don't know how they do it. >> there is acres and acres of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily through golden community garden. we have it right in the middle of [roll call] >> clerk: and commissioner anderson has an excused absence. this is the recreation and park meeting of september 16th, 2021. please note due to the covid-19 health emergency city employees and the public, the meeting rooms at city hall are closed.

we ask listeners to turn down your televisions and/or computers while listening on the phone. we ask for your patience if we appearance any technical issues. public comment will be available for each item on the agenda. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. public comment is available via phone by calling (415) 655-0001. and the access code today is 24950826818. when you hear the agenda item you would like to comment on call, dial star three to be added to the queue to speak. you'll be lined up in the system. while you're waiting, the system will be silent. all callers will remain on mute until their line is open. everyone must account for the time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. alternatively, you may submit public comment in either of the following ways. by e-mailing

recparkcommission@sfgov.org. if you submit public comment via e-mail it will be included in the legislative file as part of the matter. you can send written correspondence to 501 stanyan is it true street, san francisco, california. >> president: thank you. a few items. i did want to acknowledge that lorraine banford is refiring who is our supervisor of recreation. she led a team of 35 recreation centers to emergency youth care in response to the covid-19 pandemic and i didn't want to

overlook simply acknowledging that achievement and i know we'll say more about her at the next meeting. we're also losing tokes gk who has been with the department for ten years in capital and planning and oversaw the improvement of many of the facilities in the department and i know we'll be honoring tokes next month. finally, i want to read an e-mail i received only because i think it's appropriate to sing the praise of the unsung heroes of the department and the e-mail goes like this, hi, i'm not sure if this is the right place to send this but i wanted to send a message in appreciation to a golden gate park ranger. a few weeks ago, i had a crisis in the park on a field trip with a group of seniors. ranger m. fung came to me in one of my most terrible experiences in my life.

i have never lost a resident on a field trip. it happened on august 25th at stole lake. mr. fung was a god send. my resident speaks chinese and i don't. it was such an incredible experience to be assisted by someone who speaks the language. i hope he gets paid for bein bilingual. i lost an old chinese man in golden gate park who didn't speak english and had dementia. it was a super stressful experience for me but mr. fung made it bearable. with all the anti-asian hate crimes going on around in the country right now i was super anxious and afraid for this vulnerable senior wandering away in a massive park. i just wranted to say he is a phenomenal worker and we appreciate his efforts that

day. we found the resident and we all made it back safe to west oakland and i attribute that to mr. fung. so thank you, mr. fung and that concludes my president's report. >> clerk: great. if there's anyone on the line who would like to make public comment to the president's report, you can dial star three to be added to the queue. >> ashley, we have two callers and zero hands raised. >> clerk: okay. seeing no public comment. we are now on item three, general manager's report. >> good morning commissioners. i am standing in. our first item on the general manager's report is hispanic heritage month. hispaniced off yesterday and runs through october, honors and recognizes the contributions and influences of hispanic americans including

their history, culture, and achievements. over the next few weeks, we at rec and park will be highlighting some of our parks and influences from the hispanic community including presida park and the artworking murals that adorn many of our murals and sites. stay tuned for more information on that. our weekly e news and our social media channels. as many of you saw in the news this morning, jury commentry opened earlier this week following a $1.9 million renovation of the quarter acre mission district park that now features a seamless re-design with new planting, grass for dogs, and an adult exercise area with fitness equipment. in addition to the new top play area, the renovated park included a separate nature expiration area where students can exercise their bodies and imaginations. the area designed to spark

creativity is the latest work in the network of natural play spaces developed by the san francisco children in nature collaborative. and, works to ensure access to nature and its benefits to all children in the city. the renovation also payings homage an existing mural which we framed and refurbished. london breed, assembly member david chu in a neighborhood group, the jury commentors were instrumental. and the san francisco parks alliance transferreded one of our city's most time warn program. thank you for attending the

event with us. this saturday the jerry garcia amphitheater in mcclaren park will re-open to improve its pathways, entrances, accessibility, seating, and more. the ren ration also expanded the flat, paved space adjacent to the accessible lot to better support events on site as well as allow for food trucks and other event services. in celebration of these improvements, the san francisco shakespeare program will be performed after our ribbon cutting. so we hope to see you on saturday. also on saturday is coastal clean up day as volunteers join together to pick up trash from our beaches, parks, and waterways. rec and park volunteer staff is

hosting six clean up events. those interested in rolling up their sleeves on satisfy to beautify our parks can find sign ups on our website. and on sunday, you can attend xhed day from noon to 5:00 where 45 splittingly funny comedians with entertain the crowd. if comedy isn't your jam, but reggae is head over to golden gate park. you'll enjoy free live music concerts on wednesday, fridays, and sundays and some saturdays throughout the year.

and all the concerts are free at the newly refurbished. and, one of my personal favorites, flower piano is back. hosted by sunset piano and the san francisco botanical garden society in the botanical garden in golden gate park. this is after five successful years, they did not do the event last year because of the pandemic. as i said, it is back and flower piano transforms the

concert hall where everyone is invited to play. garden mission is free to all san franciscos and families receiving snap or cal fresh benefits. finally, for our last event, sun down cinema continues their season of free movie showings in san francisco parks. with three up coming showings including "the princess diary," "a league of their own," "and e.t." on october 22nd. in partnership with rec and park and for information on that complete schedule, you can visit sfparksalliance.org. that concludes my report. >> president: thank you. >> clerk: if there's any comment on the general

manager's report, you can dial star 3 to be added to the queue to speak. >> three callers and one hand raised. >> clerk: okay. you have two minutes to speak. >> clerk: okay. seeing no further public comment. public comment is closed. >> president: thank you. very good report. sarah, last month, phil ginsburg talked about the

baseball clinics that were going to be held at the freshly renovated baseball diamond in the bay view. and i was out there for the first day. there were about 20 players, about five coaches and there were a number of parents there as well and, number one, that diamond is absolutely gorgeous. and that goes through november the 4th. maniy blackwell has organized this. he wasn't there tuesday evening, but he does a great job. weed was running the clinic on tuesday night another apprised

baseball man. so i just wanted to give a plug for what's going on at gillman and as i said, the numbers will grow as we go forward. >> clerk: thank you, commissioner. okay. we are now on item four, general public comment up to 15 minutes. this item will be continued to item eight. at this time, members of the public may address items that do not appear on the agenda. with respect to the agenda items, you will have an opportunity to address the commission when the item has reached the meeting. you can dial star 3 if you'd like to make public comment on this item. >> ashley, we have three callers and no hands raised. >> clerk: we are now on item

five, the consent calendar. >> president: is there any public comment on the consent calendar? >> clerk: thank you, commissioner. i wasn't sure. if anyone wants to remove anything from the consent calendar. >> is there any public comment on the consent calendar? paul, does anyone have their hands raised? >> 0 hands. >> president: any comments or questions by the commission? seeing none. the chair would entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar. >> so moved. >> president: moved and seconded. all those in favor. thank you. >> clerk: we are now on item six, the san francisco zoo. >> thank you, this is tonya peterson and i believe i've got a power point, ashley, to show.

>>. >> clerk: yeah. he'll pull it up. okay. >> okay. terrific. i'm tonya peterson. director of the san francisco zoo. let me show the first slide or the next slide if i could we have two of these adorable creatures at the zoo. they are in a tree house that was built by the tv show tree house tops and that's tenzing one of the first mountaineers to climb mount everest. and then my next slide is our

investment in laboratory species both pelicans, insects, and others and this month, we've invested quite a bit in the monarch butterflies and one of our gardens, the sensory garden has been planted with hopefully plants that attract the monarch butterfly but also have a bunch of signage and education items to create what we call pocket gardens at home to support the species that is at risk and just one of our iconic species here in california and just a shame to lose those. so hopefully we are hoping everybody can get together to help safe this wonderful butterfly. the next slide. with covid, the pandemic, and other things, we've noticed that some of our seniors have felt uncomfortable with coming with big groups. so now wednesday mornings our senior members come in for free and alone.

so look for those times, those wednesday mornings where seniors can come on their own and enjoy the park earlier than when most of the children are at a family show and we hope this is a safe way for our senior members to enjoy the zoo. the next slide, i just had to show you a picture. it takes a village or a zoo to move one animal and that one animal was bruce bocci, the former coach of the giants and you can see how many people it took to make sure that bruce safely got in that crate. the crate then went to s.f.o. and dhl had a chartered plane for bruce. and his crate was 5,000 pounds. so you can imagine how heavy that load was for dhl. and then two of our staff, one of our vets and one of our senior curators traveled to

cincinnati zoo where he will enjoy their new hippo habitat and the company of two femaleses, one in particular, we're hoping he will meet and breed with and will have little bruces soon. so, thank you everybody for that. have a safe departure. soon, our plan is to include two pigmee hippos. they're critical in zoos and in their native habitat. in madagasgar. these are two snow leopards that are growing and we have finally finished construction on our snow leopard exhibits

calls "expiration snow leopard." we had to quickly increase their habitat when we had twins which is unusual for snow leopards and now we're getting them acclimated to their place and it will soon be open to the public. and that finishes my report. >> thank you very much. >> clerk: is there any public comment on the san francisco zoo report? dial star three to be added to the queue. paul, does anyone have their hand raised? >> we have one hand raised. >> clerk: okay. you'll have two minutes. >> good morning. my name is richard. i wanted to speak about whether or not the animals that we do have in san francisco, are they going to be vaccinated or do they have to be a vaccination

program for zoo animals? there was an article i read online, it had to do with dear population throughout different parts of the united states that would have bands of dears that would be covid-19 infected so then they would be a reservoir of covid-19. so in the event before that kind of event ever would happen at the zoo, i would just like to bring in the possibility zoo animals and on the way to do it. i don't know where to do it and then i talked about you had to say about pigme hip 0s.

>> president: thank you, richard. >> clerk: thank you. paul, is there anyone else on? >> that is the last hand raised. >> public comment is closed. for now. item seven. i'm just going to make a brief announcement about that. the applicant and the appellant will have seven minutes toe present their position. the applicant will present first and then the department. after the presentation, there will be an opportunity for public comment. so if anyone here on the line is here to speak to item seven, you'll be asked to speak after the department. after the close of public comment, each party will have three minutes for rebuttal. and then the appellant. then the commissioners may ask questions of either party and we'll give the opposing party

an opportunity to respond. finally, there will be discussion, deliberation, and a vote. and as a reminder, we only have four commissioners today which is a quorum and so we will need it to be unanimous anyway way we go. if there aren't any questions, then we can move right into the presentation and the first is the appellant. >> good morning. i am paul canelli, a board member with the italian heritage parade committee. i'll be introducing this followed by our president and frank monte will also be speaking. we're here today on behalf of the italian heritage committee. recently, we were denied a permit to use washington square park for a show to be held in conjunction with the italian heritage day parade which is happening sunday, october 10th. we believe this to be an arbitrary decision and we'd like to appeal that decision.

we feel the entire commission should have a chance to hear our issue and then vote on it. the italian day heritage committee has had a 20 plus year history of using the park for the annual car show. in the past, we've been allowed to have 30 to 40 cars on display and as part of that precedent, we have paid approximately $5,500 annually for the park permits. we agree to take steps to prevent any damage to the park. we believe we've been good stewards of the park and in the past, we've met with park gardeners prior to parade weekends to go over routes of the cars and to be sure sprinklers are not damaged which are flagged. we've never had any damage to the park. so the goal of our appeal today is to give our committee the chance to hear the real concerns of the empower commission about the use of the

park. we want to hear what your concerns are so we can address those concerns and work with the commission to take agreeable measures. so, together with the commission, we feel that we can conduct a suitable event for the park while not having any detrimental effect on the park and we also have more recent ideas to lessen our footprint which we'd like the entire commission to hear. we'll also be providing professional opinions of golf superintendents and other landscape professionals regarding the protection of turf and the landscaping. so the proposal includes a plan for a smaller footprint in the park combined with limited street access adjacent to the park. our goal is to work together with the commission to show case the park with an appropriate celebratory event. which is one of the best days in the park in san francisco.

and i'll turn it over to the president of the italian day heritage committee. >> thank you. thank you to ashley for all your help. we're very excited to be one of the first big events in san francisco next month as we exit out of covid and try to get back into a little bit more normal life. this would be 153rd parade that we've done in north beach it has been dubbed the christmas in october in terms of the amount of business and revenue it drives. and we're excited to be able to do this. we've taken steps. normally, we have 30 to 40 cars on each side of the park. the high side of the park near the san francisco athletic club, we've decided to reduce our footprint to preserve the park which was redone in 2019, so two years ago and we're reducing that footprint of cars down to 12. we talked about how we would bring the cars in on the pavement and only pull them off

on the pavement and only extend on the grass in the higher side of the grass. we're reducing the amount of impact on the grass. we've also been given suggestions as putting some sort of firm wood like plywood to mitigate any concerns that the park has. we've talked to people that ran the pga event here in san francisco. we've talked to people at the olympic club. frank, i'm going to hand it over to you to finish this up. >> yes. thank you, bill. and thank you to the commission for allowing us to speak on our behalf. i just wanted to kind of give you an idea of what we've done. we've listened to the park and rec. we've had conversations with the concerns of trying to keep the park pristine as we possibly can knowing that you've done extensive work on this park a couple of years

ago. we have reached out as you see to tim putnan who is the golf superintendent at la quinta. he has extensive experience with cars being parked. i know there's a little bit difference of golf courses. however, in the opinion of both tim, frank rillo sr. who is the technical engineer and the superintendent at the olympic club are also minimal damage to six to seven hours of cars on the grass. we worked with the ferari club to even minimize our exposure on any of the grass. we would come on the concrete walkway, 90 degrees turned into the grass. the tires will not turn into the grass and putting it on

plywood would spread out the load on the grass. 95% of the park is free and clear at this point with twelve cars and that's just an estimate, but we are nowhere near traversing the park. we're staying on a path and going out and giving access to the handicap behind us and still having the exposure in the park and protecting it and listening to what you're saying and i think it's a significant drop of 75% of our cars really being able to be parked in the park but still getting both and being able to protect the park with what we've reached out to our experts. >> clerk: you still have one minute left if anyone else wants to say anything. >> i think we're good. thank you very much for your time. >> president: thank you very much. >> clerk: okay. now we will go to the department and i have a timer here in case anyone is questioning that and feel free to drop anything in the chat if

you need to know how much time you have left. i'll give you a one minute warning, dana. >> don't start until i get my presentation up. >> clerk: yeah. okay. >> can you see the power point now? would you let me know. >> clerk: yes. >> okay. let me just start it as a presentation. and you're actually seeing the side notes too. >> yes. >> okay. give me a second. you don't need that. okay. i think i have to take you through this painful thing. i think i have to share the app and not my whole screen so let me do that again. teams changed the way they did some of this so it's confusing.

