>> this is the regular meeting of the small business commission held on february 14th, 2022. the meeting is being called to order at 4:30 pm. the small business commission makes immediate services available on san francisco government television or live streamed. members of the public who will be calling in, the number is 415, 655-0001. press pound and pound again to be added to the line, when connected, you'll be hearing the meeting discussions in listening mode only. dial star three to be added to

the speaker line. if you dial star three before public comment is called, you will be added to the queue. 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. an alarm will sound once the time is finished. speakers are requested, but not required to speak their name. please show the office of small business slide. >> today we will begin with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public form to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic fatality -- vitality of small businesses in san francisco. the office of small business is the best way to get answers during the local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters, particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephone. our services are completely free of charge. before item number 1 is called,

i would like to start by thanking media services and sentences go government t.v. for coordinating the hearing and the live streaming. special thanks to matthew who will be running the meeting. let's go item number 1. >> item number 1 is roll call. call to order and roll call. w -- [ roll call ] you have a quorum. >> wonderful. would you read the land acknowledgement, please. >> thank you we acknowledge that we are on the unseeded and ancestral homelands of the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of the land and in accordance with their traditions, they have

never seated, lost, nor forgotten the responsibilities of caretakers of the space as well as for all people to reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestry elders and relatives and by affirming their sovereign rights as first people. >> thank you. next item, please. so, i believe originally on our agenda we had a different item for item number 1. we will switch it around. item number 5 is now item number 1 because the deputy chief has another obligation. we will bump him up to number 1. not that you aren't normally number 1, but today, especially, you will be number 1 so we can

accommodate your schedules. the deputy chief be providing an update on prior -- on crime and safety. deputy lazar, the floor is yours. welcome. >> good afternoon. thank you to the members of the small business commission. it is great to see all of you. thank you for what you do in the city. thank you for accommodating me today. i am the deputy chief with the san francisco police department. my role is i under see -- oversee the field of operations bureau which is the 10 district stations and the community engagement division. it is about half of the department and relevant to the work that you do on behalf of the commission and supporting smog is in store small businesses to make sure the community is safe. i will make a brief presentation on the crime trend in san francisco and what we are seeing, especially along the

business corridor and talk a little bit about staffing and what our deployment plans are, and then i will wrap up by giving about four or five things that the community can do to make sure that they stay safe and that businesses and merchants stay safe, then i will take any questions or anything that anyone has to offer. let me give you a snapshot of what is happening in san francisco in terms of crime. this is a big picture overview. i am pleased to report that as we start the year, what i am thinking about is how do we look in comparison to 2021 from january 1st until february 14th? we are fortunate that we are starting to see a decrease in some criminal activity, robbery is down 21 -- with 21%. by the way, one robbery is one too many. if you are the victim of a

robbery that is super serious, and to the extent that we get the crime down, it is really important. assaults are down by six% at 253. burglary is down 45%. that is big because many of the commercial establishments are affected by burglaries and we are starting out the year and a pretty big decrease was 643 burglaries. at this point last year we had 1183. to see a decline is really good. arson is down 24%. we know our small businesses are affected by arson a lot of the time. so, however, that being said, related to small business, theft is up 15%. if you look from january force -- first until the 14th of february with 3,162 reported cases, in comparison to 2,732. one of the things i'm thinking about and i'll get to it into a little bit is we are improving

the way that the community, and more importantly, the small business community is reporting crime. also the big retailers. we are working with them. we are providing spreadsheets. we are getting more efficient. if you talk to reits -- merchants across the city, what will they do? why is it worth it? we are trying to promote a message that it is worth it and to pleas report it. we are starting to see it come through. it just means we are getting more efficient. does that mean we are getting more efficient in addressing? we still have works to -- work to do in that area. that is what is happening there. i will explain a little bit about the report writing unit. there are many ways to report crime. i will set this up. we have a report writing unit here at police headquarters and this is where officers who may be injured and not able to work on the streets, instead of being off work, we assign them to a

report writing unit. they take the reports over the phone. we are asking retailers to contact our report writing unit. usually if they call the nonemergency number, they get redirected to the report writing unit. if no one answers the phone, there is a voicemail left. an officer will call the person back, report the crime on the phone. this to me is efficient and two always. you are reporting it, and it is kind of like by appointment and you can do it over the phone and it is very convenient. okay. that is crime. i have a few minutes. i know my time is limited. i want to talk a little bit about staffing. we are challenged, just like many big cities in america with staffing in the san francisco police department. we are seeing numbers decline for a variety of reasons. in some cases, it has to do with the vaccine, and in some cases officers are leaving to go to other jurisdictions. we are working as hard as we can

to recruit and replace officers. we are finding that to be challenging. we see the numbers are declining. we have to be very proactive to make sure we are handling the calls for service and getting to emergencies in a timely manner and that the bare minimum is met. you call 911, you get an officer right away. when the challenge comes in is it limits us. the foot beats become a lecture remore than a mandate. than other types of specialized units. it becomes challenging to staff, when at the end of the day, we have the staff to handle the 911 calls. we received a tremendous amount of support from the mayor because she is making sure that public safety is a priority. we are working with the board of supervisors, and each one of them is working on public safety in their own district. i think this week we are asking

for supplemental funding to supplement our overtime. a lot of your overtime is on towards supplemental staffing. we have to make sure we have enough officers to make our community safe. we are moving in that direction. we are really challenged with that. one of the positions that we are staffing, it is one person, a sergeant, mark milligan, he is our retail staff coordinator. he is a sergeant in our department and his job is to work with emergency and others to address the ongoing problem of retail staff to come up with ways to prevent it and be the liaison -- the liaison for small business and big business to make sure we are supplying the service and providing the public safety service that we supply. the sergeant is doing a great job here in the field operations bureau office.

we have to make sure we have that link. in the last thing i will say about staffing is we are really pleased about our san francisco t.v. community ambassador program. i'm not sure if the commissioners are aware, but mayor breed came up with a great idea that we should hire back retired police officers and put them out in the community. they wear a blue jacket, they are unarmed, they have a police radio, and they are greeting tourists, interacting with merchants, making those connections, working to prevent crime, calling in incidents that they will see. they have been a tremendous success. we started this around late 2019, 2020. we have 23. we will hire three more. they have been in union square, chinatown, fishermen's wharf. around the conventions when the tourists come through.

i just started deploying them in the castro on friday and saturday night. they have been a huge success of their. while we work to higher officers, there is plenty of retired officers who want to come in and contribute. it has been a good program so far. the last thing i will say about staffing before i get into my final thoughts is we have seen that we have deployed a lot of officers. we know what happened back in november when there was some looting that took place. our thought is that we need to have enough officers out in the union square area to make sure that when our tourists and visitors and residents are coming through there to shop that they deal with safety, similar to what you see in new york city where there is an officer on every corner. we will continue to maintain staffing in order to protect all that come through those areas. that has been successful and we have scaled down a little bit, but we have moved forward on that.

the last thing i will say before my final four topics of suggestion is that you may know this, but chief scott has a whole variety of chief's advisory forums. and one forum that i have the privilege of chairing is the small business, the chief small business advisory forum. i had two cochairs. henry louis and rob lewis. and my cochairs, this is the third year. we have 20 small business representatives from all over san francisco that need to meet on a monthly basis on the first friday of the month, and they are advising the department of public safety to come up with great ideas and helping us with small businesses. i wanted to make sure that this commission is aware of the great work they are doing for our department. the last thing i would like to say is here is the advice i have for the public that i think it's

really important. one is if you are a small business owner in san francisco, here are four things i will suggest. one, connect with your district station captain. there are 10 captains in san francisco. make sure you connect with them, that you are on their newsletter, that you subscribe to their social media, and that you attend to their community meetings whenever possible and you find out who is on their community police advisory board. there is a new captain at the station. i introduced him to an owner at a business who has been in business for four years. i made that connection last week. it is important that the captain nose and the community knows their captain. and number 2, ask the captain to perform a meeting great in your neighborhood. if you have beat officers, invite tears fellow small business merchants to your business, host a meet and greet, been the captain and the

officers. if your area doesn't have it, then ask them to serve as lieutenant and come out. at the end of the day, when we have a good relationship with one another and we have worked to build trust and we are more app to work together and provide -- prevent crime, which is very important. make sure that you have prepared your business to prepend -- prevent crime. s.f. safe is our nonprofit partner. they charge a fee for commercial surveys but they will come out and make sure you are doing everything possible to prevent any problems from taking place. in addition to that, i think about more things. gates, cameras, alarm systems, and then don't leave anything of value in the premise to the extent that you can. make sure it is not left unprinted. the fourth and final thing i will say is pleas report all

crime. we hear so much of, i didn't report it, or it is a waste of time, or maybe it is nothing that will happen as a result. reporting crime is important so we know where things are happening, so we know the magnitude of new crimes that are taking place so that we can make decisions as a department in terms of staffing and deployment were officers need to be, so we as city government, and all of us, you as the commission, us as the police commission can decide where the problems are and how we need to handle them. we need everyone to report all crime and again, we have the retail theft coordinator. we do work on building cases and work with our partners in the criminal justice system. we have a logic system where you

can go to 311 and go online. up until now you couldn't report any suspected information, and now we are just going to test out our system this week in hopes that in the next few days we roll out a system where you can't put in suspect information. it is so efficient to go to 311 and reported. you can report 2311 through copy logic or you can go to the station. if -- of course,, if it is no emergency, call 911. if someone comes in your business and threatens you for the item regardless of the value or fights with you about it, that is not a step -- that is not a theft. that is a robbery. it is a serious incident. okay. that is my review for today. i will take questions if we have any. >> thank you. that is a lot.

a lot of great suggestions. the one about meeting and greeting your captain is not one that i think i have ever heard before. certainly it is something we can help moving out to our merchant communities. while i wait for them to formulate their questions, i will ask a couple questions of my own, i guess. first, on the staffing issue, i know that by law the staffing level of sfpd is hypothetically supposed to be maintained at 1,971 officers. how many officers do we currently have? >> right now our staffing hovers between 1,650 and 1700. in all, based on our estimation and on a report that was put together for the board of supervisors in recent history by

the matrix consulting, we are down 500 officers. >> 500. >> 500. to really do this correctly, between four or 500, closer to 500 in order to staff the city correctly. >> and these retired officers, how many, you know, i understand they are not full officers and it is not the same thing as the full police person, but how many retired officers will we be able to bring back under the ambassador program that the mere introduced? >> we were able to bring back 23. we will hire another three and a week or so, and we have a whole list of others that are interested in joining thanks to proposition f. that allows for a retired employee to work part-time and come back to the city. they are doing a great job. i will say one thing. they come from the old-school thought that you have to interact with everyone, engage

everyone, go in and out of every business. they are teaching our younger generations that are not as skilled in some cases. they look at their phone more. they rather text you through a glass door then go into business and greet you. so they are really moderating what we want in our officers. they have done a tremendous job. >> changing topics, a recent trend, i don't know how recent, but it feels like a fairly recent trend, or large groups of people organizing on social media. certainly the most notable one was the flash mob at the downtown stores in union square. it seems to be the same sort of mechanism that leads to the sideshows were sometimes people get hurt, and obviously that is irritating for businesses and residents. and even more recently, we have heard about these graffiti incidents where entire blocks are being deluged with graffiti

in the space of an hour or two. also very challenging for residents and small businesses. i went out and met with some of them individually. they are very upset. tactically, how does sfpd respond to these flash mob incidents? is there anything you have learned over the past year or two that enable you to improve the response on that? talk to us a little bit about what is happening with that. >> it is a great question. i believe we have done a good job in the last six months to get a handle on both of those. it is really challenging when you have groups of individuals, most likely using social media to communicate about the flash mob. it is hard to predict it. it is hard to get ahead of it. sometimes we are aware of it.

it is taking place and we do our best to prevent it. for example,, union square, we deployed a lot of officers after that happened. we had about 14 officers in union square because we thought some unrelated demonstration would take place. we were there to capture up to six or eight people for that incident. our thought for these areas is to have enough officers to try to prevent it or be there when it happens. our strategy is to increase staffing to address it. it is costly. this is why we are going back to the board for supplemental. we need support to do this correctly. in terms of stench driving, it is called sideshows. we call it steps driving. we got organized and we looked at other departments and their best practices. we are prepared seven days a week for stunt driving. we have officers on duty, on-call ready to be deployed to

prevent it. it is happening more than it has ever happened in my entire career. we have a really good program in place. we have personnel assigned to lead it. we have a stench driving response unit that is fully addressing it. the graffiti that happened the other day is a new phenomenon. it is very similar, except it is a mob of folks that -- >> and vandalism. >> we still need to continue to work to try our very best to stay on top of that, for sure. >> so when somebody reports a crime, what are the next steps that happened afterwards? we reported crime obviously by the time they respond, the crime has already occurred. are there any preventative measures that the police are taking to help ameliorate this

post reporting? >> our strategy is crime prevention. we can't necessarily arrest our way out of these problems, but if we have a presence of police in our community, they prevent crime. that is what we are trying to do. we see that the crime statistics just plummet. eighty-three% reduction in shoplifting and theft after deploying officers. that is very important. that being said, crimes do occur. we still have theft. pose the incident, again, reporting all crime, and then what we do is because of the volume, we have to make a decision on what gets followed

up on. we have to work to follow up on that and assign that case to an investigator. if it is a felony, again, my point about a robbery, the merchants won't articulate that this was a robbery. that is a robbery. that case will be assigned to the investigator. we will do what we can to get video evidence. video is so important. there are some cases we wouldn't have made had it not been a good video in the business, even with masks, no masks, placed on clothing and car description, we are making these cases. if i am a business owner, i definitely have a camera in and out of my business. that is essentially it. the issue, though, is if you have this large volume of cases, we have to make decisions -- we

have a whole set of criteria on what gets assigned and what gets followed up on based on probability and there is a whole list of things that we decide. otherwise it will get filed. the statistics, and knowing where crime is happening is important to us as well. >> vice president has a question. >> thank you. we always appreciate when you come for us. >> thank you. >> i have two areas of question. one is, last time we talked to you, this came up. and now you are saying, helping small businesses find the right avenue for their request is definitely something. so is the advisory committee or the department distributing some kind of one pager? like here is the nonemergency line, here is the homeless

response intervention line, here is the, you know, sometimes it maybe doesn't need to be bogged in the whole queue for reporting. may be it is more of one of the triaging services that are part of the department programming. and the small business doesn't know they have a direct line to call. that would go a long way in terms of cutting through the bureaucracy. we don't know how to contact small businesses. even the suggestion you make for putting the date. we have a lots of small businesses that contact the office of small business about planning, you know, what kind of dates can we put that is not going to be a conflict with planning sidewalk code and what not. even just a how to and a number list is something that can go a

long way. and my second line of questioning is, now that we are discussing more private camera footage being potentially accessible to the department, i know we had a hearing today. i didn't get to tune in. if you have any updates for us on how that surveillance piece is progressing and what small businesses can expect, for me, my question is, how are we ensuring the confidentiality and safety of small businesses that are handing over the footage to the police. the retribution against small businesses is real, especially immigrant small business owners who, you know, are often the ones tapped because of the

neighborhoods that maybe they operate in to provide footage. i think small businesses and trust with communities that they serve is really important to consider in this, especially if they are potentially going to be asked to play bigger roles in that regard. i would love to hear what the department is planning in terms of how to protect small businesses if they are tapped to help with enforcement that the department is planning in that area. thank you. >> i will briefly address some of those. starting with the first one, you are thinking right in line with what needs to happen in terms of making sure that the small business community, just not in this whole bureaucratic time, as a result, grace, who is head of the japan town community benefit district executive director, she came up with a one pager and

