facilities do not have to put a lock box. as you know we have the universal key call acts to get in these buildings and people like to prevent us from using that. they can provide us with a lock box and a key which will use in a nonemergency situation and typically a building arm you don't see a fire, you don't see smoke. so we just clarified of how you can order a box because all these boxes are designed for community and so if you buy it for somewhere else our key will not work in it. so when you register or when you buy the box you buy it for san francisco. they know our keys work. we can actually track them with the knox system so when the key goes in is used when it gets put back in its holder in our apparatus it sends the information of who used it last and when it was used. so that way if a customer a building owner has any questions about i think somebody access my building got in the box we can tell them when it was actually last use

and knox is the brand that we selected. it's used in many many communities. many of you seen those brown boxes we actually had knox was kind enough to provide us with 800 lids they retrofitted the existing boxes so the building owners would not actually have to replace the boxes. instead my staff went out there and was changing out the lock boxes and registered. we're still working on some of them because there are some outliers out there. we're finding from now on when customers want to buy a lock box they know to go to knox to install it very quickly from the commission do we need to get rid of public comment to do the public comment? >> i do not see anyone approaching the podium. let me check the public comment line. caller do you wish to make public comment on this agenda item no, no sir, i did not hear

you correct? no. do you wish to make public comment? >> no, i do not. okay. thank you. there's no public comment. president morgan okay. thank you, madam secretary. so far marshall kaufman in the last say in the last ten years, how many times have we changed a lock box or did this type of change? >> this is the first time we've actually changed vendors. it's the whole program lock box. well for this kind of lock box has has happened track since the previous vendor had changed the type of lids i believe 2 or 3 times is the way that we open them up. i'm going from an actual key digital pad we install to a bluetooth and analog they don't longer support that so that's what was great about this program is it didn't cost the building owner anything if they

registered the previous box with us we went out and swapped the lit out for free. so this is not a frequent thing and hopefully it won't have to happen again. knox seems like a reputable brand will support us. yeah, i was just just just curious, you know, because like that would could present a problem or something in an emergency to come up to a building that had the old equipment on it and you're in that program was still will still work right now so our our chiefs out there in the field should have have the program on their phone if it still has the old one. i will continue to work for six months to a year. i'm not sure i can't remember what the date is but it will still continue to work and that's why we're trying to work through a finding those those errant ones that aren't registered with us. >> thank you so i guess administrative bulletin 5.09 providing information on the change of vendor for key lock

boxes from traces to knox brand . are there any questions from my fellow commissioners or there a motion move approval i second president morgan how do you vote yes commissioner nakano how revote a vote yes. >> motion passes administrative bulletin 5.12 providing update of mid-year seven one 2024 fire code changes and the fire marshal's interpretation of them. all right, so this is the one you're going to have comments on kind of has been a little been not only contentious but probably understanding and working with the building department on this topic. so real quick and energy storage system typical names you'll hear are power walls or other brands. so when you have a solar system

on top of your roof the old program would be when it's daytime and then the energy would go back to ppg in the nighttime and your reader would go backwards and then nighttime you take it. well that program has i believe sunset at this point and so it doesn't really pan out to get a photo of a like system solar system because while you're at work all day it's generating power and you go to nighttime you have no way to save it. so the energy storage system is a battery that's being installed in the home typically in the garage that can store that power. so when you come home at night you can turn the tv on the blender or whatever else you got going on because it's charge up all day. so it's a way to make solar systems cost of cost effective. so that's what isas are they also known as isas they did an update in july of this past year. it's kind of new when it comes to the code. it showed up in the last code cycle and so we made as a

jurisdiction made certain we interpreted the code a certain way. they updated it in 2021 to allow more power because i think that's where the state's going. there's some plan that maybe these can be used part of the power grid is they can take power from them and then give power back to those other times. so the biggest thing being that you see there on page one is it increased up to how many wattage you can have in your house and so 280kw of battery storage that's a combination of inside outside closets and everywhere else that they raise it up to 600kw kilowatt hours. the other issue was with the way that we were plan checking the program with db ii. so department of building inspection has been reviewing them. we've been doing a courtesy inspection for fire prevention

and we want to make sure that our members when they get to these buildings and when they get on the roof they have a place to step off right on top of these for cells around skylights around the peak of the roof. and so we review plans when it comes to solar for that when it comes to the garage, we want to make sure that this is being installed correctly in the location that includes everything from impact protection to ensuring sheet rock requirements or gypsum board requirements in the garage in case these fail and they flare out. there's also a requirement for heat detection to notify the tenants or residents inside the building. so let's put this all together . our previous bulletin so 20kw is this magic number so you can't if you have a battery pack that's bigger than 20kw you fall into more of an industrial size energy storage system and you have increased requirements obviously we just

had that fire down in monterey. i don't know if you saw that that's a that's a commercial type of system very large that can feed back to the grid. these are a lot smaller. >> these are, you know, this size. >> we originally interpreted the code that if it was under 20kw it did not require our review because the code was like very vague about it with this new code that came out and with the impending code for the next code cycle we clarified that we will be reviewing plans for all excesses over one kilowatt so to the above normally these power walls approximately or 13 to 14kw when you put them together you can there's other requirements way that you can install. so we tried to clarify this. the other concern was is the process that companies could go to gbi and get a permit.

as you know, people i could be quite cumbersome through all the different stations you need to go there. so we tried to clarify about what kind of permit you needed because there was a concern or there was an issue with accepting a building or a trade permit, a electrical permit only as fire wanted to actually see the systems, see their plans being installed. so this clarifies that we are going to be reviewing everything over one kilowatt on that type of permit whether it be a building permit or an electrical permit. we'll work with either one to be able to review and some requirements when it comes to solar systems, the final thing is we've clarified with the industry and both the building and electrical department that ac ten contractors license is not required for these. these are to install these systems or design the systems because they are pre

manufactured and essentially they're installed already so you don't need that license. so we've taken away a couple of hurdles and tried to better explain this program. >> kathleen, i guess we'll go forward. i'm done after public comment i guess i do not see anyone approaching the podium. let me check the public comment line. caller do you wish to make public comment on this agenda item yes, i would. okay. >> you have three minutes starting now. >> go ahead. thank you. my name is eric. i'm director of engineering at luminol solar pv and battery energy storage installation contractor based here in san francisco. >> i'd like to start by thanking the san francisco fire department in particular fire marshal coffman and fire

marshal herold for being responsive to our public comments presented at last month's fire commission meeting regarding excessive permitting times. i'll just say thank you for taking into consideration our written in person comments on this proposed revision for ab 5.12 being based in san francisco. most of our work is here so it's important for us to have open communication with sfd in our designing and planning for our systems and it's appreciated. the one comment i'd like to make is that going forward i want to make sure that the permitting times are still a focus especially with sfd taking part in all reviews. the past can continue to be or can be done in a timely manner. thank you.

