. i will start the count down from 55432, one. welcome to the small business commission meeting on february 24th 2025. the meeting is being called to order at 4:32 p.m.. >> this meeting is being held in person in city hall room 400 and broadcast live on s.f. gov tv. the small business commission

thinks media services and s.f. tv for televising the meeting which can be viewed on s.f. gov tv two or live streamed nsf gov tv.org. we welcome general public comment at the end of the meeting and there will be an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker. an alarm will sound once time is finished. speakers are requested but not required to state their names. s.f. gov tv please show the office of small business site. i think we are on the wrong side. are we on? it's okay. all right. oh wait. sorry. do i need to you could you just. >> yeah, you could just read the. oh, okay. today we will begin with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the

economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. please call item one. >> item one roll call. commissioner benitez here. commissioner cornett is absent. commissioner nickerson present . commissioner herbert present. president here we hear commissioner ts cardenas absent and vice presidents as in as is absent. >> president you have a quorum. thank you. the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the remington alone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions the raw material alone we have never ceded lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and relatives of the raw material owning community and

by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. please call item two price for item two. we're actually going to move agenda item five. we're going to take agenda item five as agenda item two. so approval of draft meeting minutes. >> so approved item five approval of draft meeting minutes discussion and action item the commission will discuss and take action to approve the january 27th 2025 draft meeting minutes. >> um commissioners any minute. >> okay i move to approve meeting. i second. >> first we got to take public. we have to oh two do we have any questions here for the draft meeting minutes seeing the questions. um, any public comment about the draft meeting minutes? no. seeing no public comment? um, public comment is closed. now i can take the commission motion like i was saying. >> i'm kidding. i'm sorry. i moved to approve the minutes

i second motion to approve the meeting minutes by commissioner dickerson seconded by commissioner herbert. i'll read the role commissioner benitez yes. commissioner cronuts absent commissioner dickerson. yes. commissioner herbert yes. president huey yes, commissioner. it's kurt. dana's absent and vice presents is eunice's option absent motion passes and now we can go back to item two. okay, great. thank you. >> item two approval of legacy business registry application and resolutions. this is a discussion and action item. the commission will discuss and possibly take action to approve legacy business registry applications presenting as richard grillo legacy business program manager with the office of small business. >> good afternoon president huey. commissioners city staff members of the public. i'm richard carrillo. legacy business program manager. i'd like to acknowledge michelle reynolds, my colleague in the office of small business

who provides beneficial assistance to the legacy business program. >> as a captive i have a powerpoint presentation before you today our five applications for your consideration for the legacy business registry. >> each application includes a staff report, a draft resolution, the application itself and documents from the planning department. the applications were submitted to planning on january 22nd and heard by the historic preservation commission on february 19th. >> item two a is the greg angelo museum. the business is the home and studio of acclaimed artist greg angelo herrera. since 1989 which has evolved into an art lab an immersive experience located in a mediterranean style house in the balboa terrace neighborhood, the greg angelo museum was recently declared san francisco's historic landmark number 318 branded as an immersive experiment

experiential art museum. the house boasts 27 thematically different rooms all of which have been significantly remodeled remodeled through the museum welcomes locals and visitors alike. by appointment only on one of their introspective journeys where fantasies become realities the many experiences here will ignite your senses, awaken your imagination and arouse wonderment. >> the curriculum museum is a sanctuary of hope, healing and belonging for all. >> the core featured tradition that business must maintain to remain on the legacy business registry is museum item to be as hamano sushi the business is a japanese restaurant and no evali established in 1990 hamano sushi specializes in remarkable cuisine featuring various dining experiences. there are a la carte menu offers sushi sashimi rolls and cooked japanese dishes. omakase udon dining is a

curated multi-course sushi experience led by the chef. featuring high quality seasonal fish often sourced from japan's tohoku market is a career style dishes include a variety of small bar style plates designed for sharing for an elevated dining option. enjoy the premium chef's counter experience to complement your meal beverages or carefully curated including a fine selection of saké wine and beer. the core feature tradition that business must maintain is restaurant featuring japanese cuisine. >> item two c is one union recording studios. the business was founded in 1994 at its namesake location one union street in the embarcadero neighborhood where it is still located today. >> one union recording studio is a san francisco's premier audio post-production facility

that delivers audio recording, mixing and editing for television radio and film. one union prides itself on bringing projects to life working on notable films such as toy story, a bug's life, fruitvale station and milk. between the state of the art facilities, a well-appointed environment and most importantly award winning talent they see your project through to its fullest potential. one union recording studios is known for its professionalism and dedication to high quality sound production. >> through valuing vision and endless possibility they ensure your imagination remains inspired through every step. >> the core featured tradition the business must maintain is recording studio. >> item 2d is phaedrus. the business established in 1979 is san francisco's largest independent bmw and mini repair specialist. with over 23,000ft2 of shop

space in the van ness avenue corridor, phaedrus provides a full spectrum of auto services with the latest diagnostic technology including suspension repairs, engine repairs, coolant system flush and repairs condition based service or kbs inspections oil and filter changes and more. the building constructed in 1914 is an example of art nouveau architecture and has a distinctive large central arched window. it appears eligible for the listing on the national register of historic places. >> the core feature tradition that business must maintain to remain on legacy business registry's automotive services . >> item two e is rims and goggles. the business is a retailer of high end luxury eyewear that was founded in 1975 and located in the presidio heights neighborhood. rims and goggles focuses on unique and independent brands

that are not commonly found. >> celebrating individuality these brands take pride in offering frames that radiate uniqueness presenting a treasure trove of distinctive designs that allow wearers to express their own personalities. rims and goggles is a destination in store for those in search of eyewear that truly reflects their style and character. >> step into a realm of artistry and innovation with independent eyewear and elevate your eyewear experience to unprecedented heights at rims and goggles. >> the core feature tradition the business must maintain to remain on the legacy business registry as optometry. please note that rims and goggles provides optician services and has an onsite laboratory where we using optometry as a catchall category that includes optician and eyewear services. >> all the businesses met the three criteria required for listing on the legacy business registry and all have received

positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission. legacy business program staff recommends adding the businesses to the registry and has drafted a resolution for each business for your consideration. a motion in support of the businesses should be framed as a motion in favor of the resolutions. thank you. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions and there are business representatives president who may wish to speak on behalf of their applications during public comment. >> right. thank you very much rick. commissioners, any questions? >> how about we take public comment first? >> any public commenters feel free to step up to the mike. >> hey, i'm greg angelo and i've been in this room a lot the last few years with historic preservation. i never thought in my lifetime that we'd become a historic monument that was completely

not something i ever thought about. >> it's been amazing as an artist really working in the city to now be i guess honored with this legacy business meaning that we've been serving over. i think i've been really serving 40 years but legally 36 years and and i feel like i'm just getting started. so it's truly like today i'm just feeling like there's so much to do, so much to accomplish. i still feel like i'm that 19 year old kid that started and i'm just grateful for for what the city is doing to push businesses and culture and arts forward. you know everyone says a city is about that but the last five years it hasn't really felt that way. so i'm glad we survived and that we're here and there's people like you that are doing the good work. so i appreciate it. >> so i got to say for now great. >> thank you. any other public comment? >> no. okay. and seeing no further public comment public comment is closed.

commissioners comments and questions. commissioner herbert. >> hi mike. hello. you. >> i'm just really excited to see all of you here and especially hermanas sushi because i've been going to hermanas sushi for years before i had a kid. now i have a kid. it's very you know, it's an expensive habit that you've gotten my kid into but it's just outstanding sushi and i've been going there for like 25 years probably so i'm really happy to see you here. >> thank you. commission and she's really good to have you all here today . when i think about you know, these last five just piggybacking off of what you said about the last five years

with arts, i think it's just interesting how over these last five years we've it was really more about survival and i think people just forgot the importance of the arts and now that we're at a point now where we're breathing again investing again in making businesses a priority. you're probably one of the most important because art brings life expression feelings of love and appreciation and it's a gathering and i just want you to know that you deserve to be here and be honored and just appreciate all that you have brought to this city. all of us. when we look at these legacy businesses, there's a reason that they're called legacy. there's been an imprint that you've put in the city every single one of you and i don't think it should ever be

downplayed or or or felt like, you know, it wasn't deserved because behind the scenes when nobody can see you, you're working those long hours, you're doing things and it's not your money as good. we want it to be lucrative but that's not your initial purpose. like you want the expression and then it's nice to get the expression with the money but i just i just want to say to every single one of the businesses represented here today you are appreciated. you are a light to this city. all of us that are here are small business owners and we are thriving to receive the legacy on ourselves. so it is an honor to be here today and honor you today. so again, thank you for all that you have done for the city of san francisco. >> commissioner benitez yes,

and to piggyback on commissioner dickerson's comment about the arts, it's really great to you know i'm a retail owner myself and we've seen a lot of restaurants and things like that where it's a very fast paced industry and it's really great to see the arts here help slow things down and really think about what's important as you just move along. so love to see all that and then also with know sushi been there you know many times a good handful of times over the years a really great offering and service and really glad to see you finally get that legacy business not so congratulations to all the businesses keep working hard and congratulations and wishing you much more prosper in the future . >> congratulations to all of you. you know, even though we haven't voted yet, i have some feelings about how we might end up voting. >> you know, i just wanted to i guess share with with greg angelo. i took my family there like i don't know, maybe last year or

so like we did. a friend of mine, jade was doing a magic show there and so that was super cool that like we got to see jade in your in your home really. and i brought some of my family who had never been who just kind of moved here from kentucky i guess. and so that was like a real trip for them. this is like a san francisco experience to take them to the greg angelo museum and to see the magic of jade and like you know, to to just be like surprised by what the evening's going to bring. so i suggest everybody bring their family. they're like don't tell them where you're going. just tell them you're going over to someone's house for like, you know, some i don't know or d'oeuvres or charcuterie or something. there's going to be a cheese board somewhere and and then you show up and they just are like completely amazed by what

is going to happen and like it was the best experience and you know, it's one of those experiences that i really feel exemplifies what san francisco is about. you kind of show up and you kind of expect one thing and then this whole other universe unfolds for you and you know and i really got to get pulled into it because i think you were part of our artwalk and like sharing kind of like what you do with people at the artwalk and and and i was like this is so cool. i got to go myself and once i did it was like i want to do this. i want to make my house the great again, you know? >> so and i live really close so maybe we could do a tunnel or something but um so yeah, i'm glad i get to you know, let you know and and appreciate you know, just say thank you for fantastic evening that i think

continues to set in my mind. well i think congratulations to you all and all of these businesses i could go on and talk about in depth but i will not keep you all here because i think you should go out and celebrate with your teams and your staff and your families and and yeah, enjoy being a part of this wonderful club of legacy business founders and owners and and people who are part of this amazing chain i think of like san francisco really. so i think any other questions are comments from commissioners seeing no further comments or questions. i think we can go ahead and take a motion and motion that we vote in every single one of these businesses. >> so every single one every single one i second that motion motion by commissioner dickerson seconded by commission commissioner benitez

i'll read the role commissioner binnie does. yes. commissioner cornett is absent. commissioner dickerson yes. commissioner herbert yes. president huey yes. commissioner t's cardenas absent and vice president is absent. >> motion passes. congratulations. >> thank you. thank you very much. okay. >> remember this case is i really appreciate what you said you thank you very much. >> yeah. item three san francisco municipal transportation agency s.f. mta funding working group summary this is a discussion item as if mta will provide an update on solutions being currently being discussed to address the agency's $320 million budget shortfall in fiscal year 2627 and share an

update on the muni funding working group efforts to date presenting today we have a mandate you can with sfm to come up and help you. >> hi welcome amanda. >> okay. thank you so much. good afternoon and president huey i don't know if the vice president is eunice's here or not but i will welcome her as well. dr. tang and commissioners, thank you for making some time for us to speak with you. this presentation is coming out of a briefing that i offered to director tang and some of the staff about some of the particular challenges we face at muni. >> and so i just wanted to bring you all up to speed as our partnership with the small business community is so important to the sfm, mta. >> my name is amanda egan. i represent the office of the chief of staff and i'm just before i start i did want to just take a moment to recognize and thank all of you for your public service. >> it is a testament to how much you care about this city

