movement pact inc. provides low income youth and young adults with tools to help achieve goals of going to college and securing economic stability. pact inc. promotes community empowerment increasing access to higher education. the vision is provide the best educational services and best advice, the best place to work and the best work environment for educating, inspiring and motivating others. the core feature tradition the business must maintain is services for youth. item 2c is shaw shoes. the business is a shoe store established in 1970 and located in cal hallow. shaw shoes is second generation family business selling shoes for every occasion sourced from italy and beyond. they are the oldest retail store on union street in cal hollow neighborhood.

shaw shoes specialize in high italian foot wear and most imported from italy using own transporters and importers. buy unique italian shoes. the core feature business must maintain is shoe store. all the businesses met the criteria and all received positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission. legacy business program staff recommends adding the businesses to the registry and drafted a resolution for each business for your consideration. a motion in support of the business should frame in favor of the resolutions. thank you. this concludes my presentation and happy to answer questions. there are business representatives present who may wish to speak on behalf of the businesses during public comment. >> thank you very much rick.

commissioners, any questions? seeing no questions at this time, we like to open up for public comment. you can come forward to the mic if you like to speak. >> hi, everyone. my name is annette bennett and excited to be here today on behalf of plan of action for challenging times. known as pact inc. short name. we are local community based non profit organization and i want to say thank you so much for everyone who helped bring us to this point in the process. it is truly a honor and we are excited for what comes next. pact started in 1963 when mr. everett the first stock broker and henry lucas a prominent dentist joined forces to increase black emappointment in downtown san francisco.

recognizing the job market was [indiscernible] pact started helping high school students and young adults to get into college with financial aid and in 1965 pact became one of the first organizations on the west coast to receive federal funding. you might have heard of upward bound grants, educationing talent served so we received those since 1965. these help low income first generation college students, high school and middle school students get into college. throughout the 61 years, pact served 60 thousand young students and placed approximately 40 thousand in college. at the peak, pact served about 20schools in san francisco, including james lick, willie brown, [naming schools] we have a proven tract record impacting under served communities, however we are under strict federal income guidelines which do not match

san francisco cost of living. we want to be able to serve san francisco youth. we know that bay area cost of living is much much higher and the reality is, there are low income families not able to be served through our programs through the federal guidelines. we are hoping with the legacy registry it opens up doors more community local partnerships and we'll be able to empath the community and continue the legacy. we thank you so much. >> thank you. thank you very much. any other speakers? >> good afternoon. my name is--i represent oscar's photo lab. family business. started in 1982. we served the community, the

photo community. we have been taking care of a lot of what the photographers, artists in the city is needed-have needed for a long time. a lot of times i feel like what we do is taken for granted, but then there's certain things that happen whether it is a birth, whether it is a funeral. we are there to take care to keep people's memories alive. take care of what they need. i'm not great at speaking, but you know, my father started this business back in 1982. i worked with him one day after school, my mom said, your father needs help. i was 13. i was at hoover middle school and then i went to lincoln high school where you

supported us, so go mustangs and then san francisco state, so go gators. thinking about what i was going to say today,eme i'm a son of the city. i grew up in this city. my father started a business in this city. and i was looking through some of what we had and one thing i came across today and you can't see it, but this was the original business tax registration certificate that my father paid for. in case anybody knows, i don't know who it is, but the original-not original, but the tax collector was tad brown back in 1982. we have been around a long time. we supported this city. we helped build the city. we have been through god, go

back, covid, earthquakes, all sorts of things. we are the fabric of the city. thank you for recognizing that. thank you for giving us a opportunity to help us keep that. just thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> good afternoon commissioners and staff. my name is shaw degen, and i'm honored to be here. i opened shaw shoes in 1970,

the same year i graduated from university of san francisco. it has been a great success. we have numerous movie stars, celebrities and made columns. if you-some of you may know who he was. three times it was a honor. because he came to the store and was very impressed. i handed down the store 10 years ago to my daughter, caroline working only part time helping her. what pleases me the most is the second

and third generation customers that a grand daughter tells me her mom and grand mother has been my customers for years. a mother came in with a baby on the stroller, quite a few times as a customer and 20 years later that baby in the stroller became the manager of shaw shoes. i am honored to be part of the legacy store in san francisco. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> hello everyone. good afternoon san francisco

