hoodies, dresses epic coats featured in vogue magazine. we have pretty much anything tie dye-to hats to cat ears, we have it and it is tie dye and we have free glitter too. guests and shoppers will experience love and mazic when they come into love on haight. it is one of those places that i really hope when you leave you feel better, you feel happier. rainbows make people smile, so it is hard to come in here and not get a little giddy.

>> this meeting is held in person in city hall room 400 and broadcast on sfgovtv. the small business thanks media services and sfgovtv. we welcome public participation in person during public comment periods. there will be a opportunity for general public comment at the end of the meeting and there will be a opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item. public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker. an alarm sounds once time finished. speakers are requested but not require to state their name. sfgovtv, please show the office of small business slide. the small business commission is the public forum to voice decisions and concerns that effect economic vitality of small brz in san francisco. please call item 1.

>> item 1, roll call. commissioner benitez. commissioner cornet. commissioner huie is absent. [indiscernible] you have a quorum. >> thank you. the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff, we acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. please call

item 2. >> item 2, approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. this is discussion and action item. the commission will discuss and possibly take action to approve registry applications. presenting is richard kurylo program manager with office of small business. >> thank you richard. >> good afternoon president huie, vice president zouzounis, commissioners, city staff, members of the public. richard kurylo, legacy business program manager. i like to acknowledge michelle reynold in the office of small business who provides assistance to the legacy business program. sfgovtv, i have a power point presentation. before you today are three applications for consideration for the legacy business registry. each application includes a staff report, draft resolution, the application itself and documents from

the planning department. the application were submitted to planning september 18 and heard by historic preservation commission october 16. item 2 a is oscar's photo lab. the business is a photo lab established in 1982 in the south of market neighborhood. specialize in preserving precious memories for tailors to your needs. there are specialties include professional film processing, printing service, film scanning, photo lab services, high quality photo mounting and restoration and retouching services. to make things more convenient they do film processing by mail. oscar's photo lab is dedicated to safeguarding moments that matter most to you. the core feature tradition to remain on the legacy business registry is

photography services. item 2b is pact. plan of action for challenging times. the non profit organization was founded in 1963 and established in 1964 and headquartered in divisadero. founding during the civil right 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 th 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 city will stop charging them all together, zero dollars for each of these fees and are departments will recoup the revenue from the general fund through general tax revenue. for businesses you stop getting a bill or a bill with much less on it and that is why. it is because of this legislation. couple other things to note in the legislation. there is a lot grouped in here. we are also seeking to increase the small business exsemption threshold for the shared spaces waver, so for businesses that are getting

parklets, right now if you get below 2 and a half million dollars in gross receipts you pay-you get a 50 percent haircut on your shared spaces fee. if prop m passes, that 2 and a half million dollars raises to 5 million dollars because that is what is happen in the tax-the small exemption threshold goes up, so that will help a number of businesses as well. it is also extending a couple things that keep happening at the board and we said, let's do this once and for all. that is these location and device fees for taxies. the point of sale for taxis and suspension of the registration certificate and fee requirements for taxi and ride share drivers. again, this is something we have to go to the board every five years to reauthorize, so we said let's put it in here and make it clear. and then we are also, this is important

because this is regardless what happens with prop m, we are amending some of the penalty and interest provisions lt. we heard loud and clear we now charge 10 percent as soon as you are late on the bill and it is very difficult. we will align with all the other business taxes we have on the penalities, which start at 5 percent. so, if you are still getting this bill for whatever reason, and you pay late, it isn't quite as big of a penalty off the bat and it grows with time. and then these bills will be due earlier in the year if prop m passes to give a preview, so when you go to renew your registration, which will happen towards the beginning of the year, the end of february, you will be able to see, i willow polk license fees and this is how much i owe and you have a month to pay those. we are trying to pull everything together to make it easier and get to have less contact with our office, because everyone loves the tax collector.

and that's all for me. happy to take any questions. >> thank you very much. commissioner herbert. >> well, i wanted to say as a restaurant owner, yeah! jumping for joy because there are a lot of fees. i can probably speak for all other restaurant owners too when i say thank you. so, february we'll get notice just to clarify of the fees and then have a month to pay them? >> starting in 2026. >> 2026. still have table and chair fees and all that thing. >> right. the fee waver, this legislation is at the board the hearing is in a couple weeks, and much of what i talked about only goes into effect if prop m passes. some thingz like the deadline going into effect no matter what.