brought that -- she is a member of our chief small business advisory league. we have a one pager for small business on who to call based on what circumstances. do i call nonemergency, to a call 911, i will make sure i get that to you from the president so we can distribute it to as many people as you want. it was long overdue. obviously we have to do better on our marketing. it would be great on your second point on item one to get planning or other city agencies to provide advice on security measures. i know marijuana dispensaries often complain to the police department that they get burglarized, like they are not able to put a gate up and there are challenges there. they ask us. we don't often know. we talk about prevention, but we don't necessarily go into planning code. we have to work with city partners on that. with regards to the second item,

there's a lot going on with legislation. i haven't been part of any of the meetings lately, i know the mayor has been very supportive on the fact that we need access to surveillance videos in order to identify suspects involving crime. there will be more to follow on that. your second point on part two is that we have to be very mindful when the businesses are giving us a video or other evidence that they aren't susceptible to retaliation or anything like that. i think that i will say that throughout the city, businesses have been very good at giving us video evidence that has led to arrests, as i mentioned earlier, and really have not felt like that is an issue, but it is not to say that it isn't an issue, to your point. we just have to be very mindful and work very closely with the victims of crime to make sure

they are putting in all measures to make sure that they are safe. the last thing we want to do is presents them or having them be reluctant to give us any important video evidence, therefore not making the case that we need to make. great point on that. we have to be mindful of that in the police department as well. thank you. >> deputy chief lazar, i know you had a hard stop at 5:00. we are going to let you go. in closing, i will say that being able to report suspects through the logic program on 311 will be a tremendous help. i am right full to hear that innovation is happening behind the scenes. i think we will -- this is so informative and helpful. we will have to drag you back here frequently so that we can be better informed. certainly we are being asked about public safety issues quite a bit. the commission has recently received some e-mails from

businesses that are struggling. so perhaps we will have you back soon. we want to let you go and get to your next thing on time or at least not too late. thank you so much for spending time with us today. >> thank you for what you do on the small business and i know we work very closely on overriding public safety issues outside of your work on the small business commission. thank you very much. thank you for what you do that for the executive director, congratulations on your assignment. i know we will be connecting on this chief small business advisory so we can keep you updated on public safety issues as well. i look forward to working with our former supervisor in this role in 2022. thank you, everyone. have a great afternoon. >> you too. thank you. okay, next item, which is originally our first item -- >> we need to go back to public comment. >> that's right. we have to do public comment. i forgot. we don't have stephen adams here

to remind me. is there any public comment on the line? >> there is no one on the line for public comment. >> seeing none, public comment is closed. going back to public comment item number 2. >> yes. now item three. status of the reopening of the san francisco economy. january 2022 update. this is a discussion item. the commission will hear and discuss the report on local economic indicators on the status of the city's economic recovery. today we have ted egan, the chief economist with the office of the comptroller. and ted, do you need a presentation? do you have a powerpoint? >> i do. >> okay ted, while you get that set up, i want to welcome you and thank you for spending time with us. the comptroller's report on the status of the reopening of the

economy is must see t.v. for those of us who follow small business recovery or challenges. thank you for your work on that and for -- and we are looking forward to the presentation in person. >> thank you. thank you so much for those kind words. can anyone -- can everyone see the presentation? >> yes, we do. >> great. as you know, we have been doing this for several months now, since last summer. tracking realtime indicators on how the economy is going. we have a couple of variants that through us for a loop. some of that shows up in the data. towards the end we started to see things drop off and i'm confident that the omicron variant is behind it. what we saw and a couple of realtime indicators, oma chron

hit its peak in late december which was the same time that people are generally staying away for holiday reasons. it is hard to know what is seasonal and what is related to the variant. this is true locally as well as nationally. it is not much of a blip. we have a very strong hiring trend locally. 5700 jobs added. the unemployment rate is below three%. it has really fallen extraordinarily rapidly and pretty consistently throughout 2021. we do have several areas of concern in the local economy, particularly the office market and hospitality industry. we saw office vacancy rates continuing to rise in the fourth quarter according to jl and a number of brokers, to over 22%. this is happening despite strong job growth.

the employment term is the only sector of the city's economy that is recovered. it is the tech sector and related office. they are mainly not used on a daily basis in many -- and many of those companies have withdrawn a lot of the spaces they are using. on the hotel side, we saw stagnation in december. a lot of that is seasonal. december is never a strong month for tourism. we saw a little bit of growth and the city continues to lag other major destinations. this is the list of indicators. i will go through the details briefly and share -- and saviour time for questions. this is the google mobility data on time outside of the home. we look at their data on time spent at the workplaces. as i mentioned, we saw that if

we dip in both of those things, with oma chron, by mid january when we start collecting the data for this report, it bounced back pretty sharply and i'm confident that the february report will be a blip that will be behind us for coming to work and staying in the house. similar story with office attendance, with all the areas we benchmarked that have a sharp drop in office attendance due to oma chron and the holidays in mid to late december with a sharp recovery in mid-january. i think that will be behind us given the job news and good virus news that we will report. however,, as i mentioned, we continue to see now one, two, three, six, seven, eight consecutive quarters of increase in office vacancy. the silver lining is it is starting to slow.

we did 20% two months ago according to jl l. now we are at 22%. it seems like the big increases in vacancy may be behind us, but no sign of that coming down. we also track the small business statistics from the poll survey, which is a survey done every two weeks by the census bureau of small business across the country. we are looking at the san francisco metro and nationally. both of them took a bit of a downturn because of oma chron, but nothing serious. we're not going back any more than a month or two. if it is like the other indicators, i don't think it will remain a problem. one thing that is concerning, and probably isn't related to omicron, is weaker new business formation within san francisco.

so every month we look at the treasure's office of registry businesses database and look at the month that new businesses have started and the industries that they are in. this is a result of that data that we saw in november and december, a downturn in neighborhood services, which is like personal services like nail salons and retail trade. restaurants and bars are holding fairly steady. and the numbers are lower than what we would expect to see before the pandemic. coming back to the good news on joblessness, we are at 13% unemployment right after the start of the pandemic. it is bound to be below three%. it is pretty impressive recovery. for the -- there is a further downside to this. unemployment isn't reflecting the overs -- overall size of the economy. just reflecting the people who are looking for work versus the number of people who are employed. when you look at the number of

people employed, is still 20,000 less than what was at the start of the pandemic. this is probably a sign that, as with the national story, it is not fully recovered. we still have a lot of people out of the labor force. whether they are choosing to take time off or they are burned out where they can't find the right job, for whatever reason, the number of employed people is still lower. i think we will pass the prepandemic employment total and not in the too far future, but we are still fairly far behind. this is the monthly job report. it added 1500 jobs last december. it is 11 consecutive months of job growth. it is not the strongest job month. but great to happen in a pandemic when people are staying at home. it is pretty good performance from the local economy.

when we look across the sector, however, it is uneven, as it generally has been. we are seeing retail create a lot of jobs. it may be seasonal. it is december. a lot of stores are hiring for the christmas rush. it is good to see the christmas rush happening in person in december, notwithstanding the pandemic and other things. hospitality has been growing strongly for much of this month. we saw some growth, but not a ton in that sector our hotel occupancy is sell 30% and that is below what we are used to. notwithstanding -- and i would mention on the job sector side, one of the areas where we are still seeing growth is consumer

hospitality. it is 40,000 jobs compared to where we were before the pandemic. the hotel rate did okay in the weeks of december. but great performance there. not as strong as they are earlier in the fall. we did see an uptick other places that we track or appear are doing a lot better than us that continues to be the case.

other places are doing better, but the gap there is slower and that is pretty impressive recovery for 2021. on the other hand, international, which accounts for a big part of our spending, is still weak. it is weaker everywhere. we have not seen the recovery of international traffic that we have seen domestically. it is more like 35% of normal. looking at highway speed, i think we saw an uptick in speeds in january and december. that is probably due to oma chron and people staying at home. it was an unusual spike. it is easy to get around by travel. i'm not sure if that will last. bay -- bridge traffic fell further. throughout the pandemic it has

been cars that have bounced back the fastest. this is what the ridership looks like. we had another month of slow growth in december but it is looking at 20 pre-- 23% of normal. apartment rates are something we have been watching both as an indicator where the city's housing market is but also to give us a sense about migration. there was another down take into apartment rent in december. it seems like january has plateaued. it is a pretty healthy start to the year. we are down around 15%. we have also started looking at the housing crisis. it is important to do this in a comparative perspective because real estate is pretty much on

fire around the world, but not really in san francisco. san francisco condo places are flat after two years of the pandemic. we are going back to december 19th in california, among other places, they are up about 25%. single family homes in san francisco are up about 10%, but statewide they are up over 30%. the housing situation is very unusual and very unacceptable. it is not surprising to see housing production down and we are not seeing great variation from one month to the other in terms of housing permits. it's about half of normal or a little bit above that. i will leave it there and turn it over to the commissioners if there are any questions.

>> great. thank you for the presentation. a tiny note of feedback because i know none of us know how we actually found it. your volume level is going up and down a little bit. it may just be a microphone getting ancient, that happens sometimes. none of us ever know how we sound on zoom. so when i encounter people having weird sound issues, i always let them know. >> i will try and speak up. >> i just wanted to thank you. i love these presentations. i want you to know that -- [ indiscernible ] -- we could do so much with this. i really thank you. we sometimes don't appreciate you enough. thank you for inviting him

over. this is awesome. >> thank you. >> this is definitely a big highlight for me, and one of the great luxuries of being on the commission is being able to hear from you directly. commissioner dickerson? >> hi there. thank you so much for your presentation. i would love a copy of this. would that be possible? >> certainly. >> i would love to share this with some of the other organizations that i am part of. this would be very beneficial to some of the people. it would be useful. thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> commissioner dickerson, for future reference, it took me a long time to figure this out, too, but anytime someone makes a presentation to the commission, on our webpage on the agenda you will see additional or

supplementary materials in the presentations. they are always in the supplementary materials. i will send you a link so you know where to find it in the future. >> that is good to know. thank you. >> ted, a couple quick questions. for me, you know, what continues to jump out our slide seven and eight. those are obviously the ones that are pretty centric to what the commission does. it is also the one that i have received some prepping for. what do we think is driving the comparative lack of performance for small businesses, particularly small businesses that are opening in san francisco versus other cities. what is happening -- what are you seeing in the data.

one of the things we do know is businesses are dominated by small business and our small business focused like personal services and restaurants and the ones that we track in that report in that particular slide.

there are linkages that we expect between interest is that will -- between businesses that will support them and drive the economy. those are really weak. a couple other things that i think are also important, but maybe not as important, we still think we are getting more and more information that the city's population may be lower than it was before the pandemic. we haven't gotten the official numbers yet from the census bureau or the department of finance, but we are getting enough anecdotal information to suggest that we hit 30,000 or so fewer people or if more people move out of san francisco in 2020, and also that the outmigration didn't stop in 2021. that would be in addition to the people who are not in the label -- labor force who are still maybe in san francisco, there are people who have moved out.

in that case, you don't have those customers. that is also a hitch to businesses that serve the people. there are not as many people. and lastly, we have started to look because it is a big interest nationally with the labor supply issues and whether there are wage pressures are other things that are stopping workers or businesses that want to grow and want to serve customers from finding what they need. we don't have great data on this. the data that we have is through the end of 2020 they are not showing tremendous wage pressure. it is a problem of demand. there are other personal services side in retail and wholesale and in manufacturing. you see wage growth at an excess of 10% a year. so when you combine weak

economic drivers with difficulty of getting workers and wage premiums, that also makes it difficult for businesses to grow and it doesn't create a great environment. >> do you think those issues that you brought up that are specific to san francisco or mainly, i guess you could call it a tech office worker and working from home, then i guess a secondary factor might be the pretty significant drop in tourism and visitors from outside san francisco. is that what is driving the slides that we are looking at now on slide seven? the drop in business sentiment? is that what you think is the primary factors behind that? or is something else going on

here? i don't know what the inputs are to the small business survey. >> the survey is just them asking small businesses how they feel about business conditions. i would say the factors that i was pointing to are the reasons why the sentiment in san francisco area is always lower than it is nationally. in other words, it is the bay area of san francisco slower economic recovery that is behind that. i think from week to week or month to month it is more about what they are seeing in that particular month and not so much the macro issues. it is more sentiment than variant and things like that. i am glad -- i mean it kind of plateaued the last half of 2021. it didn't get much work -- worse from delta. but when i was talking about this, the main point of the slide, which is the small business issue.

>> that is the one, as a commission, we are the most concerned about it because we are trying to drive those business openings. it is hard to convince them to open in areas like downtown that are largely, you know, i guess you wouldn't say empty, but far fewer people than there were prepandemic. i know that is not entirely unique to san francisco that other downtown municipalities are struggling with these downtown areas, but the question that is being bagged is -- begged, in terms of the policy options in front of us, what are the most, you know, if we can pick the one or two things that we could do that would have the biggest impact or biggest bang for the buck, what are the factors that are really, a, we have control over, or some

degree of influence over, and be, have a healthy covariant relationship with the graph that we are looking at i think i would say that where it will be, and i have been saying this for a while, but i think it is still true. we are in a very fluid. in other words, post pandemic rules and desires about how much time in the office, how much time working from home, specifically speaking about office workers, those rules are just being settled now. and to the extent that people are working at home and dreading coming to the office, and don't think there will be an advantage to suffering a commute and being

in san francisco and working with their colleagues and having socializing and other opportunities after work or at lunch, they will stay away. but on the other hand, before the pandemic, there was a tremendous premium. businesses would pay for the privilege to make their workers or give their opportunities the opportunity to work in offices in san francisco. it has been a long pandemic. i don't think people have forgotten those advantages. i think now is the time to mark the idea of being in san francisco as if you were a tourist when you were an office worker. i would also say these things reinforce each other. the more office workers are there, the more things that are open, the more things that are open, the more that san francisco residents will go

downtown and more things will open. suddenly you will get flack about how things are open and the tourists will come back. even if we get to 60 or 70% office occupancy, we could start to see business travel come back and business transient travel. that would be a big thing. all of these things build on each other. and every time someone comes downtown, it is another reason for small business to be open, be open longer, raise their game, everything else that makes everything better. >> by the same token, if businesses aren't open, there is less of a draw to go downtown. we have to find a way to prime the pump. >> that's right. >> okay. commissioner qe? >> thank you very much for the presentation, ted. i am wondering, the slide eight, is there information on specific

location? [please standby for captioner switch]

and actually in thesouthwestern section of the state and district 7 for some reason . so those are the 2 hardest hit areas and it sort of corresponds to the idea that the places that are most directly reliance on tourists and offices are the hardest hit but there's no sector of the city at least at the levelof the district where you see sales tax recovery from before we were in the pandemic . but weekend of january on her happy to prepare that map and send it to the commission if you're interested >> that's a great question to jump in real quick i would be fascinated to see a heat map on where we are aheadof the curve in business formation and where we are behind . >> i'llsee what i can do >> that would be great to see it geographically . i like that you have it kind of broken downby industry as well here, that's really helpful . i'm wondering i guess in your

expertise i guess what are some additional data points you would love for the city to be able to track and be able to see because kind of weird looking at the health of our economy right now but are there other things that we could be tracking that perhaps we don't for whatever reason that you would love to be able to see to see an evendeeper assessment ? >> i think we sort of when we started doing this report, we thought about what are the indicators that are pretty easy to get our public information that can be updated every month without too much of a left. i can't think of an indicators that the city has that we think are really we don't want to report tobe superlong . i can't think of any indicators that wefeel like you're missing . there are things that the city

regulates that are very interesting. some of the questions we spoke about that haven't gotten an indicator . for example we had conversations with the puc about starting wateraccounts and closing water accounts . that's not something set up to create as an indicator but talk about geographic detail. they know everyone. they providewater for everyone . and they know how many people, how many residential customers have shut out their accounts and how many residential addresses haven't turned back on so they have principle better data on things like residential vacancy or migration than what we've been able to look at but in terms of fully baked ready to go indicators uncomfortable that without planning to be completely exhausted we have a

pretty good estimate. >> if i could and i apologize commissioner for interrupting but something i would like to see is asking commercial rents, particularlydowntown . one thing i've noticed anecdotally is that the commercial asking rents appear to be kind of like the coyote when he chases after roadrunne . he stays up in the air above the cliffs. the prices don't seem to be droppingthough we're seeing vacancy decline . >> that's right and i'm sure you remember how thatcartoon ends commissioner . at the moment there is a bit of gravitybeing defined . i think it would be an interesting indicator. the feedback we've gotten when we chaired other presentations is that asking rent is and ask. it's not the nitty-gritty what actually happens.