>> i can pull it up if you'd like, dana. >> well, then i'd have to ask you to keep moving it. i don't know it's not showing here. can you tell me how i can share it without making it -- >> so i believe if you have it up and you have the where it has both the presenter and the presented view, if you go to the share settings on teams, go down to window and you can select which powerpoint window you want to share. >> yeah. it's just not showing. i apologize, everybody.

it's showing a bunch of other power points, that's why i'm struggling here. paul, why don't you do it and we'll take it from there. >> clerk: paul is doing the public comment. david will do the presentation. >> yeah. sorry. >> clerk: okay. sorry dana, your time's up. no, i'm just kidding. >> one second, please. screen number. it's not that one. sorry. >> it's more complicated than you think. >> yeah.

i did it earlier. >> they changed the way it works on teams. apologies again. >> there we go. >> okay. >> does that look good. >> thank you. good afternoon commissioners. dana kechem and i also have with me deny kern and kelly rednick who both have collaborated with me on this presentation as the experts. so they'll be available to answer some questions. next slide. what we're doing is, as you know, hearing the appeal of the display of the denial of the display for 40 ferari cars. we had just completed a major renovation. placement of cars on the park's grass will require airation of the ground and due to the heavy use of washington square, closure of that park for six

weeks. there are alternatives for cars that don't put them on the grass and washington square is one of the only green spaces in a dense urban area. so we have to weigh a one-day event against a six-week closure of that green space. the 2019 renovation, we talked to address historic turf and drainage issue and conserve water. new soil was imported which was carefully installed in layers so that the water can percolate through it. placing heavy vehicles on it is counter productive. prior to the renovation, the organizers were told that they would not be able to continue to hold the show in the park. historically, we used to have to close the park anyway due to its condition. the new renovation allows it to stay open. we waved their fee for that last event and they were told this would be the last time. next slide, please.

here is some pictures. washington square before and after to give you an idea and the next slide shows a close-up of the differences. next slide. since you're being asked to adjudicate this, i'm giving you a 101 on airation and compaction of soil so you can understand what we're talking about. these pictures show the difference between compacted and noncompacted. compacted soil and water particles can't get through and air can't get through. go to the next slide, please. and this is what happens. water and dog waste accumulates on the surface. dog waste burns the grass. it becomes mud in the winter. the root structure is week and pour and can't withstand the type of use that washington square has. what causes compaction? weight. so i found this in a document.

you can see the cow is kind of like a car where all the weight comes down on a specific spot created compaction. next slide, please. this also shows the type of impact you get from placing vehicles on the grass. next slide. here is a ferari, typically 4,000 pounds. each wheel puts a 1,000 pounds of pressure in one spot. the impact doesn't show up immediately, the car drives away, it looks fine. but damage occurs and impacts over time. next slide, please. how do you mitigate compaction? compaction can only be addressed by aeration. we bring in heavy equipment, it fractures the soil, pulls it all up. three quarters of an inch wide, this is a little dot and 10" to

12" teen. we have to add topsoil, seeding, and fertilizing. given the heavy use of washington square, we have to close the side for a minimum of six weeks and possibly longer in the winter. next slide. so we have a closed park. next slide. here's a picture of an empty washington square fenced off because it needs to be aerated. next slide. so how do you prevent compaction? yeah. you can put large sheets of plywood down. historically, this organization has not been willing to do that. unfortunately, their 2013 and 2014 contracts required them to do that. if they're willing to put a large sheet of plywood but it had been rejected in the past. next slide, please. here is the way i went down and met with some of their representatives to kind of look at where could we place cars without putting them on the grass. we were there for over an hour.

i'd be there five days before and you can see there are paved areas where just as many cars could be placed in the park without impacting the grass and causing that closure as well as creating somebody called ferari way and we were willing to increase our permit fee. i want to emphasize that washington square is different. other parks still allow cars on the grass. we require plywood under vehicles as they drive in and as they sit for events. we allow vehicles on grass where we can aerate and re-seed without requiring the closure of one of the only open green spaces in an area. our golf courses are not comparable. they have so little foot traffic. it's possible to re-open more quickly. we have the big park picnic still in golden gate park where

there are other green areas from when we close the meadows to rejuvenate. but washington square is the only green space serving a dense community. it is heavily used and the only way to repair it from this aclosure. and, since renovation, we haven't let our own vehicles on it. next slide, please. this has not been an easy decision by staff. we have been put under a lot of pressure, but staff believes that the correct decision is for the organizers to find alternative nearby locations for the cars on this day on pavement. and that the commission should not decide to allow this one-day event to require the park to be closed limiting access to the only green space adjacent to chinatown, north beach, and other downtown neighborhoods. thank you. >> clerk: okay. thank you, dana. so now we will have time for public comment. so if there's anyone on the

line who would like to comment on item seven, the washington square park permit appeal, you'll need to dial star three to be added to the queue. >> ashley, we have eight people on the line and it looks like people pressed star three again. so three hands raised currently. >> clerk: okay. so each speaker will have two minutes. first speaker. z. >> is it okay for me to speak. >> president: please do. >> we've be doing this for 153 years. i've never seen it closed for six weeks.

as she said, if we will put plywood down. we will agree to that and put the cars on the plywood as she just said would alleviate that pressure. in 2000, 2004, i attended the park that had a show as she also said that the jimmy's old car picnic was on speedway meadows and i recently attended the u.s. women's open and they put cars on the lawn for over four or five days, so there was no problem there and i see helicopters land in the marina for the fleet week. i think with our plan and i think with what dana said that it would be advantageous for all of us, we put the plywood down and we put the cars on top of the plywood and that mitigates it. so hopefully, we can come to an agreement that if we do it that way, the way she just said that there wouldn't be any problem with the park. thank you. >> president: thank you very

much. >> clerk: next speaker. >> hi. good morning. my name is richard armenino. i'm a long time supporter of the italian committee. i do realize that the park was recently renovated, but i struggle with the city spending that kind of money without considering the accommodations of all park activities which i've included the ferari show for the last 20 years. also to take place on a golf course and the i would appreciate any reconsideration of this and i appreciate the time and support that you're giving this cause beside those attending the parade, this is also an attraction for car

enthusiasts and car clubs. i do know they come from san jose, pleasanton and stockton. thank you for your time. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. paul, i think maybe that person either was a mistake or they're not there so if there's anyone else on the line who would like to provide public comment, you can dial star three to be added to the queue. does anyone else have their hand raised? >> yeah. the same person is still

unmuted. maybe they need to unmute their phone for us to hear them. >> hello. >> president: hello. >> hello. >> clerk: you're on. >> is this the public comment? >> president: yes it is. please proceed. >> this is ken mayly with friends of washington square, long time member and 50-year resident of north beach. friends of washington square and other neighborhood organizations have worked very hard to bring this renovation to the park and we definitely do not agree or support putting the cars on the lawn with or without plywood. i really think it's a danger to the park and the infrastructure that we worked so hard to put in place to make the park more usable. i do appreciate the commission looking at this and considering this issue, but we really

cannot support adding all these cars on the lawn. it just isn't really fair to a neighborhood that works so hard to preserve the square and then to have the risk of gaj to this infrastructure and the closing of the park. >> president: thank you. >> clerk: paul, does anyone else have their hand raised? >> so now the department has three minutes for rebuttal. >> okay. can we pop my slides back up, david. >> okay. >> and just go to the next slide. so we found this first new compromise, unfortunately, when we met on site with the

applicants, they didn't propose this idea. we saw for the first time yesterday morning based on what we saw in the proposal, we believe it should be denied. it still places cars onto grass. there are places on pavement. we expanded the paved areas at this park. it places cars on grass next to walkways which are the most heavily impacted by dogs on leash peeing. it still requires aeration and closure presented to us. over irrigation lines and heads. and also, it's not realistic to pull those cars straight on unless you're putting them on an angle but historically, this group didn't want to do this. in 2013, 2014, they were

required to do it and didn't. if they're willing to do this, i think we can end this conversation, we just need to come up with a plan that shows the plywood and then i know you want to rope off the cars so people can't get too close to them how that roping off would work. thank you. >> president: thank you, dana. >> clerk: okay. thank you. next, we have the applicants. >> dana, thank you for that. let me just clarify '13, '14, every year, we've met with your gardener and at one point, he thought it was hard enough on the surface not to, but that's beside the point. at this point in time, we've all agreed our new proposal is cutting the cars down to 12 cars. having the plywood. we're willing to put the plywood because some of these other spots in the park for

$250,000, $300,000 cars for security reasons and a bunch of others. i do believe the plan we have we can make it work with plywood. and we've cut down our cars down 75%. if you're agreeable to that, we will work with you guys and cordon them off and i promise you, they can maneuver enough on those things to go from the pathway on to the plywood with what would be the plan and the ferrari people are all over trying to accommodate as best we can. >> president: thank you. >> commissioner, buell, if it would be okay, we could chat between ourselves in front of all of you. >> president: well, let me

say. so ashley, we've gone through the process and now is it open to commission comments. >> clerk: yeah. commissioners can have a discussion. if you want to ask any questions, that would be probably the best way to have a discussion among the department and the applicant so they can respond to your questions. >> president: thank you. so let me begin and ask dana, you believe that with the plywood this could work and i'm going to assume you also want to see a plan of just where the cars would be on the plywood before we officially authorize this permit assuming the commission is prepared to overturn the -- or grant the appeal. >> yeah. well the appeal was the denial of our permit for what they applied for. so i want to be clear, i believe that is the case. what they are now asking is if

they submit a new proposal to us that involves plywood, will we approve it? and, deny is on the line and he can nod or shake his head, but i believe if we can do it and i want to be very clear that a gardener on site cannot be put under pressure to say no to plywood on the day of the event. if we agree to plywood. i understood you guys didn't like the plywood because it wasn't the look you were looking for. that, i want to make sure we understand how that's really going to work, but, frank, if we can agree, then i think we can, you know, withdraw this and move on on our own to solve this problem and not put the commission in the middle of this. >> president: and just so i understand it, therefore, the commission wouldn't be approving the appeal they would

simply going along with the applicant under the terms we've discussed. >> zack, i know you're on the line. if you understand the question, if you would advise, that would be helpful. >> sure. if the permit applicant based on the representations made today wants to on the record withdraw the appeal, the permit applicant can do that. otherwise, it's still pending before the commission and the commission has to take action to resolve it. that could be to affirm the denial or to reverse or modify. those are the three options under your policy. but, again, if the permit applicant and the department are going to work out a compromise, the permit applicant can affirmatively withdraw the appeal at this time. >> president: okay. so let me ask zack while we

have you on the line, can we negotiate a modification to the application today under this appeal? >> sure. so under the permit follows the modification is one of the options i would advise that the commission should have a discussion with the department and the permit applicant now to work out those terms so that when you're voting on has a specific terms of the modification. >> right. but we haven't denied this proposal f.y.i. so. >> president: right. all right. so i guess, dana, the ball would be in your court to tell me what you'd like to see the commission modify the application to reflect. >> well, you know, i continue to believe that the applicant should withdraw their appeal

and you direct us to go work this out. but if you want to do it some other way -- >> president: i'm inclined to want to do it some other way to give some finality. but i want to make sure that the applicant understand that this commission is very concerned that this be done appropriately and that the terms that dana has reflected can go forward are the ones that we agreed to. >> clerk: also, i just want to flag that commissioner mazzola and sarah madlin have their hands raised, you may want to call on them. >> president: absolutely. let me start with commissioner mazzola. >> commissioner: thank you. as far as the process goes, i think, mark, president buell is correct that it would be better if we made a decision on the compromise today so that it's

final and they can then there's no questions remaining there won't be any issues remaining, but i just wanted to say a few things and first thank dana and her staff for her understanding and willingness if they do put the plywood down that, you know, you're willing to go forward with this. i think, you know, that was one of the bigger issues and i think one of the reasons why they didn't have the plywood on the original appeal is because they talked to some golf courses and they said they didn't believe that they needed plywood, but they're totally willing to do that like they said today, but i just want to make a few comments on behalf of the appellant. you know, these guys are well respected people in the community, in the city and they're not here trying to be rude or controversial or ram bunk souse nothing. what they're asking for is

totally reasonable. they've been doing this for over 20 years. they've been told that a general manager, no. all the way through this thing. he didn't want to hear any compromise. so i'm glad the staff's willing to take that under consideration, you know. this is something to me that is being exaggerated as far as how it's going to affect the park like was said earlier. i don't think the park is going to need to be closed for six weeks, i think that's an exaggeration. i want to make another point here that i drove by the other day and i saw a 2,000 pound four-wheel lawn mower back and forth all over that grass. that's okay but it's not okay to put a car with plywood. these guys are not rookies. they're city guys that care

about the city. they're not going to try and do something to ruin a park. that's not what they're about. what they're about is they've been doing this for 20 years and all of a sudden they got told no because the park was redone. i know there was an issue with drainage problems after the park was done. and let me say something about that. azul works was the company that did that job. and i complained about that in the beginning. and everybody knows the track record of azul and they've been banned for five years doing work here. aside from that, i complained early on that azul works was not using the proper classification to do this drainage. they should have used plumbers, they used workers. i had to go to the office of labor standards within the city and they deemed that, in fact, the zone works used the wrong classifications. they used people that were not trained to do irrigation piping and plumbing and drainage.

they underpaid those workers and they got fined $25,000 for using people they were not supposed to use to do this type of work. so that is one of the main reasons why there was a drainage problem. these guys are not even considering parking cars anywhere near that drainage problem. but i just want to share my frustration with the fact that these workers were underpaid and the company got fined and there was a problem afterward because they used people that weren't skilled to do the job. so i just needed to get that all off my chest and the commission to understand where i'm coming from. these guys are great guys in the community and they deserve a chance to be listened to and not just turned away. so i'm glad that the commission is taking the approach and is willing to do a compromise because these guys are upstanding citizens of the city

and they deserved to be recognized. so thank you. >> president: thank you, commissioner mazzola. sarah. >> i just wanted to say on behalf of the general manager that the department would support issuing this permit with the plywood in place to protect the grass. on behalf of the general manager and also to address commissioner mazzola's points about the construction project, we absolutely share your frustrations. it was very difficult for all of us to get through and just by way of a reminder to the commission, public works actually does all of our construction management, so kelly who's on the line here is the one dogging them to do all the things that commissioner mazzola pointed out, but there are often challenges with our contracts. unfortunately, we don't directly supervisor them, public works does. so we continue to try to monitor it, but absolutely hear you, commissioner, and share your frustrations.