>> thank you. >> thank you. any more public comment? >> madam secretary, i do not see any more public comment. i would like to clarify so i mr. eric had stated on the phone he was at the other hearing we have we have a working relationship with luminol and we are prioritizing solar any ss installation plan review move them over the counter or if they are submitted we turn around them in 24 to 48 hours. we know how important it is to their business and getting these things installed and to the public to get more of these systems in place so at this time is there any questions or fire marshal call from i have a question thank you for a

marshall kaufman would you for the benefit of anybody of the public watching and for my own just give us a a simple explanation of somebody building or home that is car charging capability or batteries and home storage system? are they the same? do they talk to each other? how does that work in a in two separate systems. so typically a home charger would typically be a type 1 or 2. those are the the cord you see the plug in to an outlet and then they have like a handle on it which tells you how it's charging those kind of systems that you typically find in a single family 1 or 2 family dwelling that's separate that's taking from ppg any charge in your vehicle good to go whereas the ss is a battery storage storage unit mounted onto a wall.

it could be on the floor, it could be on a wall that is there that's tied into your main box and your of your home. so like i said when you go to use power typically in the evening it will take that power first before it turns over and starts using pgd. so two different systems you could have a charger and you could also have a battery storage and that is presumably consumer panels. >> i'm sorry. yes. is it from solar panels? yes. yes. >> this is take that solar power and stores it away for you to be able to use when you come home. okay. >> thank you. perfect. is there any further questions from the commission for the fire commissioner? i mean have fire marshal this sounds like a very substantive update. yes. especially when it comes to the permits it needed to be done.

yeah, we've been working with as a partner with the department building special for quite some time to get to this point. we had a little hiccup i will admit towards the end of the year we've partnered together, had lots of discussions and we've come to agreement and we're still developing or working on the permitting system there. ms. group is still working over the next couple of months to come up with a special permit that allows all agencies are supposed to regulate this to be able to review the plans in a quick and a faster manner. right now we're kind of we're working with what we have until this am i ask and finish their work. but yes, the idea is to get these permits out as fast as possible and get them into the homes of our building owners. >> well, i'll be singing from the same songbook as we do. >> thank you, commissioner. >> because you thank you, president morgan. thank you, fire marshal.

oh, so what comes back to me within this is we're offering up this amended bulletin from the perspective of us the fire department to make things doable and easier. we're explaining about what we're going to expect they said the permit process a process has gone through a couple of iterations and our let them know we're willing to accept either by a building construction permit or an electrical trade permit in the meantime until ms. or there do you guys am i asking figure out and create a permit that allows the the contractor to get to the process faster. we also clarified a couple of other things i expressed specifically of what we will review on what level and then that a contractor does not need to be a c ten licensed contractor. >> yeah and i thank you appreciate that detail because

that's what i kind of wanted to hear was the details because there's a lot of the words i used or the word you use was to get rid of some of the hurdles to me a like streamlining the one of my bullet points is is that in compliance or is it and so i get it and i appreciate the work that it took to get to this point because and the last clarification is when the reduction of the kilowatts was from i forget the number ten or whatever it was larger than one was that to have us the department have more accessibility to implement those policy that that was allows us to look at more of these systems before they're installed. >> okay got that. all right. thank you for that fire marshal. i support this amendment brought in 5.1 to like to make a motion.

>> mr. president, vice president frazier, how do you vote? vote? i commissioner collins how do you vote? i motion passes. >> thank you. thank you. item number eight fire commission election of officers discussion and possible action nomination and election of commission president but this time madam secretary is there any public comment? >> i do not see anyone approaching the podium and there is no one on the public comment line. thank you madam secretary. so is there any discussion on or questions him the commission i'm nominating a new president of the commission. >> thank you for your service.

>> you're welcome. here. >> it's been an honor. it's been an honor. but now as as you see, my term is up so we're going to go through our normal protocol and elect a new president of the fire commission. >> so i know you guys are going to miss me. >> i'm not going nowhere yet. yeah, good. so with that said, i would like to nominate vice president frazier as president of the new president of this fire commission and i had a heads up and i do accept so thank you. we should we will take a vote now. >> president there has to be a second to that motion. is there a second? i'd like to place a second on that and at this point also president morgan for service but in the spirit and cooperate ation of our collective leadership. vice president frazier i'd like

to lend my support and vote for vice president frazier to be the nominee for president as well. >> mr. president morgan commissioner collins how do you vote? i vote enthusiastically. >> i thank you. motion passes. congratulations. >> nomination and election of commission vice president at this time is there any motions any questions we will check for public vote public comment please. >> madam secretary, there is no one approaching the podium and there is no one on the public comment line. mr. britt we go okay, go ahead commissioner karger thank you

very much. >> president morgan i would like to nominate as an honor and a privilege of serving with her our commissioner paula collins. >> in terms of the role of our vice president of the service fire commission, i second that. >> do you accept commissioner collins? >> i do. >> president frazier how do you vote? >> motion passes. okay. >> item number nine. adjournment i am sorry. >> vice president collins, i. i just want to add my thanks to you army. >> morgan commissioner ami morgan you're welcome. you did a wonderful job as

president. you were comprehends if you honored the past, you led us to the future. you and our most senior commissioner worked so well together yet you were inclusive. >> so i want to thank you both for that. >> taught me everything i know . >> well, thank you, commissioner collins. and i'm sure you'll be a great vice president and you're going to be a great president. you learned from making ready for me. >> okay. at this time would you like to adjourn to me? >> no. go finish out your time this time i guess we can adjourned the meeting meeting adjourned at 720 1 p.m.

television. >> (music). >> my name is vet at a original artist based in san francisco.

>> i love it i love it i've never seen something else and we see how the people see which is happening and what is going on. kind of cool i wanted to be part of that. >> i saw it 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes you yeah. >> so we have you - yeah. i started going when i was young but not the type of kid would get food but this is something i really have been progressing on a talent from like other artists. >> this is amazing. >> this is so good yeah, it is so good like the artists. >> i love it. >> what a great project.

>> part of the part for have i grants. >> yeah. i love it. >> i serve in for 2 two years now and i really am fortunate to live in a place for art. >> an effort creating places it serve san francisco soul and that makes them want to see this place; right? with the experience of art in san jose experience in from the get-go sometimes our environmentalist has created tests but we have an opportunity for that and have artists in the storefront part of project you can walk in and experience and hoping we'll be there for a long time. >> this is the first farther

easy way of going to spaces i didn't know how it is really cool it would be and we're forced to be in the moment when we're test and creating something really cool. >> makes us feel good. >> as far (unintelligible) done all temporary and took them down i like the temporary aspect base (unintelligible) (microphone distorted) not permanent can enjoy it.

>> [music] >> my name is lana. i am part owner of the excelsior coffee. my roll with excelsior coffee is pretty much the [indiscernible] i do a lot of the back-end operating procedures and a lot of customer front facing, a lot of customer outreach, naerbd outreach, but for the most part the coffee is it driving force of the community. i have been here in the excelsior district for 11 years. the idea behind excelsior coffee spouted 6 years ago out of the

need for community space and coffee. excelsior coffee to me is a cornerstone of the neighborhood. next to this iconic mural on excelsior along with the legacy businesses. we decided that this corner of san francisco on the southeast side of the mission is the place we like to be. i know you see a lot of eththetics of motorcycles behind us. a lot of people ask, what's up with the motorcycles behind you? motorcycle and classic cars are a big yite of our upbringing so the idea was to connect to this neighborhood from classic cars to low riders to motorcycles and my husband is is a high school teacher that teaches automotives and history. we love the history of motorcycle

engineer and design. for us it was more like a talking point and connection. honoring that and that is also the driving force between who we are and the make-up. i think what separates from other coffee shops is that, we are serving a community that has been here for a decade before us, and i think it is really special that there is a vortex of non english speaking communities here. between my husband and i, we represent many cultures. i'm [indiscernible] he is black, his mexican and through our cultures is how we connect with people in the excelsior. to speak their languages, and i think honoring our culture background through coffee and pastry. excelsior coffee, we are at 4495 mission street on mission and excelsior

in the excelsior district. call excelsior coffee in your face excelsior. we are open 7:30 to 4 p.m. for now. [laughter] . >> ready to go. thank you very much. i'm going to ring the gavel. the time is 104. and good afternoon and welcome to the meeting of the executive committee. on wednesday, january 15th, 2025 i've called the meeting to order. i would ask our commission secretary monroe's dhaliwal to call the roll.