one of the things to keep in mind with that kind of indicator now is there isn't a lot of leasing activity going on and there is a lot of uncertainty i thinkon the demand side, the tenant side as to what they need .and it probably will take the pandemic reallybeing over . the new rules of the hybrid workplace getting settled before businesses can make a rational judgment about what their office space needs really are. >> just to push back on that just a hair directionally, some idea of what's happening with asking rents would i think certainly be of interest. even just in terms of being able to communicate to people thinking about starting a business or openinga business . theylook, rents are going down. well, they're not going down . but part of i think our work is going back to the primer and pump analogy is trying to encourage new businesses to come. i'd like to get a jumpstart on

that as soon as we can if there's an indication rents are dropping, i just haven't seen it yet. >> i didn't mean to say number we're happy to do it and we have that dataand it would fit on our vacancy chart already . i don't want to oversell the value of theindicator . >>enough and i apologize for interrupting, commissioner huie .>> my question is we have been doing a lot of work with our racial equitysubcommittee . some of that work is also thinking about how do we look at data in terms of or how do we look at equity and use the data to kind of keep up nuances and also help us understand what the overall landscape looks like. like, we looked at access to funds. we looked at other types of metrics in the past but i'm wondering what types of things

do you see in terms of thinking about the recovery and how we are recovering. like, it's quiteclearly not the same for everybody . >> yeah, and unfortunately at the local level we're only beginning to get data of what 20/20 looks like from the resident side with a sort of socioeconomic details. the 20/20american community survey i just started looking at that last friday . but there's obviously a wealth of information that's going to come out from that in later months to inform that. there's also information on the demographics and business owners but it's pre-pandemic. that people have looked at for a long time and there's also information that goes not

incredibly up-to-date but it's from 20/20 and early 2021 on employment like kinds of business in san francisco by race .so one of the issues that i don't think people on about in terms of the importance of small business, and i'm not even sure if it's true to the data point that it's interesting to look at is small businesses doing a better job or a less well job hiring from diverse populations. that's something that data does exist and i haven't seenanyone really look at . in terms of what happened in the pandemic we're dealing with nation national data and it's a complicated set of issues because on the one hand you see the industries that many ethnic and racial groups of employment are highly concentrated at some point more than the most

suffering as well as the greatest exposure to public health but on the other hand you see a massive amount of federal stimulus at least for a year and ahalf over the pandemic . and so it's been a complicated picture somehow. done okay and other households have done not so okay and what happened in 2020 and 2021 probably doesn't a lot of what 2022 is going to be asked the federal, the effects of the federal stimulus there isn't that the tax benefits and those kinds of things and at the end of the day were coming back to the leisure and hospitality industries that lost 40,000 jobs for example. the reality of the economic recovery hasn't been for a lot of people but it's going to hit this year and next year. >> you verymuch . >> thank you. i don't see any more questions.

one last question for you, ted for we let you goand thank you for all this excellent information . why do you track highway state ? >> i was interested. >> i was interested in highway speed early on because i wanted to know if it was an indicator ofpeople not traveling . and very quickly it was an indicator of people traveling. then it was just interesting to seethis divergence between transit and driving . and i really track to see does that continue? for example did we go into a world in which downtown opens but people don't like transit still denmark and its traffic speeds get worse than they were wild heart still haven't recovered or did we get to a world where just we stayed with the traffic we've already had all thenew kind of re-occupancy

of downtown comes through the increased transit ridership ? that's really the reason and i think it's very important your question coming ofthe pandemic and that's what i want to take a look at .>> i think it's one interestingthing about is theindicator of how healthy the economy is doing . as highway speeds go up , things aremore shutdown. people are staying home . yes. it is the opposite of good. okay. so before we let go we have to check in on public comment. matthew, anypublic commenters on the line ? >> we have one person. >> commentor, please proceed. >> can you dome? this is stephen cornell . stephen cornell from the council of district merchants. one comment and a couple potentialquestions . on the indicator of puc and the

water lines, i'm not sure how well that would work a lot of buildings have only one waterline going into it with multiple tenants. maybe dg and he would be another indicator when somebody moves out, the dg and he will usuallyreferred back to the owner of the building . a course when the new one starts up you will have a new, somebodyresponsible for it. maybe if they'll give it to you , pg and e would be a great indicator. on the sales tax for wii including whatever companies like amazon is chipping into our city and if so, can you pull that out and it would be interesting to see that. those two different figures, what the total sales tax is withamazon company and without . that's one and since you're

coming up with an analysis and doing it through the comptroller's office and we are now in the middle of a budget process, what kind of advice are you getting to the department and board of supervisors and are they taking it number one and number two is does the controller have any control over okaying a budget from your advice , your indicators are saying the hotels may not comeback for a while that will obviously make a difference .thank you very much . >> thank you. ted, if you wanted to respond i want tomake that availableto you . >> i'm happy to . we will see what we can do about the teaching together because that would be interesting. i think that the trent pg and e datawould be interesting even

if we're talking about commercial buildings . with respect to the question about the sales tax it does not include what are called sales to the county pool which is coming from out of town online deliveries. and simply by merchants that have an address in that district. i could also share that presentation that has that map so thecommissioners can see what i'm talking about . that one is kindacorrect as it is . with respect to the second point about the controller's office, there is a division of the controller's office that we work with that prepares revenue forecasts and the core function of the controller office is to ensure that the mayor and board of supervisors have accurate financial information. one of the stories mister cornell might not be aware of

or might be aware of is the moment there's a huge divergence between the city's economic story and cities fiscal story. the city has never had a rosier play, it's been a while since the city had such arosy financial condition and its a combination of things like federal funding over the last couple of years . decreased pension costs because the stock market has done so well . increasedrevenues from new revenue sources or because of tax increases . so the controller's office is regularly speaking with decision-makers on budgetary issues and their regularly listening but it's a time in which the economic news is kind of less driving the budgetstory that normallydoes . we will have to see how long the good news last . i don't expect as mister cornell was suggesting we're going to havea fast recovery in the office market .so we will see but generally the

controller's office has that covered very well. >> president:ted, thank you for your time. we very much appreciate this report . it's full for us and helpful for everybody that pays attention to these things and we appreciate your work and everything you do for the city. >> thank you very much. >> president: next item please. >> ted, if you don't mind handing back the controller. maybe i can do it. thank you. okay. item 4, accessible business entrance program, this is a discussion item. the commission will hear a presentationand receive updates regarding accessible business entrance program and today we havejust likely with the

department of building inspections . just let me get you the presenter . >> excellent . >>welcome jeff, looking forward to this and thank you for joining us this evening . >> thank you president laguana and members of the commission. i have been before you i think it was the fourth quarter of last year when we were asking for anupdate , asking for your support for an update on the accessible business entrance legislation thatpassed and the mayor sponsor . we figured you would come back and talk to you not only about where we've been but i think more importantly kind of where we're going. and the work that is coming ahead of us. so want to makesure you can see this . >> we can, you are good to go. >> as i mentioned, the

legislation for the accessible business entrance program actually originated in the office of small business working with then supervisor tang and now executive director tang so the legislation that passed extended theprogram deadline 2 years . the purpose was to help property owners comply with state and federal accessibility laws and also ensuringpeople with disabilities have access to private services . they do this by requiring existing buildings that serve the public to feature primary entrances that are accessible to people withdisabilities . so again, some of this is similar towhat i presented last year but just as a refresher , essentially anything that provides a good or service to the public is considered a place of public accommodation. there are a number of these including bars and restaurants,

offices on the ground floor as well as grocery and retail stores in anarray of other businesses and services . so we have an upcoming deadlin . this june and that is to comply with our compliancechecklist . there are a number of ways that property owner can do this. the first is by doing a priestly screening form so they can certify their qualify for the program. if they believe that they should be away from the program there is a waiver form that they also can fill out and lastly a categorychecklist compliance form . this is for property owners who really understand they need to renovate their property to come into compliance with the ordinance and it can be completed either by an engineer or architect or a certified access specialist or task inspector. that's part of thesite inspection . and then after that is

occurring there are two deadlines. one is at the end of this calendar year and that is for applicants to be able to file their application for building permit. if they do need to make renovations to their property they need to do it by the end of this calendar year and ultimately , that application will go in and the deadline for them to have brought their property into compliance is the end of september 2023. and as a reminder of the legislation that passed last year didn't changereally any of the categories . i believe there was a recommendation to move up the. by which we allow more time for submittal to smallbusiness owners . there was a concern about there not being enough time to submittal of the checklist and be able to file an application so we moved up that deadline and also the deadline forthe application filing . to be given.

so if you are a property owner, compliance is required. really it's also in your interests and something that we are pushing on people to see as beneficial for them and the people theyserve. thedeadlines are coming up fast . june will be here before we know it .and ultimately, we need to make sure that these businesses are accessible to our propertyowners. and to people who need to access them. ultimately , if you are one of the property owners and ultimately or a business owner within a propertythat needs to be renovated , talk toyour property owner about it . make sure they are awareof it . one thing that we strive to do is to improve the information that we have available to property owners to make sure that we from the city are not a barrier for them to be able to access information as it

relates to the program or to be able to file the necessary paperwork to come into compliance. so ifyou haven't had the opportunity , our website at sfgov.org is great.it provides step-by-step information about how to file . gives you timelines on how long it takes to be able to do the work andkind of guides you through every step in the process . and so we're trying to make it easy as possible but we also need to make sure that this ordinance goes into effect and that people have access to goods and services. ultimately if we can keep our small operating owner community from being served with any litigation as it relates to accessibility , federal or state accessibilityrules. with that i'm going to stop sharing my screen .and here to answer any questions that youhave .

>> great. commissioners, do we have any questions ? while they are formulating, jeff i want to thank you for all this work and certainly avoiding ada legislation or litigation is topic du jour as they say in the small business communityand definitely a challenge so anything the city can do to help achieve those ends is helpful . vice president zouzounis. >> vice president: thank you jeff for comingbefore us again . and all the work you've been doing and i just wanted to say thank you for also being so hands-on with our market groups and the neighborhoods that have been hit the worst lately. chinatown, mainly. is there feedback that you all are incorporating with what

information actually sticks and how you're putting it out with some of our merchant communities that you are talking with? or is there a conduit that you work through or is ddi offering resources to these business communities? >> commissioner zouzounis, i'll take an aspect of that and i may pass it over to the office of smallbusiness to talk about the merchant reported . but part of ourstrategy is to focus on property owners . we understand on the ground it's not always that simple but when it comes to who is required to come into compliance we see it as an issue withthe property owners need to come into compliance and we are sending letters . we sent letters last month and we will be sending postcards

also the properties that we believe are out of compliance for have not submitted their checklist . so we're going to be focused on those property owners. i think we're going to try to do it in a way that's not your typical city letter. we want to do it in a way that grabs attention. so that's been i think the take away that we've heard from the engagement that we had with the merchant community in particular and then i would pass it on to your staff to talk about the small business support because we arereally in the ddi side more of the enforcement . >> understood. we will check going inwith them later on that . vice president zouzounis, your good austin markcommissioner dickerson . >> this is really good news.

i can tell you a few situations on third street where there has been an issue with the ada. the walkway and i remember when they were implementing that when i was having construction done on my building i was working able to get it done because the mandate happened right when i was in construction but there were two businesses i know for a fact that could not open their business because the owners were putting the responsibility on the tenants to have the ada compliance or all the renovations done and it hindered them from openingup their businesses . i wanted to make sure i was hearing this clear that their responsibility is on the property owner and not on the businesses that are renting th space . correct?

>> to be clear our enforcement is on the property owners. the property owners are going to be the focus of noncomplianceefforts . that's what we focus on. it's not as we understand it it's not always that simple on the ground between the property owners and the commercial tenants . we are aware that there are times where commercial tenants may have because of the lease they signed with the property owner there may be some desire on the property owner to have the commercial tenants do the work to bring that into compliance but our enforcement is on the property owner. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. jeff, can you tell us how when businesses apply for the determinations, has there been

any businesses thathave gone through this process yet ? how is that going in general? >> it's interesting you mention that. this was a subject of the discussion at one of our recent subcommittees is taking on this issue and trying toclarify what those rules are . as of now i don't have numbers at this moment about how many have applied or filed for those but what i could do is follow up with our staff and come back to you and let staff know how many we've received. but i do know this is something that is currently being worked on and it's really to clarify what exactly the criteria is for receiving that type of hardship. >> i think we would be interested in learning more about that part of it and

certainly there's a lot of businesses that have been experiencing hardships . we just had a speaker before you talking about everything that's happening downtown and we are trying to hang on to every small business like a precious jewel because the minute we lose them, it's very difficult and a lengthy process to replace them. so whatever we can do to help these folks stay in place would begreat commissioners, do we have any other questions before i go to public comment? last call . matthew, anypublic commenters on the line ? >> we have one person left on the line . >> there's one person, you said western mark okay. commenters, please proceed ca stephencornell from the council of district merchants . one comment and maybe 2 comments. this came up many years ago

when i was on the commission 100 years ago or whatever and we had free inspections out there and one of the biggest hangups was businesses did not want theseinspections , the freebies which i thought were terrific idea . they thought this opens themselves up to put their name on the list and they were afraid of lawsuits coming down like if they were told this is, the door doesn't (or whatever and then they don't do it and all of a sudden things happen. that's a big hurdle to get over even though thecity tries to do something . the question i had a little bit off but businesses, it's access to the business. yourfront door, your sidewalk andeverything . they're all part of this responsibility . what happens when we have say homeless hanging out in front

forputting up a tent .what happens when somebody puts up their table and is putting, selling merchandise that we're seeing a lot of, especially in around fisherman's work or mission street? who's responsible? does dbi come in and remove them or is that still in responsibility of the building ownerand the business ? because they do inthe traffic to a business . thank you. >> president: thank you. jeff,you are welcome to respond . >> sure, so dbi is responsible for building safety. where notresponsible for the exterior of the property . that's either a dpw issue or i know there's almost a resolution teamand other meetings to be able to address that issue . but dbi is focused on the

interior of properties and integrity and safety of those properties. >> president:thank you. matthew, anymore public commenters on the line ? >> there are no more public commenters. >> public comment is closed. jeff, thank you for presenting this to us and we look forward to hearing more about how that hardship program is moving along and let's stay in touch. this is an important topic moving forward, certainly. >> thank you commissioners, have a good night. >> president: next item please. >> board of supervisors file 211296, administrative code amending the family fun and friendly workplace ordinance.

