. >> 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.. please save the date for our 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 o 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 make sure i understand are you again are you asking about in the context of the capital requests for the galleries 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 has put forward which they 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 commissioner beltran yes we you know we get support from 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 wt 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 they reviewed the presentations diligently and that we are prepared to make the recommendation to approve the budget meeting is closed

>> our market street program started in 1992. the goal was to bring arts to an audience who may not be normally be exposed to contemporary art. for 2023, we chose comics as the median to highlight san francisco. it could be fix al, science fiction. history.

>> i'm fan, i'm illustrator and writer, i grew up all over the bay area. and is post history no history no south. i've been drawing since i was probably four or five. it's just a cool memory, i just remember painting my apron in kindergarten and i would suddenly start painting myself. it was cartoon, it got me excited. in my home life, it was not consistent but what was on tv is always consistent. there is always xy z- channel, cartoon, i would wait for the cartoons to freeze and chase really fast. i remember getting into anemai as a kid, as a young person because it was one of the avenues of asian-american expression that i can relate to. my project is i'm highlighting

6 trailblazers who's family was tied to san francisco. they all have different forms of art expression. but i noticed through the research that there is a common that connects them all, which is this desire to live life authentically, organickly, speak of the love that they believe in. i made it art students and learning about art history and the place in art with the context of learning about their predecessors. >> sinsawa is synonymous of san francisco. there is a school named after her. >> wasn't she also in stamp? her art was in 2020. >> do you think she would become a artist? >> hmm, i think she was like 100s of other in the city that love the art.

when there is no audience or income, why do we still make art? >> well because we seek to know ourselves and one has to believe like alela, we make art for a lifetime not just a career. i think for some, artist like breathing, it's how we know we're alive. >> it's so incredible to do this project and do the experience that connects generation, the full experience of being artist. >> comics have a rich history in san francisco even from early 20th century. we also wanted to open up public art opportunities for artist that don't normally apply to public art. >> i hope it stays with them and lingers and they chew on it and think about it. and it may not make a big impact but it's something that opens up the door or starts the conversation or the beginning of something.

i would like for it to be a start, whether it's a start of research or start of pondering, yeah, what does it mean to be an artist? and how do i decolonize my mind. >> shop and dine the 49 promotes local businesses and changes san franciscans to do their shopping and dooipg within the 49 square miles by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant so where will you shop and dine the 49

hi in my mind a ms. medina

>> working with kids, they keep you young. they keep you on your tones -- on your toes. >> teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. >> ready? go. [♪♪♪] >> we really wanted to find a

way to support women entrepreneurs in particular in san francisco. it was very important for the mayor, as well as the safety support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. >> three, two, one! >> because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the small business development center. i thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. they really give back to the neighborhood. they are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. >> when molly -- molly first told us about the grant because she works with small businesses. she has been a tremendous help for us here. she brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot

of things here were outdated, and need to be up-to-date and redone totally. >> hands in front. recite the creed. >> my oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. it instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. we think it is great. the moves are fantastic. the women both are great teachers. >> what is the next one? >> my son goes to fd k. he has been attending for about two years now. they also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. they took the kids everywhere around san francisco. this year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them.

>> he has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. i think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. >> i met d'andrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out -- he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. he decided to reopen this location after he moved. initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. my business partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new -- nursing school so you can take over. and she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before -- for a month

before she came through. she was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. i was struggling a little bit. and she has been here. one thing led to another and now we are co-owners. you think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. >> the self-defence class is a new thing that we are doing. we started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. there's a difference between self-defence and doing a karate class. we didn't want them to do an actual karate class. we wanted to learn the

fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. then i was approached by my old high school. one -- once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. my old biology teacher is now the principle. she approached us into doing a self-defence class. the girls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls. they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it

has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what? >> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this program for a little over a year all women entrepreneurs. it is an extraordinary benefit for us. we have had the mayor's office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. it has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. >> we hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids' lives outside of just learning karate. having self-confidence, having discipline, learning to know

when it's okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. these are the values we want the kids to take away from this. not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. we want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. adjourned. >> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shop & dine in the 49 with within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop & dine in the 49 my name is jim woods i'm the founder of woods beer company and the proprietor of woods copy k open 2 henry adams what makes us unique is that we're

reintegrated brooeg the beer and serving that cross the table people are sitting next to the xurpz drinking alongside we're having a lot of ingredient that get there's a lot to do the district of retail shop having that really close connection with the consumer allows us to do exciting things we decided to come to treasure island because we saw it as an amazing opportunity can't be beat the views and real estate that great county starting to develop on treasure island like minded business owners with last week products and want to get on the ground floor a no-brainer for us when you you, you buying local goods made locally our supporting small business those are not created an, an sprinkle scale with all the machines and

one person procreating them people are making them by hand as a result more interesting and can't get that of minor or anywhere else and san francisco a hot bed for local manufacturing in support that is what keeps your city vibrant we'll make a compelling place to live and visit i think that local business is the lifeblood of san francisco and a vibrant community >> you are watching san francisco rising. a special guest today. >> i am chris and you are watching san francisco rising. focused on rebuilding and reimagining our city. our guest is the director of

financial justice in the san francisco office of treasure to talk about how the city has taken a national lead in this effort and how the program is comlishing the goals. welcome to the show. >> thanks so much for having me. >> thank you for being here. can we start by talking about the financial justice project in a broad sense. when did the initiative start and what is the intent? >> sure. it launched in 2016. since then we take a hard look at fines, fees, tickets, financial penalties hitting people with low incomes and especially people of color really hard. it is our job to assess and reform these fines and fees. >> do you have any comments for people financially stressed? >> yes. the financial justice project was started in response pop

