[roll call] >> public comment for any items not on the agenda.

>> make sure there is nobody in the queue. j.a.m. permits which is pretty huge. that surpasses the number of permits we have in the city being at 196. and we have a lot of unique businesses we are permitting that we weren't permitting pre-covid. that's pretty exciting. sort of a way of broadening entertainment across the city that we kind of never envisioned we would have the ability to do. which we were able to do through this emergency and through shared spaces. so that's exciting. and applications continue to

come in. we have another 15 that are under review right now. just to get into a staff and office update, you should have received an email from deputy director this past week. as a reminder, kaitlynne is on parental leave the next few months. we are very excited for her and her husband as they are welcoming their first child in the world. she will be out until the fall. a couple notes for you all, in her absence, inspector sevino will take on a bigger role and supporting enforcement. he will actually be putting together your commissioner enforcement reports that you review for these hearings and giving you a presentation on that today and moving forward. really excited about that opportunity for him. i think he is going to be great. thank you so much, tony. and i will go back to some of

that deputy director work that i did before, back in, you know, 2015 and up until '18. just doing permitting which is actually coming back online. we will have a couple permits coming up at our upcoming hearings which is pretty exciting. and final note i will make for all of you. i emailed you about yesterday. really around our offices emergency response efforts. so over the past year, as you are all well aware we have been supporting the covid command center and the city in general, informing this group called the community education and response team. or c.e.r.t. which had a role of, you know, education and compliance for small businesses across san francisco. and really, almost everybody on our staff was working on c.e.r.t. at one point. some of us full-time. kaitlynne spent a lot of her efforts running that program.

and over the past week, i will note that the timing was just really interesting that it happened with her departure, but we were able to de-scale the program quite a bit. which is actually really good news. we feel that it's trending along with the economy continuing to reopen and things coming back online. so we had, you know, previously had about 13 disaster service workers reporting to us, and now that's gone down to five. we are no longer going to be going out and checking on health order compliance on evenings and weekends. meaning that department of public health, environmental health branch is going to be take back overall evening and weekend complaints in response. and c.e.r.t. will continue to move forward with a much smaller scope. they will be focusing on kind of random businesses like gyms and fitness centers and

laundrymats and nail salons, auto shops, offices, hotels, retail, that kind of thing. it's a smaller scope. and that ultimately means that both mike and tony will be able to focus completely on entertainment enforcement on evenings and weekends where we really need them back right now. because we are getting probably double the complaints, at least, i need to dig into the data. than we did pre-covid. and so, you know, that makes a lot of sense given the fact that we have 200 new outdoor sources we didn't have before. but we will dig into that more in tony's report and what's going on. we think we have a handle on it, but it is quite a bit. if you have questions on that report or anything i have gone over. feel free to ask now or later. i am around.

>> president bleiman: any questions? >> president bleiman, if i can go. >> president bleiman: please. >> i want to compliment the amazing work with all your stuff with c.e.r.t. you were a huge asset for the police department. i don't think you guys got nearly the recognition. the work was incredible, also. we had the privilege of one of the people that works with me was assigned to you, kimberly ing. she did a great job. >> she did. >> we he are happy to have her back but she can help again if needed. >> thank you. we had so many folks join us across city departments. it was really a pleasure getting to know all them and we got a lot of positive feedback on their experience. all in all, really good, yeah. >> i think it's really

extraordinary how, you know, the city employs every possible type of person and type of position and everybody really stepped up during this crisis. i mean, we're not out of it yet, but everything i am hearing is we are on a great track with people ready to jump back in if needed. thank you. >> >> president bleiman: any other questions? all right. thanks again for the work that you did. and just in time. we are back now with all these new permits. i think also with the parklet, the preferred spaces we will be fielding a lot of calls that have nothing to do with us, but other neighbors complaining about this or that. thanks for everybody you have done.

is there any comment on director wyland's presentation? >> president bleiman not now. but i think we should show the slides as a courtesy. >> president bleiman: wrong thing. let me stop that. there we go. courtesy to show that again for anyone who wants to call in, or chat. all right. there is no one with their hand raised and no one calling in right now. >> president bleiman: let's close public comment for that. we will move onto the next agenda item. number 4, a report from senior inspector sevino. >> hello. thank you, president bleiman and good evening, commissioners. it's been a full month since we last met and we are able to report on enforcement actions

and a lot has happened since then. let me get you all to speed here. since our last meeting there have been 62 sound complaints and we worked hard to resolve the majority of these issues. i have the enforcement report. i will run through some of the businesses highlighted in yellow. there are nine big cases here to talk about. and there's a lot to say. i will keep this pretty high-level while trying to paint the full picture and then we can talk about any questions you might have at the end. just to mention, this is a very large report and to help you all follow along in that report, the new cases we will be covering start on march 3rd. the first business i want to talk about, don pizzo's. this has been getting numerous complaints from one neighbor that continued to be substantiated. we visited and educated multiple times, set an appropriate sound limit and

issued citation. however the business continued to receive complaints about operating outside of permitted hours. and there's some limit. director wyland took one additional step requiring the business to respond within 24 hours with a comprehensive compliance plan illustrating how their business operations will reflect compliance with the conditions of their j.a.m. permit. staff approved the plan which included posting signage to employees to not exceed the allowable sound levels by not turning up the volume. since then we haven't received a sound complaint in several weeks. the next business i want to talk about is mr. bing's. we visited this business multiple occasions prior to this c.e.r.t.d scale responding to health order violations as well as sound complaints. unfortunately, we haven't been entirely successful at this location.

