local business is the lifeblood of san francisco and a vibrant community . >> secretary: the meeting is being called to order at 4:30 p.m. this meeting is being held in person at city hall in person and broadcast live at sfgov tv and available to listen to or view online by calling (415) 655-0001. authorized by california code section 9453e and mayor breed's 405th supplement to her february 5th, 2022, proclamation, it's possible some members of the small business commission may attend this meeting remotely. in that event, those members

will participate and vote by video which can be viewed on governor tv 2 or live streamed at sfgovtv.org. all health and safety protocols and building rules must be adhered to at all times including masking. we welcome public participation. there will be an opportunity for general public comment at the end of the meeting and there will be an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. for each item, the commission will tack public comment attending the meeting remotely and then attending the meeting remotely. the number to call is

(415) 655-0001. access code 24820567076. when you're called for public comment, please mute the device you're listening on. public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker. speakers are requested, but not required to state your names. sfgov tv please show the office of small business slide. >> president: today is the official reminder to voice your concerns about the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. the office of if you need assistance with small business matters, you can find us

online. please call item one. [roll call] >> secretary: you have a quorum. >> president: wonderful. the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we

benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. please call item number two. >> secretary: item two, board of servers, file 220240 community policing plans. foot and bike patrol. this is a discussion and action item. the commission may discuss and may take action to require the police department to create a community policing plan at each district police station that among other strategies incorporates a foot and bike patrol deployment and includes a community process for soliciting input. presenting today, we have allen wong, legislative aid to supervisor mar. >> president laguana: great. is he presenting remotely?

>> secretary: he's presenting remotely. >> president laguana: there he is. >> hello. great to connect with everybody. i'm allen wong, the aid for supervisor mar and i work on public safety issues in the office. >> president laguana: welcome, allen. good to see you again. and, please, take it away. >> yes. i'm here to present about supervisor mar's legislation. so this ordinance is to -- we're doing this to develop stronger relationships between the police department and the community that it serves and just to give you a little bit of background on the origins of this legislation, it began when supervisor mar started hearing more from our community groups and merchants about the need to have stronger input and

relationships with the police department. there were so many businesses that were hit by burglaries and quality of life crimes and also just preventable issues that can be done through proactive police work. that they reached out to us for support. so we started convening some zoom meetings with some of our local merchants and stakeholders. and, after hearing the feedback from folks we decided it was important to strengthen the relationship between them and the communities they serve. it would require each department station work with stakeholders in the district to

dwp a community policing fund so merchant, schools, and community based organizations and develop a plan exercise proactive problem solving on quality of life issues to prevent crimes, address language access needs and figure out a formula for bicycle roles in the community. we believe that increased public input and feedback will allow the police department to better serve our communities and build stronger relationships and get us to have more action in and quality of life in our neighborhoods. >> president laguana: great. is that it?

>> yeah. i think that summarizes it. >> president laguana: okay. commissioners, do we have any questions or comments for allen? vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you, allen, for representing the supervisor today. i had a question and if i don't mind giving our commission a little context of where this is situated in the current board discussion around sfpd and the plan for it if this is tied to hiring that's been agreed upon for sfpd or if this is still conditional on decisions that haven't been made yet with regards to the overall safety plan. >> okay. so for this ordinance, what it would do is it would require

that the sfpd work with different community groups to develop a plan and develop a potential patrol plan and there's a formula for that. in terms of hiring this is not linking with any hiring requirements. we do have public neighborhood and services committee. we'll be having a staffing report from sfpd on their needs and that will be available. in terms of their process, this ordinance is currently within the control of the public services and public safety and neighborhood services committee and it will likely be heard on april 28th by the committee.

>> vice president zouzounis: thank you. >> president laguana: commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: thank you, president laguana. i want to thank you for the presentation. >> president laguana: you've got to hit mute. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i want to thank you for the presentation. i actually had some feedback from district 9 and 11 and i was going to take this time to get some comments that i got back from community. one of the biggest things is especially in the mission, our police captains constantly are rotating. they don't last necessarily a year. so our concern is that maybe there is a plan implemented, but then a new captain comes with a new administration, new agendas, new focuses. whatever this legislation or whatever the plan is, it should be something that regardless of the captain that's at the station should live longer past the captain and also like advocate for captains staying longer at particular stations so they can develop

relationships with their merchants. a lot of the merchants in the mission corridor establish these great relationships with the captain but then the captain is transferred and then restarting that process, it's hard. it's hard to build relationships if it's constantly changing. another community obviously is they're sensitive. you know, people of color, minority communities historically haven't had the best relationships with police officers and some in community are concerned this is more of a police presence. so in these conversations, definitely making it culturally relevant that whoever's our liaison at these stations understands the community, the neighborhood, and, you know, what exactly they're serving, you know. it's not to police, but it's to be part of community and not police us. so, with that, also, you know, we just want to be apart of the

process and best intentions sometimes, it doesn't happen in the process. ment we're usually the afterthought in the process. so we just want to ensure that we are the process or the part of the process. >> yeah. thank you, commissioner, for bringing that up. i think in district 4, we share similar frustrations about the changes and, yep, the changes in police captain. i think it's ideal to build long-term relationships with our police captains. at the same time, i also understand that if sometimes the road due to progression in the known department. i can understand at the same time coming from our perspective and the district 4 office, for us, it's important that we build strong relationships and that we have

officers that are constantly getting to know the folks in their communities. so i totally understand that. i do think that this community policing requirement legislation will help contribute to the more stability because instead of a plan or a implementation relying on an individual, there will be a built-in plan that it's not just dependent on one person, but it's a long-term plan that's built by the community and it's documented and institutionalized. so that even if the police captain changes, then they'll be a memory of what the plan is is and what the community has sought from each of the district stations and what they've agreed to do based on public input. the second thing about the concern of kind of the lack of

trust that similar communities have in our police department, so the good thing about this legislation is that it allows each of the communities to develop their own plan based on what their needs are. so it doesn't kind of prescribe necessarily what each of the district stations do, but it requires that each of the district stations work for the community to develop a plan that works on these quality of life issues, language access needs and proactive problem solving and so each of the districts may have different plans based on their own community's needs and the different issues that they face including history of -- yeah, a history of potential kind of lack of trust between the community and the police

department. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: thank you, allen. allen, one last thing, i highly suggest that you reach out to the cultural districts and the c.b.o.s, e.a.g. and the excelsior. it's a good effort so you can get their feedback and concerns in the community. >> thank you, commissioner. >> president laguana: thank you. commissioner dickerson. >> commissioner dickerson: thank you, allen, for your presentation. i just want to amen commissioner ortiz-cartagena in regards to the relationship and how it's important that it is sustainable. i am -- my business is on the 3rd -- is on the corner of newcome in the bayview and we have had multiple shootings.

