just do that. it will just take a moment. i have to put in the code. >> president laguana: these are the phrases of our time. "you are on mute," "can you make me host, please" >> okay. i'm host now. thank you for your patience and i have three people in queue. i will start with the first one. >> president laguana: wonderful. >> hi, good evening. sorry to slow down the evening. my comments are really that important. my name is paul toonelly and i'm a member of the family that owns the local drug store on

4494 mission street. my brother jerry is the active pharmacist there and my mom elsy is the owner of the pharmacy. so this i just wanted to present to the commission that this is a legally business of san francisco for a couple of reasons. it's a legacy neighborhood business in the fact it has been operating in the pharmacy since 1908 in its current position for nearly a hundred years and that art deco on the front has been around since the '30s and we have served the district. and it's a family designationly business in that both my father and uncle who were business partners and eventually took over ownership in the business down mission drug store and

they both grew up in the exis alsoier district. that was their home and their profession and as the legacy continues in the family, we no longer live in san francisco, but we've continued to serve as a business in the excelsior district. richard was a tremendous help and he is a tremendous asset to the commission. so thank you very much for hearing that tonight. >> president laguana: thank you. and, there's never a reason to apologize, paul. we're always happy to hear from legacy businesses and concur with your assessment of beloved

rick. next commentor, please. >> hello. my name is jerry canelli and you just heard from my brother so i guess we're in tandem here back to back. he already gave you a brief synopsis of the business. i myself started working there in the early 1970s when i was in high school and continued to work there and become a pharmacist and work with my father and mother until my father's passing in 1991. and, my mother who is 94 still comes in and works at the pharmacy three days a week which is totally amazing. and, as a sidebar my mother and father met as teenagers. and, around 1940 eventually got married the end of the 1940s and the business has carried on. over the years, a number of

people we've met served in health in the excelsior district in san francisco and it's mind boggling when you try to think back of all the people you've helped and one thing i've always looked back on that amazes me if you think back to the 1850s, 1860s, people born in that era probably shopped at central drug store that were born in the excelsior district. so looking back that far and seeing the legacy of this business is truly amazing. and, i do want to thank richard too for his help. i also want to that my brother paul, my son dino canelli, and augustino for the help and information and doing research on the history of the business. and thanks to you, the commission for listening to us today and for hopefully approving us as a legacy business in san francisco. take care, all of you. >> president laguana: thank

you. next caller, please. >> hi, my name is uko owner of uko. i came here when i was twenty years old with one suitcase and wanted to study english and we've done so much dreams and passion and looking back i'm so excited that this is everything i wanted. you know [inaudible] came too and i know small businesses are going through such a difficult time right now, including us, but new generations of small business owners, i don't want you to give up. there are so many wonderful things about small businesses. i was very lucky, my daughter maya, after she graduated, she

joined me a couple years ago and she's managing the business now. so i just want to thank everybody for having this program. thank you so much. >> president laguana: thank you. are there any other callers on the line? >> hi. this is zoez yz from yadav diamonds and jewelry. thank you so much for the application. we're very humble to be in the legacy business industry. we look forward to staying an important part of the san francisco community for many years to come. i really like the website and

i'm really looking forward to seeing the website. and i have to say this kind of meeting is very inspiring to me. i like this kind of web meeting a lot. thank you very much. and, so i hope you all have a great rest of your day. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. >> that was our last caller in queue. >> president laguana: with respect to that last commenter, i will say one of the silver linings of the pandemic has been these web meetings, have enabled a lot more public participation and i hope that that is something we will find a way to keep as we progress to the post-pandemic future that hopefully we'll all be inhabiting soon. but it's been wonderful how easy it's been for people to

participate. is there any more comments, commissioners? okay. would somebody like to make a motion? >> commissioner: all motion. >> president laguana: okay. it's a three-way tie between vice president zouzounis, commissioner huie, and [inaudible] >> commissioner: i'll step back. >> president laguana: commissioner huie, why don't you make the motion. >> commissioner huie: this is actually my first motion. >> president laguana: that's why i thought you should win the tie. >> commissioner huie: it only takes me a year to warm up. i also wanted to just quickly comment on calling in right now it reminds me of calling in to radio stations. i know that's like old school. like nobody would ever do that, but that's what it feels like. well, i would like to make a

