>> welcome to the small business commission meeting on april 24, 2023. the meeting is called to order at 4:30 p.m. this meeting is held in person, in city hall, room 400 and broadcast live on sfgovtv and call 415-655-0001. the small business commission media services and sfgovtv for televising the meeting, which can be viewed on sfgovtv 2 or live streamed at sfgovtv dot org and we welcome the public's participation during public comment period. there's an opportunity for general public comment at the end of the meeting and there's an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. for each item, the commission will take public comment first from people attending the meeting in person, then from people attending the

meeting remotely. members of the public who are calling in, the number is 415-655-0001. access code, 24855929788. followed by password 7221. press pound then pound govern and added to the -- pound and added to the line and listening mode only. when your item of interest coming up, dial star three to be added to the speaker line. if you dial star three before public comment, you'll be added to queue. when it's your time to speak, you'll be prompted to do so and public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker and an alarm will sound when finished and speakers are requested but not required to statement their names. sfgovtv, show the office of small business slide. today shg we'll begin with a reminder that the small business commission is the public forum to voice your opinions and

concerns of policies that voice -- in san francisco. before item one is called, i would like to thank media services and sfgovtv for coordinating this virtual hearing and helping to run this meeting. call item one, please. >> item one, roll call. >> commissioner carter? >> here. >> commissioner dickerson? >> present. >> commissioner herbert. >> present. >> president huie. >> here. >> commissioner cartagena. >> here. >> vice-president zhou. >> you have a quorum. >> the san francisco small business commission, an office of small business staff,

acknowledges that we are on the ancestral homeland 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 2. >> item two, board of supervisors, file 230313, skush side shared spaces permit and license fees. this is a discussion and action item. the commission will hear and possibly take action on an ordinance amending the public works and administrative code -- presenting, we have supervisor safai. >> thank you for coming today, supervisor. >> okay, good. good to see you

guys. thank you, commissioners and president huie and did i say that right? >> yes. >> vice-president zhou and all the rest of the commissioners for having me here today. executive director katie tang and staff. we wanted to talk about a proposal to eliminate the fees that are associated with shared spaces. one of the things you all know better than anybody because you're on the frontline and many of you have small businesses, businesses struggled over the last few years and many of them are still struggling and trying to hang on by a thread and so, we came with some proposals in the past. one was a rent relief program that we had put forward to the mayor. it was a request for over $25 million, so small businesses could pay their back rent. the mayor chose not to fund that initially and then finally, we were able to get $2.5 million. it literately, we have our

director of small business, excuse me, director of of the office of economic and workforce development, when they put that out, it was gone like that. and there's that demand and need out there as you know. so, we came after talking with many small business and many restaurants and cafes and others, when we heard the program was going to be implemented, they felt strongly the fees associated with this, somewhere in many businesses, it can be between ten and $20,000 just for the fees them self to legalize and to stabilize this program. that's not including the fees that's associated with rebuilding the spaces completely because now the city, ada, fire, building, planning, all the stuff you all already know, that is causing many of them to have to be completely rebuilt, so

without these shared spaces, without these parklets, many of these businesses will go under and we have heard that loud and clear and i know commissioner ortiz has been out in my district, in particular, talking to the small businesses and they have said, a, we won't pay because we can't pay. we don't have that cash and b, you're asking us to choose between money that we can help to keep staff that we can help reinvest back in the business and keep our doors open. so we saw this as a short-term small business stimulus. we think that it will be, have a significant impact and so, what we're proposing is, and you can see on the screen, for public movable and commercial parklets to waive the first parking space and any additional parking space fees associated with that and then on an annual basis, the annual fees

will be still and people can, and at that point, pay the annual fee. so, that's what we're proposing. we're waiting for the budget and legislative analyst to come back to us and give us a final analyst of the cost and this program is up and running and already operating and i think that the impact to the budget would be minimal, if any because there's not money already in the budget. this is money that will be realized going forward. so, we're -- looking for the bla and others to come back and tell us what the actual cost will be after talking to the departments, but again, we're framing this and we believe this is a short-term small business stimulus. we think it's better to keep the money in the pockets of small businesses rather them paying the fees to the city. so....that's my presentation. happy to answer any questions or hear any comments or constructive criticism. i know

commissioners zhou likes to give me constructive criticism. [laughter] just kidding >> thank you. let's see. commissioner herbert. >> thank you, i just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for even thinking about this because it's really important for all of san francisco small businesses, but specifically as a restaurant owner, it's really, really important that we get some of these fees waived. restaurants are, you know, a vital part of the health of the city's economy, as you know, and restaurants can also help with revitalizing areas which we badly need in this city and so, i would propose that you take it a step further and waive, not just the application fees, but i think the permit fees might be waived already for two years.

>> i think those were -- that's the same thing, is that correct? the permit fees are the annual fee? yeah. >> permit is one time and then, sorry, the license is every year, so i would -- i think it's waived for two years, if i'm not -- >> i think that's right. >> okay. and then i would raise the bar for restaurants in terms of annual revenue, also, because a lot of restaurants are in trouble even the ones that make more than $2.5 million, so, again, i want to thank you for that and i think actually we can do more. >> uh-huh. >> obviously, i'm a little bias, but -- >> no, i understand. just so you know, we did raise the -- with talking with the golden gate restaurant association, we did

raise the gross receipts from 2 million to $2.5 million in this legislation who would be able to be impacted. >> thanks again. really appreciate it. >> and i just want to say, we did work with the ggra on this. >> that's great. thank you. >> commissioner ortiz cartagena >> thank you, president zhou. president safai, thank you. i appreciate your commonsense, legislation, it works, you're hearing your constituencies and hearing everyone around the city. this is what restaurants and small businesses need in general, so i appreciate you for bringing this forth and the work you d you really reached out to the ggr a laurie thomas and thank you. i appreciate it. we need more. more, more, thank you. >> thank you. >> let's see. commissioner carter. >> oh, there we go.

>> yeah. supervisor safai, i also want to thank you for this legislation. it's really hard for small businesses across the board, so any support is, like, i think not only small business, all business right now in san francisco. and i think i'll echo what commissioner herbert said and taking it a step further because, is this fees waived for a first time parklet or -- is it just -- >> i'm listening. >> is it people for just getting parking for the first time? >> no, it's existing as well because right now, i think the fees haven't kicked in yet, so it would be -- >> oh! once it kicks in, they will have to potentially pay that one-time fee. >> uh-huh. >> okay. >> so, it would be for new and -- that's how we were contemplating. >> great. yeah. i would say extend it to the annual also, it would be helpful.

>> okay! >> any other commissioner questions or comments? i know, oh! no, no. go ahead, commissioner zhou. >> thank you, supervisor. i appreciate you coming before us with this. yeah, i agree the gross receipts threshold going up makes a lot of sense because, for those who don't know, the food business is a high grossing industry, but small margins, so high gross doesn't necessarily mean that's the profit. and i just wanted to ask two things. what's the timeline that you expect since you're waiting on kind of a budget and how can we support? >> so, we are -- because this was introduced and coming up close to the overall budget conversations, it might get folded into the larger budget conversations, but we're working with the chair to get information, at least accelerate it from the budget and

legislative analyst to see the impact to the overall budget and there's some additional legislation out there: there was another legislation that was first year free for a lot of business registration. this is similar in that sense because it's a one-time, you know, right, you're eliminating the initial fees for the parking spaces, which is similar to initiation fee for a business, so there's some -- there's some synergy between those two pieces of legislation, so we're hoping to move this sooner than the budget if we can, but it does have budget impact, so the timing of it might be folded into the larger budget considerations, which are happening in june. >> got it. >> when we do, we'll coordinate with you and let you know when it's finally scheduled and i believe it will be at the, it's an administrative and public works code change, even though it has budget implications so it could be in rules and budget but

we'll let you know for sure. >> okay. and then, how does that -- how does that wind up with when those permit fees are due for, by small businesses? >> i don't think -- i mean, i might defer the executive director, you i don't know if any of the fees have been collected yet. >> so, it's not like small businesses are having to plan, whether they can do this or not, okay? >> i don't think they are due yet. the timing is making sure they know well in advance. >> okay. that was my question. >> if we have to contemplate funds, whether we get there, we'll do that but hopefully we don't have to do that. >> okay. commissioner herbert. >> one more thing while on the topic, i know shared spaces funds itself with the annual fees, right? but isn't it