we've had a lot of violent crimes and everything from burglary to victimization of people really just walking down the street. and we know in history, police presence has always lowered crime. and where my business is located, fortunately for me, many of the officers will come into my studio. we meet. we have a great connection immediately, but then i won't see them again. then next thing you know, we have a major crime happen on the block and then all of a sudden, there's a heavy police presence. that is there for maybe a week and then it goes away until another crime takes place. and so for me, i have vested -- i'm highly sensitive when it

comes to this particular agenda item because it is time for some continuity. we want this -- we support it 100%. bayview was very well connected regardless of what people may think or say. not only do i serve on another board which e-dot i'm also just well-connected with the other merchants on 3rd street and the surrounding neighborhood. we communicate. and we talk and we do what we can to support 1 another, but there are a lot of systemic issues that we're dealing with especially with the african american community that right now we need more support than ever and i believe that police presence is important at the same time what my fellow commissioner said, it's not about policing us, it's really about the support and the presence of making sure our community stays safe and as a

community activist also being in close communication to what can happen, what will happen and what we can promise our community and what to expect. i think that is my priority here is can we expect this to happen. can it sustain and is it dependable. so we're ready to do whatever it takes to have our community safe especially in the bayview district 10. >> president laguana: thank you. allen, did you want to respond? >> yes. i want to thank the commissioner for her comments. you know, i think, you know, you listed a lot of great reasons on why it's important

to move forward with this legislation and i'm very happy to hear that you're behind this. >> president laguana: great. allen -- actually, i guess. director tang. >> director: question for supervisor mar's office. i know this ordinance specifically requires the creation of the community policing plan. i wanted to know what the office's plans are in terms of followup to make sure that what's contained in the plans are actually carried out and implemented. >> in terms of the implementation, the plan will be updated annually and it will be a process for the community to circle back and check in with each of the district stations to see if the plan is being implemented. you know, i think with all plans that we make, a lot of

times it never survives contact with the real situations and that's when you have to find the opportunity to just serving being a veteran. we know that whenever you make a plan, the perfect plan never survives contact. and, with that said, with the process that we have that we're working to update the plan each and every year, that's an ongoing cycle where a community can be checking in the district station captains and their staff on how they can improve on the process. >> president laguana: great. thank you. allen, walk me through a little bit. you know, i see the community policing strategies may include foot and bike patrols and certainly that's been brought up a couple different times

during this meeting. what else might be included in a community policing plan? is it primarily just about the physical police presence in the community? >> not just foot and bicycle patrols, but one other thing that's important to our district 4 office is the language access needs. figuring out how -- so, you know, lots of times when we've talked to our small businesses, they've mentioned that they've had just language barriers in terms of sharing their problems or just talking to police. supervisor mar actually had times when there's been a number of vandalism incidents on norega or other places and when he would show up to the scene, he would actually ask his wife to who helped

translate because there weren't people available on scene to help translate when he arrived. so for supervisor mar, it's really important to ensure that we're able to meet the language needs of her community and this plan or this community policing plan that we want to implement, we want them to include and incorporate a language access component on how they'll improve this with the community. the other thing that we want them to work on is quality of life issues. so often times, we have our small businesses and residents telling us about kind of ongoing quality of life incidents whether it be a certain street corner or were they constantly have issues with the same things over and over again. and they come to us asking about support. how can the police department

be more proactive? how can they prevent some of these things from happening. so we'll develop that level of cooperation and preventative police work to avoid these issues escalating. so those are some additional things. the other part is building relationships with the community. a lot of times, the trust is also about how people feel about the police and whether they've had relationships with them. and when they have a relationship with their district station or police officers, it develops further collaboration and trust so that

we as a community can feel safer. >> president laguana: thank you. what -- so i think if i understood you and just to make sure i understand. so a community policing plan will include the foot and bike patrols which will be crafted based presumably on community input. these quality of life issues with respect to localized business issues, and the language access component which i'm a little unclear how that's part of the community plan. shouldn't the police always have some sort of language access for the people in their community? why is that -- i guess i'm a little confused about why that's part of the plan? do you mean language access to

access the plan or are -- help me understand that part of it a little bit. >> yeah. well, so in terms of the language access needs at each of the district stations, for us in the sunset, we've had community members and small businesses share with us how -- well, for them, they feel there's a language barrier in terms of just talking to other police officers or feeling confident to call their district station or call 911 to report incidents of crime or other issues. so having a language access component in there will help ensure that our immigrant communities are able to and feel confident to communicate with our police. so developing a language access component in the community

policing plan will get the police to think about how they can support these sort of needs from the community. >> president laguana: okay. i see. the goal is to foster this conversation between law enforcement and the community about any language issues and then hopefully whoever is working in law enforcement will be better informed because it sounds like there's been a fair amount of turn over. along those lines, i want to echo and amplify what my fellow co-commissioners said. i agreed with everything they said and i think the recurring theme here is the importance of continuity. and so i think this plan is going to help create some continuity in cases where you have a lot of staff turn over. so i think it's likely to be very helpful to the community

and at least in my view, this is good legislation. also, i'll share with you two weeks ago we had police member sharkey who is a world famous sociologist on crime and he talked about having the importance of community plan and so i think this is consistent with what he thought was evidence-based and you can go back and look at that presentation because it was very eye-opening. so i appreciate that. one last question for you. in terms of law enforcement, what kinds of conversations have you had with sfpd about this proposal and what has the

reaction been? >> yeah. so we've been checking in with the police department and we've been meeting with some of the police commissioners as well as the police department liaisons and deputy chief lizar. so far what they've signalled to us is that they're supportive and wanting to work with us on making this successful legislation. >> president laguana: great. all right. well, sure. vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you. thank you, again, allen. as a followup to some of the accountability and next step questions posed, since this is direction to the department which then has to take it upon themselves to oversee creating a plan, how are we going to make sure that trust isn't lost and that in terms of the

community orbs that you want involved if the police are going to be the ones deciding who is on that kind of advisory. who helps make those plans? i just think, you know, we don't want to create another reactionary kind of attempt at better policing whereas buy-in from the beginning is going to be more effective. so i think i'd definitely would love to hear how also you've discussed this with community organizations and how you intend to make sure that whatever form of neighborhood or district advisory is involved in making this is also accessible and not just nonprofit organizations with staff that have the ability and capacity to weigh in, but also community that are most impacted have an opportunity to

participate. and if that's fully the responsibility of the police and you're just kind of mandating this, then, yeah, my question is to reiterate the director's question, how are you going to follow up on that process? thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. yeah, you know, when we were working on writing this ordinance, we were trying to strike a careful balance between the bigger policy, that the supervisor should write and kind of balance between that and getting too much into the operations and the management of the district. so we wanted to maintain the careful balance so we didn't get into the specific operations of the department. so, you know, currently, for

us, and just speaking for district 4, we felt that the process was not so fair on how different groups communicate and that's why we came up with this so there's a little bit more formal requirement and process for getting participation. and so i do think that this is kind of an improvement over what we currently have and kind of an expansion over any sort of past requirements on getting community groups to get involved and the planning for policing at each of the district stations. you know, in terms of accountability, you know, i think it could be -- we would for our office, we would proactively reach out to the police department and inform them that either our groups

that we would like to be including in this, it will be up to each of the district stations to come up and manage this. you know, i think for us as a supervisor office, you know, we will be advocates to ensure that all the different diverse neighborhoods. so, you know, i do encourage the different community groups to also proactively engage and also contact their supervisor offices to include, you know, [ indiscernible ] >> vice president zouzounis: thank you. >> president laguana: great. all right. if there's no more questions on the docket here. so we'll go to public comment.