the owner has not been forthcoming about business operations and does not yet have a j.a.m. permit. i will mention inspector had to deal with a patron attempting to light a fire work next to him from his last visitation. this has been reported to the public health and city attorney office. we will keep you posted with future sound complaints or follow-up as it pertains to entertainment permitting for this location. the next business to speak about is neck of the woods. as deputy sector reported last time they received numerous come -- complaints, inspector worked with the manager do come up with the sound solution of not using any amplification during their comedy performances. the performance and outdoor dining areas are small and the comedian can still be heard

without amplification. patrons have been encourage dollars to keep noise level low, we haven't received any other complaints. rock stem received a sound complaint for loud music and when inspector fiorentino found they were operating outside their six hours of allowed amplified sound on their permit. the manager was sincere and turned off the music right away. upon inspection of the next follow-up visit the business was in compliance and not operating outside the listed hours of amplified sound. this case has been closed out. next up is soma street food park. this is a relatively new activation. and since their first couple days of being open early last month they received a number of complaints for loud music.

inspector fiorentio attempted to visit only to find them closed. i was able to respond in real-time found they did have very loud music audible for more than 20-50 feet away. large gathering of people all standing and dancing. the business was also in violation of many health order conditions. but happy to report i was able to phone the manager who also holds another permit for fitness activation down the streed. i explained how they were out of compliance. he appreciated the education and said he would stop hosting these events until further notice. since then we have not received any complaints. i will be going there this weekend to conduct a proper sound test. i would like to bring to your attention pacific catch. this business has received numerous complaints from one person who is located directly

across from their speakers on a second floor. due totten reinforcement complaints and business reporting amplified sound outside their allowed six hours, director wyland requested they submit a compliance plan. similar to don pizzo's, director wyland directed this plan include outdoor speaker reconfiguration per inspector fiorentino's advice. thus mitigate further future complaints. the business has come in compliance with the j.a.m. permitted hours, however we are keeping this case open we have yet to hear back from management about changing the location of the speakers. next i would like to talk about american bites. which is an interesting case. this has two businesses with

the same owners management right next to each other on the same street. one being american bites and the other being makada. management has come into compliance with a j.a.m. permit but many sound complaints come in from back patio late night 12:30-1:00 a.m. not able to substantiate late sound complaints. the outdoor speakers were off but the inside of the bar was packed. there were about 100 people in the bar, unseated, unmasked and the permit was operating as a bar without serving meals. finally, he returned to find a line of people waiting to get in. many witnessed a group of people spill in the street and started fighting. at that point it looked to be violent so inspector called 9-1-1.

this call has been sent to d.p.h. and the city attorney's office. we will keep you posted what happens next. second to last report out for this evening is about midnight sun. this business is located 18th street closure in the castro and holds drag shows every saturday and sunday. neighbors submitted three complaints in the last week, back-to-back this past saturday. i was able to respond in real-time and educate the manager on the j.a.m. permit and needed to turn down the sound levels. the manager was interested and expressed sincere interest in compliance. happy to report we received a genuine email from the complainant the following day explaining the sound level was much better and commending us for our efforts.

this case is now closed. lastly, i want to tell you about butter on 11th street. over the past few weeks we have received complaints that the business is hosting loud music above their allowable sound levels along with complaints the business has been staying open with outdoor amplified sound past 10:00 p.m. i was able to visit on sunday and talk to the owner. upon my arrival the business was hosting very loud drum and bass music audible for much further than 50 feet away which is their current sound limit. i urged the manager to lower the sound level and reminded all amplified sound needs to be turned off by 10:00 p.m. i returned later to find a crowd of about 50 people dancing and congregating about 9:45 p.m. the music was shut off about 10:00 p.m. but i walked inside

to find all the 50 people standing and drinking around the bar. it's worth mentioning a party bus for someone's birthday was parked out front and told by a patron it just showed up out of nowhere. i will note the complainant mentioned hearing the music at their location at least 150 feet away until about 1:00 a.m. the business was in violation of numerous health order conditions and this case has been sent to d.p.h. and the city attorney's office. that is it for the report. and feel free, let me know if you guys have any questions. >> well i have a question, i guess, about the fireworks getting sound bite sort of aimed at one of our staff. that seems very not okay. >> yeah.

>> and possibly more than just reaching out, referring it to the department of public health. >> commissioner thomas, there was a lot more that went on the back and forth from the c.e.r.t. side of things, filing a police report, that kind of thing. that's not the route our inspector wanted to take. i will mention that as c.e.r.t. inspectors, mike and tony and other inspectors over the past year have gone through it, you know. have definitely had much more negative reactions with just members of the public. chased to their cars. their cars are hit. their cars are spit on. they are spit at, yelled at, called names. some of which are really bad names. the firework incident was pretty huge. i will say that since that

happened, mr. banes applied for a j.a.m. permit and they have been hard to get a hold of for additional needed information. this is one i'm considering potentially denying. because i feel as though these permits are a privilege to have. if you're not even abiding by the rules prior to applying or working to come into compliance to what the rules are, i'm not sure having a permit will help. we will see about that one. that's a weird one. >> got it, thank you. yeah, i understand our inspectors and other emergency staff are out there and you know, emotions are high and people's, you know, under a lot of economic stress and otherwise. but that also doesn't seem like appropriate working conditions. i guess i wanted to say i appreciate all the staff that's been putting in a lot of hard

work and i'm trusting that you, as the executive director are figuring out how to provide them with support going through this. so thank you, all. >> president bleiman: more questions? >> so what happens when it gets to this extreme? who actually steps in besides the entertainment commission. the city attorney sends them a letter? or health department denies their outdoor permit? i mean, this seems to be the extreme cases. everybody pretty much has been in compliance. >> are you again referring to this example of mr. banes and the fireworks incident? >> correct. >> yeah. i mean, that one, it's definitely in the very top of extreme circumstances. and it was referred multiple

times to the department of public health. since we are no longer partnering with that department on escalating our findings when we are out there. i mean, we, again, we are just eyes and ears and educators and they are the enforcement body for the health order. so at this point they are conducting evening and weekend inspections and doing enforcement follow-up. so yeah, i would say we are not going to respond to that particular business right now. because it is referred to another agency. so if we get a sound complaint, that's one thing. but i don't want my inspectors going out there. therefore, why would we issue them a j.a.m. that's where i'm at. >> right. okay. >> question. and thank you, maggie for all this and our staff having to