>> thank you. >> commissioner ortiz. >> thank you amanda for the presentation and i love this because it's bringing our city into the right direction. this is the spirit of how we can simplify and help small business. common sense approaches and really helping our restaurant and night life business. i just love it. i hope it passes. even the part that dont pass, still streamlining the deadline andpenalities. it kills you for a small business like that 10 percent. it is like street tax. appreciate that. really. thank you. >> i think you find most small businesses are going to be in favor of reducing fees. i mean, i think one thing that now seeing how city hall works,

versus how we operate in our small businesses is that, like, i think the things that you think are common sense are totally not common sense to the rest of us often times, so when i get a bill in the mail, i'm entirely confused whether i got that same bill last week or if this is from the same department. is this about the same thing. for many of us it is very challenging to kind of figure out how our entire fee picture looks so i think the city has done a great job trying to streamline that and trying to streamline and remove it is wonderful step for all of us. hopefully this helps small business find not so intimidating to start a small business in san francisco. vice president zouzounis. >> thank you so much for coming

and for working with us all these years. i think we were talking about fee streamlining before it had any glimmer of hope in the legislative realm so this is really exciting for our commission and for some of the newcomers, we played a big part in this work and we are really thankful to our current leadership and our past leadership for supporting this narrative of reducing fees. i in addition to kind of all these conversations and crowd sourcing from the small business community, what fees you know were burdensome, was there any technical or data driven tools you all used? i know fees are based on nexus reports and studies and i know that there is a lot of outdated ones that haven't had

the reporting that haven't been in compliance for reporting and nexus studies and curious if you started from ones that like that and if there were any that you think could be added in but need more support? >> great question. i think these fees in particular are more of the one size fits all annual license fees that departments charge, so not the ones really that have the nexus study per se. and the way we approached it at first was really to look at-we looked at tax data to see how big are the businesses playing these and how many businesses are paying and tried to find the biggest thing for our buck. we want ed to get of fees with mostly small businesses paying, a lot of small businesses and paying and we focused on the zero bill concept because

everyone likes reduction, but the best is if we can make sure our business just stops getting the bill all together and so with we got down, that is where we were looking at okay, what could we do and the last stragglers and maybe it only has 50 businesses paying but that means 50 restaurants won't get this bill at all. i think there are a number of other fees out there that everyone would very much like to tackle, but i think in terms of the license fee realm, we are severely reducing the number of licenses we will collect. >> okay. yeah. what do you feel was the-i was always told the fees balance our budget, so what is the political rational that allowed them our legislators to be confident reducing? >> i think for this pairing with the business tax over-haul was the

right timing. it was we are taking a big look at how we need to reframe business taxes overall in this huge amount of revenue, and so as long as we are adjusting billions of dollars really, this is $10 million of 1 is and a half billion dollar collection for gross receipts taxes so it came into perspective this is relatively small amount. i say there is still work to do between the controller's office and individual departments to understand how to operationalize this for their budgets to make sure that they continue-they are still doing the same work so it isn't like you have to get a permit and not get inspected. all that work is still going to continue, you just don't have to pay for anymore. it is replacing who pays for that work, not getting rid of the work itself. >> that's is really helpful. thank you for helping me

visualize that decision. >> any other questions? seeing no other questions, any public comment? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. and i guess are we making-this was action item, so we have to make a motion. any commissioner-- >> [indiscernible] >> motion to approve to support the legislation, commissioner ortiz, seconded by commissioner benitez. [roll call] commissioner herbert, yes. presidents huie, yes. commissioner ortiz, yes. vice president zouzounis, yes. motion passes. >> thank you so much amanda. next item, please. >> item 5, approval of draft

meelting minutes. this is discussion and action item. >> commissioners, any comments or questions about the draft meeting minutes? no questions. any public comment? no public comment. public comment is closed. commissioner, anybody want to make a motion to approve the draft meeting minutes? >> i will make a motion to approve the draft meeting minutes. is there a second? >> i second. >> motion by president huie, seconded by commissioner herbert. [difficulty hearing commissioners] president huie, yes. commissioner ortiz, yes. vice president zouzounis, yes. motion passes. >> thank you. next item. >> item 6, general public comment. this is discussion item