possible for the program to request more funding for staffing from the city that's not uncommon, right? that's a work around because i know that's going to come around. >> yes. that is something that could potentially come up during the budget conversation, so again, i would think that right now if we're thinking about waiting to keep businesses going and stimulating the economy, it's better to keep the money in the pockets of small businesses rather than ask them to pay for operating a program that might not be operating for any businesses if they go out of business. i mean, right now, we don't want to push businesses out of business, so, i know that from what we have heard over and over again, a lot of these fees, thousands of dollars, they don't have it. and i know for the example on the sunset, the inner sunset, that was a significant blow to that business because it cut their seating in half, so --

which is significant. >> thank you. >> commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> can i add to that, like, you know, i've been on the ground, so, just to revenue -- the revenue this is going to generate for the city conference by mitigating or adding, like an example, there's a business in your district that if they don't have the shared space, they probably go under. that means that's another vacant storefront. >> right >> that's property values and reassessment because i don't have a tenant and -- and it goes on and on and in addition, the shared space on average employs one part-time person minimum. that creates jobs. it stimulates the economy, so we're here to support you that they have to make this happen. this is essential for the economy of restaurants in the city, so.... >> thank you! >> great! thank you. knowing, i

have one question. knowing that there is going to be some sort of budget, you know, conversation around this, are there opportunities that you've identified to be able to maybe offset, like, support for shared spaces through other programs? because i know there's other people giving thought to how to make shared spaces just more templated or streamlined and easier to access and easier to say yes to small businesses because i think a three thousand fee is significant, but like you were saying, the cost of building a small shared space is often times, like, upwards of $25,000 or more. i would love to know if there's, because i've heard a few different programs that's thinking of ways to make, you know, the first step less of a barrier for small businesses and i'm wondering if there's

things on your radar that kind of fit into this plan, like, on holistic basis? >> that's a great question. i'm glad we have the director of office of economic and workforce development here because the truth is that, that type of a request is in some ways, it's looking for one-time capital sources, right, because if a business has to invest in a shared space, they might have to come out of pocket, you know, 10, 15, $20,000 just for the construction, but it's a one-time fee and for some businesses it's insurmountable and that's why it's good for, that's exactly in the alley and the realm of the office of economic and workforce development. they have pools of money or they can create pools of money that's one time capital dollars that would go into helping small businesses. i know for example in this upcoming, we had a budget town hall the other night and we heard from small businesses that's looking for

one-time capital sources of funding and that can be the, again, it can be the difference between a business expanding, staying open. i know that many of the empty storefronts we have that is one of the biggest hurdles, just in and of it, the dollars on the interior and doing construction on the outside for shared space. >> yeah. thank you very much, sir, for bringing this forth to us. do we have any other comments up here? no sometime to take public comment. any public comment? >> are there public commenters in the room? commenters online, press starhree to be added to the queue. we have one caller currently waiting. >> caller, you can go ahead.

>> good afternoon. my name is (indiscernible). i'm calling on behalf of the golden gate restaurant association. shared spaces as you know has been a program for the survival of many restaurant communities and offered to locals alike. we're grateful the city recognize this and it's an ongoing program. restaurants recover from covid and those brought by the inflation and the storms -- we strongly support attempts to reduce the one year, the application fees especially measures to (indiscernible) and to raise the threshold for the 50% discount for fees to $2.5 million. we strongly believe that the long-term health of the program is essential to our industry and ensure the department supports this program and it needed to be funded and this program is [hard to understand speaker]

>> again, thank you very much. >> there's one more public commenter. >> good afternoon, commissioners. and supervisor safai. thank you very much for letting me speak. my name is janet talog and i'm calling on behalf of the glen park merchants association and i serve as president. i also, i'm in leadership of the san francisco council district merchant association. for glen parks merchant association, i want to echo the sentiment that fees from the city right now are impeded our ability to recover

from the pandemic and getting to a place of sustainability over the long-term and the glen park merchants association is in support of this legislation and we would like to call on the commission and the office of small business and the board of supervisors to one-by-one find more and more opportunities to make operating in san francisco more easy and reduce these as many as possible. thank you. >> >> if there's other callers, press star three to be added to the queue. there are none. >> great. hearing no further

callers, public comment is closed. are we ready to take a motion? would someone like to make a motion? >> i move to support. >> i'll second that. >> motioned by commissioner ortiz cartagena to support this legislation. seconded by commissioner dickerson. i'll read the roll. commissioner carter? >> yes. >> commissioner dickerson? >> yes. >> commissioner herbert? >> yes. >> president huie. >> yes. commissioner ortiz cartagena? >> yes >> vice-president zhou. >> yes. >> motion passes. >> thank you, commissioners. thanks for your time and great questions today. >> thank you. we are just, item three, workforce development division presentation. this is a discussion item. the

commission will hear a presentation from the workforce development division to better understand their mission, programs, and identify opportunities for future collaboration. and today we have kate, and presenter: joshua arce, director of workforce development and lauran acevedo, employer engagement manager, office of economic and workforce development, workforce >> great. thanks for having me and i'll be brief. i wanted to introduce my team and reiterate how important my department sees workforce in the ecosystem of our economic recovery and specifically as it relates to supporting our small business community. i was at a meeting earlier this morning and was reiterating as we sort of build toward our new future of san francisco and take the opportunity of the crisis that we and all of our small businesses have been through to kind of cocreate what's next, that our superpower are power. the people who work for our businesses and the people who make each of our businesses something that is a reflection

of who we are as a community and our values and that really empowers the businesses to be successful and be profitable and connect with their customers. and i know sometimes when we think about workforce development at-large, we talk a lot about our sector training programs. we talk a lot about moving large numbers of folks into employment opportunities with big employers but i want to assure you and i think this presentation will highlight the fact that small businesses in the dna of our workforce development capacity, it's the handshake between one individual, one job seeker and one business one at a time and sometimes it can be daunting to figure out how we engage with every small business to know what you need and what they need, so it's a privilege to be in partnership with our office of small business, with our workforce development team and so with that, i'm going to turn

it over to director arce to kick it off. thank you. >> thank you, executive director sofsus and director tang and the commission. thank you for the invitation as the director said. i'll joshua arce and joined by lauren, we're excited to share with you what the partnership with our office looks like and it's interesting because the slides that you see there, it talks about partner with us. we're so excited about the partnership we enjoy with your team and director tang, marianne thompson who is amazing. the fact is that we are working together closely with your office and i think what we want to do is share the work we do together and make sure that you're aware of the resources available with respect to the

workforce development system and how it's there to partner and help support the employment needs of the small business community, i think, we're vividly on display. last week at the ferry building with the second annual job fair between the small business community and hospitality leaders including the hotel council, golden gate restaurant association, 80 employers came out. over one thousand job seekers and lots ever folks hired on the spot and everybody got applications that we spoke to. when you look at mayor breed's roadmap to economic recovery, it's just that to take those opportunities, those small businesses, and i think commissioner herbert mentioned the challenges with respect to staffing up and hiring up in the small business community. it's our system here to help be your partner, as lauren will share more about what that means and the offerings available. we want to promote but to really match the employer needs with those job seekers that's out there

because actually unemployment, we have seen an uptick. 3% as of last friday. that's since march 1st. there's 17,000 people looking for work. 17,200 to be exact so it's our goal to bring them to the great jobs you're offering and maybe those not looking for work, to bring them into the labor force as a part of the charge of the mayor's economic recovery roadmap that we think is brilliant and part of something we're honored to wake up and do everyday at our office, so, a couple of slides. i'm going to turn it over to lauren and i'll do your slides when you're up there. our agenda is about us. the workforce resource availables and partnership benefits and this is a resource we hope to work together to share with you and the small business associations that are out there and networks. some feedback around employer researches and contact information to stay connected

here. we'll talk about a workforce link assess platform where there's thousands of those looking for jobs and hundreds of employers growing everyday. we can go to the next slide. our office here is -- it has a shared mission with the office of small business and it's to create a thriving and resilient economy and barriers for -- removed and i think within bold, you see there, the highlight around prosperity that can be shared by all, which is certainly key to what the mayor called our economic recovery that is equitable or equitable economic recovery, so our mission at the workforce division is curate and support this workforce development system, which is a very kind of policy and wonky way of saying, how public, private and nonprofit service providers to support those job seekers in the community help connect with employers. if we can go to the