motion -- go ahead. >> president laguana: no. i was just going to agree with you sometimes when there's a lot of public comment, it feels like we're hosting a radio show and it feels like, you know, i'm old enough, i listen to the am radio and it would be like paul harvey in ohio and people calling in. showing my age. anyway. before we go to the motion, i see commissioner dickerson, so i wanted to recognize her is on. >> commissioner dickerson: i just wanted to say i have such warm fuzzies right now. i just wanted to say congratulations -- >> president laguana: it's a little too soon. we're supposed to vote before we congratulate. >> commissioner dickerson: i just waned to say i'm excited to come and visit all of these

businesses. i'll say that. >> president laguana: yeah. you can definitely say that. that is definitely allowed. >> president laguana: commissioner huie, do you want to make a motion? >> commissioner dickerson: i was just -- >> president laguana: we're having some internet bumps. i don't know if it's me or you, commissioner dickerson. but i suspect it's her because she just disappeared. commissioner huie, do you want to make your motion? >> commissioner huie: i would like to make a motion to approve all of the legacy businesses for tonight. what am i supposed to say? is that right? >> approve all four resolutions to place the legacy businesses on the legacy business industry. >> commissioner huie: i would like to make a motion to place all four businesses on the legacy business industry.

>> president laguana: perfect. >> okay. all right. >> clerk: so we have a motion by commissioner huie to approve the four resolutions and motion seconded by commissioner dooley. so roll call. [roll call] >> clerk: those motions passes 7-0. congratulations to our legacy businesses. >> president laguana: congratulations, legacy businesses. okay. next item, please. >> clerk: next item is item number four, general public

comment. this is allows members of the public to comment on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. this is a discussion item. >> president laguana: are there any callers on the line who would like to make public comments on any item that is not on today's agenda? >> there is one caller listening and nobody in the queue right now. >> president laguana: okay. seeing none. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: item number five is director's report. update on the office of small business, the small business assistance center, department programs, policy and legislative matters, announcements from the mayor, and announcements regarding small business activities. this is a discussion item.

so thank you commissioners and good evening. very much thank you commissioner huie for reading the statement on behalf of the commission and the office of small business and standing in solidarity with our asian a.p.i. community and particularly our small businesses. we are a year from having gone into closure. it seems like a blip and a lifetime ago, but we've accomplished a year and it's exciting to see that at this one year mark, we are making substive advances. we'll soon be going into the orange tier. we're also hitting our lowest case rate since going into our shelter-in-place a year ago. so all things are really looking good and if we can

maintain them, we can accelerate our business opening and business activity. san francisco is doing a remarkable job as well in managing the administration of our vaccines. and so, have great confidence in our ability to get those out as quickly as we can get them. so i think that there is while not a complete sigh of relief, but somewhat a sigh of relief of really being able to make substanate going forward. the office of economic workforce development with the department of public health put -- providing a webinar for

small businesses to give them advance notice for what the orange tier will be, what the increased business activity will be, and that webinar does continue to live on the office of economic and workforce development facebook page. if you were not able to attend or would like to hear it, please let me know. couple sort of unique things that i do want to highlight with that is that we are with appendix a1 and appendix a2 which deals with the social distancing protocols will are beginning to give advice on how businesses. there will be some changes in relationship to that because we know that we have a mix of customers who are not vaccinated and vaccinated. so as we're in this transition

period, those supplementals are going to be giving businesses the guidelines of what's changing. as a result of the fact that we are moving in to having more individuals being vaccinated. and, also, really streamlining and cleaning up information around sanitation protocols again. just note having better guidance -- science i should say. better science about the virus and how it lives on surfaces and so that's in addition to, again, knowing that we have a mixed population of people who are vaccinated. so there is definitely some changes to i'm going to say maybe kind of relaxing, but not

or sort of relaxing some of the sanitation protocols. like now you can take your reused bags into the grocery stores. so important for businesses to really pay attention to those details because it will provide many businesses, in addition to being able to open up and expand, but also some increased ease in operation. and then, other very important announcements by the mayor last week. so you did see the notice, the announcement of kate sofis who is currently right now the for the director of office of workforce development. this is a really great appointment for oewd and