allowing members to comment generally on matters within the small business commission jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda item s for future consideration. >> any public comment? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 7, director's report. this is discussion item. >> good evening commissioners. i know that two of the update were covered under the legislation discussed earlier today, so just sharing that recently additional piece of legislation that may be of interest to you, there was legislation introduced by supervisor walton recently regarding third street and the alcohol restricted use district. this new legislation which is still pending at the board of supervisors allow type 42 establishments to open within the third street alcohol restricted use district in the

bayview with conditional use authorization. currently this is not permitted. the second one that was introduced by supervisor mandelman is he is removing from the police department the police code, the police department role and regulating public bath houses and so it will still public bath houses still have other requirements they have to go through, for example through department building inspection, however the police department is no longer regulating. i think those were the two legislative updates. i wanted to give and also just wanted to remind commissioners about new ethics regulations that took effect, so proposition d which was adapted by voters in november last year is taking effect this month. it was mid-october and it sets additional standards for things

like gifts that we can receive or prohibited receiving from restricted sources. so, there are lots of resources available whether online or even through the city attorney's office or ethics commission if any have you questions about these new additional regulations, and for example, our department will need to start posting when we receive department gifts like tickets to events on our website on a monthly basis, but if any of you have any particular questions pertaining to your specific role as a commissioner, please let me or kerry know and we can connect with resources or people to help you clarify these questions. so, those are all of my updates, and--sorry, i should also note that on behalf of rick, inviting you to the upcoming heritage happy hour, the next is november 14 at butter at 354

11th street in district 6. that's it. thank you. >> great. thank you. any questions? no questions. any public comment? no public comment. public comment is closed. thank you very much director tang for your report. next item, please. >> item 8, commissioner discussion and new business. this is discussion item. >> commissioner ortiz cartagena. >> i have two items. one is around again, compact mobile food. i mentioned in the last meeting. i mentioned it in several meetings. i need urgency on this. it is really effecting especially the mission districates. we have a ton of curb-side street food vendser looks for pathways to legitimacy and without direction there is explosion especially otnight that compete with brick and mortar

and you are pitting community against one another. it is the mobile food against brick and mortar and the mobile food because there is a pathway for that, so i need dph, dpw. i know they probably have thing in place but i need this rolled out. i need urgency on this, because it is really really having a negative impact in my community. i ask director if you could talk to both department heads and bring them here and get clarity on it. what really bothers me more is, we have done lot of ground work. l a has the program rolled out. they have compact mobile food courts in place. they have given grants and one, i hate la is better then us in anything on a personal level, but two, there is precedent and they have strict health code laws like ours, so we need to get this done.

it is really now starting like-i have been saying for 2 or 3 years now, so i like those department heads to come present to us. the second one is, regarding supplier numbers with the city. so, to do business with the city you must have supplier id to get the supplier id you must open a portal t. is a free process, however, it is a complicated process and i believe it is unnecessary complicated process. it is a good way for our smalls business and restaurants or whom ever to do business with the city just to generate revenue. they have all the departments across the city that have lurch, there is very limited suppliers so to order lunch you need a supplier id and it is really hard especially to the small businesses and our mono lingual or not as tech savvy because there is no transparency on why the path takes so long

or gets like paused. i'll give you a example, we helped one business and knew where the pause was, it was in the department and took 15 hours for the whole process. that's a lot of hours a small business won't do and can't afford a consultant or expediter. another business took 23 hours and that even the actual departments all the paperwork was submitted and it was all most it nobody could give a answer why this process was held up. so, it is just little things like this that makes it so hard to engage and do business in the city and doing business with the actual city of san francisco is a huge boom. especially for restaurants. again, think about all the multiple departments that have luncheons and really they only buy from a very select few that knew how to do the process. i want to have-is it-what

department is that director? >> it is multiple departments. we did reach out to the city administrator's office to see if we could line up all the various staff that could have a say in improving the process. >> okay. thank you. >> i feel like something we talked about a while ago on the commission is having more forum like opportunities here, so maybe this is one where we can-when we have it agendize that there will be staff that are at every step of this process and we can invite small businesses so they have order of operations kind of presentation too. just a thought. >> [indiscernible] they had a supplier number, right? you dad?