commissioners and community members. my name is kim. thank you for the opportunity to briefly speak in support of oscar's photo lab with the legacy award. oscar's photo lab has been cherished san francisco institution for 42 years. established in 1982, by new bar [indiscernible] a lebanese immigrant who built with hard work dedication and true passion for photography, and also happens to be my fath er in law. for over 20 years his son worked alongside his father and carried on his father's legacy making oscar's one of it the long-est standing photo labs in the city and one of the only photo labs standing. starting with a simple store front thin tenderloin over four decades ago, oscar's provided invaluable service to professional photographers, artist local residents and many

hobbyists preserving memories and creating high quality tangible art. this legacy is more then the business, it is about the family commitment to san francisco, to their craft and to the thousands of local customers who relied on their work to capture life most important moments. and changing city where small family owned businesses are finding it harder and harder to thrive and survive, and a era where photos are not as in demand as what they used to be, oscar's photo lab continues to stand as a powerful reminder of what makes san francisco unique. by awarding them this legacy being part of the legacy rej stree, we are not celebrating a business, we are honoring a community pillar and supporting the preservation of our city culture and entrepreneurial spirit. thank you for considering the

recognition of oscar's photo lab, a true san francisco legacy. i know newbar is smiling down on all of us today. >> thank you. any other public comment? sure. yeah. >> thank you. >> sure. >> good afternoon members of the san francisco small business commission. i am honored to speak recognition for pact on the legacy business registry. we founded pact in 1963 inspired by the vision of dr. carlton goodlett, jr. legacy honored here at city hall. we wanted to see more minority businesses join the vibrant tapestry of san francisco small business community, contributesing to charm and fame of our city. to make this vision a reality, we raised funds, build a dedicated

staff and secured grants from the federal small business administration. we even inaugerated the 6 by 6 by 6 loan program offering $6 thousand for 6 years at 6 percent interest rates to support local entrepreneurs. we began the journey on second and market street and moved to divisadero in 1970 and sparked the street merchant association to launch a beautification program bringing the city's signature stone garbage containers from california to haight street. we advocated for city parking and provided financial backing for local businesses by guaranteeing loans to the local wells fargo bank. our cofounder is dr. henry lucas and dr. daniel collin ran a thriving dental practice and developed into primary college advising service implementing talent search and upward bound. today we continue to occupy our

beloved victorian building on divisadero near al me park and aspire to become a legacy monument in the western addition. we are deeply grateful for the endorsement from supervisor preston and hopeful for your support achieving our status on the legacy business registry as recommended by the historic preservation commission. this recognition means the world to us. it reflects our commitment to san francisco rich history and we are proud to be a part of this incredible community. thank you for your consideration and for making this honor possible. our deepest thanks. thank you. >> thank you. any other public comment in the room? thank you very much for all your public comment. seeing no further public comment, public comment is closed. commissioners, questions, comments?

commissioner benitez. >> really great job. i love hearing all these stories. this is one of the favorite things i love to do starting with the meetings and hearing about all the stories about how you came to be and everything like that. i have just comments and then one question at the very end. for shaw shoes, i love that you are a family owned business multigenerational. my wife and i also own a small business. not seeing families yet, but many first dates, marriages and divorces so hopefully soon maybe eventually see families coming in so love hearing that story. we also have adaughter and dont know if he will run the business but hopefully teaching good responsibility and if she wants to take it on she can. hopefully she learns good responsibility being at the store. for pact, i am on deviz all the time and dizant realize you are across the street from our store above the skate shot?

shop? i can't wait to make it toward your area across the street so say hi and hello. love the building. a lot ask about it had all the time and shawn too from sf skate. lastly, for oscar's, i was reading your application. i love to hear quickly the story about the rosa parks photo in the smithsonian, is it still there or how did it come to be? >> [indiscernible] so, we had a client that had had the opportunity to photograph her. a long time client. she had asked us to make a silver gelatin print from it. it was one of those things where you get a once in a life time opportunity, so i took that on myself. i remember the evening very well.