>> president: okay. thank you, sarah. so i want to be sure then that it sounds like we have an understanding and so i want to be clear that we would be affirming the appeal or denying the appeal. ashley, weigh in and tell me what document you want to see officially done. >> clerk: from what i understand, owen, please make sure to mute because i'm hearing a little feedback. zack, is it fine if i explain this the way that you sent it to me. >> yeah. absolutely. i can explain it for you. >> president: zack, go ahead. you answer the question. you're the lawyer. >> sure. procedurally, it's a little, you know, secure here. the commission, one option is

to affirm the denial of the appeal with -- affirm the denial of the permit with the understanding that the department and the permit applicant are going to work together consistent with the representations today and the department will grant a new permit again with the new terms that will be put on the record today. the second option is to reverse the denial of the permit and then affirmatively grant the permit. i would suggest that the first option leave it puts it back to the department to work with the applicant to grant the permit so they can work out all the terms consistent with what's articulated today. you get to the same place, but it's up to the commission and how they want to articulate that. >> isn't it possible for them just to withdraw so the

commission doesn't have to deny it? just to withdraw it because of the representations that we've made here and then the commission doesn't have to act at all and then the commission can advise us strongly to work with them to find a solution with the plywood? because i think we have a good answer here, but it does need development. it's not ready. i'm not saying we can't get there and i'm ready to meet out with them on monday morning first thing and walk the site and we'll finalize this. so hoping we can get there. anyway. just my suggestion. >> i would suggest that's also a possibility, but my role is to advise the commission on its options. one other option is both to continue for another week, but then the commission would have to reconvene if something happened and you would have to

get the quorum to decide on it. >> is it also possible to continue to the call of the chair so that if it does come to conclusion, it doesn't need to be heard and if it does not come to conclusion, they can calendar it? >> again, you would have to reconvene because of the time line within the next few weeks in order to take action on it. >> only if we didn't come to conclusion if it was in need of the commission's intervention again. >> if the applicant and the department was able to work it out, you would still need some letter to the commission affirmatively withdrawing the appeal because it would technically still be pending under the commission. >> president: commissioner mazzola. >> commissioner: so after hearing all of that, i have a motion. the motion i would make is to grant the appeal with the

caveat of them working with dana and her team to come up with the appropriate compromise as far as where the cars are parked and the plywood underneath the tires. so, like you said earlier, president buell, i think we should finalize this today because the thing's coming up in less than a month. we need to move on this so there's no ambiguity and no back and forth. i'm against pushing this off for another meeting. we need to act on it today knowing that staff and the italian committee are going to work this out. everyone's on the same page here. so that's my motion. >> president: dana, do you want to weigh in on that motion? >> you're on mute, dana. >> you approve the appeal, then you approve the issuance of the

permit for what they originally applied for and that just doesn't work. i think sarah's idea that you, you know, table this and direct us to work it out and they withdraw it because we solved it. i think we're going to solve this, but if you act to approve the appeal, then you've just approved the permit for 40 cars that they originally asked for with no plywood. >> no we're not. on the record -- >> president: let me suggest this. commissioner mozzola, i understand your concern. i think it does make sense we continue this matter to the call of the chair because for commissioner mazolla's concern if the permit, if they can't work it out, we call a meeting and we work it out. if they do work it out, they withdraw the appeal and we don't have to have another meeting and i think that's what i hear they're going to be able

to work this out. and i just want to get everybody kind of agreeing to that procedure because we're not losing control over this appeal. we will call another meeting on short order if we have to. and if we don't have to, we'd saved ourselves and we're giving the confidence that both parties are going to work in good faith to resolve it. >> commissioner: that's different from what you said earlier. >> president: i understand, but i think the sentiment, commissioner, is that we want to see this go forward under the compromise. and we're all in agreement on that. so it's really just a procedure of what we need to do from a legislative standpoint or administrative standpoint to move this forward and i think if we continue it from sarah's standpoint, it allows us to ultimately work it out at this

legislative body or this commission if we have to, but it sounds like we don't have to. it sounds like the parties can agree and they'll withdraw their appeal because they'll have a permit they've all agreed on. soy don't see a problem with that. and i appreciate, commissioner, that it doesn't exactly solve your problem, but it does get us to where we want to go. >> commissioner: well, through the chair, then, if everybody's on the same page with that and we trust that the department and the italian committee are going to do the right thing on this, then i'll pull my motion. i just want to make sure on the record that this gets worked out and it doesn't fall by the waist side or something happens. if we can retain jurisdiction over this and you can call a meeting in a week, then i feel better about it. >> president: okay. well, then, thank you, commissioner. before i ask for a motion to continue this matter, i do want

to acknowledge and thank commissioner mazzola because this wouldn't be resolved had he not taken a very active role in helping do this. and so, for that, i say thank you and for the applicant, i say thank you for your understanding and trying to work with us to solve these problems because i have received e-mails from people in north beach who've spent an enormous amount of time from a volunteer standpoint to make sure that that park got restored to the condition the community wanted so if it sounds like we're being overbearing and concerned about drainage and they've put in a system that's very sensitive. having said that, 95% of the grass isn't going to be used in this and you're using plywood and you're sensitive to it then we can make this work. and so i want to thank everybody for being genuine in

their desire to find a solution to. with that, the chair would entertain a motion to continue this matter to the call of the chair. >> commissioner: so moved. >> president: is there a second. >> commissioner: second. >> president: it's been moved and seconded all those in favor. it is unanimous. thank you. >> commissioner, i would ask if the folks would be willing to hop on another call. >> president: i'm sure they would. thank you very much. >> thank you to the commission. thank you very much for your understanding and thanks to staff as well. >> president: you bet. >> thank you for hearing us. >> president: okay. >> clerk: okay. >> president: ashleys, where are we? >> clerk: we are now on item eight, general public comment. if there's anyone on the line that would like to comment on an item that is not on the

agenda today, you can dial star three to make your comment. >> ashley, we have five members of the public on the call and two hands raised. >> clerk: okay. speaker. speaker, you're unmuted. if you'd like to make a comment, your time is now. >> if i'm able to speak all i would say is i'm in agreement with what dana kechima said as

well as the staffing department operations. as well as the comments that weren't included that phil ginsburg, the general manager has included. thanks. bye. >> clerk: next speaker. >> hello, my name is gina tovar. i just want to make sure this is not commenting on the last agenda item. >> president: yes. thank you. >> okay. thank you. so i reside in visitation valley and i am a single parent and i have a son who attends arts and tech charter school in san francisco unified. he takes the bus 9r which ends at 2055 avenue at the gold eagles parking lot on sunnidale

for the golf course parking lot and so he has to walk from that spot up to manzel and sunnidale where sunnydale ends and that's exactly where the school is. in the evenings, he's not the only one walking that route because there's a lot of people who live along sunnydale and this valley that will take the bus there and there's no lighting from the terminal end of sunnydale where it meets san feld and so i wanted to bring it to the attention of the commission that public safety especially for children going to and from school at balboa park and taking the bus line there or going to city arts and tech high school, i would like to find out what the process is to propose lights along there.

i mean maybe even just path lights along the sidewalk, it doesn't have to be a major street lamp, solar powered lights along the sidewalk area. >> president: thank you. i believe staff is taking note of this and, if you would contact sarah madlin at the department, she will follow up with you. >> sarah madlin. thank you very kindly. >> president: okay. thank you. >> clerk: okay. paul, does anyone else have their hand raised? >> that was the last raised hand. >> clerk: okay. thank you. so seeing no further callers, public comment is closed. we're now on item nine, commissioners' matters. commissioners. >> president: i don't see any.

>> clerk: is there any public comment on this item? >> president: that was public comment. >> clerk: paul? >> there are no hands raised. >> clerk: we're now on item 10, new business, ayend canada setting. commissioners. >> clerk: okay. paul, is there any public comment on this item? >> 0 hands raised. >> clerk: okay. seeing no callers, public comment is closed. we're now on item 11, communications. is there any public comment on item 11? >> zero hands raised. >> clerk: seeing no callers, public comment is closed. we're now on item twelve, adjournment. >> president: the chair would entertain a motion to adjourn. >> commissioner: so moved. >> president: moved, seconded. all those in favor.

>> ayes. >> president: thank you one and all. >> thank you everyone. >> thanks ashley. >> president: thanks. [♪♪♪] >> i just wanted to say a few words. one is to the parents and to all of the kids. thank you for supporting this program and for trusting us to create a soccer program in the bayview. >> soccer is the world's game, and everybody plays, but in the

united states, this is a sport that struggles with access for certain communities. >> i coached basketball in a coached football for years, it is the same thing. it is about motivating kids and keeping them together, and giving them new opportunities. >> when the kids came out, they had no idea really what the game was. only one or two of them had played soccer before. we gave the kids very simple lessons every day and made sure that they had fun while they were doing it, and you really could see them evolve into a team over the course of the season. >> i think this is a great opportunity to be part of the community and be part of programs like this. >> i get to run around with my other teammates and pass the ball. >> this is new to me. i've always played basketball or football. i am adjusting to be a soccer mom. >> the bayview is like my favorite team. even though we lose it is still fine. >> right on. >> i have lots of favorite memories, but i think one of them is just watching the kids

enjoy themselves. >> my favorite memory was just having fun and playing. >> bayview united will be in soccer camp all summer long. they are going to be at civic centre for two different weeklong sessions with america scores, then they will will have their own soccer camp later in the summer right here, and then they will be back on the pitch next fall. >> now we know a little bit more about soccer, we are learning more, and the kids are really enjoying the program. >> we want to be united in the bayview. that is why this was appropriate >> this guy is the limit. the kids are already athletic, you know, they just need to learn the game. we have some potential college-bound kids, definitely. >> today was the last practice of the season, and the sweetest moment was coming out here while , you know, we were setting up the barbecue and folding their uniforms, and looking out onto the field, and seven or eight of the kids were playing. >> this year we have first and second grade.

we are going to expand to third, forth, and fifth grade next year bring them out and if you have middle school kids, we are starting a team for middle school. >> you know why? >> why? because we are? >> bayview united. >> that's right.

>> my name is amanda [inaudible] over see the girls sports program. when i came to san francisco and studied recreation and parks and towerism and after i graduated i moved to candlestick park and grain r gain adlot of

experience work with the san francisco 49 and [inaudible] be agfemale in a vore sports dynamic facility. i coached volo ball on the side and as candle stick closed down the city had me move in92 too [inaudible] >> immediate interaction and response when you work with kids. i think that is what drives other people to do this. what drew me to come to [inaudible] to begin with for me to stay. i use today work in advertising as a media buyer and it wasn't fulfilling enough and i found a opportunity to be a writing coach. the moment [inaudible] you to take advantage of how you change and inspire a child by the words you say and actions you do. >> you have a 30 different

programs for girls through rec and park and fast ball, soft ball and volley ball. i started the first volley ball league and very proud what i have done with that. being a leader for girls is passion and showing to be confident and being ambiggish and strong person. [inaudible] for about 5 years. programs offered thraw thirty-three rec and park and oversee thg prms about a year. other than the programs we offer we offer summer camp squz do [inaudible] during the summer and that is something i wherei have been able to shine in my role. >> couple years we started the civic center socking league and what an amazing opportunity it was and is it for kid in the neighborhood who come together every friday in the civic center plaza on green grass to

run and play. you otonly see soccer and poetry but also see books t. is a really promoting literacy to our kid and giving them to tools to make it work at home. real fortunate to see the [inaudible] grow. >> girls get pressureed with society and i know that is obvious, but we see it every day, magazines, commercials the idea what a woman should look like but i like to be a strong female role for it goals that play sports because a lot of times they don't see someone strong in a female role with something connected with sports and athleticism and i love i can bring that to the table. >> soccer, poetry, community service. we now have field of dreams. we are [inaudible] all over the bay area and excited to be share our mission with other schools across the bay to

really build the confidence and character of kids when they go out to play and close their eyes and think, why was [inaudible] we want to make sure-i want to make sure they remember me and remember the other folks who [inaudible] >> get out there and do it. who cares about what anybody else says. there will be poopal people that come up and want to wreck your ideas. that happen today eme when i went to candle stick part and wanted to [inaudible] people told me no left and right. whether you go out for something you are passionate about our something you want to grow in and feel people will say no. go out and get it done. i can be the strong leader female and i love

>> hello everyone. welcome to the bayview bistro. >> it is just time to bring the community together by deliciousness.

i am excited to be here today because nothing brings the community together like food. having amazing food options for and by the people of this community is critical to the success, the long-term success and stability of the bayview-hunters point community. >> i am nima romney. this is a mobile cafe. we do soul food with a latin twist. i wanted to open a truck to son

nor the soul food, my african heritage as well as mylas as my latindescent. >> i have been at this for 15 years. i have been cooking all my life pretty much, you know. i like cooking ribs, chicken, links. my favorite is oysters on the grill. >> i am the owner. it all started with banana pudding, the mother of them all. now what i do is take on traditional desserts and pair them with pudding so that is my ultimate goal of the business. >> our goal with the bayview bristow is to bring in businesses so they can really use this as a launching off

point to grow as a single business. we want to use this as the opportunity to support business owners of color and those who have contributed a lot to the community and are looking for opportunities to grow their business. >> these are the things that the san francisco public utilities commission is doing. they are doing it because they feel they have a responsibility to san franciscans and to people in this community. >> i had a grandmother who lived in bayview. she never moved, never wavered. it was a house of security answer entity where we went for holidays. i was a part of bayview most of my life. i can't remember not being a part of bayview. >> i have been here for several years. this space used to be unoccupied. it was used as a dump.

to repurpose it for something like this with the bistro to give an opportunity for the local vendors and food people to come out and showcase their work. that is a great way to give back to the community. >> this is a great example of a public-private community partnership. they have been supporting this including the san francisco public utilities commission and mayor's office of workforce department. >> working with the joint venture partners we got resources for the space, that the businesses were able to thrive because of all of the opportunities on the way to this community. >> bayview has changed. it is growing. a lot of things is different from when i was a kid. you have the t train. you have a lot of new business.

i am looking forward to being a business owner in my neighborhood. >> i love my city. you know, i went to city college and fourth and mission in san francisco under the chefs ria, marlene and betsy. they are proud of me. i don't want to leave them out of the journey. everyone works hard. they are very supportive and passionate about what they do, and they all have one goal in mind for the bayview to survive. >> all right. it is time to eat, people.

held on september 13th, 2021. the meeting is being called to order at 4:30 p.m. the small business commission thanks sfgov for televising the meeting which can be streamed at sfgov.tv. members of the public, the number is (415) 655-0001. access code is 2483907176. press pound and pound again to be added to the line. when connected, you will hear the meetings discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when you're hear your item of interest come up, dial star three to be added to the speaker line. if you dial star three before public comment is called, you will be added to the queue.

please mute the device you're listening to the meeting on. when it is your time to speak, you'll be prompted to do so. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down the device you're listening on. public comment is limit today three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer of the meeting. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. sfgov tv, please show the office of small business slide. >> today we will begin with a reminder that the small business commission commission is to voice your concern about the economic vitality. the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephone and 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 for coordinating the virtual hearing and the life stream and special thanks to matthew for assisting with the public comment line. item number one. >> clerk: item number one is roll call. [roll call] mr. president, you have a kor. >> president laguana: >> commissioner dickerson: will you read the ramaytush ohlone

acknowledgement. >> commissioner dickerson: the small business staff acknowledges that we are on the unceded an zest tal homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all the peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by airplaning their sovereign rights of first peoples.