>> secretary: first, we'll take public comment from people attending. we have janet tarlove from the san francisco council of district merchants. >> president laguana: great. welcome, janet. >> hello commissioners. sorry, i came in a bit late, but i did read through the legislation and i'm wearing a couple of different hats today and i don't know if there's a time limit on my questions, but i am here representing the legislative committee as the san francisco council of district merchants and we represent all of the -- not all of them, but 35 of the merchant corridors in san francisco are members and we make recommendations to our board

for what to support and so this legislation is on our agenda and we had several different kind of just questions about it. one is -- well, just to echo what one of the commissioners was talking about about the continuity of the captains at each station. they do turn over very frequently and it's quite a job to establish a relationship with a new captain and we can see how a community plan that we are -- that's interactive could assist with helping us have continuity from one captain to the next. we are wondering about services

that merchants often identify, quality of life issues that merchants identify as sfpd issues that are better handled by other social service agencies and we, you know, i guess we're just wondering if, you know, this might become something that the merchant groups, kind of see as a way of getting other problems solved that are not necessarily part of sfpd's area, but there isn't another easy group to take care of them. these are homelessness issues, mental health issues that are currently, you know, not necessarily a policing issue. so that's as i'm wearing my council of district merchants

hat, i don't know if i should pause and allow there to be a response or if this is just comments. >> president laguana: we're not allowed to interact with public commentors. >> okay. i'll wrap it up and also say i'm part of the captain, the police captain has a merchant advisory panel that i attend the meetings once a month and i have the opportunity to ask their police representative what they thought of this ordinance and the response that i got was certainly supportive as was characterized but just some question about how it wondering how it's different from what is already happening. there are plans that are being produced for community policing and also just how it interacts

with the staffing issues that are going on at sfpd. so none of this is a policy of the council of district merchants. these are just the questions that come to mind as we discuss it in our legislative sessions. so thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. is there any other public comment? >> secretary: we have one caller on the line i believe. >> president laguana: great. caller, please proceed. >> caller: hello. >> president laguana: yes. we can hear you, please proceed. >> caller: okay. steven cornell here and i'm also on the legislative committee of the council. one thought i had was now that we're in the middle of redistricting and trying to balance everything out throughout the district, the police district's completely different than the

supervisorial districts and maybe to look at it is align the supervisor district with the police district might make more sense. so when there's a community group from from the district, it's the same for supervisor as with the district. also, if you take a place like polk street, we are in the middle of two districts. i know it's in the middle of two police districts. it doesn't make sense sometimes. so if you're on one side of the street, you can have a problem and you call, you're going to get a policeman from one district and then on the other side a separate one. it's a thought maybe it can be changed under this legislation. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. is there any other public comment? >> secretary: there are no public commentors. no. >> president laguana: okay. allen, i don't know if you want

to take a minute to respond to any of the public commentors and their suggestions. >> there were a few that were mentioned. is there any particular one? you know -- i. >> president laguana: i can help, sure. one question, or one of the public comments from janet was about whether a community policing plan could be a way of coming up with a plan for nonlaw enforcement interactions with folks who might be going there some kind of mental health crisis or some other like a substance abuse disorder

disorder. is. >> i would say this is consistent with our legislation's intent to also be able to figure out alternative ways to not necessarily a law enforcement situation to be able to find alternative approaches as well. >> president laguana: that's good to know. >> not all police systems are the same. this is a way to make it as consistent as possible great.

so this will help this make it more consistent i believe the last thing was how we thought a community policing plan might intersect with the staffing of police. the most recent report we received is that the staff was, they were having a significant uptick in the number of officers retiring. >> yeah. so this would be a plan on how we can best on how we can have community policing in our neighborhoods and so and the district stations, i think would do their best to implement the plan with the staffing that they have. and at the same time, that's

maybe parallel, of course, those can also be had. as i mentioned. >> president laguana: the last thing is whether or not it would be possible to make the stooegss align with the supervisorial districts. >> i don't think i'm prepared to answer that question. i think it might open a can of worms at this time, we're not

prepared to do. you know, at this point, i don't really have a good answer for that. >> president laguana: so are you. >> commissioner taylor: ing you're not going to introduce this as an amendment? >> i doubt we would include anything that would work to line. >> president laguana: i'm teasing you allen. a little bit of a joke. i know the jokes don't convey with the mask and everything. yeah. okay. commissioners, do we have a motion? i'll make one if no one else is so inclined. >> secretary: motion to approve this legislation as drafted so moved by president

laguana seconded by commissioner dickerson. [roll call] the motion passes with two absences. >> president laguana: wonderful. thank you, allen. thanks to you and the supervisor for the legislation. next item, please. >> secretary: item three, board of supervisors file 22064 adult sex venues. principleably permit conditionally permit or prohibit adult sex venues in commercial production, distribution, and repair, neighborhood commercial, neighborhood commercial transit and mixed use districts. this is a discussion and action item and today we have a legislative aid to supervisor mandelman here and aaron star from the planning department is joining us remotely i believe.

>> president laguana: great. welcome. >> hi there. good afternoon, commissioners. i'm here on behalf of supervisor mandelman and i would like to reassure you or perhaps disappointment you. so if that's what you were here for, i've got nothing for you. but i think it will be interesting all the same. >> president laguana: yeah. and we can promise back to you that we will try and stay focused on the sex venues and not the chanting outside. >> i'm going to do my best to help you out with that. we're all really torn. >> president laguana: needless to say, there's a lot of exciting things happening tonight. >> that's what we do here in san francisco city hall. it's entertaining if nothing else. the item that is before you however is an ordinance to update the city zoning control

for adult sex venues including what is also referred to as gay bathhouses. they used to be quite common in san francisco as well. the purpose of this ordinance is to address a lingering stigma and trauma in the lgbtq community in san francisco that stems back to the aids crisis while recognizing and supporting these communities and also supporting queer-owned local businesses to be apart of the city's economic recovery coming out of the pandemic. let me give a little more background on how we got here. in june 2020, the board passed an ordinance from supervisor mandelman that replaced outdated public health requirements that had effectively banned businesses in san francisco, bathhouse businesses in san francisco since the aids crisis in the early aids. that ordinance updated the health code. didn't make any changes to the planning code which we're dealing with today and that health code ordinance director of public health to adopt some

new minimum standards for health and safety governing the operation of adult sex venues and it directed these standards could not include requirements or prohibiting locked doors on private rooms. those were regulations that had been a legacy of the city's response to the early days of the aids crisis and that's what had effectively shuttered many of these businesses, most of them. so that ordinance passed. the health code, the new standards from the health department were issued in january of 2021. these minimum standards lay out basic requirements for safe adult sex venues such as verifying the age of clients at the door, prohibiting the use of drugs and alcohol on the premises. prohibiting the admission of patients and requiring the provision of safe sex supplies like condoms as well as resources on sexual health and testing. with respect to hiv in particular over the past decade

and the potential for the city's effort to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. so we thought we were in good shape after the passage of that ordinance and the adoption of those minimum standards allowing four bathhouses to return, however around the same time, we were contacted by a would be entrepreneur who was seeking to open a bathhouse in soma and they were told that would not be possible based on the fact these businesses would be considered as adult businesses for the purposes of the planning code. so that's a capitalized term that includes things referenced as. these uses are broadly not permitted throughout the city and in particular, they were not permitted in many of the

areas that are strongly associated with lgbtq history. so that was the problem that emerged. since then, we heard from a another number of entrepreneurs and they have also been blocked under the current zoning. so the ordinance before you today would seek to remedy that in areas that are strongly associated with the lgbtq community. specifically, the ordinance does that by establishing a new definition in the planning code that operates pursuant to those health code minimum standards are allowed and invited to engage and duds not include

sexual acts by employees of the businesses. this is regarding the pathway patrons of the business throughout the city. they would allow it in the ordinance would make adult sex venues permitted in part of the tenderloin these overlap. the transgender cultural district as well. in the tenderloin.