>> president collins present vice president shio to present commissioner beltran present. commissioner cher is absent. commissioner shelby is absent. we have corm for today's meeting also for the record. director of cultural affairs ralph remington. deputy director of programs evan glenn. deputy director of finance and administration sara hallenbeck. and chief of staff alissa ventry are all in attendance. >> do we have any agenda changes? no agenda changes. but i would like to say is that i want to express our appreciation at the very top of the meeting for the amount of work that has gone into what we are going to be looking at today. i know that time frames are essential. understanding all the interplays of the budget and how this goes forward and also the timing of it is important. you know given the sequence of legislative requirements with respect to the motions that we will hopefully make today and

pass and the action by the commission. so i just want to thank you. staff thank you director, for for pulling this together in a week that was very busy for everybody. so we have no agenda changes now for a few public meeting instructions. i'd like to welcome all persons present in this meeting to attend in person at room 408. this meeting is airing live on s.f. gov tv to comcast 78 astound tape and at&t u-verse channel 99. >> i want to remind us of the policies and procedures for public meetings at this meeting we are bound to follow the structure of our agenda and adhere to the best practices set out in the good government guide at every public meeting there will be an opportunity for general public comment where members may comment on any topic pertaining to this body including turning off our

telephones to make sure that we are in compliance with the meeting rules. public comment will be taken in part in person or with remote access provided for those who require an ada accommodation. respectfully we ask that you keep your public comment on the topic. each public comment is limited to three minutes. please understand and this is important that the committee does not contribute dialog towards public comments. each public comment will be documented for the public record. the ringing and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. the chair may order the removal from the meeting of any person responsible for the ringing or use of cell phone page or other sound producing electronic devices. i'm just waving this around because giving us all the time to find that little button and

push it and get going as a courtesy on the fourth floor we have a women's restroom located on the northeast side and men's on the southeast side just outside this room and in all gender restroom on the southwest side in case of emergency your nearest stair exit is at the southeast corner on the fourth floor right outside this door there are stairs located at each corner of the floor. it is recommended to pull the fire alarm and use the stairs. fire alarm is a variable tone strobe lights will flash and if strobe lights flash and the alarms go off you must evacuate the building. also wheelchair accessible entrances are located on venice avenue and grove street. please note the wheelchair lift at the good place polk street entrance is temporarily not available after multiple repairs that were followed by

additional breakdowns. the wheelchair lift at good polk entrance is being replaced for improved operation and reliable city. we anticipate having a functional lift after the completion of construction in may 2025. there are elevators and accessible restrooms on every floor. and now i will turn it over to our commission secretary monroe's dhaliwal for public comment instructions for members of the public joining in-person who wish to comment on agenda items. once you are called on then you'll be asked to voice your comment at the podium. you will see blank public comment cards are located on the podium. you are recommended but not required to fill out this card which will be included in the minutes. i will start your three minutes when you speak using a visual timer. you will also receive a 32nd audible warning when your time is up. i will say your time is up. participants who wish to speak on other agenda items may listen for the next public comment opportunity. persons who speak during the

public comment period at today's meeting of the arts commission may supply a brief written summary of the comments to be included in the minutes. if it is 150 words or less to art. info at s.f. cavaliere the arts commission may reject the summary if it exceeds the prescribed word limit or is not an accurate summary of the speaker's public comment. >> persons unable to attend an arts commission meeting may submit correspondence to the arts commission in connection with an agenda item. the commission secretary will post these documents adjacent to the agenda if they are one page in length. >> if they are longer than one page the arts commission will make such documents available for public inspection and copying. please note correspondence submitted to the arts commission will not be read aloud during the meeting. names and addresses included in these submittals will be public. submittals may be made anonymously. written comments pertaining to this meeting should be submitted to arts info at s.f. carport by 5 p.m. before the date of the meeting to ensure comments are shared with commissioners ahead of the

meeting. >> if you need to request a reasonable accommodation under the ada or need to request language assistance you must contact the commission secretary at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting. at our info at s.f. talk. our office will make every effort to accommodate all requests. president collins please proceed with the meeting when you are ready. >> thank you, mr. dhaliwal. i would like to start our meeting by reading our land acknowledgment statement. the san francisco arts commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the roma two alone. who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions the roma two shall only have never ceded nor lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as caretakers of this place as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. >> as guests we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland.

we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, relatives and relatives of the roma to community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. as a department dedicated to promoting a diverse and equitable arts and culture environment in san francisco, we are committed to supporting the traditional and contemporary evolution of the american indian community. >> i will now call agenda item number two agenda item number two is general public comment and discussion. this item will allow members of the public to comment generally on matters within the commission's purview as well as to suggest new agenda items for the commission's consideration. is there any public comment on agenda item number two? >> please for those joining in-person please proceed to the public comment podium and fill out the public comment information card. we are currently on item two.

as a reminder your time will start when you begin speaking. you'll see a visual timer and receive a 32nd audible warning before your time. >> hi. welcome. hello. soon as you start to speak i will begin your time. >> oh, hello, commissioners. my name is months in aruba. i'm a school counselor working with expelled youth in san francisco public schools. i'm also an artist. i've received the support from the s.f. arts commission in the past with the lower polk street's passport and i was the second artist in residence at the planning department through the house of arts commission. the planning department residency was designed to help artists become citizens and be able to participate and and city government and have a voice. boom. here i am in front of you. i wish there were another reason for me to come here instead of the reason i'm standing in front of you right now. since 2022 i've lived in a legacy arts nonprofit that for 50 years has provided affordable live and work spaces to artists in the mission.

there are over 88 people who hold spaces in the building. our organization is supposed to provide relief from not exacerbate the housing crisis in san francisco. there are numerous people in my building who hold affordable spaces but own residential and commercial properties in the san francisco bay area california sea assessment and recorder i can provide data. many of these people have not lived in the building in decades but have been allowed to hold spaces in the buildings. there are other members who passed down their spaces in the building to their non artists spouses, children or friends bypassing the application process. after 50 years there is no rubric. there's no consistent practice in the building that often just favors cronyism who you know and who you like which keeps our building white, insular and elderly. the most egregious issue and why i'm here is there a locally celebrated artist who has two spaces in our building? he was president of the building from 2019 to 2023. he has been airbnb being his

second space in our building for 11 years. he is currently airbnb being the second space for $5 per square foot. when we pay $0.70 a square foot in addition to having two spaces in the building this person has owned a condo in south the market since 2006. again this was information found from asaf powell hoarding and profiting off of our building is unethical, shameful and and it contributes to the exodus of our artist friends and companions. instead of providing safety, security and homes to artists in san francisco essentially at this point i feel like i live in a 1960s early country club for the bohemian setting. i've brought these issues to the board of directors in my building but they've unwilling to take serious action to address these concerns. i just want to say like if we're going to be a condo, be a condo. i just would like pressure. >> i just want to put it out there. that's that's all that's what i thought. >> thank you very much. thank you.

you're welcome. are there any additional public comments? >> see none. >> public comment is now closed . thank you. i'm now calling agenda item number three which is the directors report. i'm introducing the director of cultural affairs ralph remington to give the report. >> thank you, president collins. good afternoon, commissioners. i hope you all are having a wonderful start to 2025. for this month's executive committee meeting i have the following high level program updates that i'd like to share. last wednesday, january 8th i attended the inauguration of mayor daniel lurie in civic center plaza and we look forward to working with the new mayor and his administration to continue our agency's work in support of the arts. i had the pleasure of sitting next to president collins

during that inauguration so we had a good time and bring him in the new the new leadership. some strategic planning updates . we continue to work with our strategic planning consultants aims to organize our upcoming community open houses. we aim to host two in-person and one virtual open house the first week of march and we will have details to share out soon some upcoming events and reminders tomorrow january 16th. our new exhibition coordinated in partnership with photo alliance will open in and in the north like court downstairs on the ground floor of city hall. metaphors of recent times a dialog of the personal, the political and the cultural. this exhibition will be on view through june 20th, 2025. please join us for the public reception to celebrate the opening on tomorrow evening from 5 to 7 p.m.. upcoming 2025 annual convening scheduled to take place on