this is a discussion and action item. they may take action on an ordinance amending the administrative code to provide the family-friendly ordinance that employees shall be permitted a flexible or predictable working enrichment unless such an arrangement would cause an employer undue hardship, requiring employers to engage in an interactive process to find a mutually agreeable lexical or projectable working arrangement andstrengthening enforcement or make other changes. today we havefrancis hsieh presenting. do you have a slideshow or need anything like that ? >> i do not have a slideshow . >> president: francis, welcome it's a delight to have you and we look forward to hearing about this legislation and the floor is yours . >> thank you chair laguana and good eveningcommissioners. francis hsieh, legislative aging district 1 . thank you for considering this

item and inviting our office to present. i know your staff provided a great review of the legislation so i'll try not to repeat too much but provide more background and context for the legislation as well as some of the supervisors thinking behin introducing it the legislation before you as an update to a law passed by the board of supervisors in 2014 . it was offered by supervisor david shou and it gave employees a right to ask for flexible work scheduling particular to that.but as we know, there's been no change significantly since then even withoutgoing through a pandemic without changing everything . a lot of situations have changed since 2014 and how businesses run and work. last july knowing we are in a

different place, supervisor chancalled for a board of supervisors hearing about this topic . it was really to help our office understand the rights thatworkers have under this ordinance . kind of to consider any improvements we could make to give workers more flexibility and just overall understand what may have been waiting for on the 14th. basically the july zero confirms a lot of these things we already knew. that while the legislationback in 2014 might have been forced for some , work employees to begin sort of critical conversations with the worksite. we knew that it didn't help many workers particularly the most vulnerable andthose that had the most demand on their time. we heard a lot of concerns about administering the benefits . we took all that feedback and did a little bit of research on our own. also with the office of labor

standards enforcement, others stakeholder groups and some of the changes that we've heard about that we are seeking to draw up with this update is the increased need for flexible he. 80 percent of parents with children under five are in the workplace and 25 percent are single parents so the need is great. we also found out 32,000 workers lived with elderly family members. and so many more are actually part of this new sandwich generation that is at home taking care of both their young children at home as well as elderly family members in their home and were all living together. wherenot so nuclear family in san francisco anymore part of that is to be able to afford to live here . we heard stories about workers having to drop outs of the

workforce to meet their family obligations which causes a lot of disruption not only for the worker but also the employer to havethat lack of stability in the workforce . and the overall effect is we also saw a lot less diversity in ourworkplace and particularly as we up in positions of leadership . we also heard from a lot of employers about the need for support and technical assistance and just help administer these needed kinds of mandates san francisco puts on employers all the time so what we have before you today doesn't just update the law to definitions of family but also seeks to expand this access to more workers as well as provide some support for both the employees and employers to negotiate restrictive situations and find resolutions that works for both parties.

so he features of this updated policy are now requiring employers to provide flexible scheduling except when there are cases of unduehardship . we're establishing an interactive process to the employees and employers to help identify practical solutions and working arrangements that will really work for both parties and include flexibility at theworksite . we also are directing working employees even before the pandemic we were receiving seeing an increase in that and to address what happened in th case of telework . also covering more elderly family members other than parents. all of our families are working different and often care for other family members that are just their parents. we also are changing the penalty structure for violations because we understand the cost of care can

be different from situation to situation and there isn't one standard for what that costs. and then that allows the city to kind of pull our blessing off of the standards and sort of order appropriate standards, not just one across-the-board. what we haven't changed is the existing exemption for small businesses with fewer than 20 employees. that seems to have worked or at least we haven't heard that many complaints since 2014 so that is one thing that seems to haveworked. what also isn't completely new is the standard of undue hardship .we borrow that language text to director taylor from the san francisco black patient ordinance which she passed in her time here back in 2017. it's a standard that's been working so rather than create a new one we figured we'd use something that ifit's not broke

. we're going to use something that has been in place and has been working and not create a new standard. that's new to this ordinance but it's not new to the city ordinance and osc is also used the standard. ultimately, behind all of this i believe that when an employer and an employee can have a continuing dialogue about what that worksite looks like and what an adaptive work schedule looks likewe have benefits all around . flexible scheduling helps boost employee morale. it helps improve job satisfaction and for the businesses they seegreater employee retention . they see lower turnover and greater productivity from the workers that have that greater morale on-site. we are operating under the belief that the vast majority of businesses want tomake this work and in fact many already do make this work . we also understand there are just some business models and

shelters where this won't work. and that's why we kind of built in the ability to havethat undue hardship standard for not forcing businesses to accommodate but for the remaining businesses , that we excuse me really want to have a wayto facilitate a conversation . and really encourage businesses and their employees to make this work. we've just gotten, we're on the edge of getting out of two years ofglobal pandemic where we have to figure out how to make everything work in a different way . now we think there is not the time but it's to continue that progress forward to figure those conversations and figure out howwe make this work. so that works not just for the employee but for the employer . does with that commissioners w hope to have your support tonight . i'm happy to answer any questions you might have. thank you very much. commissioners do you have any questions. commissioner huie.

>> thank you so much for your explanation and presentation. just a couple of questions. one is i'm wondering when your were referring to the support for employers what specifically is the support that this new piece of or i guess even the old legislation and nowadding to it would give . >> one of the pieces that the legislation, it didn't happen in the legislation after it was approved was increased budgeting for the department to do some of the outreach and education for employers . so that is something. although that's not a piece of the legislation we are seeing it and we talked to director mulligan at ol as he.

we've made a commitment to support additional staffing for him so that he can adequately administer it but also some additional funding to help with that outreach and technical assistance component. one of the things we heard from businesses that was helpful is just basic things like templates,faq. workshop or like an online video about how to make it work . how do you post notices and what do those notices look like or which osc has committed to doing. it isn't funded in this budget cycle so it's part of the budget add back process so that's one piece that was sort of in the package that we are continuing and also expanding because we feelthat works . it will work better when we help people, when we inform both employers and employees about it and help them make it

work for their site. the second thing that's new to this legislation is the interactive process between the employee and employer where olsc does come inbut there is back and forth that happens and we help moderate that . so that we can get to a resolution so on the employee side they don't just like up and quit or sue the employer or make a claim from the outset. we encourage that dialogue and try to make them figure it out. we have a couple of steps that are called out in the legislation for howthat works . how the back-and-forth works and how much time there is in between those steps. just so that we're ensuring that it is a conversation that's happening and it's not just anoutright , you don't go from 0 to 60 right off thebat .

>> i guess i'm trying to understand or maybe this is the second question but in the ideal like working situation, how does this ordinance come into play and like the hr real ? if the employer is aware of this are you hoping they will proactively offer a flexible work schedule or let everybody know , we're going to be doing this or is this more kind of a employee would be somehow alerted of the ordinance and then file a complaint against the employer ? >> i'm hoping there are no complaints filed. in an ideal world, there are postingrequirements . the employer has many posting requirements, this doesn't just become another one of these and

we would hope what that posting might look like could be included with whatever normal posting you have. and then what we would hope is yes, the employer already has a proactive approach. what we're hearing isgenerally , we don't have a whole lot of complaints actually. employees when they're asking for these typically are getting it. one of the things we heard during the hearing is that out of almost 300 inquiries that the department received there were only four investigations that got started so the complaints are very low . i think overall this is something where employers are working withemployees . like, we're talking about those cases where somebody has been we've heard horrorstories about being denied just a half-hour

accommodation . but i think really, what we're seeing is that employers are already doing this. definitely coming out of the pandemic there has been a lot of flexibility.we figured out a lot of flexibility. we're justtrying to figure out how we can keep doing that . hopefully thatanswers that question . >> yes, i feel like in my experience when i'm seeing as an employer is really that the market forces have already kind of created a situation in which we are being as accommodating and as flexible as we can.and most circumstances because we are all trying to retain team members. so that's why i guess i was wondering about the amendments in terms of bringing this back to the forefront. and other pieces, in terms of

flexible work schedule or like flexible the term flexible i'm wondering . is there a definition for that background? what is considered flexible versus not flexible because one specific scenario i can imagine is that there are some positions right nowthat are full-time positions . let's say a full-time front desk kind of position where you have to have somebody there at that time. and you can't do the work remotely. but should you find it hard that up into two positions, now they kind of become to hopefully full-time positions because you don't want to take away some of these benefits because they're kind of falling back on their hours. i know that's up to the discretion of employers but should you be an employer offers benefits just to people, that's another kind of expense. i'm wondering with with that be

something that is considered flexible or where does that spectrum look in terms of undue hardship . and things like that, not be able to find loopholes of course but because we're already seeing that it's so hard to find people to work in our businesses asit is . >> absolutely and i think that's exactly where we want them to come in because every worksite is different. every business situation is different. and every employer and employee relationship isdifferent . idon't think there's any one definition of what that flexibility looks like . one worker whose trying to if we need to draw up children in the morning. >> ability to look like a 30 minute later shot. for someone who has an elderly parents and needs to be taken to an appointment that might look like 30minutes shifting your lunch break .

i think every situation is perfect and what we wanted to make sure there wasn't is that ability to have that back and forth between the employee and employer to work it out because while some employees might accept the part-time solution but might not. and then it's not for us to dictate or anticipate as these things go to workplace situations but it's what we're trying to do is open up that conversation so that you can work those out. it's up to the employer and the employee to figure out. what does that stability look like, what works for the employer, what works for the employee and kind of come to full resolution as opposed to for example the employer just decides okay, you're going to go part-time now and i'm going to post this down to you . and that might or might not work for the employer but once we have this sort of iterative process where we can go back

and forth a little bit, the employer and employee can come to that resolution and is not for us .what is flexible he, >>. >> i think when you do kind of writing into a board meeting into something like that it is you are dictatingthat there is some definition of flexibility . in some manner that there should be compliance or discussion around. so i think i'm wondering right now. i appreciate your bringing this up to the small business commissionand i'm wondering in the review process or in the interactive medication process, is there someone who will be kind of advocating for the small business owner as well . to use the example again like when you said 30 minutes. could that person just come in 30 minutes later and i can just think about in my private practice, 30 minutes is like

who's going to check in my patience for 30 minutes so i'm going to have to start my whole day 30 minutes later and then like i'm losing not only 30 minutes of time but i would be seeing patients. not me but it's like there's the whole shift that happens in businesses that are at scale i you're talking about 20 people . most people play a crucial role especially if they're coming in right now and notalready on the work schedule . so my question really is is there somebody who's not only just advocating for the worker from that perspective but the nuances that happen when you do open your own small business and recognize you have to shift the whole scale of the business often times to be able to accommodate. >> is what we are talking about

in terms of providing extra resources so that they can do that kind of outreach and education support and frankly the tech support assistance which is what it sounds like you're talking about. i think this is part of the reason we have exempted small business because it's worked in prior legislation and the department hasn't received you know, complaints that hasn't worked. i think the complaints were mostly around like, what ost said their investigation around whether theemployer followed the process . not that they denied accommodations. so i think what that points to me is in large part this is we're able to figure out what works and we're able to accommodate their small businesses for the small

business or businesses working to accommodate their employees . otherwise i think we would have heard about this one and gotten a lot more people protesting and up in arms about this. but there has been inflation. you know, i don't know if there is a lot of people who come in complaining in this case. i know to the board of supervisors there hasn't been a ton of complaints. >> i do for answering my question in your time tonight. >> i do. francis, i don't know if there's any other commissioners asking forquestions . so i have to guess the couple of my own. i want to commend you and commend the supervisor for really trying to make space for workers who need or could use a

little bit of accommodation and i understand you're trying to facilitate as you said a couple of times a conversation . so i want to acknowledge that that's real. i think i don't know if you were able to catch the first half of this commission hearing tonight but we had ted begin talking about the challenges facing our recovery at one of the challenges we've seen is our pace of small business openings is has been actually declining evenpre-pandemic . a pandemic has acceleratedthis . and at the same time we're seeing a surgeon hiring to the point where now are unemploymentlevels are approaching pre-pandemic .

i think it's at 3.9 percent currently which is putting as you might imagine a lot of pressure on small businesses who are struggling to find folks to work for us. and i think there is particularly for the smaller businesses who are particularly susceptible to even minor changes in employment level, i just say if an employer said a order for me to work i need you to blink a really every day i would bring than a lily every day . because i really need the small number of workers i have. i desperately needand i will do anything i can . obviously i can't sacrifice the business but i'll do anything i canbeyond that . so one of the first questions i have, you mentioned this that you weren't really seen

complaints coming from small businesses . and i presume by complaints you mean the workers complaining to olsc. what size of businesses are you seeingcomplaints from ? is there a number where these seem to be gathered? is it businesses with i mean, one could imagine a big corporation like pg and e where it's a lot more bureaucratic but isthere a size of business where you see most of these complaints being centered ? >> not according to the department or olsc. there wasn't a specific kind.

i mean, largely the inquiries that came in came in from a more white-collar worker. so sort of the larger corporate businesses. they weren'tnecessarily inquiries . they were complaints, therewere more inquiries . from those level of workers, the only request when they heard from businesses was mostly for information and as i said the technical information. if i'm going to put together applications what should the application formlook like ? what should be on it? what should my posters look like? where should i post them? it was those complaints so it was more assistance about how topublicize and educate and what the requirements might be on that end . lesscomplaints about it in

general . i think as you said, a lot of employers recognize that in order to retain the workers there all these small accommodations you make and generally we're talking here at a very specificcase when it's about their giving responsibility . we're not talking about having to go see a baseball game or whatever it is. it's not arbitrary. it's something that has to be centered around getting and whether your kidsare older people in your family . so i think that's why i say by and large employers are granting these and their accommodating them . so really in some ways this law is playing catch-up to what is happening and it's by and large happening with most businesses but we are sort of moving back to reflect what all businesses

should be doing. because if most businesses can make this work, all businesses with some limitedexceptions and that's why we usethat undue hardship standard . there will be businesses that aren't able to do it . some things you can't telecommute. some businessesthat model is just not going to work .>> so i think if i understood you it sounds like the body of complaints comes from larger businesses who maybe have more bureaucratic processes in plac and less likely to come from smaller businesses like the ones that the commission represents . you know, i'll just point out i know there's often some confusion about this in the city . but most of our small businesses, the cohort of

businesses in thecity is actually pretty stark . so most of your small businesses are 100 employees are less and that's how we define it in california law as well . then you have a small number but i think it's around 2500 larger businessesthat have over 100 employees . so most businesses just in broad numbers are small businesses. it's about 50,000 ifmemory serves . probably less now):. some of these numbers are unfortunatelypretty old . but i guess the question i would have for you is whether you thought that the supervisor might be amenableto an amendment to increase that threshold . let metell you why i'm raising this question . what when i think about a business that has 20 employees,

to me that sounds like a small restaurant. that's pretty close to the average size of small to medium restaurants in thecity . and then of course in a restaurant i've worked in restaurants. most of us have. it'sour first job or second job, sometimes our hundred job . but not everybody has the same position. you might have ahostess or 2 hostesses . you might have a bartender or three bartenders and five waitstaff and 2 short order cooks and maybe two or three chefs and a dishwasher and busboy. there's allthese different rules . and you know, it seems to me that naturally in a restaurants which is a pretty dynamic situation to begin with and

you're already doing everything you can to hang on to your employees, there's a lot of give-and-take about scheduling just naturally. it's just built-in. but it's into that natural give-and-take if somebody walks into that process and says you know, i need my son. i need to pick up my son or daughter from school at 4:00 when they get out. so i don't ordinarily you would need me here at 2 pm. but my accommodation request is 4:30. and as a result, the other employees, there's no room to give them that accommodation in the future whenthey need it . because all the available oxygen of accommodation has been by threat of the punitive

aspects of this legislation the employer feels that i don't want to get a $50 a day fine. i don't want to be responsible for the cost of care. yes, we're going to give you what you want about i have no flexibility for anybody else. on the one hand i worry about the lack of flexibility in an environment that may be in a normal situationyou might be able to say okay . yes, your son gets out of school at 4 but could you ask your partner two days a week to come in and we can work with you on the other two. can we worksomething out ? instead, because it's this threat of a olsc complaint at the possibility of funds that the employer feels more than need to just dowhat's requested . i certainly would feel that

way. so then the question would be do you think there's some openness or flexibility about raising that number to capture more of the larger employers that seems to be where the body of complaints is and not tie up smaller employers in something that there's already a pretty healthy conversation goingby all accounts . >> i quickly want to look at the data for that. since this is not a piece of the legislation we originally touched and it's already in here in 2014 and from what i remember them supervisor chu, there was a lot of negotiation over this legislation so in some ways we didn't touch thatbecause we were like hey, it seems to have worked .