community outcry about the heavy toll of fines and fees. when people struggling face an unexpected penalty beyond ability to pay they face a bigger punishment than originally intended. a spiral of consequences set in. a small problem grows bigger. for example the traffic ticket this is california are hundreds of dollars, most expensive in the nation. a few years back we heard tens of thousands in san francisco had driver's licenses suspended not for dangerous driving but because they couldn't afford to pay traffic tickets or miss traffic court date. if they lose the license they have a hard time keeping their job and lose it. that is confirmed by research. we make it much harder for people to pay or meet financial obligations. it is way too extreme of penalty for the crime of not being able

to pay. we were also hearing about thousands of people who were getting cars towed. they couldn't pay $500 to get them back and were losing their cars. at the time we hand people a bill when they got out of jail to pay thousands in fees we charged up to $35 per day to rent electronic ankle monitor, $1,800 upfront to pay for three years of monthly $50 probation fees. people getting out of jail can't pay these. they need to get back on their feet. we weren't collecting much on them. it wasn't clear what we were accomplishing other than a world of pain on people. we were charging mothers and grandmothers hundreds of dollars in phone call fee to accept calls from the san francisco jail. we heard from black and brown

women struggling to make terrible choices do. i pay rent or accept this call from my incarcerated son. the list goes on and on. so much of this looked like lose-lose for government and people. these penalties were high pain, hitting people hard, low gain. not bringing in much revenue. there had to be a better way. >> it is important not to punish people financially there. are issues to address. >> sure. there are three core principles that drive our work. first, we believe we should be able to hold people accountable without putting them in financial distress. second you should not pay a bigger penalty because your wallet is thinner. $300 hits doctors and daycare workers differently.

they can get in a tailspin, they lose the license. we dig them in a hole they can't get out of. these need to be proportioned to people's incomes. third. we should not balance the budget on the backs of the poorest people in the city. >> financial justice project was launched in 2016. can you talk about the accomplishments? >> sure sometimes it is to base a fine on the ability to pay. consequences proportional to the offense and the person. other times if the fee's job is to recoupe costs primarily on low-income people. we recommend elimination. other times we recommend a different accountability that does not require a money payment. here are a few examples. we have implemented many sliding

scale discounts for low-income people who get towed or have parking tickets they cannot afford. you pay a penalty according to income. people with low incomes pay less. we also became the first city in the nation to stop suspending people's licenses when they could not pay traffic tickets. we focused on ways to make it easier for people to pay through payment plans, sliding discounts and eliminating add on fees to jack up prices of tickets. this reform is the law of the land in california. it has spread to 23 other states. we also stopped handing people a bill when they get out of jail and eliminated fees charged to people in criminal justice system. they have been punished in a lot of ways. gone to jail, under supervision, the collection rate on the fees was so low we weren't bringing

in much revenue. the probation fee collection rate was 9%. this reform has become law from california and is spreading to other states. we made all calls from jail free. the more incarcerated people are in touch with families the better they do when they get out. it was penny wise and pound foolish. now phone calls are free. incarcerated people spend 80% more time in touch where families. that means they will do better when they get out. we eliminated fines for overdue library books. research shows were locking low income and people of color out of libraries. there are better ways to get people to return books, e-mail reminders or automatically renew if there is no one in line for

it. this has spread to other cities that eliminated overdue library fines. these hold people accountable but not in financial distress can work better for government. local government can spend more to collect the fees than they bring in. when you proportion the fine with income they pay more readily. this impact can go down and revenues can go up. >> i know there is an initial group that joined the project. they had a boot camp to introduce the program to large audience. is this gaining traction across the country? >> yes 10 cities were selected to launch the fines for fee justice. they adopted various reforms like we did in san francisco. as you mentioned we just hosted

a boot camp in phoenix, arizona. teams of judges and mayors came from 50 cities to learn how to implement reforms like we have in san francisco. there is a growing realization the penalties are blunt instruments with all kinds of unintended consequences. it is the job of every public servant to find a better way. governance should equalize opportunity not drive inequality. >> quite right. thank you so much. i really appreciate you coming on the show. thank you for your time today. >> thank you, chris. >> that is it for this episode. we will be back shortly. you are watching san francisco rising. thanks for watching.

>> >> (indiscernible) faces transformed san francisco street and sidewalks. local business communities are more resilient and our neighborhood centers on more vibrant ask lively. sidewalks and parking lanes can be used for outdoor seating, dining, merchandising and other community activities. we're counting on operators of shared spaces to ensure their sites are

accessible for all and safe. hello, san francisco. i love it when i can cross the street in our beauty city and not worry whether car can see me and i want me and my grandma to be safe when we do. we all want to be safe. that's why our city is making sure curb areas near street corners are clear of parked cars and any other structures, so that people driving vehicles, people walking, and people biking can all see each other at the intersection. if cars are parked which are too close to the crosswalk, drivers can't see who is about to cross the street. it's a proven way to prevent traffic crashes. which have way too much crashes and fatalities in our city. these updates to the shared spaces program will help to ensure safety and accessibility for everyone so we can all enjoy these public

spaces. more information is available at sf dot gov slash shared good afternoon and welcome to the mayor's disability meeting this friday,