>> president laguana: great. item number two. >> clerk: i believe we read item number two, we have some recusements. >> president laguana: yep. great. so commissioner adams, i understand you need to recuse. >> commissioner adams: yes. i would need to recuse from item number two since i do work in a business. we have several tenants as a landlord, i have several small business tenants who the ordinance would benefit. so i need to recuse myself. >> president laguana: and commissioner ortiz-cartagena, i heard you might possibly need to reaccuse. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i do. [inaudible] >> president laguana: okay. so i move to allow the commissioners to recuse. >> clerk: item two, recusal of

commissioner adams and commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> president laguana: i think we need a second. >> clerk: sorry. >> president laguana: no problem. >> commissioner: i second. >> clerk: commissioner huie seconds. all right. recusal of commissioner adams and commissioner ortiz-cartagena. commissioner dickerson. >> commissioner dickerson: yes. >> clerk: [roll call] all right. the commissioners are recused. item two, board of supervisors file number 210809: administrative code-covid-19 commercial rent relief fund. this is an ordinance amending the administrative code to establish the covid-19 commercial rent relief fund to

provide financial support to landlords of certain commercial tenants where the tenant was unable to pay rent due to the covid-19 pandemic and setting a sunset date of 24 months from the effective date of the legislation. this is a discussion and action item. presenting today, we have supervisor safai. >> president laguana: welcome, supervisor. sorry? >> clerk: i just want to make -- oh, yeah. >> president laguana: he's here. he's getting plenty of sun and getting his vitamin d while hoping helping us fix the commercial rent relief for the city. that's a two for if i've ever seen one. supervisor, welcome, and you have the floor and we're very excited to hear what you're presenting. >> supervisor safai: thank you, president laguana. thank you commissioners, director regina dick endrizzi and others that are joins us today. i really just want to set the

context for this and have a little conversation about where we are in terms of economic recovery as it relates to small businesses. you know, for me, in my office and team, we've been relying quite strongly on the october 2020 economic recovery taskforce report as a foundational tool on what small businesses have identified as areas of concern. and then trying to focus on policies that would help alleviate the pressures imposed on our small businesses not to their request or anyone's thinking or liking during this global pandemic. you know, we've hosted multiple hearings at the budget and finance committee around revitalizing tourism and helping our small businesses and small business corridors thrive and also the occupancy of our larger xhernl buildings and office buildings in general. i've worked on countless meetings with our city

administrator, our controller, the city's economist, the director of economic and workforce development, small business, office of small business and spoken with many entertainment commissioners and small business commissioners and small businesses over the course of this time all regarding the recovery, economic recovery of our city. i've also worked with supervisor peskin and other members of the board to provide the eviction protection for our commercial tenants for unpaid rent due to financial constraints imposed on them by covid turning pandemic so we would also expand it to businesses with 50 to 99 employees. if the commercial eviction moratorium expires at the end of this month, which we believe it will, there will be a whole host of businesses those ranging from a couple employees

all the way up to 99 employees with a number of different phase in protection periods. supervisor peskin took the lead on those businesses with 50 or less employees and we did the last little bit, between 50 and 99. also we did a lot of work with all of you who i mentioned on the shared spaces program. was one of the leaders on that as well as the streamlining. we started the whole streamlining for small businesses conversation in district four and eleven working with supervisor tang back in 2018 and the mayor and her team had the foresight to take that along with many of you, proposition h citywide and now we have the benefit of having a streamline process that we're continuing to strengthen and make stronger for small businesses as they try to cut through the red tape. so all that's to say that, for

me, the protection recovery and revitalization of our small businesses has been a real top priority and for us to recover as a city, for us to properly recover, we have to protect our small businesses because as i'm sure you all know, if i'm being 100% honest, no one wants to see a string of empty boarded up store fronts all over our city because businesses had too much mounting or rent debt they couldn't negotiate with landlords or they couldn't find a way to get out from under. i think that what this ordinance does is it says first and foremost that both parties will get to the table, both parties will negotiate a revitalized lease term. but then also, this would be 100% grant, no loans, up to

$35,000 if we can get working with the mayor to put money into this fund. we believe that the right amount of money that we're hoping for in this fund would be around $25 million and we feel like it could help thousands of businesses and thousands of employees. we've heard from multiple small businesses that actually have benefited from ppe, that have benefited from some of the city's previous loan grant programs, but still have mounting debt. so we feel like working with the office of economic workforce development and many of you, this money would be put aside to those that would convene mediation process and renegotiated and 100% of this money if this money is put into this fund would have to be applied toward rent debt. so we're trying to really

revitalize, protect, and re-establish many of these small businesses and hope they don't go under and ensure the economic recovery of our small businesses. we feel like also and i'll just end with this in saying that we know from back in the spring and we're going to get an updated version of that report somewhere between $100 million to $400 million in back rent have accumulated across the city. so we know that this is real and budget and legislative analysts provided that report in march and we're going to be getting an updated report of that very soon and we feel like this is something that somewhat of a tsunami that's about to hit the city if we don't tackle this. we've been working nonstop. have had really good conversations with the mayor's office and other members of the board as well as many people

out there that are on this call today as others and feel like it's very clear that these businesses can't take on anymore debt. that, at this points, the need is for grants as a way to help resolve some of the commercial rent debt that they have. so i just want to acknowledge you, president laguana, regina dick endrizzi, the office of workforce development, along with the entertainment commission, gloria, mary thomas from the golden gate restaurant association. mario from the council of district merchants. just a lot of the chamber of commerce. this is something that's on many peoples' radars and i'm sure many of you have your own personal either experiences or stories with small businesses and small landlords for that matter and landlords for that matter that want this to help mortgage debt and others to really help to revitalize our

economy. so i really hope you all can support this ordinance that would be creating the format for the creation of this fund and we will continue to work with the mayor's office hopefully to establish some money into this fund. thank you, president laguana. >> president laguana: thank you. and, appreciate you taking the time to present this program. commissioners, do we have any questions for the supervisor? while i wait for them to form late their questions, i have a quick one. oewd is going to be handling the rule making for the fund if established. what -- do you imagine that there being the opportunity for the commission to be able to provide feedback on that? those rules and just make sure that they're in line with the goals of the small business community? >> supervisor safai: i think that's a great question. i know that we've already been

working with you and others and we'll continue to do that and i'm absolutely open for that conversation, for you all to have the opportunity to weigh in and work with that office for sure, but i would let oewd speak for themselves. >> president laguana: okay. great. thank you. i appreciate that. commissioner huie. >> commissioner huie: thank you, very much for your presentation on today's item. one question i have is how did the number of $2.5 million come about in terms of those businesses being excluded? the one that gross receipt over $2.5 million? >> supervisor safai: from what we understood in terms of where ppe were going, talking to a lot of the businesses, talking to a lot of landlords, we felt as though there were

significant programs and support there. i've had a lot of conversations with some of the medium to larger landlords that have tenants that are of larger gross receipts and there has been, you know, the ability to renegotiate the terms of those leases, renegotiate the debt. so we were really trying to come into a sweet spot where the need seemed to be the greatest based on the data that we had. >> commissioner huie: great. thank you. and, also, in terms of like number of people, i don't know if this is something that you would be able to answer, but do you know like how many people you hope to capture in this fund? >> supervisor safai: well, that's why we set the number. we believe the average grant will be about $25,000. has the ability to go up to $35,000 but for the purposes of kind of averaging it out, we felt like $25,000 would

probably be a good average number. that allows us to hit at least a 1,000 average small businesses. the average small business has anywhere between six to ten employees so we knew we were going to get the best bang for our buck in that zone. some obviously have more employees and some have less and as president laguana has said, there's other programs out there that are specifically designed as a tax credit for the number of employees that each business employs, with him and others to -- >> commissioner huie: i think we lost him. >> president laguana: we appear to have lost the supervisor. give him a second, see if he's able to log back on. is lauren still with us?

>> director: i do not see lauren. >> president laguana: i see the square, but no video and no audio. >> can you hear me? >> director: yes. >> apologies. i believe his phone may have had some issues. let me see if he can log back on really quickly. >> president laguana: no worries. >> commissioner huie: i feel really out of site i'm actually okay. >> president laguana: lauren, i don't know. cynthia was the last question we had. i don't have anymore questions. the supervisor doesn't need to come back since commissioner huie feels her question was answered. we can make his life a little bit easier. well, actually, i take that back. vice president zouzounis has a

question. i apologize. >> understood. let me get him back on as quickly as i can. apologies. >> vice president zouzounis: i mean, if he can't be back on to answer my question, i'd love to be part of this conversation after or other spaces outside of commission. >> absolutely. let me just work on getting him back on and i will follow up if anything. >> president laguana: there he is. >> supervisor safai: hey everyone. sorry about that. my battery died so i was ending by saying that we're going to do -- we felt like that was the right number for the best bang for the buck at that. so we're hoping. we're continuing the conversation with the mayor's office. there's no money in the fund yet, but we will continue to negotiate and do everything we can to get that set up. and i don't know what other questions i missed after that.

>> president laguana: none. but we do have at least one more. vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you, president laguana. thank you, supervisor safai, for coming before us today. we appreciate your efforts in this area. i wanted to ask a couple questions. can you define exactly the moratorium period that is being referenced in terms of when it starts and when it ends so that we can understand the timeframe of it here. >> supervisor safai: so we're aware that the eviction moratorium is potentially going to end on september 30th and what we're focusing on in general is, you know, there may or may not be many businesses now that are subject to or

susceptible to being evicted based on back rent. so some of that will depend upon the business itself, how much background it has and when and if their leases are expiring. so that will have a lot to do with that. when i was referencing the moratorium, i was referencing the eviction moratorium expiring on september 30th, but in many ways, that's just kind of a flash point because many businesses are saying that some landlords won't negotiate with them until the eviction moratorium kicks in and some have said they're worried they could potentially be evicted with no room for negotiation. although, we think once landlords find out there's money in this fund if we're able to get it funded, they will be very open to sitting down to negotiate at that point. does that answer your question? >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. and i think things will become more clear as this program and legislation hopefully passes and develops in terms of people

being eligible from when they first started paying or being unable to pay their rent. >> supervisor safai: got it. we do define the period within the period that's impacted by covid, for sure. >> vice president zouzounis: okay. >> supervisor safai: the rent period would be from just bringing up last year. we do define the period. that rent debt would have to be accumulated from, for sure. >> vice president zouzounis: so it's probably tied to when it was an official shutdown date, when the city declared the shutdown date? >> supervisor safai: yeah. >> vice president zouzounis: okay. thank you. in terms of how -- what are the parameters of restructuring the lease conversation that you plan to have? is it just limited to that honoring three more years or

restructuring so that there are at least three more years? is that kind of the start and end of what that restructuring of a lease conversation will look like? >> supervisor safai: we felt like it was important to have leverage on both sides. we talked to a lot of people in the community, small business community and felt like that was the right number that there would be some restructuring of the term of the lease as well as 100% of the money has to be applied to rent relief debt. basically could not be utilized for anything other than rent debt. but, yes, that was how we did that. also, a small chunk of the money, about $500,000 would be set aside for, you know, third party negotiates so that we would be looking at the office of economic development to identify that, identify that group or groups that would come in and help us, help the small businesses, help the landlords sit down and negotiate.

>> vice president zouzounis: okay. great. thank you. and, i think my last question kind of got answered with the gross receipts cap, but i was trying to understand the line on section -- let's see. where it says, regardless of whether the tenant operates one location or more than one business. my question is how are we making sure that we're not helping formula retailer, but, i guess, the gross receipts cap kind of safeguards that? >> supervisor safai: yeah. but it also. i thought we had a line in there that this would not apply to or allow for formula retail. i'd have to go back and check the legislation, but i think we were kind of purposeful in that formula retail would not be allowed. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. maybe because of city attorney, you weren't allowed to put that in explicitly because i didn't

find it, but i feel like the gross receipts cap will probably solve for that. >> supervisor safai: okay. we'll double check. i think we put it in there before. we're able to say specifically this will not allow for businesses that fall under formula retail. >> vice president zouzounis: okay. right on. thank you so much. >> supervisor safai: we'll double check that. thank you for the good point. >> president laguana: supervisor, quick question. the $400 million not in terms of the amounts, but in terms of the actual number of businesses, i remember seeing that controller report. have you seen anything on the break down of where businesses are located that are behind on the rent? >> supervisor safai: the commercial corridor neighborhood? >> president laguana: yeah. >> supervisor safai: i don't think the budget analyst did it that way. >> president laguana: oh, okay.

>> supervisor safai: to your point, one of the original hearings we had a couple months ago, the idea, i think the farther away you get to the downtown core, some of the more mom and pop business landlords and mom and pop business owners with fewer employees, less locations, you know, many of them that, you know, did not avail themselves or were not able to avail themselves as the restaurant relief program or the ppe program i think we'll start to see some come terms. many of them women, people of color that need this additional help and, you know, that's not to say and i just want to be 100% clear, you know, really appreciate what the mayor has done and the mayor's office and office of economic and workforce development. originally $20 million to $25 million was loans, now a lot of that is being converted

to grants. when you compare that to tenant relief. you know, tenant relief statewide is in the billions with a "b" and in san francisco it's far north well over $100 million. and as you all know, i'm preaching to the choir, literally preaching to the choir that small businesses are the main driver of our local economy. they drive our g.d.p., they drive our employment and so many different aspects and then the argument that i have made and many of you make, so much of what makes san francisco special, so much of what people come here to see and experience are these small businesses and so, you know, we saw a number of them go under in the last couple months because they and they specifically identified mounting commercial debt as one

of those core issues. so we feel like this is an impending crisis and we really hope that we're able to get some money into this fund and help these small businesses survive and thrive in the city. >> president laguana: that's the choir. commissioner huie. >> commissioner huie: just one more question. you know, there are some businesses who have been covering their rent by taking out loans and through other means. how does this legislation support those businesses that maybe have not defaulted on their rent, but have been -- but are still under water? >> supervisor safai: well, i mean, the simple answer would be i think a lot of the people that will avail themselves of this fund if we're able to get it funded will be people that will still be in business and hopefully they will still be in

business. right. my dry cleaner, for example, i'm running to go see him now so i have some clean shirts for, you know, the board meeting tomorrow and the rest of the week, he has back rent. he's taken on loans and, you know, he's like i can't take on one more penny of debt. so this doesn't exclude anyone that's taken on any loans and they might, you know, be doing it the best they can to be current in terms of payment to serve a portion of their rent, but they still have that back rent. the criteria will be if you have that back rent. if some of your debt is impacted or if some of our own particular situation involves debt, you're not going to be excluded from the program, you just have to show and if that's by having the landlord and the tenant at the table or the property manager at the table, that will be clear that that

particular business has back rent that's been unpaid. >> commissioner huie: so if the landlord has still been able to collect because the tenant has been taking out a loan to be able to pay rent, but the tenant is sitting with the debt now, you're saying they would kind of negotiate and talk through this process to be able to qualify for the program? >> supervisor safai: i think first and foremost, again, i don't want to punish anyone for, you know, remaining current. again, i was talking to a child care operator the other day, she said she took some equity line on her home so she could remain current. she has a small amount of debt. the first criteria, first and foremost will be the debt. and, in terms of how we deal with those that might be current, but they might be the ones that are, like you say their situation might be

impacted by the fact that they have to take on that debt which affects their bottom line, that's definitely something that we can look into a little bit more. but first and foremost, we're trying to start with those, you know, we also said you would of had to have been in business for three years. we're not necessarily targeting businesses that have just opened up. we felt like 2.5 in gross receipts was the right cutoff. we also had to kind of say, first and foremost, this is commercial rent relief program, those that have that, but we can definitely look into if a certain amount of that is impacted or all of it is impacted by debt, but it would be a little harder to then say, how do you -- there's other programs that we have. we have the existing grant and loan conversion programs. and so we definitely can look into that as well. >> commissioner huie: okay.

thank you very much. >> president laguana: great. well, i'm not seeing any other questions. one last call. don't see any. so can we go to public comment, please. >> clerk: there's no one in the queue for public comment. >> president laguana: okay. seeing no one. public comment is closed. commissioners, you know, i have to say, the one thing i hear the most from small business owners is what are they going to do with all this debt and how are they going to get caught up on rent? i personally know at least half a dozen businesses that are either closing when the moratorium expires or are thinking about closing or a lot of anxiety and stress about how they're going to make it past that september 30th deadline. so for the supervisor to take the lead on trying to help with

this program, i think that that at least from my perspective is something small business community desperately needs. so i certainly am supportive, but if anybody feels differently, by all means, now would be a good time to talk about it. vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. this is exactly the kind of stuff we need to take for commercial tenants, but i just want to get a sense how we can support this timeline if it's passed because i'm seeing a lot of, you know, moving pieces in terms of we have a short timeline if it's going to sunset after two years, how do we ensure that oewd and any

partners that need to be for negotiation to administer for something like this in that short time frame and i'm definitely thinking ahead like if we are going to be bringing on third party negotiators, i'd love to see, i mean an r.f.p. process takes a lot, but what has been a recurring thing we've brought up is existing city partners don't necessarily cover all of the harder to reach communities that need these new programs. so are you planning on offering new r.f.p.s for this? do we have the financial desemination tools, i mean, the office of small business

submission went through this with the new entertainment grants. we had to set up new systems. how can we support that timeline? do you see there being any obstacles or implementation that we need to keep an eye on? >> supervisor safai: is that directed to me? >> vice president zouzounis: i'm posing it to anyone. >> president laguana: you know. i'll jump in. i think if the legislation is funded and passed, i would certainly be inclined to invite oewd in to present and we can talk about the implementation. you heard my question earlier about rules and guidelines. i think that'd be an appropriate conversation to have at that time. given that, you know, we're still fingers crossed hoping the legislation is passed and funded, i think we can save those questions for when we

actually have something to talk about, but i think those are the right questions, vice president zouzounis, and certainly we've seen many instances where it took longer than we thought and didn't reach into the communities that we wanted them to reach into. i know just through working with the supervisor on this program that has been top of mind for him. supervisor, i don't want to speak for you, but you've certainly relaid that concern to me several times. i'm confident that we will work through it and we'll get through it. are there any other -- sorry. vice president zouzounis, did that answer your question? okay. so i'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we approve

file number 210809: the commercial rent relief fund. >> commissioner: second. >> clerk: a motion by the president, seconded by vice president zouzounis. the motion is to approve -- >> vice president zouzounis: i think it was seconded by commissioner dooley. >> clerk: oh, i'm sorry. motion to approve. [roll call] >> commissioner: he's recused. >> clerk: that's right. [roll call] motion passes.