and that you care about the small businesses that really make our city so vibrant and dynamic that you volunteer your time to serve on this commission. so thank you for believing in good government and being a part of it and for taking care of our small businesses. >> we really appreciate it. >> okay. so the agenda i wanted to share today it was a couple of things. one is we have a new leader at the mta so i just wanted to tell you a little bit about her because that's a pretty big deal for our organization. second is share some info about the muni finance same challenges we face and then third get your questions and sort of have a discussion answer answer any questions that i'm able to so maybe you've seen in the papers i don't know if you have that. julie kirschbaum last tuesday was sort of appointed to be the next director of the mta by both mayor lurie and also the f.a. board of directors. >> julie is a person who has worked at the agency for a pretty long time. she's been with mta since 2007 and she served as the director

of muni from 2018 to 2024. so that was right through the heart of the pandemic and all the uncertainty and all of the challenges she navigated to make sure that even in the darkest days of the pandemic muni was still delivering the essential services of getting the people to where they need to go in the city. and so this was i think the board and the mayor felt someone we could really count on with some of the challenges that are coming to be a really steady hand for the agency. she has two decades of experience in transportation and i just wanted to share with you her priorities the immediate priority she's setting out for the agency and so that is to rebuild trust with communities across san francisco clearly to focus on ensuring the financial stability of the organization which is so important and then also just supporting the staff the amazing people 6000 people all across the city who are the operators who drive the busses or the mechanics who maintain our facilities or who make the signs so we all know how to

drive or how to bike or how to walk around the city. all of these services are what allow this city to keep moving and stay connected. and so she really is placing a priority on just caring for the staff and that's really important to see to. >> okay. so just want to take a moment as we think about economic recovery of the bay area downtown recovery in san francisco just to make the connection that really the economic recovery of the entire bay area is connected to the success of muni and that it is over half of all the transit trips in the whole bay area are on muni and over half of the transfers from bart to muni or you know of any interagency transfer involve muni and 60% of all trips starter and in san francisco and i just wanted to put this quote that was so compelling from our chief

economist that we will not have an economic recovery in san francisco unless we have a solvent transit agency. it is really that important. >> the good news is that we have been investing in muni and these investments are really paying off. we have invested in over 100 miles of improvements to that we called our muni forward program to get the bus out of traffic to make sure if you choose to ride muni you don't have to sit waiting in a line of traffic that you get really high quality service that people feel safe on the and that's really important to us and we have our muni transit ambassador program that's really to welcome people and guide them and help them navigate and be kind of a presence on our vehicles to make people feel that they have someone that they can turn to if they feel uncomfortable. all of those have questions. also customer information has been really important to us to make it a more convenient experience to make sure you know when the bus is coming and you can kind of plan your life around that in a way that feels

like a pretty high quality of service. we've also heard loud and clear that people want the stations and stops to be clean and feel safe and so we've invested significantly in cleanliness and maintenance. the delays in our subway system are down something like 60 to 70% compared to pre-pandemic and that is because we have invested in proactive and preventative maintenance and really embrace a culture of continuous improvement at the agency and the fix that weeks that you'll maybe you've maybe experienced so we can get ahead of problems rather than waiting for those to come. and i'm really proud of the numbers that have come out of that work and then employee mentoring and continuous improvement has really been another hallmark of our success. >> so people are coming back to muni of course we saw a huge dip at the beginning of the pandemic as people were concerned and they were trying to wrestle with that public health guidance to stay apart from each other and they were uncomfortable and concerned. our ridership has very interestingly almost entirely recovered on the weekends.

>> it is really that sort of societal shift we're seeing we're not seeing five days a week back in the office and that represents why weekday is a little bit lower. i don't know if you know people who are sort of you know, some days going the office, some days working from home. that's kind of what you're reflecting seeing in these numbers. >> but this is what i really wanted to share with you is that we have received in 2020 for the highest customer satisfaction ratings that muni has seen in 20 years last year. >> so coming out of that global pandemic we were able to make these improvements to get some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings we've seen in the history of this agency. >> so we're really proud of that progress that we have really focused on the customer experience and that's been our north star and that we have worked to make muni fast, frequent, reliable, clean and safe that has been sort of our guiding light. so we are quite protective of that progress and it is why these financial challenges are so particularly challenging now

and why we really want to engage anyone who's willing to be part of the conversation and how do we solve this problem together and keep our transit system strong. >> so the challenge is just to underscore for you in this coming fiscal year that starts in july of 2025 we have a $50 million budget shortfall and there's been some conversations right here in this room with the board of directors of mta about how to problem solve for that number. the bigger number that we are really needing to do a lot of work around is the f y 26 a starting in july of 2026 that's the 320 million maybe you've heard of the sort of fiscal cliff people talk about and that is really what they're talking about. that's that's really what a lot of that one time relief funding that we received during the pandemic from the federal government and the state government runs out and is depleted and that's what's causing that fiscal cliff that we need to them really problem solve around. >> so some of the reason i mentioned transit use is down somewhat so transit fares are

down somewhat parking use especially at some of our downtown garages tracking with that less five days a week downtown is down the general fund growth is a little bit slower and we get a big portion of our budget from the general fund and that relief has run out and then just sort of a structural challenge which i'm sure you all can relate to which is that costs with inflation rise faster than the traditional sources of our revenue. so there was even a structural deficit before the pandemic that we were trying to problem solve for and it's just so much more dramatic now because of those other funding sources lagging. >> okay. so we did convene in september of last year this muni funding working group and that was really meant to represent a whole bunch of diverse stakeholders. so comptroller's office and mta are the code conveners and then we have folks from the mayor's office. we have organizations representing labor business advocacy groups, the associate

board directors of course the assaf board of supervisors in the room and the idea was to ask this group to come together, really roll up their sleeves, really get into the numbers and make some recommendations for how we can move forward and how we can tackle this financial challenges so sorry i'll just say one more thing about this which is that the group looked at in the fall sort of the nightmare scenarios of what the cuts would have to look like if we don't solve this funding challenge. i also looked at, you know, some some service cuts. we've also then looked at what are the revenue options, what are potential taxes or fees or other options we could put forth together to solve this and then are even though we are limiting we're in a in a world of limited resources, are there some service enhancements that are particularly important to the community that we still should have on the table although they would be modest? okay. so i want to walk you through a