next slide. job center was the first point. we fund job centers in neighborhoods of need. this has grown in recent years to help to immediate the moment across san francisco's neighborhoods expanding on the westside, but you can see through here, the different job centers you can see by going to oew dot org workforce and you have the address on the site where folks can visit and call in and drop in an e-mail, the different job centers, which are in these neighborhoods here. community based partner that's do a terrific job of bringing you into the workforce system if you're looking for a job much you walk in and say i'm looking for work or a better job and you're in and these are, what we call job readiness services, support with your interview skills and resume and referring you to employees. i'll turn it over to lauren in a minute. we have, you'll see on this site, job centers for those with need

and limited english speakers and those with justice -- and those with disabilities and veterans and community members accessing the workforce system. training programs are where we're investing in sectors and industries where there's a pathway to quality jobs with something short of a full on educational certificate or degree, although we partner with san francisco state and city college, in trying to bring those individuals into the workforce, helping meet the needs of folks who are out there looking for a job today or tomorrow and may not have two or four years to do that. we offer together with unions and employers and together with nonprofit partners, pathways to get a foot in the door in technology and hospitality industry, and health care and construction through our long-standing city building partnership which is going on its 17th year and i'll introduce our employer engagement manager, lawyeren acevedo and i'll do

your slides. >> thank you, director arce and sofus for the introduction and we're good afternoon, commissioners and president huie. thank you for the opportunity to be here today to share information about our workforce resources. so, for the first part of our presentation, michael is to demonstrate how easy it is for businesses in san francisco to access workforce resources and also highlight some of the benefits in partnering with us and i'll begin with our workforce employer concierge service, which essentially helps promote jobs to our network of job seekers within our workforce community partner network and we can move on to the next slide, so, there are many benefits to

collaborating with oewe and just to name a few, we help businesses with hiring locally with accessing support with free recruitment services and also accessing hiring events, like the hospitality and small business job fair we hosted a couple of weeks ago in collaboration with director tang's team and the office of small business. we had over one thousand participants attend this event to connect with over 85 employers, so that's just one of the services we can provide to businesses in san francisco. and additionally, when businesses work with our team, we're also promoting their jobs to job seekers that have been trained in the different sector focus areas that director arce mentioned in hospitality,

healthcare, technology, and construction. so, now i'm going to talk a little bit about the employer experience, so what it's like when a business interacts with our team here at oewe. the first step when a business connects with us, we ask them to register in the city's free job matching portal, workforce link assess and you can think of this as an indeed platform, except it's free, easy to use, and when you sign up with workforce link, you get connected to a concierge support team member to help your business are, add your jobs to the system and review applications and get connected to our community partners. additionally, with workforce link, you can access it on any

device and as i've mentioned before, a really neat feature about it, you get access to a portal where you can log in and keep track of applications that have come in from our cbo partner network. so, once your business is registered, then you get connected to an employer services specialist, who acts as your concierge support, and generally we like to try to schedule a call, learn a little bit more about your business, your hiring needs, and also see if you are seeking support from any other city resources and figure out maybe where we can make other connections for you for a business, such as connecting a business with the office of small business. so, again, just i want to mention that partnering with us, with workforce development is very simple. it takes about five

minutes to register in workforce link, to connect with one of our team members, add your jobs, and get connected to qualified local talent. so, we wanted to share just a couple of employer testimonials and i wanted to highlight one testimonial from bandago because some of you may know, former president lagana is the president of bandago and we had a great experience partnering with them and as their operations manager, ashley myers, highlighted that the normal job sites produce underwhelm results for a growing company but when they turn to the office of economic and workforce develop, their inbox was filled with candidates and

ready to be a part of their team. so, i hope this presentation was informative and we look forward to building new relationships with businesses in san francisco to help them access our resources and find local talent and i'm going to pass it back over to director arce and we're happy to answer any questions what you have. thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. >> thanks, lauren. thank you, president huie. happy to answer questions or thoughts you have. >> thank you are the presentation. it was good. i learned a lot. commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> thank you, director. thank you, lauren. i want to commend you especially your job fairs. they are amazing and they keep getting better and i get

feedback and they are getting jobs, which you know, it's dope. it's really working, line a city program and agency that's -- like a city program and agency that's doing what they are supposed to do and work link, man, that's so good. like, it's really, really good. it's intuitive and it does work. small businesses, i can't promote it enough. like, i wish we could get it out there more because it's a good, good system. seriously and i appreciate y'all. i mean, i don't say much about other city departments, but -- [laughter] you guys are rocking, so.... >> thanks, commissioner. >> commissioner carter? >> great presentation. and even framing it as a concierge, i think that's really, really great. and i wish i would have used it. i've spent a lot of money with "indeed," so it's great. i'm curious how guys get this out to employers and also, the job fair was great? i saw the pictures and heard different people, like y'all had it

packed, so that was really great. i'll curious how does employers find out about this service? >> thank you for the positive feedback, commissioner carter and really, believe it or not, it's word of mouth. it's folks like our director here, executive director for the office of small business, director tang promoting. y'all kind of encouraging individuals. it's a part of our flyers, but we have been, i think due to the pandemic, this tool was something we developed in response to the need for something like this. in the absence of being able to do the job fairs and so, i think with the (indiscernible) who is our workforce solution manager who developed the platform, we piloted it and do what they called the soft launch and with our hard working service providers, every grantee of our

office, which is a job center or coordinator for the different areas of opportunity about, i want to say 30 to 40 different organizations. we give them free licenses, so they can use and sign up other clients for free at no cost and we do training so they can do that, so that's on the job seeker jobs and with respect of doing more and more events and true believers, former commissioner lagana was a big proponent helping spread the word and a number of y'all have done that and director tang and others and the mayor has promoted it on her social media and it has been a grassroots word of mouth. it has given us the ability to tinker and work through things and now we can send text messages to those, see you at the job fairs and we were able to sign them up right then there and drop it on their computer because it's based on sales force and we use it as a check-in tool. those who go to

the job fair, the first thing you do with volunteers is say, hey, i'm here. you check-in and we know you have made it and we can follow up. hey, did you get a job. we can call the employer and see how it works out through lauren and her team. it's a grassroots approach here and we're excited about the potential to promote it even more beyond the word of mouth and proven success record. >> great! commissioner zhou. >> thank you. that's good stuff. thank you so much for telling us all about it. i think my question is geared and my suggestion is geared towards how do we reach neighborhood ecosystems and micro businesses, as they were ten or are less employee businesses? and a partnership that i really would love to see would be with the council of district merchants because i think we're having a -- kind of an -- in our attempt

to build capacity for small businesses, we're siloing their resources a little bit, so while there's a lot of funding for activation on corridors and that sort of thing, there's not a lot of leverage capacity for small businesses hiring within their neighborhood and unfortunately, i think a lot of avenue green light funding wouldn't accept proposals like that because it was too, you know, small business focused but we all here understand that an eco system needs participation from residents and small businesses as a whole and so, i mean, my question and you know, with the recommendation in there, have you had any successful kind of success center hosted neighborhood based, hosted smaller job fairs and what, you know, what could you envision in that kind of regard? >> in the moment, thank you for

the question, commissioner. i'll turn it to lauren in a moment because we had the pleasure and opportunity to present to the council at the request of the invitation of bill barnacle and mayor lauren can share follow up with that, in terms of ideas of conversation with the district measure merchant representatives but we had support from our colleagues at the community economic development department. director deanna and her team have been great in promoting these events in the corridors and areas they serve as well, but i think it's a great idea in terms of something we have kind of talked about, making sure folks in the neighborhoods know there's this resource, but even beyond that. that they know there's a job center in their area. it may be measure xhants on irving or those may not know self-help for the elderly and they operated in china town. we funded their support to open up

a satellite office in the sunset richmond. but any thoughts following that presentation with the council? >> thank you, director arce. i was -- one of the task as the employer employment manager, i'm trying to bring more visibility to our workforce resources in general, so we did have one presentation with the council of district merchants. i would welcome other, if there are other opportunities to get out into the community to speak with businesses directly about workforce link, about workforce development. i'm definitely open to those opportunities to come out and share information about our resources and job center partners because oewd, we have been hosted larger job fairs,