>> supervisor safai: thank you everyone. >> president laguana: supervisor, thank you. appreciate everything you're doing. looking forward to working with you more on this in the future. >> vice president zouzounis: thanks supervisor. >> supervisor safai: have a good evening, everyone. >> president laguana: next item please. >> clerk: item three, presentation, digital equity strategic plan 29-2024. it's a review of the digital equity strategic plan and its overlay with small businesses. we have linda gerull cio, executive director of department of technology presenting today. >> director: pardon me, through the president, before we continue, i want to make sure the two commissioners have rejoined the meeting. >> president laguana: we'll wait for them. >> and this is linda gerull. good afternoon. could you please start my video and allow me to share?

>> president laguana: hello, linda. welcome. >> hi. there we go. >> president laguana: we're just waiting on our two recused commissioners to rejoin. >> perfect. can you see my screen? >> director: i do want to confirm that both have been notified. >> president laguana: we'll give them one more minute to rejoin. i want to make sure they have the opportunity to see the presentation. linda, i appreciate your patience. >> no worries.

>> president laguana: okay. well, i think we should get started. >> good afternoon. my name is linda gerull and i serve as the city cio and i want to introduce ray lesho and he is the digital equity manager as well as brian roberts who is with the department of technology as the executive policy analyst. so we're here today to talk about digital strategies and opportunities and resources for small businesses in san francisco. ray and i will be sharing this presentation. he'll do some slides and i'll do some, so we hope to have

time at the end for any questions you might have. so a bit about the digital divide in san francisco as you know, there is a significant population pace over close to 30,000 that lack any internet access and 64,000 that lack broad band and more time was broad band and internet connectivity was needed during covid than when students were trying to distance learn and seniors needed telemedicine help and access and, of course, as people worked remotely and as people needed to look for new jobs remotely, internet is certainly an essential service and so that's why this is so important and certainly to our small business community and as par of course of the economic

taskforce recovery recommendations, internet access is an essential service and needed for digital equity and economic equity in the city. so, ray, would you like to share this slide? >> sure. i was just trying to find the unmute button. so, yes, just giving a little bit of background, we've, i mean, low income populations have been affected, you know, pretty much the most with this now exacerbated, you know, inequities that exist due to the pandemic and i know business owners have been impacted as well. our approach is pretty much a three-prong approach. we focus on three, you know, we have three areas of focus. number one, we have internet

access. if you think about internet access, just to kind of make the distinction between wifi access and broad band, wifi uses radio frequencies and signals to transfer data without wires and broad band is transmission of data with the use of high-speed internet and those are two pretty distinct things and it's important to kind of highlight that when we're talking about equity. so when you look at internet access, we talk about gradual obsolescence. so the obsolescence of internet technology connected to the impact of low income populations engaging with the internet content. where as broad band populations enjoy the advantage of having more time online, a broad of variety of activities and the creation of new content. so they may -- so someone from

affordable housing, you know, from the low income population may not be able to enjoy adobe suite or be able to create that website that someone in diamond heights may be able to enjoy doing. the other leg of the stool is devices. low income households can have limiting access in technology due to the devices being shared by other folks in the household which can affect their frequency of use, which in turn reduces the opportunity for learning and hence real life and income opportunities. the ability to create digital content. so that affects them economically and, finally, i mean, we've got to think about, you know, how many people are sharing spaces. if i, you know, if i have a device that i have to share with two or more people, it's going to be pretty much -- it's going to be difficult for me to participate in the digital

economy. and then, lastly, the digital skills gap. digital intuition is a major component of an advancement in technology. to introduce technology and advanced skills to their learning and the more skills a person possesses, the more confident they become to overcome online challenges. if you think about some folks in our senior population, you know, tech is a nebulous place for them. so we have to provide these additional skill trainings so they can participate in this digital economy. next slide, please. so, i mean, obviously, with this new pandemic, we have to think outside of the box, we have to pivot and essentially innovate ourselves to success and pay attention to the

nuances. next slide, please. so through our civic -- yeah that's perfect. through our civics bridge program which is actually kicked off by the office of civic innovation, we've partnered with them. we've partnered with sales force, and we've partnered with the office of economic and workforce development to basically develop and we didn't figure this out until later and, actually, you can go to the next slide. so you're seeing here, this is kind of like how we kind of came to our final project. so a little bit of background. as you may know, we have a digital equity strategic plan and, in this plan, we've identified digital literacy as i mentioned before as a major piece that we want to address and to ensure every san franciscan has a solid

baseline, a solid foundation to move from. so, you know, after kind of taking a look at this, we use our -- actually, one of our research fellows does a little bit deeper to figure out what specifically do san franciscans need or want to be successful? what resources do they need? and, in that discovery, and we did surveys. we talked to community based organizations that are staples in the community. we discovered that they wanted to be business owners. they wanted to be entrepreneurs. they wants to learn how to participate in the upside of e-commerce. we talked to community based organizations that are already in that space and who want to be in that space, who have

hostess curriculum that we developed and we decided to map out a plan. an implementation plan. next slide, please. so, again, the goals were design. so this is per crowd source information that we got from the community. not us. not ray. not linda. this is the community telling us. so design in entrepreneurship and digital e-commerce play book. it would be used by c.b.o.s who have the trust of the community to implement this strategy and teach them how to be successful online. next slide, please. so yeah, that's the one. so just kind of cutting to the chase. this is what you'll learn. it includes, but not limited to what you see here. think about the first time, you know, as a business owner, you

got that business property tax assessment and you didn't even have a brick and mortar location. you were trying to figure out what are they asking for? well, we're going to actually help them navigate that form and various other forms and maybe they think off the bat, they need to be an l.l.c. or c-corps or s-corp or whatever. so they can be successful. so e-commerce, marketing basics, you know, how to leverage web applications like maybe intuit. they're going to need to understand how to read a cash flow statement. they're going to need to understand these things intricately so they can be successful long term. this digital skills play book and entrepreneurship play book

encompasses all of that. next slide, please. i think i'll hand it over to linda. >> yes. i'll do the next one. so now you've heard about what ray's work is doing and how he's partnering with other city departments to deliver different types of literacy, different literacy to our community and he can go into great detail of that. the department of technology is looking to close the digital divide in terms of the infrastructure that the city needs to deliver that broad band service throughout the city and in the most prioritized areas where there is less access which are shown in this map. and, some examples of recent work, we have over the last three years connected

approximately 7,000 housing apartments and affordable housing complexes to the fiber network and are delivering service. this also includes senior, low income complexes, low income housing with high numbers of students. rec and park centers that are used for community hubs and the mayor's program for student learning in covid and where we're installing internet service as well. whether it's a navigation center or a housing complex, we're trying to with internet

service over the next three years. so where this leads us and where does small business fit into this program is really around what we're leaning forward and leaning into around building a digital city which includes closing the digital divide. as we look at these different types of services, there are opportunities and we will be testing this to deliver service in a neighborhood and that neighborhood could actually be a business corridor or it could be a neighborhood that is unserved by commercial wifi. so we'll be looking at those types of opportunities from an infrastructure point of view and if you have a specific business corridor, we may be able to do a pilot in the next years so we look forward to the types of ways we can be of service to the small business community. of course, as ray mentioned,

our digital literacy training and coaching to the c.b.o.s and small business owners will be around accessibility, data privacy and cyber security. so all of this learning and accessibility will be a benefit to the small business community. so we are here to answer any questions that you might have. i can't see hands, so you're going to have to help me here. >> sharky, you're on mute. >> president laguana: i had to cough and i muted myself and i forgot. thank you both so much for the excellent presentation and this is great work and it's going to have a huge impact on our community. commissioners, do we have any questions?

vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you both so much. this is definitely something we want to help especially from our racial equity committee and i wanted to know what stage you're in right now. i read the report and i remember seeing a portion about distributing devices. has that already been put in motion or is that not a step we've gotten to yet? >> well, i appreciate you bringing that forward because as ray pointed out, it is one of the legs of our three-legged stools, access, devices, and literacy. and we are not funded for devices, so that is a gap in our program right now. so we would love to understand what opportunities there might be for devices. and, as we think about the idea

of devices, i have to put on my c.i.o. hat and say, we have to look at the total cost of ownership of the device. it's not just what is the cheapest. it's not just what was refurbished by someone. if we're going to do this, we need to do this in a wholistic way. we would certainly buy in bulk, but we need to buy a standard laptop that would be something that would have a certain warranty, a certain shelf life. we could standardize our training on. if we end up with a hodgepodge of equipment, it's very difficult to do that digital literacy training in a simple l cost effective way. when we talk about devices, it really speaks to how we would do training, and would also speak to how we would do support and we're trying to

compress those costs. so i've got to do it standard. we have to do it large scale because then we could have the biggest impact. so you all understand these concepts, so i wanted to share that with you. we're looking forward to possibly some fundraising drives and through "give to sf" where we would have a fund to do these kinds of procurements and so that's what we're looking forward to and we would certainly appreciate your help. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you for that update. that's important information. i mean, i've worked for the federal government in the desemination of devices and training and the collection of it and i understand what you're speaking to in terms of that standardization, but i also remember reading like you wanted to create some kind of hub where people can donate refurbished devices as well.

>> yeah. i think that was in the original strategy plan and i think as we've matured in our thinking and we ended uptaking delivery of some refurbished equipment, when you find that you need ten different kinds of power cords, you know, it's just a mess. it's just way too difficult to manage in a large scale and i think, you know, refurbished equipment might be great for one small place where you might be doing some trainings and you have the technical expertise there to manage the different types of devices and troubleshoot, but what we're trying to do is push out a large number and keep our support costs low, you have to standardize. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. that makes sense. i'm just also trying to help you think creatively because another big goal of our commission is to help branch small business with that social equity work because there's so many points of connection that

are often not seen by our legislators. they kind of silo us when it comes to some of the bigger picture, you know, social, you know, projects, social equity projects and i think this is one that small businesses can help with a lot. i think, you know, we have a lot of independent technology, you know, businesses that have scaled products, you know, they have used products. they have onhand staff that can help you. i would love to empower those types of businesses in our small business community hubs once this programming gets built out a little bit. i would love to connect with some of our, i know, for example, the sf firefighters credit union was doing kind of an informal, you know, project

on their own, you know, where they have -- i think there's different businesses that might have equipment that they don't use anymore or they have some kind of resource to offer if we do need to build out some programming to the standardized approach that you take up. i just wanted to put that out there that i think this is a good next step for small businesses contributing. >> and, certainly we're going to be looking forward to our local l.b.e.s contributing to any of the projects that maybe be coming forward. so we look for them to help us on these jobs. [please stand by]

during this entire pandemic. i guess to put some context and it. , seeing how this digital divide has grown during the last year and half, so i kind of dug in to your strategic plan early on and i'm curious about a lot of these things and

how we can helpour small business community . a lot of the plan is targeted towards residents and individuals and increasing their access and increasing their digital literacy . how do you see the data for smallbusinesses so far ?has there been aneffort to find out about the gap for small businesses ? >> that's really around ray's work. where you mentioned theprogram that just was completed for training . and the delivery through community-based organizations, theentrepreneurship and e-commerce digital stills playbook . that playbook would and reagan canchime in here , about how

you start off with digital skills. how you leverage marketing. what resources areavailable . how you deal with cyber security. those are the kinds of expertise that the playbook can bring and we get people starte thinking in a more digital way . how do you do that procurement side. how you do b-to-b. ray, do you haveany thoughts ? >> when i look at our playbook i use the analogy of the internet connectionbeing the road that you travel on . the device being the car. and then the digital literacy skills as drivers and . some have got drivers and going through school, some folks didn't and just gotin the car and drove .

so i think this training, what it can do for businesses that have largely been brick-and-mortarfor a long time is help them transition into a digital world . this is like addeddistribution channels . if you can feature your product or service across multiple platforms, that's a lot of visibility. so for businesses that they might be a cobbler, you might be whatever. you might solely relyon person-to-person, cheek to cheek transaction now you come and get this training that's free . you can be equipped now to participate in this digital economy. what i shared in terms of the curriculum, that was only a fraction of what's in the curriculum. only a fraction.

i'd be happy to share it with you, happy to get your ideas, thoughts, curiosities around what's in there andmaybe we can enhance it a little bit because you allare tried and true businesses . i'dlove to learn more about what you're thinking about this is just apilot . this is very malleable . we're trying to develop for the next iteration . so we've already identified some passionate folks who want to be instructors. the renaissance business center, not sure if you guys are familiar. we got one of their consultants to jump on board pro bono among others who are in the business community so i love to talk more about how we can access the network and begin sourcing some of our trainers, train the trainers to spread the good news of digital entrepreneurship. >> president: one, i think that

we have a lot of existing businesses that need to it or have needed to prevent. during this past year we've seen in that event there is a gap. it's kind of like, now we want you to take digitalpayments. now we want you to bring your whole menu online . now wewant you to do take-out and visibility . there are businesses that need help and ontop of that many of them need culturally responsive help . not to just the in a language but to understand and meet where the small business owner is what theirfears are about moving forward . there are people who are very connected, but they don't know how totranslate that into their business . so sometimes, i just imagine some of these workshops would be well attended by somebody who's already comfortable with

the startup, it can live in outreach. it's a lot of people who maybe would not know to come to this workshop or it's like, how do we meet people where they are would be my concern in terms of digital literacy. the second piece that i noticed is that in doing a lot of, i think somehow i think it's advocacy would be a word to describe it but i've been in chinatown for many months now trying to get the lay of what' happening and how to support small businesses there . early on i think what i noticed was that there was no reliable internet. like, to do business it's like you said . about individuals, having broadband internet, having cable internet are hardwired

internet is the lifeblood of what we do on a daily basis in terms of streaming, being able to use your favorite software. all these kinds ofthings . so without that in the neighborhood and relying on wi-fi to do business is not necessarily doable. i noticed that you had chinatown now, it said you're working on gettingmore robust wi-fi in the neighborhood . is there an opportunity to get more robust fiber into the neighborhood ? >> that's a tricky one because we allknow chinatown . everything is down together and there's no place to dig. you should see what we have to dojust to get inside the buildings . the buildings areold, the wiring is old . and it's very very expensive.