we know we did a lot of work around this . and we actually haven't heard that requestto increase the number sense that legislation had been in place . it's not one year, it's not 2 years, it's seven years ago or eight years ago. that number hadbeen in place . so we kind of want to take a look at data and want to take a look at why we would revisit something from that period. i will always say supervisor chan expressly committed to revisiting legislation. she's definitely not a one and done person. she's worked in city departments in all different aspects and understands that legislation changes and grows and we probably shouldn't have taken this long to revisit this because knowing how dynamic our workspaces and our business community is , these types of

legislation should be looked at alittle more often and updated more often to reflect what's happening . and if we're wrong and we didn't find that it is difficult for businesses a little bit larger than 20 to make this work on our worksites we'd absolutely revisit the legislation . i hesitate to see something that's been in effect for so long.the first time we're hearing this is an issue is seven years later .>> to be clear and to be fair, where i'm coming from is a place of wanting to support the legislation but a fundamental aspect is the legislation that supervisor chan changed from what supervisor chu had is that it was originally anemployee requesting dynamic and nowit's an employer providing dynamic .

that is the part .these are 2 codependent never variables so i understand why you would look at it and say to yourself well, the 20 threshold wasn't an issue. but the way the legislation was previously it didn't have as much peace to it as it does now. so now that it has a bit more teeth toit , that changes the overall dynamic. that would be my reaction. and i'll just say i don't think a lot of people in the business community or whatever reason this wasn't on the radar and then all of a sudden my phone is getting blown up that heard from allkinds of folks . i think that there is some concern there. but again, i want to emphasize i'm coming from a place of wanting to support the legislation i also want to be

mindful of the fact that we are doing fairly poorly with respect to small businesses in general . and i don't want ... i don't want this to be something that really employers feel obligated to do and it's not even ... for a small employer it mightnot feel like a conversation . it might feel more like this is something i've got to do or i'm going to incur some pretty significant fines .and i have one more question or thought but i think commissioner huie has asked to speak so please proceed. >> i just wanted to voice my support of what you are saying, president laguana. because that's entirely what

i'm seeing if this is that minor change from requesting to requiring is a huge change when it comes to also ... i don't know if it's a power dynamic but it is in the conversation in the interactive process, the small business owner is going to feel under the thumb of having to do this and having to make whatever concessions, not even that they can but make concessions thatthey can . i do believe that we are currently and we've been in an environment in which businesses do not feel supportedby our city . they don't feel supported sometimes by even their community. so that has changed. if we're going to look at our neighborhoods and cities recovering , i think the experience of owning a small business, it should be a wonderfulexperience .

and it's like right now, putting in more and more roadblocksin front of them . it's just not a good time. so i just wanted to lend my voice to this particular piece of the conversation because i do also want to see that we're all finding that people can have flexible work environments that's one of the beautiful things about entrepreneurship is i understand how powerful that is. i can choose how i spend my time but i also feel like we have to be cognizant of how legislation can sometimes feel punitive to people. and it can not always be the most encouraging routetowards a solution . that's just my little interruption so thank you very much. >> thank you, chief

ortiz-cartagena. >> i definitely want to focus on what she was saying about thevirtual deployments , especially after the pandemic i think we need to look at this altogether becausea lot of people choose to work part-time . employees, you could have 40 or 15 ftes on a small business. like commissioner huie, it did change a little and the language isdifferent . i guess i agree with my two commissioners and iwanted to add that . >> president: iq. francis, commissioner huie brought up something i've been thinking a lot about lately which is it seems to me that

historically, the city's approach to small business is when it's looking for policy outcomes and their often if not always wellintended . but the approach to seeking these outcomes is usually it takes on a punitive nature instead of an encouraging nature. i know it's not the time to have this conversation but this particular legislation, i want to make a brief general point that i think it would be helpful to see policymakers go through a process where i understand the knee-jerk instinct is to want to say something's happening, that's not good . how can we punish employers into doing what is best for the city? it would be interesting to see if we took a little more time

and thought how can we encourage employersto do the right thing ? what if there was a for instance in this case and is not appropriate for this legislation but just as a hypothetical what if there was a tax credit for doing flexible work arrangements for some other thing that might be a value to employers or the city. some way of encouraging them and making them feel that this was the path of least resistance and also one that made life easier for them at the same time making it easier for the employees. i'm raising the general point. i understand i'm not trying to rewrite this legislation but just a thought.the question aboutthe undue hardship . again, this is the part where things get a guess the little

swirly when we talkabout businesses that are small . i think one of the first things employers are going to do when an employee presents the letter or the request for a flexible law or this ordinance. naturally the employer will be what is this, i'venever heard of this. i'm going to read up and find out . i think it's another concern for employers particularly the smaller employers that are not don't have attorneys, are necessarily nuanced . what is the criteria for an undue hardship or undue burden. and i know looking through this list, the first one whatever section it is 3 a or whatever. the identifiable costs including but not limited to the cost of productivity lost.

hiring employees or transferring toanother facility . so i guess i just want to point out that for a small employer usually particularly a small business, labor costs are a wide margin your biggest cost. it's the one thing that is usually labor followed byrent followed by supplies . those are your costs. maybe supplies trump rent but neighbor labor is always your biggest cost. if i didn't need the worker for that half hour, why would i bring them in and pay them? if i think about the undue hardshipquestion, the identifiable costs including but not limited to the cost of productivity lost , that suggests there's some kind of

judgment here about how much productivity costis enough to trigger the next phase ? so maybe ... and i think for an employer it's like at some point or another that's afairly subjective analysis . i think we can all agree that if it was going to result in a business closing that obviously is a cost that easily meetsthe threshold . but what if it's reduces the employee, businesses output or businesses performance by some fairly marginal amount. how marginal is too marginal. how does the employer know it's a reasonable position to take to deny the accommodation even given all these other and herons need and desire to

accommodate the employee to beginwith even withoutthe legislation . how do we know where that threshold is ? >> again, that's why we didn't create a new threshold . this is not some threat that we are looking for a definition of what that hardship might mean and that is a significant expense or what operational difficulty would be . or what counts as productivity and what that cost is. we borrowed it from legislation that has been in effect since 2017 in the last ordinance. so this undue hardship standar , this entire section was pulledfrom the legislation . so again, we're not trying to necessarily create new

standards and hardships. what we're trying to do is say okay, this is a thing to be able to define what would be a hardship in this space and in many ways this is also about accommodation and flexibility about caregiving . it's in the same wheelhouse of what we'retrying to accomplish here. rather than create a whole new standard , we should all from existing standardsthat is fairlywell related to this piece of legislation . i think employers , it's 2017. the employers have been, have been retired to implement that more to undue hardship standard that for tonight. so we are somehow we've been able to negotiate through that and figure it out do employers have been able to call cross that out. have been able to make a case

for all and we've been able to account for whatever that whol process is . i've been doing it since 2017 . >> we're creating a new thing that employers don't have to do. they have had to figure out how to make an undue hardship stick. >> i do understand that iwasn't suggesting or i didn't intend to suggest . i guess i could have asked ray's asked the question a little bit differently. i understand that there's legislation in place that establishes what this undue burden hardship is but so far it's just with respect to nursing stations. that's not something that most employers have encountered. so i guess the question is how do we can indicate to the employment community or to the employer community what that threshold is because i'm just telling you that myself from reading the law, i have no idea

where that red line is and i have to make a decision without reviewing case law which most of it i don't think is even public to beginwith . so i'm as an employer i'm ina black box . i don't understand where the threshold is. i understand that it has been adjudicated in the past but i don't know how those cases turned out. i don't know wherethe threshold is . so i have as an employer going back to commissioner huie! that scales are tilted heavily towards getting the employee whatever they asked even if it's if it is a burden to me because there are significant penalties if i guess wrong. >> we don't want employers to makethat guess.

this is what i talked about with the technical assistance . andworking with osc so that you can actually get that support . we absolutely heard from businesses that that was a concern. it is a concern for many of these mandates that san francisco passes where i think we all feel really great about saying that san francisco california is a client but then we don't help the businesses figureout what that means . so that is definitely the commitment we see. it's not something you can write into legislation but to advocate and osc has made a commitment to actually have the staffing were built in. that there is the way that they can call and say i need some advice.my employee is proposed this. this is businesses, i grant x,

y, and z and does that mean the underlyingstandard in your eyes. they would be able to help walk you through this . that is really a technical assistance that wetalked to the department about we're imagining . it's not just for the employee is more about just letting folks know that this law is out there. for theemployer , that is about understanding how to, i don't think the idea is there's just a format. we hope that employer, and have whatever information you need on that forum. whatever disclaimer, all of that stuff is already on there and help you work it out before so that it becomes pretty standard. and what the process is, the employee applies and you take a look and based on x, y, and z you either approve it or deny. or you call that employee and say hey, i can't really give you 45 minutesbut i can give you half an hour .

that is part of this is it's those conversations that make it work but often times because we are for whatever reason, and both employees in and employers, they don't do that back in their house. i get it for the businesses in the room and i've heard most representatives do this already. we're talking about that small business that don't. and i absolutely hear you about the sort of part. but i think in general, when you have employers and employees who follow the law. these laws never touch. we are trying to bribe them up and are taking advantage of the law and are taking advantage o employees. actually making it tough for everybody . it is a badapple that requires us to do some of this . i think to the degree that we

can have sort of that positive encouragement we tried to. i think that's the challenge with this law. there isn't a place where you can you know, as you mentioned with tax incentives. i think what we need to try to put in here is our conversation about flexibility and that influence between the employer and employee and encouraged that to the degree that we can so we don't lose that she space. we do believe and i think what we do see has borne out is that that bears out in the vast majorityof the cases . we're trying to provide structure in cases where it doesn't work out and they need that structure and they need that process. >> i understand and appreciate the intent. i'll say that we and the commission have often heard from minority owned businesses.

english as a second language businesses that navigating these technical assistance isn't always where we want to be. that's assuming that the business owner even has the time to avail themselves of services and that's a secondary challengebut i think we cover that topic . vice president zouzounis, i see you raise your hand. >>. >> you for the back and forth everyone. i think we're getting down to the actual level that a small business is going to see this through. osc has a technical assistance resource for small business owners. it's not a real known thing for small businesses. what, that's not whatthey're going to call for instance that they have . so there needs tobe a cultural shift there .

it's really we are goingto have technical assistance for the business owners , and understanding how to make a job application to write an actual response to arequest , that covers them and whatever that takes. i would love to learn how to the office will partner with arts indicating that. you did mention they were going to do a proactive outreach aroundthat and i'd love to know what that entails . i think that order of operations here that we're trying to get to, we understand the intent and we want this to be conversation, not punitive faith but on paperis going to play out like that ? my question is and if this is in the legislation and i missed it please forgive me but what point is the employee entitled to make a formal complaint about the business?

do they have to wait until they get an actual likeofficial type of denial ? what form does that come in because there could be misunderstandings here. maybe a business owner said wait, let me check in on this and theemployee thinks that's a denial . they get caught up in a process thatkind of jumps the gun . so i'd just like to understand if we're committed getting to a small business owner you have to go through each of these steps to follow through on this process, and then the same communications to them the employee so there not jumping the gun with a complaint before the due diligence the conversation happens. that's kind of my question her . if that makes sense.

>> absolutely, it's an excellent question. there are some steps spelled out in the legislation as well as timelines for windows things have to happen to make sure things are dragging on for months and months at a time. however, i think some of your questions are more implementation which as policymakers there's only so much we can write into the legislation and so much we can included with it. we have to meet our intent to the department and we would certainly work with them throughout the implementation phase to make sure that a lot of these issues that we are hearing do get addressed and how they implemented . but ultimately olsc will be the body where that final complaint comes in and go take a look at and if the employee went straight from misunderstanding into a complaint they would put push it back on the employee and say you have to go backto your employer . that's how we envision it and

that's how we would envision the legislation. that's how we would make sure olsc is implementing it. i can't guarantee it because we don'trun the department and are legally prohibited from doing so . we would certainly commit to them as they are putting together those steps. like, these areflags that we heard and we want to make sure you address . and that knowing and i also address the language issue that for us that is a huge thing for our office also in my previous life in the board that was one of the things i did was help train city employees on the ordinance and how to put that information out there. we still have a long way to go as a city and we certainly the intent is not to penalize people for that. this does have an obligation

that is to make sure that it does that educational model language and we should be penalizing businesses for something that isnot the city's fault for putting out that information in an appropriate language or format. >> thank you for the response and just so you understand where we're coming from , we've seen time and time again the city make legislation which they're asking smallbusinesses to input , implement a larger cultural environmental lever shift that is the aim. the technical assistance piece is never written in. and it's always the mitigation always happens after the fact and by that timewe've moved businesses . so that's just a frustration that we've seen with the economic mitigation, the technical support mitigation not coming at the sametime as

the legislation . so maybe it's an education we need to have with the board. like what are the parameters in what you're not allowed to include in implementation or what's going to be at the behest of the director after the fact so we can understand how much we can push with this legislation because this comes up allthe time . >> will agree with you 100 percent. it is just, we can't direct departments what to do. we can write the policies and it's up to the mayor and executive branch of government to direct departments and there is a very clear line between what we can direct. i think most of us, many of us

try to partner with the partners and have a good relationship and try to help implementation to make sure that implementation sticks with the things that we'veheard, the visions of the legislation and all those pieces . but we can't actually tell the department what to do with its budget . we can't actually even with the things that we add back in the budget process again, what's in the budget in some ways is fully up to the mayor to put in and we can advocate. we become the same kind of advocacy folks at one point to try to get those things in the budget. we're generally very successful because ultimately we still have the power to approve the budget or not but there are limitations and i think that'sfrustrating . i hear yourfrustration because we share that frustration . but it also is about a separation of government . the legislative branch shouldn't be doing everything

but we should work as partners and i do hope that we can do that because we are the ones hearing all these concerns. we are the ones that understand those concerns and want to mitigate them as well and it is our intent to work with the department butthere are some barriers just legally for us to actually direct departments on what to do or how to do it . so i absolutely hear your frustration and i don't know what more to say but we are committed to seeing this legislation through. we did it with our neighborhood business legislation where we actually did see it through and worked with the department to make sure we're staffing and fully rolled out that program and we're makingthe commitment for this legislation we made that commitment with every piece of legislation we work in . we've been in office for a year so maybe we don't have a huge track record of it yet but it absolutely is something that in

past year where legislation just won't become what it could become because of the implementationimplementation and where not there to help guide it as well . >> we would want to work with you with the small business commission and work with olsc to see what that technical assistance lookslike . >> i think that's definitely something our commission and our leadership can have in general with the board. i think with oe wd because we've also seen ewb we support technical assistance between other departments and small businesses but we've also seen city benefits like mediation services or any kind of resource that the city is legislated never gets out to

the small businesses. i also don't want to waste the supervisors time and making laws that are not going to be routinely communicated to those that have to facilitate them. that is i think an important piece for us in this and i know it's structural maybe beyond your review but i think it's something to take back to the board and let them know this is a theme. thank you. >> thank you. besides i just have twomore questions for you . we've beencovering you with questions . usually i do want to say for any members of the public that may be watching, it would typically be the case that it would come before the commission, then go to the committee and go to the board. it was reversed this time

because the committee in question only meets once a month andgiven we only meets twice a month , we are now in sort of ... it's a sharper territory when we are the last stopright before the board . it really feels like we have to do everything we can to represent the interests of small business community and we don't have that insulating layer of another committee hearing afterwards . i want to point out that a little bit of the dynamic here too so i appreciate your patience for wading through these questions . good the first question i have ofthe two questions i have remaining, where almost at the end . is about thepunitive aspect . when the agency determines of violation is secured, the issue a determination order and