i want to emphasize the zoning this is to allow for eros which is a legacy business and bathhouse to continue operating at this time to relocate after having lost their long time space on upper market. the new location they found is actually the site of a previous bathhouse. so we are pleased to be able to accommodate this new chapter by allowing businesses to open up in this part of the tenderloin. i want to thank ken row who you'll be hearing from in a moment as well. and i'd like to note the support for this change from the transgender cultural district as well as the tenderloin collaborative. the ordinance would also allow for 24/7 adult operations in areas where they're principleably permitted which

are smelled out in the planning code. they may also seek to operate between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. those hours of operation are usually not permitted without a conditional use in general. finally, while adult sex venueses may be operated in combination with a bathhouse. i want to be clear that public bathhouses would continue to be permitted pursuant to the police code and massage operations would continue to be regulated in the department of health. all the different jurisdictions are going to have their look at that proposal. so this ordinance did go to the planning commission last week and before wrapping up, i want to address the recommendations that were adopted by the planning commission. these are technical fixes that we will be incorporating into the ordinance. i appreciate the commission's recommendation to expand on the

definition of an adult sex venue to clarify they may be operation with other and that they may also be a business that receives a limited live performance permit as well. supervisor mandelman will also be accepting the recommendation to expand the part of the tenderloin to allow adult sex venues. this is based on strong historic presence of bathhouses in that area and i've also been able to confirm that support with the cultural district as well as supervisor haney's office. in closing, commissioners, the purpose of this ordinance is to complete, we hope the work we began in 2020 to overcome the lingering stigma of a painful chapter by once again welcoming the safe affirming spaces in our city and paving the way for queer business owners to open up. i want to thank castro lgbtq, and transgender cultural

districts, golden gate business association, castro merchants association and the community benefit for their district support as well as aaron star at the planning department and deputy city attorney audrey pierson for helping us with this ordinance. and audrey the at the planning department who wrote an excellent case report if you haven't had a chance to look at it goes into the history on how these bathhouses came to be shut down in the '80s. with that, i want to thank you for your consideration and your time and, of course, i'll be here for any questions. thank you so much. >> president laguana: thank you. thank you for the very detailed presentation. appreciate that, jacob. commissioners, do we have any questions? vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you for your presentation. i think this is really important to be on record that

this is a sector that has been targeted and it's disproportionately affected with a certain demographic. the i think that's in line with our equity goal as a commission to update our codes and correct those historical laws. my question is you're not necessarily grandfathering in existing venues. you're identifying the corridors and neighborhoods that they exist in and essentially bringing the code up to a legal standing. so is there a chance that there's any venues that are going to be revoked in their conditional use and if you can speak to that. >> yeah. that's a really good question. throughout all of this, we wanted to be sure we weren't doing any of the new ones. apple cart is what they've been doing.

these businesses may have taken a form over the number of years. in general, when something has been operating. if the law changes, they are able to continue operating as a nonconforming use. the zone does change from time to time. so we don't believe it's not our understanding that the adoption of these changes in the planning code would negatively impact any existing business no matter where they're located. the issue comes when you try to open a new space. and this is family room, what happened to euros. the location was in a zoning district that said, "no" on adult business and so we're creating in category to say yes for that use in that location as well as others. so i did mention the specific areas that were going out of our way to make sure this use is allowed that do correspond to the lgbtq community throughout san francisco. there's also a lot of other

areas that also as the baseline which are allowed in some places like downtown and then we went further in certain districts. we're not isolating it just to those areas that i mentioned. we're taking it just to the baseline today and making sure we're fixing this zoning issue. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. that answers my question. i would also just like to say on the record, this is good government from our point of view because we've seen so many times a business that has a regulatory license has to there's a retro fit. so this is a big deal for our regulatory license businesses both in the demographic sense

and cultural background. so thank you for your work on this. >> thank you. >> president laguana: great. thank you. commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: vice president zouzounis triggered something about good government. i wanted to thank you because you did extraordinary outreach a lot of communities and they gave me the feedback. so i just want to highlight you went above and beyond on the outreach in communities. so thank you. >> thank you. appreciate that. >> president laguana: great. jacob, i think this commission is largely accommodating and welcoming of this legislation. two relatively minor points that i wanted to bring up maybe not related to the legislation. one is in some cases, some of these districts and adult sex venues will now be principleably permitted and

lighter uses like say a restaurant or a bar will be conditional use and i would encourage the supervisor if so inclined to why not lighten the load for everybody so that they can open businesses where businesses are needed. the second thing i wanted to note is this is kind of a technical point. i'm not entirely sure i have a complete grasp on it myself. so this is pursuant to a conversation i had with somebody in planning, but on page 9, section 3, there is a proposed use is located in the cultural district. this is like the cultural district section and so my understanding and i'm not the expert on this. so if you have a lot of questions for me about it, i

may not be able to answer it, but my understanding is that this particular change could have a downstream impact on other entertainment businesses because of the way it's written in an unintended fashion. and probably should -- this legislation should probably go in front of the entertainment commission as a result so they can talk that out or you may want to consider how to address this issue and i'm happy to connect with you off line later to talk that out. >> yeah. thank you for bringing that up, commissioner. i think the language you're referring to is regarding when there is a conditional use that's required. >> president laguana: correct. yeah. if the proposed use is located in the cultural district established under

administrative code, the planning commission shall establish goals in section 102 as well as well recommendations set forth in the economic stability strategy report for the district if one has been adopted pursuant to section 107.4. you can see why i might be a little intimidated to see i have a clear understanding because some of the documents, i haven't had a chance to review, but i think the understanding is the way the language is written if the proposed use, it may be -- it could be interpreted broader in planning. i'm happy to connect with you off line. a minor point i'm inclined to support. >> i think it's important because we did stress over that language to ensure it was specific enough. we did talk with the american indian cultural district who's located very close to upper

market as well and there was as well with lgbtq cultural districts i mentioned and there was this idea that when the commission does have discretion which is in the case of a conditional use, how are we making sure that one of the things we're going to think about is the presence of the cultural district if one exists in that area. so this language was encouraged by those cultural districts to be included and it's written to say planning commission, you need to think about these cultural districts, but also it's not so rigid there's a set of five boxes you need to check. it is a discretionary process that the conditional use. so it means it will be on those planning commissioners rather than the business or anyone else to say this is located in x-cultural district. what are their key principles and goals documented. let me have that in my find as i do my finding in conditional use which is very broad.