that's why you don't see that the carriers have done much and have really not built out at the same level that other parts of the city are builtout . one of the pilots that we have underway this year will be something called fixed wireless. you're familiar with wi-fi. and the people that jump on it, the more people, the more the signal strengthgoes down. it also depends on where you are . some like 5g, certain types of 5g will not goaround the building or will not go inside the building . you can light up the road but theminute they walk into the building they don't have wi-fi . so we're going to be piloting and testing some new types of technology with what are called fixed wireless which is a

different type of radio wave signal. that we hope will, we know will penetrate buildings. which would allow us to possibly light up a neighborhood or a corridor or a business corridor. that's what we're looking at right now. we're going to do a test to see if this will workand what type of signal strength we get. what the capacity is going to be . but we have to test this capacity because wi-fi only works to a point. this is a flavor of wi-fi but it's a different kind ofway so it might be much more robust which is what we're hoping for which would help us in places like chinatown . >> president: have you identified anyother member areas of the city that are similar to chinatown . you have either priority areas

for what you're telling me is we can't get get it so we're going to look at other solutions. >> i know at&t put a new tower in chinatown so there should be some relief there. we have always as we mentioned have been focused on residential areas. so we're hoping this pilot we're going to do this year will also be able to test a business corridor or. where focused in district 11 district 10 right now but it's a concept, if the concept works it would be something thatcould be scaled up across the city or in certain neighborhoods to be implemented . that's kind of where we are right now. it's changing rapidly and we certainly understand the need. but it has to work.it has to work andit has to work inside

buildings . we have to have not just one personon at a time . so there's a lot of technology challenges to cope with . >> president: this idea of internet if you walk into a place and they say a course we have internet but do you have consistent internet, strong internet . what are your upload and download speeds. when you start to date in that's when you realize that were true and equities in our neighborhood because i was walking with commissioner dickerson . one of the first people we talked to had a robust business and is a wonderful letter of the community and as she's finding her page it's taking forever yes, our internet is slow . this is in the bayview.

it's not just in chinatown, probably not just in bayview either of us we're talking about true equity i think not having the physical infrastructure like we would just describe the difference between the ability, the netflix and the ability to do other things, that's a huge and equity that is only goingto increase if there's no actual investment into this . i do not think that wi-fi at this point in time, if you're talking about economic recovery post covid which is today, that's not happening. i just don't understand how. and i'm not upset at you. i don't know how many times, so that's why this is just ... this has become a passion. >> mind you, you can't get me started on this, i'll talk all

night. but let's put it in context. to implement broadband for the entire city, we did the analysis . we had 2.5 billion.what we focused on when the board of supervisors, they said what we want you to do is focus on affordable housing first so it's not to say that there would be an opportunity in the future to expand and we all know there are investments coming and grant projects coming from the federal government. we are about half a year away from that . depending on how it's really for residential as well with your help maybe we can find ways to make it more business brian is on the call. you remember seeing anything about small business in that grant ? >> yes linda. there is definitely as part of

the economic development component of these grants, it's not been solely devoted to residential service . a lot of it can be for middle networks. often they use access by residents as a metric to say this area is unserved or underserved . but the subsequent networks that are built would be just serve both residents and businesses. in other words they say where do we want to prioritize and they use mostlyresidential metrics for that . but then in terms ofservices that are seats subsequently up those would be both businesses and residential . >> president: it's hard for me to believe that the areas that are underserved right now are

the most just physically challenging places to get to. i feel like we've been saying this for years ever since we even got cable tv. that's kind of the inception of technology in this form. i feel like there are other factors that are preventing people from becoming digitally life present. i think those factors need to be addressed when we are really talking about the digital divide because we're seeing it in terms of how our students are going to school. there are really kids living in bunkbeds, doing homework on a smart phone. that is a reality that we have to live through and there are small business owners who do not havereliable internet to be able to take payments or be able to run a business .when we're talking about trying to help people recover i feel like

we have to have that real conversation why certain neighborhoods are being left out because i feel like at the pace thatwe're moving right now , it's your left behind today, it's going to be that much more difficult to catch up and we know this on an individual level. we need to face that idea when it comes to our burgeoning corridors. >> certainly. >> president: ihave other questions but i'd like to follow up .i hope my passion hasn't scared you. >> no, i'm with you. >> i'm here to help open those doors in the neighborhood but sometimes it can be challengin . i hope that we will be able to have this relationship and i'm ready to pound the pavement with you guys and get people on

board. i hope you will use me and adjust my excitement for what you're doing, hopefully we can continue this conversation after this meeting today. >> thank you. >> commissioner dooley. >> i think i've had my questions answered by the previous commissioners questions. >> perfect. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. we have commissioner ortiz-cartagena? we may have lost them. i see him but i donot hear him .

commissioner, yourmicrophone is muted if you're trying to talk . speaking of internet connectio , the commissionerrelate to me his frustration that he doesn't have a good internet signal at his business . andi think it's relevant to the subject and case in point . commissioner ortiz-cartagena, ifyou can hear us speak up as soon as you are back and we will get you in here. vice president zouzounis . >> vice president: thankyou to our presenters and thank you to commissioner dooley for making sure this item on our agenda and joining in the conversation . >> great. i second the thanks of commissioner huie and her excellent leadership and i

appreciate you coming in and presenting on thisimportant topic . a couple quickquestions on my end . it was the first or second slide mentioned in the survey. i was wondering if you would be willing to share that survey with us in the meeting materials that can be postedto our agenda. i'd like to look at it . not now but later when it's appropriate. it seemed likethere was some really interesting stuff in there . i know it doesn't come as a surprise to me that there are still large numbers of people without internet access but it's still even seeing that on some level is shocking that 7.6 percent of the populationdon't have internet at all in san francisco . the internet center of the world. and 15percent don't have reliable broadband . to me , it seems reallyhard to

build a small business . to be an entrepreneur and to be successful without having reliable internet. i want to send everything commissioner huie said and anyway our commission can be of assistance to you and helpful to you in moving forward on this goal i think is critical and important. mythird question , minor question. on the areas needing service, i noticed treasure island was not highlighted. do they havereliable internet there ? a little back story, i used the reverse there with a band that certainly wasn't the case then perhaps things have changed. >> know, we have to shoot microwaveover and we're barely able to make it to the fire

station . and what we had with vaccines going on at the fire station, we had to bring our silent trailer and and shoot a wi-fi signal into the building for thedoctors and nurses that were doing that work . the good news, that's bad news. the good news is that with the buildout of treasure island, the city will have 2 conduits on that island that will provide internet service to affordable housing and other locations. but is thatsomething you want to add ? >> know, just that. >> i'm sorry, please continue. >> it is as linda pointed out very bad internet access currently. in that case we have a path for both getting across the bridge with cyber and an ability with

the templates to build cyber to all the addresses there. >> president: are those condiments going on the bridge or under the day ? >> we're using the fiber to the island is on the bridge and as part of the laying out of the new street plan, we will have conduits in the street so we're using shared fiber across the consortium across the bridge. and on the islands, treasure island will have a conduit that we were discussing. >> president: quick question for you ray. on the cbo programs, perhaps you guys mentionedthis and i missed it and if so i apologize . is there any room there or

contemplation of a mentor ship program with existing businesses that have perhaps a good internet strategy and you know, would be willing to spend a little bit of time other businesses get their sea legs if you will ? >> to answer your question, yes. there's a mentor ship component baked in their viaan existing relationship . we tried to be very resourceful but it's a pilot. we didn't exactly get funded for this so we're partnering with our respective partners for community ventures. renaissance center and others. so to answer your question, ye . that's an extremely important component . we want to promote a community

field where you can tap into a brand of everyonearound you. if you continue that way in business , i think that's a strongindication you will be successful in business . >> president: my business is located in bayview and i'd be happy to lend a couple of hours to train or teach or coach or mentor any young or old. china's young in terms of the business, not the age of the entrepreneur. but help any body that's looking to make that transitio . certainly i'm an easy person to find and contact so don't hesitate to reach out once you get that program up and going. all right. are there any other questions before i move on to public

comment ? sorry, there is. commissioner, youare back . commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> i'm deep intobayview and i have horrible internet connection . i'm deep in the water in bayview. so this is right up my alley. as commissioner and also as a ceo found her in the missing district one of the biggest things my co-commissioners have this is the digital preservation of small businesses. we mentioned all the stuff you didin the presentation . that's just a gap and it creates more barriers. just generationally. i also helped cofund the mission during the pandemic and

one of the biggest things ... [inaudible] for them to have to go online in the bayview, it's crashing on you you get discouraged and if it's your second job you don't have the time for basic ... [inaudible] we would love to collaborate in one capacity with business agencies and we would like to collaborate to see this through and expand and i just love it. >> i want to saysomething to that if that's okay . we are actually and you'll be thefirst to know outside of my

department . you're actually kicking off an event in the mission focused on the mission that caters to latinx households. what is is the emergency broadband benefit that we're really focusing again in those households and we want to bring in others and we will have already been in contact with one of my colleagues whose over the cultural district in the mission to bringthat in next couple of months . i would love to talk to you off-line to see how we can leverage a partnership because i understand whatyou're saying aboutthe bayview . that's something that linda , brian and myself are acutely awareof and are actively addressing with the resources we have .thank you. >> president:wonderful. commissioner ortiz-cartagena,

are you done ? we may have lost it. great. i'll see any other ... commissioner huie class i realized i am coordinating or i'm attending and helping to coordinate bringing people into chinatown to kind of walk-through and understand infrastructure and its needs . i would love to have you guys come to some of those as well. that's my. [bleep] and i will follow up with you after the meeting i wanted to put it out there that i'm ready to invite you guys out and hopefully we can make some substantial change. >> i am open, let me know please.

>> president: i think it's time toopen it up for public comment. are there any public commenters on the line ? okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you again ray and linda and brian for your excellent presentation . we are all standing ... >> someone did result there ha . >> president: wonderful, pleas allow them to proceed . >> caller: that evening commissioners. my name is lily holt >> . [please stand by]

dsl. that a reality and thank you to commissioner huie for highlighting it and for attending and being part of this conversation. >> thank you. so, any other callers on the line? >> no one else on the line. >> public comment is closed. linda, brian and ray thank you so much. appreciate you spending time with us and bringing us up to speed on your very important work and we are in solidarity with all of you. we're ready to help any way we can. feel free to use us as a resource. happy to put you on the agenda with any updates or anything you might find to be of interest to the small business community and look forward to working with you again. >> thank you.

>> all right. next item please. >> item 4, board of supervisors file 210-810 business signs on awnings and marquees in addition to projecting signs in various districts and certain chinatown mixed use districts. in the eight priorities of the planning code and public necessity, convenience and general welfare findings pursuant to section 302. this is a discussion and action item. presenting today legislative aide to supervisor stefani and

audrey malone. >> it is great to be here this evening. happy to see all of you, virtually though and not in person, but i'm sure we'll get there. i'm joined by audrey malone from the planning department as well who will provide expertise on the item. before you is an amendment to article 6 of the planning code that contemplates how signage is regulated in the city of san francisco. specifically, supervisor stefani is proposing a sign to have business signs regulated in business corridors and chinatown

mixed use district. presently, businesses with suggesting signs and awnings are not allowed to have sign copy on both of those types of signs, i'm going to do my best to not get too much in the weeds on this and leave that to audrey when she has a chance to speak, but i wanted to give a bit of background on this proposal. coming to supervisor stefani's office with an enforcement case against them for having sign copy on both their projecting sign and awnings on their business. we looked into this a little bit more and found this rule had been started in 1994 right around the time that a lot of policies were being implemented.

we found that about a little less than 400 businesses across san francisco were currently out of compliance. it doesn't seem as if having sign copy on both projecting signs and awnings was operating against the public good or contributing to visual issues in any of our commercial corridors. nor had there been a significant number of enforcement cases brought against business owners. supervisor stefani's office wrote a proposal and it is before you today and we're hoping that we can have your support. with that, i will turn it over to my colleague audrey, we do have a power point. if you could pass over controls

to me, i can pull that power point up. >> i believe you should have them. >> i do not yet. >> i do see the slide -- i don't think i allow my computer to record me and why i maybe can't share. are you able to pull that slide deck up i sent? >> let me get it pulled up. >> i'll introduce myself.

good evening commissioners. i work in the legislative analysis division of the planning department. dominica asked me to come here today, it's a visually appealing presentation i guess you could say. in the sense that the ordinance would do something that would change the way we visually see our store fronts. so even though we're just changing a few words from ors to ands, it can get a little confusing. we put together a few examples to give you an idea. great. as that is getting organized for you to see, i wanted to make sure the first point of clarification was explained, which is that the planning code's ideally signage and

different types of signage but we also regulate awnings. those are separate from awning signs. businesses in most neighborhoods can have an awning and not put their business name on that awning and that would not count toward signage. that is just the first thing i wanted to make sure is clear. right now a business could choose to have an awning, in most zoning districts. they would have to meet the dimensional requirements on the slide. if they don't put their business name on the awning, they can have a projecting sign or in certain districts they could also have a wall sign. if we could go to the next slide. this is just a diagram in the planning code that shows what the dimensional limits are visually instead of a chart. we can go to the next slide. this is taken from the sign

handout to give you a visual of what we're talking about when we mention different signs. the first is the wall sign. that is something either embedded into the face of the building or attached directly to the face of the building. in most districts, those wall signs can be indirectly or directly illuminated. then we have projecting signs, which is one of the ones we're going to focus on today, that is something that starts on the wall of the building. it is afixed to the wall but projects out on to the street. then we have the awning signs, which means you have the regular awning and it is still subject to all of the dimensional controls that we were talking about earlier. you can put your business's name on the awning and it makes it a sign versus just an awning. the next slide. we pulled a very quick example from a business not in san francisco. so we don't get anybody in

trouble. this is in georgetown in washington d.c. of a business that currently would not be in compliance with our sign regulations because right now you cannot have a projecting sign and an awning sign in most of our neighborhood commercial residential commercial, residential mixed use. pretty much all of our zoning districts across the city, except for our -- i believe some of our industrial districts. we're not going to touch those today. if the business's name was not on the awning, this would be totally legal. because their name is on the awning, it is currently illegal by our code standards. next slide. under the proposed ordinance, the pointing out all of the reasons why this is legal, essentially the end story is that the projecting sign and the

awning sign could exist in this way. it does not mean any of the dimensional requirements in the code would go away or be moved. with the blue lines that is showing in an awning, the dimensional requirements that still exist, whether you put your sign on it or not. with the yellow, we show that's the signed copy and that copy for your sign on your awning must be no more than in this scenario, i said 40 square feet. that is the regulation in the district. the projecting sign, which is on the left of the photo with the pink has a bunch of different sign requirements. it can't be too high. it can't sit too low and can't extend out too far and be too big. the last two slides, go to the next one. i won't get into them too much. just to give you an idea and you

are welcome to look back at it later. all of these requirements are the dimensional requirements that still exist across the district that the ordinance is proposing to affect for projecting signs. these would remain in place. these would not change. the last slide. this is our copy, our sign copy limitations for awning signs in all of these districts. this also would not change. so the ordinance is proposing that instead of choosing between the two, projecting signs and awning signs, you can combine them both but you have to meet the regulations. i'm here to answer questions and apologize if i made it more confusing. >> thank you audrey.