leadership moving in to and taking us in to the recovery and rebuilding and kate has been fantastic at developing the manufacturing industry in the city and in the bay area and so just really exciting news that the mayor has appointed her and also it's been just great appreciation to kate for interest in leading the department into a new era so to speak as we come out of covid. also, the mayor announced her small business recovery act. this is extraordinarily exciting news with this piece of legislation. i want to spend a couple moments kind of reviewing some of the highlights. this is a very dense piece of

legislation, but it is expanding prop h city wide. so it is expanding the principlely permitted expedited process that the ballot measure prop h created for businesses in our neighborhood commercial businesses. we have the mayor recognize that the downtown area really also could benefit from prop h. so that is really great news for many small businesses throughout the city. it's going to speed up the process for businesses coming in to a vacant space if the last business operated there was of the same type. so, again, if it was a bar that was vacant and a bar is moving in, then there will be an expedited process for the bar's not going to have to go through

i believe, will be able to go in without having to go through the conditional use process because it's the same use. it expands expedited review process. it guarantees a 90-day turn around in conditional use permits for additional uses including bars, nighttime entertainment and what we're calling small formula retail. so formula retail that has 20 or less locations worldwide. so they will actually be following the cb3b process. it allows restaurants to hold catering businesses in their kitchen. this is allowing new entrepreneurs to build a food business, but also help support our restaurants in generating revenue. this was an issue that came to attention actually probably like three months ago at the business assistance center

where a caterer had a relationship with a restauranteur. but because it was a full service restaurant they weren't allowed, and that restaurant was only open in the evenings, they weren't allowed to do catering. so expanding that, it's a good partnership knowing that our commercial kitchens are still at capacity. so this will help support our small caterers and those that want to grow their food businesses and aren't able to get into a commercial kitchen. it also allows businesses and organizations to use roof top spaces and allows accessory dwelling units to be built in the back of commercial spaces. it simplifies definitions of retail businesses.

so we are -- so the changes, let's just say in terms of cat boarding, that had its own sort of definition. so it's simplifying the number of things that are what we think of as retail as retail. and also, as a result of that that it reduces the number of requirements for businesses to do a change of use. so if someone wanted to open up a cat boarding place, but the previous space was a retail clothing store, that would of required a change of use and neighborhood notification. and so they're simplifying this process no longer requires -- the neighborhood notification went away with proposition h

but it no longer requires the requirement of doing the change of use. so these simplifying much for small businesses. and, it expands the hours businesses are able to hold live performance. so our limited live performance permit, you first got it for a year at 10:00. if there were no issues, you would be allowed to expand it to 11:00. so we're now saying it's 11:00. so those are some of the key highlights. there's additional ones. i am going to be first thing tomorrow morning, you will be getting this legislation along with other pieces of legislation. i encourage you to start reading it. because the likelihood is that the we will be hearing this

hopefully on april 12th in addition to the shared spaces which i'll go over. so i just really want to say how extraordinarily excited i am along with proposition h and this piece of legislation. we are jumping hurdles and improving the permitting process and breaking down some of the delays that used to occur once this legislation passes with the planning department. things they've been advocating and working on and just cannot thank the mayor enough and knowing that as we're rebuilding our economy, the most important thing is really

to assist. one key important thing is really to make it easier for businesses to get open as we're -- as the economy's starting to open back up. it's also a sign for new businesses that it's likely safe to start thinking about getting your business open and so we want to make that happen as quickly as possible. in regards to legacy businesses, so rick just showed you the website and i know that he sent that to you earlier. our next phase working with design media now is to start working on the marketing program that will help utilize the website and with one key component with the marketing program is how it is to work with our legacy businesses to help them also amplify the

legacy of the business programs. and we are targeting to have plaque installation late may early june. possibly earlier. we'll also have a marketing and p.r. component around the installation of the first plaques. the music and entertainment venue fund that our office will be accepting applications. we've been working hard and i do want to do a special shout-out to both rick and ben van houten of o.e.w.d. for setting up our criteria for the applications for the music and entertainment venue fund. we are also working with digital services so this is an online application so it makes it easy.