thursday february 20th in the herbst theater in the war memorial veteran's building. we look forward to sharing highlights of our agency's work with the arts community and provide a preview of what we have coming up in our future programing and we'll also honor and recognize our recent artistic legacy grantees. additional details will be shared very soon. i would also like to share that we have scheduled our next constitutional conversations town hall session for tuesday march 18th. >> the second townhall session will be focused on the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments and will be held in the green room at the war memorial veteran's building. panelists and performance artist details and information on how to rsvp will be announced soon. a reminder that we currently have one public art call opportunity for the s.f. main library temporary mural project. the arts commission invites artists and art artist teams residing in the united states

to submit qualifications for this opportunity. the application deadline is february 3rd, 2025 by 11:59 p.m.. and with that this concludes my january 2025 executive committee directors report. >> thank you and i'm happy to take any questions you may have. thank you. are there any discussion comments on the directors report? i will just comment that i'm very pleased that our director has initiated a very strong relationship in this transitional period. and i know that it's very important that we understand, you know, what that implies and that our leadership is in solid hands with our director as as the is the focal point of how it is that we interact with this new administration in much the same way as as before. >> so thank you director remington for that. thank you, president council. >> is there any public comment

on the director's report? >> for those joining in-person please proceed to the public comment podium and fill out the public comment information card . we are currently on item three. as a reminder your time will start when you begin speaking. you'll see a visual timer and receive a 32nd audible warning before your time concludes. i requested comments from those who are in person. is there anyone who would like to make a public comment on the current agenda item? see no request for public comment. public comment is now closed. >> thank you. i am now calling agenda item number four and before. i just want to make sure procedurally. do you want when do you want the motion to be made? >> we'll make it after the presentation. >> okay. so following the presentation the motion will come forward so we have a discussion and possible motion to approve the proposed fiscal 2025 and 26 and 2627 arts commission budget. and i am introducing the deputy

director of administration and finance sarah hollenbeck to present this item. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. good afternoon, president collins, vice president chioda and commissioner beltran and sara hallenbeck, deputy director of finance and administration. and it's a pleasure to be before you this afternoon. thank you for having us here today to present our budget proposal for fiscal year 2627. i will i would like to also thank kevin kline, the finance manager who is also in the audience today who has been instrumental in preparing the materials that you have in your packet today. without his help it would be impossible. >> so first i'm going to just go over a brief summary of our presentation. i'm going to provide an overview of the budget process and timeline. then we'll go over the budget instructions for this year's

budget process and discuss briefly the budget climate. as you know, is challenging. and then we'll talk about the proposed revenues and expenses. >> both operating and capital with respect to the budget process, we're currently at the department phase of the process. our agency is required to assess our needs and develop our proposed budget in this phase. we are required to submit our budget through the budget system by february 21st. so this is the first of two public meetings that will be holding. and the second will be the full commission after we submit our budget in february. >> the mayors phase begins and the mayor's office can make further changes based on mayor laurie's policy priorities for the arts sector. before he introduces his budget by june 1st, the board will then conduct their hearings in

june and the final budget will be signed by the mayor around july late july or early august. typically with regard to the budget climate. as you have likely read in the news, the city is projected to have approximately $876 million deficit over the next two fiscal years. >> the deficit is being driven by a combination of specific factors but really at the most fundamental level it is a matter of expenses growing at a pace more rapid than revenues are growing. in addition contributing to the challenges the city is having to curtail its reliance on one time sources of funding including fema funding and general fund reserves or fund balance which have actually moderated the the deficit over the last several years. so those sources are being depleted and we're kind of

coming to the point where we have to make it balance. the city has to make that balance on an ongoing basis. in response to the projected deficit in this year's budget instructions, direct departments to cut general fund support by 15% on an ongoing basis. as in addition as an immediate step as again you may have read in the newspapers mayor laurie on january ninth announced a hiring freeze for all city departments and positions with a few very limited exceptions. >> as is noted on this slide, some of the directives that were included in the budget instructions are to assess community based organization grant allocations for efficiency to reexamine all contractual services and non personnel expenditures. and as i mentioned, the hiring freeze on my phone.

>> on this slide we'll talk about the budgeted revenues. this general fund line on this slide does include the mandatory 15% reduction that i just mentioned. our total operating budget as you can see is projected to decrease from fiscal 25 to 26 and then increase modest leigh in fiscal 27. the overall decline in our budget is is really driven by two primary factors. one is a decline in our hotel tax revenue in fiscal 26 relative to the fiscal 25 budget. another is a reduction in grant revenue which is simply a matter of the mellon grant revenue having been fully recognized in fiscal 25. the grant period extends to fiscal 26 but the revenue has all been recognized already a slight change from last year and prior year's budget

presentations is that we have as you can see on the third line broken out the symphony funds that come to us pursuant to the charter and pass through us to the symphony. >> we thought it was perhaps a bit more transparent to really reflect how much of the general fund support for our department is retained by the department for our purposes versus passing through. previously those were condensed into one general fund line. >> our overall budget request operating plus capital will fluctuate just basically given the nature of some capital projects being one time. so the overall budget does decline and request i should say budget request important to underscore that does decline moderately from the fiscal 25 to 26 and then increases again

driven by a large capital project which we'll talk about on a later slide from fiscal 26 to 27. >> the hotel tax being such a large component of our revenue sources, i wanted to spend a moment to talk about some of the trends and recent performance that we've seen in the hotel tax. so this chart is going back to fiscal 24 and out through the second year of the current budget proposed budget cycle fiscal 27. the red bars are the budget in revenue and further for those years that have already been completed or are now in the budget process. in the last year's budget process the gray bars our actual or projected actual revenue. what you can see well let me step back. the hospitality sector recovery

has slowed in the recent period and that is affecting hotel tax revenue. we're very excited. i was just in an uber earlier today listening to my uber driver talk about how busy it is with the jpmorgan health care conference in town and how many people are here hopefully having a very successful conference and also filling up hotels and driving rev par which is revenue per available room which is the thing that the comptroller's office tracks. so hopefully you know, some of those big events will lead to a stronger second half of fiscal 25. >> but so far it's been a little weak. >> so what has happened is that actual collections of hotel tax revenue underperformed the budget in fiscal 24. so as you can see that's the the differential between the red bar which was the budget revenue and the gray bar which is what we actually collected again in fiscal 25 you can see the red bar.

it was budgeted at a level that is well in excess of what the comptroller's office now is projecting to collect in this current fiscal year the. >> so based on these trends what has happened in fiscal 26? the red bar there in the tiny writing if you can read it says fiscal 2526 adopted budget that was where the overall projection of hotel tax revenue was back in july. and the gray bar is how they've updated in the current base budget. so the what is now in our budget as expected revenue for fiscal 26 even from july to now as you can see that discrepancy between the or the delta between the red bar and the gray. it's quite notable. so we are hoping that this will turn around but the reason i spend this time on this is to to preview something we're going to talk about on the next slide. but so as you can see the the forecast for fiscal 26 revenue

has been revised downward by almost $2 million in the last seven months where this starts to show up in our project, our proposed expenditure our budget is is going to be i'm going to talk about in a moment but overall at a high level it does affect the overall operating budget again with revenues declining expenditures have to decline accordingly. so this slide shows projected revenues by program and as you can see the overall budgeted operating expenditures are declining and keeping with that revenue drop. >> the biggest changes show up in the community investments program and that is because that program is almost entirely supported by hotel tax and also in the public art program. public art again is just referring back to that same change with the mellon grant already rolling the revenue

being recognized so the expenditures need to match that. however, community investments is primarily driven by the decline in hotel tax revenue which has dropped a million just over $1 million from fiscal 24 to 25 as well as what we have been recommended to create a hotel tax revenue contingency which shows up on the tie at the row titled hotel tax revenue contingency fee. the rationale behind this relates back to the slide i was just speaking to. it is a way to be conserved tive in our budgeting given the ongoing uncertainty in the hotel tax revenue collection the comptroller's office suggested to us that we established a 10% contingency to provide a buffer between our planned spending and our potential underperformance in hotel tax as we have seen in

