rates, you're helping to support a not for profit that helps influence the energy grid and produce more production. >> i would encourage any business to seriously convert to the clean sf service. it's good for environment, business and the community. >> you can sign up online our call and the great thing is, you'll have the peace of mind that you're doing your part in your household to help the environment. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

>> first of all, thank you for coming to celebrate this incredible milestone. i am really excited that she accepted. because i know what you often times may see is the fights between kim and i. what you don't know is about the friendship and the amount of love and respect i truly have for her and her work ethic from the moment i met her actively engaged in labor in a way that brought the conversation to a different level around women and minorities and their role in leadership and labor. it is good to see more women step up and in fact, it is 125 year history not one woman has ever led the san francisco labor

council and kim is doing that, which is absolutely extraordinary. [applause] and you are the first executive director of the labor council to serve on this work force investment board because i didn't want to appoint the others. just kidding. but in fact, you know, this is so important. when i think about growing up in the western addition and the fights that we used to have to be included in the placements and job opportunities that exist in the city, i feel like we have come a long way but we still have a long way to go to make the real connections between people in many of the communities that many of you represent but himself the same people who want these opportunities, the new jobs that come to san francisco. not just the work related to

construction and engineering but as you know there are even shortage of nurses. the work you have done with nuhw was extraordinary onever the years. how that played a role to make sure there is a real connection between people and the opportunities, through organized labor to make sure they get their fair share, the appropriate pay and benefits and the ability to take care of themselves and their families. you have been doing this work for a really long time. i know that you are going to bring a really strong voice to this body. in the process you are going to make a lot of folks upset what it is you have to say, but i wouldn't have wanted it any other way because some things need to be upset. some things need challenged. in fact, i am not afraid of a challenge and not afraid of the conversations that need to be had to get to a better place

that is what we want. we want a better place so people have better lives. you have dedicated your lives to public service. organized labor but public service because of the people that you know you represent. the people that you know are counting on autophytes for them and make the right decisions that are going to have an impact onnary families and livelihood. regardless of disagreements at the end of the day the underlying message i know that is most important to much of you and i know is important to kill is the fact that we want to fight for better lives for the people we represent. that is why you are going to be serving on this board, and i appreciate and honor that you accepted this opportunity. i am looking forward to seeing something change for the better for workers throughout san

francisco. with that let's debt you sworn in. (applause). >> i will put on my mask. covid is running rampant and we are close to each other. place raise your right hand and repeat. i say your name do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic that i bear true faith and allegiance to the same. that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of

evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter and during such time as i serve as a member of the work force investment san francisco board for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause] >> here is a little city seal pen with my signature. i give this to all people i swear in to serve. ladies and gentlemen, the latest

person for the board tackling work force in san francisco and making real change. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed, for taking time-out of your schedule to do this. thank you to the leaders of labor here today, especially my board members, susan, mike, charlie, debra, and my good friend karen. i want to thank you for taking time for the swearing in. it means a lot to me because i have always been really challenged by the fact there rvs and have notes in the work force, and i really want to fight overcoming making sure that everyone becomes a very. everyone has an opportunity to get a job and a wealthy job and to join a union if they so

choose. that is my mantra since i was little. it is my mantra to this day. i will fight to make sure. that is what the labor council is about making sure there are opportunities for people and career ladders. that has always been what i have been about. i want to make sure that happens. we have seen companies take advantage of people especially during strikes when they go into poor neighborhoods to try to recruit scabs. we knead to emphasize recruiting people to getting into them into construction and janitors and construction trades and up the ladder and nursing, healthcare. these are all opportunities they should all have. we want to make sure that the san franciscans that we all know and love have that opportunity and that is my goal for this.

i really intend to implement a labor caucus to make sure that we are doing what we need to do to give every san franciscan the opportunity be to participate from our economic recovery from covid and overall economic recovery as we get on with opening up the city and making sure that people come to san francisco. those the obstacles before us. i hope we overcome them altogether as we move along. thank you. [applause].

>> hello, my name is jamie harper. in this episode, we are featuring the park locations in your very own backyard.

this is your chance to find your heart in san francisco with someone special. golden gate park's largest body of water is this lake, a popular spot for strolling and paddling around in boats, which can be rented. created in 1893, it was designed foreboding and -- for boating. it is named for the wild strawberries that once flores. a pleasant trail follows the perimeter past huntington falls, 110 foot waterfall. two bridges connect the trail to the island. the climb to the hills summit, the highest point in golden gate park at more than four hundred feet.

you can get quinces of the western side of the city through -- glimpes of the western side of city through a thick trees. the lake is ada accessible. it has a peaceful atmosphere where you can enjoy a warm day. walk along the lake and watched many ducks, and swans, and seagulls. it is a tranquil spot to stroll, enjoy each other's company, and sail away. many couples come here to take a ride around the lake, floating under the bridges, past the pavilion and waterfall. for a quiet getaway, it makes for a memorable and magical experience. located on 19th avenue, this

grove is the place to wear your hiking boots, bring your family, and bring the dog because it has so much to offer you and your loved ones. it is a truly hidden gem in the city. the part is rich with eucalyptus trees. long paths allow you to meander, perfect for dog walking in a wooded environment. >> i enjoy this base and the history behind it. the diversity that exists in such an urban city, the concrete, the streets, cars, we have this oasis of a natural environment. it reminds us of what san francisco initially was. >> this is a section for dogs and plenty of parking. transit is available to get you there easily. and the part is ada -- park is

ada accessible. there is also a natural lake. this is your chance to stroll and let the kids run free. it also has many birds to watch. it is the place to find some solitude from the city and appreciate what you share with a wonderful breath of fresh air. , an experienced this park and enjoy the peoples, picnics, and sunshine. this is a lovely place to take a stroll with your loved one hand in hand. located in the middle of pacific heights on top of a hill, lafayette park offers a great square a of a peaceful beauty. large trees border greenery. it features tables and benches, a playground, restaurants, and

tennis courts. there are plenty of areas for football, frisbee, and picnics. it is very much a couple's part and there are a multitude of experiences you can have together. bring your dog and watch the mean go with the community or just picnic at one of the many tables and enjoy all of the park has to offer. many couples find this is the perfect place to put down a blanket and soak up the sun. it is a majestic place you can share with someone you cherish. it is located along the 1 and 10 buses and is accessed from the 47 and 90 buses. it is ada accessible. for more information about reserving one of these locations, call 831-5500. this number is best for special

events, weddings, picnics, and the county fair building. for any athletic fields and neighborhood parks, 831-5510. you can also write us. or walking in and say hello at old lock cabin, golden gate park. and of course you can find more information and reach us at sfrecpark.org.

>> this is a huge catalyst for change. >> it will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. >> now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to work together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. >> one of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for -- permit center. >> special events. we are a one stop shop for those three things. >> this has many different uses throughout if years. >> in 1940s it was coca-cola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are

retaining the clock tower. the permit center is little working closely with the digital services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. >> the digital services team was created in 2017. it is 2.5 years. our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. >> one of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. we have 58 different department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. >> we are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. it is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. our goal is you don't have to know the department. you are dealing with the city. >> now if you are trying to get

construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to work together to make it easy to comply with the rules. >> there are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. there is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. the first project is allowing people to apply online for the a.d.u. it is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. it is a very complicated permit. you have to speak to different departments to get it approved. we are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. some of the next ones are windows and roofing.

those are high volume permits. they are simple to issue. another one is restaurant permitting. while the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. people struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. >> the city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. >> when people arrive they canshay what they are here to. it helps them workout which cue they neat to be in. if they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. we say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. >> we want it all-in-one location across the many departments involved. it is clear where customers go to play. >> on june 5, 2019 the ceremony

was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. six months later construction is complete. >> we will be moving next summer. >> the flu building -- the new building will be building. it was designed with light in mind. employees will appreciate these amenities. >> solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. when you are on the higher floors of the building you might catch the tip of the golden gate bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. >> it is so exciting for the team. it is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. it is allowing the different departments to come together to issue permits to the residents.

we hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. we are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a high-quality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling in forms. they will have good conversations with our staff.yo.

>> what do you think about f.yo. working at an airport and i love it is busy all the time. >> we want it to be an those away was this is a venture if i didn't love it i'll be an accountant. >> we want the experience that is a non-airport experience the negative stigma we're trying to erase that. >> everything is in a bad food to excite them about the food and they have time to learn about us. >> people are imitated by traveling and the last thing to do is come to a place fill of chaos. >> telling me how the extent of

napa a farms came about. >> it was a vision of the airport director he had a suspicion of a really cool gourmet speciality market locally friendly products this market local flavors this is the best. >> can we get a little tour. >> absolutely (laughter) ♪♪ ♪♪ >> so first on our tour. >> we have the clock we like to call it. >> this is coordinating it is made in san francisco. >> what about the customer presence. >> we like to get the permanent farther i love the cappuccino and you have to go to multiple places for the cupcakes the cup

a cakes from kari's people want to live here they're longing phone call for one thing in one spot in you know anything about san francisco the cheese the most popular cheesy think a lot of the people from the west coast say so this the real san francisco sour dough and they're curious. >> you find people respond to the idea of organic and absolutely. >> this is autumn. >> thank you, thank you and there's a lot of personal touch. >> i see san francisco. >> it's very hands on. >> what's the most popular items. >> this is quite surprising our fresh jotting this is the chronicle special a bowl of warm oats and coconut that's mites

farther. >> and speaking of drinks tell me again the cocktail scenes is that one, the things your known for . >> the cocktails are fantastic. >> really. >> fresh ingredients we don't have a mixture it to order this is our marcus bloody mayor. >> farmer's market bloody mary the bloody marys in the airport are great shikz it up. and then we're going to garnish it with olives. and some lime and a fresh stalk of selly. right on.

>> we like go. >> shop and dine the 49 promotes local businesses and changes san franciscans to do their shopping and dooipg within the 49 square miles by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant

so where will you shop and dine the 49 hi in my mind a ms. medina spea

mute your microphone. public participation, sf gov tv is broadcasting that live. comments or opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available by calling 1-415-655-0001. and then entering access code 2491 067 6903.

when we reach the item you're interested in speaking to, please press star 3 to be added to the queue. when you hear why your line has been unmuted that is your opportunity to speak. you'll hear a chime indicating your time is almost up. i will take the next person to speak. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and please mute the volume on your television or computer. if i could take roll. commission president koppel? >> president koppel: here. >> vice president moore: here. >> commissioner chan: here. >> commissioner diamond: here. >> commissioner fung: here. >> commissioner imperial: here. >> commissioner tanner: here. >> jonas: thank you, commissioners.

first on the agenda is consideration of items proposed for continuance, item 1, 2021-008984, conditional use authorization, proposed for continuance to january 27, 2022, item 2, case number 20217919, 2000 post street, conditional use authorization proposed for continuance to february 10. item 3, 2019, 22283, a home sf project authorization is proposed for continuance. further on your regular calendar, and discretionary review, we received last minute request for continuance for item 8, 2021-698, cua, van ness avenue. a conditional use authorization

to april 28, 2022. and under your discretionary review calendar, item 10, 460 vallejo street. it's proposed for continuance to march 31, 2022. we should open up public comment. members of the public, this is your opportunity to address the commission on any of the items proposed to be continued by pressing star 3. again, we're only taking comment on the matter of continuance. through the chair, you have two minutes. >> good afternoon, commissioners. land use coalition. i am calling regarding the continuance of 460 vallejo. and, you know, i'm actually opposed to it because the public has been kept in the dark in terms of what we are accomplishing by continuing a case that involves violations

and illegal activities on the part of the developer. so i really appreciate it if the commission could share with us, the public, as to reasons for continuing this case. normally when things get continued, it's a matter of developer wanting to further negotiate with neighbors to reach a settlement. in this case, there are no neighbors to settle any kind of negotiations with, because this is open-and-shut case of violations. and illegal merger. and typically illegal merger goes to cancel use authorization, so i think the public does deserve some explanation as to why this case is being continued. very unusual. usually these cases are conditional use authorization and in this case this was never a conditional use authorization if it wasn't for a d.r. being filed by neighborhood

organizations, it would never have reached this far. so, i really appreciate it if the commission could share with the public the reasons for continuance and what we're trying to accomplish by delaying this case for another three months. thank you. >> jonas: thank you. the information i have related to the continuance for vallejo street is it does not come from the project sponsor. it is not to work out anything with the neighbors, but the department of building inspection has made new discoveries on the site, including more violations that need to be sorted out before the matter can be resolved. that is the reason it's being continued or requesting a continuance for a couple of months here. >> hello, this is anastasia. i'm the coordinator of the land use and planning watch committee

of san francisco tenants union. i'm also -- thank you for the explanation, jonas, regarding the case of 460 vallejo street. this involves tenants who were brought out of their -- bought out of their units and now they have to make a mega mansion out of the sites. it's just -- it just needs to be delved into. so, yeah, i look forward to this hearing. thank you. >> jonas: go ahead, sir. >> can you hear me?

so this is justin, project sponsor representing the property owner. while we would much prefer to have the matter heard today, we're not opposing the continuance. there are no new building violations per the meeting we had with the inspector yesterday. the continuance was prompted by a last-minute complaint filed with d.b.i. two days ago alleging the unit merger at the property. this is an issue that has been investigated at length by the city. the inspector came to the property yesterday and reviewed the two units and various plan sets and found no merger. we're okay with the continuance as we want to continue to be cooperative and transparent with this process as we have for two years already. we want to make sure planning and d.b.i. has no questions with the project. we only ask that the new hearing be scheduled as soon as possible. thank you.

>> go ahead, caller. caller, would you like to submit your public comment? >> ye -- [indiscernible] elderly. 40,000 each year in san francisco bay area. oversee the programs we operate at the -- [indiscernible] -- which we rent for park and rec for over 10 years. our staff and seniors came to the workshop on the --

[indiscernible] -- >> jonas: i'm sorry, i'm going to interrupt. it's very difficult to hear your comments in the very beginning. the portsmouth square matter is going to come up later on the agenda, right now we're only taking comment on matters proposed to be continued. so you'll need to press star 3 again when we call up that matter under the regular calendar. last call for items proposed to be continued? you need to press star 3. seeing no additional requests to speak from members of the public, commissioners, your continuance calendar is now before you. >> president koppel: commissioner imperial. >> commissioner imperial: thank you for the explanation yesterday. move to continue all items as proposed. >> second.

>> jonas: thank you, commissioners, on the motion to continue as proposed, commission tanner? >> commissioner tanner: aye. >> commissioner chan: aye. >> commissioner diamond: aye. >> commissioner fung: aye. >> commissioner imperial: aye. >> commissioner moore: aye. >> president koppel: aye. >> so moved, commissioners. that motion passes unanimously 7-0 and will place us under commission matters for item 4, commission comments and questions. seeing no requests to speak from the members of the commission, i will note to you all that the election of officers is scheduled to be held at your next hearing, january 20. at that hearing you can nominate new officers or continue that matter to a later date. >> commissioner moore: i had one question. i kind of didn't press my button in time. i heard about ab854.

again, there are many, many things discussed in sacramento and this particular item deals with evictions. i'm wondering if staff has any insight into what is trying to be accomplished by this particular legislation? ab854. i would appreciate it if somebody could give us an insight once you have it. thank you. >> jonas: if there is nothing further, we can move on to department matters and item 5, director's announcements. >> good afternoon. commissioner moore, we'll look into that and get back to you on it. two items. i wanted to highlight an item in your packet. earlier in december, we had an informational presentation on the climate action plan and the community safety element. the climate action plan was released in december of 2021 by the department of environment

and we're updating the community safety development as part of our general planned updates. but during that hearing you asked several questions and asked for clarification on certain items, so we've included a memo in your packet that responds to those questions and provides additional resources and links in following up to some of the questions. just fyi, we hope to be back to the commission in may 2022 to introduce those related general plan amendments. then we're before you in two weeks also with an informational item on the housing element and i wanted to give a callout to those on our staff led by the community equity team, but also the environmental planning team who have been working diligently to prep for that hearing. you'll get a packet of information by the end of this week in preparation of that hearing in two weeks. and that's all i have.