the time line for launch is mid april. and, in the appropriations, there is an appropriation piece of legislation at the board of supervisors tomorrow and $3 million will be allocated into that particular fund. president laguana had mentioned last week that there was a hearing with supervisor mandelman as to the jet liability that citywide that it's out there as a result of businesses not being able to pay their rent or only partial rent. the budget and legislative analyst report that diana ponce

deleon i will be sending that to you as well but it has estimated an accumulated $400 million plus in rent that has not been paid. so it's substanative. and so, moving forward, the way for us to get a good handle on this is to try to get a good understanding as to how much the p.p.p., the save our stages, both the music and entertainment venue fund, all the financial infusion of funding that will be coming in to the city has not yet. so for the p.p.p., the deadline is, you know, coming up, but there is a potential of subtanive amount of funding infusion from the federal, a

little bit from the state and a little bit from the city, and it will be good to kind of see if we can get a good assessment as to how much that funding is helping to offset that looming debt that's out there with our small businesses and to understand that with the timing of the commercial eviction moratorium. so, if things are proceeding, we'll need to monitor, but if things are proceeding in a very good trajectory, in terms of the virus count and transmission, then the current commercial eviction moratorium that governor newsom has set, that timeline is june thirtyth and there are four tiers per our local commercial eviction moratorium. and that spread out based upon business employee size for when

they are required or when a property owner is able to say it's time now to ensure that you fulfill those debt requirements. so the first tier, i just want to quickly touch on them. tier 1 would start july 1, 2021, for businesses with 50 or more employees. tier 3 is july 1, 2022, for businesses with 25 to 49 employees. january 1, 2023, for 10 to 24 employees and july 1, 2024, for businesses with under 10 employees. and per the business registration numbers pre-pandemic, 80% of our small businesses are have 10 or less employees so our legislation hopefully will help our small

businesses sort of wait out some of this period in being able to manage that particular debt liability. legislation has been introduced. supervisor ronen has introduced legislation. this legislation is a direct result of the resolution the commission passed and then also introduced last week is the draft ordinance for public works and the transportation code and it's called "places for people" again, introduced by the mayor and sponsored by

by supervisor mandelman, safai, and haney. i highly encourage you to read both that and the small business recovery act legislation that i just went over because it will still take me awhile to do your legislative reviews. so please don't wait for my legislative review on that. and then supervisor peskin did introduce a temporary closure for polk street neighborhood commercial districts. so, again, for businesses that are forced to close due to construction, it does not create an abandonment of use. and i know that this has been somewhat of an issue especially for some businesses that have

during the soft story program. and then a couple hearings that are also of interest that you will be interested in knowing is that there are two public hearings that have been called regarding public safety strategies for commercial corridors and dealing with shoplifting in neighborhoods. this is, you know, following along the lines of the hearing that you had both with the san francisco police department and the district attorney. so, again, the issues are still there that businesses are experiencing and so the board of supervisors are also holding a hearing in relationship to that. and, then, lastly, the third hearing that is of note is that there will be a hearing on the current state of commercial office spaces and economic

recovery and so -- and i know that there's interest of our small businesses again. interest in office space and being able to relocate back to downtown as they were priced out of downtown. and, then with that, i'd like to ask commissioner zouzounis if you can just give us an update on the timeline of the p.p.p. idle, the restaurant revitalization and save our stages. >> vice president zouzounis: . sure. thank you, director. couple updates on federal local. april 8th now is the date that is confirmed for the shuttered venue operator's grant application portal to be open. right now, there is a landing

page and businesses are able to sign up for resources from that existing page. but on april 8th, it will be open -- excuse me -- for applications and so i do encourage venues, shuttered venues to look at the extensive f.a.q.s and what you need to be prepared for prior to applying for that. and there is a march 30th public information session as well for the shuttered venues operator's grant. so please see the most recent press release for that link. p.p.p. last week did an extension. did pass the house, it is still pending in its final forum, but i'm sure we'll all be hearing about that soon. the idle program has allowed

for another deferment. so the deferment period pertained to the idle loan has extended to 2022. and, i think i mentioned on another meeting, the targeted idle grant right now is still a closed process. so it's people that have applied for the targeted idle advance if it was called prior and did not receive the full $10,000 available in grant form. you will be contacted by the office of disaster assistance with the s.p.a.. so there's really nothing that folks can do to proactively seek being in the system for idle targeted grant portion of the idle relief e.i.e.l. and,

then, one -- oh, the restaurant revitalization is still pending but we also are expected to learn about what that's going to look like beginning of next month sometime. so there are new rules actually regarding a business's ability to apply for both p.p.p. and the venue grant or p.p.p. and the restaurant grant. however, you will not be able to apply for both the restaurant grant and the venue grant. and, one last piece and this is for our technical assistance providers and nonprofits, there's a program called "the community navigator" program that the federal government is going to be opening up in april and we will be learning more about that.