which have been quite successful. our job centers also host job fairs on a more regular basis and those that were always, i'm always trying to connect businesses that are, you know, mart commercialing with workforce development to those job fairs as well and connecting them with our job centers so we can help job seekers in different neighborhoods in this city get access to opportunities. >> great! thank you. i guess just a follow up to make it more specific. i think the b to b culture, like, small business to business culture could also be an addendum to thinking about workforce because we have a lot of small businesses that are actually just self-pro pie tore, so south of market, the neighborhood needs -- owe their

measure chabt couldn't get funding f. you're looking for a daycare and looking for clients, come here, if you're a small poster service, come to this and table because people from the neighborhood will be there, so something really specific to the existing landscape of a certain neighborhood that can encourage both small employers, sole proprietors and expanding the workforce bigger than what i see a lot of times as a narrow business and a big business and service workforce and so, i think, i mean, any encouragement in diversifying what those hiring services look like and being neighborhood specific is a high need in my experience. >> we appreciate that guidance and i apologize, commissioner, i

misspoke. bill asked for flyers and he had the sunset and it was massive at the merchants that brought us in, i want to say, it was the night of the power outages, so we were doing on zoom and he was very gracious in introducing us and giving us time to share but it's a great topic to follow up on. >> great. those are the executives. we need to get to the business owners in those neighborhoods for sure. and give them some -- leverage your capacity and you have so many resources. my question is how can we better get these to neighborhoods. >> thank you for that guidance. that's a good -- it's a good charge for us. one day, it's a sigh of relief because it takes months to plan but within 24 hours, it's wear neck. those are good ideas. >> thank you for your work.

>> commissioner herbert. >> thank you for the work you're doing. it's so important. i just had a question and then, do you have a way of measuring how you're affecting employment or unemployment in some city? do you have a way of reflecting and looking at numerically, seeing a direct correlation between the work you're doing and how it's affecting the job or unemployment in the city? >> yes. we have a few ways and one of the things we do is, it's the unemployment rate, so even though we have seen something of an uptick in recent months, we're able to do a few things. one, when an employer of a certain size and scale, it's usually large employers, if there's an instance that is of 75 or more workers laid off, we

get a warn notice. and i have a feeling you're familiar with the warren act which is a notification by the state and federal office that they are laying off workers so those letters are required to go to the mayor of the area, so it goes to mayor breed and required to go to the workforce director and the state of california. we log those and we have seen obviously, it was much publicized layoffs within the tech industry, thousands of individuals, unfortunately losing work with about two months notice but we have been bracing for what that's going to do to the economy and to the unemployment rate. thankfully, a few things happened. lauren and her team, mae tang is her response -- when we get the notice, we offer resources and services, support, alternative means of employment and covered california and all those things

you need if you're going to lose your job. we have seen those workers transition into other tech firms or other employers who are with the next phase of technologies and industry you're seeing. a lot of employers may not be in the tech industry want tech skilled workers and they've been hiring folks in their offices and we make the match smaller. because we're able to get a sense of how many people we get through the reports on the workforce link or service providers who on any given year are serving about 7,000 individuals a year, during covid, it was larger, like the essential resource hub and bay view and down into visitation valley and served up to 12,000 individuals when unemployment was as high as 13%, so the number 16,000 -- 17,200 is the number of individuals looking

for work as of march. we're able to see some kind of section of, do we have a relationship, do we have, through our service providers or workforce link platform or our direct services staff, what is known as our community engagement team, we're able to know based on resources such as our hotline and other services, who is working and not working and we can put boots on the ground to make sure folks have options, if they know about small businesses that's hiring or anyone at all that's hiring to help make that match. i think, we're able to point to the data shows the second lowest rate in the state. when you look at san francisco, despite changes in the economy, still keeping an unemployment rate that's again, second lowest in the state, it's because we're working together in this way. even though employers have experienced some, releasing of

their workers, we can work together and collectively to get them rematched and the best example i think which is work which is the janitorial union. that's due to remote work and businesses releasing their releases. but at the hiring event for example last week, with all the work available in hotels which is a booming industry, we were able to work and have shuttles from the janitor's union over to the ferry building and a lot of those janitors got on the shuttle and went to the hiring event and walked away with jobs at different hotels so i think there's the anecdotal and knowing we're doing everything we can and then when we see we're able to hold and not see what we would have thought thousands of new individuals who's looking for work who were laid off, we're seeing a few

hundred per month. we want it to be nothing and go back down to 2% where we have been, but those are the ways we can track empirically the impact of our collective efforts. >> great. thank you. >> thank you. >> well, that was a very good story, by the way. the janitor, i mean, i feel like we need to -- [laughter] -- we need to release it with that one. you know, i also wrote down here, oewd with lots of exclamation marks so i want to commend this team and ecosystem you're building and i'm looking at director -- and director tang as well, i want to commend you as a resident and a small business owner. you know, like, thank you for kind of seeing how

this whole system comes together and how it is all interconnected, right. like you were saying and i think it's not about, like, solving for a time but making the whole thing come together for everybody. thank you so much for having that perspective and point of view. it's making a huge difference in the impact of life, you know, for many san franciscans. so, thank you. >> thank you, president huie and are thank you to the director and having the foresight to make this connection. business leaders and -- we feel we can do everything. thank you, president huie. >> thank you. that brings me to a few questions that i had. how many employers do you have currently on workforce? or workforce link? >> it's interesting you say that because i was literately loading

just in case we get the job seeker -- [laughter] >> so, as of today, currently, we have a little over 700 employers in workforce link that's teams that that engage with this past fiscal year. >> okay. that's super helpful because then, i mean, on the scale, it's how many businesses we know are out there. we can try to get that number up and maybe we can kind of credit how, in just our regular communications. we have just finished a survey, that could have been an opportunity for us to encourage people to sign up and things but going forward, that would be really, i mean, the presentation, i think, showed me how simple it is, which i think in my mind, i think i didn't realize how easy it is because this is really something that, like, when you talk to people in neighborhoods who have actually tried different types of workforce

programs, they are, like, this didn't work out. it's hard. it's a match making kind of, like, thing, right. so it doesn't always work but the thing that i find really interesting about your presentation, it showed that if we just all kind of get on it and use it as a tool, that's where the strength comes from, right. it's kind of, like, the whole, like, mapping situation before. you need everybody to get on and start using it and so, i'm excited to see that type of, you know, activity. the other thing that i've noticed is, for a lot of employers or a lot of small businesses, i think consistency is really good. having these job fairs consistently, whether people are coming or not because i think things kind of flow, but that has been a real key for a lot of things that people can count on it when it happens.

like you were saying, i wish i would have known about it but the way the business goes, it's like we'll always be in that cycle, so to know this is a reliable, you know, support is really great. oh, and then the cbo's getting on, i think you've mentioned that, because i've been getting -- i ran a merchants association in the richmond district so talking about neighborhoods as trying to get the little people. that's what i -- that's who i am. i'm the little person, so -- [laughter] >> that's funny because our team, we're developing a walk-through mission of (indiscernible). they put the sign [foreign language] so we're going to go in with some ipads and we're going to -- because mont lining fwal and sign them up. >> what does that mean? >> like, a lot of people put help wanted for a cook or chef. the old school. on the --