undergo such stressful conditions while they are working. other than referral to department of public health and city attorney, do our inspectors have the authority to impose fines? >> not with a circumstance like that but we can issue a citation if they are out of compliance with a permit. they are nominal. admin code and the first offense is $100. >> okay. >> i did, i will note especially for commissioner we did escalate that issue over to central station. so officer matthias is also aware of that particular incident and the issues there. >> president bleiman: let me just add, executive director, if our inspector changes his mind, we can still take a police report. and i'll speak from a personal perspective. i think it's critical that that

the city exhaust every effort when it comes to any kind of assault of one of our employees. i totally get, it's a personal decision. but it does limit our options if our employee doesn't want to pursue that. but nonetheless, i just want to point out. it's not too late if they want, if we want to make a police report, we can try to file it with the district attorney. >> okay. i will reoffer that, thank you so much. >> i'm happy to talk with him offline. offer it and see if that's amenable. >> that sounds good. thank you for that offer. >> at a minimum if you can message back that all of us are concerned because that's completely unacceptable. >> thank you, that's very thoughtful.

mike, inspector fiorentino has been the late night inspector. as the night wears on and people don't want to see him coming on, he has had a hard time. which is tough because he is literally going out and educating. >> i like his fast thinking calling 9-1-1. a lot of people could freeze in those situations. so good. >> any other comments? i also think that a police report is probably, might be appropriate if he is up to it. you know, we are kind of limited in what we can do. which is fine, but the, you know, thinking forward, i do have thoughts about specifically around businesses who are going to want to make sure they have a parklet for

shared spaces. and they will have to apply to the city. if businesses are completely renegade right now and not want to follow rules, i don't know why the city would -- they have to take care of and it will be shared with the neighbors. keeping a paper trail for all those things, i think is really important. again, i don't want to tell inspector mike what to do or not to do. but i think it's important to get that into the record. just get the message that we live in a community here. you can't just act selfishly, no matter the circumstances, you know? i do think that's somewhat important. any other questions on this? thoughts? >> i think i just have one follow-up thing for you, president bleiman. just as we move forward with

permanence for shared spaces, c.e.r.t. is going to be sort of a historical database for a lot of enforcement and education. so we will be working very closely with shared spaces in their review for permanent locations. >> cool. >> yeah. and you know, for businesses that really are actively, aggressively facing off against us and what we do, i do think there should be consequences for that. they should get that message. >> one more thing, there's a lot of people trying to come into compliance. if they get away with it, why are the good people doing it. we don't want to send a bad message to them either. >> with you, commissioner.

we need consistency out there. yep. >> president bleiman: any public comment on this agenda item? >> checking, there are no hands raised and no chats. >> president bleiman: okay, we will move to the next agenda item. number 5, an update on the music and entertainment venue recovery fund. i will just preface this by saying, i had -- i played an active role in this fund in helping it to get passed and coming up with it. we worked with very closely with the mayor's office and supervisor haney's office to get this thing off the ground. i actually asked that director reggina would come today to give us a report on it. i'm thrilled you were able to make it and thank you for being here so much and i'm excited about this specific agenda item.

>> thank you, president bleiman. and regina director of the office of small business. it's great to be before the commission. and director wie lands. -- wyland. definitely want to thank president bleiman and this commission for your advocacy on establishing the venue fund. it's an honor for our office to be the recipient, or the designated entity to receive this venue fund. and administer the program and distribute the funds. tonight, i'm going to provide you an overview of where we are. in getting the grant program up and going and how the criteria

around the disbursement of the funds. so dylan, is this now fully sharing on the screen? >> yes, it is. >> okay, great. so first, i want to go through an overview, so the recovery fund. this recovery fund is to provide grants to music and entertainment venues that have been impacted by covid. supervisor haney is the sponsor of the legislation that established the ordinance. 22-21 on march 3, 2021.

the grant fund has a $3 million allocation from general fund appropriations. the appropriation ordinance had its second reading today at the board of supervisors passed out. and so, within the next ten days, as soon as the ordinance is signed, then those funds will go into the venue fund. we conducted weekly stakeholder engagement with the independent venue alliance and sf venue coalition, along with director wyland. and dylan reitz from the entertainment commission. ben van howtan from economic workforce development. sharky laguana and richard core

rill lo from it's office of small business who is the program manager for this venue fund and myself. and these meetings, we have been taking a look at what criteria are we going to ask for as we -- for the application. so the eligibility criteria, there are five eligibility criteria that a business, a place of entertainment needs to prove to be able to be eligible for the fund. one, they have an active place of entertainment permit as of january 25. the principle function is to provide live entertainment and this is to be defined by defined performance space, sound and lighting systems,

marketing specific performers by name in print. digital publications and publications and/or social media. we are working to follow to save our stages in asking for documentation that mirrors many of the required documentation under the save our stages. businesses are not having to provide different sets of criteria for this grant fund, as well as the save our stages. so we are working to align documentation for these criteria under the principle function that include pictures, receipts, insurance documentation and marketing materials. the third criteria, businesses have to demonstrate a commitment to maintaining its principle function as a live

entertainment programming. some of those documentation that could be submitted will be box office and ticket reports. written agreements and contracts with performers or other documentation to satisfy this commitment. the fourth criteria, businesses cannot be owned in part of, or in whole, managed or exclusively booked by a publicly-traded company. the business signs under penalty of perjury that the grant is based on rent, space, payroll, unsecured property tax, liability, insurance and utilities that are due. and that they are struggling to pay these expenses and has maintained and committed to maintaining the lease and or mortgage. once a business certifies and

meets the eligibility criteria, then the next category that's asked for is the priority category. and businesses that have two or more of these priority categories are given a higher priority in terms of receiving the grant. these priority categories are, they are in imminent danger of closing. so there will be some documentation to support, will be asked for to support that. they have been operating at least for 15 years. they are a legacy business. they are maximum occupancy is less than 100 patrons. and they may be located in a cultural district. and that may require some documentation or written testimony. so these five priority

categories, again, are used to help determine how the funds are going to be dispersed. and in the working group, with our stakeholders, it's been determined that the grant disbursement, all eligible venues in this round will receive the same amount of grant. so every eligible venue will receive the same amount of grant from that $3 million. the priority of issuing the grants will be eligible venue. priority two, eligible venue plus four of the five criteria and so on. again, that is just demonstrate