from my understanding it's that they are trying to increase the technical hands-on assistance for underserved entrepreneurs and their access to these programming. so look out for the community navigator program as well. and i think that's it. >> thank you, commissioners for that update. so that concludes my report and um, i am happy to take any questions. did you, president laguana, you are working on your laptop. i'm happy to monitor the questions. >> president laguana: i'm at 2%, unfortunately and i have to go get a power cord. if i drop off, it's because my laptop died. i'll return shortly. sorry. >> all right. commissioner dooley, i see that

-- >> commissioner dooley: yes. i just wanted to ask director about the shared spaces legislation and certainly may be an anomaly of north beach, but i have heard from many merchants and residents that, for example, they don't really want to continue to have basically one whole side of a block which is now taken over by bars. they, you know, they would like to have some input into that because now because of that situation, you can't cross the street to go to any business because there are barricades from shared spaces the entire block on both sides. so it's very hard for

handicapped people and i just think that it would be nice to have a little more of a fine grain analysis of neighborhood situations. now we may be north beach, the only place that has basically an entire block that's turned into a bar and has been cited numerous times. you know, the residents can no longer even walk down that block. so rather than just automatically grant permanent shared spaces, i think there needs to be some sort of review or feedback from neighborhoods just depending on their situation. you know, north beach has very narrow streets, very narrow sidewalks and this has had an impact on retail and service businesses because they're now basically blockaded into a

narrow dark alley. so i'm not saying, you know, that -- i'm just saying that we need to consider that also because we also serve things besides bars and restaurants. and, when you have, for example, a block, basically the entire block on both sides is now shared spaces i just think we need to make some comments about consideration for the other businesses. so i don't know what's in the legislation, but i wanted to just bring it up in advance because i get calls every day about this. people will no longer walk down that block because they don't want to walk in the middle of the street and so, you know, each neighborhood needs to consider their shared spaces and what they have brought and what they have taken away.

>> president laguana, before i turn it over to you because i know that you have been more involved in some of the final details. i do want to say that that comment, you know, that concern is one that has been heard and shared by other merchant associations. so i think with the long term component, some businesses are definitely going to have to change some of their spaces, but i will -- i can't -- i have not had the opportunity to really dive in to the legislation. >> president laguana: there's other problems elsewhere in the

city with a.d.a. access in general and other issues that can vary by neighborhood. i think we know in san francisco that we have some very diverse neighborhoods and that north beach is much different from the mission and the mission is a lot different from the marina and the marina's different from the sunset and so forth. so i don't think it would be possible or wise to come up with citywide legislation that create a one-size-fits-all rule for shared spaces. the legislation that's written -- so two things i want to point out at the start. one, this is a proposed legislation which means that there's going to be a lot of opportunity for comment and feedback and revisions based on

feedback from stakeholders and based on what common ground supervisors are able to find. so it's just a point and place in time, it's not the final product, but the legislation as written currently says that sfmta and department of public works will together manage what permits are granted and under what conditions and it's sfmta's role and responsibility to manage how the curve is managed because mta is in control of the curb. i imagine that there will bbthrough the board and for opportunity to have input into what's going on in their specific neighborhood ithrough the board and for

opportunity to have input into what's going on in their specific neighborhoods through the board and for opportunity to have input into what's going on in their specific neighborhoods i at is a year from now. so it's not like what we're seeing now will be in perpetuity for the rest of time and i don't think the city's going to commit to locking in amber solutions that aren't working for the community that they exist in. so i think all the legislation is doing because we have to remember that the only reason we have shared spaces at all right now is because it's emergency legislation. once the emergency dies, all of the entire legal framework for shared spaces would die. everybody would have to tear down all their shared spaces immediately. there will be no shared spaces at all. so all the legislation does is create a framework for there to

be permanent shared spaces. it does not specify what a permanent shared space would look like and in my opinion what a permanent shared space looks like will probably be different neighborhood to neighborhood. that's my take on it. >> commissioner dooley: okay. that's good. thank you. >> president laguana: sure. >> thank you, president laguana. any other questions? otherwise we can move on to public comment. all right. jim. >> we have no public comment. >> president laguana: okay. seeing none. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: next item is item number 6 which is commissioner discussions and new business items. >> president laguana: i feel like we got an early start on that one.