>> jonas: there are no questions. thank you for that, director hillis. we can move on to item 6, past events at the board of supervisors and board of appeals, historic preservation did not meet yesterday. >> good afternoon, commissioners. filling in for aaron star who is out sick today. the board heard two items of interest. the first was the landmark designation of 2778 24th street. the historic preservation initiated this landmark designation on january 20, 2021 and recommended approval on october 6, 2021. the building is significant for its association with the development of san francisco's latino business community during the 20th century. a multi-generational family owned and operated company, it was founded by the sanchezs in

1924 with a popular place that provided mexican food. the company is the longest operating ta mali operating business in san francisco. development of the larger latino business community, particularly that of the mission district in the 20th century. landmark designation is sponsorered by supervisor ronen and at committee, supervisor melgar, peskin and preston signed on as co-sponsorers. also at land use committee was the ordinance that allows bars with cu authorization. the commission heard this item on december 16, 2021 and voted unanimously to approve it. there was little discussion on the item before the committee sent it to the board. this item has first read at the

full board this week where it passed unanimously. the only item of interest was the appeal of the cu approval for the project at 13th street. this was continued to february 8, 2022, to allow the appellants to work with the sponsor on desired checks. that concludes -- changes. that concludes my report. thank you, jonas. >> jonas: thank you, audrey. the board of appeals did meet yesterday and had one item that may be of interest to the commission. the board considered an appeal of the variants denial for the project that proposed to subdivide the existing lot. and then develop the new vacant lot with a two-unit building, resulting in nearly full lot coverage of the existing lot. the conditional use authorization was considered by the commission in 2020 and then

again in 2021 where the planning commission voted to deny the conditional use authorization. issued a variance decision letter denying the proposed lot area and rear yard variances. determining the proposal did not meet any of the five required findings for variants. at the appeal hearing, the project sponsor focused on housing policy issues and other lot split variances of the past 20 years, however, the board agreed with the zoning administrator they must focus on the subject lot and the specific proposal are not the appropriate mechanism to apply new policies for the city. as such, the board focused on the five findings and the board found that the project did not meet those findings and voted unanimously to uphold the denial of the proposed variance. commissioners, if there are no questions, then we can move on

to general public comment. at this time, members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission except agenda items. with respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. each member of the public may address the commission for two minutes and when the number of speakers exceed the 15-minute limit, general public comment may be moved to the end of the agenda. again, you need to press star 3 and when you hear that your line is unmuted, that's your indication to begin speaking. >> good afternoon, commissioners. this is georgia shutis. i sent an updated list with an additional project that should have been reviewed as tantamount to demolition, with a total of 40 speculative projects flipped in noe valley in the last few years. i neglected to include the one that i added which originally

sold in 2013. was reviewed and approved in 2014 without a d.r. work started on 2015 and then flipped in 2017. i sent photos that showed the work on this project in july and october of 2015 and reminded me of a conversation between the former zoning administrator and a former commissioner that took place on june 25, 2015 as part of general public comment. which starts at 35 minutes on the sf gov tv. please watch the entire general comment for that day. my comment is about the e-mail i sent in the day before that june 24, 2015 and i showed some photos that are still ongoing about extreme alterations that should be classified as demolitions. including something that is more prevalent in the past six years and that is the increase in major excavations. this june 2015 general public comment is prior to both the

r.a.t. and the peskin legislation attempts to deal with section 317 as well as the changes to the clarifications in the c.i.d. on the video, sanchez says it's hard to enforce projects in the photo if not caught at the right time and section 317 has problems. he agreed they're cause for concern. that makes me think about a horse running out of the barn because a door was left open. the problem is the demo calcs have never been adjusted since 2008. when the commission approved the first c.i.d., the calcs would need adjusting and the staff would return with recommendations to adjust them and, of course, that never happened. thank you very much. have a great afternoon. take care. >> good afternoon, my name is

amy zoe i'm a planner at ccdc. we request the commission certify the environmental mrakt report on the portsmouth -- >> jonas: i'm sorry to interrupt you, but we're taking general public comment right now. portsmouth square, the eir certification will come up under the regular calendar. in fact, i think it's scheduled to come up next, so you have to press star 3 one more time when we call that item. members of the public, last call for general public comment, for items that are not on today's agenda. seeing no additional requests to speak from members of the public, general public comment is closed and we can now move on to your regular calendar for item 7, case 2018-135 # 7, env. portsmouth square improvement project. the public hearing on the draft eir is closed.

the public comment period for the draft ended september 20, 2021. public comment will be received, however, comments submitted today may not be included in the final eir. meagan, the floor is yours. >> good afternoon, president koppel and members of the commission. can i have the ability to share my screen? thank you. planning department staff and environmental coordinator 0 for the portsmouth square improvement project members of the project sponsor team from the san francisco recreation and parks department are also present.

the item before you today is a certification of the final environmental impact report for final eir for the proposed project as adequate, accurate and objective. and as having been prepared in accordance with the california environmental quality act, or ceqa, and san francisco's local procedures for implementing ceqa. i'll provide a brief overview of the project, the conclusions of the eir and the environmental review process. the site compromises portsmouth square at 733 kearney street. the pedestrian bridge that connects the two properties on the edges of the chinatown and financial districts. portsmouth square is approximately 66,000 square foot two-level public park under the jurisdiction of the san francisco recreation and parks department. portsmouth square was the city's

earliest public scare and is associated with historical events. beneath the park is the portsmouth square garage, a four-level parking garage that was constructed in 1961. kearny street is a 27-story, 298 foot tall building. the second and third floors of the hotel building were developed as the chinese culture center which opened in 1973 and is connected to the portsmouth square by the pedestrian bridge spanning kearny street. the pedestrian bridge is a 28-foot wide, 210-foot tall concrete pedestrian bridge over kearny street and connects to the second floor of 750 kearny street. the bridge provides access via a central staircase to the cultural center on the third

floor of the building. the san francisco recreation and parks department proposes to renovate the existing with a new children's playground, exercise equipment, signage, sidewalk, landscaping, terraces and a new clubhouse. the proposed project would demolish and remove the pedestrian bridge spanning kearny street that connects portsmouth square to 750 kearny street. it would seismically upgrade and rewaterproof the roof. it would replace curb cuts and portions of the streets adjacent to portsmouth square for utility connections. the final eir concluded that the project would result in historical impact. specifically, 750 kearny street

and the pedestrian bridge. the final eir identified the three mitigate measures to reduce impact. development of an, staff limitation of the historical and implementation of a salvage plan. while these mitigation measures would reduce the project's impact on historic resource, the impacts on 750 kearny street and the pedestrian bridge would remain significant and unavoidable. additionally, the final eir concluded that impacts to historic architectural resources, cultural resources, travel cultural resources and noise would be significant, but could be mitigated to a less than significant level. all other impacts from the proposed project were found to be less than significant or would result in no impact. the final eir analyzed three project alternatives, including the no-project alternative,

which would mean no changes to the project site and thus no impacts. under the full preservation alternative, the pedestrian bridge would be retained by renovating the park. as a result, the new clubhouse would be smaller, about 4,000 square feet in size, compared to 8,300 under the proposed project. the alternative would not result in significant impact to historic resources. and only the historic resource mitigate measure regarding the plaques and monuments would be required. all other mitigation measures would still apply to reduce impacts to less than significant levels. the partial preservation alternative would be similar to the proposed project except that following removal of the pedestrian bridge, a new overlook platform would be built in the location of the existing bridge within the park. the overlook would function as an architectural reference to

the bridge. it would result in adverse impact to the pedestrian bridge and 750 kearny street and like the proposed project would result in significant impacts. the same historic resource mitigation measures would apply to the alternatives and impacts would remain significant and unavoidable. all other mitigation measures would provide impact to less than significant levels. they incorporated public comment on the environmental analysis throughout the environmental review process for the portsmouth square project. this slide presents key dates in the process. on september 23, 2020, the planning department issued a in the of preparation of a draft eir for the project. public comment on the scope of the eir was taken from september 23, 2020 through october 23, 2020. comments received were addressed

in a draft eir and initial study which were published concurrently on august 4, 2021. the historic preservation commission reviewed and commented on the proposed project alternatives on june 16, 2021, and the draft eir on august 18, 2021. the h.p.c. found the draft eir was adequate and accurate. were made available in english and chinese around the project sites. during the draft eir public comment period, the public hearing during the draft at the planning commission -- sorry the public hearing on the draft eir was held on september 9, 2021, and the public comment period for the draft eir concluded on september 20, 2021. the department received comments in writing and at the september

2020 hearing. the comments were in support of the development. comments on the potential, physical environmental impacts of the proposed project were responded to in the response to comments document involving text changes to the draft. on december 29, 201, the planning department published and distributed responses to comments received. and the draft eir. the planning department prepared the final eir for the portsmouth square improvement project with chapter 31 of the san francisco administrative code and planning department policies. the final eir is adequate and provides decision-makers and the public with the information required pursuant to ceqa to understand the potential environmental impacts of the project, alternatives and mitigation measures.

on this basis, planning staff request the commission adopt the motion before you. the motion does not approve the project, but certifies that the eir is adequate, accurate and objective. this concludes the presentation on the eir certification. and i will be available for questions if you have think. thank you. >> jonas: thank you, meagan. if there are no immediate questions from staff, we should open up public comment. members of the public, this is your opportunity to address the commission on the eir. by pressing star 3, you'll each have two minutes when you hear your line has been unmuted, that's your indication you should begin speaking. >> good afternoon, president koppel and commissioners. my name is alan lowe and i'm speaking on behalf of the committee for better parks and recreation in chinatown.

cbprc supports the portsmouth square project and urges the commission to certify the environmental impact report. commissioners, this is the final lap to a long and tort truss process regarding the portsmouth square project. this planning started almost 11 years ago. thank you, commissioner chan, for your advocacy back in the day and securing funding to jump start the project. this project is the result of over $2 million in consultant fees. there are two community needs studies. over 100 stakeholders meetings and many, many community workshops to design and program the project. just for the eir, it's taken over two years to complete, mainly to analyze the removal of the private kearny street bridge. the eir is comprehensive in studying the removal of the private bridge.

this is an in-depth analysis of the proposed project. it reviews alternatives and all comments are addressed and there are no objections of the finding of the eir. the measures are significant to address any impacts on the removal of the bridge. the eir meets the requirements of ceqa. this removal of the kearny street bridge is an intricate part of the project and will create a new expanded center. we strongly urge the commission to certify the eir so the community can build a vision for the portsmouth square improvement project. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is emily. i'm the director of social services with -- of the elderly. we serve over 40,000 seniors each year in san francisco bay

area. and i oversee the programs we operate at the portsmouth square clubhouse which we have rented from the park and rec for more than 10 years ago. our staff and seniors attended every workshop on portsmouth square. our community came together and worked hard on the design that eliminated the bridge and was a huge barrier to allowing us to use the clubhouse for much needed programs. we're excited about the new square with the increased space as well as much larger and more functional clubhouse. portsmouth square is probably one of the most important icons and landmarks for chinatown. and many important community events are held in the portsmouth square. during the pandemic, it was used

as a community and vaccination sites with distribution sites, community events and outdoor events that many of our community groups answered, like anti-asian hate rallies. improved community center to all the residents. so, please approve and certify the eir so we can proceed. and the sooner the bridge comes down, and the rebuilding of the park starts, it would transform the kearny street corridor and the entire community would be able to enjoy the benefits of the new portsmouth square would bring. thank you. >> i'm a senior community organizer from chinatown. i'm speaking on behalf of the

chinatown sro collaborative. we consist of over a thousand members, they're all chinatown residents. we hope to improve their the living conditions and moving the s.r.o. units. as you know, the units are very, very small. you can never imagine how a family of four sleep, eat in that small room. not to mention families share bathroom and kitchen with other tenants. obviously, they have no space to exercise, so where do they go? portsmouth square. it's a very crucial space for our family. for many of you it may just be a usual park, for us, it's more than that, it's part of our home and it's truly our living room. our families hang out there, exercise there. and we grow up with portsmouth square. this place actually witnessed many important moments of

chinatown. it's part of our daily life. this improvement project is very important for us and meaningful for us. our family -- advocacy in design process. we think the eir is comprehensive and adequate. in order to let our family and more and more generations to continue to enjoy this park, please certify the eir. thank you so much and thank you, supervisor peskin, for your support. thank you so much. >> good afternoon, again, commissioners and president koppel. i'm a plan are at ccdc. we strongly request that the commission certify the environmental impact report in the portsmouth square project. you see that the air quality today is poor. think about how this impacts some of the residents, many who are elderly and live in these small units and very cramped

living conditions without a family room or living room or outdoor space. these residents rely on portsmouth square and feel the park is their living room and the opportunity to be outdoors and it's one of the the many reasons why a resiliency center, something that is proposed to be part of the improvement project is needed. there has been over eight years of community engagement, capital needs assessment, planning and design and in addition to expensive outreach including five public workshops done. so we'd like to thank supervisor peskin's office, staff at the rec and parks and staff at planning for their work in moving this forward. we have a strong request that the commission certify the report. you can refer to the letter by malcolm young, the director of the board for more details. thank you for your time.

>> jonas: thank you. last call for public comment on this item. you need to press star 3. seeing no additional requests to speak from members of the public, public comment on this matter is closed. and it is now before you, commissioners. >> commissioner moore: i want to thank the community and everybody who spoke on behalf of the eir for the comments. i couldn't agree more that mr. alan lowe summarized what is so right about this particular eir and what is in front of us. i'm in full support of approval. looking forward to what the other commissioners have to say. >> commissioner fung: i find

that the eir is full and complete and i'm prepared to move to adopt it. >> commissioner moore: second. >> president koppel: commissioner imperial. >> commissioner imperial: thank you and thank you commission for making the motion. i just wanted to make comment that this eir, that all of the alterations, the work proposed, that this project is the most adequate. it meets all the community input for the implement of the park and preservation of the pedestrian bridge. and also just want to add as one of the public comment mentioned, that this park has been vital and improving it ultimately

enhances the viability and the vitality of the town that uses it. i've been around portsmouth square and i see how the community actually utilizes it, as an extension of their living room. thank you to the planning department and the community that worked together on this. i'm prepared to vote. >> jonas: okay, seeing no additional requests to speak from members of the commission, there is a motion that has been seconded to certify the report. >> commissioner tanner: very enthusiastic aye. >> commissioner chan: aye. >> commissioner diamond: aye. >> commissioner fung: aye. >> commissioner imperial: aye. >> commissioner moore: very enthusiastic aye. >> president koppel: aye.

>> jonas: so moved, commissioners, that motion passes unanimously, 7-0 and will place us on -- item 8 has been continued. on item 9, case number 2021-313cua, 4221 geary boulevard. this is a conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon. the proposal before you is a conditional use authorization to establish a cannabis retail use within the geary boulevard neighborhood commercial zoning district. geary boulevard serves as a major transit route. the geary boulevard offers a wide variety of goods and services, such as institutional uses, eating and drinking establishments, auto-related uses and other retail stores to a population greater than the

immediate neighborhood. the surrounding zoning is primarily rm-1. nearby uses include the sfpd richmond station located half a block to the south and kaiser permanente campus to the east. each store is greater than 1,100 feet from the project site. the subject property is developed with a non-historic mixed use building containing one commercial space on the ground floor and one residential unit on the second floor. no tenants will be displaced as a result of this project. the subject site was formerly a restaurant and is currently vacant. it proposes improvement and store front changes with no expansion of the building envelope.

proposed business hours are daily from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. onsite cannabis consumption is not proposed and not permitted per the draft motion. as noted in the executive summary, the sponsor conducted outreach under the office of cannabis good neighbor policy which includes providing a mailed notice to all property owners and occupants within 300 feet of the site and conducting online outreach meetings on april 31 and august 2, 2021. staff received one public comment in opposition to the project based on proximity to a preschool at 4228 geary boulevard. after the commission packets were distributed, a total of 15 e-mailed comments in support of the project were received, including nine addressed to the planning commission that were forwarded to the commission secretary.

supporters cited the ideal location because of access to public transit and proximity to a police station. staff recommends approval of the conditional use authorization. the project meets all applicable requirements of the planning code. the proposed use will complement the mix of goods and services currently available in the district and contribute to the economic vitality of the neighborhood by occupying a store front that would otherwise be vacant. this concludes my presentation. i will be available to answer questions. the project sponsor team is here and would like to address the commission. thank you. >> mr. hansen, are you with us? >> yes, i am, can you hear me? >> jonas: we can. and you have five minutes. >> okay, great. so good afternoon, everyone, my name is burt hansen, i'm the c.e.o. in the proposed dispensary at 4221 geary. i live on 8th avenue for over 13

years and i'm friends with the residents and business owners in the neighborhood. my business partner grew up in the neighborhood as well. and went to washington high school. he was previously the operations manager at a dispensary across town. i plan on being in the neighborhood as long as i can and want the neighborhood to be safe and vibrant as it can be. i'll be the liaison for the project. i've already reached out to join. we're around the corner of the police station. the kaiser offices and pharmacies and doctors offices. potential to fill a space that has been vacant and neighborhood eyesore. there was briefly a beer bar in

that spot, but the spot was vacant for 12, 13 years. from a security perspective, the police station is ideal and any concerns about crime or vandalism. we'll have security on site at all times. the small size of the store means there won't be cannabis stored on the premises. so that no one is -- [indiscernible] -- sell to minors, brought up by the one e-mail against. we'll also be a purveyor of medical cannabis afforded to those across the street at kaiser. some who traveled for will appreciate the convenience of the location. finally, cannabis dispensary will be -- to a long dead store front. too many businesses have been shuttered in the last few years. residents of the neighborhood will appreciate the

revitalization of a block that suffered from multiple store closures since 2008. that kind of hard to imagine a stronger operational team. i want to finish by saying this project is perfect for the location. the residents will appreciate a cleaner and safer block on geary boulevard. thank you very much. >> submitted. >> jonas: that concludes the project sponsor presentation. we should open up public comment. members of the public, this is your opportunity to address the commission by pressing star 3. seeing no request to speak from the public, public comment is closed and this matter is now

before you. >> president koppel: while i'm waiting for other commissioners, let me express my support for staff recommendation. commissioner diamond. >> commissioner diamond: move to approve. >> second. >> jonas: okay. seeing no further deliberation, there is a motion that has been seconded to approve this matter with conditions. on that motion, commissioner tanner? >> commissioner tanner: aye. >> commissioner chan: aye. >> commissioner diamond: aye. >> commissioner fung: aye. >> commissioner imperial: aye. >> commissioner moore: aye. >> president koppel: aye. >> jonas: so moved, commissioners, that motion passes unanimously, 7-0. and concludes your lengthy

agenda today. >> it was a long one. >> yeah. >> jonas: commissioners, your calendar is very light. as i mentioned to some people, if it continues this way, we'll only be hearing d.r.s when we reoccupy city hall. enjoy the rest of your afternoon. >> president koppel: ajournaled. -- adjourned.