-- we are using those criterias to determine the timing of the issuing of the grants. so target time lines that we are working on, we will have our city attorney provide, sign off on our rules and regulations. nine, april 19th, we will have an online application available. so we are working with digital services to develop an online application. so it will be easy for businesses to apply. and will help expedite our ability in our review process as well. we will make this application online through sf.gov, link to

osb and entertainment commission's website. and then, targeting 4/21, the funds will be in the account. in may, the application , we are going to keep the application open for two and a half weeks. may 5th, the application will close. we are targeting to review the applications and approve the applications between may 6th and june 4th. this could take a bit longer but we are allocating one staff to do that. and then on by 5/26 we will begin to inform applicants of their status of the award being granted.

things that we are still working on and still need to be determined is exactly the payment method that we will be paying out the grants. we are trying to work on a process where we can get the money out the door most expeditiously. with the venue coalition and the venue groups. they were working on a fundraising campaign. this hasn't been activated to the degree that was initially conceived because of the city's, occur -- currently they give to sf, which is where charitable donations are able to be submitted. because of covid.

and individuals are not able to make, determine where their donations go. they could not select an entity. so we are working with the controller's office to return give to sf, which it was originally designed pre-covid, was to be able to provide a menu of items that individuals or businesses can contribute to the city. so one of those items would be the venue funsd. -- fund. that is still in the works but we don't have a date when we will be able to take individual credit card donations that individuals can specifically identify their donation to go to the venue recovery fund. then i know the question was asked about fundraising efforts. so once we have, we know when this, when the ability to take

credit cards, when we are able to do this, then we will engage with the stakeholder group on how they would like to proceed with the fundraising effort. and with that, that's a very quick overview of where we are and i'm happy to take questions. >> president bleiman: thank you, regina. thanks a lot. i know the independent venues have been wanting this for some time. and finally there are is money in the account. i will help them spread it around but i think they are pretty organized. they are getting the word out to apply for this grant. that's great. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. and it's been invaluable having

representatives from both organizations helping us establish the criteria for the application so that they feel good about it. and it's meeting the needs of what this fund is intended for. >> president bleiman: great, thank you. >> can i ask a question? >> please. >> i'm not sure if i missed it during your report. first of all, thank you for your presentation and being here to share the updates. did you determine what is the amount of grants that will be provided? >> we are currently saying there's a minimum of $10,000. so, because the decision is made that the $3 million will be distributed amongst the applicants, the number of

applicants that meet eligibility requirements, we don't know what that final number is going to be. so there is currently 300 plus entertainment permits that are active as of february 25, 2020. but not all of those will meet eligibility criteria. so we are stating at this point the minimum is $10,000. but it will be more than that. >> thank you very much. >> any more questions? all right. i've got a couple. so my understanding is that the actual processing of the applications is for the lay

person may just seem like an easy task but it's actually quite a herculean endeavor. i'm wondering if you have the resources you need to make sure your office can process these quickly and swiftly, and if you have considered maybe, if not, if you have considered reaching out maybe to o.e.w.d. or any other place that has grant scorers that might be able to assist? >> yes. we are in the process but that hasn't been -- that hasn't been -- we are working on that. because it's our goal to get these done as quickly as possible. so part of the work in really trying to, with the grant application and make it clear what's needed to qualify and we

are hoping that also simplifies, simplifies the need to have a good number of people to help process the grants. >> got it. and then i guess the -- i'm sure you touched on these. but just to reiterate. when and how can permit holders apply for these? the date and what's the best way to do that, just to reiterate that? the application is to go live on monday april 19th. >> okay. and i've been in discussion with director wyland on working on an outreach plan, so that we can announce this. and announce early, what are the items that businesses are -- what's the documentation that businesses are going to need to be prepared to submit.

so that they can have that ready to go, once the application is live. >> got it. >> let's say applications start on the 19th, do we expect that period, how long will that period go? two weeks or what are we thinking? >> we are keeping it open 2.5. so two and a half weeks. we will start processing the applications as they are coming in. >> and you probably can't say this so don't feel on the spot, when do you expect the money would be distributed to the grantees? >> i -- well, it will be determined on how we -- it will be determined on our ability to -- how do i want

to say this. it's based on how we are going to be able to distribute the funds. so we are working towards to give you an idea for the legacy business preservation fund grant program. we distribute the funds, we have businesses set up as suppliers, as they don't need, we have gotten the city attorney's determination they don't need to go through the 12-week process. that way, once the supplier, the city can write a check directly to them. that will be the shortest amount of time. and we are working right now to see if we can get a city attorney determination again, because this is a similar type of grant to the 12-b compliance process, is a lengthy process. the other option is then, you

augment a current grant that, and we would be working with o.e.w.d. on this, you have a non-profit disperse the funds. and that is a longer process. that takes a longer time to set up. >> got it. okay. so any other questions from anyone? so thank you, again. i know this is not -- it's in the per purview of your office, it's something extra. i know how hard everyone is working so this is just another massive project, so i really appreciate that. i would really stress, you know, the speed of getting this money to the, you know, say under 100 venues that are suffering is really going to,

it's going to demonstrate the success of this fund. and so, whatever resources you need, i just encourage you to reach out to this office, this commission, you can reach out to me personally, and we are happy to help unstick anything that might come along if we can possibly help with that. i know resourcing is an issue. and you know, there's too few resources and too much stuff to do. please, just doents don't hesitate to reach out. we don't want these funds distributed in the fall. >> that is not our goal. that is not our goal. and i don't anticipate that it would take that long. so but i do hear you, and thank you for your support. i want to thank dylan and director wyland. they have been very instrumental in helping us with getting this process along.

as well as ben vanhowten up next for a presentation has been really instrumental in terms of city staff providing the support. we wouldn't be as far along as we are without their partnership. >> got it. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> dylan and ben, it's all them. >> not this ben. that ben. >> that's right. [chuckles] >> a lot of beards to sort through. okay. thank you very much. >> all right. thank you. >> is there any public comment on this agenda item? >> i'm checking right now. and there are no hands raised and no chats. would you like me to do the slide again? >> president bleiman: might as well. >> okay.