[ laughter ]. >> president laguana: commissioner adams. >> commissioner adams: yeah, i did want to say director dick endrizzi i did attend the seminar last week. i thought it was an excellent presentation and everything that the city is doing for helping small businesses manage through this and i know there's a presentation on that and if we could send it out to the other commissioners. i found it very informative and i forwarded it to a lot of other small businesses who who said it helped them out. it was a great presentation. >> president laguana: great. commissioner huie. >> commissioner huie: well, i just wanted to i guess speak a

little to the a.p.i. hate instances and crimes and things like that and just kind of share my personal experience has been i've lived with this experience in my entire life and in my familial and a lot of us carry those things with us. and i think we have a unique opportunity right now and i have a unique opportunity right now as a commissioner and i've been struggling with that in terms of what to do knowing that we're living in this particular period of time in which i really don't have to be silent any longer. i don't have to sit here and

take it which is what i've pretty much done like my entire life and not just because i felt like it wasn't worth speaking up about. i think sometimes what happens is you get completely caught off guard when when something so crazy happens to you like that, you don't know how to begin. and so i really do appreciate having friends, i guess they're called allies now, but people who really will not question whether that really happened or not and just say, hey, that wasn't right and that's something that i'm submitted to

going forward and to always say hey, that's not right and to always have my friends' backs and that's something i've been giving a lot of thought to in terms of how as a commissioner, as a resident, all these different roles that we wear and what i wear and how to best use that. you know, i don't know quite frankly. i don't have any sort of answers, but i guess what i want to commit for our commission is really that i am here. i am always going to have your back. i am always going to, you know, listen and really, you know, just be there for everyone and for all of you. and, if you ever want to talk about a.p.i. experience, you want to talk about legislation, you want to talk about history, you want to talk about my life, whatever it is, i am here and i

am always willing to share. and, you know, some of the more tangible things that i thought i've maybe present because i also want to maybe not have this kind of grand kind of idea that we're all going to create a coalition on top of the commission, but, you know, i would like to offer too that i'm pretty well-connected with district 1 with the richmond district which we do have a pretty large asian population and, you know, i'm still trying to work on strengthening communications and support and things like that there. but, you know, in the past we've done things like merchant walks like with the mayor or different city officials and things like that. and i was thinking that, you know, it's been awhile since i've been to bayview, to soma,

to the mission. i was in north beach this weekend. you know, it's been awhile since i've been in other neighborhoods especially since covid and some of the neighborhoods i've never been to with a community leader. you know, i've been there as a resident and a patron, but i've never been there and had walked with some of my other community leaders. i would love to host any of you and any of the community leaders to come visit clemen t street and for me to be able to make introductions and for us to all understand our district from this first-hand perspective where i can make a new friend and maybe for us to

invite our supervisors from other districts. come visit clement street. come visit west portal, like whatever neighborhood. and, for us to actually have real like one-on-one community. and so, you know, it's not a huge proposition. it's not a huge thing that needs to happen, but i think, you know, i'm publicly committing to really following through with that coffee that i need to have with commissioner ortiz-cartagena. i'm committing to really having coffee with each of you and opening up and inviting all of you to come visit district 1 through my eyes and through the relationships that i've made over the years and hopefully those relationships will translate into something that is meaningful for you as well. thank you very much for your time. >> president laguana: commissioner huie, let me just

say, first of all, thank you for saying that and thank you for bringing that up and, you know, i want to say, you know, as you said at the beginning not always feeling secure in what you were going to say or whether it was okay for you to say anything. i hope you know, i think you know but i'll say it out loud, your voice is always welcome here and you make this commission better. you've made this commission better. we're grateful to have you here. we're grateful for the work you've done and i will happily take you up on that coffee and happily walk into richmond with relish and excitement. i look forward to. let's set a date on there. so thank you. >> commissioner huie: thank you.

>> president laguana: commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: thank you, president laguana. commissioner huie, i can't wait for that. on another note, for everybody out there, please support your local businesses. please support your restaurants. get that spending money, go out, do it big, and don't forget if you can tip big. tip big like if you are a rapper or something. do it. >> president laguana: thank you. are there any other commissioners? >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: hold on a second. i forgot i lived in excelsior for a little while. you know, down the street, the dude from the grateful dead. he was from the neighborhood.