the last couple of fiscal years that underperformance. so we'd rather the proposal is to not program all of the hotel tax funds that are in the budget at the outset of the year but rather to monitor the performance of the hotel tax during the year and program those funds if and when we have confidence that they will in fact be collected. the comptroller's office typically has provided us updates in october and approximate late december january the last couple of years so we should have a better sense as the year unfolds whether we're likely to hit the budget in which case we would be able to program those funds that we've kind of held back if you will, or if we are well served to continue holding them back. >> one the other item to note is just as i said before, we've broken out the symphony allocation from administration previously as i noted, those two things were combined and so here you can actually see the

symphony charter allocation on the second row and again that's pursuant to section 116 106 of the charter and then the administration line is really the the general fund money that the the department receives to support our own operations and some of that is well i'll talk about that in a moment. >> so the expenditure was the other thing i wanted to note on this slide is just the expenditures on the public art and civic collection row. this is really primarily a civic collection as you may recall from prior years discussions most of the public art operating budget really is not reflected. so for example the funds that support the art enrichment projects and the team that carries out those projects those funds are not operating funds of our department. they're budgeted in the department capital projects who generate that funding and then it is transferred work order

some way gets to us to carry out that work but it is not a part of our operating budget. so i just wanted to be sure that you were clear on that on the next two slides we will talk about the capital requests and those actually follow a slightly different schedule and have to be submitted. i believe it's january 17th but if i have that wrong or someone can correct me but anyway this month the capital budget submissions aren't you so we have noted here so the cultural center and galleries capital project request are reflected on this slide number eight they range in size from $20,000 to $10 million for a specific large project in fiscal 27 for some arts. but as you can see that $10 million item is not reflected on this slide simply because it made the scale of the the graph so small that you couldn't

distinguish any of the other items. so we have projects such as cultural center maintenance which is a year in year out need great need that we have that's the red segment of the bars roofs, doors and floor repairs are also incorporated here we have a large larger request for fire sprinklers for the bayview opera house that shows up in fiscal 27 and some acoustic ceiling tiles requested for the main gallery in the fiscal 26 request for the civic art collection capital request. >> here we provide a little bit of history because it's interesting and actually a little bit of a bright spot. i guess i would say this is going way back to fiscal 2018

the maintenance and conservation funding that we've received for the civic art collection are our cost model tells us that our need for funding for civic art collection conservation is about a million and a half dollars a year. so as you can see we've been significantly under-investing you know, not receiving what we need to address those those costs historically however and particularly dyer understandably in the post-covid years however in fiscal 25 we were successful in as you can see being awarded or budgeted a significant amount of funding for you know, investing in the civic collection and really addressing some of those high priority and more costly projects. so it was a very successful effort last year. we're hoping to build on that and so the requests that you see and i would say that the civic art and the collections team has been extremely busy

trying to use all that money and getting a lot of interest you know, important projects taken care of throughout the city for fiscal 26 and 27. we understand that there will be, you know, significant constraints on what the city can invest in capital needs just due to the budget climate . but we're going to go ahead and continue to ask for what we need and you know, perhaps we'll be fortunate again because we do need to continue to address the backlog. that concludes the presentation itself and i'm happy to answer any questions you have at this time perhaps with help from kevin if it's very deep into the details to thank you like to to thank the president collins deputy director hollenbeck can you speak to the for the first of all thank you for your presentation and can you speak to the freezing of positions with specific focus on the in the enterprise funding positions and have you

received any additional additional instructions from me regarding that initial instruction? >> yeah, i'd be happy to address that. >> the as we understand the directive all positions supported by the general fund and all other funds are are included in this hiring freeze . just yesterday the mayor's budget office did release some additional information to departments about how to communicate that to them, what their upcoming needs are in regards to hiring and what the justifications are for those hirings there looks like they're planning to assess that on a monthly basis. so rather than an ongoing basis as it has been in the past and unfortunately positions that were already approved for hiring and maybe even in the recruitment process of which we had several have been kind of from a systems perspective like

reverted back to still pending and needing approval. so it's a challenge. >> mr. thank you. so yeah i actually had the same question and thank you so much for bringing that up. >> director remington so what is the impact of that on the commission in terms of how many vacancies do we have now and in what programs that are going to be now frozen? >> i'd be happy to respond to that. at the moment we have two vacancies in the community investment team and we have one vacancy in the public. our team as you are probably aware commissioner those are all our positions that are funded from non general fund sources. >> so the hotel tax supports the community investment team and the art enrichment ordinance which is again a legal mandate that departments carrying out capital projects must set aside this funding to support the the work and then

so there are in turn the positions within our budget are supported by that legally mandated funding. >> so those are the ones that are currently not moving ahead even though that they're not from the general fund. >> yes, that is correct. this time commissioner schroeder um yeah. thank you. thank you for the presentation. i oh yeah. >> first of all thank you. yeah i had a quick question about i understand the pushing of the cultural center capital budget and i guess my fear is that because it's being pushed out to 2627 is that is that because things are getting put that money be taken away or is that just what you're going to ask for is let me return to

that slide. yeah. so if i let me make sure i understood your question so the with respect to the graph it includes all projects except for the $10 million request for snow arts and if if the question you're asking is specifically related to that large project and why it is not included in our fiscal 26 request or am i misunderstanding? >> yeah. okay. so i think that's that a two tiered question because i do remember money getting approved for some arts and for maybe the mission cultural center right yeah we're currently in the process we had received funding for mission cultural center and the african american art and culture complex which are we've actually i think reached a pretty significant milestone this week with dpw holding interviews for teams to you know, contractors design build.

i'm going to look at lisa the work design build contractors to actually execute those projects so that funding is is in place and and the projects are coming out of the capital allocation budget that was that was awarded a number of years ago before i even got here and that's those projects are in process they just take some time what we're reflecting here in fiscal 26 and 27 is our new funding requests. yeah for the projects described here i might be out of my depth to say that the reason that we don't have the so arts requests in fiscal 26 is i don't think that there's at as we're not as far along in understanding the need and identifying a strategy or a site for that one. >> as i understand it. >> okay, great. and the other question i had was galleries. so you have general fund support going into reflected

for 2425 and real rolling off a bit 2526 and then nine and 2627 and is that a roll from the hotel tax as the hotel tax increases certain general funds roll off is that i just want to kenderstand are you again are you asking about in the context of the capital requests for the galleri or or on the operating? >> yeah. yeah the capital. okay. on the capital yeah. there was a large a significant project for the lighting in the gallery that we were that we requested and we're we're received funding for last year. the other significant project that we that the galleries team would like to have happen in fiscal 26 is the ceiling acoustic ceiling tiles and then we haven't they hadn't indicated a need for capital in

fiscal 27 so we haven't included anything. >> okay. and then sorry no not our capital. what's the project in 2526 for kuwait for the technology? >> oh yes that is a we need due to a variety of factors including obsolescence and some city mandates we need to really remake the arts commission's website. some of the technology it's built upon is no longer supported and then there are some new digital accessibility mandates and so forth. so that is a request we're making through this third process which is the commission committee on information technology has its own submission process and guidelines and that is a request that we will be forwarding to them. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. ms. hollenbeck first of all, i'm glad that we're on this

slide sort of separately a at a comment and that is that as someone who is a professor in design and associate the visual presentation of this whole budget is outstanding and i love the fact that whoever chose the color scheme for these bars for the elevations matched aleesha mccarthy's painting on the right in terms of the color block was that you think coma oh my god yeah we are just so lucky to have you. it's just been even though it's about a deficit it's not actually a pleasure to look at so so thank you for doing that. >> it's really just beautiful. >> my question was also about the galleries so i'm looking in terms of is it true that we actually don't support the galleries through the general fund but it looks like it's through grants and then inter departmental?