>> all right. still no hands raised and no chat. >> president bleiman: we will close this agenda item and move onto our next agenda item. this is item no. 6, which is an update on business assistance in response to covid-19. and tonight we are welcoming here the man, the myth, the legend. he's got beard for weeks, ladies and gentlemen. it's ben van howton. >> thank you. thank you, president bleiman. i truly do not deserve -- good evening, commissioners. it's nice to be back with all of you for a monthly update on life business assistance and policy developments.

i've got a -- on the policy slides this time. and let me get this going. wonderful. it is, it's a little heavier on, here we go. walking through the presentations i made as part of the webinar on the reopening of live performances in different contexts recently. just confirming this is showing up on all your monitors? wonderful. >> we are seeing the presentation view. >> you are seeing the presentation view. a-ha. let me swap them then.

>> no notes. i would kill to see those notes. >> this will be a little reckless. first off, the shuttered venue program, applications open april 8th, on thursday. as of earlier today, the number of stakeholders, we are still waiting on the s.b.a. to issue some final guidance on the application process. s.b.a. did a webinar last week that was helpful in mapping out what to expect from the application process. i think there's a certain amount of uncertainty on how the application process is going to go for business owners. given this is, in some respects, a first come, first serve. there's prioritization of applicants into a series of

phases. the first two weeks, people who had 90% or more of revenue loss. then 70%. just about the money being exhausted before anyone gets that grant. we are keeping an eye on how this gets launched and what experience the business owners are having in the process. s.b.a. set up a portal i have linked which collects their information about the program. we have also got resources on the o.e.w.d. website and asking people to reach out to the small business development center for technical assistance navigating the process as well. the second item here is something that came out of the american rescue plan. that was recently adopted. a $28.6 billion grant program

for restaurants and bars. advocating for grants, not loans. people have been challenged by the insufficiency in many respects of the p.p.p. program. excited there will be a grant program for these businesses. eligible businesses will be able to apply for a grant relative to the revenue lost. there's no date set for the launch of that program. because it was just recently adopted in march federal package, it's not totally clear. s.b.a. said it may open this month, that may be a bit ambitious. as compared to shuttered venue operators i think we have no illusions that $28 billion for all the restaurants and bars all the needs they have faced over the last year. that money will get scooped up too. so we are monitoring closely how to best support san

francisco businesses. accessing that money moving forward. at the state level, today governor newsom announced a plan to move beyond the color framework by june 15th if conditions are met. that's according to the department of public health and their analysis breaking down what that means, what the factors are for moving out of the color coded framework and what that will mean for businesses. the governor said really the goal is to return to business as usual. which is really exciting. and certainly you know, i think there is still, reading in the california department of health memo, there are still ideas about additional guidance for large-scale gatherings and events and travel and other sorts of things like that. there's a lot of information still to be filled out at the

state level and local level moving toward june 15th and what that means. and so my remarks on live performances, best practices will be about where we are right now. so really tabling for future discussion this framework the governor announced today. then final point that the mayor, in march, introduced the small business recovery act as well as legislation to implement permanent shared spaces program. i know you will be hearing both ever those items -- excited about both of those, as well as the venue fund project, which again, i will credit to director -- in the office of small business for their great work moving that forward. so i will spend the rest of my time walking through some of the key points on best practices for live performances.

again, these are largely the same slides that we presented in a webinar last week to business owners. then i think got a lot of really good feedback on really helping them walk through -- set of rules right now. quick overview of this deck, what are live performances, i think you are well versed what we are talking about. activities where live performances may occur. the general rules for outdoor live performances, then rules for indoor performances with indoor dining, really the only way you can have indoor performances right now. other considerations as well. in walking through this material, there are really two different components to it. there's number one, there's a set of activities that are permitted under the health order.

for live performances and then rules for live performances themselves. in order for someone to do indoor dining with entertainment, you need to look at the activity, the outdoor dining and rules around performances. activity rules and also the rules for live performances are really important for understanding this. outdoor activities where live performances may concern. outdoor dining is certainly one of the most common, we have seen the j.a.m. permits happening. outdoor restaurants fall operate, all patrons must be seated to be served. there's a per-table limit but no limit on the number of households. group reservations, two tables for maximum total of 12 people. but those tables must be separated and there could be no mingling between the tables.

alcoholic beverages may be served without a bona fide meal. tables must be spaced at least six feet apart between seated patrons and per the state requirements -- with exception of barriers installed before december 6th. another new type of activity where live performances can occur, outdoor arts and music festivals and performances. outdoor outs and music festival performance could include a maximum of 50 people who could attend that with seating. there's no assigned seating required. but members of different households must maintain at least a 6-foot distancing between them. food and beverage concessions are allowed. if food is available, the organizer must provide temporary seating or marked,

they must be seated in designated area or seats before consuming food or drink. the organizer must submit a business plan five business days before the event but the plan doesn't need to be approved before it happens. they can hold is he quen shall events but must have 20 minutes in between to allow audience members to exit and members to enter and sanitize and clean the venue. this is different during a performance with outdoor dining. after this presentation last year i got follow-up questions, hey i have an outdoor bar space. do i need to follow this 50-person maximum. this is a separate type of activity than outdoor dining. this is really for festivals and performances that may have food. that may not, that may occur in

a variety of locations. the state also issued new guidance on outdoor permanent venues. state guidance is clear and elaborate. require submission of a plan at least ten days before the event. events more than 100 attendees must receive advanced written approval from the health office. not going to dwell on those too long. there's that state guidance that provides a road map there. drive-in gatherings are another area. food and beverage concessions allowed there as well.