couple of different options just to kind of catch you up on what the group has been discussing in terms of all these funding options we might piece together to solve this problem. and i want to say none of these ideas are endorsed and none of these ideas are easy but we just do want to share this information with you by way of just working to solve problems together. so we kind of separated like larger dollar amount ballot measures and smaller dollar amount ballot measures as sort of two that we'd consider and maybe some of you are aware there's conversations at the metropolitan transportation commission about a regional measure that would be a multi-county because of course bart and caltrain and other transit agencies in the bay area are also facing funding challenges and need to raise revenue. so that would need to be a regional collaboration like a regional revenue measure. there's also the option of doing like a local sales tax measure in san francisco of course we've done this before or local parcel tax those are some of these ideas on the table. we are also talking or thinking

about maybe you all remember there was probable there was in november that did not pass that was like a ride hail autonomous vehicle tax. that's just one of the ideas under discussion like a commuter benefit clipper card where larger employers would purchase a clipper card or a transit pass and then that would become a benefit for their employees. that's another kind of option a couple of different varieties of parking taxes and parking fees and then this one that's a utility user tax on things like use of electricity or use of gas those those uses would be taxed and there's that's an existing one that would just be increased slightly for this particular option. >> we've also talked about just maximizing existing programs and one of the things that we've heard repeatedly is that people are very frustrated at the perception that other people aren't paying for muni we heard this through a lot of

the budget outreach that there's a perception of fare evasion. of course we're studying and we have a sense of the the numbers but it is important and in terms of building trust that sort of we all pay our fair share so we have deployed our transit fare inspectors to really just encourage people to pay their fair share and to understand the different options for getting a monthly pass or daily pass or whatever it is. there's also a bit around parking optimization which really sounds pretty dark parking optimization but this is things like increasing from a maximum of two hours ability to pay for parking to maybe you could pay for four hours of parking like adjustments like that that could help both raise revenue but also sort of respond to better and maybe custom more convenient customer experience for people. and then we've also talked about increasing the residential parking permit

program. >> that program was originally put in place to balance supply and demand of a limited resource which is parking in the neighborhoods and so it's actually designed to make it easier to find a parking spot by just creating a program with the stickers in some cases that the program in some cases we're seeing very, very high demand rates for parking where even though people might have a sticker they're still finding it really hard to park in their neighborhoods. so this would be a modification to allow people to more easily to better balance the supply and demand and then same with paid parking on sundays and into the evenings to meter those times so that people could we could better balance supply and demand and make sure people can find a parking spot . okay. and the finally this is the last big ideas slide as these are post 2029 ideas. these are kind of big ideas that will take a lot of

community collaboration and feedback before we would even really think about pursuing any of these in a serious way. but looking at visitor parking citywide charging for short term curb use this is one idea that came up from the muni funding working group is like well what about are we charging for like you know amazon deliveries and if they're using the curb for short period of time maybe they could pay a fee or maybe if someone's having their dinner delivered by uber eats driver or something maybe they're using the curb, maybe they should pay a little fee, something like that. joint development is something that we're really excited about and this is just recognizing that us mta actually owns a lot of property around san francisco and there's potential to develop that property in a way that both meets the city's housing goals by creating new housing supplies. >> so maybe you've heard of our potrero yard or we're developing in the mission and then there's presidio yard over by geary and masonic that has a lot of potential and all over the city we can show you a map if you're interested. so create more housing and create a revenue stream to

support transit. we're really excited about that but it just that will not solve our immediate budget shortfalls but it's a little bit of a longer term idea and then road pricing congestion pricing have been on the table and discussed and studied year for years and you know would take a lot more conversation if those were to be developed. we're just looking at them as one of many potential solutions . okay. so just want to say a few more things that i want to stop and hear your questions. >> there's no single silver bullet idea here. there's no one thing that's going to solve the entire funding gap. so we are going to have to look at a package of potential revenue sources hopefully minimize cuts but there may be some efficiencies and cuts that we have to look at as part of a package of meeting that are very, very significant $320 million goal and that we really need people's perspectives on how to do this. they're really sort of not too

many easy decisions left and this is why we're coming to you all and so many of your your neighbors across the city to share this information so we can make these tough decisions together. >> so just a couple of things on the horizon i wanted to share to get a better sense of where people are on some of these measures that i put out there. you know, like a parcel tax or a sales tax or all these different ideas. the metropolitan transportation commission did some polling. that's something i could share with you as a follow up. i don't have slides on those but if you're interested to learn what they learn that's available and we're also going to be looking at working with the county transportation authority on polling some of those local measures as well so we can get some sort of more more san francisco specific data. the last muni funding working group meeting is going to be next month in march and that is going to be the dates not yet set but we would invite you all to participate when it is and you can i can work with your secretary or your staff to make

sure we get that info as a follow up to you. and those materials are all online and we're going to be working on putting together kind of a series of those packages to consider and then looking at like the pros and cons and who benefits and who is burdened by those different packages trying to narrow down the packages and then the ideas bringing them to our board of directors and april at the board workshop for the board then to say okay that's the package, that's the direction we really want to pursue and and then of course that's for the longer term but there's also this immediate need by you know by july of this year to solve that shorter term budget gap. so that's in real time iteration right now with the board of directors looking at what how could what could we piece together to meet the 50 million gap? >> okay. so i'll just put out some questions for discussion and here for you all i'm really curious what questions you have about the revenue options that are under consideration by the muni funding working group.

>> what feedback or advice would you want to share with me that i could bring back to the muni funding working group as they look to kind of close out their process by march of this year and then to the larger themes and priorities of director kirschbaum what would it look like to start to rebuild trust with the business community in san francisco? i think that's a really important question we all need to ask ourselves and how can the sfm to be a better partner to the groups that you represent? >> so that's what i wanted to share with you all today and i'm available to answer your questions and thank you for your attention. >> thank you very much amanda for for the presentation. >> this was this was a lot for a lot of detail. >> yeah. no thank you. i appreciate that you came and wanted to, you know, share all of this at this point and i'm going to open it up for commissioner comment and questions. >> commissioner herbert, thank

you for the very good presentation. those are really comprehensive. i had a question about let's say there was a tax that would it be what percentage of so how would that work? >> would it be a sales tax or and then let's say it was i mean i'm not familiar with how much you can tack on to the existing sales tax but let's say it was half a percent or quarter of a percent. >> how much revenue would you forecast for i mean this kind of really on the back of the napkin kind of conversation but like what how how quickly would you use forecast during that making the 50 million if you added a percentage to the sales tax? i mean that seems like the most straightforward way to cover it.