>> yeah, but i have crazy stories about like- >> how hard? >> yeah. the insurance-there are so many hold-ups, you have to have certain types of paperwork to submit and sometimes the third parties involved dont know exactly what the city is requesting on that. there is definitely i feel like opportunities to do best practices or like how to's on- >> i don't want to beat anybody up, because it isn't one department head, there is nobody-it is just something that is easy, low hanging fruit we can clear up and trust me it is boom for a small business. even if it a $300ordser, that is 300 they don't have. >> one thing i note over time as you know when laws are layered on top of each other, it contributed to challenges. one year our legislators decision

makers say we want to make sure everyone has equal benefits, every employee that is hired by a company in the city, they must have equal benefits. another year we say, we care about this other issue and here goes another piece of legislation, so it is layered and layered upon over time so it does take effort legislatively to unpackage all that. we like to wave our wands and make it easier right now, we probably need to go through some legislative process to undo some of those things and get the support of people to to so. i want to say, it is maybe not as easy as we all hoped, but it is built up over time. >> somebody recently put forth legislation regarding requirements for city contracting and trying to take some out. >> i think that had to do with

our restriction on allowing contracts with companies based in certain states that didn't support i think same sex marriage for example, so and that was rolled back, because again, it was actually very prohibitive for certain things that the city to purchase. that is one example of how-and that was one law rolled back, but there are many others. >> are those in the charter or just in contracting? >> i believe it is in administrative code. >> administrative code. got it. thank you. >> one last thing just again, everybody in those offices they have been amazing to work with. it isn't the people, it is just like you said the layer of bureaucracy throughout the years, because they have been our partner in getting the supplier id's to businesses so i want to highlight, they go above and

beyond with customer services, so i want to put that as a note. >> vice president zouzounis, did you have any--? i can share that we have been having these block parties in china town on waverly and our last one this year will be november-forget what it is. november-next friday. the one after-it is like the november 8. sorry. got confused. november 8 will be our last block party for the year and we are excited about the activation. i think it has been an opportunity to bring people further into chinatown to understand the kind of like what else is beyond grant and you know, i

think going forward next year it will be interesting to see how we kind of do more activations if they look different. this year is the year of night markets and night time activations. i love to see if we can figure how to get people further into the communities like at night, but also like throughout the year. i'm really excited and excited that there's energy. i think there has been a bunch of other things happening but cant remember all now. one thing i do want to look into is kind of like all the other things that businesses-i for me like our overhead has been creeping up and like

certain things like internet, electricity, recology, we have to pay for all those things, but i noticed from having my past business and then now the new business the cost of business greatly increased, so one of those being you know, just the trash bills and things like that. i am kind of interested in what that looks like for our small businesses and how we can kind of support and just like basic understanding of what it takes to open a business. so, yeah, those are some of the things that i'm working on right now. alright. anybody else? i thought you were coming with half hour presentations here. we are ready for a 4 hour meeting.

[laughter brash ]. next time. seeing no other questions or comment up here, any public comment? you don't want to comment on all of the exciting-- [laughter] i want to appreciate you all for sitting and being here. seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 9, adjournment. sfgotv please show the office of small business slide. >> we will end with reminder that the small business commission is a official public forum to voice opinions and concerns about policies that effect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with small business matters reach out to office of small business. meeting is adjourned.

[meeting adjourned] [music] since the opening on third and mission in 2010 the

grove is a epicenter. tis is part of the community. we bring tourist, we bring convention ears and have a huge group of locers who live here. we are their living room and love to see them on a regular basis and seek newcomers to the city of san francisco and serve them a good dose of san francisco hospitality. we make everything in house from scratch every dape we vahand carved [indiscernible] the chicken pot pie we serve probably a hundred thousand if not more. roasted chicken, prime rib, salad[indiscernible] coffee cake and [indiscernible] all the pies are fresh baked. the home made cookies are done, once, twice a day, depending how fast they go. we believe in goold old fashion home cooked food. we want to be a welcoming,

warm hospitable place for everyone to come and hang out. respond time with friends and family, meet new people. have important conversation. relax and enjoy, rejuvenate, get restored, enjoy one another and the at mus sphere the growth. the grove is over 730 to 830, 7 days a week, breakfast, lunch and dinner. everyone i now call the december 3rd, 2024 regular meeting of the municipal transportation agency board of directors and parking authority commission to order. secretary silva, please call the roll on the role. director chen. present. chen. present. director heminger here. heminger.