>> they put it on a piece of paper. >> so the team, they are going to walk the corridor and signing people up working for them because it's not the language as opposed to technical aspects so partner with the cbo's and we did a lot of work through the employment hub and bring going into the neighborhood, just, coming out there and sign up. >> yeah. yeah. i think your grass roots approach is how san francisco likes to operate. it's well-aligned with how we move through the world. and i forget what i was saying now, but the students. i was wondering about, you know, what your -- i talked about cbo's and we -- but there have been several cbo's who come and approach me as a merchant

association. if they are not signed up, they should sign up with workforce to be on there, right? >> they should. the one thing i was going to say, we purchase licenses annually for, up to two and if folks, some of the community partners need a third because their staff is so active in doing the work we fund them to do in terms of recruit job seekers and help them get placed and they use this to get them working. we're happy to provide this for free. this is for workforce development systems partners and mostly having that license, it allows us to go into the information, like the client file information, like the personal and private information about the individual's journal and their skills and things that's more informative for someone who is helping to make the connection as a job developer and the employer, what

we're looking to do is make sure communities we serve are presented just as qualified as anyone you might recruit off indeed or resource and partner what we do is because our business concierge or employer concierge and first place hiring staff are doing prescreen and might say to someone, hey you applied to that position, it might be a stretch. could you look at this instead of that so employers are seeing folks we hope they will find qualified and this isn't the only platform we would encourage employees or job seekers. lauren thomas at the golden gate restaurant association, sometimes it's a snap shot in time and you might get a lot of folks that apply and may not get many and you may get more through craigslist or applicants through other tools but it's a free platform that's

really quick and easy and back to your economy, president huie, about the community partners, there's nothing that should hold a community partner from two things at a minimum. one, an introduction with us. we would love that because we can work together and help to support the individuals that they are supporting in their job search. and two, nothing stops that community partners from helping the individuals sign up for free on the workforce link. it's free to apply and post as an employment and the service provider partners who we have grants with have access to the licenses to do the work to facilitate an application and log in and see if an employer followed through with hiring offer, if one was made available or maybe to encourage an interview or pick up the phone and say what happened to the applicants. what can we do to support? how is it going?

that's the work on the back-ends on the sales force license we grant to the service provider partners. >> that's helpful. so, oh. speaking of students, knowing there are many students who are often times looking for work, i feel like that would be a great neighborhood or different sector or whatever kind of spot. [laughter] so, we have some students here. [laughter] >> it's an example. they were part of the programs and they are employed at the cbo. that's case and point working. >> there it is. congratulations! [laughter] >> yeah. actually, one of the things we have partnered with the human rights commission around the opportunities for all program and the different of children and youth and families, it's something we've talked about, executive director sofus mentioned it, as of this morning, reestablished a citywide committee on workforce alignment and one of the things

we've talked about was to develop a system whereby the programs for youth that we're investing in helping to create success in terms of careers long-term with our students, that we have the ability to know an individual is looking for their paid internship that's available to every student in the city and count and simulate if we're working with employers and saying, can we send folks your way to go into a similar platform. maybe it's us or a platform. there's talk about family youth and families and the work they do with students. our office with transitional age youth and adult and older adults to try and find one system to where we can make it easy for someone to say i'm looking for an internship or something this summer or part-time job or doing any -- any of these things or

someone looking for work, workforce link dot org is a great place to go. >> that's one sector we don't give enough credit to. they should have that work experience. lastly, this is not so much a question, but really i guess, words of encouragement from small business is that, i think in the future, i would love to see young people, jock seekers, whoever, have that entrepreneurial spirit and think about themselves as their own small business and be able to move through the world, like, feeling empowered that they are going to find their next opportunity and that their time is valuable. see so i think if there's a way to help job seekers not feel like they are under the control of finding, i

have to find that next piece that i'm empowered to figure out what my next move is going to be. i think that would be beneficial for all of us as small business owners because we have people working with us, verses feeling like they are working for us, you know and i think that would be a really nice place for our city to be in as we use words like cocreate and collaborate and things like that, to have young people as well as people looking for their next opportunity to feel like they are excited to be a part of our businesses. i think that would be great, so anything we can do to kind of help with that and promote -- promote entrepreneurial spirit and i'm speaking on behalf of all of us. >> that's a great idea. thank you, commissioner huie. >> any questions. director tang.

>> thank you, lauren and the entire workforce division for all you do. one thing commissioners, you may not be aware of and i want to add how we collaborate on a regular basis, there are situations where there might be a fire that has unfortunately destroyed a business or for some reason, there's? catastrophe that happens and director arce mentioned mae ing who reaches out and figure out what unemployment benefits there are and resources and we collaborate on those, i mean, unfortunately, there's some situations that's terrible but the wraparound services we provide as an oewd program. for your partnership and the team. >> thank you, director tang. thank you all, commissioners. >> thank you. >> i think we have to take

public comment, right? yeah. >> public commenters on the phone, dial star three to be added to the queue. i don't see -- oh. we have one caller. go ahead. >> good afternoon again. this is janet from the glen park merchants association and also the san francisco council of district merchants association. it's nice to hear our association mentioned at the meeting today and i just wanted to expand on a couple of the comments made by the commissioners, so commissioner zhou, really, what i think is an excellent idea, which is to

bring job fairs into the commercial corridors. i think that's an outstanding idea, but i also think it might be worth thinking about having job fairs that are industry specific. so, restaurants or brick-and-mortar retail. these industries are really, really challenged by the low unemployment rate, trying to find a reliable workforce is a major drain on resources. so having a free opportunity to access job seekers is, it sounds like a really great thing. i was at the meeting that was referenced with the power outages and everything and i hope that resulted in some of our members with the council

reaching out for more information. but another thing i wanted to make a note of, president huie mentioned about fostering an entrepreneur y'all attitude or spirit amongst job seekers and i also couldn't agree more with that. i think job seekers need more help with financial literacy, with self-advocacy skills, with placing themselves, selecting jobs that will be good for their careers and their futures and (indiscernible) with their family life and things like that and i think there's generally not enough attention to that for

job seekers, so otherwise, it would be a good job match made. thank you for allowing me to comment. >> thank you. any other callers? >> no other callers. >> great. so, hearing no further callers, public comment is closed. and thank you so much for your presentation. >> thank you, commissioners. >> yeah. >> thank you -- executive directive tang. >> shop dine san francisco presentation. this is a discussion item. he commission will hear a presentation on the rebranding of the shop dine san francisco initiative. presenters: marianne thompson, small business engagement specialist and michelle reynolds, small business programs and communications manager, office of small business >> welcom -- welcome marianne

and michelle. >> hello, thank you. >> you know how to get us happy. >> i know. [laughter] >> thank you. >> okay. good afternoon, commissioners. director tang, president huie, vice-president zhou. my name is marianne thompson and i'm with the office of small business. yes! so, i'm going to do the history of shop and dine in the 49. michelle is going to do future. so, two of you, commissioners, have had presentations from me in the past. it was started in 2014 with mayor lee, who used to have a quarterly roundtable with

small businesses and one of the things they came forward with is they wanted a buy local campaign. at that point, it was, how do we get people to shop in the corridors and i'll say we partnered with emc research in 2014 to actually do some research for us and it turns out that people understood by local, but there wasn't a thing that resonated with them to buy local. it turns out jobs was not a good talking point. poor josh. he's going to go, oh my god. when we talked about what resonates with residents and what resonates with folks, it's the vibrancy of our corridor. that hits people and gets them to shop local. i want to share this one fun fact that came out of emc research. most people 50 and older really understand buy local. they really understand

the value of shopping in their corridor. they know their merchants. they know their grocery store person. they know their bar owner. most people 50 and younger did not. so that was the key features that have survey. so, again. the goal was to get folks to shop in their local corridors. when we started this campaign, we went citywide with our images. mostly because it was a brand-new campaign and we couldn't figure out how to get people to understand how it applied to their corridor, but how it applied to the city as a whole. as you can see, a lot has happened with this. so, we've had many, many partners over the years. everything from the chamber, to sf loma and sf travel. every year, it grows in terms of our partnerships.? years, in 2020, our partner was the department of emergency management because our goal was

to say, how do you shop local during a pandemic, right? how do you get people into the corridors and shop safely? over this mast few years, 2022, 2021, master card, our cbd's met and shop -- it's important to understand that this is and you'll see it in the next slide that this really, this program depends heavily on our partnerships. every year the city funds it to the tune of $30,000 a year. that's what we get in our local budget, in our budget. what we raise, we get from the private sector and those are partnerships we have with shop-a-fy and square is an amazing partner all these years and they are always coming to the table and saying, what can we do and how can we support you? in 2020-21, we had great partnership with master card. we

did the holly jolly trolley and came into a neighborhood corridor near you and brought you a trolley cart and care letters and hot cocoa. a variety of different -- yes, yes. the one we did, so we did it by sector, so one night we went to the mission and have lens y'all -- valencia. this extends on our partnerships and we had a robust collateral. we had 300 (indiscernible) you have seen with an old expired campaign. we've had maps. we had a -- cable car that was theme to shop and dine in the 49. we press releases and do bus shelters in local newspapers and psa and i-heart radio. that de-- that