as the entertainment commission staff knows better than anybody, there's a wide variety of activities where live performances might occur and do occur with j.a.m. permits. small gatherings, live performance, farmers' markets. you need to make sure you are following all the rules of the activity are you doing. in addition to the rules for live performances. sorry, one more. up to 50% of the capacity and maximum of 200 people, not including personnel. indoor dining tables have to maintain at least six feet of distance for diners due to different tables and patrons

have to be seated at the table. the per table limit is up to 6 people from three different households. and have to be operating as a restaurant, not a bar. all patrons must exit by 11:30 p.m. those are all the different activitis. now the general rules for outdoor live performances. what types of performance activity are allowed under the health rules and what are considerations in terms of making those activities safer? vocalists, one of the big developments out of the recent changes to the health rules was really allowing vocalists and i will talk about wind instruments as well, in a number of ways and it's really

exciting to have performances with singers, speakers, wind instruments as well. for vocalists. while it's recommended that all performers wear facial coverings to the extent possible there are some instances they may be unmasks. singers and speakers may perform without face coverings. must maintain six feet of physical distance from other performances. unmasked must maintain 12 feet of distance. because singing, shouting and other vocal projections, that's a riskier activity that can produce floating aerosols. using amplification to perform at a lower volume. wind performers also may perform outside with or without facial coverings. if a person playing a wind

instrument they must maintain six feet of physical distance from other performers. what that means in terms of wearing a mask, the bell of the instrument has to be covered with a mask or other fabric. instrument cover should be made of material similar to face coverings. they must replace the facial covering when they are not actively performing. to cover their nose, they may wear face covering with a mouth slip in addition to an instrument cover. if the person playing the instrument is unmasked or doesn't use an instrument cover while performing that person must maintain 12 feet of physical distancing from other performers. brass instrumentalists must

enter their spit in cloth they must carefully empty after the performance or take it home. should consider using a large plastic on their chest and lap to collect spit. in terms of number of performers outdoors, any number are permitted allowing the space allows for enough physical space. then of course, the overall activity is subject to the specified capacity limits for their activity. we talked about distance from performers but distance from audience is another consideration health rules talk about. generally speaking audience members need to be 12 feet from performers. however for dining, they may be six feet where they are masked

and using instrument covers. wherever possible people are encourages to use a barrier or queues to demarcate the performance or stage. audience should not enter the performer space, performers should not enter audience space. mixing boards and sound engineers must be placed at least 12 feet away from the audience. other performance considerations. performers should not share or pass around instruments or props during a performance. dancers must wear facial coverings at all time. not encouraged to choreograph that are strenuous that may cause the mask to move. p magicians cannot bring audience members on stage.

no sharing props or devices in the magic show context either. additional rules for indoor performances. indoor dining is the only area we really see indoor performances. due to ongoing risk of covid transmission. singing, chanting, shouting strongly discourages indoors. all performers must be masked and instruments must have instrument covers. performers with wind instruments may use a mask with a mouth slit. all performers must maintain minimum of 12 feet from other performers and 12 feet from the audience. no cap on the number of performers but capacity is subject to the occupancy limit

specific for the activity or number who can maintain physical distance, which ever is lower. additional considerations to think about. in terms of best practices, businesses are encouraged to consider a physical barrier between the performer and others. though it doesn't reduce the amount of distance that needs to be capped. have performers position themselves so voices and air exiting from instruments are directed away from the audience. encourage performers to get tested within 48 hours of performance date. and take care to make sure they don't have symptoms of covid-19 or not in close contact with someone with covid-19. that's just the current health rules. in addition there are other rules, whether inside a business or outside a business, in a shared space. the entertainment permitting as well. whatever the rules of the

applicable permit, the health rules are just one piece of the puzzle here. and in this deck, which is available online, a whole lot of links to all of the different reading materials that people will need. so that's, again, that's the current rules right now. there have been a number of announcements around the future of indoor performances without dining. indoor performance venues at reduced capacities that the state announcement there, reasonably and this announcement about heading toward this june 15th date. in addition, you know, san francisco is occur currently in the orange tier. if when we enter the yellow tier. there's all sorts of potential for these rules to change over

time. i guess, based on some of the questions we got during the webinar, just expressing an empathy with anyone trying to navigate these rules because they are complex and things are often feel they are perpetually moving in a number of different directions. so you know, we are here to support businesses as they navigate all these rules to make sure everybody can do the activities they want to do in a safe and health-compliant way. i think lost in some of the technicality, this is the complexity of the rules, we have been moving in the right direction. and that live performances are newly permissible and possible and a lot of new and creative ways and that's really exciting as both a reflection of where we are and in terms of the direction we are heading from an entertainment perspective. i think i will leave it at that.

and happy to answer any or all of your questions in excruciating detail about these rules or anything else. >> president bleiman: questions? >> of course, i do. >> president bleiman: start with commissioner thomas. i saw her. >> go ahead, laura. >> my question is, thank you for presenting all of this. and i realize some of this is coming from the department of public health. but given the specificity of the -- instructions around wind and brass instruments what is the evidence based behind those recommendations. developed by just this department of public health, or is there, yeah. who is doing research around this and where are these coming from? are they just people that get informed, best guesses on what

would minimize transmission? i'm just, yeah, i'm interested in the evidence behind it. and i don't know if that's a question you can answer. >> i can't. but i can say some words around it. in terms of any of the health rules really, it's a number of different layers to wear best practices and research, there's the state guidance suggests or encourages. there's -- and then there's the local determination by the health officer in the department of public health around how to adopt or go beyond those restrictions, depending on what feels comfortable, based on their determination. i can't speak to the specifics of it. i think candidly, the move, where we are where we could have wind instruments, i almost said wininstruments again.