>> can you explain that? thank you for raising that question. it's it's an important one and i, i, i neglected to mention it so i appreciate you asking it. >> the history historically the gallery's program was funded by the general fund last year after the department phase. >> so in the mayor's phase of the budget i presume in the context of the challenging budget process we went through last year the decision was made by the mayor's budget office to replace so to eliminate the general fund funding for the gallery's program and replace it with hotel tax funding from gta. so that is how the that is the interdepartmental services is a work order that comes to us from hotel tax funding and then

it looks like we also get support from various grants that well you know think thank you commissionernow we get suppm grants for the arts funding which is supported by hotel tax which you know, comes to them to us. we also previously had we get a we historically have received nea and cac funding and previously i believe that was also reflected in the administration budget. but really that money is supporting programs at the gallery so we've more accurately depicted it in this year's presentation of the budget. >> i have a very simple question and that is when you were talking about the civic art collection right we obsession pieces into the airport and using that as an example for all of the departments rec park power and

water, dpw, puc etc. does the maintenance of those collections fall within their budgets and then is transferred to us? where is that money generated? and you had on one of your slides the alicia piece that was restored so somewhat fragile piece that had been up you know the one alicia piece how track the money for that for me with you yes so for new or well for artworks that are funded you know created using funding from the art in richmond ordinance there is a component of that funding so 70% of the funding goes to the artwork and there's a component of it i think 10% that is retained, earmarked or identified as being available for conservation of the work. so that is really the source of

funding that we have for project that are funded for that have been funded from the art in richmond ordinance and do you have any idea about how much is sitting in that reserve? >> i would have to look into that. i'd be happy to. so important is just you know that the maintenance of our civic art collection is a big responsibility and ultimately part of it falls on us in the art world in general. you know, conservation is is an unaccounted for liability and i'm pleased to hear that a portion of you're saying of the 2% is initially allocated for that conservation that is held in a general fund or is it by piece it it's uh it's identified side by project. >> so if there's a large

capital that the art enrichment allocation is established by project so if the airport in your example comes forward with a large capital project there will be an art enrichment amount that is derived from the construction cost only of that project not the soft costs and other things. and so that you know there will be an amount that's identified as the art enrichment budget or you know allocation from that project now that i suppose depending on how the project itself is defined that could be a piece or a number of pieces if it's a if it's a single project with a smaller budget it might just be one artwork. but i suppose if it's an airport project where there's you know a large allocation it's probably being used to do a number of things at the airport and that does you sorry i neglected to answer part of your question which is whose budget does that live in and where is it where does it stay ? it's a part of the capital project really. so it's tracked by the capital

project and and we are in communication and we being well really married as married to our director of public art and so the collections does uh a very difficult and large body of work to track what are the current balances of the various art enrichment uh funding sources by project accounting team also is involved in that effort and it's it's a significant one but you know one never wants to put an undue burden but it is probably a substantial amount of money that is sitting in reserve. i just want to make sure that it doesn't get clawed somewhere else. you know, in in budget and in the difficulty of of where we are right that money is by ordinance and law the 2% and you're saying that a portion of it is initially allocated and then you know it's a question

of whether it's because of value is and things like that because you put it in ten years ago is it still maintaining its value? so i think that's all a piece of it that is i think extremely important how it's invested, where it's invested to ensure that those pieces because it's a circular economy you know to the extent that our civic art collection is one of the draws of our city and certainly in the airport it is a draw to the airport i think and this piece that you have exemplified here, the one alicia piece which had certain fragilities associated with it is an important piece and we just want to make sure from the commission's perspective that the money that's supposed to be there is still growing because the costs are not getting smaller. that's more of a comment of anything just to give a little bit more wind in your sales for when you want to you know pension there and make sure that that money is accounted for that we're looking at that

too. >> well, i appreciate you mentioning that because the risk of getting too deep into the weeds here there is a challenge that we face as it relates to the conservation funding because many of the projects these large capital projects are funded with the proceeds of tax exempt bonds and one of the and up to and including you know, the whole project including the art enrichment piece of that and one of the restrictions as it relates to tax exempt bond proceeds is that they have to be expended, you know, essentially within five years. and so that is a challenge that we have been navigating because pieces may not need conservation within the first five years. but in your six which where you may not have the proceeds anymore because the tax law says you are supposed to have spent them so that is a challenge that we navigate and

we don't have a perfect answer to it yet. we have a variety of different strategies that we have employed to try to make sure that in your six you know whatever department you know initiated the project and initiated the issuance of the bonds doesn't come to us and say like sorry we're going to have to use your conservation funding to, you know, pay down debt service because you haven't used it yet and we have to comply with tax law. >> so it's it's hard to express my appreciation for your understanding and diligence with respect to this. i have a deep appreciation for it and i want you just to know that we're behind you and and in support of your diligence and and keeping this before us because it's a substantial amount of responsibility to maintain these pieces over the vast array of where they are and it doesn't happen with declining money and eventually

it will come to the deficit the detriment of the city if we are not maintaining our civic art collection. >> yeah. thank you. so that's i hope you hear from me that i'm i'm voicing support and none of this is about criticism. >> oh no really appreciation and i appreciate your mentioning it because it gives us an opportunity to you know, for me to share with you some of the challenges that we do face and and your attention and belief in the importance of this helps us in our conversations with the various departments with whom we work. so thank you. also want to comment that again thank you for the level of detail you know dealing with things such as the hotel workers strike and how that affected our revenues. you know it's again it's a circular economy and and when you know one hand is playing with the other and when in the mayor's initial you know, speech before his inauguration saying that we are all in this together, we really are the

condition of our streets affects our general fund revenues because our hotels, you know, depend on us having a safe city with with healthy streets. so thank you for all of that work and to the department and to our leadership to thank you . >> are there any other comments from the commission? yeah. really quickly just to echo what you're saying about the the earmarking of funds that was already identified in the capital project or in artwork for for something like the airport? yeah. figuring out how to make sure that you that it it's already been identified as 10% of the overall artwork budget so figuring out how that can be appropriated at the front end and earmarked in perpetuity right because sometimes it's ten years, sometimes it's 15

years it depends on the materiality of the yeah. so any help you need or on that for back up. yeah i just want to echo we're definitely behind you on that and the city should care. >> yeah the city should care that these monies are spent because they go to our revenue it's not just that it's an expenditure but the last thing we want to have is deteriorate reading artwork in one of the most visible places literally in the world. so again you're just getting a lot of support here. you know, from the from the commission. >> yeah. thank you. and also i would advocate for her because the hotel tax is so much a part of the money that supports the artwork in the cultural institutions of san francisco that we have a very robust relationship with s.f. travel as a cultural and and

monetary driver for san francisco and an attraction and that those lines of communication are open and again robust yeah thank you. >> any other comments i wanted to also echo commissioner schwitters's comments. we are really fortunate to have a great partnership with s.f. travel. i know that brenda tucker last year or maybe it was a year and a half ago put out a a really award winning video featuring the city of san francisco and i would say three three quarters of the content was about its public art which is really fantastic and it was an incredible video. but before we conclude this discussion i wanted to echo both both of the comments that were expressed about how deeply grateful we are for your work in this hollenbeck as well as

your team. okay, because this must be just an incredibly difficult thing to navigate with all of the financial challenges that the city is facing. >> so thank you. well we do have a great team and now i'm just standing up here but without everybody sitting in the audience it wouldn't be possible. so thank you. is there any public comment on this item? >> can we have a motion first? oh, may i have a motion to approve the budget proposal as stated so move commissioner belcher second chioda thank you and thank you agency secretary is there any public comment on the presentation of the preliminary budget for those joining in-person please proceed to the public comment podium and fill out the public comment information card. we are currently on item four as a reminder your time will start when you begin speaking you will see a visual timer on a recess and receive a 32nd

audible warning before your time concludes. i'm requesting comments from those who are in person is there anyone who'd like to make a public comment on the current agenda item? see no request for public comment. >> public comment is now closed and now i'm going to call for the motion. all those in favor i, i opposed motion carries unanimously. thank you again and deputy director and staff and team as ac will now move to agenda item number five which is new business and announcement analysis this will allow the commissioners to introduce any new agenda items or to bring any other matters that are relevant in terms of announcements. >> hi this commissioner shira i just wanted to comment and say that i did i was here early and viewed metaphors of recent times in the north lake court and downstairs and it's amazing

it's a it's a really beautiful show so please go see it if you haven't. you know, i would also mention that last week following the inauguration i went over to jonathan carver moore's gallery on market street to see the work of an artist in residence and i particularly appreciated the fact that a gallerist is really, you know, taken under their wings as an emerging artist i also believe that that artist is going to be represented at the fogg fair at the festival next week and so it's really nice to see our arts commission coming in early to identify and support, you know, artists as they're emerging and to see the the supportive of a system that really matters and giving artists voice and standing those are all my comments.