so it's meant to direct attention to that issue without being so strict that it could shut somebody down because it didn't meet several requirement its laid out. so hopefully it's straddling the right line. i do appreciate the suggestion to reach out to the entertainment commission as well. it does refer to nighttime businesses and entertainment businesses in general. so that is a fair point. it does apply to more than just adult sex venues. all those we spoke with were excited to see put into the code. it was kind of an opportunity to put something in there they had been thinking about for some time. how do we make sure we're being considered when there's an opportunity for discretion. >> president laguana: i think that makes a lot of sense. appreciate all the work you put into outreach and your clear graphs and the careful graph that has gone into this legislation exemplified by your

answer. i don't see any commissioner questions. at this point, we'll go to public comment. >> hello. my name is ken row. i'm one of the owners of the arrows center for safe sex and we're a legacy business. which some of you probably knew already. i've lived in the western edition since 1999. areos itself has been in business since 1992 and we're currently a gay and trans-owned business. i'm speaking in favor of this adult sex favor planning code amendment and open to the modifications that have been going through as well. our business model is a little different than what's in the legislation and that in some ways were much more conservative and that's kind of

i think how the legislation was written that it allows for businesses that are not 24 hours. we operate kind of like a day spa and that we're open during the day and the evening, but we don't -- we're not 24 hours a day and we don't -- we probably won't even be till midnight on most days of the week. our mission has been to exceed the city's requirements for commercial sex venues and because of that, we've been able to weather the health crisis of the past and that we're currently going through hiv, new strains of s.t.i.s and the drug crisis and as you've heard, we're the only gay commercial sex venue to remain in business post our recent covid-19 closures. a few years ago, our long standing location on upper -- or not a few years ago, recently, our location had a

change of ownership and the new owners had other plans for the site. so we searched for almost have a year all

>> so i think it is important that today we honor that through by allowing our community to open businesses and thriving in a space that was once exclusive allowed.

a neighborhood that was exclusive for them and i also want to express that i am for all the recommendations that have been set forth. thank you. >> president laguana: great. thank you. next commenter, go ahead, please. >> hey everyone. i work for the castro cultural district, but i'm representing myself. i am queer, latinx, and i am in support of everything that was put forth. not only because it's good for small businesses b-few the queer community that was was put on in the '80s and 1997. so very much in support and thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. is there any public comment on the line? >> secretary: we have one public commenter on the line. >> president laguana: commenter, please proceed.

>> caller: hello. my name is bob goldfarb. i'm the executive director of the leather and lgbtq cultural district and i'm here to express our support for this legislation. this needed legislation is long overdue and will remove a final roadblock to re-establishing queer businesses that were closed due to stigma in the aids crisis. this will benefit the community by helping to remove stigma creating more community serving spaces as well as energize possibilities for queer businesses that have been prevented from opening in the city. and we urge you to support this legislation. thank you. >> president laguana: thank you. is there any other public comment? >> secretary: there are no other public commentors. >> president laguana: seeing none. public comment is closed. commissioners, any conversations, amendments, suggestions, or anything else? okay.

i move that we approve the legislation as drafted. >> vice president zouzounis: i'll second. >> secretary: motion to approve by president laguana. seconded by vice president zouzounis. i'll read the roll. [roll call] motion passes 4-0 with two absences. >> president laguana: thank you, jacob. thank you everyone. and thank supervisor mandelman for us as well. next item, please. >> secretary: item four, resolution making findings to allow teleconferenced meetings under california government code section 54953e. this is a discussion and action item. >> president laguana: commissioners, do we have any

questions about the findings to allow teleconferenced meetings under california government code section 54953e? seeing none. is there any public comment on this finding? >> secretary: there's no public comment. >> president laguana: seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, can i have a motion? >> vice president zouzounis: i'll move to adopt this resolution. >> commissioner dickerson: i'll second. >> secretary: so moved by vice president zouzounis. seconded by commissioner dickerson. [roll call] motion passes with two absences. >> president laguana: okay. thank you. next item, please. >> secretary: item five, small business survey of 2022. this is a discussion item. the commission will review a draft small business survey

which is a followup to a survey conducted in 2020 on the impact of small businesses in san francisco. >> president laguana: great. i guess, director, you'll be providing this item for us. >> director: yes. so back in may of 2021, there was a survey that was released to measure qualitatively and quantitatively the impacts of covid-19 on small businesses in san francisco and in partnership with san francisco state university and so this item here before us, we are discussing a followup to that survey. so in your binders, there's some draft questions and hopefully you had a chance to look them over, but we wanted to check in with the commission to see if have we missed any questions are there things that

you're curious about that you would like to include in the survey so we can getter understand the impacts of covid-19 on small businesses. we are constantly asked about the impacts so you can see this as an opportunity to help us better understand what has gone on. so if you need to take a moment, please do, but those questions are before you and the binder. >> president laguana: one suggestion i would make. commissioners, for this item, i think we'll just switch to open conversation rather than being recognized so we can have a facilitative quick discussion here. one thing i noticed right out of the gate is multiple choice answers should always be designated as select all that apply. so what are the biggest challenges you faced pre-pandemic/2019. there's no questions that would

facilitate. let me just number it so i can make sure we're doing the same questions. so it'd be question 9, so probably say select all that applies. question 10, one of the biggest challenges you're facing select all that apply. and maybe conversely wherever it's just pick one, it should say just pick one. and then i'll continue reading it. if i have any more thoughts i'll share them and, commissioners please feel free to speak up if anything comes to mind. >> director: i'll also note that we did review the questions from the first survey and we tried to strip out as many questions that really weren't being used in any particular way. we do understand there's survey

fatigue in a small business community. so also being mindful of being brief and as short as we possibly can while making it useful. >> vice president zouzounis: thanks to commissioner huie for her coordination with sf state on this. for my first read, when you sent us the draft and looking again now with a lens of is there anything that is going to be data that the city needs while making policy that we can support in this process. i think that we have some pretty relevant items for shared spaces and communication, form of communication that a business receives updates for by that's

just my feedback is that if we can look at this through a lens of, you know, what is going to be data that we can act on and help the city make better policy now. so that's what i just wanted to pose. >> president laguana: sure. director, on question number 13, since the beginning of the pandemic, has this business requested any financial businesses in the following sources? and several of the sources are listed. understandably many of them are listed together. bank loans, federal tax credits, local loans, business tax as just i guess a personal request, if we could break out from federal tax credits, ertc as a separate item. i have heard from several

businesses that they've started receiving six-figure checks from the employee retention. the e.r. adoption. last time we checked. it was under 5%. i've said many timeses, people on this commission are probably tired of hearing me say it, but this is the single aid program that has the most impact. it is horrendously underutilized and for that reason, i think we should be paying attention to that particular credit because it has so much opportunity to do so much good. even president joe biden has said not enough businesses have availed themselves of this tax