just to close, we're fully aware that this is not the most groundbreaking piece of legislation that will save small businesses, but the supervisor is confident this is one fix or one bandaid if you will to the many thousands of cuts that businesses have faced over the years. like i said at the beginning, there are about 400 businesses out of compliance currently and they are effectively sitting targets for enforcement cases should someone with a lot of time on their hands take the initiative to file a complaint against those businesses and that's what we're trying to prevent with this proposal. >> do we have questions? i'll start with one while we

wait. projecting signs, i get excited, i think we're going to have- -- you just mean signs coming out of the building, projecting out of the building. as part of the sign code regulations that govern lighting of the signs or when they can be lit or -- >> yes. >> there are. it is on the last couple of pages of the presentation. the last row, regulated lum nation. most projecting signs can be either directly or indirectly illuminated. certain districts have limitations on that, especially during business hours for direct

or in neighborhoods. >> commissioner adams i'm going to invite you to make some comments because you have a lot of background in this and undoubtedly have useful observations for the rest of us. >> i think it's a great piece of legislation and like dominica said, this isn't groundbreaking but one of these little pieces of legislation that will help. the city does have restrictions on big illuminated signs. you can't have them at mid market. that was passed on a prop probably about 15 years ago, san francisco beautiful didn't want big electric signs on market street so they got banned. something like this, i feel, it helps. with all the weird things about

laws, this is clean-up stuff and i really appreciate supervisor stefani's clean up of this kind of stuff. that's all. >> it's certainly my observation there's a lot of legislation that becomes a zombie if you will, just marching on, dragging the rest of us to its doom. so this is the thankless part of government policy work that doesn't get all the big articles in the paper, but this is the stuff that really has the material impact on the businesses. so i would like to add my thanks as well. >> and it makes it seem -- it makes it look better and bring more life. you know what i mean? >> totally agree.

commissioner zouzounis? >> thank you to the presenters, we appreciate you coming before us. audrey, nice to meet you and dominica, nice to see you. i'm always here to support something that goes and looks at the codes on our books that need to be taken off. especially regulations and codes put in during broken window era time, i think there's a lot that our commission can follow up on and this creates a strong precedent for. i'm looking forward to getting into code with you all another time around related items. quick question i had. we know, and thank you for naming that this is something that is largely affecting a lot

of our retailers, immigrant-owned businesses, legacy businesses that have awnings they inherited, corporately sponsored signs that they didn't necessarily put in or have a choice even in becoming compliant. my question was, is it an awning that doesn't have your business name but has another business name, like coca-cola or something, does it fall into the same rules? >> unfortunately that would be considered an advertising sign because it's not just naming your business. it would be different if it said, your cafe, you put it and next to it you say what you serve. coffee, tea, snacks. that's all fine. that's fine saying what your business is about.

a corporate sponsored sign falls into an advertising sign. >> i'm interested in learning also, i'm sure you did research in this area around advertising signs since we do have some laws, which not a lot of businesses know about, but they have to do with coverage, certain space of your window area you can't have covered. certain signage you can't have. if we're expecting this to be kind of an action item for small businesses, they're going to have to come into compliance with awnings and signs and submit something to planning. i would love to see and maybe that's on us in terms of coordinating with other agencies or programs, but i would love to see sf shines or whatever other pro active programs that do outreach to include information on what you can and can't have in terms of advertising signs and what you need to do to get

into compliance with your business sign and all in one place since i'm sure you all did some related research on that and found there's city laws that have been updated in that area. >> we have a great description on our website of different signs. the city generally looks on advertising signs much more strictly than business for identifying signs but we'll take the comments into consideration. as far as enforcement goes of all of the businesses out of compliance, this ordinance would not force the hand of businesses to come in, we are still an enforcement division that is complaint-driven. so the good news, there shouldn't be a huge rush of businesses that feel they have to come in, this is more if they

do receive enforcement complaint against them, they can legalize it easily and resolve the complaint rather than lose signage. >> that's great. thank you for your response. >> thank you. are you done vice president zouzounis? okay. commissioner huie? >> thank you for bringing that to light. i really appreciate the trigger of the action in terms of not addressing it as a single thing, looking at the actual legislation, thinking about that more broadly. i'm wondering, are we talking about getting rid of the piece of legislation or how do we get

rid of the piece of legislation? is one of my questions. >> right now the code says that businesses cannot have copy or business names effectively on both a projecting sign and awning. it says you can have sign copy rotated on permitted awnings in lieu of wall signs and projecting signs and the change that is proposed or this legislation is a striking of that language that says in lieu of and replaces it with in addition to. so it makes an allowance for the businesses to have sign copy on both permitted awning and wall signs and projecting signs. i don't know if that helps

clarify it. >> yeah, i think -- sorry. >> explaining this change can be somewhat more difficult to do in laymen's terms but essentially a business can have business name on the sign that comes out from the building and on their awning as long as the awning is permitted. >> so in other words -- >> there's nothing the business needs to do? >> if someone were to file a complaint, this would give them a much easier pathway towards

resolving that complaint because they would simply need to get a permit for the sign. under current laws, they would have to remove the sign all together. >> okay. i really do appreciate, too, that in assessing this piece of legislation, looking at the outcomes and how the outcomes over the years, looking at enforcement and outcomes gives us the real answer talking about equity. we talk about it every day. equity. we know what pieces of legislation -- we know what they're doing. and outcomes when it's not levied equally. and so i think to look at things more carefully as that and being able to see what they are is really important. i think even in the legislative

process, just the way we do in our individual processing. i appreciate that this was brought up and i hope we can find more speed bumps that maybe don't look super discriminatory on the front-end but in outcome and enforcement, they create speedbumps for the path towards equity for all of our businesses. thank you. >> great. any other commissioner comments or questions? okay. so, is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is

closed. do we have a motion? >> i'll motion. >> second. >> a motion to approve? >> yes, a motion to approve this piece of legislation. sorry. >> motioned by commissioner adams and seconded by commissioner dooley. (roll call vote) motion passes. >> thank you. congratulations. good to see you again dominica. nice to meet you audrey and

thank you for bringing this excellent piece of legislation to us. >> thank you commissioners. >> looking forward to seeing you again soon. >> take care. >> next item please. >> item 5. board of supervisors file 210-934 mandatory disability access improvement, extension of time deadlines. this was a discussion and action item. this is an ordinance amending the building code to extend the time for existing buildings with a place of public accommodation to comply to have all primary entrees and paths of travel into the building accessible to persons with disabilities or receive city determination of technical infees ability or hardship to granted the extensions from the deadlines and extend the time for department of building inspections report to the board of supervisors.

this is discussion and action item and we have jeff buckley of the department of building inspections presenting. and jeff, you should have presenter abilities. >> thank you commissioners. my name is jeff buckley policy and public affairs director with department of building inspection. before going to the slide deck, i wanted to highlight that this legislation, sponsored by mayor breed is a collaborative effort between dbi and also with the mayor's office of disability and with the office of small business. we worked very closely with the

director to craft this legislation and me in learning through the process learned that this legislation had its origins in the office of small business. so i think -- i'm happy to kind of come back and provide you both an introduction, refresher if you will to the program itself and talk about some of the legislative changes that go with it. what we have before us, i wanted to provide a little bit of context with the program -- >> we can't see your screen yet.

are we okay now? >> perfect. >> excellent. all right. the accessible business entrance program was created in 2016 with the strong support and crafting of the office of small business. what it does, it helps property owners comply with existing state and federal accessibility laws and really helps small businesses get ahead of the threat of litigation that has really resulted from not only the passage of the americans with disabilities act 31 years ago but the structure of enforcement that resulted from the passage of the piece of federal legislation. the passage unlike other federal efforts that consolidated enforcement through the federal

government or deferred that to local or state governments, in the case of the americans with disabilities act, for a whole host of reasons, ada enforcement was designated through the courts and really essentially kind of transferred that from the government to the individuals who file litigation to ensure that the entrance ways and elements of the business are accessible for persons with disabilities. so this legislation as i mentioned was created locally in 2016 to really help local businesses kind of get ahead of the threat of the lawsuits. so it focused on placing the public accommodation. these are businesses that serve the public and are generally included in the accessability business entree program. you can see the list of the different types of businesses that exist in terms of providing public accommodation. they include everything from

bars and restaurants and hotels to grocery stores and daycare centers. but ultimately it's a place that the public will enter to purchase goods or services. for the legislation, what is required is to come into compliance with the legislation. so property owners are required to submit initial forms and do pre-screening forms to certify their building does not qualify in the program. there are waiver forms for property owners who believe the building complies with the program requirements. and then ultimately a category checklist compliance form for property owners who really need to renovate to come into compliance with the ordinance. this form is completed by inspectors that are licensed engineer architects or certified

access specialists as part of the site inspection. in order to come into compliance, you have to secure building permits and renovate the property. if the construction is required, the owner is ultimately responsible for securing the necessary building permits and renovating the property. i will note, we understand in some cases, the relationship between the property owner and small business owner is nuanced and there may be times where the small business owner may have as terms of their lease aspects of the requirements to make their building come into compliance with either this ordinance or language related to the ada compliance. i will note, again, as we get into enforcement, ultimately, where dbi is focused its attention is the property owner. that's where we take enforcement actions against. currently, this is really a big

reason why we're making the changes to the legislation. we currently have 11,398 addresses that are non compliant, which equates to about 5,589 individual property owners. the current deadline for the program to be able to come into compliance is september 1st. as i mentioned, there's interdepartment team working together on the deadline extension and looking at the program in general. so those actions will be forth coming. so the legislation, what it does, it is pretty simple. it extends the deadline for property owners to come into compliance by two years. as you are well aware, we have been through and continue to be through a global pandemic. one of the areas we felt was important was to extend the program for two years to make

sure with the high number of people we have, our businesses out of compliance, to give them the opportunity to come into compliance. the first step as i mentioned before, submit a compliance checklist. we're moving the date from september 30th, 2021, to a year later. and we're doing the same, keeping the same sequence with the previous legislation to the current -- i should say, how the current legislation is drafted now and how it will appear if it is passed by the board of supervisors. property owners would need to file the application for a building permit about three months after the deadline to submit compliance. ultimately, they're required to obtain the required building permit by the end of september 2023. so, we are not just going to

enforce an ordinance. we are also going to have a robust outreach and engagement strategy with property owners. part of our key element is communication will be done with property owners because they're ultimately the ones responsible for compliance. they're also ultimately the entities we hold accountable for their properties. so in doing so, we're partnering with the mayor's office, city administrator's office, office of small business, the mayor's office of disability and other departments working with community groups and organizations to leverage, reinforce and expand our outreach. and certainly interested in hearing from you about ways the be effective in terms of being able to outreach both to the property owner community and small business community. we will be using repetition and

strong marketing to capture attention and spur action. and our communication is designed to funnel owners to a website for compliance information and instruction. our intention is to make the information available online so it's easier for property owners to be able to submit their information and that is something that will start to come. for those familiar with mail campaigns of any kind, we're really going to try to do a chase program here, direct mail and e-mail chases to follow property owners and make sure they are coming into compliance and do it around every sequence of our -- every stage they are required to submit documents or permit. and ultimately we're going to create a new brochure and we have a strong outreach strategy

that centers around property owners and getting the word out to many different entities, including to you tonight. so with that, i'll stop sharing my screen and be happy to take any questions you have. >> thank you. commissioner dooley? >> i'm just curious about by extending this further, how does that affect in any way the businesses that are not in compliance in terms of being sued in the meantime? do you have any comments on that? >> would you like me to take that one? >> yes please, regina. >> this is the challenge of

dealing with accessibility. we have the accessible business entrance program. and this legislation and it is important to think about this legislation as a program to help property owners come into compliance with the ada and making it accessible. the ada has been in place since 1996, somewhere around there. during this time, all -- any time a business is occupying a space that may not have an entree way that is compliant or a property owner, that obligation has been there and that obligation continues to be there and even though we are extending this out, it doesn't necessarily change the

obligation of both the business and property owner in relationship to accessibility. it didn't -- with the original business -- the timing of the original business entree program, it -- businesses still need to know what they may need to do to make their entree way compliant for themselves. if the property owner is not taking action, they may need to know that they may need to find equivalent facilitation. so in some ways, this is part of what the joint communication is going to happen. dbi is going to be working and communicating with the property owners and we're having conversations and developing a parallel program for the businesses to make sure they understand even though the obligation is on their property owner.

they still may want to do -- we're highly recommending still doing an inspection for the interior and entree way because they still may need to protect themselves during the time frame of which the property owner may take to comply with it. again, it's readily achievable. it's a readily achievable obligation. a business readily achievable obligation may not be as high as the property owner's obligation is because of the value of the property. i don't know if i'm -- if i answered your question. but question, commissioner

dooley? >> thank you. >> okay. any other commissioner questions? don't see any other questions. let's check in on public comment. >> no one raising their hand for public comment. >> seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, this seems like a no-brainer to me. i will make a motion to approve the legislation. >> i'll second. approval of the legislation. >> okay. motion to approve by president laguana and seconded by commissioner adams. (roll call vote)

motion passes. >> thank you jeff. i appreciate you coming and making the presentation to us and thank you for your work on this. >> thank you commissioners. have a good night. >> thank you jeff. >> next item, please. >> item 6, update on employee retention tax credit, the employee retention tax credit is a refundable tax credit designed to reward and encourage businesses to keep employees on payroll. it's a discussion and potential action item. >> commissioners, you have heard me talk at length about the employee retention tax credit, simply by filing a form, businesses can get $33,000 per

employee -- up to $33,000 per employee and what a huge opportunity that is for our businesses. you have heard me talk about the fact that nationwide only 30,000 businesses have availed themselves of the employee retention tax credit. as a reminder, we have 100,000 small businesses in san francisco. not even one third of san francisco's businesses nationwide have applied for the tax credit. it's a huge, huge massive opportunity and i would love san francisco to be a leader on applying for this tax credit, especially with all of the businesses that are struggling with rent and struggling to get back on their feet, the employee retention tax credit is something that is just lying out there, doesn't rely on banks or funds that could run out. it is simply something

businesses can do. the complexity as we have discussed is it is complicated to apply for the tax credit. i -- you may recall we had oawd in and we brought up the issue with her. she followed up by directing her staff to create a program for outreach and education for small businesses and there is now a website up and chamber of commerce has followed up by putting a website up with lists of a few cpa's with multi language support. there's a document that oawd has created with multi language support and it is all good and an important step in the right direction. with that said, even with these

programs being up there and education on how to do this and even with the fact that there are cpa's with multi language support available to help them do this, i think we all know that the businesses least likely to benefit from this program, even after outreach, the ones with no money right now and those businesses are disproportionately going to be in communities of concern, they are going to have language is going to be a challenge for them, money is going to be a challenge for them. what i would like to do with this commission's approval is issue a resolution requesting oawd create a program, a funded program to provide grants for businesses, specifically for the

purpose of filing their employee retention tax credit tax returns. in my experience, this costs about $150 per employee. the precise amount will be subject to whatever oawd negotiates with the provider. but the resolution would simply be that oawd create a pilot program to see whether or not this would help us help some businesses that otherwise would not have availed themselves to the program. in other words, we're going to grab small businesses and pick them up and drag them kicking and screaming to the employer retention tax credit promise land and with a very tiny minimal almost insignificant investment put tens of thousands

of dollars in their pockets and do something to directly impact and help our small business community. this is the single most effective thing that the city i think could possibly do, it generates the highest return on investment of any program i have heard of since i have been on this commission. i think that the city does and can do a lot of great things. but i can't imagine anything that would be more impactful than this. so the update is -- well, you heard the update. what i would like to do is make a motion that we draft a resolution. we have to give notice to draft the resolution and then notice before the resolution. i couldn't just pop a resolution on all you guys. we had to talk about it first. but i would like to make a

motion that we draft a resolution encouraging the oawd to create a pilot program to fund doing -- helping small businesses get these tax credits. that's the motion. and if you have any questions, you know, i'm just trying to move quickly through this. if you have questions, by all means. but commissioner ortiz-cartagena? >> not necessarily a question but i want to commend you. you have been campaigning for this and i see it on the streets now. i appreciate that. we could do the resolution like

you just mentioned, some component of equity in some of the corridors to be in the resolution if you don't mind. >> absolutely. so i'm reminded, i can't make a motion until we've had public comment. so we'll await to see if there's any other commissioner questions or feedback or comments. >> great job in having oawd and our office to blast it. i got the public library to blast it as well. if you think this is the next step for having them focus towards making a more concentrated effort here, i'm in support. >> wonderful. okay, i don't see any other

questions. any public commenters on the line? >> no one on the line for public comment. >> okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. i would like to make a motion requesting oawd to create a pilot program to help our small businesses apply for and obtain the employee retention tax credit with a focus on communities of concern and commissioner ortiz-cartagena, i would invite you to help me with what precisely additionally you would like me to add to the motion. >> to make sure they are translating the information available in spanish and the various languages at the same time. >> multi language support.

of course. we'll fix it in the mix. do we have a second? >> i'll second it. >> thank you. sorry. all right. (roll call vote) motion passes. >> perfect. >> i think you forgot me. >> i did. commissioner zouzounis. >> yes. >> motion passes.