>> after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the below-market rate program. i got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [♪♪♪] >> the current lottery program

began in 2016. but there have been lot rows that have happened for affordable housing in the city for much longer than that. it was -- there was no standard practice. for non-profit organizations that were providing affordable housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city we've been monitoring for some time since 1992. we did it with something like this. where people were given circus tickets. we game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. at the same time, we started electronic applications systems. called dalia. the lottery is completely free.

you can apply two ways. you can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. if you apply online, it will take five minutes. you can make it easier creating an account. to get to dalia, you log on to housing.sfgov.org. >> i have lived in san francisco for almost 42 years. i was born here in the hayes valley. >> i applied for the san francisco affordable housing lottery three times. >> since 2016, we've had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. if you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked.

>> for some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. there is a digital divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. so we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in and get help. >> along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and there's also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a first-time home buyer workshop and a one-on-one counseling session with the housing councilor. >> sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldn't be discouraged if they have a low lottery number.

they still might get a value for an available, affordable housing unit. >> we have a variety of lottery programs. the four that you will most often see are what we call c.o.p., the certificate of preference program, the dthp which is the displaced penance housing preference program. the neighborhood resident housing program and the live worth preference. >> i moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. the neighborhood preference program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in san francisco. >> the next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. you have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the

credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. all city sponsored affordable housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. every week there's a listing on dalia. something that people can apply for. >> it's a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. let's say the lottery has happened. several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. and how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. >> this particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. in my mind, i was like how am i going to win this? i did and when you get that notice that you won, it's like

at first, it's surreal and you don't believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. >> some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. they have key less entry now. they have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. >> mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. we will start construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. >> we also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. and life happens to people. people move. so we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. >> best thing about working for

the affordable housing program is that we know that we're making a difference and we actually see that difference on a day-to-day basis. >> being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, it's a wonderful experience. >> it's a long process to get through. well worth it when you get to the other side. i could not be happier. [♪♪♪]

. >> clerk: this is the regular meeting of the small business commission held on january 10th, 2022. held to order at 4:30 p.m. it can be vieweded on sfgov tv 2 or live streamed at sfgovtv.org. members of the public who will be calling in, the number is (415) 655-0001. access code is 24973495308.

press pound then pound again to be added to the line. when your item of interest comes up, dial star three to be added to the speaker line. if you dial star three before public comment is called, you'll be added to the queue. when you have calls for public comment, mute the device that you're listening to the meeting on. when it is your time to speak, you will be prompted to do so. public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer of the meeting. please show the office of small business slides. >> president laguana: today, we will remind the bub that the small business is to voice your concerns about the economic vitalities of small businesses in san francisco. 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 this streaming service and the live stream. and matthew will be moderating the public comment line as well. please call item number one. >> clerk: item one, roll call. cal to order and roll call. [roll call] president, you have a quorum.

>> president laguana: commissioner huie, would you please read the ramaytush ohlone land acknowledgement. >> commissioner huie: thank you. the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral 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 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 affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> president laguana: great. thank you.

item number two, please. >> clerk: item two, welcome to katie tang, executive director of office of small business. this is a discussion item. >> president laguana: katie, welcome. it's so exciting. before i make any comments, commissioners, do you have any comments you'd like to make to director tang on her first real hearing all by her lonesome? commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: just want to wish you the very best. we're excited to take this journey with you. we're side by side and we're excited to take this journey with you.

>> president laguana: thank you. vice president. >> vice chair: thank you. we're excited like you are and welcome. yeah. we're excited. let's take 2022 and make san francisco great again. >> president laguana: great. commissioner dickerson. >> commissioner dickerson: it's so good to have you, director katie tang. i really believe you are the best person for the job and i

look forward to working with you and so far, i have all the trust and i believe we are going to do this as a team. we're going to move this forward. >> president laguana: commissioner huie. >> commissioner huie: yes. welcome, director tang. so far, the chats we've had have been very positive and have gotten me excited about this coming year and i'm happy to be, you know, at your service and be able to help support the office of small business as i can. so thank you very much for choosing this new journey. thanks. >> president laguana: great.

and i'll just add i think your experience at the san francisco department of public health cannot be more important that the small business community situation is now in and everything that you learned there will almost magically have tremendous opportunity here and serve our community well. i am very grateful that you've chosen to join this journey with us and we are all very much looking forward to working with you and are already enjoying working with you and we're very happy to have you and, with that, i'll let you make any remarks if you would like to. >> director: thank you so much, commissioners. first of all, i want to thank you all and the mayor for this appointment to this opportunity.

i have to say when i first heard about this opportunity, it was like this is in my gut and my heart and i knew it was the right opportunity for me because i've spent so many years working in city government and i'd like to think i'm one of those who likes to take what i've learned to try to do better for our small business community, but truly for at the end of the day for these people and i hope i'm not one of those who have been in the city government for a long time, but i really want to use that experience and apply for good. and i think i'm really preaching to the choir here to just say how incredible our city is and i think as commissioner huie always says, it's really the people behind it. so i can't even begin to describe what small business,

the impacts have had on each of us. i know we have lots of metrics, but really, the impact is unquantifiable, truly. and getting to know each and every one of you, all of you have an such an inspirational story behind you. now i can say this that this is an incredible commission, the best commission i'm able to work with in the city. so i'm so lucky to be able to work with each and every one of you. and i think a lot of you know from my work in the city, small business has been a huge passion of mine and trying to give businesses more flexibility. so if you can make more changes if you needed to without having to go through an owner's process or removing fees. we did permanently wave the awning fee so every year in

may, you know this is coming up, you don't need to pay for it. you can replace your awning without a permit fee. you know, we have also tried to shave down the amount of time that a business has to go through which is a lot of times for businesses already in our planning code are permitted. it's a permitted use, so why do you have to go through all these different hurdles still. and so i fully recognize that even though i come from a policy making background that a lot of the solutions that we're going to be implementing are not policy based and in fact probably best not to be policy based sometimes and so i really look forward to working with you on those ideas. but just to lay out really high level, big picture for this up coming year, so i mentioned some of the solutions that we

want to put forward, but i want to make sure as an office that we're working together. you have all the expertise in athe world and how do we come up with some solutions actively and although i know we're in a really challenging time with the pandemic and we have to focus on economic recovery and i think it's no secret that prior to the pandemic, it's always been difficult for small businesses to either get started, to grow, expand, what have you here. and so i want to make sure we're drilling back down to things that were important before the pandemic. the also big ticket item is i want to make sure we improve access for people seeking service from our office of

small business. whether it's through internet or from a person on the phone, i want 0 make sure it's easy for everyone to be able to access anything they need. then also providing more sort of real-time information that are really helpful for the small business community. and the third pillar is efficiency. so given that the office of small business, the staffing is so small, it's a small but mighty team. and i definitely want to thank i know rick is here. i want to thank our commission secretary kerry, and marshal, so many before who have done such a phenomenal job carrying this office and so how is it

that we were together in a more collaborative manner with our office of economic and work force development so that we can all serve small businesses to the best of our abilities. and have truly impactful and meaningful programs. so those are sort of the three foundational pieces that i'm looking forward to working on in 2022. i know there's going to be lots in between. so, again, thank you so much and i'll leave it there and turn it back to you, president laguana. >> president laguana: thank you. that all sounds very exciting. certainly a lot to do. i hope that as a commission, we can be a great partner in helping make all those things happen. that is not a short list of stuff to do. so with that being said, let's check in. is there any public commentors

on the line? >> secretary: i see one attendee, but i'm not sure. >> president laguana: if you're called in to make public comment, please hit star three i think it is to raise your hand. star three. we'll give them a couple seconds to raise their hand and if they don't -- >> secretary: sorry. i need to. hang on. i need to pass the responsibility over to sfgov so they can actually do this. hold on one second. >> president laguana: no problem. >> secretary: okay. they should be able to do it now. >> president laguana: okay. sfgov tv, has the attendee raised their hand? if not, we'll proceed. >> no callers in the queue. >> president laguana: okay. thank you. seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please.

>> secretary: item three, board of supervisors file number 211151 public works code-graffiti abatement-lifting suspension of issuance of certain violations; reinstating collection of certain fees and fines. this is a discussion and action item. commission will discuss on lifting certain revisions of the graffiti removal regarding issuance of certain violations, and reinstating the collection of certain assessed fees and fines. presenting today, we have lee hepner from supervisor peskin's office and the department of works. >> president laguana: thank you both for coming. lee, it's good to see you. the floor is now yours. >> thank you, commissioners. thank you, president laguana. thank you for hearing this item this afternoon. welcome, director tang. it's good to see you in the new

year. the legislation before you is really straight forward. it's simple. essentially certain provisions of the public works code were suspended at the onset of the pandemic or pretty early on in the pandemic related to graffiti abatement. i think we can all speculate as to why it would be a challenge to abate graffiti at the height of the pandemic when people were subject to stay-at-home orders and the fear of going outside was palpable. businesses were closed down. we are certainly not out of the pandemic, but certainly in a different spot, different position now and we are also back to hearing from our constituents about unabated graffiti out in the neighborhoods in conversations with public works staff. we have been pulled without

qualification that they do not have ability toish notices to offending parties or property owners to alert them to the fact that there is graffiti on their property and that's the principle of what we're trying to reinstate today. i wish there was one thing that was included before you which i'm going to make sure is in the legislative file going forward which is the language of the provisions themselves. the public work code sections that were suspended sections 2304a. 2306 and 2307.5 i believe. and the reason i think it's important to take a look at the actual code sections is because what this appears as is that we are reinstating fines and fees. what it doesn't reflect is what the code actually says relative to the procedure that public works engages in.

really what this is and what public works' role is is to send out a notice to one of two parties, the property owner or the quote unquote offending party. the offending party is never the small business as far as i know. the offending party is the person who has done the graffiti. so and would also be responsible for its abatement if that party is known. so public works send out that notice to the property owner or offending party who then have 30 days to address the graffiti or to request a hearing before the city. i suspect and in my conversations with public works staff has confirmed that there's flexibility there and as long as a party is working toward abatement that the jump is never toward aggressive enforcement or the subsequent actions listed in the code which can involve public works going out there and abating the graffiti themselves.

so it really is kind of a notice to the property owner or offending party that there's graffiti on your property and you've got an obligation to clean it up. so that is the thrust behind what we're doing here. i'm interested to hear all your thoughts. our intent with this legislation is not to reinvent the wheel. i guess if there are good recommendations, we're happy to consider them and we're meeting with public works on whatever the small business commission recommends today. >> president laguana: great. thank you. i don't know if jim wanted to make a presentation or present any comments as well. >> hey, there. are you talking about me? hello everybody. hello, director tang. i know her has supervisor tang. congratulations on your new position. basically, i'm just here to answer any questions. if you have questions. i work at public works, but i

work in a slightly different department. i'm kind of like the facilitator for the advisory board. so i know a lot about the information that goes on with the private property and the notices of violation and cleaning it up. but the two individuals are directly involved, their work schedule is tuesday through saturday, but we're going to be meeting with them on wednesday to come back to them with any questions that were like i was not able to answer. if you have any questions that i can answer, we can give back to. i don't want to make up answers and i don't want to assume things because it's a lot of detail involved in what happens there. i know a lot about it because offed the graffiti advisory board and my position here at public works. >> president laguana: great. thank you. and i guess before i jump in with my questions, i'll check in with my fellow commissioners. do you have any questions or comments?

commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: thank you for that. one of the things i just wanted to as we start this again, this might not have been the case when we proceed on the ground, the tone of these abatements sometimes sound puretive in nature and are [ indiscernible ] especially if english is not your first language, it really has a scary tone, even for me. and i can read english and all that and i've been around the block a couple times. i guess, we can change the model and have some empathy, we've been battered for the last two years and even if it's the same message, but if the tone comes from a place of understanding, i think that process would go a long way and because, you know, sometimes it's the business owners even

if they're not responsible, and i think sometimes the communication is like, it's the small business responsibility when sometimes it's not or it's not, but, you know, perception is reality. so the tone, the atmosphere like, hey, we're not here to mess with you, we're here to actually help you, that would be the greatest take-away. >> i will definitely bring that up with them, with the team. i think you're talking about like the notice of violation letter that they receive? yeah. okay. i've heard that before so i'll definitely bring that up with them. as far as the responsibility, it is the property owner's responsibility or the manager if it's a business and it's not -- the business is not the owner of the building, the notice would probably go to the owner of the building to then get it to whoever's running the business down there, but it is the responsibility of the property owner just like the sidewalk.

public works is curb to curb, so we're the street. and then from the sidewalk to the building is the property owner or facing the property. and i understand what you're saying about the tone that's involved in that and i again i've heard that before. i don't know what's ever been changed of it. i'm not that closely involved, but i'll definitely bring it up, but i'll have to pull a copy of the letter they get. we have a different deputy director now, so -- >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: [ indiscernible ] you know the property owner is ultimately responsible, but you know what happens in the real world. >> yeah. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: so like and [ indiscernible ] you know what happens on the ground. just the tone, you know, have a little patience like a doctor. >> and we've already, as far as my point of view, ibeen looking

at this like it's the business owner getting double hit. they're getting hit by the tags and then getting hit by the city to remove this stuff with almost threatening type language. i'll see what we can do about that and get something done to make it a little softer. the goal is get rid of the graffiti as quickly as possible because we've learned the quicker you get rid of it, the less likely they are to come back. they want it to be up high and last as long and be seen by as many people for as long as possible. so the best thing to do for these property owners is to keep. just abate it before we even get out there to do a notice of violation. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i know. unfortunately, i used to graffiti. >> do you know the difference between graffiti vandalism and from a featy art.

