we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local people will spend their money as well. i hope people shop locally. [ ♪♪♪ ] . ♪♪ ] >> 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 wonderful thing. good afternoon everyone. thank you for joining us here today. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and i'm joined