depends on the partnership. the psa was with master express. we leverage everything that comes our way. just a few of the partnerships we've had over the years. dear week, we partnered for a metallica partnership. we provided the small businesses that can pop up at outside lands. we've done things like bookstore week and just all sorts of different things. what i think most of you know know to be the key signature events about shop and dine is the city hall pop-up, which happens twice a year. okay. so, this gets us to our brand refresh. >> hello, everyone. let me adjust this mic. thank you for having us. michelle reynolds

from the office of small business. i do communications and program management. as marianne mentioned, briefly, so the shop and dine sf or shop and dine in the 49 has been under oewd and when marianne joined our office, oed came with shop and dine. very shortly thereafter, we worked on a brand refresh to modernize the look and feel and bring new energy into the campaign. and to do that, we worked with a design firm lower case production that has a long history with shop and sign in the 49 and so brought with them a lot of expertise and knowledge. and so here, you have the brand reveal and on the left is the before and the right is after. there's a new name that goes along with it. shop and

sign in the 49 became shop dine sf. very simply. and that comes along with it, a new website and new social media handles. next slide. so, in regard to the name, one of the pieces of feedback that we heard consistently was that shop and dine in the 49 can feel a bit like insider lingo especially for visitors who may not know that's referring to. and in the 49 can be difficult to translate into multiple languages so for those reasons, we opt for a simple name, shop sf. we chose a rainbow color palette. it has variations by the designer and i tended to be -- intended to be

playful and vice blant and make you want to go -- vibrant and go shopping. there's also, within the brand specifics and we can add names to the slide. when there's neighborhood projects that come up, we can customize them by neighborhood. the new website we have, sf dot gov slash shop dine sf is utilizing the city's own technology and digital services department and the benefits over the previous website which was shop, dine 49, shop and dine 49, so if hard to remember, it include that the sf dot gov platform is skew and free to use as a city department and automated translated into spanish, filipino and chinese.

additionally, it is accessible to individuals who use a screen reader or assisted technologies and one of the things we've started with utilizing our website with campaigns is those that -- we launched this in late 2022 for the holiday season, we did a shop and dine local campaign and then in early 2023, we created an online and social media campaign for the lunar new year and we're in progress working on a campaign for, centered around the mission district and carnival san francisco, so that will come out in a few weeks so all of those campaigns are designed to promote events that are within commercial corridors as well as shopping guides, neighborhood directories, that sort of thing. events, we also have. so coming

on the coming upside of things is that we're officially rolling out this new brand to start with small business week, which begins on may 8th, coming up in two weeks and so, with that, shop dine sf thanks to the hard work of marianne is hosting two events and one is that city hall pop up which is may 9th and a small business bookie, which will be at the ferry building on the evening of wednesday, may 10th. and for that, for those two events, there will be limited addition, screen printed shopping bags that will be given away to shoppers while supplies last. and also, next slide, coming up to launch during that re-brand launch week starting may 8th is a partnership with sfgovtv. we'll be rolling out a

series of short pify social media media campaigns to highlight small businesses. we're doing them hue mat i cannily this time around and sf gov t vr has been a great partnership creating businesses to highlight small businesses and this time, let's see, our first -- we're rolling out ice creameries and things like vintage shopping, bars, you name it. so that will be fun as it rolls out throughout may and into the summer. and that concludes our presentation. i want to thank you again for inviting us and marianne and i are both here for questions. >> great, thank you so much. this is and thank you very much for the swag. commissioners, any questions, comments? commissioner ortiz cartagena.

>> thank you for the presentation. thank you for the work. we're happy to he sue, marianne on this side of the force. the small business side. but you know, you gave me an -- you know, shop the 49 or whatever it was, yeah. it doesn't make sense if you're not from -- i love this new branding. it's, like, just, marianne and the work you do with those events, i don't know how you stretch, you should run some of my companies and stretch the budget. i don't know how you do it. the events are dope. i was carolling and yeah. it was -- [laughter] it was lit! i appreciate y'all. i'm excited for it >> director tang. >> i want to thank marianne and michelle for your work on this and this ongoing campaign to support our commercial corridors and small businesses and you'll

notice printed inside the tote bag you all received, the limited edition tote bag, they got this printed. we're trying to practice what we preach and supporting local businesses in the creation of the goods you have. thank you, both. >> oh. you know, i think we still have public comment and things, right. >> public commenters, to be in the queue, press star three. and there are no commenters. >> okay. i think -- i forgot to say what i was going to say. >> that's okay.

[laughter] >> it's okay. thank you so much. since their no public comments, i guess public comment is closed >> thank you for your presentation. this was wonderful. thank you. >> thank you! >> i was taken by the excitement, the shop and dine san francisco. [laughter] >> and the colors. >> i know. [laughter] >> and the great flyers. >> number, item no. 5. >> 4. >> no, 5. >> yeah. >> item 5. resolution declaring small business week may 8th through the 12th, 2023. this is a discussion and action item. the commission will review and possibly take action to declare may 8th through 12 small business week in 2023. >> thank you. director tang, would you like to provide some

background on this? >> >> sure. every week, just logistically, i mean, not every week, every year. we do promote small businesses everyday in our work, but through this commission, we need to declare small business week here. so, the resolution before you, simply highlights the importance of small businesses, that small businesses nearly account or approximately 95% of the total businesses in san francisco and employ hundreds of thousands of san franciscans and so, really before you, i think things you already know about the importance and the contribution of small businesses, so i think i'll keep it brief at that. >> great. thank you. commissioners, any comments? no. any public commenters? >> there are no public commenters in the queue. >> all right. hearing no further

callers, public comment is closed. commissioners, would anybody like to make a motion to -- >> i'll motion that. >> and somebody second. >> i'll second it. >> motioned by commissioner carter. seconded by commissioner dickerson. >> i'll read the college. >> commissioner carter? >> yes. >> commissioner dickerson? >> yes. >> commissioner herbert? >> yes. president huie. >> yes >> commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> yes >> vice-president zhou. >> yes. >> motion passes. >> great. thank you. next item. >> item 5, approval of draft meeting minutes, this is a discussion and action item. >> >> commissioners, any comments about the drafted meeting minutes? no. any public comment? >> public commenters please dial star three to be added to the queue. no commenters.

>> hearing no public comment. public comment is closed. commission, oh. i think we need to make a motion to adopt the draft meeting minutes. would anyone like to make a motion? >> i'll make a motion. >> i'll second it. >> motioned by commissioner carter. seconded by commissioner dickerson. [laughter] i'll read the roll. commissioner carter? >> yes. >> commissioner dickerson? >> yes. >> commissioner herbert? >> yes. >> president huie. >> yes >> commissioner ortiz cartagena? >> yes. >> and vice-president zhou. >> yes >> motion passes. >> great. next item. >> item 6, general public comment. this is a discussion item allowing members of the public to comment on matters within the small business commissions jurisdiction. but not on today's calendar. >> so, any members of the public

who would like to make comment on any items not on the agenda today? >> there are no commenter in the queue. >> anybody in the room like to make a public comment? great. seeing no public comment. public comment is closed. next item. >> item 7, director's reports. this is a discussion item. >> >> good evening, commissioners. so, a couple of updates for you. one is that i just wanted everyone to be aware as we're heading into quote on quote budget season is that, due to budget deficit outlook that's worsened for the city, that the mayor's office has asked all departments for additional five percent reduction in each fiscal year, so we're already asked for the upcoming two fiscal years for a five percent and then an