closed down the store, turned on the radio, went into the dark room and knocked out 6 versions of it for her and she picked her favorite one. the proud moment for me. proud moment for me. yeah, thank you for asking. that's-thank you for notice that and asking that. very special. >> thank you. any other commissioners? commissioner herbert. >> i just want to say such a pleasure to sit up here and see so many great businesses and so many stories. you guys just make us who we are as a city, so thank you for coming forward and telling us your stories. it is really a pleasure to be

here. to hear them. >> vice president zouzounis. >> thank you to our legacy businesses for making time to come today. we know that you all work very hard and so we appreciate you coming to city hall and yes, i love hearing the multigenerational businesses and i think it is just a beautiful thing how we as businesses are so intertwined and i love that we have a south of market business and that's been intertwined with my family, so thank you for representing and for being here. >> commissioner ortiz. >> i want to thank the businesses pact, non profit, shaw, oscar's labs. born and raised in san francisco makes me proud and it also gives me inspiration because i want my business to be generational and your devotion to

the city through your businesses and your family, i mean, that is what makes san francisco what it is. i'm just proud and honored to even be here and learn about your businesses and about the hard work and everything and pact, i went to high school here, so i definitely know the program, so i'm just proud. this really makes me happy. this makes it all worth while so thank you for coming up and sharing your stories. >> yes. thank you very much for all that you have done to build and continue your family businesses as well as like the mission driven work. you all really do. i realized over the many years of owning my small business, owning a small business today is very much a mission driven endeavor and now that my children are a little older and i can

see like how proud i would be if my child wanted to do what i was doing and i come from also like an in-law of a family owned business as well and it is like to be able to see-to be able to see generations of your family being taken care of by this thing that somebody you know started at one point in time that was probably really hard and really scary for that person, has now been able to kind of feed so many branches of your family. it is really incredible. yeah, this just like what everybody else said, one of my favorite and parts of being a small business commissioner. i know when i walk around the city and i see those legacy business plaques, i'm always like, oh my gosh, there is another legacy business.

it is like i get so excited to see them around, and i realize what history our city actually is built on, and you kind of forget about that when you see so many shiny new things around you all the time. without the businesses you built, we would not have all those shiny new things all around us. i really appreciate all the work and all the heart and soul you put into all your businesses. i encourage you to you know, think of yourselves as part of the legacy business kind of club, and for you to you know, consider yourselves a part of a very exclusive club that is an important part of the city. thank you very much for all that you've done. i am going to go ahead and leave it up for us to make a motion, and have a feeling it will be a good motion.

[laughter] we have one more public comment. is that okay? >> [indiscernible] >> thank you. >> thank you. >> well, let's see--should we take a motion? >> i second the motion. i make the motion. >> would you like to make the motion? >> i make it. to adopt all the legacy businesses. is there a second? >> i'll second. >> i'll second. >> seconded by commissioner carnet.

[roll call] >> motion passes. congratulations. [applause] >> thank you. next item, please. >> item 3, board of supervisor file 240982, disability access emprovements for places of public accommodation. discussion and action item. the commission will discuss and may take action on an ordinance amending the building, administrative, and public works codes to remove the local requirement for existing buildings with a place of public accommodation to have all primary entries and paths of travel into the building accessible to persons with disabilities or to receive a city determination of equivalent facilitation, technical infeasibility,

or unreasonable hardship; and affirming the planning department's determination under the california environmental quality act.today we have supervisor mandelman presenting this item. welcome. >> welcome supervisor mandelman. >> hello. president huie, vice president zouzounis, commissioners. good to see you. the item before you is a simple but i think important ordinance that will do two things. first, it will sunset enforcement of the accessible business entrance program. a program i suspect that at least some of-i think i know some of the members of the commission are painfully familiar with, and then secondly, it will formalize and require reporting of office of small business, mayor office of disability and department of building inspection on a new collaborative initiative that i'm calling, beyond the front door. in 2016, at a time when many hundreds of small businesses were getting hit with a d a lawsuits, then

supervisor k a ty tang established the program to push business and property owners to comply with federal and state laws related to front entrance access. the program has actually been quite successful. with more then 16 thousand businesses having come into compliance, and another 2,000 more having submitted abe checklist, a step on the path to compliance and that meant a lot for folks with disabilities in san francisco accessing those locations. however, nearly 10 years later roughly another 4,000 businesses have gone unheard from, and the city extended the program deadlines multiple times at this point. executive director then supervisor tang authored a 6 month extension of