i got a lot of grief about that last week. i think the ability to have singing brass and wood winds, that's major for us. and that has been a real frustration of folks for a while. which is not to dismiss your question, it's a very good question. how are these rules determined. and if there are ways in which they feel impractical or just unnecessarily complicated. director wyland and i had conversations with folks doing instrument masking and other contexts in the limited conversations i have had with people make this feel doable. i think that, even just getting to this point. answer the questions why did it take so long to get trumpets. i said, those are all fair

questions. i would be happy to work with director wyland to convey to the health team, to get a request in for more kind of insight on some of the underpinnings there. >> i'm super excited we are moving in this direction. i'm aware we have learned so much about aerosols and how they are transmitted. and sort of how covid is transmittable in different scenarios and situations. and so, yeah. i'm interested in understanding better the kind of, what research is underpinning the -- you know, and are we, is san francisco sort of making these decisions, based on very conservative readings of the evidence. or just kind of best guesses or trying to analogize from one

sort of set of aerosols to this. yeah. and that's just me wanting, the public health person on this commission wanting to make sure that whatever is affected the entertainment world is, you know, is as ex pan sieve as possible as well as keeping members of our entertainment community as safe as possible. i'm certainly looking forward to moving even beyond these things. and i also feel like certainly people's vaccination status makes a difference as well. but that's kind of an overall kind of social, cultural issue about how do we distinguish who is at risk and who is not at risk in this new world. any rate. thank you for the presentation. it was very detailed and i appreciate the information. >> thank you, commissioner.

>> president bleiman: commissioner lee, i think you are next. >> ben, the question is, the six feet and wearing a mask for the singers, what if the performance area has an acrylic screen, because i have seen this in some of the photos of other clubs. they are kind of in kind of a protective barrier. because everything is mic'd anyway. but some spaces are very tight. you have people sitting kind of very close to the stage. maybe a little closer than six feet. but if there is protective acrylic in front of the singers, and they are still wearing the masks, still doing everything they would normally do, wearing a mask, singing, is there still going to be a restriction of the six feet from the audience, you think? or is that something we can bring up?

>> yeah. that's a great question. so just to reiterate the distance from audience which is different from the distance from performers. in the outdoor dining context, masked performers can be six feet, but other context 12 feet. indoor dining it's a 12-foot rule as well. 12 feet between the audience and performance area. i think, as you note, as exciting as it is we are reopening in this direction, we should also have no illusions that small spaces are going to face challenges trying to implement, 12 feet, 6 feet, it's not historically how these spaces were designed or financially viable, which is a real challenge. i think, you know, i certainly again, happy to serve as a conduit to help escalate questions. my understanding is that

barriers that they really want to emphasize the distancing. that sort of different, and the masking. and different barrier approaches aren't necessarily going to serve as the substitute. barriers right now outside, barriers outside used to serve as a substitute for 6-feet of distance for tables but no longer do. which is based on a state health determination. that was adopted late last year. i think that, i'm not expressing a skepticism toward the idea, again, i think, the recommendation best practices, implement barriers, masking, all of it. but i totally appreciate that, you know, under the rules as they are, the implementability and number of spaces may be limited to, you know, very unfeasible. >> yeah. i mean, i heard the

presentation of performers, you know, in general. without any protective barriers between the audience and the performers. so i'm just wondering if you can ask what happens if there's plastic protective barriers. almost like the cone of silence, remember in the "get smart". i don't think young people will know that. and the plastic dome that came over the face of everybody. and it kind of shields it inside. since everything is mic'd anyway, if they are going to give us maybe a six-foot distance instead of a twelve-foot distance if there's protective barrier in front of the performers. i'm just curious if that could be brought up later on. >> yeah, i think, you know, honestly, putting together the webinar and digging into all the different guidance contexts which entertainment and live

performance is possible and hearing questions during that webinar and also during this commission hearing as well. are really helpful to, i think we are getting a lot of really helpful ideas, questions, desire for clarification around this, you know, now expanding world of entertainment in our health environment. >> right. okay, thank you. >> commissioner wang? >> thank you, the best we can do is eliminate ambiguity, so that's really helpful. as you mentioned, it's super encouraging we are seeing the enabling of live music and cutting of red tape. i know all of this is under temporary authorization. how, can you give us a little bit of a status update on some of the work undergoing to make some of this permanent or to

streamline some of those approvals. >> yes. i would be happier to do it in two weeks. when i see you all again. >> okay, okay. [laughter] we can talk more specifically about that. but you are absolutely right. you know, we are in a place where there's been, the j.a.m. permit and shared spaces are a couple, for me at least, a couple highlights otherwise what's been an incredibly difficult year for so many. i think, i would be more than happy to talk about how those things can be, are moving forward. the ideas thinking about fitting temporarily in the permanent system. but i would prefer to -- that's a great teaser for the next commission hearing, how about that? >> i'm just lining you up. >> that's great. appreciate it. >> president bleiman: commissioner perez? >> thank you.