appropriate relief including an administrative penalty up to $50 for each day or portion thereof.that the violation occurred or continued. or, and this was added in the legislation or up to the cost of care the employer or person whose rightswere violated in due to the violations . now, i didn't see where cost of care was defined in the legislation. certainly given that some of the triggering events that could trigger somebody to seek a change in their working hours for flexible working conditions is severe, taking care of somebody who's severely ill or needs medical care. there is a question here in my

mind about whether now i'm potentially liable to the cost of somebody i don't employee up to their medical care or particularly because it also says up to the cost of care incurred due to the violation is greater so ifgreater than the $50 . i think one concern for me given particularly for small businessis there's no limiting factor here . i don't identify. there's. there's no way for me to know if and as an employer how much liability i'm incurring by potentially getting into a disagreement about the employeesrequest . so in other words, i could be liable for up to $50 a day or i could be liable for you know,

let's say somebody needs around-the-clock nursing care . and oxygen tanks. who knows what else and that's 150 an hour. and then i now liable for $1000 aday, $2000 a day ? i'm exaggerating slightly but also walking you through. i know that would be an outlier but that also would be what the employer would have to consider as possible come particularly if we're talkingabout somebody who's trying to take care of somebody that still . do you think ... i guess this language that was added up to the cost of care, perhaps you could talk about what the supervisor's office was thinking would be covered by the cost of care and second, you could perhaps talk about whether or not you feel that

perhaps there could be some sort of reasonable limit or on how much exposure a small business might have if the ball didn't bounce their way or it turned out the olsc didn't agree with theirassessment of whether it was an undue burden . >> i think part of it is up to olsc to determine based on the facts presented in the time of the situation. we'retalking about if they found that a violation had occurred . i think our thinking behind it was $50 a day was way too low. i don't know about you but my kids are grown now but not background. but they don't need daycare anymore but even if they did

which was 15 years ago, $15 a day would not have. it might have covered the penalty for picking them up like five minuteslate . but it's recognizing that. >> i have to jump in. >> $50 a day doesn't cover anything. >> i agree $50would cover an entire day of care . but if the employee needed an entireday of care for the child , then they wouldn't be able to worktoday at all . generally i don't agree with fixed numbers because inevitably they wind up being out of whack due to inflation and other externalities. one would think you would say something more like one half of their daily wages for a quarter of their daily wages. and now you have something that's attenuated to you know,

whatever that particular employee might make or however minimumwage might change in the future . $50 a day might have looked like a lot 10 years ago might look like not enough to buy a stick of gum and 50 years from now. so i'm with you on that but to your point and have raised two kids myself. if you need to take care of kids all day than it sounds like you couldn't work that day. >> no, no and it's perhaps a little bit of misspeak. but even for an extra hour $50 is going to cover that. what we're thinking is that amount, that fixed cost doesn't seem to cover if a violation havebeen found much of anything. that's why that cost of care is in their . and you would have to work out

with olsc again what kind of documentation is provided and howthat amount would be determined . i imagine it is an arbitrary determination . >> okay, sure. i can accept it would be arbitrary but istill don't feel like i have a sense of again . it getsback to the same issue as before . i asked an employee or have no ideawhat my exposure is . and looking at this legislation cost of care, it's not defined elsewhere. perhaps it's definedelsewhere in the city code, i don't know what is not defined in this legislation so idon't know what my exposure is as an employer . i don't know how olsc will interpret it . with the cityattorney , with a give guidance on how to interpret this legislation ?

>> we're talking about implementation which you know, i can speculate but i can't give you aguarantee . typically when it comes to damages and it comes to all those things yes,the city attorney's office does involve . yes, there's astandard . yes,there's a process .we deal with claims all the time against the city and specifically in the case of a violation. a determination that a violation best has occurred will really try to dissuade people from getting to that point and being found in violation. >> of course. >> $50 is not going to dissuade somebody from potentially denying. >> i mean, given that olsc doesn't happen instantaneously i as an employer could rapidly

envision the clock ticking. >> is from when theviolation occurred . it's not when the employee filed something until theend of time . specifically they have to make a claim. we are trying to keep this type to acertain period of time and for a specific violation . and not for the employee to file a class actionsuit . it's specific to, we've gone through this entire process. all the denials, all of this. a violation at the end of this it found. >> i had a olsc complaint we had to deal with and in my opinion we eventually agreed it was notfiled in good faith . it took a good 60 8 weeks to get to the bottom ofthat . i seem to recall something like that and my business, it was

very stressful. first because you're angry because this isn't right. it's notjust but will they agree . will i be able to get this resolved . so i guess i understand the cost of care part but over and eight week period, let's say somebody was asking for an hour off to take care of a grandma who otherwise would need a nurse for let's say like a hospice nurse which that can be pretty expensive. i guess i'm just concerned about the lack of a limiting factor . there's no real sort of, you know, there may be as a practical matter they may have

reasonable limits but to me as an employer who's trying to figure out how to navigatethis stuff i don't have any visibility in that . >> i know what you're saying. i think the supervisor and she said it has been open to amendments and if there's language you can propose that helps to define that better or that helps provide that, we would love to hear it and we loveto see it , see what it looks like. i know it's unfortunate, the timing that we would hope to meet before thislegislation . >> i understand. >> but to that case we don't anticipate this being before the board until the march 1 meetingwhich gives us several weeks to actually go back and forth . and if you have proposed legislation you can look at it and there's plenty of time to

introduce this atthe board or send it back to committee and if it's substantive . there is time is why we felt w could go with it . this is not going to be up at the board before april. >> so is not going to be at the board tomorrow which forall i knew is the case and i've been in that situation before by the way .>> not at all. if that were the case we had would never have had permission to go before the committee and weknew because of holiday scheduling. >> i'm not upset about that . >> the proposed legislation or language to address a lot of the issues we talked about. >> last question and we will go to public comment and i will get you outof here . i want to also thank ofc staff and commissioners for hearing me with all these questions. earlier you spoke about willingness to revisit the

legislation. i guess the question for me would be how would you or the staff know if it needs revisiting? in other words, i can see what success would look like. you're not getting any complaints from employees . but it's not necessarily an even distribution of complaints between employees and employers becausefor every employer there are 20 employees . if we had one 20th or we could have far less numerical complaints, but still as a percentage of the whole, there are 400,000 workers that work for small businesses andthere's only 50,000 employees or employers . what's the threshold for revisiting this?

>> absolutely. i think it isn'tnecessarily a specific threshold number . we are very interested in implementation, working with this body and with the olsc and we want to continuethat dialogue as well . we are happy to do a check in after this has been in implementationphase for a certain amount of time . i think we want to hear from this body what makes sense to do that check in and do that temperature check and just say whatare you hearing ? all these things came to light and is it worth, are there other things and all sorts of legislation have unintended consequences bothgood and bad and once we can't anticipate . absolutely something else that none of us thoughtof could have triggered a bigger problem . we would want to hear about

that but we want to hear about it immediately, not after whatever percentage of complaints. but if the city is at the point wherethis body is about it and knows about it , that's good enough for us to say okay, let's reopen and talkabout . >> i wish it always worked like that. >> that's how itshould work . >> that is how it should work and yet it's not. i think our inclination after the past few years is to be very cautious about the health and safety of our small business community because so far we're fighting a losing battle here. we have our work cut out for us. but francis, you've been very

generous with your time. before i let you go we need to go to public comment. check in one last time with my fellow commissioners ifthere are any last questions or comments before we go to public comment. matthew, is there any public commenters on the line s and mark . >> we have onepublic comment. >>please proceed . >> caller: stephen quayle again representing the town district merchants . i have to say what sharkey said is perfect . we haven't had anyinput on this . this is something that needs a lot of work and it's the suggestion that having a threshold of 100 would be perfect. i have to say there's a piece oflegislation that affects a bunch of businesses . my group has businesses in all the littleneighborhoods . every one of them has businesses that have between 20 and100 employees . i went out and surveyed a bunch

of them over the weekend. not one of them has ever been consistent, questioned by your office as to how this is going to beworking or what are the problems withit . if you're going to have legislation , i think bringing in the people who are the recipients of that legislation should be part of it and i think the office is going has done a poor job. to my knowledge there's been no outreach to any organized business community and neighborhoods that was done. there certainly hasn't been any of these hardware stores, the restaurants, and the grocery stores. all of them have 20 to 100 employees. also, all these businesses do not have hr departments. and as sharkey saidearlier we want to be , we need good employees. we dothis . what you're adding in is the whole layer of paperwork and stress or businesses to do it

on theirown basis . this is not good. i think one, raising it to 100 as the thresholdbut more importantly , sending it back to committee and before it goes to that committee, bringing in businesses that could give you some advice as to where the problems are. where the opportunities to fix it is a way to have good governance and this is not having good governance where it's just buyingone side coming up with an idea of what's going to happen. you very much for the opportunity . >> thank you. are there any other public commenterson the line west and mark . >> commissioners, first of all, francis, obviously you're not obligated to respond to public

comment but i make it available to you if you did want to respond. >> i feel like we did outreach. we were told that we've worked with the office of laborstatus enforcement that has a distribution list .and that out tothat distribution list . i don't know what to say. >>understood. commissioners, i think it's time to make a motion . having heard ithink questions from each of you , i don't want to just dictate a motion. i want to talk about whatmight be an emotion and see if that's agreeable with everyone . so i think based on what francis saidearlier , one thing that i think we could do is

support this legislation contingent on raising the threshold to 100 employees which it sounds like based on what francis said earlier that most of these complaints are among larger employers and that would certainly i think get out most of our small businesses although not all because there is a curated thing that happens with restaurants where you have these restaurant groups and their cross like four or five restaurants there might be over 100 employees. but i think these employers with less than 100 employees are generally going to be inclined to do everything they can to be flexible to begin with . so i would first suggest that weraise the thresholdto 100 . second , if for whatever reaso

that is not acceptable , whatever we can do to raise the threshold would certainly be agreeable. then i would also recommend that there be some kind of reasonable put on these finds. i get a little math in six weeks at $50 a day. that's 42days, 2100 . i would recommend perhaps we could do a cap of say no more than 2500 four in the alternat , perhaps i'll be thinking about this. no more than 100 hours of

employee's hourly pay. which would be a bit above what thecurrent minimum wage is in san francisco but wouldbe a number that would be flexible . there's some sort of limiting factor here . third , i've heard vice president zouzounis talk about technical support, perhaps a recommendation that technical support for businesses, english as a second language and disadvantaged communities that that be written into the legislation that would support. i think i caught the meat of the cap. we talked about the size of th businesses . we talked about technical support. i think i caught most of everything we talked about or

at least the major aspects of that so is there anything else? >> would be included in technical support giving a small business a better reference point for the hardship or the accommodation and maybe templated examples or is that all part of technical support ? i know that webrought that up a lot . >> yes. i mean, if that's a yes, sir no question you're answering that i think the answer is yes. i don't, i'm not 100 percent sure ifthat's a yes, sir no question . >> i guess in our recommendation we leave enough space for what makes sense for the board and department where toput these recommendations . you know, if you can't

legislate they provide that technical assistance can you legislate that oe wb does? i don't know. >> another way i guess you could get there is i think we just say it's up to the electives and policymakers but we tried to directionally orient them that some form of tone technical assistance should be baked into the equation. i don't think this body is equipped just yet to make a detailed enough recommendation. one can imagine. if it was a middle layer and i don't feel like i know what i'm

playing with here. maybe we directionally orient the board and say technical assistance and let them figure out what that means . hopefully we would have more experience figuring that out or maybe that's a conversation that we are to borrow aphrase from francis facilitating over the last few weeks , which i am pleased to hear there's some time there to help kind of zero in on what's right. so if that all sounds reasonably agreeable to everybody or i'mnot seeing anybodyvigorously shaking their head no . then carry . >> motion to support this legislation contingent on three factors. one being raising the threshold level of employees over 100. 2 being reasonable funds.

no more than $2500 or no more than a certain amount of hours ofemployee pay . and three , providing technical support more explicitly in the legislation. >> on the second one i want to convey that thoseare just suggestions . and we're trying to start a conversation about that but we're not trying to mandate. >> house a reasonable finds. >> yes, reasonable kaplan finds for example $2500 or how many hours ofpay . that could beagreeable . >> i think it's important for the record because something that we care about is helping small business employees actually get the benefit that big businesseshave. big business employees have . we don't want to create a

threshold that then knocks small businesses out of education resources and tools to give their employeesbenefits to . so i think that's important to get on the record is we want to not be punitive to micro and small businesses but we still want them to have access to the resources that big businesses have fortheir employees . whatever that number landsat for that threshold, please keep in mind if we can include this language in our recommendation we want small business employees to be able to have access to olsc in the same way . >> that's interesting.what we commissioner huie, speak up at this point. feelfree to interrupt or anything , that's fine

let's just have a conversation . you know, perhaps like the right way to split the apple here is to set the threshold for finds at 100 employees. so take all the punitive measures, set the threshold for that 100 employees and some of the nonpunitive measures just raise it just slightly so that we are not getting not burying businesses without hr departments and resources and having to deal with a lot of paperwork.i understand your desire to get max resources but in trying to balance it against the limited ability of really small businesses to beable to . >> i've also seen us negotiate this threshold before when it comes to employee benefits and

it ends up with her not getting towards our goal of helping smallbusiness employees get those benefits to . i want tomake sure we're also findingbalance in . >> i'm trying to islands that . it's just that i think our job here, you asked us. i think we should even ask this question as commissioner huie excuse me about who is representing small businesses . in front of olsc, whose advocating for them . and certainly asked somebody that's worked as an employee and somebody who struggled, on that level i can understand where you're coming from but i feel like and i'm just saying for me our role in this process is just totry to represent and navigate for the small business . so when we balance thosethings , i guess where i'm willing to

sort of bend isto say okay . let's maybe 100 threshold for just any interaction with this law whatsoever. i get it now. we are closing the conversation but perhaps by just taking out some punitive measures it actually is a conversation and that's something that's loaded with a whole lot of possible exposure to finds and stress. >> i'm more amenable to that to just 100 employees and then a small business whenever know about that they can havethis conversation with their employee . we need more tools like i said to help small businesses implement this stuff even if it's informal. >> i do want to say that francis indicated that there

has not been a lot of complaints from employees in smaller businesses and it has been mostly larger businesses so i think when each employee is 1/20 or 1/30 of your entire workforce , there's sort of an inherent need to want to be accommodating as much as possible and otherwiseyou're going to be in trouble . you don't have room to mess around with your people. you've got to be straight with them and it's got to be an even exchange and there's some bad actors out there but they don't stay in business for long. because nobody wants to work for them. so commissioner huie. >> i feel like we're at a point

where were negotiating with ourselves right now. which leads me to, i don't know if this is within our scope to put on the table but i'd like to offer that since we do have time in the timeline and it sounds like the outreach has not quite been as robust and we would like to advocate for i know again speaking of equity for our small businesses i think understanding the outreach already done and the protection will outreach is important in terms of getting diverse voices involved in this conversation and i'm going to authorize i guess that we've done a fairly good job of like keeping back to date with the different merchants associations . atthe chambers , all different types of sectors associations and during the course of the pandemic i think this has become much stronger thanin the past . if our relationship can be of

help in your outreach process, i think anyone of us would be willing to deploy those to be able to get more feedback beyond just what we're talking about here. so in terms of pushing for more small business advocacy i would love to see a little bit more outreach to kind of see what people in this particular sector would be thinking. >> i think it's an important point. every person on this committee has a lot of other communities, a lot of other small businesses and i would generally encourage any supervisor to reach out to anyone of us or all of us when thinking about passing legislationthat might affect small business .

i'm always mindful.i actually francis, i wanted to reach out to your office. i heard other people were peppering you withquestions . i also had other demands on my timebut going forward , certainly we are happy to have these conversations before a commission hearing and unwilling to be good-faith partners in crafting legislation so commissioner huie,i agree . but are you saying you want this in the motionor are you just putting that fight out there . >> i don't know. i'm putting that out there. at this point, not necessarily puttingin a motion but if anybody feels like that's an important issue . i do feel strongly that there should be some sort of mall business advocacy along this process.