the deadline for submission of the compliance check list to january 1, 2019, with a commensurate extension in other compliance deadlines. then supervisor norman yee or he was probably president yee at the time, further pushed the compliance check list back to december 1, 2020 and mayor breed pushed those deadlines back to june 30, 2022. and then i authored the first of two extensions earlier in the year taking the deadline to june 30 of this year, and then put in another one which pushed back to december 31 this year, but this can only go on so long. when my staff brought the last extension to building commission may 15, the members made clear they were not inclined to approve any further extensions to the program

deadlines. so, these 6,000 businesses that have not complied or yet complied present a conundrum and choice for our city government. we could double down on enforcement of the abe program as originally passed and are i don't think that is a good idea. i think it presents at least three problems i can think of. first, it would require allocating significant scarce dbi and other city resources to chasing down citing and enforcing against these businesses and property owners and some might think in a moment of housing crisis, department of building inspection, maximizing efficiency and other things, this isn't the best use of those resources. i are think that is especially true given a second point, which that many of these businesses and property owners are extremely sympathetic cases.

my office has heard lots of stories. you may have heard some as well. small business owners who not withstanding efforts to come into compliance have run into any number of obstacles. some fallen pray to unscrupulous consultant who perform unnecessary and costly work resulting in thousands in fees. others found the required invest in upgrades would simply exceed capacity and put them out of business. one owner reported that the upgrades would cost $30 thousand. thirdly, we have learned in conversations with the disability community that access at the front door is critically important, it isn't the only barrier and sometimes not the only barrier to access to local businesses for members that community. so, i felt that we have needed to come up with something better and i do want to express a whole bunch of gratitude.

i'll name namess in a minute. small business, mayor office of disability and dbi agreed to come up with something better and after many months of discussion, formally proposed what i think is a better way. this little concept paper is on attached to the file as it appears for the board of supervisors, but i don't know if you all got it. you have it? they have it? i'll leave a bunch here in case they don't. as i said, the legislation before you partially implements recommendations in here. again, by sunsetting enforcement of abe and requiring reporting back on beyond the front door. dbi made many commitments hiring a new certified access specialist inspector performing higher level of inspections out in the field. working with osb to craelt

materials that better inform business owners about obligations under federal and state law and the obligations will continue. the fact we are taking the city out of the business of chasing folks down around the front entrance does not mean that people should feel they don't have to comply with those laws. dbi is still looking at those things as they permit new businesses coming into spaces, so this is not saying that the law doesn't aplay, it is just saying as we allocate resources we are not going to focus on going after these business owners and property owners. lastly, osb and mayor office of disability are committing to work with community members to create a best practice guide for accessibility and going to engage in campaigns to raise awareness about other types of disability access issues, including those impacting those with digital hearing and cognitive impairments.

as i said, lots and lots of people helped get us here and no particular order. i do want to thank your director katy tang, [indiscernible] michelle reynolds from osb. dbi has been eager to have this happen and very helpful thinking how to better serve folks in the disability community and small business so thank you director patrick oreardon and [indiscernible] and can answer any questions i don't know about on the dbi side. and then we had great help from the mayor's office, mayor office on disability. former director nicole bonn who was very helpful and the current director debbie kaplan as well as members of the mayor's disability council and then in the city administrator office, jennifer johnston, sophie hayward and angela yip all were important contributors. we have help from city office

[indiscernible] vicky wong and calvin ho. in my office did lots and lots of cat herding to get us here and then many many thanks to small business and disbability community advocates who gave us their time and attention and good thinking and i can try to answer any questions or make t a te hannah come up and address them. >> thank you very much supervisor. let's see, are there any comments or questions? from commissioners? i'll give it a second. i want to appreciate you for tackling this situation in a different kind of with a different lens. i feel this is something that i know we talked a lot about obviously with businesses individually as well as collectively to figure how to make the landscape less fear based and

scary and check box driven, but really to think about accessibility and disability in much broader terms, because those terms actually apply to many more people and many more you know experiences i think then we actually are always-that we are aware of. so, i think thinking about how we can you know, change the conversation into something more positive and more incentivized is a wonderful step ahead, so i really appreciate that work. >> thank you. that's what we are trying to do. [laughter] >> vice president zouzounis. >> thank you supervisor and team for coming today and bringing this-you know we love streamlining legislation and i think this process as much as