credit. and it does result as a check. and it can be very substantial and has made a big difference in the handful of businesses i've been able to drag over the finish line that i've chatted about it with including my own. so i want to keep a close eye on that one. >> vice president zouzounis: maybe in line with that because i know we've talked a lot about how grants sometimes can be more of a barrier to access if maybe if we had something that also caught why they didn't apply, you know. >> president laguana: good point. >> director: you mean

specifically related to grants or why they didn't apply for the myriad of -- >> president laguana: i think the question -- you tell me if this gets what you're going at. are you aware of any grants that you would like to apply to, but feel that you couldn't apply to and if so -- >> vice president zouzounis: maybe like tech access. tech access has been a consistent theme for us that i know we're trying to figure out how to make an action item around. so it'd be good to figure out if there's an actual technical support barrier. >> president laguana: have you encountered any barriers in applying for aid and list language barriers, technical assistance barriers -- >> vice president zouzounis: not knowing it. >> president laguana: not being aware that a program existed. not knowing where to get started. not having enough money to pay for an accountant or advisor or

somebody to apply. not having enough time. too complicated. that's a pretty good list off the top of my head, i'd say. >> director: so a separate question about if they were interested in applying for something and why? >> president laguana: have you encountered any obstacles for grants or loans. i think that would be the most expansive way of capturing what i think vice president zouzounis is driving at.

>> commissioner dickerson: quick question. you talk about obstacles. would reservations be in there somewhere? i'm just thinking off the top of my head of people who have encountered small businesses was because of information they don't have. technology is a big one, but i know of businesses that they'll have their business licenses but don't have their seller's permit or lace a limitation they have or don't have so would they respond to reservation? something that would, you know,

would indicate a reservation as opposed to an obstacle. >> president laguana: so i'm in the rental business. i'm thinking about you want to reserve a van. but you're thinking about in the sense of just being cautious or trep daeshs. >> commissioner dickerson: or if they can't feel like they can fill out the application. >> vice president zouzounis: i've heard a lot of businesses say, oh, that's not for my community. because we've had so many tailored programs that sometimes people don't know they're eligible. >> president laguana: yeah. i've thought about that. >> vice president zouzounis: that's a good point. >> president laguana: great. any other suggestions as we look through this? >> vice president zouzounis:

didn't the professor. >> director: i think there's some text boxes to explain. i think one thing she does have planned is to do more qualitative surveys, like one on one conversations with a number of businesses. so not everybody, but i think just in -- >> vice president zouzounis: like focus groups. >> director: i think just one-on-one just to get a better glimpse and idea. >> president laguana: the last question, we would like to speak with business owners such as you. but, yeah, are there's a couple text boxes for where people could write theirs essays.

great. any other feedback or comments? okay. well, i imagine -- when do we plan to go live with this? >> director: i don't know the exact timing, but one of the key steps was figuring out the questions here. i think right now the professor's going over logistics with the survey tool and her students and i think they'll be able to distribute it. >> president laguana: you know, i would like to see a question simply because i see so many and maybe it's in here and i just don't see it. just because i and maybe it's just me, but i get so many e-mails from businesses about this. in the past year, has your business been the victim of a

crime? and maybe some indicator of how often. you know, just one of those multiple choice choice. i see it's in big of challenges, there's a public safety question, but there's nothing that gives us a sense of how frequent or relative it is to everything else that's going on with their business. and i believe you guys know that the commission gets e-mailed about this as well. >> director: can i clarify if you mean during the pandemic or just in general. >> president laguana: i would say let's look at the past year. once we start to move past a year, we start to get away from policies in place and plus any

general trends that are in place and any processes that have done. and, you know, i'll leave it to commissioner huie and the professor to best decide how to get at this. was it something else and then the next question would be give us a sense of frequency, you know, has this happened, you know, just once in the past year, twice, five times, more than ten? you know, i've got businesses that e-mail me and say they're having people break into their businesses twice a week now. it's hard to break apart

whether this is one person and it's anecdotal or is this something happening across a broad array of businesses and i think the survey can perhaps help shed some light on to what degree is that anecdotal and to what degree is that real. >> director: is it also worth asking if they report all of those? >> president laguana: yeah. i think that's another interesting question. how reliable is the data we do have that means that we can probably rely on the police data. it seems pretty accurate.

all right. anything else? no? okay. public comment. is there anybody that would like to make public comment? janet, if you want to make public comment and you're the only person here. just walk right up to the mic. you don't have to turn in the card. >> hi. i'm wondering if it might be helpful to ask businesses about legal entanglements just and a number of our businesses have had labor related complaints

made against them. all of those issues resulted in settlements and for some of these businesses, they are potentially -- that's going to cause these businesses to go out of business and from my own personal experience from before the pandemic, we never ever had anything come up and since the pandemic, partly i think it's related to general mental health for the population that we employ and we've just had a number of very tricky situations that we've had to kind of manage and i think that might be something that would be interesting to find out through the survey. >> president laguana: great. director, did you capture that? >> director: i did. in fact, i think it might even be helpful, could potentially

be helpful to tack on to the second to last question, what would be the greatest support to your business right now or we could add it into the challenges section as well. we can talk about where it would fit in. >> president laguana: i would say both. why not both. yeah. a.d.a., olse, what other enforcement mechanisms might somebody come into? >> vice president zouzounis: i mean, regulatory and licensing challenges is on here. >> president laguana: oh, it is. >> vice president zouzounis: and i know we put that on specifically last time because of things like there's the same thing happening with e.b.t. licensed businesses. there's settlements for bogus

claims shutting stores down. i would say in parentheses. >> president laguana: which question? >> vice president zouzounis: what were the biggest challenges you faced pre-pandemic. i guess that's a pre-pandemic question we asked the same questions just to see if it was a problem. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. it's the same. maybe just put in parentheses those items of regulatory or license issues. >> president laguana: so, yeah, that's interesting. i guess one concern i have is that list is so long. it looks like about 20 items on

there. you're right. some of that stuff is caught on there. >> commissioner dickerson: but it was something you said, president laguana, on the one that has the biggest challenges, you said you were recommending all that apply. >> president laguana: yes. correct. >> commissioner dickerson: so me personally when i'm doing a survey such as this and i see all that apply, i always will go to the bottom and then i'll go and go back to all of the ones that apply. that's just how i do it. >> director: i think we might ask like top three in this. >> commissioner dickerson: the biggest challenges. >> president laguana: not on the survey, not right now. i would like to capture all that apply i think. i mean, for me, i'm checking

off almost every single one of these boxes. >> commissioner dickerson: when you have a list that long, to be focused on that, you want to check all those that apply. >> president laguana: yeah. right. you know, i actually just because of how much legislation and i guess political energy is invested right now and a.d.a., i almost wonder if it might make sense to break that out as a separate question because it seems salient from a policy maker perspective. >> commissioner dickerson: that is a big deal right now. i know in the bayview, we're dealing with quite eye few under these lawsuits. >> president laguana: and i think it's different saying in the past year have you been the defendant in an a.d.a. lawsuit versus what are the biggest challenges you're facing right now. maybe you got sued two years

ago or maybe eight months ago, you paid the settlement eight months ago. so i think something finding out what's happened in the past year would probably give us a little more visibility into that problem. so i think thinking this through probably the way to think about this is, director, perhaps we need a new question. in the past year, have you encountered any of the follow: been sued for a.d.a., and then some of these public safety issues. in other words, take them out of biggest challenges, but i would still like to get a sense of frequency on the public safety stuff. does that make sense?