it's one word. permission. permission to use the canvas, it's art. >> president laguana: okay. commissioner huie. >> commissioner huie: thank you very much for the presentation. i just wanted to kind of echo what commissioner ortiz-cartagena was saying in terms of like my experience with business owners and, you know, organizing within emergence association is that none of these business owners want to have graffiti on their businesses. like this is not something that they are being, you know, lazy about or numb to. i mean, it is something that really does bother business owners and so, you know, i think in this particular environment, if we're really trying to pave the path for small businesses right now, this is one little thing that the city could do i think to

really change the image of what z you know, how supportive the city is of small businesses. because it's like we can give out so many grants and do all these things but then a business owner gets hit with a fine for a piece of graffiti that's just chronic, right. and i think when we're not able to bend in those ways, that's like something that will sit with that business owner. right. in order for them to get a grant or be able to find money to mitigate this, they also have to spend extra time to apply for that grant and, you know, seek out these types of opportunities. so i think for us as a commission in this middle space, it's like we can spend all our day trying to create opportunities for supporting small businesses, but then if our systems and policies that are existing continually

chronically kind of beat people down, it's like we're not really doing ourselves any favors, you know. and so i think instead of more ways to be able to support a small business through this. if you really want to look at graffiti abatement being kind of the goal, how do we support our community to be able to manage this on our own in a sustainable way. i think then we should lead with something that's much more supportive in nature versus communicative in nature. so i would suggest that we consider ways that we can reach out to a business owner and highlight the city to let them know there's graffiti on their property. how can we support getting rid of that graffiti and for us to

understand like what happens to the tagger? what is happening in our community right now where it's like i'm just the expectation that i have a can of paint. make sandwiches, then i got to go do all these things and then i've got to clean up graffiti. if i can at least have some understanding and maybe this is a question you might be able to answer, like what actually happens to hold people accountable for chronically graffitiing an area. you know, it's the same tag

going down the street so i think kind of sharing with the small business community that there are efforts to do something versus expecting us to clean it up every day, that would be helpful. >> okay. >> if i may, commissioner huie and commissioner ortiz-cartagena, one point of clarification is that under the law as written, i don't think that the small business owner is ever liable for the graffiti just to be clear. the only mention there in the law is that when the notice of violation is served. it is served on the property owner and the person if known in real or apparent charge of

the property. in no circumstance is the small business themselves liable to the city. now to commissioner ortiz-cartagena's point, i think how that plays out between the property owner and the small business can be complicated and problematic. further, i think what both commissioner huie and commissioner ortiz-cartagena said was that the notice itself coming from the city, if it's served on the small business owner makes them feel like they are the party responsible and maybe there is a communication piece in the implementation piece of this that jim and i can go back to the department and revisit. >> president laguana: just to speak to that narrow point just briefly, i would want to point out that most, many if not most small businesses are operating

under triple net lease which makes them liable and responsible for any cost that the building incurs which i mean in some cases can include, for example, i've had to pay for a.c. systems going out, broken windows, other vandalism and damage. so and even as a patrical matter outside of the triple net leases, from my own conversations with other small businesses, it's typically pretty common for -- i would say it is uncommon for the landlord to pick up the cost of any violations or abatement that it wok less likely for that to happen and more likely that it would be expected for the business to do something. whether the city actually holdses the business directly liable or not. so i just want to make that point while we were on that

subject. commissioner huie, were you done? >> commissioner huie: just one more point. i think that in the past what we've seen that graffiti and things like that have been dealt with, i'd like to say graffiti and specifically etching on windows and other types of vandalism because that's been a huge problem for us in the couple of districts that i'm apart of and i think we've seen that certain areas in the city get a much more punitive kind of response when it comes to graffiti versus other districts when you know in the richmond district, when we were hit with all sorts of things, i would say we felt pretty well supported in terms of like, you know, people could talk about it. we tried to put a drive together of all the different

photos, the police were very supportive, like nobody really got hit with any fines or anything like that, but then speaking to other merchants and other neighborhoods, they were hit with fines right away when something happened and there was no conversation about it. there was no community discussion about how to support their business through this situation. and i feel like that type of, you know, disparity is something that should be looked at. this is something where we know it's different and so i just so i think that's all i have there. >> is it okay if i jump in here

for just a minute. i wanted to answer and i believe the business owner has that's true days to abate. and when it's still there, that's when it becomes blight. if they don't abate it after 15 days at this point, i believe the city can hire a contractor or go ahead and abate it themselves and what the owner of the business or the property owner gets is the bill for the abatement cost along with the inspections z the cost of the inspector going out there from what i understand and then there's this hardship program

that people that and from there, from what i understand it gets worked out. and we have a paint matching system. so even if it's going out there and handing them some supplies because i run the graffiti watch program which is basically volunteers that we give them an hour training and we give them all the supplies they need, the paint brush, the paint, but they're only allowed to abate public property, the garbage cans. we were able to do mailboxes, but then we couldn't do them anymore. but mailboxes are horrible. the post office just doesn't do

anything about abating it. so i see it as being almost the same thing except it's the property owner. property owners could have a graffiti watch member abate on their property, but they would have to supply the member with the paint and supplies. it can't be city funded and they have to sign an agreement. but i think we should be able to and this is what i'm trying to bring up to the private property graffiti unit is we have this paint matching machine from what i understand, we should be able to, you know, match the paint. we did it a couple times up in chinatown with the roll-up doors. there was this big wipe-out we have every year and we would give the business owners a can of gray paint. luckily, those doors are open all day long and it just comes out at night and then people were plaining about the

thickness of the paint. then it starts getting hard to open and close and it gets really heavy. so there's issues with that as well. as far as on the window, the etching and the acid. i guess they do some type of acid type thing, i don't think we pursue that as far as getting people to abate it. so from what i understand, a couple of years ago, we were not doing notice of violations for the windows and, you know, being on the graffiti advisory board, one of the best things we know to do is put a coating on the window, it's like this coating that you put it on. they etch it, take it off, put a new coating on and i have seen businesses that have that. the on walls, there's what they call anti-graffiti coating. it's basically a clear paint. so if somebody does tag, soap

and water basically washes it right off. there's one building over at 22nd and i'd say folsom, they have this beautiful miller, it's on the corner. the whole building is this really cool mural and one day i drove by it, the whole thing was tagged and the next day it was gone. they just went out there with the hose. you don't see that being tagged constantly, but right across the street, that building as soon as they painted, the whole thing was tagged that night. so i will bring it up on wednesday with lee and the other folks from the department about, you know, how to like i said, i understand these property owners, they're victimized twice. once by the vandal and then by the city. i goal is to make it like we're more here to help, not here to

be on top of you and, you know, strangle you when you're already hurting from these past two years. so i get it. i just need to get it over to them and make sure they get it as well and i totally agree with what you're saying in that part. anything else, lee? >> i think that's a really -- it goes to show public works staff is really thinking about this on a case-by-case basis and with their ability to keep on that abatement process. >> plus being on the facilitated graffiti advisory board, i've learned more about graffiti and it's just, you know, must recalls, we love murals and they often don't get tagged, it's often a deterrent.

sometimes you'll get a little monster like they did in the mission that one time. again, i don't work in that department with the public and private property team, butted the graffiti advisory board, i work really closely with them. >> president laguana: great. vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you for being present and working with us on this item. i wanted to point out that in public code, there's language that doesn't match up or isn't present on the actual notice and i think if you look at the

actual noise there's no details about what that it does say that you have to show up in person. that's the oj thing it says about that hearing on the notice. the second option is if you don't abate it within 30 days, the think will proceed with a court record and a lean on your property. >> that's on the notice so making the hearing sound would be an improvement here. showing up in person for a small business owner is

impossible and, yeah, the threat of a court order and leans, that's a so's just pointing out the notice. in public work code, then the city will cover and pavent it at no cost. neither of those options or that language is in the notice. >> okay. that's my first point. the second point is there's not a second notice. so even if there is a followup, like somebody forgot to abate it or report they abated it,

whatever if there is a followup by the department, the business isn't notified. my family's business has experienced this, so i'm validating that this is what happened in and something that i would love to better understand and i know this manu ginobili a little outside of this particular you can't faty code that we're looking at, but graffiti does exist. graffiti nuisance exists in other codes on our books. so there are some businesses that are faced with this abatement fine like three times over with different codes. so if you have an off sale alcohol license which mind you

now, restaurants and bars are allowed to sell without subject to the deemed off sale codes which includes graffiti. so you can have a violation with another code on our books related to graffiti and the reason why that is worrisome for me because we need to be aware of the other ways in which people can get pinged for graffiti and also these codes were literally made at the height of injunction.' they include incoming calls from pay phones. like nuisance abatement fees exist in other codes and have been even called upon in the last year to have disproportionate regulation on businesses that are subject to those codes. for example, at the height of the shutdown, there was a six supplemental order from the

mayor's office which specifically put a curfew on all deemed approved subject businesses which have type 2021 offsale alcohol licenses with an exception for businesses over 5,000 square feet. so essentially a graffiti code was used to shut down small stores during the height of when people needed those businesses open. so i'm scared that if we are just blazay about our business codes, they're going to be used in certain types of communities which we've already seen in the last year. so that leads me to the other question as to why i feel like there's equity issues around this that have not been seriously looked at is because, again, my family's business has

beens to be in a newly formed benefit district. so what about businesses that are not in cbds? that's a disproportionate regulation already. so that's, yeah, those are my questions, and i had one more question because i know like there are other stakeholders in this conversation. so the graffiti advisory board is one, sf beautiful i believe is another. i'm just like curious as to, you know, if there's other stakeholders like nonprofits or whatnot, i want to know if those entities like sf beautiful are they city funded. if there's advocacy coming from city funded groups that's, you know, trying to enforce something on a small business,

i would like to know. so that's just kind of another question i'm throwing out there. >> okay. >> vice president zouzounis: yes. thank you so much. >> just so i understand that part of the question, sf beautiful, are they city funded and are they doing something to try and force -- >> vice president zouzounis: i'll kind of explain that a little more. so i heard you have graffiti watch, you nameded one stakeholder. >> that's a volunteer program with public works. >> vice president zouzounis: so these approved have a similar volunteer program where they empower volunteers to literally go and report on small businesses. so i'm seeing that those people have been mistrained before, like i'm seeing businesses have been told misinformation from

volunteers that are being part of a supplemental of a city program. i'm just curious to like if there are stakeholders beyond d.p.w. and beyond small business, if they're nonprofit, if they're volunteer, who are they, how are they funded, what type of training are they getting because there's a lot of those types of volunteer groups that are connected to largely businesses that have regulatory licenses. they like to, you know, like deploy volunteer operations and we've definitely gotten small businesses who are confused to like if someone is a volunteer or a staff that is like approaching them about a program. >> okay. and i'm sorry, i just want to be able to understand this. the thing that you're talking about, there's a group of people that are going out and actively reporting graffiti on businesses and stuff? is that what you said?

>> vice president zouzounis: i would like to know that. you mentioned that there is something that is like that. i'm making another example that with another code that i know for sure has graffiti involved that deemed approved off sale use code. there's also a group of volunteers that is deployed to like go if there's graffiti or loitering to report that business to d.p.h. in this example and those volunteers have definitely provided misinformation to small businesses before or not like, you know, it's not a very nice community initiative if it's like how do we snitch on your local business instead of relationships with the corridor. so i'm just curious as to like who oversees those, you know, any nonprofit or like volunteer adjacent work to this. >> yeah. that one if you just mentioned

if they're reporting for d.p.h., just so i'm clear, the graffiti watch program, this is not for reporting, this is for volunteers to go out. because we're responsible too for public property and we want to get the graffiti abated as quickly as possible. so the volunteers i have, they're basically trained to adopt an area and if they see city vandalism, they have the equipment to abate it as quickly as possible. >> vice president zouzounis: okay. that leads to the last question i had about graffiti and other codes and how it's handled. so we know deemed approved so i do feel like that's relevant

because if businesses that can afford a shared space are getting preferential treatment on how graffiti is handled as opposed to a brick and mortar, that's an equity issue for me too. >> just on that last point, what's your experience with businesses with shared spaces? >> vice president zouzounis: -- covers it up for a different -- it's a completely different handling graffiti and i'd just like to know. >> i heard differently. i heard that it is the responsibility of the owner of the shared space if there's a piece of property that's put up or something that's put up where there's parking spaces because i was asking about it as well because i work with -- we work with the local artists on the graffiti advisory board who does murals and in the mission, these things are getting tagged and it's the responsibility from what i understood and if things are

changing quite quickly, but i just recently receiveded a whole new booklet on the shared spaces, but i believe it's the person that owns the shared space, that paid for the shared space, it's for their business, their responsible for the graffiti vandalism on there as well just as if it's on their building and i would try to look at a way that maybe the city could help fund painting murals on these things to try and stop the graffiti vandalism, but if it's just painted like brown or black, it's like a canvas for these taggers and if there's a mural. so i'm still kind of looking into how we might be able to do that, but as far as i know, it is the property owner or the permit holder that's responsible for those as far as graffiti vandalism. >> president laguana: i did want to -- you know, it's anecdotal information, but i did want to add to that. i was walking down the street and had a conversation with

emmy from emmy's spaghetti shack and she did relay to me, i don't know whether this is accurate or not, but this is what her experience was, she said that the city would send somebody through to paint over the graffiti on the shared space and she had an issue with that because sometimes they would do it very quickly before she had a chance to handle it herself and she did not agree with the technique or the color that was being used and that was what i understood her complaint to be. so i'm -- i guess we can look more into that. but i do want to remind the commission that the item before us today is whether or not there will be fines reinstated.

and, jimmer, what i think would maybe be helpful, perhaps we could have d.p.w. come back at a later date. the commission did introduce a resolution in i believe it was ooesdz december or january of 2021. and some of these things that we're now talking about were in our registers to d.p.w. at that time and i can have kerry forward that resolution to you and i think it'd be wonderful to have you come back and talk about these issues, but i do want to make sure we stay on point here with respect to the item in front of us. so commissioner ortiz-cartagena, i saw you were next. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: two things. one i had a question that was in a response to the dialog with [ indiscernible ] . the mailbox, usps. so the city applying small businesses, do they send those

notices? >> that's an extremely great question. i cannot tell you how much time and involvement i had with the post office with those mailboxes. even the post office buildings are tagged, the post office vehicles are tagged. it's a government agency. so if we do send them a notice of violation, it basically gets ignored. so i tried working with them. we used to be responsible for abating the graffiti on the mailboxes, we had the paint, still do for the green and the blue. and what happened was they stopped, i mean, they were paying like $0.50 on the dollar for us to abate and we would send them the bill every month or whatever and then i think it was in 2008 when things got kind of rough, they decided to end that contract. they said they would take it and do it themselves and just to give you a little history. so from 2008, for many years these mailboxes i would report

them to 311 and nothing would ever happen, they would get closed out. finally, it got to a point, there was a new postmaster in san francisco, it got to a point where we got to meet with her and she was determined to make sure that the post office did what they needed to do to make sure the graffiti was abated and they were also willing to have 311 connect directly to their -- they couldn't have access to the 311 system so that they can close things out. they're going to abate by themselves and then they're going to close it out. before it wasn't happening. i think 311 would hold on to it for so long because there was no system put into place. and they were reporting it to the post office, but it was going into a big it was

happening within 24 to 48 hours. that postmaster went down to san jose and it's back to the way it was. to answer your question, the post office doesn't pay, it's a government agency. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: so the small business can. >> president laguana: commissioner, that's actually written into the law. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: is it? >> president laguana: yeah. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: okay. and the shared spaces. that's the responsibility of whoever got the permit and that was the biggest confrontation i had with the pandemic with the shared spaces community. and especially since the ordinance was changing in the

pandemic again empathy. it would be greatly appreciated. i know i'm just the messenger, but just so you know. also back in the 90s, they had the brushing and brooming. i had to go to a meeting and i spent my whole summer cleaning up graffiti. i don't know if that happens still. you've got to go do some real community service. >> there was a program, the jaws program that was created by officer he would take youth out on weekends to abate like bridges and stuff. so there was the jaws program, but -- and we also worked with

-- it's where the p20. where he would take folks out and they could work off tickets and as far as now, i'm fairly just knew back to public works. and i'm just getting back into this now in september. i'd have to look our first graffiti advisory board is next week. i've been gone for two years. >> president laguana: why don't we talk about that when we have you back because i do think we need to focus on the legislation at hand. commissioner ortiz-cartagena, did you have any other

questions? okay. okay. so, lee, first, i want to acknowledge that there are a number of different items that have to be balanced here and i understand and respect where the supervisor is coming from and i will say there's a small business interest naturally, of course, in making sure we don't have our neighborhoods, you know, looking like they're in disrepair or that people don't care about their locations. i also want to acknowledge that there are building owners where there are no businesses at all and that the buildings were

vacant and some of them have been in have not been community if also just kind of what it conveys about and how important it is that they have a good experience and certainly a good visual experience is part of that as well. so i want to understand and/or communicate that i understand and respect that part of it.

there is some legislation because we did issue a resolution in this resolution, i would like to say that we issued this well into the and it was in response to business owners that were getting for stressed and upset but there's also been a lot of up tick that

their windows got broken so many times and so they really had no choice but to board up the windows which then promptly got tagged and then they got these noticed requiring them to abate the graffiti as well as insult to injury was the administrative costs and i think, for many small businesses. you know, it really does feel like that they are penalized from the vandalism in the first place which is that graffiti is

not evenly distributed throughout the city. i think that the businesses and pacific heights probably they're struggling to be in these businesses. and is there are some equity concerns about just how a blanket reinstitution of fines could be rolled out.

i know the program and legislation has profissions for a hardship waiver, but as i think vice president zouzounis mentioned, the challenges with a waiver is that a -- it's not always clear that you can apply for it or where you can apply for and then you have to show up for it and what evidence do you need and how likely if it will be approved and who has the time to do this and frankly not many of our businesses do. and a think the overall, and certainly you've heard about the violations to these businesses. in some cases, this is certainly thought or, you know, at least in the cases that we're concerned about, the small businesses, it's certainly not intentional.