our good legislators have had to try to consulidate our offerings and really where the city can play a role in this, it has been a little confusing for small businesses to you know, be only told you have to find a list from this list we can't tell you exactly what to do, but you need to find somebody who can do that work like a inspection. and kind of refer it back to the private sector, so i want to understand if-i think it was helpful in the legislation when it did lay out the order of operations that exist now with dbi and if a business is not responsive, but if you could help me understand where this step of now having an appeal commission for

access plays in, if that is a existing clause or an existing-- >> tell me where you are? >> the section 105 a. section 3. >> the access appeals commission? >> yeah. >> that's sticking around i believe for things not related to the abe program. basically, any compliance obligations under the abe program are kind of going away with this. we are grateful to those who complied. we hope this helps them avoid lawsuits, but we are saying, we have done this for 8 years and will stop doing this. i don't what the access appeals

commission does, but it will not be doing--it hears access appeals related to building stuff and there is still enforcement happening around access. that would be on the front end as new businesses come in, as property owners do things to their property, but it won't be for existing currently operating businesses that somebody is coming after you or property owners have a current business that the city is coming after you. everybody again, be aware, there are people out there interested in bringing lawsuits against small businesses, but it won't be your city government doing that to you. >> thank you. >> if i can add and also dbi, feel free to jump in if not saying this correctly. the access appeals commission is in existence because if you do tenant improvements and especially if you reach a certain threshold you are required to set aside a certain dollar amount for these accessibility

improvements and so, there has always been and will remain a pathway for people to go through the access appeals commission for certain appeals of the project scopes for example, or potential infeasibility review, but again, i differ to dbi to further explain that. >> i think the supervisor captured it well. the access appeals commission will remain in place. as supervisor mandelman laid out, there are numerous access requirements that are bake under to the building code. you still have to meet those when you build a new building and doing major renovations so san francisco unique with this program being proactive. no other jurisdiction in california i'm aware of had a proactive approach so we are removing the proactive access but you are still required to meet accessibility requirement for new buildings and renovation jz the access appeals commission remains in place to adjudicate issues with those processes. >> okay, thank you.

so, when we are telling small businesses , after you do your accessible infrastructure changes, get a cast inspection to make sure you are covered, right? how is it reflected once they are-is it reflected with the state and federal law once they are certified with their property owner there is no notice to the city? >> the city is still inspecting the properties and looking for accessibility metrics, so if you are not complying that could be a violation on city level. not sure if you are talking about a private cast inspector checking, but we would be doing inspections if you are constructing a new business place or new building with a storefront on ground floor, we inspect and make sure the counter is a appropriate height level, the point of sale system is accessible. as mentioned in the legislation we are

trying to add another cast inspector and expand the capability in the department to be more proactive so when the new building is constructed we are up in front of it saying this needs to be down a couple inches to make sthur is accessible to folks or make sure it is up front once put in place, bolted down and cost to change things on the back end. >> okay, thank you for the clarification. >> commissioner herb rlt. >> i have a question. say you are going into a existing space that is up for rent or up for sale and are the bathrooms are not a d a compliant but it is an old building, will the new tenant be required to make those compliant or-? >> that gets complicated. it depends on the scale of renovation. that is the trigger. that is difference between the a b program and other jurisdictions. this is constant proactive trigger and

other a certain scale of renovation trigger looking at the accessibility requirements. the other difficulty thing here is we can't speak to private contracts between a landlord and the tenant. that landlord may put in the contract that the tenant is required to pay for or responsible for accessible upgrades. there is a state law that requires the contract signer to be aware that. the person that writes the contract has to notify that is new requirement in the contract, but that would be between two private entities. that is outside our scope. >> okay, thank you. and, i just wanted to say thank you to rafael mandelman because it seems this legislation is going to prevent businesses and people who need a d a compliance stop pitting them against each other and that is really important. i have a family member who recently needs a d a everywhere she goes

and i become a lot more aware of what's needed and i would hate to see anybody with special needs feeling uncomfortable or like the bad guy when they come into a place. it seems like this could help with that so thank you. >> that is something we heard from folks on the mayor disability council. there are hosts of disability community needs. they did not want to be perceived or set up in the sort of going to be in opposition to small business community and there is reason why some of the folks were supportive of this legislation. again, i think it is important we do this. i don't want to see the city spend the next 2 or 3 years chasing down these 6,000 properties. i think that would be a bad for the city and bad for those folks, but it doesn't mean again the a d a