hi, ben, thank you so much for your presentation today. i really appreciate it. it's very timely because a lot of us who are festival organizers are trying to figure out what we are going to do for the summer season. i have a few questions for you. number one, you mentioned. twelve feet from the performing, performers to the audience. that also applies to the people in the back stage who are part of the crew and production staff? >> that's a great question. and there's actually, there's additional guidance -- really, this is not me, i would encourage you to dig, the outdoor festival guidance has a lot of really operational specifics on some of this stuff. having a big enough back stage area so different music groups can be both back stage in a way

that is safe and appropriately distanced. and there's guidance around personnel. keeping distance from other personnel as well. i'm happy to look into that and circle back with you. i would say, actually this is a good time. i should have said this disclaimer at the outset. i provided a very, very surface level take on all of the health guidances that are out there. i think the outdoor festivals, in terms of digging the most into festival performance and event performance that's really the one to most squarely check out for those sorts of questions. but i'm happy to look into that and circle back as well. >> okay, then with the 50 people maximum requirement for festivals, okay. number one, to organize a festival for 50 people, to me

doesn't sound very viable. because the cost of creating the space and the marketing and all of that is, for 50 people, to me, doesn't make sense. but i'm just wondering, who is going to enforce that 50-person rule? if we are in an outdoor park, where potentially, we can probably cordoned off and put barricades, but there will be people beyond the barricades. how does that bourke? -- work. do we need to get police officers to enforce the 50-person rule? do you have any feedback or insight on that? >> yeah. and commissioner, this is also a question that came up during the webinar. you know, and i think it's really extremely relevant in the outdoor event and outdoor festival context. you are outdoors, so by nature a lot of that is in very public

space and people will be passing by and what does that mean? what does the obligation of the event organizer, what are best practices for the event organizer? it's absolutely foreseeable, if you are in a big open space and somebody says, i like what's going on. i will stand and enjoy this. and trying to find the right balance, you know, from a, what the right balance, right set of strategies is to navigate that in a way that is health compliant and also, you know, i think there are safety and other considerations to think about there. i don't know if there's a, kind of explicit set of best practices there. but i completely agree, as we think more about, and especially as 50, if we continue reopening phases and 50 is a number that is more viable, then, once we get to

-- you know, if when we get to a point where we say 200 people could be in attendance, i think these sorts of things, -- 100 even, these things are more likely. but that question about how to navigate, you know, beyond just control of your space. how to navigate what obligation or what is the best way to tackle the surroundings of your space. i think you hit the nail on the head, honestly. that's absolutely one of the key challenges, if somebody is walking by eating food. there's a million different potential considerations around how to deal with passers-by, quasi patrons. >> okay. and my last question. try to monitor when we have this herd immunity. i'm hearing that by june, we are going to have everybody vaccinated by that time. so that's just a few months

away, that's perfect during the summer season. when this rule, will it be, will we revise it as we get more information about herd immunity? and could this potentially be revised, how soon? >> i would say that, you know, all of the information i presented at the best information about right now that we have. but certainly, there are a number of different factors that can and will lead to revisions or changes in this. if we move, as we move in health tiers, that changes it. as the state makes new decisions or carves out new areas of performance we think about locally and our health officer thinks about how to pursue those new activities. i think, you know, i -- i appreciate that one of the challenges this industry has faced since the beginning of

this thing is feeling a total lack of certainty about the future. and a lack of ability to plan for, you know, six months from now. next month, you know. and that, in every direction. as hard as it has been to shut things down. similarly when one is told good news you can reopen very soon, that could be challenging too. especially in the universe of festivals, events and performances which, you know, those are all things that, as you know, as we all know take time to plan and to execute successfully. which is, you know, it is not unreasonable to say hey, i want to know, you know, what things are going to look like two months from now, three months from now. i wish i had an answer. i wish i had the answer. though that would be a lot of

responsibility if i did have that answer. i think, if the -- if the request, i mean, i think a request to the -- to the health officer and department of public health, as much as we can foresee things moving forward and get a sense, especially with all this exciting reopening, the entertainment community wants to know, just like what we should be planning for. i think that's absolutely understandable and a really good and important piece to add in the set of questions and feedback that director wyland and i can escalate on. >> all right, thanks. any other questions? i just had a couple questions. so you have become pretty well versed, some might say even an expert on the capture and disposal of human saliva in this process? can you tell us maybe what your

biggest surprise has been learning about that? and maybe something you learned about yourself even? >> so unfair. [laughter] so unfair. look, i get that some of these rules can feel strange and even some might say some of the discussion of spit collection is kind of nauseating. but they are what they are. and the industry is well served by going into this eyes wide open. >> we ask now, but when big saliva calls you with a six-figure job down the line, you just walk right out of this into a huge opportunity. so you are welcome, from all of us. and thank you for your presentation. i really appreciate it. it was actually, quite in-depth and i appreciate that. it's good to get all those facts in a row. any more questions, comments? is there any public comment on

this agenda item? >> president bleiman, i'm checking the queue and there's no one with their hand raised and no chats. >> president bleiman: all right. we will close this agenda item. thank you very much, ben, you are a gentleman and a scholar. we appreciate you doing all this work for everyone. >> thank you. thank you, everyone. >> president bleiman: all right. and the next agenda item, final agenda item is commissioners comments and question and new business requests. who has got something they just need to talk about? >> i don't have anything. >> president bleiman: nothing? okay. well no new business requests. i'm sure we will come up with some stuff in the meantime. i, for one, am happy we are out of the c.e.r.t. business and

back in the entertainment business. that's back where we belong, but the work we did there was amazing and i want to reiterate our thanks and praise for our staff pulling double duty was amazing and awesome to watch. here is to a brighter future, everyone. commissioner camino? >> yeah, so i do want to just say like, you know, as the city is reopening and we are all kind of coming back into this new normal, just listening to the inspector's report and, i actually would like to join in a ride along. just to really get an idea of what else is needed as we all kind of come back into, you know, going out and being together again. i think we all probably need to have a level of kindness, forgiveness, compassion towards one another. and with all of the incidents

of a.a.p.i., hate and violence that are happening right now, i think we really need to recommit ourselves to providing a safe and inclusive environment. and so, you know, i would love to see how we can reengage and ensure that we are creating a safe environment for all. thank you. >> president bleiman: are you sure you want to do that, dory, last time we did at super bowl, you wanted to go home early. [laughter] >> thanks, steven. >> it was only 2:00 in the morning. a time when i still had a lot of energy. >> so full of shade, we should probably end it now, ben before [indiscernible] >> president bleiman: i'm just happy that got into