and so it becomes just one more cut that's among those,000 cuts that are slicing our businesses to death and so i think that we're, you know, as a commission, we're naturally going to be concerned about reinstituting the fees particularly before the emergency is over while we're in the midst of a new surge. while we're seeing a lot of businesses that are seeing a dramatic downturn of business especially over the past couple weeks. and then finally, i'd be remissed not to note that after the legislation was introduced, i spoke to our legislative analyst and i asked her how do

other cities do it. now, i recognize that, lee, you opened with this and that you're rethinking the whole approach to graffiti is not necessarily on the table, but i do think it's worth noting that new york covers the cost of graffiti clean-up. boston covers the cost of graffiti clean-up. montreal covers the cost of clean-up excludeing the paint. chicago covers the cost to clean up. dallas covers the cost to clean up. and there is something about if the city has an interest in seeing that the scombh the city has the responsibility of making sure the buildings weren't tagged in the first place. there's something that but

there's something sounds right about the city picking up the cost. i'll note that the legislation currently written does make it seem like the city has more of an interest in the money than actually recovering the cost so i think this was crafted and continue plated in a time when perhaps the businesses, you know, the motivation here was to deter businesses from leaving the gra neaty being up for a very long time. but we're in a different moment now where we have a lot more

vacancies where the small businesses that we have are under a lot of distress. where, you know, i don't think anybody's going out of business solely and explicitly because of the notice of violation on graffiti, but it is one more thing that's tagging on that's making things a bit harder. and so i guess, the question that i have for you as the supervisor is thinking about how we approach this problem, do you think that, you know, there are ways that perhaps either, c., we could explore a carving out businesses that are currently occupied or finding some way to curtail or lengthen the period before these fees start until at least such point

that the emergency is over? or, b., do you think that the supervisor might be open to exploring other options or resolving this that look like other cities like new york and los angeles and boston and dallas and that we can take an approach that's less punitive to the business owner. and, c, if the answer to a and b is really "no", where do you think there's room for movement here? >> yeah. thank you, commission president laguana. i am not prepared to answer the wreck of those questions. i think the legislation before

you is responding to a request from the department that probably originated as a request to many supervisors' offices about unabated graffiti. not necessarily graffiti on buildings that house small businesses, but i don't know if it was you that mentioned or somebody else mentioned vacant buildings. and, you know, doing their part as community members to do the responsible thing and paint over the graffiti. i think opening up the conversation of how to approve graffiti abatement is a much larger conversation. i would be happy to read the letter that the small business xhigsz drafted. i just did a quick search and i don't believe supervisor peskin or myself were copied on that. i would love to read that letter. frankly, there are other bodies

that do engage in these types of deliberations. one of them is the graffiti advisory board in light of a few specific circumstances. not the least of which is that it has failed to meet quorum by in large over the past three years and that it is sun setting in march and i think that body needs to be recon figured and rethought so it can provide some of that advice and be something that can consider a program attic response. in terms of the city's existing program attic response, it should be on the record that o.e.w.d. did create and put out a vandalism relief grant over the past couple of years that businesses can apply for, that businesses have applied for. you get $2,000 back. now, if the vandalism was a broken window, that's a different question. the question of, you know, the insurance company's role in this again i think is far

outside the scope of the legislation though i'm synthetic frankly not synthetic for insurance providers. i think that that is remarkably counter intuitive if not profit motivated. so that is all to say, commissioner, that you're asking questions that are larger than this legislation. i think you're asking questions that a lot of public works staff should be here to response to and are not because it's outside the scope of this legislation. further, and i think this is somebody who works on a shoe string staff here in the supervisor's office, public works is an executive branch department. i would hope that these ideas have also been presented to the mayor's office and the breath of departments who contribute to policy making under that

umbrella and to the extent, that includes d.p.h. and what vice president zouzounis was talking about about different abatement procedures that may conflict with what's in the public works code or may be redundant to. if that's not state law, that's d.p.h., the deemed approved ordinance or the deemed approved, i'm sorry. i'm forgetting it. again, you know, that's a bigger conversation than this ordinance is providing right now. so it sounds like maybe the small business commission isn't just holding a real proper hearing on that and dragging, you know, more department staff who can answer these types of questions. in the meantime, i'm more than happy to review the letter the small business commission sent. i can tell you we're thinking about what to do with the graffiti advisory board because i think that the program attic responses you're talking about are going to take a program

attic lift on the city side. >> president laguana: understood and appreciated and it was directed at the department of public works. as a result of that july halucination, it was supervisor ronen who introduced the law waving the fees for the emergency. i understand that you're responding to both your constituents and a request from the department. i think the reason i made my suggestions is it's legislation. it's an ordinance. it's at the supervisor's discussion whether or not they want to, you know, make other suggestions or changes and so i was inquiring as to what either

you or the supervisors thinking was around this. i fully recognize you have a very small staff and this is one of many issues and hard to give it your -- i would not expect or want you to give it your undivided attention, but the reason why we issued that resolution and the reason why we voted unanimously in support of supervisor ronen's legislation, waving these fees is because we had heard from businesses that were just absolutely beside themselves that they were being tagged with fees while they were barely able to keep their noses above the water. and i am certainly open to the

commission having a larger discussion on how we handle graffiti in general. i'm aware that the graffiti advisory board has not met quorum and that seems to be an issue. i think that i would be delighted and i'm sure the commission would be delighted to work with the supervisors' office on maybe giving a rethink to this and perhaps there's a better way that we can move forward where it's winner winner chicken dinner and we get both faster abatement and it's handled in a way that doesn't hurt our small business community who's already knocked back on their heels and is still very much on their heals. but, you know, if i'm

understanding you correctly and correct me if i'm wrong, the legislation is what it is. you're seeking to reinstitute the fees. >> i want to be clear and i'm sorry to interrupt you, commissioner. it's not reinstituting fees and i wanted to the notice of violation process from which certain financial penalties can flow, but really the problem today is that public works cannot send out a notice. they cannot send out a notice to the property owner saying there's graffiti on your property. we have been told that. so even as to vacant property where there is graffiti, public works cannot, does not have the legal authority right now to send a 30 day notice of violation which triggers, you know, certain things down the

line, but that notice is typically what is used to alert the property owner to in fact there's graffiti on the property. >> president laguana: and i don't mean to interrupt. certainly the commission wouldn't have a problem with reading the notice. it says the assessment of certain fees and fines. >> i don't mean to bicker at all and i regret sounding like it, this is why i would say it would be helpful if the public works code would be attached to what is stated because if you read public works code, you get a sense of the extensive process that's being reinstated. it is not a fine or fee until much further down the line if you're not responding to notices of violation, if you haven't applied for a hardship hearing or hearing at all, i think the commissioner -- vice president zouzounis's comment is particularly well taken that

and i think is in the context of this legislation, that the notice of violation should be a friendlier outreach, should match the public works code, should match what the law says, and should be a little more friendly and more of an invite to engage the process as an alternative to whatever the alternative is. if you don't have the funds to abate the graffiti, then you can apply nor these different procedures that are provided in the code. i think it's worth taking a look at the notice of violation with a lens toward making sure this is not an affront to the small business who might be receiving it. >> president laguana: vice president zouzounis has a question or comment. >> vice president zouzounis: i would just like to say we're moving towards a conclusion of this item i wanted to send my previous comments. i personally feel like i'm not prepared to vote on a piece of

legislation that is not addressing codes that ultimately exist for graffiti abatement. so i believe it's relevant to this conversation, this agenda item as do i believe that the equity issues that i mentioned and also to get a better sense of how d.p.w.'s staff, i know there's two different zeros that deal with graffiti. that's what i was trying to get with. staff has a directive that they're still engaging graffiti with business owners by calling them. so there is actual, a different mode of enforcement that's happening right now and i think that's really relevant to this conversation and i'm personally not prepared to take, you know, a 'yes' position on this. although it may seem a very

narrow attempt to address an issue, for me, i believe that all the questions raised are relevant to this vote. >> president laguana: okay. well, i would say, you know, as i said at the beginning of my remarks. the result is going to be some tension here between what this legislation is attempting to do but i don't think that um, you know, i certainly don't want to bicker or have an extensive back and forth. unless any other commissioners have any other questions, i will check for public comment. is there any public commentors on the line?

>> there's one caller in the queue. >> president laguana: caller, please proceed. >> caller: can you hear me? >> president laguana: we sure can. >> caller: hi. this is steven cornell. i want to just add to commissioner huie and commissioner sharkey, every lease i've ever dealt with, the business owner has the responsibility of cleaning up things like graffiti. it's our responsibility. having two separate notices. it's one to the business and one to the property owner who's ultimately responsible, a little softer notice to the business explaining it all out a bit would be extremely helpful. down the road, i think the

gentleman from the department of public works says when they catch graffiti people, they take care of muni yards and that sort of thing. if the city wants to do something, why don't they take them out to places that need to be painted over and actually clean up the small business rather than the city yard, that would be helpful to the business owners and i think it would be a lot more relative that, hey, this is a business, takes the person out there. i think that would be a bigger lesson to be learned than sticking them in muni art anywhere. and lastly in the legislation, one thing that's always bugged me is street graffiti. every time they're going to tend to dig up something, at&t, department and public works spray paints the streets where their pipes are and that spray paint never comes out.

why don't you use some latex paint that can be washed off down the road and have departments be responsible to get rid of it when their job is done because that stuff sticks around all the time on sidewalks, on streets, everywhere and everybody neglects it. and lastly, since i used to be in the business, putting an anti-graffiti coat of paint is a good idea, but it's super expensive stuff. works great, but it's expensive. i appreciate the hearing. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. are there any other callers in the queue? >> there are 0 callers in the queue. >> president laguana: got it. thank you. commissioners, before we go to our motion, did you want to have any additional discussion or any other comments?

okay. i'm going to move just in light of the commissioners past resolutions and in light of a sense that there's probably better ways to do this. i'm going to move that we do not approve the resolution or approve the legislation. >> commissioner: second. >> secretary: just so clarify, are you motioning to recommend a -- i'm trying to word this -- >> president laguana: i'm not sure how the wording works. so go for it. >> secretary: okay. recommend opposition? i think physically, you'd

recommend support or opposition, director. do you want to weigh in on appropriate language, here. >> director: hi, commissioners. so i think one alternative baseded on your discussion here is you can say you don't support it as is, but here are a couple other recommendations that you'd like to see incorporated and if those are, then the commission could be supportive. >> president laguana: i like that. i think that's what i'm trying to do here. i would -- let me see if i can phrase that as a motion. i would move that -- so first of all, i withdraw the earlier motion. i would move that the commission does not support the legislation as is, but could support the legislation with the following recommendations and then we'll attach a letter

with the recommendations particularly some of the recommendations that vice president zouzounis made. >> secretary: okay. is there a second? >> commissioner: i'll second that. >> secretary: seconded by commissioner huie. i will read the roll. this is for a motion to support pending recommendations and amendments. [roll call] motion passes unanimously. >> president laguana: all

right. thank you for your time, everyone. appreciate you coming and presenting. >> thanks. >> president laguana: next item, please. >> secretary: item four, resolution making findings to allow teleconferenced meetings under california government code section 54953e. this is a discussion and action item. this is a renewal of the resolution to allow you to keep meeting remotely until february 28th, when commissions can return in person. >> president laguana: this is a highly controversial item, i'm sure. commissioners, are there any comments or questions? >> nope. >> president laguana: is there any public comment? sfgov tv, is there any public comment? [please stand by]

>> sorry, go ahead. >> we are calling role on the resolution to allowus to continue meeting remotely . motion passes unanimously. >> president: wonderful, next item please. >> resolution affirming the command commission's commitment to racial equity in the office of small business program services. this is a discussion andaction item . the commission will take action on the draft resolution and discuss protocols to integrate a racial equity lens andtheir policymaking procedures and legislative reviews . presenting we have vice president zouzounis. >> vice president: thank you perry and thank you to my

fellow commissioners on the racial equity committee for this resolution and i hope everybody got totake a look at itbefore the meeting . it's really really amazing . i think this is to give you context, this is one of the action items that our commission is responsible in hitting as part of the city's racial equity mandate. so we are making good progress and really the intent with this resolution was to include some historical processes that have led to economic disenfranchisementof communities . and also really embed some policy solutions that we brainstormed as a commission that we've heard through

campaigns and initiatives that merchant organizations are working on. so this is really our action plan. like, what we're trying to solve for an hour capacity as a commission and how we can create a policy agenda kind of based on these markers that we've identified. in theresolution . so for our draft suggestion i think it will be a really good tool as we are a little side low with the racial equity separate from the commission because we have to get through a lot of items . as a way to bring everything back is to create a rubric for our body as a whole for how we assess legislation through kind

of our own racial equity rules that we create whether that's a set of questions for some just a checklist ofthings we want to review . and sort of legislation that comes across ourdesk . that's really what in addition to introducing the resolution, today we wanted to open it up for any tools for kind of rubric style questions that we want to incorporate as part of our racial equity analysis as a commission so i'll let director he collaborate on that because she's got a good way to add that conversation. >> i think vice president zouzounis you said it eloquently. i couldn't have said it better so i think thinking through a way to embed racial equity lens

into all thework we do so it's not just an afterthought . we love for this commission to havesome discussion on that as to how we look at policy ideas that come through this commission . >> president: okay. commissioners, any comments? is that thecompletion of the presentation ? sorry, i'm a little unclear is where at the commenting portio . >> that's the resolution, what'sup expected of me >> president: i guess i'm a little unclear to . >> doyou want to run through it ? i mean, haseverybody seen it ? would you like to run line by line? >> i can provide a little background in terms of what the

racial equity lens i was looking for and that's to find the center racial equity within the commission and get the offices policies and procedures and you know, the committee wanted to add a lot of historical information specifically related to businesses and how they have been impacted in the past by certainpolicies . but this resolution does that as well as prioritizes racial equity moving forward in terms of our programs. how we review policies and legislation. it's sort of a rubric for moving forward and incorporating it in a more broad way. i'm happy to answer specific questions if people have about the resolution butthat's the overarching goal . >> president: got it.

commissioners,comments, questions ? we can either go through this line by line or commissioner huie, we will let you get this started . >> i also would like to thank michael commissioners on the creation of this document and for selling allthis together. this is quite an effort if you think about . it is such an open-ended kind of thing in terms of how to look at racial equity. how to think about it within the context of what we do here in thecommission , around the commission. i think you all did a great job of putting it all together and it reads as a historical document as well as a vision for our commitment. one little thing is as i was thinking about it i said this

isn't really a document for any new commissioners, for any of us currently on the commission going forward because i think one of the biggest things with my understanding of racial equity so far in any type of equity is really that if you don't think about it atthe time of origination , and it's not incorporated into your kind of core if us, then it's really hard to add it in afterwards. because so much of what we do is systemic and i think what this document highlights is how you know, generally the idea of things like racism. these are not things that just start being added in . these are things that started with a certain ethos that came out at its core and it's hard now for us to hold this whole

thing apart. so i think as we start to look at legislation and as we start to think about what's existing as well aswhat's new , having this type of document and having this type of like rubric to use i think will be one step towards hopefully a more i don't know, supportive playing field for our community. so that's one thing. and i did kind of come up with a few things that i thought would be pieces for like a rubric. i guess that's what was asked to come up with questions as we think about legislation and i don't know if i'm allowed to talk about this but going into

other pieces of legislation that we've looked at where they continue to pop up things. let's just say like the last thing we saw where it's propping up a structure or a certain way of looking at things .i think it is our duty and that weare really , i think it is our responsibility to really think about is this an opportunity to kind of break that system apart alittle bit and look at alternatives how there are other cities not doing things . and if we do a proof this one thing, this one little thing i think being brought back20 no, this is one little piece of the puzzle . if icontinue to approve these little pieces of the puzzle , are things going togo back to the way it was ? i think that is one thing i was

thinking about. i would like to know and i'm consideringlegislation, what does that larger picture look like ?what is the opportunity ? how does this fit within a larger system? i don't want to approve stuff and approve ideas that pop up the status quo and never get to that end game that we are still hoping for. another thing i was thinking about is that often times we hear presentations on legislation, we always ask who did you talk to? what was the level of outreach and engagement? that's important and it means our commission needs to have an understanding in scale of organizations and people within our city and community and i think we're doing a good job of

that. i think we have a really nice blend of commissioners right now who have a good idea of who's out there. if we continue along those lines, then we can know when somebody tells us i talked to this group or that group but you didn't talk to these 20 otherpeople . that is an importantquestion to ask . who are you engaging with to make decisionsabout this piece of legislation ? i don't know, isthis too much of a laundry list ? but other piecesare also measuring impact . how will you be measuring impact of your decisions? how do you measure the impact of this piece of legislation or this program or service or whatever it is and is there a mechanism to make adjustments aboutcertain claims ?