>> i have one more to add after the inauguration last week i couldn't attend i think carver more's gallery because i went to see our former deputy director joanne lee at edge on the square where mayor laurie had the chinese night market down in chinatown and it was amazing the celebration was fantastic artists, intellectuals from the community, philosophers, dreamers, community stakeholders all were there deejay performances and performances all throughout chinatown. it was totally activated. it was exciting and it was important to see the level of investment and faith and belief that the new mayor laurie has in chinatown and its community. so that was really enlightening and encouraging. i wanted to add that if you've never been to one of the

chinese night markets it's actually one of the highlights of my month and i always put it on my calendar and it is so much fun because you essentially all of grant avenue has like fresh food of chinese vendors and artists and each on the square which director remington mentioned always has a nice opening and you get to go in and see their galleries and it's just a it's a wonderful event to attend and really it was initiated by the civic joy fund and it really is like a great example of civic joy. so thanks for bringing that up and yes, as president collins mentioned, next week is art week so please put that on your calendars. it's a flag art fair art week. we just sort of finally consolidated last year for the first time as an official week with all of these wonderful activities going on at different venues all over the bay area not just san francisco but you to marin and and the east bay and nearby and i encourage all of you to look at the calendar and enjoy what's

being offered. >> i should also add that i was enjoying the chinese night market by our deputy director of england so everyone was there to join on the square so yeah. >> any further discussion? is there any public comment on the commissioner's public announcements for those joining in then please proceed to the public comment podium and fill out the public comment information card. we are currently on item five as a reminder your time will start when you begin speaking you'll see a visual timer and receive a 32nd audible warning before your time concludes i requesting comment from those who are in person is there anyone who'd like to make a public comment on the current agenda item? >> see no request for public comment. public comment is now closed and before i raise the gavel and close this meeting our commission and wants to express our appreciation to our staff, our leadership all of the

levels of information that comes forward. i mean this is a very, very coherent presentation in a time where there's much confusion and so going into our commission meeting which is coming up where we will pass this, i am pleased that our executive committee has so t reviewed the presentations diligently and that we are prepared to make the recommendation to approve the budget meeting is closed

patrick. >> welcome to another episode of stay safe i saw us prepare our crawl space on this episode we'll saw the sheer wall you'll see the finished product

hi, i'm patrick and welcome to another episode of stay safe? the second part we're retrofitting the triple wall as you can see we've installed one of the sheer ply wall on the first episode we provided blocking to secure the ply we'd and bolted and provided the connection with the floor i'm joined by thor madison. >> thor structural engineers

and thor knows more about sheer walls than anybody i've met in my life. >> it provides the stable ability that would rock before and after during around earthquake the nails along the edge of the plywood will reduce the chance of the building falling down. >> what else should we consider in getting ready. >> one thing about plywood a natural material that absorbs moisture and the panels can swell depending on the moisture if they swell they'll bulk out it is important probation officer leave a gap between the panels so before we install the next panel we'll drive in a couple of nails used to as temporary spares. >> what are the nails.

>> 16 penny singers a good saying that and we don't need to be concerned with the exact nail size only the gap the next panel will be held with the existing panel we'll pull those down. >> we have peter from the construction why not go outside and cut our second panel so, now we've got the plywood

let's go ahead and get it put up see if we can get it in place. >> by looking at that a perfect fit why not get peter in here to nail it down. >> so peter did a great job with the nailing but important to know this work requires a permit in the department of building inspection whether you're doing the work or a left hand contractor make sure you have the proper permit and additional to the nailing anything you want to talk about thinking about the plywood. >> the more plywood to install the better and make sure that the nails along each edge of

each panel so you can't forget and hedge and had it perform the same thing. >> another example of little money you can substantially rusz reduce the you are watching san francisco rising with chris manor. today's special guest is sarah phillips. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting rebuilding and eare imagineing the city. the guest today is sarah phillips the executive director of economic workforce development. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. let's talk about the city economic plan and specifically the city's road map to san francisco future. can you give a brief overview

and update on progress? >> absolute e. in february 2023 mayor breed released the roadmap comprised to 9 strategies to move the city forward understanding there was structural and lang lasting changing by the covid impact. 134 were shorter term impacts how people ing transit downtown and coming out and are using small businesses, some of them remember long-term structural impacts. the way we work. how often we are in an office and how much office space companies who had headquartered in san francisco need. some of those were structural impacts how we stop. there has been a long-term change as online shopping takes up a greater share how we performs and covid-19 took a shift that would probably take 10 to 15 years happen and collapse what happened ofern the timeframe to 2 years so saw

structural impacts how people shop. we have seen a lot of progress rchlt we are 9 months in and significant things we have seen is efforts creating permitinant services and homes for people experiencing homelessness is dramatic. we increased the number of shelter beds dramatically and take-up of the beds dramatically, and there is more work to do. on the safety side there are exciting things that happened. we increased our police pay among the highest in the bay area which is a important thing for recruitment. police recruitment across the country is down so recruiting the best we can means we need to give a high pay set. august the highsh return in

graduates. we see 75 decrease in retail theft and 50 percent reduction in car break ins which is quality of life crime san francisco experienced so there is real progresses we are seeing on clean and safe sides. one thing important in the mayor roadmap we are not trying to get back to 2020 vision. i think covid showed having a downtown with people sitting at offices isn't the best downtown it can be. i think it is a opportunity to bring 24 hour life use downtown. >> music and concerts is a great way to bring people to a specific location. golden gate park we had lots of events in plazas throughout the city. can you talk about those and if there is upcoming events too? >> i think you touched on something key to the mayor road

map. for san francisco and particularly san francisco downtown to move forward and be successful as a great american city, it is about bringing people together because they want to be together not because they center to be together and music is a strong part that. the planet concert sear ries coming up and happening throughout the city not just golden gate park but downtown locations are a great example. there are smaller examples as well. the landing at--is a new plaza we constructed in the mayor roadmap where two streets come together akwraisant to a couple restaurants closed to cars in daytime, chairs and seating and throughout the week they have lunch time and evening music to bring people together after work. they participate in that. something we are working on setting up for next year which is really exciting is our sf

live program and that will bring a full 2024 concert series where we match local venues bringing their work and partnership to useian square, music center plaza and embark cadero. we will be able to announce concert series through the sf- >> you mentioned vacant to vibrant, that program has a lot of attention lately. can you talk generally what exactly that program is? >> yeah. so, we opened a program where we put out a call for landlords willing to offer groundfloor space for free for 3 to 6 month jz small business or storefront operators who had a proposal what they would do for 3 to 6 months.