>> thank you all for your support. we'll have a resolution for you to review and vote on at the next meeting. next item please. >> item 7 approval of draft meeting minutes. an action item. >> commissioners, are there any comments or questions on the minutes? okay. are there members of the public who would like to make comments on item number 7. >> there's no one on the line for public comment. >> public comment is closed. commissioners, do we have a motion? >> i move to approve the minutes. >> moved by commissioner dooley. >> i'll second. >> seconded by commissioner adams -- >> no, ortiz-cartagena. >> sorry, i can't track on this very well. >> you'll get it down soon enough. >> all right. (roll call vote)

motion passes. >> great. next item please. >> item 8 general public comment. a discussion item that allows members of the public to comment on matters within the jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. >> any members of the public who would like to make comments on any item not on today's agenda? >> there's no one on the line for public comment. >> public comment is closed. next item please. >> item 9 director's report, update and report on the office

of small business and small business center, department programs, policy and legislative matters and announcements from the mayor and regarding small business activities. this is a discussion item. >> good evening commissioners. matthew, if i could get the ability to share my screen please. commissioners, i'm going to share my report. i do have some bit of information that i would like to make sure you see. but we'll follow up with a more thorough memo for you.

all right. hopefully you can see this. i first want to start off with just information from the office of small business and business assistance center. starting this week, we are reducing our in person services from -- instead of five days a week, to three days a week. this is a direct result that one of our business counsellors has accepted another position and so therefore is no longer here. we will have in person services tuesday, wednesday and thursday. 9:00 to 5:00 and monday's and friday's, our services are available by phone and e-mail. and then today the mayor announced an investment of

$42 million to support san francisco work force development to help approximately 10,000 seeking employment. and it is going to focus on areas that support -- it's going to support neighborhood satellite and specialized job centers and in terms of finding jobs with those -- through those entities. jobs that are targeted for serving transitional aged youth. develop pilot programs for the vulnerable community and work force development for san francisco's black and african american communities and this announcement came out right before the commission meeting so i will be forwarding you the details. but just to make sure you are aware of that. the next thing i want to bring to your attention, as we start

to kind of work through our deadlines of -- our deadlines through waivers, deferrals, that were there to help small businesses manage their cash flow, want to just bring to your attention we will have at this point, the planned end of the commercial eviction moratorium will end september 30th. we just talked about that through item number 2. and while the first tier of businesses that will be directly affected by obligation of paying back rent is tier 4 i believe it is. and that is businesses that have 50 or more employees.

so, that basically, the rent will come due october 1st. then november 1st are going to be two years of licence renewal and one year of business registration renewal. businesses -- businesses that have a place of entertainment will not need to pay for their licensed renewals and any associated licence. so if it is a place of -- (please stand by...)

i say all have been approved use the point of sale isn't the heart of this particular one but i forgot to mention that because it's on a different cycle. there is tobacco, so to give

you an idea of what's coming ahead for our smallbusinesses. this includes caterers, bakers , all those various businesses that aren't places of entertainment or restaurants . and then i'll be forwarding you information. but with the announcement, the storefrontvandalism release grant application is available . you had heard during the budget period you heard supervisor mandelman's legislation that created this grantsprogram . this is life for businesses

citywide. as exports has established a sender program and the port along with mission economic development agency and mike with our office held a workshop for those who are interestedin becoming vendors . there's 17 locations along the port in which individuals will be able to vend both merchandise and food. though it needs to be noted that food has to follow our mobile food and pushcart regulations to be able to sell food or beverage on the port. and i do believe i forwarded to you but also in our last e-news letter, the city is conducting a language survey so this has been important to for us to

spread through our network. to try to get individuals to fill out the survey. it's been conducted in12 different languages . get feedback onimprovements for city services . for individuals that don't, where english is not their primary language. and then lastlyon the programmatic side as an fyi , the sba is celebrating the small business week this week. and because the pandemic, the traditional month of may for the last 2 years, they did not celebrate small business week sothey're doing it now . to bring that to your attention andof course commissioner zouzounis, ifthere's anything you would like toadd please do . on the legislative front ,

legislation has been heard . the first year freefor storefront or storefront businesses . that path, the board of supervisors last tuesday and again just a reminder that the implementation dates for that is begins november 1. so any new business that starts and register their business november 1 between november 1 and october 31st next year. will has a storefront business will be potentiallyeligible . and again, formula retail is not eligible for this. and that you your question earlier , commissioner. and businesses want to open a second location so it's also providing a chance for

businesses that want to grow and expand are also eligible to partakein the first year free . so we will definitely be working and advising businesses that come in who will be eligible for taking advantage of that. the tax and the treasurer's office is the program, the agency that's going to be managing the program so we wil definitely be working closely with them . and then legislation that has been referred to the commission just recently is an ordinance that amending the administrative code to revive the local business enterprise and nondiscriminationand contracting ordinance . i'm not going to read through this but it is addressing, it is some of the key light highlights is it is going to be increasing thresholds. lbd certification thresholds. it is compounding amentor

protigi program . and one of the items that i know that the commission several years back heard is requiring the crime in terms of making sure the payments are aligned and the city is aware of payments that need to go to lb ease because often, they were holding out on paying the lb ease in a timely manner. so those are a fewthings and so this legislation has been referred to the commission to hear . in addition, the house code, thevarious cannabis sunset dates . because of the covid-19,

medical cannabis dispensaries they were allowing them to deal with the transition, or extending out that timeline to january 1, 2023. that those that have the temporary cannabis business permit have an additional 120 days for december 31st 2022. and then there is an extension of the cannabis event permit pilot program through 2023. and then the planning code requirements for laundromats andon-site services , and then recently, legislation that was introduced this week but we don't know if it hasn't been directly referred yet. an ordinance ending the sunset date for the cannabis oversight committee to january 2025 .

and then the weightsand measures , it turns out initially amanda freed who had mentioned to you i think back in january had noted the weights and measures fees which are billed at the end of the year couldn't be aligned with the march date. that we thought it was the state regulation but it's about not the case. so therefore, we will be aligning the weights and measures be with the march annual license fees. so again, just that's clean up. so that businesses have their consolidated license. one more item to add to the consolidated license so there isn't any misstep on whether certain things were paid or not paid . those are the primary

highlights i'd like to make for youtonight and with that, i will take any questions . >> do we have anyquestions . >> that's helpful. thank you, did you send that to us? >> i will be. >> thank you. >> any other questions. is there any public comment. >> there is nopublic comment . >> president: public comment i closed . >> item 10, commissioner discussion and new business. this allows the commissioners to report on recent activities,

make announcements that are of interest to the small business community and staff allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration . >> any new business or updates? vice president zouzounis. >> vice president: thankyou everybody for a long meeting . i wanted to ... i guess i wanted to start a conversation and i don't know if this is necessarily something we can discuss in this body or maybe in an equity committee but i do see the board of the supervisors and the mayor silently us a lot of small business from our network . there's a lot of events that are elected are going through

there, they're helping publicize and opening for a business or a community organization events that have to do with businesses. i don't know if our commission receives invites to those as individuals. or if commissioners receive invites if the office receives invites . my concern is not necessarily that we are at every event that we can help with those small business communities for that small business so that they know their electives are helping draw a dialect parallel to our commission and our office because i think a lot of these businesses, they just see the electives and they show up and that's great and i think we make sure that we can have some follow-up and accountability. so that we can be a resource those events.

i don't see that connection happening and itconcerns me , especially when it's happening, when there's events in communities that can use that follow-up and that resource access . i just wanted to pose that and see if there are actual tools we can create that both whether it's an event or a piece of legislation that relates directly to our purview that it somehow comes before us because i'm also seeing things we made resolutions on or brought up whether it's food access, taxis and there's this other piece of legislation related to that in and our commission never find out. it's never referred or our office isnever notified . that's kind of my big question to everybody is to start thinking about tools for ways

to make sure that those connect back to us. and specifically i think the new business items i would like to hear about our i heard there's some taxi legislation coming or changes to taxis so that's indirectly related to something we asked about. i'd also like the food security task force ... i'd like a formal intro to them by our commission. i think a lot of what we've mentioned around how to business, how to bridge small business andsocial impact as it relates to small business . i would like our commission to maybe write them a letter or something asking them for

anything relevant to present to us. with that said i believe there was also a piece of legislatio . you might haveco-authored that had to do with the free market . they're looking to undertake relating to job training and assistance or food access and i think that'ssomething that our small businesses would love to be part of . thank you. >> thank you vice president zouzounis. [inaudible] >> president: the pandemic started in the last two years and some of that may have been pandemic related but i also think some of that hasn't been exercised. maybe they were used too inviting us perhaps i

appreciate you bringing this u . i see that commissioner abbott. [inaudible] i'm open to whatever we can do. as well as the other points you brought up with respect to ... [inaudible] i don't know how to make that happen so perhaps it'ssomething we can figure out how to do together . commissioner. >> i agree and vice president zouzounis, your spot on. we need to get notifications on stuff all the time.

and this is evenbefore the pandemic . it's supervisors and the mayor's office, i used to get and i know this is from other commissioners, notifications all the time. press releases and stuff.i didn't get onepress release during the pandemic . i had to rely on others for press releases and through the office of small business, thank you director.we used to go directly and they had to go through some third parties. the city can do a better job with our commission and that and mta needs to start stepping up and opening up bus lines to the financial district. commuter lanes, i really would like to have somebody out here from mta explained to me how the commuter lanes which were supposed to open up right after labor day.

i know that helps the financial district but i can't tell you how many times when igo to work , how many stores and restaurants and sandwich shops in north beach and the financial districts are starting to open upand anticipating people coming back to the office . i've had several of our commissioners say they're waiting to bring people back on a limited basis but there waiting to bring people back but there's no bus lines from the westside to downtown . it's not open yet. and an article came out in the economist about a month ago. san francisco leaves all major cities in opening up their major business district .part of that is that we are attacked, and people are working from home. they are working from home but want to come here and we've got

to getthis economy backopen . and transportation is a big part of it . the garages are full downtown. you're not in by 8:00, you don't have a parking space and you start opening up some of these transportation limbs. so there, i said . >> i completely agree. and you know, the work of this commission i think over the next year is going to be focused on how we facilitate that. and really get this recovery back ontrack . at themoment , you pointed out we are buying these numbers. it's a fact and you know, that's something that we're going to have to meet more about. and perhaps just being more

productive but as president zouzounis pointed out ... [inaudible] pushing things forward. there's room forimprovement and i completely agree . i think we need to get that humming. it's a chickenand egg problem . >> i will say i have to congratulate the mayor and the department of health . because we did beat this back our numbers evenwith the delta variance . our numbers are dropping . and san franciscans all of us

should be proud. i mean, yougo into any grocery store, everybody'swearing masks you walk on the buses everybody is wearing masks . no one challenges . and i think we all do this and we all do what is right. we need to split up more and you know, we shouldall be proud of ourselves that we did meet this thing back . and we don't have anyhospitals are going crazy and stuff . but with that said, we need to open up a bit more with that too. i don't want our elected officials to go to waste. what they did is they did a fantastic job with this thing and save a lot of lives and now we all need to come together and get this place open and humming againand be that engine . i just worry about these small businesses and these sandwich shops and stuff. i feel like i'm attacked every

day.like encouraging more people in the downtown so i knowa lot of them arewatching . i promised i wouldn't bring this up . if you're in the financial district, go to gloria and montgomery washington. go to some of the small places. help these people out, they really needed. >> thank you president laguana. commissioner zouzounis, i'm going to have to have you take over the meeting. your back? >> president: i had a bit of a power outage here you are back. >> great. fast work. commissioneradams just completed his comments . i don't see anybody else in the

queue. >> president:that's helpful because i can't see the queue . i'm sorry i missedthe rest of that commissioner adams but i got the gist of it and i agree .>> vice president:i'm just trying to get people to go to these small places . more so than in the neighborhoods rightnow . we're just tryingto keep that open .i praise the cityon one hand but on the other hand we've got to get going again . >> president: one thing i'll share is independently i've heard dpw, mta and oewd talk about getting small business stakeholders together for more input on how to getthese things

jumpstarted . and each time it came up i said that's a great idea. let's go. if thosematerialized i'll let you know . we stopped and started and stopped again a joint commission hearing with that mta board that gwyneth and i, chair borden and i had talked about doing. your comments make me realize i should look back with her and maybe we can finally get that off the table because i think there's a lot ofstuff around reopening, around getting streets clean that people want to visit . i think it might be appropriate to check back in with the da on public safety issues. i don't know if you guys saw the flower shop that was burne

. it was in the newsthis morning . it's been there for 100 years and completely burned. director dickinson, do you remember thename of that shop ? >> hanks floral shop. >> president: so we have our work cut out for us. with that being said i have nothing else to say and go ahead. >> i've got one more item. i want to give a shout out and what a great job to the cbd, the new downtown cbd financial district . there might be anybody down there, the streets are the cleanest. our power washing them. every time i see them i thank them for getting in, the

commercial alley is clean. that downtown cbd is the new one in the financialdistrict is doing an outstanding job . there there at seven in the morning. there there at seven at night . and i just think they're doing a great job. it's just so much nicer down there. i had to give a shout out to thatbecause i see themdown there and whoever's running that , they're doing a great job .they've hired some great workers who really do care about keeping the streets clean andi'm so impressed . >> president: theirnew director robbie silver is phenomenal . i had a lovely meeting with him and they have some incredible plans coming up for the holiday that i don't want to be a spoiler and relay what they are when he told me my job was on the floor, that's amazing.

>> you don't see anything out of thestreets there anymore . he's doing a great job. >> president: it's the end of along night so is there any public commenters on theline ? >> there is no one on the line for public comment. >> president: public comment is closed. next item please. >> you are muted. >> sfgov tv, please show item 8,adjournment. this is an action item .do you want toread the closing announcements . >> president: ihave enough here that i can read it . we will end with a reminder

that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions about policies that affect small businesses in san francisco and that the office of small business is the best place to getinformation about doing small business during the emergency . if youneed assistance continue to reach out to the office of small business .do we have a motion to adjourn. >> i moved to adjourn this meeting . >> seconded. >> seconded by commissioner dickinson. commissioner adams commissioner dickinson . >> yes. >>. [roll call vote] motion passes.

the meeting is adjourned at 7:20 9 pm. >> president: appreciate your patience, long meeting . worksh.

i'm going to call the meeting to order. madam secretary, can you do a roll call, please. >> (roll call). you have a quorum. due to the covid 19 health emergencies and the issues, this meeting is being held by tele conference. for those of you watching live