>> director: i just want to clarify, you want to turn the question completely into the past year or you just want to take out a couple? somehow you want to divide some of the answers. >> president laguana: the ones that seem like something that would happen to you within the past year rather than the biggest challenge. like there might be one off incidents. so for example, what are the biggest challenges you're facing right now. let's say somebody threw a graffiti flash mob in front of my business in may of 2021, that's not the biggest challenge i'm facing right now, but that was a big challenge back in may. so i think it'd be interesting for things that are sort of one off events to get a sense and to my mind, these are the public safety issues.

right. dirty and smelly streets is not something -- that happened to me in may, but it's not happening now. it's either happening or it's fixed and you don't think about things that are fixed. so i'm saying make a new question and in the new question, have any of the following things happened to your business in the past year been sued for an ada violation, had an employee file some sort of labor complaint, your building has been tag wednesday graffiti, you've been the victim of shoplifting or retail crime, you've had to encounter or deal with some sort of public safety issue related to street behavior or mental illness. and i think those are the ones that jump out at me from this list. >> director: okay. the only thing i think challenge i would see with doing it that way and, again, open to all of your feedback,

though, if for example, with a.d.a. lawsuits, it really was -- it's even pre-pandemic. and so i think we're trying to capture, this has been a recurring issue for the past over a decade, but certainly we have heard about it in this last year or two. the way we structure the questions, we're trying to figure out what were some of your biggest paying points and what is still ongoing now. i think we can try to figure out a way to identify frequency. so, anyway, just an explanation for why we structure it this way. >> president laguana: i think i understand that. it's not a hill i'm going to die on. so i think if we can find a way to capture that information, you know, certainly i defer to the people that are doing the work as to what they think is the best way to go about things. i'm just making the suggestion.

>> director: we definitely will share that with the team. thank you. okay. so i think we had our public comment. we can close this item. and next item, please. >> secretary: item six, approval of draft meeting minutes. >> president laguana: great. commissioners have you had a chance to review the minutes? does anybody have any objections? okay. seeing none, is there any public comment? >> secretary: there's no public comment. >> president laguana: commissioners, can i have a motion. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i'll move to approve. >> president laguana: i second. >> secretary: i'll call the roll, [roll call]

motion approved. >> president laguana: great. next item, please. >> secretary: item seven, general public comment. this is a discussion item and allows members of the public to comment generally on matters that are within the small business commission's jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new items for the commission's consideration. >> president laguana: are there any members of the public who would like to make public comment. this is si great opportunity to suggest any future items, but it cannot be about any items on the agenda? is there any public commentors on the line? >> secretary: there are none. >> president laguana: okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. next item. >> secretary: item eight, director's report. this is a presentation and discussion item. >> director: all right. commissioners, so for a report today, i just wanted to share a reminder about our a.d.a. grant program for inspections for either the front entrance or the full store front.

so that is currently open through june 30th and we're going to be doing some in-person outreach in case some information's not getting out to people via e-mail or social media. so we're going to be using d.b.i.'s list of properties that have not submitted any of their, you know, checklist requirements that are due june 30th. so this week, we're going to go out with commissioner ortiz-cartagena to the mission and we'll continue that and i'll probably reach out to many of you to assist with these outreach efforts. also, don't know if you saw in the news today that r.d.a. as well as laca has announced they're going after a law firm that has been bringing up hundreds and hundreds of these lawsuits both in san francisco and other places and so that was just announced today that there was that action taken against that particular law firm. and then in terms of other grant programs, the rent relief grant program has closed.

so i don't know how many applicants will be awarded in the end, but originally, the plan was 50 businesses from rent relief grants and there were hundreds of applications and currently going on is the sf shines grant program. so through oewd if any business needs professional design services to apply for permit, applications are currently open for that and will be ongoing until funds are exhausted. also, i wanted to share that regarding the neighborhood anchor business program, this is through legislation from supervisor connie chan. through that program, we're requiring to create a registry for businesses over 15 years in san francisco. and that came with a 9774 community development specialist position. so that job application we just launched is open and so that is

posted. and then in regards to shared spaces and compliance, i know this commission just got a presentation about shared spaces and so you're aware of the timing of based on the ordinance april of 2023 is when businesses would need to be in compliance and so we are advocating for additional grant funding so that the compliance grants can continue. otherwise it would end on april 30th while the applications are due then and so we want to make sure that businesses once they find out what they are not in compliance with in the city, then they can actually access if some funds to make improvements. and lastly, small business week planning continues. so mark your calendars. i believe you have for april 26th. we'll also have some recognition here in terms of a resolution in may. and then we're organizing a

series of events in conjunction with small business week. there's a legacy business mixer on may 5th and then we're also hosting a webinar on digitizing a san francisco business success stories and strategies for how to adapt and pivot to online retail or services. so with that, i conclude and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> president laguana: great. thank you. commissioners, do we have any questions? pretty self-explanatory presentation. is there any public comment? >> secretary: there's none. >> president laguana: seeing none. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> secretary: item nine, commissioner questions and comments and news business. this is a opportunity for commissioners to make

announcements and inquiries of staff. >> president laguana: great. commissioners, i have been serving on this commission now for three years and for the very first time, i had a question i could not answer. and because of all the time that i've spent on this commission, i knew that we had the small business assistance center so i thought i could probably ask them. this is what they do for the public and it could be interesting to find out what would happen. so the question i had is i bought all these e bikes for my business to rent in addition with the vans and we started thinking about, oh, wouldn't it be nice if there was a big event like a festival or something like that we could drive out with the van and we could just rent the bikes out the back of the van and people can cruise around and come back or maybe we go pick them up or

something. it was just an idea. this is not the beginning of an empire. it was more just something kind of fun to do on the side. but it occurred to me is it legal, you know, because we all see the bike share stuff that's out there and, you know, they have some kind of license or permit. i know those permits are contested and fought for. so i thought if we just set up a van and started running bikes out of the back of a van, is that going to cross some trip wire or something. so i sent -- i called the small business assistance center like any other small business would do and martha answered and i spoke with her and she said, you know, these are great questions, let me look into it and i'll go explore. and i didn't hear anything for two or three weeks. i mean, i kind of forgot about

it and, again, this wasn't the beginning of an empire, but it was just a little idea. today, she sent me an e-mail. oh, my god. so there's been this exhaustive exchange with the sfmta, lots of questions going back and forth and she's been trying to resolve what we can do and what we can't do and finally got to the point where she had hit the end of what she could do as somebody who wasn't the business owner and still we don't have a clear answer from sfmta because they're like, we just never really thought about this before. and so i just wanted to shout out what a great job martha's doing because i just saw this really thoughtful answers, really trying hard to get to the bottom of this and i thought if other small businesses are having this experience, that's fantastic and also what an amazing