>> yeah. so a couple so a couple of couple of questions in there. so we are looking at a whole so many options you know so there is one that's looking at an eighth cent sales tax a quarter and a half so i think up to 7/8 and sales tax there's some that there's some conversations it gets really complicated about the idea of a variable rate. so if you did a regional measure that the rate that would be on the ballot in for example like alameda county might be different than the rate on the ballot in san francisco because maybe the san francisco voters would vote for a higher measure. so there's just that's all the so live right now in terms of all the different options under consideration all of this the idea is towards the november of 26 ballot measure or maybe earlier in 26 but that's really what sort of the conversation is circling around because for that regional measure for example, you would need state authorizing legislation even to

put a regional measure on the ballot in november of 2026. so none of those options would come online in time to solve the $50 million challenge that we have for this coming year. but just you know, to give you a sense of the ranges because they're just there's so many just different ranges we've been considering but like that regional measure the number we've been tossing out is that san francisco us portion would be about 80 to 90 million. that would come from the regional measure like one of the more likely scenarios and then you know just depending if it's like a quarter cent sales tax or if it's a half or 70% you know it can be on the low end. i think our numbers were you know, 90 million or something up to you know in the high hundreds. >> okay. and then thank you. and then what does that 50 million cover like? is that salaries is it mechanical or maintenance?

is that you know, making the busses look good or you mean the short the 50 million shortfall that we face? yeah. yeah. so i mean that's you're hitting like right now you're you're you're sort of naming the problem that we're trying to solve is how would we address cutting that cutting enough services programs whatever it is to meet the 50 million. so for example again right here in this room on february 4th it was brought to the mta board a scenario to cut 15 million in muni service that would be about a 4% cut in service and those are three options presented for doing that and the board said please go away and come back with other options. >> we don't like we don't like those options. so and as you could imagine so it's it's it's tough at some point too it's it's tough to

meet those numbers when there are not things that people want to cut. yeah and it kind of seems like you have to spend money to make that money back if you want to make it attractive with like you know, really great seating and you know all the good stuff so i'm just full of questions. >> i don't have any you know that's all i know. that's great. and you know, just just one idea. i think that we're hopeful about is the transit fare revenue optimization. i put up there. so that is really by sort of deploying some transit fare inspectors and just being a bit of a presence is reminding people that, you know, they're expected to pay their fares. we are we saw in october of last year some of the highest transit highest transit fare inspection numbers which feels responsive to the feedback we heard from the community that they want everyone to pay their fair share. and so we're hoping to be able to share the revenue impacts of of that investment fairly soon

but that you know it's a it's not $50 million right you guys are still taking cash right? >> yeah yeah. what other thank you. >> thank you. thanks for the questions i think well our commissioners maybe might be generating some questions. >> i have a couple i'm wondering like things like the free transit that was offered for chinese new year as well as you know as well as free parking at portsmouth square like things like that but you to help people kind of see how they can can use you know like as a little trial or like as an incentive to start using transit are there numbers on whether those help boost ridership or confidence in ridership? >> yeah i, i don't have the numbers off the top of my head. i know we were definitely

tracking that this past weekend or two weekends ago we were tracking the numbers of the you know so of all of that subsidized transit and whether that was something that boosted ridership, i think that there was an observed effect. i just don't have the specific numbers. but yes, i mean in fact we've we've launched this whole kind of customer experience initiative as a mta muni which is really around putting that customer experience as the north star recognizing that taking a transit trip involves so many steps. it involves like figuring out what line you're going to ride and then like learning where the bus stop is and then figuring out payment and then once you're on the bus where do i get off the bus? and there's just so many things that maybe people who aren't as familiar with transit need to kind of learn and figure out. and so that's what we're trying to to work through as a support people all the way along that journey so they have a really pleasant experience and then

they would they would come back to to riding muni. so that's one of things we're really excited about is sort of helping people learn and be be more accessible to people who may not have like grown up here or just don't understand as well how to ride the system. yeah i think it can be very intimidating like i have a shop in chinatown and so i get to see a lot of tourists every day coming through like regional tourists as well as you know international and domestic tourists. and i think you know and i take transit into the tea station often and as well as like sometimes just getting off downtown and walking in and you know, i try to do it kind of as if i've never done it before and just go and i just kind of observe how people you know, experience transit, right? because i kind of think about like the relationship between transit with our tourist experience and it's like you know how seamless is that

experience? like if i'm planning a trip to san francisco and i'm not going to rent a car, is there a possibility for, you know, multi-day passes which i know there are but it's just kind of like that information i think is maybe not as readily accessible as i think we believe it to be and like having full package kind of like experiences that where you know i'm in chinatown and i often people will ask me like well where do i eat? and i'm like okay well if you want to stay here you can walk to this place but if you want to go to these places you know i'm oftentimes telling people oh check out the tunnel tops like that's a beautiful part of the city that's often not on our tour guide book yet. right. and so it's kind of like how do we create those experiences for people, you know, and have our infrastructure be outcome driven? and i think this is kind of the moment right now that we're

really thinking about like you said, you know that customer experience and that like outcome that we want and and i think somehow deepening the relationship with travel and visitor ship you know would really enhance the muni experience and even because those are the people riding muni oftentimes on the weekdays as well and and i think you know driving in the city i've sat in the car not to not okay well this is a comment about my friends who do not live in the city and drive in the city you know sitting in the car with somebody who's driving who doesn't live in the city. it's an experience because you're like please go around these things, you know, and i would rather just like you know, for us to be able to take regional transport systems to be able to seamlessly get off on bart and and hop on the muni and you know i think some of those challenges that we have

where our payment systems, our infrastructure, our don't meet so seamlessly are the gaps that if we could just like i feel like if we could just bridge the gaps in a way that so invisible then you know people wouldn't even realize that they're adopting a new thing, right? and so i think that's one of the the observations is that i love that the numbers for people's feelings about muni have been positively you know have increased but i also feel like as an actual writer i don't know if um i don't know if i see that number reflected in my daily rides yet so i will also have some other things to address in a moment but i'm