what we're seeing with racial equity and any other type of equity is therethis unintended consequence . we keep talking about unintended consequences . we did this thing we thought was going to be great and now all the commissioners, instead of just saying oh no, all this other stuff happens, let's keep moving on. this needs to be part of that evaluation and accountability process to say that on an unintended consequences will and couldhappen . so how do we evaluate for that and how do wecorrect for that ? because if those unintended consequences were intended then we should have a mechanism to be able to correct for those things. that's my dream kind of thing that we can not just create legislation and see what happens and somebody else will create a piece of legislation

that fixes all this other stuff but we ourselves are accountable forwhat happens and already proactively accounting for things that could happen down the line . and i thinklastly i have , i would like to also know what is the current context of which this idea lives? like this solution or this thing, what is the current contextualsituation ? what is the pre-existing racial inequities either in the neighborhood or the population ? what's currently happening and how is this going to affect that particular imbalance already? i think having an understanding of that whether it's a sector based because many sectors are largely one group of people at a certain time. and then it becomes something different. if we could have some historical understanding as

well as presentation of what that committee currently looks like and struggles with and thinkabout , then we can have a better idea of how this legislation might tip thescales in that direction further .so that's mycomment . >> i'm sitting here listening to you talk and reading through the resolution and it is not surprisinglyvery well done . and very well documented and you know, i'm very grateful for the work that you guys have done. i guess the question is you know, you've raised up several questions there commissioner huie. i guess the question is are we

expecting more output from this committee or does this resolution 's marked the start of the work for the commission in terms of implementing what's within the resolution? where are we at? perhaps somebody can give me an update in terms of where we are at withrespect to the committee's goals for itself ? >> director, do you have ... i don't know how much of a brief of where we are inaction plan . i don't know, maybe you were going to speak to the actual how many checkmarks we've made it through and what our elected is but we can easily pull that off as well. as for the city'smandate , we have a lot of benchmarks that

weneed to hit. this is just one of them in creating a resolution . in terms of like long-term plans of the committee and vis-@-vis the commission i think that's something that we're going to be discussing more as a committee and with the director how we can bring this work front and center to the full commission but my immediate response was the reason why we been able to get this far so far with this list is because we have the space to focus on that. so i think based on the determinations of our committee and a dresser, we can do a check in with our progress and what needs to be brought back to the commission before we you know, silence that committee or something. but i don't think, i think we still have some specific things

we need to handle that might not be worth the whole commission time at this point. i think we can tea up some more things on our list of actions. our action items and go from there. in terms of the rubric, i think that was really helpful cynthia. some things that have come to my attention definitely you know, having some kind of question that we look at when we're lookingat legislation methods . is this affecting a certain sector western mark thatsector have a certain demographic identity . is there a certain like license type that also is affiliated with a type of regulation and equity concern? one that i want on their in

terms of our rubric questions is not only what isthe identity of the business owner . we talk about bipoc all the time what is thedemographic of the community . that is one that stays helpful that we're helping thecommunity . businesses that are serving those communities. that i think is foremost for me in this. those are just kind of example . i hope cynthia and i got your brain going a little bit as to what the goal is here but yes. and for sure, like if the commission as a result of this action item wants to bring bac specific questions , i think we can have space for that . >> let me just make sure i

understand this correctly. as it's just in terms of where we're at. we have this resolution. this is in my view where it very well done. that's what we are considering today . then there's an open question about therubric . that sounds like the discussion on that is ongoing and then it sounds like there are a number of other checklist items that are still yet to be done but we're making goodprogress . did i get all that correctly? >> do you want me just to go over a couple of the action plan items that i think we still have two incorporate? >> i don't think at this time. unless, because i think today it's about this resolution and i want to keep the scope on the topic at hand.

if the committee would like to make a presentation on the larger scope, then we could maybe agendaseparately and have a discussion withthat separately . i think for today , it's probably helpful especially after a lengthy first item to stay focused onthe resolution . everybody's presumably considering most of our remainingcommissioners are on the committee . presumably they had a chance to readthrough the resolution . commissioner dickerson, i thin you're the only one that's not on the committee besides myself . did you have any questions or thoughts about this resolution? before we go to public comment?

>> i was reading through it again today just so i can be refreshed on. i don't have any questions. i wouldhave to deliberate.it was very well written . how iview it , number i don't have any questions. i don't have any concerns about it. it is needed and it's necessar . i think for me it's more so with implementation. how are things going to be worked out, how do they manifest? what does it look like? so for me i sit back and i look at the reading. i look at the verbiage of it. i agree with all of it. how do we implement this and that's really what my ears are tuned to see one that's of

awful thing to say. i had the same thought which is what does this look like? to me, that's not what's in front of us right now. presumably we will have anothe conversation about implementation . right now it's about directionally. i'm agreeingwith you . you justarticulated something i myself was struggling to articulate . so i appreciate it.

>> it really is that step from idea to action. when we developed the economic mitigation working group recommendation which our office oversaw this working group that was voted on by the board of supervisors and it was meant to try to mitigate or offset some of the unintended consequences of legislation that affected certain demographic communitie . i think this was a good template for us of how we get issues and ideas into formal recommendation for action. we had terry bring us that spreadsheet that wecreated . it's an xl sheet and it has each recommendation and how they wouldbe implemented .

is it an rfp? is it a programmatic thing? is it a legislative thing and mark can the department handle it internally ? it's a really goodmodel . i think we're going to use it for okay, we already have a bunch of great resolutions that this commission has produced which are like one inch away from becoming policy. we have a lot of things already in the queue that we can put into a spreadsheet, make sure our rubric for how we analyze it and want to implement it as our racial equity rubric which i'm sure that is alsosomewhat one of our action items . and then i think terry, if you want to find that template to the full commission. it'sjust a good visual of how we can make policy recommendations based on ideas

. >> president: ilike it . so is there any other commissioner questions or comments? i just want to make sure i didn't accidentally skip over anyone oranybody else wanted to bring up ? okay. is there any public commenters on theline ? >> ever zero colors in the queue. >> ca nine, public comment is closed. i don't want to put one of the committee members in the awkward position of recommending their own resolution so commissioner dickerson, wouldyou like to make a motion ? >> i would be happy to make a motion recommending how would i

say that? recommendingthis resolution ? exactly. >> president: i would be delightedto second . commissioners that aren't on thecommittee . >> i will read the role. [roll call vote] >> motion passes unanimously. >> president: thank you again to all the committeemembers . i know it's just one more job on top of allthe other jobs we do . not just one job but it is another set of responsibilities and you have all been very

diligent in executing those responsibilities. i appreciate all of that work and it's wonderful to see this and i look forward to what you producenext . so with that, next item please. >> item 6, approvalof draft meeting minutes . this is an action item. >> president: another controversial item.any amendments to the minutes? is there any publiccomment on the minutes ? >> zero colors in the queue. >> president: see in public comment isclosed i move we approve the minutes . >> i second. you can have it . [inaudible] >> seconded bycommissioner ortiz-cartagena i will call the role .

[roll call vote] >> motion passes. >> president: next item please. >> general public comment, this is a discussion item. >> president: any members of the public that would like to comment on a item that is not on today's calendarbut that you still want to comment on ? >> zero colors listening and zero colors in the queue. >> president: see anon, public comment is close. >> item 8,directors report that serves as presentation and discussion item . >> president: it's all yours, take it away.

>> thank you course to carry from support especially for the first meeting just office business to share with you all. in terms of staffing , and the permit center, we are currently in the process of hiring to staff to be physically located at the city's new permit center so it definitely is a welcome addition to supporting the small os the team to facilitate permitting needs between city departments. really we have a new way of doing things, started off to advocate for getting people through the processof starting a restaurant . and now evolving to osb having to dedicated staff so i'm excited about that and of course once the decisions are made we would be happy to share that with you and if you haven't toward the permit

center, definitely let us know if you're interested because it's just amazing that came to fruition. in terms of the venue fund, i wanted to sharethat the application deadline for the second round of grants is january 12 . at 5 pm andrick has worked with the entertainment commission . to dooutreach on this particular grant program . and to note there were 70 eligible recipients in the first round of grants, all of those are eligible for the second round as well. and then also under the legacy business program. we are in the process of very close really at the tail end of hiring one additional staff to assist with the grant program and especially in the marketing piece of that. in terms of upcoming legislation or policy matters before the commission just to

give you a preview of the things coming your way. to think about . one is the street vendor regulation which you will be hearing at the next commission meeting.so this is an ordinance that would create a new citywide regulatory program for street and sidewalk bending and itwould require permits to prepackaged food or both . that of course establish permits at sarah. it would banvending in that nation plaza except during the farmers market . as well as other enforcement provisions there. the next item that i wanted to bring to your attention, this has to do with ada and businesses. so there's a resolution that supervisor haney has introduced . it's been referred to this commission however, i know that

osb is going to be meeting with supervisor haney's office and its facility advocates to discuss that further but essentially in this resolution is a rundown of some things that have occurred in thesmall business community that you're all very familiar with . and i'm urging basically further action on that. so there will be more discussion on that piece. legislation that has passed, there's a request for services and to allow sheriffs to provide elemental law enforcement services to retail and commercial establishments . in terms of sharedspaces , and the limits on time so you all read about this in the news. this is a legislation under supervisor asking to extend the basically the suspension of until april 1, 2023 the issuance of fines for violations of shared space

requirements except for physical access requirements or disabilities or first responders . so this was referred to by the commission but were also apologies. were also awaiting themayor's office proposal regarding shared spaces . in terms of third-party food delivery services, this is also an ordinance from supervisor peskin'soffice . and it's to place a cap on the delivery fee or the charge. at the third-party food delivery services can charge to restaurants so up to 15 percent for online orders. and up to five percent for the non-delivery fee that you order and you might pick it up in person. this is tbd in terms of the schedule before us. and then there's a family-friendly workplace ordinance sponsored by

supervisor chan and this is to basically allow for employees to have flexible or predictable working arrangements. unless such anarrangement would cost employer undue hardship . and i do believe that there was an existing family-friendly ordinance on the books so this is an amendment to that. and it this is scheduledfor our february 14 commission meeting . next one, there is a hearing coming up. i believe this was from supervisor subways often send it to part two of a hearing that he had to call initially to other understand the economic impact of aiken's office buildings in san francisco so calling on several different departments in the city to shed light on what has happened specifically in financial districts, soma and embarcadero.

due to the shelter in place ordinance that was in place but prior to company policies in terms of trying to work in person and what those effects are so we are again once one of several departments needed to report onthat so we will be participating . the public works, the mayor's office is amending that to assess mobile facility permits and so they want to be able to allow the that permit fee to be collected and unified licensed through the taxcollector's office.annually on march 31 . so that was just introduced and iknow it will be scheduled. and then lastly , this is something to pay attention to hear. there is a proposed charter amendment for the june election and it would change the way

that nominations are approved for mayoral appointees to commission . and so right now there's a certain process that the mayor there's different processes for different types ofcommissions . and in many cases if the mayor appoints someone to commission , then they are the board of supervisors is notified and if there's no action after 30 days is just automatically approved . so unless someone at the board decides to invoke a hearing it's approved. this new proposal would say that for a mayoral nomination made after june 7 2022, they would be subject to approval by the board of supervisors and shall be subject to a public hearing and vote within 60 days . and then if the board fails to act on nomination which is 60

days than a nominee shall be deemed approved. then there's another provision in their department heads and what the city administrator's office is able to do in terms of regardingnominees for potential removal of department heads . that was a ballot measure proposed by supervisor chan and a couple of code sponsors introduced last week so i wanted tofly that one for you all . that's it for the report for this week. i'm here to answer any questions. >> president: commissioners, any questions? starting to slouchin my chair. it's a long day . director, i'm still processing a bunchof different things simultaneously . i don't have any questions

right at this moment but i'm sure i will shortly. certainly a lot of that upcominglegislation is of great interest or i expect will be of great interest to the commission . sounds like you're off to a rip roaring start so congratulations on that and unless any of my commissioners have any questions or comments, my fellowcommissioners not my personal commissioners . unless they have any questions or comments i think we will check with public comments. is there any public commenters on the line ? >> there are zero colors in the queue. >> president: public comment i closed, next item .>> item 9, commissionercomments and questions and new business . this is a discussion item. >> president:commissioners, any

new business ? commissioner huie. >> i think prior to the holidays we had a meeting. i don't know if i should say this already but we had a meeting in the richmond district around ada issues and had a diverse panel. i thought we got really good feedback from people in regards to just bringing that type of human aid situation back into the mission . a lot of people have experienced it in the past and it seems like something that you know, it was a little bit of a different conversation than in the past. i think i'm excited to have ne materials . i know i worked with rhea to kind of get some new materials

to be able to bring them forth to business owners and kind of revisit that conversation and hopefully set a more progressive positive tone to making improvements and making our businesses moreaccessible . and being able to filter a lot of the different things happening within the umbrella of ada. so i'm excited to work on that ongoing. i wanted to note that i think our commission has recently put out like grants for a bunch of different items. there's some poor districts as well as somecitywide grants . many of them are in partnership kind of with merchant communities and neighborhood activation take things. so i just encourage everybody

to take a look and see if there might be something there that could really support some kind of neighborhood activation. i know there are efforts to put together artwalks and things like that . so i think if all the neighborhood corridors could take a look and see if there's something. there might begood to see money for future projects . i also wanted to thank oe wb for so much support in our neighborhood over the holidays. i think throughout the city there were a lot of different things that happened i thought were really cool because it was a little bit of a challenging holiday, a challengingmonth and season . knowing i think ... i don't even know how to describe this

past winter season. but i do appreciate all the efforts to do some creative things and put effort into our neighborhood corridors . ithink that brought a lot of joy . that was the feedback that i got from the neighborhood that i'm involved in. and also, i don't know if this is considered new business, it's a little bit of old business but i wanted to also revisit how before pandemic as i have started on this commission we had a hearing with thedelivery companies . and i think the scope of all that obviously changed during the last couple of years but i think some of the issues that we had brought up and we had kind of unearthed are still present. we're still talking about the delivery but there were all these other gaps that we noticed and i feel like that is the conversation that we should

continue and revisit and see if we can't make headway into what that would look like in the future.that would be really an important thing for residents of the city who are now more dependenton the service . those are my old and new business items so thank you. >> we could or should take another look at the whole ghost kitchen aspect here. i know that's something that commissioner carnahan you had lot of interest in . probably worth checking in and seeing where we are on that . i feel like there was another tertiary related issue that came up recently.

i can't quite remember what it was but it was along those lines probably around the attitude stuff butvice president, please . >> that did remind me of something that we brought in as a commission for the taxi medallion situation in the city's role.we had sent a letter to mta from our commission. i know there's recent events regarding the taxis so i think it might be relevant for us to get an update onthat . >> president: whichtaxis are these ? >> taxi drivers.

but what i'm trying to say is taxi is one example. we've written like i said a letter to mta so any follow-up on that topic i think is relevant to us. and third-party delivery product for me alsothe independent contractors that are drivers . that is a data point that our commission has in trying to think about better, helping the city collect who are independent contractors and sole proprietors like catching that data.in my experience working with the federal government in the last year those are the people that have been challenged the most in receiving aid. so i think that that is a small business demographic that we the other taxis and maybe some of the good drivers we

discussed how we wanted to approach this as a commission but i wanted to noticebecause it is nothing that we've discussed before . >> are you aware of anything pending that we could lookinto ? on that or ... >> there's been action regarding the taxis in the last couple of weeks and like i said,not everybody on the commission had seen the letter we sent to mta about the taxis . we would redistribute that and see if mta has any newer updates for us. based on the line of questions we have in fact order . so that was that action item and then i think the second one about how do we help the city track 1099 independent contractors.

that may be something that director king and regina can touch base on a not sure i don't have a specific task there. just for us, i'm encouraging us to consider that as part of our look at the economy. >> gig economy, i'm hearing for some reason. >> the only data we got none that was actually our office had really gooddata when the city first required tmc drivers to register business licenses . like, we had demographic data. we know which communities were driving this, on the languages space and i never did anything with that data now as we look and see so many businesses that are opening hassles of proprietors and independent contractors and the economy, i think that's just something we

need to think about . as we are approaching and making an action around what we want to do. >> anything else? >> commissioners this is the first time i've seen you.i wanted to relay what an excellent party that was that td made through at that our former director regina dick injuries he was celebrated at. and it was touching or maybe i did see you again. it's all fitting together. i think you know, we're really going to have to pay very close attention yet again to the

personal services and the restaurant industry because of everything that's happening with omicron. i was saying today to some friends that if there was the least bad time for it to happen would be the first two weeks of january so it's never a good time for this stuff but i mean it's probably not true for the gyms. maybe the first two weeks of januaryare the best two weeks of the year but for all the resolutions , for the tourism industry, for i think a lot of restaurants and folks that are connecting or gathering so i know in my business that historically the first two weeks of january are the slowest time of the year so that is you know, it's not as

bad as it could be. i'm going to look at this glass half-full kind of person. but i think that nonetheless as a result of result of the impact of electron and i think a concern that the next 2 to 3 weeks is things are more likely to get worse and they are to get better. we should as a commission start actively thinking about what are some of the things we can do to help these businesses ge through it . and what are some of the tools that we have in our toolbox to help encourage our policymakers to help them get through it. so i just want to put that on everybody's radar. that i know many of our us are mentally done with thepandemic . i know i am.

i will share with the commission that i had covid over new year's break. that was fun but so didthe family . but recovered quickly thanks to vaccination so everybody out there get vaccinated. because it really wasn't that big of a deal. i'd say every flu i've ever ha was worse than that . it was not a big deal. but obviously we are seeing different outcomes elsewhere where vaccinations are not as prevalent and we still have dealt out there doing its thing. so i don't know that there's a strong nexus therefore the commission to get involved in but certainly i think it benefits the small business community environment. to do what we can to further

the vaccination department in san francisco done very well but there's a big close to 20 percent that are still completely unvaccinated. is that correct director, somewhere around there. >> i tried to ignore that data for a while. i've racked my brain so i will look it up. >> it remains sound so at any rate. so i think that's it for me. i don't see any other commissioners bringing anythin up so with that, we will check in and see if there's any public comment . >> there are zero colors in the queue. >> seeing on,public comment is closed . >> item 10, the germans. this is an action item. please show the offices small

business. >> we will end with a reminder of the small business commission is the official public forum divorce your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco and the offices 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 continue to reach out to the office of small business. >> i believe you. >> is there a motion to adjourn. >> moved by commissioner ortiz-cartagena. commissioner dickerson. [roll call vote] motion passes,

the meeting is adjourned at 6:55. >> president: thank you everybody. >> thank you. have a good night.