>> i agree. i guess that's therole that we're playing . >> but even in the interactions like conversation that asmall business is going to be having . when we talk about technical assistance in sounds like let mehelp this business about what to do in this process . it's not really like, i don't know if that person is going to be on the end of that technical assistance is going to understand what it means to have todo xyz . and i feel like that's been the problem when it comes to you know, the small businesses navigating the bureaucracy because generally people who work atcity hall have ajob . they get a paycheck . somebody that owns a business does not get a paycheck. it's a very different

perspective that i think is totally misunderstood which is why we're always this kind of impasse. i don't think people see that small business owners have to take on such responsibility that financially, for many people it's a huge responsibility and often times it becomes a burden when that responsibility isnot working out in their favor . >> one can imagine how different the dynamic the city would be that if theyscrewed up they didn't get paid for a month . like, that would be different but that's the reality for a small business is if something goes wrong can have a material impact on their personal finances in anegative way . yes, i hear you. i'm going to have to think

about that one. i think the commission needs to think about that one. how we might, i wonder if there's something we can come up with. some mechanism we could promote that would enable i don't know. one would hope for a little bit more thoughtful representation about size. i think the goal here all looking for is a good balance between the worker's interests and interests of the small businessand how do we help them survive and succeed ? that's a really ... that's the holy grail. i thinkwe're going to have to stew on that one and as usual you've given me a lot to think about commissioner . all right, let's get back to this motion. so let me see how this bounces against everybody. a threshold of 100 employees for any punitive measures

including administrative fines either olsc or payments to the employee and then this would enable small businesses to have this conversation and technically subject but doesn't have alot of teeth . so gets everybody you know, if it's helpful to engage with the process but it's less fraught for the small business. then i would say yes. does that seem like the right balancehere ? i'm looking for anybody shakin their head either way . i'm seeing a lot of ... >> i think you summed up the compromise from our conversation .

>> carrie, do you have that? >> support this legislation contingent upon raising the threshold fornegative measures to over 100 employees ? okay. >> and then trying to debate whether we should raise the threshold for just period so we can get most of the smaller restaurants something that's like inherently time-consuming to deal with. >> i would push back on that because i think once you get over 50 businesses, you have some kind of human resources support. >> i agree with 50 but i guess the question for me is in that number between 20. >> from the 2100, that's where the technical service fees comes in and the actual intent of this legislation to tryto bring people into compliance .

i don't want to lose that piece. i still think that's important for the left, the last two years we've been through service workers and small businesses all needthese tools and training . >> fine, well we have a hard stopfor compromise, i'm not going to mess with anymore . so carrie, you have all that. i think everybody understands the motion i'm making. do we need to reread it before we ... >> so contingent upon raising the threshold to 104 punitive measures including more than 100 employees forpunitive measures .but we didn't decide to addanything else to that ? i miss that. >> i was debating whether that 20 thresholdshould be raised . but that didn't, that didn't

get a consensus level that i'm seeking. we're just going to stick with the hundred employee threshold for funds . that is point number one, point number two was the technical support and point number three was reasonable. >> so keeping the reasonable even forover 100 . >> correct. >> and just to be clear why do i care about the reasonable? it's small businesses aren't necessarilyimpacted by thefines to begin with . this is why i care . we just heard from controller ian that our downtown is in a sort of catastrophic place. and all of these larger businesses and the larger business environment we have so

many small businesses that service these larger businesses. they are the ones that are the janitor teams that go in and clean up the sandwich shops that serve the workers and so i just think that it's probably helpful to the business community overall to just have a reasonable thereand that's their suggestion . so i guess if the board disagrees that ihave to take thisup . it's a suggestion . >> is there a second? >> i'll second. >> i'll second. >> can by commissioner ortiz-cartagena. i'll read the role.[roll call vote]

>>. [roll call vote] >> motion passes. >> i really appreciate your patience. i know that was lengthy but we felt for whatever reason in the sequence here that we had to have an extended conversation so iappreciate yourpatience . >> thank you to you . >> thank you for the robust conversation . >> good evening. next item please. >> item 6, resolution making

findings to allow teleconference meetings under californiagovernment code 54953 . this is a discussion and action item. >> i imagine we're all in the mood to have a lengthy discussion about this this time . i make a motion to approve. >> is there a second? >> can we go to public comment ? >> you're right, we do. >> are there public commenters on the line? >> there is no one online. >> seeing on public comment is close. i need a motionto approve . looking for asecond . >> i'll second. >> i'll read the role, commissionerdickerson . [roll call vote]

>> motion passes.item 7, racial equity committee update, this is a discussion item. the committee will discuss evaluating questions on the racial equity toolwhich will provide a lens to use for future policy analysis . >> who's presenting? please proceed. >> i didn't plan to put it up, can youput it up ? >> give me one minute. >> basically, this will send with the agenda. this rubric we created and reallywe had this conversation before commission before . when we were first trying to field some criteria for how we

as the commission are evaluating legislation and commission business based on our racial equity mandate. so we honed what we heard on the commission about whether some kind of greater questions we can ask ourselves internally or even asked back to the presenter. when something is brought before us. we honed that conversation a bit on our racial equity committee. and carry came up with this concise kind of four bullets of what are our line of questions to make sure that we are analyzing legislation with equity in mind and really

posing those questions to the presenters as well as our selves because we are analyzing so i think this item is just to show it to thefull commission . see what you all think. i think that these are really good. i think we had this structural tool beforehand because i've seen so many laws that come before us that had unforeseen byproducts that we could have teased out if the city really did have this type of structural mandate but legislation beforehand so hopefully this will be a really good policy for usmoving forward. what do you guys think ?

do we want to read through them? you see them? >> i can see them find. >> reading now. >> i feel likethese are good questions . just to ask in general. like, these questions were brought up i think even during our lastconversation . or just the conversation we just finished and i think it helps even frame equity for small businesses. because we also think about businesses of scale and like all of these differentthings to . i feel like these are nice

framing questions that give you room to go further as well. >> if i could add one thing the committee talked about was that when we have somebody come present to us i will share these questions prior to them coming and letting them know that these are questions that we are going to ask and letting them prepare for that and it will also include legislative reviews . to the extent possible i will try to figure out all of these and we can ask the sponsors of legislation as well. >> so here's something i'm thinking about.these are all great questions so that's my first initialfeedback . building on this really important work and thoughtful

questions, i'm wondering is there a heuristic that we can employ that you know, is there one question that really embodies the values that are expressed here that we could actually bake into our conversations with policymakers when it's an action item? and i guess out of the gate, the first questionthe very first question seems like a big candidate for this . what i'm imagining and tell me how this resonates with you guys but so for instance the conversation we had. thank you for that presentation francis. it's really great to hear everything you said. before we go to commissioner questions, just want to remind

commissioners that one of our core values is wondering who will benefit from or be burned by this proposal geographically,ethnically or linguistically . some sort of reminder that's actually bake into the meeting itself.obviously i'm not going to, it doesn't seem practical for us to read through all of these questions and try to answer them within the context of everyitem that's presented to us . but maybe there's an even more efficient way to sort of remind the commission much inthe way that we do the land and knowledge meant . is there an efficient way to remind the commission of the values that are embodied in this tool before we go into our round ofquestions ? i don't have an answer right

now. i guess it wouldjust be a question i would pose to the committee to think about . and get some thought to and maybe it's not a great idea, i don't know but it's just ... >> we don't need to ask every presenter each question. i think it's the tool for ourselves most importantly. i would say like maybe the one for me that sums it all up and really what we've also commissioner huie said case in point in our lastconversation . and then policies we've seen before where we had to petition the board to create new legislation to course correct what they didn't plan for in the first iteration. i think would be how do you plan to include like the

supported or mitigation or the technical support pieces for the cultural communication pieces or whatever. in your, in the process of introduction. like, because i think what we see as the biggest indicator of racial inequity and my fellow commissioners on the committee have said in the past is when we don't make that in at the beginning. that's kind of maybe the one that comes out for me. >> i agree and i want to make another observation. i'm particularly drawn to this question about is the proposal punitive or enforcement base when are the other alternatives for proactive compliance. that was something we talked

about as well. i want to make the observation that punitive proposals are inherently regressive and inherently are disproportionately burdensome on businesses that are already struggling with other challenges whether it be race or language or ethnicity or gender. you know, so maybe something around that. i don't think at the end of a long meeting we're going to come up with ... on tossing ideas out there for the committee to take back and think about but i like the idea of reminding people that we don't,we're not obligated to punish our way into a better future . and that when we do try to punish our way to a better future itinvariably hurts the

smallest people the most . not the smallest physically. youknow what i'm trying to say . i don't know what the right word is. i like reminding folks that there's other alternatives for proactivecompliance . something for the committee to take back but as a pole this is wonderful, this is phenomenal. i'm wondering how to really fold that tool into our day-to-day work as a commission. or biweekly. >> i think our policy as we develop our racial equity committee's policy kind of plan or what we want to work on and what we want the commission to work on i think it's also

reflective of these questions. we're like streamlined fees, streamlined codes. automatically people out insteadof making them gothrough a burden of proof or whatever . that's redundant .i think we do speak for this in our actions so i do think that president laguana we have this built in with one of our proactive goals are. and if you're worried about overwhelming the presenter with all these questions maybe then we don'tneed to ... maybe we talk about that.maybe we don't need to frontload it to them . maybe we just use this internally or you know, make sure that everybody has our racial equity resolution as the foundation.

and maybe putting this at the end ofour resolution . >> let's think about that one. let's put a pin in it for tonight. go back and think and talk about that one. i think it's excellent work. those are all the right questions. they're all the right question . maybe there's questions that we try to help new commissioners understand what their role is on the commission and periodically have reminders ourselves of these questions and then maybe there's a simpler question or value that we express to presenters so as to not give them so much that ... my fear would not be that i would overwhelm them, my fear is they would ignore it but if

we cancondense this one value , maybe it's my....maybe that might resonate more as well say, they only said one thing tome and this is it .i better you know, really think about that. and even if it doesn't make an impact on that particular piece of legislation, maybe it impacts how they thinkabout this kind of legislation in the future and that's part of what we'retrying to change to . >> i meet with all the offices before they come and present . i can just point themto this and say this is something that's on the commission's mind .we don't have to, i don't have to read each one explicitly but just flag that it's something that is on your priorities. >> great. is that okay to move on?

>> yes, we have no public comments so we can move on. >> seeing on public comment is close . next item please. checking in with you miriam, okay to move on weston item please . >> item 8, approval of draft meetingminutes . this is an action item. >> i'm so not going to analyze those minutes. i moved they are accepted . >> seconded. >> seconded by commissioner dickerson. >> commissioner ortiz.[roll call vote] motion passes.

item 9, general public comment. >> president: any members of the public that would like to comment on something not on today's agenda. >> we have no colors in the queue. >> president: publiccomment is close, next item . >> item 10, directors report anddiscussion item >> president: oh dear, katie . >> i'll keep this brief then. sojust as a reminder , we will probably resume in person meetings march 7 in room 400 of city hall so just a heads up about that, a little less than a month away. we are working on a follow-up surveywith small businesses . i know commissioner huie might

discuss this in her report.we are about to launch a new website on the fs.gov platform to make it a lot easier for small businesses to access services that understand how offices smallbusiness , what services we provide in conjunction with oe wds services so that will launchon friday, february 18 so we will set a link you can check that out soon . also launching this friday is the cities rent relief program which was previously announced so we think roughly 50 businesses will benefit from this which is really exciting and program detailsincluding eligibility will be available online by friday february 18 . and just a quick reminder to everyone that as of january there were some new rules that took effect regarding payments. previously you had to report payments but one of the major

changes from this new law is that as a supplies to anyone who files aform 700 which includes all of you . it's that there's a prohibition now on payments as well as a broader applicability about that so just wanted to make sureyou're all aware of it . if you have any questions please let me know where we can also connect you with the deputy city attorney about that but this is important just given the personal liability that we may all have if we violate this law and lastly , we did issue letters to 74 venues in san francisco . they received grants a little under seven thousand dollars to remain in san francisco with that i will conclude myreport . >> see one that was great and also verybrief . is there any public commenters? >> no commenters in the queue. >> seeing nine, next item

please. >> commissionercomments and questions and new business, this is adiscussion item . >> any commissioner comments ? commissioner huie. >> just to talk briefly about the survey, just wanted to let you know that we are kind of embarking on clocks right now with doctor chowdhury who conducted our and partnered with our commission to conduct the first survey. this is a follow-up and we have a meeting set up with jenny da silva from start small, think big. she's interested in getting input at this stage as well and helped us with the first one and this time i think some of our partners are excited enough to be doing some follow-up data. i would love to kind of wrap

you back into this at some point so if we could agenda isis on a future meeting and i can get you up to speed withthe timeline so you are more clear as to when that might be . but yes, thank you very muchfor your efforts last time . and that's all i wantedto share for tonight . >> president: i be delighted to jump in and helpoff-line on this i thought that last survey turned out phenomenal . and the chance to take another swing at it and from lessons learned and maybe just i'd like tocollectively recap . i think it could really make a big difference there. commissioners, i want to say thiswas an excellent meeting. we reallycovered an awfullot in here . we had a pretty good discussion about policing . we covered accessible entrances

. we i think made somereally helpful suggestions on an important piece of legislation . this was a long meeting compared to some of the meetings we had in the past it was i think an important one and i just want to thank you and acknowledged all ofyou or the work you put into this . >> i wanted to sayhappy valentine's day . >> appropriately you can't see all of me on zoom. >> president: all your various partners i think a double dose of thanks for putting, allowing us all to spend our time on this. so you know, hot tip. strategy here. we have anagreement my wife and i we do not go out to eat on valentine's day . we just get right raked over

the coals. we arescheduling it and you can't get reservations anyway . we always do it one day or two later by mutual agreement and that works out well. good money saver and we still have the big romantic night ou but it's like half off . always keep saving money. okay. no other comments. any public comments? >> nobody in the queue. >> seeing nine, a comment is closed. >> item 12, adjournment. this is an action item. please show the office of small business line. >> and they just close the screen. okay. we will end with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your

opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco and the office of small business is thebest place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergencies . if you need assistance continue to reach out to the office of small business .>> is there a motion to adjourn? >> so moved. >> moved by commissioner ortiz-cartagena. second ? seconded by commissioner dickerson. commissioner dickerson. >> yes.>> commissioner huie. president laguana. commissioner ortiz-cartagena >> yes . >> vice president zouzounis. >> yes. >> motion passes, meaning is called to adjourn at 9:15. >> president: great meeting everybody.

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.

>> when i look at an old neon sign that's working or not working, i feel the family business that was in there. >> since 2009, citywide, sf

shines, has supported businesses and sites like the ones that receive new neon signs. >> you know, sf shines is doing an amazing job to bring back the lighting and the neon glow of san francisco. >> sf shines is such an amazing program, and i can't think of another program in another city that gives matching gunned funds to store owners, mom and pop owners, and if they've got a neon sign, they've really got a great way to advertise their business. >> this is a continuation of the sf shines program. >> focusing other neon signs is relatively new to us. of the seven neon signs, we've invested about $145,000.