going to give some space for commissioner benitez or commissioner herbert. >> did you have another comment ? >> i just had a short quick question and have you thought of partnering with s.f. travel or the hotels? >> okay. okay. yes. i mean thank you for saying that. you know and to your point as well, president hewett when you go to a warriors game and you don't even think about paying for muni because your ticket to the game is your ticket to muni, that's great. that's a wonderful thing. you know we maybe we need to even promote that more but so your take away any kind of barrier to payment or figuring out any of that you just have your ticket and that that's a partnership we have created with the chase center so i think that's great. we've done that kind of partnership with some of the big music concerts in golden gate park where like your ticket to the event is your muni ticket and so that's just bundled into the cost of your ticket and then we're sort of incur then you know then transit essentially doesn't feel like a cost or any barrier

at all and then people are you know, encouraged you to use it. so i mean i was just going to reference i guess i traveled last summer and when i checked into my hotel they said here's your key and here's your transit pass and here's your map of the city, off you go. and it's like okay, that's great. we got a free transit pass now we'll just kind of use that to get around. and so i think i mean i just think that's like that's such an interesting question and i think it there is some history of those discussions. i don't know exactly what the next step is or what the barrier is but i love the idea committee and commissioner benitez oh yeah, it's just kind of a three part question and one of them is very detailed and i know you mentioned it and have the numbers but i know that the fare has increased for muni. i guess at the beginning of the year, correct? >> now i'm just curious if if that increase what that percent increases from january to february of this year, is it the same amount like his ridership also that same increase january, february versus last year? as i know it's a very specific kind of numbers ridership question. it's just more of out of curiosity to see how it might

have affected that and also how how has that increase in the fare? what does that play to the shortfall as well like what percentage does it play to the shortfall to help either bring it down or contribute to that? >> the second question was very related to commissioner hurwitz in terms of y you partner with s.f. travel or even you know i have my phone with me all the time and whether it's like you know, using air or just checking into it or even just working with influencers about saying hey, you know, here's how i get from point a to b and this is a fun kind of way to do it i think you know, it's just an interesting way to to also get you know, buy in and continue to get, you know, public transportation and be accepted in our city as well. >> and then the third question is what cities are doing it well that s.f. is inspired by as well. so who have you look to or who is inspiring san francisco to better the experience? okay, great. i mean this is just this comment is so validating of why we want to reach out to diverse

perspective is because some of the just some of the creative things you just mentioned it's like just the outside of the box thought around like you know, influencers i like i think that's really interesting. >> um okay so let's see where do i want to go first with this? okay increase in fares and my recollection although it's been a few months my recollection of the transit fare increase piece in terms of the overall budget problem solving was that it was pretty small piece my the number sticking in my mind but please don't hold me do it is that the last budget cycle which was adopted in 24 trying to problem solve for about a $13 million budget gap and then the transit piece raising the transit fares piece was i want to say under 5 million in terms of what that increase in transit fares would result in. so it's a pretty small number and i do just want to i think i just want to share with you

that there was a lot of thought in terms of the equity analysis of those transit fare increases and that the the product that is relied upon most by the lowest income san franciscans is actually the cash fare which is currently at $3 and because of that we did not raise the cash for at all so that held what was raised was that you had for historically gotten a discount for clipper which was to encourage clipper so that was 250, cash was three and so it was a little bit of a we're reducing the discount for clipper to raise up that clipper fare product to be equivalent to the cash fare. but i just want to i want to understand a lot of thought and intentionality went into that and has so then you out you'll also asked about what cities are doing like are doing it well and are sort of inspirations for us in terms of specifically what piece in terms of like the budget

problem solving or in terms of transit performance just getting yeah yeah. i mean i would say a hallmark of a great user experience is that you don't even need to like you just walk up to the platform or you walk up to the station and it just comes so frequently that you know what i mean? it's just so seamless in terms of your quality of life and so you know what we have a lot of commenters comments just talk about the experience in new york city for example of like three minute headways or something on the train where it's just common like almost consistently. i mean of course there cities all across europe and asia that have extra ordinarily high frequencies. i will just say this is just fun. this is not an official as of mta response but there's a city that i visited that didn't even just track the arrival of the bus in minutes it was in seconds was like the next train will arrive in one minute and

10s and it was just like blew me away. >> yeah. so focusing on the user experience on the frequency hour there are many studies from which we draw inspiration and then the third piece was about influencers is that right ? >> and sort of partnerships, yeah. yeah. okay. yeah. so we have it. we have a muni mobile app that people can use to pay their fares. what we are working towards is the ability to and other cities have this now and to not have to have a copper card at all just to use your credit card or your apple pay or even your like apple watch to pay and that's been that that's been a goal for a long time and i think we're working towards that to again eliminate you know any sort of barrier or friction of learning to use a new system to i think to your point, president healey, about just you know, how easy is it how seamless is it for someone who doesn't know very well to just hop on board and we want to make it as easy as possible?

>> yeah, i have my clipper card on my apple wallet so and it like makes it almost feel like apple pay. yeah i guess. >> right. okay. mm yeah yeah right right. um one of the things one of the thoughts that i had this is just maybe separate but was in terms of our wayfinding yeah i feel like you know there's some little gaps that that i've experienced where you know, if i was to meet commissioner benitez at you know powell street station i would love to be able to say meet me by door a or meet me by door 24 versus like on the south side of my i don't know i don't even know my directions but like you know i think trying to have like really seamless like wayfinding inside a station and making the

stations also more inviting like i think you know you go to other cities and there are shops and things in the stations not that we necessarily have space for all these shops or things but you know having the stations be more of a inviting place for people to go and um and even music i don't even mind you know i would love music like as you get off of a station i think there were some talks about if we have wayfinding like you know when you go to the mall and you have the directory like which i am here how do i get to the botanical gardens from this point on and being able to click on something and seeing it that'd be cool but it would also be cool if we even just had you know, put it out there for artists and tech people to come together and figure out like a really cool you know, maybe it's maybe it's that i don't