doesn't apply. when people are trying to do upgrades to those spaces that they do not have to get compliant. at some point, there will be a point when all 6,000 of those spaces are going to be compliant with the a d a. it is just we are not as a matter of city priority going to get-insist everybody get it done by the end of next year. at this point it happens as it happens and with the caveat that you are all at risk if you don't do this, because of the potential lawsuit. not from us, but from private parties. >> commissioner ortiz. >> first i want to thank you supervisor mandelman for common sense of this and thinking globally about the city and how to use our pressure resources, so appreciate that. and also director tang, for initiating the program, because initially

i wasn't necessarily too sold on it, but i will be honest now i'm on the street you made the boogie man dpoe away. a lot of small businesses we just ignore d this. it brought to the forefront in a positive way and in addition to the resources behind the program. i think we did a lot of good work in the community and i don't want to jinx us. from the optics on the ground i see less of the drive by or google lawsuits because i think the small businesses are more away, plus the state legislation that makes you be aware what you are signing and what you potentially could be liable for doing so. i want to thank you for that, because initially like i said, i wasn't necessary [indiscernible] lastly, i had a question. not necessarily pertaining exactly to this, but in a current location what's the dollar threshold amounts on tenant improvement that requires a d a

upgrades? is it a buck 50? i remember- >> i don't recall the threshold, so i apologize. >> i think it is somewhere under $200 thousand, but it does change every year, so i can look that up. i recall it is slightly under 200. [multiple speakers] >> i'm helping a couple businesses and telling them, be careful because if you go over-board you will open another can of worms. that's it. thank you. thank you everybody. >> i wanted to also appreciate director tang's work on the abe program. that is something we talk about every few weeks or so, but looking at this number here, 16.505 out of

23.504 businesses, that is a lot of businesses. over 82 percent of businesses have now made improvements that perhaps were not incentivized to make improvements before, and so that's a huge feat in the city that has incredibly old infrastructure. one of the things i guess i'm curious about-maybe this is more a rhetorical question, but like, you know, how does our city fair in terms of like its you know, welcomeness and how inviting are we to somebody who is traveling with and has a disability or experiences life with disability? like how does our city look to somebody like who may not be able to

access entryway to begin with and like, what are other things we can do? i'm really excited to see how you engage traveller communities, local communities to find what we can do as small businesses to make things better. i think you know, my ask would be that, as you engage with more communities and as you engage with this piece of legislation and have these conversations to be able to really share with us many of those best practices. i know you have some listed here already, but fwr a small business to be able to go on a site and be able to get inspired by how they can make their spaces better, that would be really interesting to me. even if it was just like a gallery like a photo gallery on a website or something like that. just as business owners we want to do the best that we can and we want to do

you know, like whatever it is to make things better for everyone around us, and i think sometimes what we are missing is time and inspiration because we are so heads down, so if there was a way that while you are learning to be able to share those learnings with us, i think we would be happy to share with our small business communities as well and hopefully through that we can kind of create a generative change within our city. >> thank you for that invitation. i think the city certainly is a better city for folks with disabilities accessing those spaces because of the abe program, so thank you president huie and commissioner ortiz for acknowledging that a lot of good work has been done under that program. i also think there is really an opportunity now and i think interest in all these departments in collaborating on the kind of thing you are talking about and getting you know, whatever resources we can to small

businesses, because i think they want to be open and accessible and there are some win wins here and more communication and more the kind of examples of your sharing with putting stuff on web sites and easy for people to see. raising issues someone might not think about and wouldn't be that hard as they set up a new business or adapting the existing business to make it more welcoming. i think we will have those conversations over the next year. i think we will get reports. i think you may want to do conversation here at this commission as that work going forward and either hear about it or inform it or however we do it. i think there is opportunities for this going forward. >> great. thank you very much. one more comment from director tang. >> thank you. i just wanted to first just get back to commissioner ortiz about the threshold that amount that trigger certain types