>> a good quality sign costs more, but it lasts infinitily longer. as opposed to lasting five years, a good neon sign will last 15 to 20 years. >> in san francisco, the majority of neon signs are for mom-and-pop businesses. in order to be able to restore these signs, i think it gives back to your community. >> part of the project has to do with prioritizing certain signs in the neighborhood based on their aesthetics, based on their current signs, and base on the history. in the time that we've been here, we've seen a number of signs restored just on eddy street. >> there are a number of signs in the tenderloin and many more that are waiting or wanting to be restored. i have worked with randall and

al, and we've mapped out every single one of them and rated them as to how much work they would need to get restored. that information is passed onto sf shines, and they are going to rank it. so if they have x budget for a year, they can say all right, we're going to pick these five, and they're putting together clusters, so they build on top of what's already there. >> a cluster of neon signs is sort of, i guess, like a cluster of grapes. when you see them on a corner or on a block, it lights up the neighborhood and creates an ambient glow. if you havy got two of three of them, you've created an atmosphere that's almost like a movie set. >> some of the hotel, we've already invested in to get those neon signs for people to enjoy at night include the elk hotel, jefferson hotel, the verona, not to mention some

we've done in chinatown, as well as the city's portal neighborhood. >> we got the fund to restore it. it took five months, and the biggest challenge was it was completely infested with pigeons. once we got it clean, it came out beautiful. >> neon signs are often equated with film noir, and the noir genre as seen through the hollywood lens basically depicted despair and concentration. >> you would go downtown and see the most recent humphrey bogart film filled with neon in the background. and you'd see that on market street, and as market street got seedier and seedier and fewer people continued to go

down, that was what happened to all the neon strips of light. >> the film nori might start with the light filled with neon signs, and end with a scene with a single neon sign blinking and missing a few letters. >> one of my favorite scenes, orson welles is chasing rita hayworth with neon signs in the background. >> i think what the office of economic and workforce development is very excited with is that we'll be able to see more neon signs in a concentrated way lit up at

night for visitors and most especially residents. the first coin laundry, the elm hotel, the western hotel are ones that we want to focus on in the year ahead. >> neon signs are so iconic to certain neighborhoods like the hara, like the nightcap. we want to save as many historic and legacy neon signs in san francisco, and so do they. we bring the expertise, and they bring the means to actually get the job done. >> people in tenderloin get really excited as they see the signs relit. as you're driving through the tenderloin or the city, it pretty much tells you something exciting is happening here. >> knee an was created to make the night more friendly and advertise businesses. it's a great way of supporting and helping local businesses. >> there's so many ways to improve public safety.

the standard way is having more eyes on the street, but there's other culturally significant ways to do that, and one those ways is lighting up the streets. but what better way and special way to do that is by having old, historic neon signs lighting up our streets at night and casting away our shadows. >> when i see things coming back to life, it's like remembering how things were. it's remembering the hotel or the market that went to work seven days a week to raise their money or to provide a service, and it just -- it

>> van ness avenue runs from market street to bay street in san francisco. south vanness runs from south of market to cesar chavez street. originally residential after the 1906 earthquake it was used as a fire break. many car dealerships and businesses exist on vanness today with expansion of bus lanes. originally marlet street was named after james vanness, seventh mayor of san francisco from 1855 to 1856. vanness heavy are streets in santa cruz, los angeles and fresno in his honor. in 1915 streetcars started the opening of the expo. in 1950s it was removed and

replaced by a tree-lined median. it was part of the central freeway from bayshore to hayes valley. it is part of uses 101. it was damaged during the 1989 earthquake. in 1992 the elevator part of the roadway was removed. it was developed into a surface boulevard. today the vanness bus rapid transit project is to have designated bus lanes service from mission. it will display the history of the city. the city.

>> if i could have your attention. thank you. the look around the room, it is wonderful to see your faces. it is really a pleasure to see wisdom, strength, bravery and leadership. all of the great attributes for the year of the tiger. [applause] >> thank you for being here. on behalf of the heritage foundation, thank you so much for coming to this afternoon's lunar celebration. i am the board chair of the foundation. the foundation's mission is to

promote awareness of the asian pacific cultural heritage and great opportunities for community collaboration. the main event is a celebration of the apa heritage month in may. you will learn more about that later this afternoon. this seven's event will not be possible without all committee members and volunteers. we also are thank full to the reception sponsor amazon. let's give them all a warm round of applause. thank you so much. [applause] now to start our program i have the great pleasure to introduce san francisco's city administrator carmen chu. i really don't have to say more than that, right?

carmen chu. how much more do i need to say? i have a list. a career in public service. mayor's office of public policy finance. elected to serve as district 4 supervisor for two terms. following which she was elected to serve as city assessor. last february carmen was appointed by may or london breed to be the san francisco city administrator overseeing 25 city agendas. please welcome carmen chu. [applause] >> good evening everybody. i am carmen chu, san francisco city administrator. as you can tell from the buzz of conversation the happy faces that we have here that we are so excited to be back in person to celebrate the lunar new year.

[applause] on behalf of the city and county, on behalf of mayor london breed, board of supervisors and elected officials and department heads today we want to wish all of you a very, very happy year of the tiger. (applause). cheers. come on. [cheers and applause.] i want to give a shout out and thank you to jj and claudine who have worked tirelessly to organize this event to make sure we start the year of the tiger off right. claudine, please come on up. yes, you. [applause] here is the certificate of honor on behalf of the san francisco city administrator's office. thank you. [applause]

>> i saw on your script it was five more minutes. co-chairs, please join me. we need to welcome former mayor. thank you for being here. let's start with celebrating lunar new year. trying to connect everybody with this celebration. this is february 7th. it is a prize if you can explain why we chose that day and what is special about this date february 7th. anyone? what? i can't hear you. it is right.

commissioner louie. in the lunar calendar, the seventh day of the new year as long as everybody's birthday. happy birthday everyone. [applause] lunar new year is about gathering of families. we have all done that. looking around the room a number of you are not asian pacific americans. today you are because we appreciate you being here to celebrate with us. in the last year or year and a half in the asian communities we have been encouraging each other to speak up, stand up because of anti-asian hate at the san francisco human rights commission. we also have talked a lot about standing together. we shouldn't stand together and support each other, connect this event today.

not only as we kickoff the whole year of cultural celebrations in the city, but we want all of you to have an opportunity to connect a number of you just told me earlier this afternoon this was the first time you were in city hall in two years. isn't that great? i want to thank you mayor for allowing us to do this. this afternoon is about celebrating families, celebrating communities by first communities coming together. we are thinking this is part of every year in may we have the celebration of asian pacific heritage month. we were thinking what is our theme this year. anti-asian hate, standing together. what we need is to continue to create opportunities for more community bonding. i think what we need is keep on

having those opportunities that we can meet each other, learn a lot more about each other and be friends. it is true. if you know somebody, we are all different. we all come from different places. we get to spend some time together. get to know each other. that can how we appreciate differences. the celebration of apa heritage month in may we are going to be talking about community bonds. that is what we are about. that is what this afternoon is about. i want to thank all of you for taking time to be here. i want be to specifically thank former mayor willie brown for being here. he hasn't missed too many

occasions in our community. [applause]. we are a small organization but very, very blessed with a large community that consists of representatives of from over 10 to 12 different ethnic groups. at the head of it we have very, very fortunate to have three co-chairs working together. thomas lee and everyone bringing a lot. [applause]. to make it all work. this is by invitation only. the reason we invited you because we appreciate you and we want to thank you. unfortunately so many have done so much we cannot introduce every one of you. we have special acknowledgments

to make. when i say your name, please stand. the president of the board of supervisors. supervisor walton for district 10. district 1 connie chan. district three peskin representing chinatown. district four gordon mar. district five preston filmore. >> haney soma. melgar. district eight mandelman representing castro. district nine ronen thenition. district 11 supervisor safai.

>> thank you. in paddition to the board of supervisors we would like to welcome the city-wide elected officials. no particular order. city attorney david chu. [indiscernable] district attorney, public defender har. board member lee and city college trustee allen wong. thank you all for joining us this afternoon. >> last but not least i would like to acknowledge the members of the heritage foundation board. different directors today. the foundation is a small nonprofit with individuals from diverse backgrounds. jj laura.

[indiscernable] steve wilson. irene riley. [indiscernable] scott adams. in the audience are members of the apa heritage celebration committee. in the interest of time we cannot introduce all of you. please note we are so very much appreciative of your participation and service on the committee. thank you so much. [applause] >> really we appreciate the support of the city's family. at this time i would like to introduce our mayor. i don't know how many of you

were at chinatown when we kicked off a week ago. lunar new year is a new beginning, reset for communities, and we are so proud of being in the city where it is one of the safest cities in the country. the mayor has taken tough measures to make sure we are safe and healthy. mayor london breed. [applause]. >> mayor breed: thank you. let me say i can't believe that we are all able to get together again like this. it is absolutely amazing. claudine, the people who work in city hall and our elected officials come to the event because we love coming to the

event. not just because the food is so amazing. i don't know if we have food this year. i remember the days on the board of supervisors. this was a good meal after a long day's work. we are here to support the apa heritage foundation for all of the work they continue to do. not just during lunar new year but year around. to really highlight the importance of the api community in san francisco. one of the things claudine mentioned that is really impactful to me is, sadly, when we started to experience a lot of the hate and the deviciveness and the attacks on the community. the heritage foundation started to build bridges with a number of cross cultural events. they have embedded the work around cross-cultural relationships in their programming year around. i want to thank claudine for

leadership and work and advocacy of bringing our communities together to understand one another, to learn about one another's culture and uplift and appreciate one another. i remember when i was in high school. we always had all kinds of assemblies about the taiwan or chinese or black community just to understand and see just our cultures on full display sparked interest and discussion and understanding. it also sparked togetherness. today we are joined by some of our asian countries. council generals. i want you all to stand when i announce the council general from korea, japan, philippines, indonesia, singapore, mongolia and vietnam.

.applause. and china. building relationships with not just the communities in san francisco but all over the world is very important to us. we are grateful for the partnership with the various council generals who continue to work with us every day. today as we unveil this new stand. it is not about a collector's item. will say to our postmaster general in almost every instance they are so beautiful and fascinating you can't help but want to collect them. we know it is about signifying a new day, new opportunity, every lunar new year is about an opportunity for us to reset and to come together and to just

really appreciate life as we know it, especially after dealing with a very challenging time during this global pandemic. we are grateful to celebrate the year of the tiger, which signifies courage and strength. i know as a tiger myself where i get it from. [laughter] but the truth is i couldn't wait until we got to the year of the tiger. i couldn't wait to this year where we could see all that it will entail, the various events, lunches, performances, gatherings, parade in person for the first time in over two years. [applause]. i want to thank each and every one of you for coming to the celebration, helping to uplift

our community. all of the things you have done that have been seen and unseen to have an impact. by just being here today it demonstrates your commitment and support for the api community in san francisco and this stamp is really another incredible thing that we are able to really show and support and as a matter of fact in honor of lunar new year, maybe we can start writing physical letters and using stamps to mail them other than just mailing bills with those stamps. with that i want to thank you all for coming and looking forward to seeing this incredible stamp. we will hear from our postmaster general before we move to the unveiling so we can get on with the festivities. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. before we go into that i want to

acknowledge our reception sponsor amazon. i would like to invite sally to say happy new year to everyone. >> thank you. you know what they say never stand before a party when there is stamp unveiling. based on what we learn tonight. thank you for coming to my birthday celebration. it is all of our birthdays. thank you for the apa heritage foundation for including amazon and inviting us to sponsor this event. over the last two years amazon is investing in san francisco. looking around the room so many partners we have worked with and to be inspired by. thank you for that. i am told the water tiger is a symbol of courage and action. i want to let you know as amazon

continues to invest in the city we will serve the needs of the community and celebration. thank you for being here tonight. thank you for allowing amazon to be part of it. thank you. >> every year we have been unveiling stamps in san francisco since 1992. i was reminded by my good friends this is the 13th anniversary of the historic announcement of the issue of set of stamps honoring chinese and asian-american cultural heritage in december of 1992. this year's unveiling has special meaning. we hope next year that the national birthday of issue will be in san francisco. it is 30 years of history.

something we are proud of. it is a very tiny stamp. a stamp is an instrument of communication. it represents so many more people to learn about the lunar calendar, what it means, whether they agree or don't agree, what to do on a particular day. there is a lot of history on the lunar calendar. we are happy to have the second postmaster with us today. the acting postmaster of san francisco starting in postal service as letter carrier. over the years he has been operational managers and customer service. after that the postmaster of oakland. now we are happy to have you as the acting postmaster of san francisco. we are having stamp sales outside. after the event feel free to go

and if you haven't purchased your stamps, please do to so. let's welcome the acting postmaster. [applause]. good evening, everyone. thank you for the kind introduction. i am postmaster of san francisco. i am happy to be here on behalf of the post office for the year of the tiger stamp. i would like to thank our speakers, mayor breed, commissioner chang. board president walton and customers and leaders for joining us today. i want to take this opportunity to thank the national organization oca and several local organizations for continued support. in china the tradition of

celebrating new year's began thousands of years ago. the crops and livestock the villages were on the night before the new year. in some versions of the story the brave old man decided to put up red paper around the village and fireworks. frightened by the loud noise and red peeper left without eating the crops. i love this. it symbolizes the human experience and fighting spirit in protecting and caring for our families. since that time the lunar year evolved and the customs are loved throughout the world. the celebration is squarely within the cultural traditions. time to prepare for a fresh start while honoring the past. families come together for

delicious food an occasion for good luck and prosperity. this year more than 1.5 billion people around the world mark the beginning of the year of the tiger. strong, gave, confident and well liked. we could all benefit from the tiger's qualities in the year ahead. let's work together across the globe with confidence better days lie ahead. to the stamp. year of the tiger is created by chu after the director. the lunar year stamp. you will agree the result of the coloration and design that captures the beauty and strength of the tiger and fresh. the design is comtemporarily

take and. [indiscernable] lion or dragon dances performed during the new year parades. it is symbolic meanings of blue, orange and gray. the tiger's head purple to reflect the chinese zodiac. this is from the third series of new years. 1993-2004 and 2020 to present. this event is for celebrating the 30th anniversary announcement of the stamps honoring the chinese asian contribution to this country. announcement was first made at the national convention in august of 1992. former and vailing of year of the rooster in the same year.

add to your collection or mail your new year's greetings. it is our hope it brings you pros pair be, peace, -- prosperity, peace, good luck and much joy. the mayor will join me in unveiling the stamp. (applause). [ muit.

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their shop & dine in the 49 within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services in the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so we're will you shop & dine in the 49 chinatown has to be one the best unique shopping areas in san francisco that is color fulfill and safe each vegetation and seafood and find everything in chinatown the walk shop in chinatown welcome to jason dessert i'm the fifth generation of candy in san francisco still that serves 2000

district in the chinatown in the past it was the tradition and my family was the royal chef in the pot pals that's why we learned this stuff and moved from here to have dragon candy i want people to know that is art we will explain a walk and they can't walk in and out it is different techniques from stir frying to smoking to steaming and they do show of. >> beer a royalty for the age berry up to now not people know that especially the toughest they think this is - i really appreciate they love this art. >> from the cantonese to the hypomania and we have hot pots

we have all of the cuisines of china in our chinatown you don't have to go far. >> small business is important to our neighborhood because if we really make a lot of people lives better more people get a job here not just a big firm. >> you don't have to go anywhere else we have pocketed of great neighborhoods haul have all have their own uniqueness. >> san francisco has to all

>> i want to invite you and welcome you to the regular rescheduled police commission meeting at 5:47 on february 16th, 2022 we are beginning this meeting. my apologies for beginning the meeting late. sergeant, please, call the roll. [roll call] you have a quorum. also we have chief will jump scott from the san francisco police department and paul henderson from the department of police accountability. >> thank you, very much. we have a full agenda and i want to make sure everyone has an