know the the muse day mechanic laughing sal who creates you and tells you where to go you know i don't know but we make it you know or maybe it's carl the fog and carl tells you how to get to one place to another but i mean, you know, there are so many creative ways i think to make wayfinding um interactive much more culturally relevant to our city um and just easy you know i would love to i mean just even even understanding like which door to exit, you know in order to get somewhere more efficiently would be great. >> um the other piece about safety was i think i had mentioned this before and another and another presentation was that i would love i've noticed that the cell phone service is better on some stretch of the tunnel like where i actually get service now on on this stretch of the tunnel that i wasn't getting

before but i also wanted to see if there was just some sort of more obvious call button if there is something happening in a train car that that would at least alert the driver of the you know, the operator that in a car 30 to be or whatever to have somebody be able to come and check on that car at the next stop something like that would make i think people feel more secure and it not you know i think it's not necessarily to the point of like stopping the whole train and like blaring an alarm but at least just kind of an alert that that makes people feel comfortable reporting something if there is something happening because i've been on trains where something is happening and i am not comfortable like either dealing with the situation or making a big deal of the situation and i've just exited the train and gone into another car but that also doesn't solve for the issue.

so i would like to have some sort of um you know just a response you know where somebody can professionally respond to what might be happening. >> um those are some of the low hanging kind i mean not low hanging those require work but i guess those are some just business owner kind of ideas like i think what you'll find is that the small business commission is generally a group of us who all we do is solve problems all day on the ground and so i feel like coming to us with presentations um i really appreciate this but i also say that like our small business community is so resourceful that if we did an outreach in a really positive way that said we just want all your ideas and thoughts about things and i know we've done that in the past where we've asked for

really positive solutions oriented ideas. our small business community is filled with creative problem solvers and we would happily do this for the city of san francisco. >> um, commissioner benitez actually i have to just note that we have officially lost quorum so we can still have discussion items and take public comment but none of it will go into the public record. oh i have to i have to notice it for the agenda. okay. >> please continue. oh yeah. no, i think you brought it up actually now that i think about it i remember i forget how many years ago but there was a big push to get a lot of local shops into the airport to really represent a local community. is there a pilot program kind of whether it be bart or muni or something on that sort where we have or you have these kind of pop ups at certain stops so that people either stay or where your busiest ports are at that you can take advantage of the foot traffic or the people

that are there and have a local presence whether it be retail food or some type of local service to continue to promote just kind of the local corridors in the city. >> that's so fascinating. i think you're right in that that it feels like that has been pretty successful at the airport at least you can you can see the evidence of that that kind of partnership. i'm not aware of a specific program like that that's an sfm to partnership but i really appreciate that creative suggestion there has. but i mean the the part one of the partnerships we've had with with i don't know if you know this this partnership with the soccer club football club that actually wears the muni logo on their uniforms and then so that's been a little bit of an interesting partnership and i think there's a partnership for beer week if i'm not mistaken. maybe there's like a uni beer at one of the breweries i think that that but i and we and you know there have been a lot of sorry there's been a lot of partnerships like for the muni

for our 10th anniversary ten year anniversary we had there was a whole passport that we did that was like go go to all these businesses and get your passports stamped and tell us how you got there. you can take the 49 to this one or you took the five to that one and so there have been partnerships like that around promoting, you know, business taking muni to businesses but i don't know about any new pop ups at transits stations if that's what you're asking. i, i think it's really fascinating for i love this relationship between kind of like you know muni specifically but also you know, just our public infrastructure because this is all one one thing right? like you bring customers to us you you bring our our staff and our teams to us and you know we're we're also feeling kind of this this transit infrastructure and so like we all kind of coexist together i'm thinking about you know

when you had referenced maybe some of the larger corporate offices being able to buy muni passes and one of the things that small business owners struggle with is creating benefit for their workers and their teams. i think if there was some way because i know like for us we have an oral surgery practice out in the richmond and the richmond feels like this like outer lands kind of quadrant oftentimes when it comes to transit and finding workers and finding staff because you know we kind of like to get off of bart you're dropped off in downtown and then you have to take another trip, you know, into the richmond district and so like it's hard to find work staff. i think like when you get further out into the richmond district in the sunset district um i'm kind of like wondering if there is a way to also be able to give benefit to small businesses throughout the city

because i think that's something that would easily um create good uh goodwill with our small business community to know that we're kind of thinking about them and how we can like offer benefits to their to their themselves as they take muni as well as like their staff and their teams because they're the ones who i feel like a lot of our small businesses are utilizing transit you know so what would those benefits look like in your mind even if it's sort of preliminary brainstorming that you're thinking about? >> um, i mean even if we're able to buy kind of like bundled like discounted rated, you know, fares or bundled kind of, you know, some kind of thing i think employers would be willing to to help, you know, their employees out with with transit like some subsidized kind of transit and things like that um but i don't

know i'm just kind of like yeah thinking a little bit about that right? >> do you have thoughts commissioner that you look like you have a thought. >> i wasn't sure if it because some of these things that this is in my mind i'm thinking okay $50 million then you see this is throwing out we need to be dealing with but so first of all thank you so much for the presentation. >> man that was it was a lot and i feel like you all have tried to cover everything and it's like okay did y'all miss did did you see if we missed anything? but i'm looking at the january muni ridership recovery and i so i do customized personal training and so i have a clientele of people of all sorts you name it from

salesforce to at&t to i mean public officials, you name it. so and it's interesting how when i hear now there's so many businesses are now requiring their people to come back to work. so i know we're on the rise of trajectory of more people riding just the nature of the bigger businesses that are now saying you have to come in. >> so are you are those >> and i'm i'm i'm sure it's difficult to kind of guesstimate that but are you seeing through the trajectory of increase there based on the mandate i know is coming across the larger businesses that are now saying okay, you have to come in to work in the language that i'm hearing is oh my god, i have not driven my car in so long or the time you know, when one of my clients was like i had to use immunity, put my makeup on

and i was like oh my god. >> but but that seems to be something that we could be looking at as well, right? for that increase for the ride sharing recovery. yeah. yeah. i, i don't i don't know if i could point to the data and say you know that's the point at which i'm seeing the increase but i think that that general i mean you're right that's one of the many sort of factors we take into account when trying to project what future revenues look like. but we always have to do sort of, you know, scenarios like an optimistic middle of the road and pessimistic scenario. so we're hopeful but can't kind of count on that necessarily if you know what i mean. >> but there is there any measurement of that or any anything that has been you know, that that increase is

that a part of the measured increase of the recovery as the increase of people returning back to work or have we not seen the meat of it because i know it just well yeah i mean you know i think i mentioned around 75% weekday ridership recovery and then in the 90s for weekend recovery but still the exits from our downtown stations like muni stations like montgomery station power station those are still very, very low. i don't remember exact numbers but the one i hold in my head of the ballpark is i mean those are substantially below where they were. gosh, i heard at one point i would have to get the latest numbers but something like 30 or 40% of pre-pandemic numbers at those downtown stations and that's what's bringing down the overall transit recovery is we're just not seeing the return of that kind of downtown commute.