>> jerry. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i bet you he used to go to that store as a kid. it was in the middle of that block. and the batting cages were right around the corner. i forgot to mention all that stuff. i'm more of a mission guy but i love excelsior too. [ laughter ]. >> president laguana: yeah. director dick endrizzi. >> i'm just going to turn it over to rick because he does have a response to that. >> you were talking jerry garcia. he used to read comic book at that store and we heard about it in the application. it's really interesting in the narrative. >> commissioners, just because i am the director and provide oversight with you, i just don't want to be a bummer but remind you ethics wise that because you are publicly stating about getting together

for coffee, just your obligation around your ethics requirements in terms of discussion around policy matters that you will be reviewing and discussing, you know, while you at commission meetings and therefore have to be very mindful of not ensuring you're getting in to meetings that the public does not have privilege of having hearing those conversations. so just it is my duty to remind you of that obligation that you have as a commissioner to ensure your meeting knows ethics requirements. >> president laguana: this is probably a good opportunity to also remind all of us particularly myself that our form 700 and our various -- there's sunshine and what was

the other one that -- i forget what it's called. >> sunshine and ethics training. >> president laguana: those are all due by the 30th. i have not done mine. so if you have not done yours, don't feel bad. but we do need to get that done in the next couple days. vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you, president laguana. and thank you fellow commissioners. commissioner huie, thank you for expressing that two-way solidarity. that's the only way we're going to be getting through any of this. i want to just express my solidarity and i understand, you know, i think you made a really important point about small businesses being a primary target for a lot of the xenophobias that exist in our

society and i'm looking forward to how we can hone in on that specific realm a bit more, how we can improve neighborhoods and small business relationships especially for immigrant-owned businesses. and in historic neighborhoods and what we can take to bring our racial equity mandate of this commission and how we can bring these issues to that. i mean, economic policies that are impacted from the chinese exclusion have been very much part of the small business history of this country and it's not just isolated for individual or localities. i mean, this is the national attitude of this country towards the countries of origins of certain communities whether it's perpetual war

sanctions. it's not just going to change with, you know, as much as we need to build solidarity at a local and individual level, i think it's important to keep in mind that business communities also are subject to national policies and that is something i think we don't mention enough is that we're living in a greater context that we also have to draw an analysis from and hopefully san francisco can really push the narrative that connects our local and global communities in this time and, again, looking forward to working with all of you on that. >> president laguana: great. so one thing i want to mention to keep an eye out on is in mid

april, i think we're going to have a very exciting announcement about helping to market small businesses to commissioner ortiz-cartagena's point about buying and shopping local. i have more details on that as we get closer, but the mayor's on board and i'm very excited about this. and i think that's all we've got at the moment. there was a good hearing the other day at the g.a.o. committee on commercial rent relief. so hopefully we'll start to see some progress on that as we wrestle with what's possible under federal and state law and what the city can actually do. and, yeah. i think that's all i've got for today. unless there's anybody else, we will go to public comment.

>> we have no public comment. >> president laguana: seeing none. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: sfgov tv. please show the office of small business slide. >> president laguana: and, somehow i managed to move the sheet of paper that has the little thing on it. oh, dear. okay. here we go. sorry, public. we will end with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. and that the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance with

small businessmentors, continue to reach out to the office of small business. >> clerk: item number seven. adjournment. this is an action item. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: move to adjourn. >> president laguana: i'm sorry. if i may i would like to move to adjourn in memory of the members of the asian community that were slain in atlanta last week. >> thank you, president laguana. so we have a motion to adjourn in memory of the individuals slain in atlanta at the three business centers last week. do we have a motion to -- or do we have someone to accept that motion? >> commissioner dickerson: i

accept that motion. >> clerk: commissioner dickerson, motion to approve. second? do we have a second? commissioner dooley seconds. thank you. all right. roll call please. [roll call] >> clerk: that motion passes. 7-0. the meeting is adjourned at 6:41. thank you, commissioners. >> president laguana: bye everyone. thank you.

. >> president walton: good morning and welcome to the rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, march 22nd. our clerk is mr. victor young. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin joined by supervisor rafael mandelman. >> clerk: the board of supervisors slaltive and committee room are closed the. community members