8% reduction. we've been asked for a five percent on top of that in each year, so just so you're aware of the outlook and budget situation that we're in right now. but next, happier thoughts, the city launched a program called vacant to vibrant which you might have read about in the news on an effort to activate empty commercial store fronts in the downtown areas because they have been just, the return to the downtown and foot traffic and office workers has been much lower than we hoped post pandemic. if we can call it post pandemic so the incentives for this program include grants for entrepreneurs and artist and property owners up to 3 months of free rent and permitting and marketing support. currently applications are being accepted through june 1, 2023, so i would love to ask commissioners to spread word to everyone you know

who might be interested in trying out a business concept downtown where they might not have envisioned themselves previously but maybe this is a great opportunity with this incentive program to try out, maybe they are a new business or expand in the downtown area, so that's vacant to vibrant. i was going to talk about the job fair that we parted with oewd workforce division on april 12th, but i think our presentation earlier covered that. also i wanted to update everyone that on april 18th, the mayor and mayor breed and supervisor peskin introduced an ordinance to create an aunting amnesty program. this is a situation you might have read about in the news where they were 200 complaints launched against businesses for awnings installed without permits so we

have worked with the for permit departments for businesses to apply and get a permit on file. with a streamline process and it will be more efficient and save people money. so, while not neglecting the requirement to adhere to building code for safety purposes so, applications under this amnesty program need to be submitted to the city by december 31st and that way fee waivers for inspections and permits and this new process will apply, if you submit your application before then. but we always encourage people to submit an application during the month of may. every may is when your awning permit inspection fees are waived in the city under a special program. every may, small business month. this program applies to all existing awning owners so if you have an

existing awning and you don't think you have a permit or file, you can contact our office and we can help you look that up if you don't know or if you have a complaint lodged against your business or notice of violation, as long as you have an existing awning, you can participate in this program. lastly, we're continuing to do merchant walks in the community which are so rewarding and just really love meeting all the business owners and asking them what they need to put on and it has opinion helpful for our office to gather information about how we can be more helpful to them, so since our last meeting, we've gone out to noaga street and balboa street and this week, we will be out in dog patch and also in the richmond to talk about awnings, so those are my updates for today. >> commissioners, any questions?

commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> i have two things. one comment, whoever was putting the dime on our small business about the awning, whoever did that, come on. be kind to your local small business. you don't have nothing better to do. so, that's -- i had to get that off owe that unset me. and then too, thank you, director. you going out to the neighborhoods. that has been so, so welcomed, truly i always get feedback. even if it's not my neighborhood, so thank you for that. >> vice-president zhou. >> thank you director and to the office for all that good stuff. i had a question. i remember in the past that there was also sidewalk display permits or something that had to do with small business week because we put sandwich board signs or do

activations, so is that still around? >> legislation was passed every year to waive the permit fees if you wanted to put your goods out on the sidewalk during a particular week or maybe two weekends. it has changed over time. correct me if i'm wrong, kerry, there was legislation to make it legislation every year so it didn't come back before the board. i can't remember. >> it was around the hot days. >> we saw fewer and fewer sidewalk sales during small business week and the focus has become around the holidays leading sidewalk sales happen easily and i'm not sure if every year it's covered but i think it's in the works. >> yeah. we -- i mean, as of a couple of years ago when i was working on the permit fee waivers for the sidewalk sales, like kerry said, we noticed a decline in that, i think, generally touring small business week, we want to encourage as different activities and people haven't quite chosen the

sidewalk sales as a route, so instead, we're trying to promote through the shop dine sf campaign. the activations and events that's happening where it might incentivize you or motivate you to go to a commercial corridor and you shop and dine there instead. >> okay, thank you. >> commissioner herbert. >> i was just wondering about the five percent reduction in the budget? so, what kind of numbers are we looking at? out of curiosity. >> oh, for each department, it will be different and fortunately for our office of small business, we will not be making any cuts to positions or programs. we do have some fund balance that carried over from a program, so we're able to apply that towards the reduction target. now, our budget is also

within oewd and so, unfortunately, they are going to have to put some cuts on the table to programs that are very important to all of us and the whole entire small business community and we're hoping that maybe during the puj -- during the budget negotiations we can get more funding back for them. but we can certainly, when it comes closer to the budget hearings, that the board of supervisors have more updated budget presentation, not only from oewd, but oed in general. >> thanks. >> commissioner dickerson. >> in regard to the -- thanks, in regards to the budget, i was curious as well, does, i mean, do we understand why? does it have anything to do with the fact that we're coming out of covid now and that money was allotted for the support through the pandemic and we're coming

out of that? what is the relationship between that? >> there's multiple factors for the budget outlook thing. a couple -- certainly the pandemic had some affect on things in general. i think you've mentioned the federal support, right, for covid relief. so, yes. that has gone away. that was a time limited support that was provided to the city and that's why in the last two years, we didn't have to face these levels of budget reduction targets. it's also, you know, projections in terms of some of the investments the city have made, you know, just like everyone else who has made investments. there are some market forces there. you know, property transfers or property sales, you know, while they are still occurring, they are at a level, what is that, even level verses increasing, so there are

a variety of factors and not just one thing that's contributing to the fact we have to make additional reductions. >> i have to say, that's important to me especially when you talk about budgeting because it's one thing to say we have a cut. i want to know why so there's clarity as to, it's not just one, you know, thing. irk just imagine, my hat goes off to everyone that has to deal with finances right now in this city. i know it's challenging. and so, i think it's very helpful to know the reasons why. >> yes. certainly, despite that, we're advocating for certain things, right. permit fee waivers, right, but just know there's also that trade-off when we do advocate for those things and we are, as an office, so it has nothing to do with today's agenda item, but that means that there is less funding going into the city, right, for staff who

might be working on these programs and et cetera. there are many of these types of programs where we want to ask for these discounts or waivers, but they come with, perhaps, reductions in some types of resources. >> yeah. >> commissioner herbert, did you -- oh, no. okay. commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> i just want to say for the record, like, i've been through two budgets and we're the only department that generates budget, and we support small businesses. so we shouldn't be cut. we generate revenue for the city through our small business support, so that's where i would stand on that and any support i could do in anything, like, cut dpw. [laughter]

>> i just had a quick question. i was wondering the awning waivers and the awning legislation, does that apply to signs as well, like, blade signs and things or is it just awnings? >> right now, if you have an existing sign or awning, it will apply to you. for planning department, they are doing a five-year look back, so you need to be able to prove or demonstrate or goggle maps that you had awning for five years. >> so signs is included in that, okay. >> the protruding one? >> all those people who have signs should look on planning to see if they have, like, a permit on file? >> that's right. >> if they don't find a permit on file, they should go ahead and get a permit? >> we would encourage them to, yes. you can look up on the san

francisco planning information map, sf tim for short. again, if that's confusing for you, just contact our office and we are happy to help people look that up and see if there's a permit on file and chances -- usually the notices, the violations or complaints will go towards the property owner. it's sent there. so, businesses may or may not be aware of it until later on that there was a complaint or ov, so it's good to check in the system. >> okay. so, just to reiterate to all businesses right now, that they should look to see if there's an existing permit that is on file for their sign, awning, whatever it is protruded. sf are pin. >> uh-huh. >> i didn't realize signs were included. >> we should just look -- everybody look it up. and you know, talking about budget cuts

and things, i agree. we are -- we are very good at being a self sustaining ecosystem or community. and i think one of the things that we can also advocate for is that, you know, the budget cuts and things, given our current economic environment seem to be an inevitable kind of thing on the horizon, right. i mean, that means that together we have to come together as communities to be able to do the work that we rely on other people to do right now. so, i mean, i guess, you know, my opportunity right now seated on this commission is encourage our community members to all come together and really think about how they can solve for some of these issues that arise within our neighborhoods. sometimes, like, it gets windy in san francisco and trash blows around the city. we don't need to pick up every piece of trash, but can we come together and do that together and sometimes community members need help with

after school tutoring or help with kids making sure they have breakfast in the morning and all these things. can we reach out and try to make sure that the people within our neighborhood are cared for and i think that's the opportunity that the budget cuts, perhaps, could be remedied for. i think we can advocate hard and long for them to not exist, but i think the ways to mitigate less money and less resources is for us to do the work, so.... that would be my $0.02. [laughter] >> we got to do something. [laughter] >> but i mean, i know everyone here is, you know, doing so much, so i do appreciate all of

you. >> [mic is off] >> i don't know. i can only -- [laughter] >> so, okay. any other commissioner comments on director's report? no. any public comment? >> there are no public commenters. >> okay. great. hearing no callers, no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 8, commissioner discussion and new business. this is a discussion item. >> commissioners, commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> i want to announce the small business committee for the latino task force is throwing an event on may 8th at 26701 mission -- 2601 mission. that's 2 to 9. we'll have workshops and music and drinks and everybody is welcomed and attend and at the old bay view bank building, so sf safe is hosting us letting

us use their space so it will be fun. all the organizations, sbo's that do business and technical assistance willing there, so you're invited. come over and have a drink with me. >> may 9, 2 to 4. 2401 mission. i sent director tang the flyer, so she could share it. >> that's perfect. you can go after this pop-up, directly to your event. >> we planned it like that. [laughter] it's all mashed. >> commissioner carter. >> yes. i want to also announce that bay view, we're going to host a small busy vent on may -- small business event may 12th. i'll send follow-up information. we're working on that. save the date. may 12th. somewhere in bay view. we're working on that.