resource for our businesses. i mean, i've serve on this commission and it's never dawneded on me to utilize this service and how many questions do we have and we think, i don't know. like i guess i've got to go spend two hours online and look it up when we can pick up the phone and call or somebody knows the answer or knows where to find the answer. if you're a small business owner, the one thing you don't have is time. first of all, martha's doing a stellar job and what an asset she is to the office of small business. second of all, what an asset the small business assistance center is to the small business community and it really made me think about what we could do or what i need to do to help get the word out about this incredible resource and this amazing team. periodically, i hear about people that have this interaction, but i never had it

myself. so it took me having it myself to really understand the value of that service that we provide and so i just wanted to acknowledge martha in this meeting and share that story. >> commissioner dickerson: good to know. >> director: thank you so much for sharing that and we do have amazing staff. martha, carol, so many others in our office who do a fantastic job and really care. >> president laguana: yeah. that's great. okay. any other commissioners? commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: since our last meeting, director tang and carey facilitated a meeting with d.p.w. that's going to be implementing the street legislature and implementing process. it's been a real key concern and there's been a big focus in our community district and the outer excelsior. so director tang set up that

meeting and it was great. her name was deborah lux and it was just great to establish the first point of communication because this is going to be a vital component in our community and although the legislation for the permit -- i mean, the permit hasn't been drafted yet, just to get a face behind who it is and the warmth and just to have somebody to call, you though, and be part of the process as this permit is being developed is crucial. so i want to thank you, director, for reaching out and doing the leg work on that. hat teen know task force and all the agencies under it. we're really taking a proactive approach. we're hitting up all the street vendors now even though the permit's not even close to being out. doing a lot of proactiveness because our community, it's a real cultural component of street vending. we're doing a lot of initiating for commercial kitchens. so thela teen know task force

and the agency that comprises it are doing a lot of pre-emptive work so when that permit does become available, all our street vendors are permitted. another item that director tang reached out, i'm sorry for bothering you should much. i asked her to reach out to the cdfta at the state level regarding sellers permits. the website is not intuitive and filing those quarterly taxes, our community gets in a lot of trouble. so, again, we want to develop a component where we do workshops every quarter and, you know, maybe go to med and it's time to file these quarterly taxes. let's do it. that is going to be a component for the street vendors. they're gong to have to file taxes. so i just want to thank director carey in the office too. you guys have been essential for us to be proactive in the

community. so thank you. >> president laguana: you know, i had the luxury of filing sales taxes in multiple states. it's an incredible privilege, let me tell you. and i can tell you from a top level perspective filing in ten different states that california's not the worst. you might be surprised but, for instance, tennessee, they have five different taxes. two of them have to be filed by paper and, you know, you literally are writing the numbers down by hand. chicago, the form is equivalent to an irs form. i mean, it's like 50 questions and it changes all the time and it's really intimidating. on the other hand, new jersey's like how much do you owe? and you put in a number. and they're like great.

done. so there is a range. i've always wondered what the purpose of collecting all these other questions when you fill out the quarterly in particular for cdfta especially if you're in two cities because it can be different tax rates. so i can imagine a business having something in l.a. and something in the mission or in san francisco. the quarterly in particular is pretty confusing and i've still got to double check, you know, every time i do it, but it could be a lot easier and i don't understand why they're collecting all this other info. it's like the business knows how much money they made. have them put that in the numbers and say how much they owe and take it away. if the business is making something up, you're not going to catch them in some accounting discrepancy on the

sales tax return because if they're lying, they'll lie on all the other stuff too. so what's even the point? i think new jersey has the right approach. just tell us what you owe and you're done. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i'm glad that you say that. imagine if you're nonenglish speaking and not electronic. now you have to do it online, right.' we've even experienced c.p.a.s in the community, they don't know how to do this stuff properly and the businesses, they entrust the c.p.a.s and they're doing their due diligence by hiring a professional and it's not happening. one thing i do want to advocate and maybe just for our future relationship, i do a lot of recovery work, like auditing, helping businesses get back on track with the city fta. i want to say every single agent that i've experienced,

they're pretty cool. right. >> commissioner dickerson: i agree. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: so i want to give them a shout-out. i know you're watching cdfta. >> vice president zouzounis: even when they come and look at our tax stance and stuff are. >> commissioner dickerson: especially monica who i spoke with today. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: we love you. >> commissioner dickerson: monica. >> president laguana: you also mentioned d.p.w. and i think we would be remiss and not to mention the former small business commissioner president steven adams is on the street cleaning commission -- >> vice president zouzounis: sanitation commission. >> president laguana: he's been nominated for the street and sanitation. he will be fantastic. he will be great. so i'm really excited about that. i hope that nomination. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: it seems like our commission is spreading to other commissions. we've got sfmta.

>> president laguana: that is by design. this is the breeding ground. all right. is there any other -- were you about to tap? okay. you don't have to tap. >> vice president zouzounis: thank you. couple things right off the bat. if you have a federal spa disaster loan and are looking to get an increase, you should apply for it now because that program will be lapsing very soon. i just wanted to make a p.s.a. about that. you should do it asap if that's what you're interested in. and that is related to federal covid financial aid. second thing i wanted to say is

this is kind of a long-term conversation, but how do we make restaurant week and small business week more accessible to more businesses? it's the holy month of ramadan right now. restaurant week launched the first week of ramadan. just something to note there's a lot of businesses that probably would have loved to participate or maybe even have an after hour event for restaurant week and, you know, that kind of begs how do we connect ethnic merchant associations or communities with restaurants that aren't necessarily plugged into our restaurant business associations. and then last thing that i

wanted to flag and i do need to -- we need to inquire about this, but i was told from a couple bars in north beach that the fbi and the abc, the alcohol beverage control were coordinating some sting operations there recently. it's not uncommon for regulatory agencies like abc to collaborate with other government bodies, but every time they do, we've seen some consequences that often fall on the most vulnerable businesses. so i wanted to first corroborate if that activity we know is happen engine our merchant corridors and how do we protect businesses proactively from any large scale kind of sting operations they might be subject to.

>> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: i can't tell you about right now, i used to operate in north beach. the feds are out there. they plant mics outside the bars. they've done it historically there. so i wouldn't put it past them now. >> vice president zouzounis: yeah. and i will say in my community and in the arab and south asian communities, i've seen an alcohol like an expired food can or, you know, inventory violation turn into material support for terrorism charges because people are sending money home to their home country. so that can escalate really fast. >> president laguana: great. i mean, not great, but is anybody else want to got anything to say? okay. is there any public comment? >> secretary: there is not.

>> president laguana: seeing none. public comment is closed. . next item, please. >> secretary: item ten, adjournment. sfgov tv please show the office of small business slide. >> president laguana: 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 that the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters, continue to reach out to the office of small business. i don't have to actually do that. >> secretary: you have to say meeting adjourned. >> president laguana: meeting adjourned. streets.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> i wanted to wish you a best wishes and congratulations the community has shifted a lot of when i was