of accessibility requirements. as mentioned, it does change every year and for 2024 it is a little above $200 thousand. last year it was a little under $200 thousand. just to also reiterate that our team, especially our permitting team but all our business counselors will continue to advise all businesses seeking permits for any improvements to their storefront that they should be aware of all the federally mandated accessibility requirements, point to resources like the grant we offer for accessible barrier removal and others, so that work will continue and be ongoing. >> great. thank you very much. any other commissioner questions, comments? seeing none, we'll open up for public comment. any public comment on this

agenda item? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. i think that's it. right? we dont have to make a motion or anything, right? no, we do. >> you can recommend it. >> okay. does anybody since it is action item. >> move to recommend. in support. >> motion in support of the legislation by commissioner ortiz, is there a second? >> second. >> second by commissioner herbert. commissioner benitez. commissioner cornet. commissioner dickerson is absent. commissioner herbert, yes. presidents huie, yes. commissioner ortiz, yes. vice president zouzounis, yes. motion passes. >> thank you. thank you very much. next item, please. >> item 4, board of supervisors file 240926. fee elimination and

administrative provision. discussion and action. the commission will hear and possibly take action on an ordinance amending the business and tax regulations code, administrative code, health code, police code, and public works code to make the following changes if the voters approve proposition m in the november 5, 2024, election: 1) eliminate certain fees beginning in 2026, and 2) increase the gross receipts threshold from $2,500,000 to $5,000,000 for reductions to annual curbside shared spaces fees beginning in 2026; and to make the following additional changes regardless of whether the voters approve proposition m: 3) extend indefinitely the waiver of business location and device fees for businesses with taximeter devices; 4) extend indefinitely the suspension of the registration certificate and fee requirements for taxi drivers and drivers for transportation network companies; 5) authorize the tax collector to collect certain additional license fees on the unified license bill; and 6) amend the delinquency date and penalty provisions and add interest provisions relating to license fees collected on the unified license bill. >> manda [indiscernible] office of treasurer tax collector.

thanks for having me back again. this is a kind of a final piece about license fees that we have been talking about together for a couple years now and it is a exciting step. with the support of the mayor, president peskin, and supervisor mandelman, as part of the business tax package on the ballot that is prop m, there was an agreement to wave up to $10 million in annual fees that hit small businesses, but pay generally these are regulatory license fees that are paid to departments like public health, police, fire, entertainment, et cetera. they are the ones businesses will recognize come on a annual bill from the tax collector. it is a very popular bill. everyone really love s it. it puts all your charges together once a year with really steep penalities if you forget to pay it. if prop m passes, next week, $10 million of these fees will be waived and the benefit all most entirely goes to small businesses. this will happen in 2026, so i do want to say clearly, folks regardless of what happens next week, people will still get their bills january or february of next year, but that will be the last time they get these

bills. and, if these fees are waived, the benefits are primarily felt by restaurants, so 91 percent of restaurants in san francisco will no longer get a bill from our office. this unified license bill at all. every fee they pay will be waived and for night life businesses, 87 percent of those bills are entirely gone. now, there are many other small businesses that will also benefit, but that's where-those are the two industries that pay the most now, so they will feel the biggest benefit from this legislation. as reminder, the reason this came to be was through a lot of advocacy by folks like director tang and others about these bills, and saying this is really a lot for small businesses to pay every year, so back in the late teens, i think 2018, 2019, our office

actually looked at the impact of these bills. if you add up how much a small business pays and you add up the license fees with their taxes, the cumulative burden is higher then bigger businesses, so our smallest businesses actually are paying the most. i know this isn't a surprise to anybody here, but actually showing that was helpful for policy makers. so, what we did to figure out which license fees to wave was, we first looked at the license fees that were predominantly paid by restaurants, entertainment and night life. again, because we know they are bearing the brunt of these regulatory fees primarily through dph fees, health fees. we worked closely with the office of small business and with departments to kind of go down the list and say are the right fees, the ones with most impact. we started with data and had to talk to people who knew what these

different fees minute meant and what they did and figured out, how much revenue is the city collecting each year. how businesses are paying them and what would that look for departments ongoing. there were a few types of license fees that we decided to add on that didn't-that were not our typical ones on our bill. those include tables and chairs fees. the merchandise display fees and point of sale fees so those fees are included as well. the way this will work is it will not-businesses will not have to do anything to get this benefit. if this legislation passes at the board, these fees will actually be set to zero dollars, so it is not based on your individual business gross receipts and you have to tell us something every year, the ci