>> drive around. [laughter] >> yeah. >> thank you. >> also, any support from oewd, i used to host these events a while back, just with larry and camilla so we're going to bring it back for small business week and we would love the support of oewd, well, they are oewd, but anyone, will, cletcha want to come through, that would be dope. [laughter] >> we're looking for y'all. >> commissioner dickerson. >> i did -- oh. for, i would like to say i would love to support you >> yeah, yeah. >> so, please let me, i would love to be a part of it, honestly. cool! [laughter]

first, i want to make -- i love this hit fit bootcamp on saturday. it has been amazing and i don't know if you follow us on social media. man! >> [mic is off] >> that's okay. it has been -- >> you're out there moving. >> yeah. it has been a lot of fun, i mean, first of all, it's free. that's one of the things i love making the announcement. number two, i love that we're running out of equipment, which is great but it doesn't mean you don't come. come anyway and come early. but it has been an amazing, so you three fit combined together and this saturday is, you get your hip at bootcamp and 45 minutes of a real work out. and then the next was yoga instruction with nicole yarboil and she's amazing and then we have life coaching, so if there's something you want to talk about, whether it be about

nutrition or how do i be better, a better parent or, i mean, we have all types of subjects. but it's continuing to create that community that bay view, most of the people are from bay view but it's amazing. saturday starting at 8:30. you can stay 8:30 to 1 -- 11:30 or come. it's on the website. two out of three. second thing is, i want -- i wasn't going to share it but i'm going to share it. i was so, oh, my god. one of my clients called me and she's the director, i'm going to mess up her title at ucf and she's the director, barbara, over the cancer, she directs the -- is it oncology, i believe? they

needed someone to do some movement for their cancer survivor patients and she said, lawanda, would you be interested? i said, why not. i didn't know they were cantonese. i didn't know all the details because i was too busy but i prepared this, you know, this whole class and i get online on the zoom and there's about 20, 30 cantonese, beautiful, just these people that have survived cancer and they were so anxious and ready to move, right. i'm starting to teach the class and they were so interested in building their gluts and it was cute. as i'm doing the exercises, they said we don't like that one, but they said we like this one. they were telling me what exercises they liked and didn't like and i thought, wow, this is very cool, right,

because they got my comedian side. i don't know how they got it in translation but they laughed at all points but the director called back and said, lawanda, it was unanimous. they, they want to know if your class can be translated into filipino and spanish and cantonese. anyway, i think the point of that is, this was beyond me. it was, i'm really big on collaboration and community and, i mean, just the fact they were so embracing and they were, like, no, no, no. we want you. i'm, like, there's so many other people out here. the other thing was, i asked them to turn their music while we were doing the class and this was really cool, so as we're doing these moves, it was just cute. anyway. i just thought i would share that because i was very, i was -- it was very, i was very humbled and

very -- it warmed me heart at the fact that this cantonese community wanted this sista over here to teach them. i thought, that's just unity at its finest. it touched my heart and i wanted to, i just wanted to share that and the last thing i'm going to share is, i was leaving, i was at work and i got a text from one of our neighborhood merchants and kristin and said, lawanda, she said tanai and you know tanai on the corner of third and newton. it's the tanai you're thinking, there's only one. she's -- i don't want to come across offensive but we call her our friendly neighborhood drug addict. but we love tanai and we know tanai. she was very inspired. she somehow, someway or someone bought it for her, we don't

know, had a u3 fit outfit on and people were going around taking pictures of her. and she wanted to be a part of, okay, i'm not going to cry, she wanted to help market, see, that kind -- that kind of stuff because we heat up her food and give her water, we do everything we can on our block to help people as much as we can, but it's something about when they, she wanted to wear this shirt and she -- they went out and wanted to take pictures of her and she was proud to say she wanted to market 4u3 fit. i thought, it never goes, whenever you're doing something kind to someone, it never goes unnoticed. and we can't get so busy that we can't take time to just say, how are you doing? can i offer you some water. even

in the littlest things so i thought that was a big deal to me. i thought i would share that with you. >> [mic is off] >> that's crazy, but -- thank you so much. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> i want to say one thing. >> yes. >> i just went to dc and as a black woman, we always get this, like, where are the black people and i used to come to san francisco and work there and blah, blah and blah, so we started having this conversation about san francisco and i would love to have more campaigns, maybe not small business, but i think it's interesting that san francisco, when you think about it, it's not a race. it's a culture and that's what injure story reminded me of. it's a culture. so you wouldn't

necessarily come here looking for back but coming here to experience that type of culture. >> i agree. >> yeah. >> in the craziest way, but i love it. >> i know. i was looking on my instagram and i think most recently, i didn't get to go, but they had the muni maid art exhibit. i was like, oh, my gosh. i miss that. and that and it's, like, the hype concerts and music and stuff. >> the hippy hill, they it a buddy thing at cricket. i didn't know we had -- [mic is off] >> that was in maclaren. >> yeah. >> it was dope. that's just so -- it's a one of adults riding on big wheels. not a care in the world. >> i know. i think we --

>> [mic is off] [laughter] >> we are an amazing city. so, and you know, also, the office of small business, that's something that -- i move you've said this before, but i don't know and maybe i said this in meetings already but i always kind of try to do some landscape analysis to see what are other people talking about in their other cities when it comes to whatever issue we deal with here and i'm always, like, somebody else must have the solution and my searching always leads us back to san francisco being kind of, like, the example, the gold standard and so, as much as we talk about, like, wanting improvements, wanting things and san francisco being whatever it is in people's minds, we -- we have so many things here that are so unique, especially the office of small business, so, i mean, the fact that we even have this office and the fact that

you're the director of this office and that you're the secretary policy analyst for our office, that we have these resources is really amazing, so i mean, i think san francisco, you know, is the best place. [laughter] >> it definitely is. >> [mic is off] >> thanks. thanks. it's funny you say that because i've spent so many years, anyway. i talk to people all the time and they say, lawanda, how do you do that? i say go to your small business commission board and they are, like, our what. every time i talk to someone about everything we have going on here in this city, they look at me, like, lawanda, we don't have that. we've never heard of that. i said, well, why don't you call, you know, the small business -- the oewd. the what? and so, it's realizing that --

and i realize for more recently, i wouldn't say recently, but there is somewhat of a bubble that we live in in the sense that san francisco is unique. first of all, being a sanctuary city. second of all, having the, i think it's diversity that's created this, what it is and everything about it, and but more importantly, it's -- and i can't stress it enough, having the spirit of gratitude with who we are and what we are and what we have will help us continue to grow in the direction we need to grow as a city. we never stop learning. we never stop developing. but we also cannot take for granted the opportunities that we have here because it's so unique. not just

to california, but to the world. i talk to a lot of people from different places and this is unheard of in many places, so, you know, we -- although we have all these opportunities, let's not take it for granted and just feel the gratitude of what has happened with this presence and those who were the for runners and those moving forward. it's grateful. >> it feels real mushy. >> i got to get it back together. [laughter] >> no, thank you. thank you very much. let's see. any public comment? >> no public comment. >> nobody wants to add to our

mushy feel good session. public comment is closed. [laughter] next item, please. >> item 9, adjournment. sfgovtv, show the office of small business slide. >> we will end with a reminder that the small business commission official public forum is your public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with small business matters continue to reach out to office of small business. meeting is adjourned. [gavel] i

want to say commissioner maxwell and i visit the mountain tunnel. we revital wragz and it was just so well done. so impress itch. wonder to feel visit all the infrastructure and see all the hard work had goings in it and -- and i personal low came back more energized than ever i want to thifrng and appreciate the staff had med that help