it is pilot. we had a incredible amount of interest. we had--i'm forgetting the number of landlords, but more then we expected because we are in a place where commercial real estate understands they need to come to the table to help make our groundfloor lively and resulting in a transition where the groundfloor is seen less as a money making operation, but more as a leader to lease upper floors. if you have a active ground floor yields better on the other 80 percent of the building you are trying to lease. that was great, a lot of cooperation scr over 700 small business or operators responded to that call. it is pop up. there is no intention this would result in forever small businesses, but there is certainly a hope and i think what we are hearing, i don't have the final data, but there are 17 activators in 9 different spaces, some are colocated, which is why the difference, and out of those 9

spaces that are being leased for free, now 7 of them are in discussions for long-term leases so the spaces continue. it is the program. we are hopeful to have a second and third traunch and hoping to pilot in other neighborhoods with other partners. it is not an inexpensive program because there is a lot of tal that goes into popping up for short amount of time but what we are seen is they visit the businesses, the businesses are successful and san francisco want to support this activation so hopeful to expand it. >> that's great. can you talk a bit about why piloting programs and testing things is so important? >> absolutely. you know, i would say not only the important generally but important in san francisco specifically. the benefit of pilot programs in the reasons they are really important here is, it allows us to try something and say, there may be consequence but let's understand those in real time

rather then waiting to start a strategy while we think about them on paper and if they are too great we can modify the program as we go. mta has absorbed the strategy whether a bike lane or other to figure how best to use the street? is this working? is it working for bikes and cars and buses? maybe not, let's switch it around and pilots have been important to oewd to our office particularly because we tend to have the ability and the mayor's support through the budget process to pilot things through request for proposals or rfp process where we can put out a small amount of funding, try activation and small public plaza, see if it works and i think the benefit there is, if it doesn't work we tried it and had the benefit of seeing real

time and when it does work, we are able to uplift that and move into a permanent strategy and that is where our agency turns over something we piloted to another agency because it is part of the city operating procedure. pilots also give people hope. when we have the short-term whether it is physical public plaza or activation that shows change is possible and allows them to vote for what they like. >> lastly, in lith light of the current ai boom, do you think there is a way to leverage those new changes to take a bunch of san francisco's status as a tech hub? >> i do, i think they work together. san francisco right now has a strong vacancy problem in our office space. and there is a back-story to that.

our zoning downtown has not prevented other uses, in terms of permitting uses of the multi-story building has been open including allowing residential but we put other barriers, cost and code barriers et cetera and what happened also during the height of our preevious boom is that, the amount that tech companies were willing to pay for office space bid everything out so we-without intentionally zoning a single use downtown, we de facto became a single use downtown and thereat is the opportunity you are pointing out. now because downtown was so convertible from work from home, particularly as tech based downtown was and how much companies put at the market in the office spaces we are seeing high vacancy now, all most 30 percent so there is lot of square feet but that presents a lot of opportunity. we have the ability to absorb

expansion of the tech industry we are so strong at. we have seen over 800 thousand square feet of ai space leased just in 2023 alone and there is still more demand out in the market, more ai companies looking for space so that is a growth spot absorbing some of the vac ancy. the opportunity too is prices for downtown lease s have also dropped and that opens up a breath of opportunity to a breath of companies that were priced out in 2018, 2019, 2020. san francisco has always been great at starting companies and allowing them to grow here. when our prices are too high it prevents that growth so now we are a super fertile ground for more start ups and invasion on the smaller end of the sector because they can come and enter our market and we have the space to offer. to talk about san francisco's assets and the leveraging that, we sit at the epicenter of

really great university and educational institutions. we are between uc berkeley and stanford. the graduates produced just from those institutions alone stay in the bay area and want to rise up and work here, provide a real opportunity for the start ups to build their companies and companies to grow here so we confident we will absorb a certain amount of office space with ai tech. with that, we are interested in increasing our human capital growing graduates. downtown university is something the mayor is open to pursuing and we are in conversations with uc berkeley we love to have as a partner in our downtown and then residential conversions are a great partner to that. as we build back the office space, people will want to live downtown again and we have a number buildings that can be converted to residential. the costs are high. mayor breed and her partners on the board made significant

changes to reduce the costs. we waived fees for change of uses in the downtown area. there are code changes that will make the conversions easier. there is a ballot measure on the march ballot that will attempt to reduce costs for those as well. it is ongoing process and none of those changes we talked about absent ai growth downtown, but institutional growth downtown, arts growth downtown and residential conversions downtown are long-term changes so one thing i want to say recollect i do think there is a opportunity per your question, but we also need to be patient because what we are talking about is is a real shift to the make-up of the downtown since from the growth it has been starting at since the turn of the century so that isn't a 2 year change, that is a 10 year change and we center to watch as it goes. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate you spending the time here today and your creative vision and positivity, so thank you so much. >> thanks so much for having me and hope you all downtown and

shop. >> that is it for this episode. for sfgovtv i'm chris manors, thanks >> we are providing breakfast, lunch, and supper for the kids. >> say hi. hi. what's your favorite? the carrots. >> the pizza? >> i'm not going to eat the pizza. >> you like the pizza? >> they will eat anything. >> yeah, well, okay.

>> sfusd's meal program right now is passing out five days worth of meals for monday through friday. the program came about when the shelter in place order came about for san francisco. we have a lot of students that depend on school lunches to meet their daily nutritional requirement. we have families that can't take a hit like that because they have to make three meals instead of one meal. >> for the lunch, we have turkey sandwiches. right now, we have spaghetti and meat balls, we have chicken enchiladas, and then, we have

cereals and fruits and crackers, and then we have the milk. >> we heard about the school districts, that they didn't know if they were going to be able to provide it, so we've been successful in going to the stores and providing some things. they've been helpful, pointing out making sure everybody is wearing masks, making sure they're staying distant, and everybody is doing their jobs, so that's a great thing when you're working with many kid does. >> the feedback has been really good. everybody seems really appreciative. they do request a little bit more variety, which has been hard, trying to find different types of food, but for the most

part, everyone seems appreciative. growing up, i depended on them, as well, so it reminds me of myself growing up. >> i have kids at home. i have six kids. i'm a mother first, so i'm just so glad to be here. it's so great to be able to help them in such a way because some families have lost their job, some families don't have access to this food, and we're just really glad to be

>> i finish 11 times. i don't wish no one to be shot, but it is something that i never get over. the wrap around program really changed my life and they was there for me day one and i thank them so much. i couldn't do it without them. >> wrap around formed as a result of understanding early on in my career that what i was doing as a trauma surgeon was not enough. i needed help. i needed the community that was impacted the most by violence

to direct me to understanding what was necessary to be more comprehensive in creating care for patients and to really change people's life course. >> the number of people coming into the hospital were youth. we wrap our arms around the people who come through so we y to equip with not only services, but just love and you know, we really try to meet their needs. >> we helped support them with services after recovery or while they are here, they need services anywhere from housing to basic needs, clothing, employment. we link to those services in hopes that we don't ever have to see them

come back. >> my biggest wish and goal for the future of the wrap around project is that it wouldn't have to exist. that we wouldn't have anymore violently injured people that our job is trauma surgeons would be defunth. >> to see them start walking again, to see them laughing and being happy, to feel like you know what, this happened to me, but i'm going to make it, you know? i think no amount of money can ever pay us for that. >> it is rewarding to intercede and you know [indiscernible] change the trajectory of a child's life is awesome. we want to give them tools to

be productive members of society, and give them a chance to have a future. >> it gives me joy to be able to be a part of a young person's life and help them map out what their future looks like. you know, you can never get

over trauma, but you can live with good amazing life after it and learn how to manage it and stuff like that, so we hope do that with them. >> mike, you know what, i am a manager now at this job. the job you hooked me up, that is impact. that is a heartfelt, you know what, me work want in vain. that work is unmatched so to speak. >> they like family. they help, they check in, call me, see how i'm doing, you know? and i'm very thankful.

they have that good at mosphere where you don't have to be scared, you don't have to feel you all by yourself, because they there and they have been there. morning folks welcome to the january 17th 2025 regular meeting of the san francisco ethics commission excuse me. today's meeting is live webcast on s.f. gov tv two and live streamed online at s.f. gov tv dot org for slash ethics live for public comment members