shop and dine on the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within neighborhood. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant. where will you shop and dine in the 49? san francisco owes the charm to the unique character of the neighborhood comer hall district. each corridor has its own personality. our neighborhoods are the engine of the city. >> you are putting money and support back to the community you live in and you are helping small businesses grow. >> it is more environmentally friendly. >> shopping local is very

important. i have had relationships with my local growers for 30 years. by shopping here and supporting us locally, you are also supporting the growers of the flowers, they are fresh and they have a price point that is not imported. it is really good for everybody. >> shopping locally is crucial. without that support, small business can't survive, and if we lose small business, that diversity goes away, and, you know, it would be a shame to see that become a thing of the past. >> it is important to dine and shop locally. it allows us to maintain traditions. it makes the neighborhood. >> i think san francisco should

shop local as much as they can. the retail marketplace is changes. we are trying to have people on the floor who can talk to you and help you with products you are interested in buying, and help you with exploration to try things you have never had before. >> the fish business, you think it is a piece of fish and fisherman. there are a lot of people working in the fish business, between wholesalers and fishermen and bait and tackle. at the retail end, we about a lot of people and it is good for everybody. >> shopping and dining locally is so important to the community because it brings a tighter fabric to the community and allows the business owners to thrive in the community.

we see more small businesses going away. we need to shop locally to keep the small business alive in san francisco. >> shop and dine in the 49 is a cool initiative. you can see the banners in the streets around town. it is great. anything that can showcase and legitimize small businesses is a legitimize small businesses is a

>> first of all, thank you for coming to celebrate this incredible milestone. i am really excited that she accepted. because i know what you often times may see is the fights between kim and i. what you don't know is about the friendship and the amount of love and respect i truly have for her and her work ethic from the moment i met her actively engaged in labor in a way that brought the conversation to a different level around women and minorities and their role in leadership and labor. it is good to see more women step up and in fact, it is 125 year history not one woman has ever led the san francisco labor council and kim is doing that, which is absolutely

extraordinary. [applause] and you are the first executive director of the labor council to serve on this work force investment board because i didn't want to appoint the others. just kidding. but in fact, you know, this is so important. when i think about growing up in the western addition and the fights that we used to have to be included in the placements and job opportunities that exist in the city, i feel like we have come a long way but we still have a long way to go to make the real connections between people in many of the communities that many of you represent but himself the same people who want these opportunities, the new jobs that come to san francisco. not just the work related to construction and engineering but as you know there are even

shortage of nurses. the work you have done with nuhw was extraordinary onever the years. how that played a role to make sure there is a real connection between people and the opportunities, through organized labor to make sure they get their fair share, the appropriate pay and benefits and the ability to take care of themselves and their families. you have been doing this work for a really long time. i know that you are going to bring a really strong voice to this body. in the process you are going to make a lot of folks upset what it is you have to say, but i wouldn't have wanted it any other way because some things need to be upset. some things need challenged. in fact, i am not afraid of a challenge and not afraid of the conversations that need to be had to get to a better place that is what we want.

we want a better place so people have better lives. you have dedicated your lives to public service. organized labor but public service because of the people that you know you represent. the people that you know are counting on autophytes for them and make the right decisions that are going to have an impact onnary families and livelihood. regardless of disagreements at the end of the day the underlying message i know that is most important to much of you and i know is important to kill is the fact that we want to fight for better lives for the people we represent. that is why you are going to be serving on this board, and i appreciate and honor that you accepted this opportunity. i am looking forward to seeing something change for the better for workers throughout san francisco. with that let's debt you sworn

in. (applause). >> i will put on my mask. covid is running rampant and we are close to each other. place raise your right hand and repeat. i say your name do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic that i bear true faith and allegiance to the same. that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that i will well and

faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter and during such time as i serve as a member of the work force investment san francisco board for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause] >> here is a little city seal pen with my signature. i give this to all people i swear in to serve. ladies and gentlemen, the latest person for the board tackling

work force in san francisco and making real change. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed, for taking time-out of your schedule to do this. thank you to the leaders of labor here today, especially my board members, susan, mike, charlie, debra, and my good friend karen. i want to thank you for taking time for the swearing in. it means a lot to me because i have always been really challenged by the fact there rvs and have notes in the work force, and i really want to fight overcoming making sure that everyone becomes a very. everyone has an opportunity to get a job and a wealthy job and to join a union if they so choose. that is my mantra since i was

little. it is my mantra to this day. i will fight to make sure. that is what the labor council is about making sure there are opportunities for people and career ladders. that has always been what i have been about. i want to make sure that happens. we have seen companies take advantage of people especially during strikes when they go into poor neighborhoods to try to recruit scabs. we knead to emphasize recruiting people to getting into them into construction and janitors and construction trades and up the ladder and nursing, healthcare. these are all opportunities they should all have. we want to make sure that the san franciscans that we all know and love have that opportunity and that is my goal for this. i really intend to implement a

labor caucus to make sure that we are doing what we need to do to give every san franciscan the opportunity be to participate from our economic recovery from covid and overall economic recovery as we get on with opening up the city and making sure that people come to san francisco. those the obstacles before us. i hope we overcome them altogether as we move along. thank you. [applause].

a city like no other, san francisco has been a beacon of hope, and an ally towards lgbtq equal rights. [♪♪]

>> known as the gay capital of america, san francisco has been at the forefront fighting gay civil rights for decades becoming a bedrock for the historical firsts. the first city with the first openly gay bar. the first pride parade. the first city to legalize gay marriage. the first place of the iconic gay pride flag. established to help cancel policy, programses, and initiatives to support trans and lgbtq communities in san francisco. >> we've created an opportunity to have a seat at the table. where trans can be part of city government and create more civic engagement through our

trans advisory committee which advises our office and the mayor's office. we've also worked to really address where there's gaps across services to see where we can address things like housing and homelessness, low income, access to small businesses and employment and education. so we really worked across the board as well as meeting overall policies. >> among the priorities, the office of transgender initiatives also works locally to track lgbtq across the country. >> especially our young trans kids and students. so we do a lot of work to make sure we're addressing and naming those anti-trans policies and doing what we can to combat them. >> trans communities often have not been included at the policy levels at really any level

whether that's local government, state government. we've always had to fend for ourselves and figure out how to care for our own communities. so an office like this can really show and become a model for the country on how to really help make sure that our entire community is served by the city and that we all get opportunities to participate because, in the end, our entire community is stronger. >> the pandemic underscored many of the inequities they experienced on a daily basis. nonetheless, this health crisis also highlighted the strength in the lgbtq and trans community. >> several of our team members were deployed as part of the work at the covid command center and they did incredit able work there both in terms of navigation and shelter-in-place hotels to

other team members who led equity and lgbtq inclusion work to make sure we had pop-up testing and information sites across the city as well as making sure that data collection was happening. we had statewide legislation that required that we collected information on sexual orientation and our team worked so closely with d.p.h. to make sure those questions were included at testing site but also throughout the whole network of care. part of the work i've had a privilege to be apart of was to work with o.t.i. and a community organization to work together to create a coalition that met monthly to make sure we worked together and coordinated as much as we could to lgbtq communities in the city. >> partnering with community organizations is key to the success of this office ensuring lgbtq and gender nonconforming people have access to a wide range of services and places to go where they will be respected. o.t.i.'s trans advisory

committee is committed to being that voice. >> the transgender advisory counsel is a group of amazing community leaders here in san francisco. i think we all come from all walks of life, very diverse, different backgrounds, different expertises, and i think it's just an amazing group of people that have a vision to make san francisco a true liberated city for transgender folks. >> being apart of the grou allows us to provide more information on the ground. we're allowed to get. and prior to the pandemic, there's always been an issue

around language barriers and education access and workforce development. now, of course, the city has been more invested in to make sure our community is thriving and making sure we are mobilizing. >> all of the supervisors along with mayor london breed know that there's still a lot to be done and like i said before, i'm just so happy to live in a city where they see trans folks and recognize us of human beings and know that we deserve to live with dignity and respect just like everybody else. >> being part of the trans initiative has been just a great privilege for me and i feel so lucky to have been able to serve for it for so far over three years. it's the only office of its kind and i think it's a big opportunity for us to show the country or the world about things we can do when we really put a focus on transgender issues and transgender communities. and when you put transgender

people in leadership positions. >> thank you, claire. and i just want to say to claire farly who is the leader of the office of transgender initiatives, she has really taken that role to a whole other level and is currently a grand marshal for this year's s.f. prize. so congratulations, claire. >> my dream is to really look at where we want san francisco to be in the future. how can we have a place where we have transliberation, quality, and inclusion, and equity across san francisco? and so when i look five years from now, ten years from now, i want us to make sure that we're continuing to lead the country in being the best that we can be. not only are we working to make sure we have jobs and equal opportunity and pathways to education, employment, and advancement, but we're making sure we're taking care of our most impacted communities, our

trans communities of color, trans women of color, and black trans women. and we're making sure we're addressing the barriers of the access to health care and mental health services and we're supporting our seniors who've done the work and really be able to age in place and have access to the services and resources they deserve. so there's so much more work to do, but we're really proud of the work that we've done so far. [♪♪] >> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry

-- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or

ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in

first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social

disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not

mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining

weight and wasn't sure, so i went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the prospective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism.

i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits before i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely.

so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the

transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary.

january 13, 2022. transbay joint powers authority. >> good morning everyone. welcome to 2022. i would like to call the board of directors meeting january 13, 2022 to order. my apologies we are waiting. we had technology gremlins this morning. we are trying to ask them to

leave the table this morning. i am the board chair. this is conducted pursuant to the brown act. in compliance with the california state assembly bill ab361 to facilitate teleconferencing to reduce risk of covid-19 transmission at public meetings. ordinarily the brown acts sets strict rules for teleconferencing. a b361 has suspended those rules. this meeting is being held during a state of emergency and state and local officials have imposed recommended measures to promote social distancing. as noted the agenda members of the public may observe via sfgovtv and offer public comment by calling the public comment phone number. welcome to members of the public and staff watching live on sfgovtv. i would like to thank the sfgovtv staff for support and

services. please call the roll. >> thank you. i would note director borden will be sitting in as alternate. please respond when i call your name. director borden. >> present. >> forbes is expected. director john baptist. >> present. >> director lipkin. >> present and on camera. >> welcome. director shaw. >> present. vice chair mandelman. >> present. chair gee. >> present. >> interest we have a quorum. item 3 is communications. we like to remind the public the

public comment is listed on the agenda and streaming on the screen. i will call your next item. >> item 4 is board of directors new and/or old business. item 5 is the executive director's report. >> thank you. good morning, directors. happy new year. it is my on for to join you. my first meeting as the new director. i want to give you an update on the first six days in the office where we stood since the last meeting at the end of last year. 2022 is starting out to be an exciting year of great momentum and progress. i have been using the relative

quiet at the transit center to learn the operations from facility and security to touring the center, the park, security operations center, walking the alignment with the product manager, reacquainting myself with and scheduling time with stakeholders. understanding the milestones regarding finance and communications and advocacy. there is a lot to do. this is to stabilize services with retail and community partners to facilitate return of users. if you haven't been down here, it is quiet at the moment as it should be through the omicron surge. 2022 will be a critical year for the dtx.

we are committed to ensuring we meet the funding milestones andtine lines for the grant agreement in august of 2023 to bring rail service downtown to create the regional transit system. i have started meeting with key stakeholders. i will be working to elevate the program at essential transportation infrastructure. not only for san francisco but the bay contrary, the state and the nation. here in the office because of covid-19 all employees are masked in common areas. masks required throughout the center. we are still. [indiscernable] for those able to do so. the park continues to be an open space resource for the neighborhood. we are working to expand public

access signage so the neighborhood is aware of the gym a few stories above street level. this week at the meeting yesterday, committee members approved $200,000 for tjpa to support upgrades to digital way finding at the center. this will add to existing budget to advance this effort. we expect to be to the board on january 26th. last april we restarted free public programming. over 280 activities and serves 7,000 attendees. we offer exciting fun and free activities at the park. i don't want to steal too much of january's update later today. this past saturday afternoon, january 8th, the center experienced a temporary power outage. power was out for about 90

minutes. all transit services continued to operate. security operations center sprang into action. emergency lighting came on and we have reached out to p.g.e. for additional information and evaluating to better prepare for these power outages in the future. we continue to seek funding for transbay program including center and dtx. we are working on transit inner city rail application due on march 3rd. coming up very soon. similar to our application of the federal railroad application. working on letters of support from partners and stakeholders for the application and asked them to endorse us. as reported in the december meeting, the project was accepted to enter federal

capital investment grant new starts program. this is key to move this forward to position for funding from the infrastructure line. that was the region 9 director to discuss that. we of course were honored to host speaker pelosi on the signing of the structure line on december 11th. we were joined by jackie speer, representative and future rail operators, caltrain and california high-speed rail authority and partners. this highlighted the transbay program and transit center as example of what the law can provide to the bay area and what the american reinvestment act of 2009 did for completion of the train box. through a $400 million grant

agreement, we are able to have the train box built in phase one construction. it is not if but when trains will enter the center. as you know, we are busy with federal advocates. we are getting scheduled to meet in the coming weeks and continuing to share progress information on the dtx project with federal funding opportunities. they will be at the forefront of the congressional delegation and tracking progress of federal funding including signing of infrastructure law. today on consent item 8.3 we will consider extension of one year extension of federal advocacy contract. the cap. my first meeting this week. we started the annual

recruitment process next year. filling seven seats. we will conduct online awareness campaign about the process which when include e mail, social media and ad placement in neighborhood newspapers and i will accept applications until all seats are filled. this concludes my introductory remarks. now we have a state legislative update for you. the new legislative session started this month. we have the public affairs here to provide update on the state session and funding opportunities. we are tracking including the release of governor newsom's budget proposal. the advocacy team from sacramento will provide the update. we will have them promised.

-- promised. promoted. >> hello, board members. i am nikko. we have a presentation for you. my colleague is going to lead the powerpoint. we will chime in with updates. i will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

>> thank you. we are located here in the sacramento office alongside nick co. first slide please. general overview. the legislature did return from their recess last week on january 3rd to begin second year of two year cycle. the second year of the cycle means that in addition to some bills carrying from the previous year there will be new legislation introduced. this year there is a bit of slower rollout of legislative packages due to number of covid outbreaks that are happening in the capitol community. additionally, the governor introduced his january budget proposal on monday. we will do a deeper dive into

that in a later slide. this year we have been told that the legislature's focus will be on covid response, housing, homelessness, climate resiliency and how to spend another budget surplus. it is also something we will dive into deeper at a later slide. additionally, there are musical chairs going on in both houses of the legislature. currently we have four vacant seats and of course redistricting process will put us against others in 2022 elections. a number of legislators have announced they will be candidates for perhaps higher office. additionally, some will be running for new district in their current be roles, some will be retiring. we will definitely have some new political makeup in sacramento come 2022. the last thing i should note is

that legislators and staff have moved to the new sweet space as the capitol office spaces in the capitol building are remodeled. that is a five year period. there is a bit of transition. there are several committee hearing rooms in the new space, however, the majority of the session will continue in the traditional capitol building. a little bit of budget forecast. as we stated, the governor gave the january budget proposal on monday for 2022. there is a $45.7 billion operating surplus. i should note not all is available for discretionary use. one is the limit. prop 98 set aside and the

commitment for pay downs. you know, $20.6 billion of this will be available for discretionary use. we should note that the latest surplus estimate was described by the governor and department of finance which is the administrations fiscal analyst. the legislative analyst office has different forecasts. we can expect some adjustment and variation to those numbers in the coming weeks and months. the winds fall is fueled with tax revenue and federal funds. a little more on the budget forecast. the governor's proposed budget is largely focused on the california five threats which include addressing the covid crisis, investment in climate

resiliency, rising cost of living, homelessness and public safety. the governor has proposed early actions within the budget including $1.4 billion in emergency funding for covid-19. this is something that was done in the previous budget cycle. this money will be available for more immediate use. what we are all interested in the governor's transportation proposal for the 2022 budget. i want to provide everyone a gentle reminder all of this is subject to change as the legislature develops their respective budget proposals. budget informational hearings within the legislature will begin in coming weeks and going over what the governor and

administration proposed and formulate their own budgets. what the governor proposed in his transportation proposal with regard to infrastructure is $4.2 billion from prop a for high-speed rail to advance the central valley portion of the project. $3.75 billion in general fund for transit and rail projects. part of that is for grade separation to be administered through caltrans it is and the parcp which the team is engaged in. $500 million for atp active transportation. $400 million for climate adaptation. $150 million to establish reconnecting communities. highways and converting under utilized to corridors.

$100 million for bying and pedestrian safety projects. the second part of the governor's infrastructure proposal $1.2 billion for court related high priority projects increasing goods movement on rail and roadways that serve ports and terminals and increasing rail yard expansion, new bridges, modernization projects as an effort to restimulate the supply chain and flow of goods movement. now the third part of the proposal includes $6.1 billion in zero emission vehicles and technology. while not all of this is directly relevant to tjpa we did want to highlight this more for

everyone's situational awareness and to get a better understanding where the administration's mind set is with regard to the future and zero emissions vehicles. just highlighting a couple. $1.5 billion for school transportation including electric school buses, $1.1 billion for zero emissions truck buses, off-road equipment infrastructure. $400 million to enable the port electrifycation like the last slide. $200 million for demonstration projects rail and other off-road applications. next slide, please. just a little bit more on the transportation proposal. the governor is proposing that the state forego adjusting the gas tax for inflation as

prescribed by sb1. that was 2017 authored for former senate transportation chair jim bell. this would reduce transportation funding. $523 million estimate. half state and half from local streets and roads. it is unclear whether this would result in any reduction in fuel prices. of course, it could lead to similar reduction in transportation funding every year going forward. this is the governor's proposal. legislature will formulate their version of the budget and at the end a consensus. this is all preliminary. next slide. i will pass it to my colleague to describe the ongoing efforts that tpa and tjpa have been undertaking. >> to the board a lot of what we are working on and i want to thank many of you individually

for your day jobs what you also have been helping us push is to ensure this goes back to last year our team and the tjpa leadership team were making sure everyone is aware of all of the great aspects of our project. how we can use various funding for different projects and how we can support the efforts of the administration and our delegation. what does that mean? we have been working closely with san francisco delegation. senator weiner and chang to make sure they are aware of what we are working on, how it impacts us, how to utilize the funds and how quickly to go to work. we have been working closely with the high-speed rail authority to push the governor's proposal for $4.2 billion funding out the door as soon as possible.

ensuring the bay area caucus are aware of the regional benefit. yes, the transit center is in san francisco. it provides benefit to east and south bay and peninsula and all counties. making sure other committee chairs like the senate, transportation committee, chair, transportation chair laura friedman are aware of the different benefits of the project to get to the finish line and the next steps. as you may be aware, last year the loggerhead came down to concerns in the assembly as to how high-speed rail funds would be used and that held up the entire package. we want be everyone to be aware of the work we are doing. it was a geographical battle

between los angeles pushing harder for the funds and lined up to be a bit of caucus. they are asking for new program there are great barrier programs to help push. i want to acknowledge the staff for all great work with m.t.c., caltrain, many of you on ensuring they understand the regional benefit. we continue to work on this. we continue to push and advocate. it is a great team effort. next steps. this is our top four issues. we are flexible and things could pop-up. one, working on transportation budget. that is is top. two, working with the team on funding the tircp program and many others. three, new executive director excited to introduce him to the members, committee staff, people we work with to do that

introduction and keep the lines of communication open. of course, the progress of dtx. fourth, regional efforts including tours. part of the teamwork and effort to ensure that elected at local level or county level and east bay and peninsula understand how important it is and gets people to economic hubs, great job creation machine and other benefits. we have seen when we give the tours and appreciate the work of the staff. we give the tours. understand the sheer magnitude of the center and how it is a great engine to reduce carbon footprint and get people to work and make commuters' lives easier. those are top four issues. we are excited about the new year and working with the new

executive director and we are happy to answer any questions. >> thank you for the report. it looks like great opportunities. directors, any questions on the state legislative report? >> this is director shaw. thank you very much. this is very helpful to break it down the way you did. the question i have for you what are your thoughts about the resignation of david kim, secretary kim? who do you think will replace him? any thoughts? he was a very big supporter of transit. i think he will really be missed. i wondered what your thoughts were there? >> great question. he is stepping down. the information is he wants to spend more time with his family in virginia. no one can fault that. i can't imagine having family on

the other side of the nation. we are hearing different rumors there. are a lot of people interested in the job. to be clear about that. some of the names are worthwhile. others make you do a double take. the governor is open-minded in his hiring. doesn't matter if people are from california or outside the state. one of the things we want to make sure we are deputies. today's deputies can be tomorrow's cabinet secretaries. i think there is great internal hires. what we heard yesterday the governor is open to many different suggestions. he is not handcuffed to one person or another. he is going to ensure this is a busy time and whoever is hired will be a great pick. i don't have any exact names to share with the team.

i can tell you based on the rumors we have heard, excited for whoever it is. we did a briefing the other day with deputy secretary and his team. their ongoing support for transit makes you happy and proud to show the great work that you are doing and the ongoing briefings are worthwhile. as soon as we hear anything i am happy to ensure names are shared with everybody. >> any other questions for the state legislative team? >> chair gee, i appreciate the reports. just a couple things to add. the shoes i it is in because a lot was about the budget stuff.

one quick mention about some of the conversation between the california delegation and differences in perspective we have seen. from our standpoint where we have ongoing construction our focus is completing that, putting into service as we continue to advance the work state wide. part of the funding to advance that statewide work on the entire program. the folks from southern california said we have local transit projects to see funding for as part of the package last year it was going again.

a an variety of transit and rail and other programs they would like to see. more conversation with the legislature the january budget and june budget. a long way to go. we have appreciated the strong support in line with administration's push how to get this stuff resolved. not that we are done with that conversation. last thing that is important for colleagues here is that how we kind of do our long-range budgeting through baseline revisions which for example new

scope as funds become available. we have had a pending budget revision dependent on the appropriation request to complete the funding package. we also have the set aside that we intend to use toward our contribution toward project development. those are tied together for our ability to put those funds forward depends on our ability to have the funds to fund the construction. i know those are conversations from last year. we have made an interim step of a little budget revision or adjustment last year. that is all pending depending what happens with the legislature. we will be talking with the administration with folks about that coming forward.

>> thank you, director. any other questions or comments to state on the state legislative update? >> appreciation for the report and the governor's budget is once again a surprise opportunity. we have had so many positive surprises at the federal and state level. very good report. adam, you have your hands full. excellent opportunities but you have a great team and great staff to get us there. exciting news. >> good morning and happy new year. there was an item for port connected related activities. maybe we can connect the port. >> maybe we can. it is time to think out of the box. maybe there is a good connection. >> any other questions or comments from directors?

i would just ask one thing. in the advocacy component, don't forget the board. the board members can play a big role in leading with relationships each of us has as well as speaking to the public and others to help promote dtx and the importance to the region. under that last slide perhaps there is an item 5 how board members can lean-in to help out. >> absolutely. i would be happy to bring the board in to work through the executive director. i appreciate that. i know you are extremely busy. i want to highlight one comment be from the commissioner for the great work with the high-speed rail and his team. towards the end of last year,

senator weiner submitted a joint letter. we were one of the few projects that he highlighted. appreciate all of the support from the san francisco delegation. as the commissioner mentioned the moment the southern california delegation mentioned the list of needs. it was great to see the area caucus and rise to what their needs are. billions of dollars is strange to say billions. >> thank you for the hard work. we look forward to working together more and looking forward to making sure dtx gets funding to keep moving forward. >> we have more reports under your section? >> next item is update on

facility operations. >> good morning. i will give you a facility operations update.

the qr code to the signs to provide more current information and links to additional information. of course, that also gives us the ability when you use one of those signs and the qr code to carry that information with you on your personal device. following the tree lighting that the mayor attended in early december, we did a series of holiday events which we get revenue from. holiday mixers, taking advantage of the decorated park and fortunately they picked the right days. special event be request and

program design attendance were in the upswing in early december. got quiet at the end of december and of course omicron were quiet on the private events. some are coming in february. corporate mixers, meeting with high school this afternoon about prom in the park because s.f.u.s.d. has a rule you can only have that outside. i hope we can make that happen. that would be beautiful and memorable. we hosted winter fest for three days december 17, 18, 19. that was a cold weekend. we had 950 plus people in attendance. music, dancing, crafting, movies. these photos are from the swing dancing on friday evening.

the band and the couples on the dance floor. other photos show how many turned up to take advantage of the craft center and gift wrapping station as well as other musical events. winter fest and everything i will talk about are free and open to the public. we continue the efforts to make sure people are aware of these programs. coming up january through april we have more than 110 presentations over that four month period of time where we are expanding the toddler tuesday to include thursday. if you have young children we do that on tuesday and on thursday music provides a little bear

program for toddlers. that is new. that started last thursday. and again this morning. there are five fitness classes per week offered by sf fitness. i have been taking them the midday dance class. you are welcome to join on wednesday or thursday. new things. we continue to add new things. there is a drumming circle that will happen once each month on sunday in the amphitheater. saturday music program on the lawn 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. that is the area between the playground and amphitheater. stop in for that. the garden tours continue monthly. i want to give you a brief retail leasing update. this is a new map.

this shows the grounds layout of ground floor between first and second street. the colors are the turquoise. upper left and lower right. there are other things on other level open. fitness sf and spring fertility are open also. as well as the greyhound package is open and highlighted on this map. available for lease and i think that is where our focus is right now to get this fully leased in the yellow spaces. the blue spaces are leased but not open. we have a leasing focus and get

those tenant improvements completed and more dining and retail open. working with our leasing partner we met this week. we have renewed marketing packages ready tj pa offices second floor and the yellow that you see here. the next tenant improvements and i am sure you are aware of kitchen exhaust project. we are in the control phase right now so that can be turned over. we are pivoting to advance the tenant improvements as quickly as possible. working with tysons kitchen. next slide please.

here is the likely opening date. they are planning grand opening for march 1st. i don't know how aspirational that is. i am excited about it. they did provide a pop-up as part of winter fest. they are making connections for people in the park and trying to raise awareness. with q2 we will see bear bottle in the park. kaiser open up anti -- the tycoon kitchen. in the third quarter. i met with the architects this week and plans are coming along well. i think that is going to be an

asset to the area. we are talking about outdoor seating and ways to invite people in. now we need people to return to the towers. thank you for your time. i am here to answer questions. >> thank you very much for the report. directors, any questions on the facilities update? >> thank you very much. >> one more item. project labor agreement quarterly report. it is in your packets. highlights include safety achievements from the construction team. zero reportable lost time accidents in all of 2021. that is great news. we included notes from the 26th

meeting of the joint administrative committee covering items discussed on december 16th. we received a great report from union representatives. operating engineers local 3 stating they worked with city build and the rising center for opportunity in oakland. all women's apprenticeship that is growing. all exciting news from the delivering trains to the train box. this concludes all items in the executive director's report. if you have any questions we are happy to field them at this time. >> any questions on any of the reports? thank you. we can stop counting the days you are on the job. welcome to our family here.

we are glad you are on board. before we go on. any public comment on the executive director's reports? >> a hand was raised. >> thank you. this is jim patrick, patrick and company. i want to go to the executive director's report and loss of power at transit center. we had the city electrical service one source and pg&e another source of power. in the event one would fail the other would operate. that seems not to have worked. i just wondered what happened there. thank you. >> to my knowledge we never lost transportation, never stopped

transit operations. we were on emergency power. power was out for 90 minutes. we are working with power providers to assess problem and resolve for the future. >> any other public comments? >> that concludes public comment. next item. >> director's item 6. cac update. >> happy new year, directors. our january tjpa cap meeting went great. we appreciated the opening report and recap of the significant progress during the end of 2021 including acceptance into the federal program. we appreciate the legislative updates. we received a great look at some of the inner workings and

efforts during this legislative update. there was a new discussion regarding the changes and dynamics at state level. howard long asked for i sight how the different bay area transportation agencies collaborate together and at the same time compete for state transportation funding. cac members pleased to hear the regional transportation agencies work together in many cases to benefit the overall region. the new report from jim norris was well received. members, questions and comments and discussion involved around the past december winter fest, building and rate structure private functions of the park level. the potential to have a means to draw folks to building and park. advertising methods and

participation level for movie nights. the level of risk and liability tjpa and transit center takes on the someone contracts covid while in a event in the transit center. we appreciated the report from mr. rodriguez cac members long and jackson asked questions regarding how projects such as dtx are considered for delivery in other countries. request for additional project delivery information in the future. we always appreciate comments from the public including the topic of competitive procurement processes unsolicitting proposals. we wrapped up with closing comments from our new executive director. this concludes my report. i am here for questions. >> thank you. happy new year to you and members.

directors, any questions on the cac report? very good. thank you. appreciate the report and update. any public comments on the cac report? >> no public comment at this time. i will call next item. >> 7 is public comment. opportunity for members of the public to address the authority on matters that are not on today's calendar. these do have a number, moderator. >> please state your name. two minutes begins now. >> jim patrick, patrick and company. you mentioned in the report about thinking out of the box. as we met this is really the idea for the board to kick around. we have never paid any attention to the freight business. i saw in a recent report there

are going to be 17 trucks each day between the amazon facility in tracey to the new one in san francisco at the fourth street station yet to be designed. what is the matter with a elevator like an aircraft carrier to drop a container on a freight car which is attached to the very end of the bart train, getting to the freight location and is extracted in the amount of time it takes for the train to stop? that is thinking out of the box. thank you. >> any other public comments? >> that concludes public comment. i will call your next item. >> please. next item is consent calendar. all matters listed are considered routine and acted upon by single vote. no separate discussion unless a

member of the board or the public so requests in which the matter shall be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately. i have not received any indication that a member would like to do so. is there a first and second be. public comment first. i do not see any. >> i will make the motion. >> second. >> was that director baptist or forbes? >> the first was by director forbes and second director lipkin. >> thank you. roll call vote. director borden.

>> yes. >> director forbes. >> aye. >> director john baptist. >> aye. >> director lipkin. >> aye. >> director shaw. >> aye. >> vice chair mandelman. >> aye. >> chair gee. >> yes. >> there are seven ayes. the concept be calendar is approved. call your next item. >> item 9 is approving the fiscal year 2022-23 preliminary operating projection in the amount of $30,611,000,000. the chief financial officer will present this item.

>> good morning. let's dive into this. the board is going to consider the operating projection. in front of us on the screen is the budget calendar. back in september of last year there were some preliminary operating projections sent to the tenants of the transit center. between then and now we have been working closely with counterparts of these primary tenants to develop projections presented today to the board because the primary tenants

require the board to approve this preliminary projections for the transit center this time of the year for the forth coming fiscal year. to help the budget i just want to again highlight where we are in the budget process. after today's presentation we are going to dive into the core budget development process of developing not just operating budget but debt service and capital budgets. i will come back to the board in april to inform the board on the budget outlook followed by the presentation and public hearing of the draft budget in may and come back to the board in june to ask for the board's review and add adoption of these budgets.

here are some highlights for the report that is in your packet this morning. preliminary operating projections $30.61 million. in which the regional measure two and three are somewhat major reimbursement sources from m.t.c. however, both of these fund sources faced uncertainty for tjpa. four rm-2. the current fiscal year is the last of the five year period in which the transit center receives $3 million each year for starting up. given the financial challenges

posed by the pandemic to the transit center, tjpa staff has reached out tomtp asking for extension of this funding. the request will be considered by the commission in subsequent months. rm-3 funding is going through the litigation process at the state supreme court. both of these fund sources face uncertainties. that explains the reason why the primary tenants contribution projected now higher compared to the current fiscal year. our goal is to ensure as we move forward and our historical record shows that by the time we present the doubleetto the board in the year those contributions

hopefully with the possible extension of rm-2 funding it could go back to a similar level as budgeted in the current fiscal year. the projections are consistent be with three year projection presented to the board last june. this slide shows the various reimbursementses and revenue sources that we are projecting right now for the next fiscal year. as i mentioned, rm-2 and rm3 accounts for significant share of revenue sources. thankfully we have had some

grants coming in in the stimulus packages due to pandemic. we are projecting to reach $1.7 million of the american rescue plan act funding in the next fiscal year. we have also actively pursuing way finding requests, grants from outside sources and as adam pointed out earlier we have been have beenon making progress. we are projecting we will be augmenting or leveraging. i also want to point out that the reimbursement figure we have a very strong partnership with the east benefit district covering close to 80% of the operating expense. revenues. as i mentioned, the payments

from primary tenants account for considerable share of revenues. in terms of other revenue sources, naming rights and retail revenue and add vertising. those are the major revenue sources of the operating budget. >> expenses. as i mentioned, these projected expenses are consistent with what has been presented to the board for the three year projections last june. as you can see from the table security operations and maintenance expense for the transit center, insurance and way finding account for the

lion's share of the transit center operating expenses. this table shows very important part of the operating budget which covers the operating and maintenance expense and management fees of rooftop park of our transit center. this projection will include $950,000 of contingency. in terms of other considerations some of them to be considered. once again the focus of this exercise in terms providing for the operating projections is to identify known revenue reimbursement sources and also uncertainty of such sources.

the projections once again assume more activities to happen at the transit center at the time the three year projection was put together. in that spirit both the revenue and expense projections attend be to be conservatively projected. in other words revenues made publicly on the lower side on the range of projection and expense side on the higher side of the projections. in subsequent months we will go through budget process and refinements in revenue and expense highlighted here. i have already covered about the rm-2 and rm3 revenue