>> okay. >> okay. any other questions you can tell as business owners we often like when we're hit with like crazy scary scenarios. you know, it's like cutting costs but we also don't you know, you can't cut costs into nothing. >> so it's like we're always kind of brainstorming well what are the positives? what are the ways in which we can like bring things back? so i you know, hopefully the comments from the commissioners have been helpful in in seeing a positive you know like we're all rooting for muni and i think you know our our ears are always open for you know just learning more about the system and how we can you know, hopefully provide good feedback so that you know we yeah we see people taking more muni and

that it grows um would it be helpful for us to kind of plug into networks for further outreach? i know you have a lot of outreach to do in the next like two months or so. um, given that i know what today is i think in the next couple of months or so it sounds like there's a lot to do. would it be helpful for us to i know we're not on public record right now but we can kind of amplify the the need for small business owners to come in and voice kind of like what might be helpful. >> yes. and i will say, you know, this conversation we're on the two year budget cycle right? so the budget was adopted in 24 and the next big budget will be adopted sort of april may of 2026 by the mta board. so coming out of this meeting funding working group and mta board they'll be there's a

whole series of outreach and conversations ultimately culminating with the adoption of the the next two year budget. we would love to be able to plug into any yeah. any larger networks of small businesses that you have to be able to get that information out. and then i mean i really loved how you said sort of think of us as like creative resourceful problem solvers. i guess i'm going to lock that away in my head is like if i need some creative resourceful problem solvers, i'm coming back to the small business community. yeah, that would be that's really, really great and helpful. yeah we are here. >> so, um. yeah. seeing no further questions or comments from our commissioners i think we'll open it up for public comment. okay. and any public comment? yes. yeah, go ahead. >> 3 minutes or 2 minutes. >> three minutes. okay. good evening commissioners richard carillo for disclosure i work for the city in county so cisco for the office of

small business. but i'm here speaking as a resident today. >> i'll preface this by saying that i love transit. i wanted to be a transportation planner. i specifically love intra rail transit so like muni metro but i and i apologize i missed the presentation. i was out in the hallway with the legacy businesses but i'm hoping that this makes sense based on what the presentation was. but you're talking about wanting to build trust and i find that s.f. mta is very frustrating department they just closed a lot of streets without input from businesses and without input from residents and even when residents come to the commission meetings for the transit agency they just get ignored. i live in two post triangle they closed no street and made it a slow street and nobody uses nobody street because the

sidewalks and the post triangle there they're beautiful. everyone has potted plants there's bulb outs this big trees everyone's on the sidewalk and you have to drive on each street to get into parking spots so nobody's on the street and nobody uses it and what happens is it moved all the cars over to sanchez and sanchez is the bike route is an official bicycle route and you have the fire station right there. so now it's all this traffic on sanchez street all this traffic is also moved on 14th street because they did things like did a bulb out on the bus which now the fire department can't reach the building at 400 post avenue and all those cars come down on 14th. so that intersection where i live 14th and sanchez has become like super dangerous. >> i, i have to cross it every day and i fear for my life. i literally feel for fear for my life every time i cross that street and i have to make that second crossing. i do near the fire station and it's just very frustrating for me. i'm very supportive of more

funding for as of mta but it's going to depend on the next year and a half building trust not just randomly closing streets without looking holistically. i know they're doing an elastic study of devo's triangle but i don't trust what the result is going to be because they said well there's all these cars stolen on the street so let's just close the street permanently. let's get rid of all the parking then there won't be any cars that's going to make it any more worse because every time you eliminate a parking spot you don't eliminate a car. those cars are driving around and around and around and around and around and as a pedestrian that's dangerous because they're driving much more than they would be if they just were pulling into a parking spot. >> so i want to see a safe mta working with the business community, working with residents, listening to them, doing holistic studies, doing things that make sense and not just causing chaos. and if you're short money why are you spending money closing on the streets? that doesn't make any sense.

so i'm i'm hoping to support whatever you do in november of 2026 and i'll be a voice for that and we'll see what happens. >> thank you so much. thank you. any other public comment? no seeing no public comment. public comment is closed. >> thank you very much. thank you again president hearing commissioner benita as commissioner dickerson director tang and the secretary bernbach thank you so much for your time and your creative suggestions. it was great to spend some time with you. have a good idea. thank you. you tell your next item we're actually going to continue item four given that we don't have quorum so we will hear status of the san francisco economy january 25th update likely at our next meeting. >> okay. thank you. i think that moved us on to item number six. item six general public comment . this is a discussion item allowing members of the public to comment on matters that are

within the small business commission's jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items any public comment seeing no public comment the public comment is closed. >> next item item seven directors report this is the discussion item. all right. good evening. i'll keep this pretty short so a couple of updates you probably read in the news that one of the key things that this mayoral administration has been focused on is with regards to permitting reform and i know that we've all heard this time and time again through several administrations. i think what is different this time around is that there's a true desire to make a really deep systematic changes no bandaid solutions but really solving the core of what has been plaguing city permitting processes for generations doing things very differently that may make different departments uncomfortable all in the name of making the experience for customers better. i know we just talked about

that with muni service and that's really our north star as well in this work so i am part of the permit s.f. kind of the task force that has been convened to work on this so just letting you all know that if you have any suggestions, experiences and challenges that you see consistently come up please do you share them with me? and i'm happy to continue working on those collectively under this permit. s.f. effort and then also wanted to share i think last meeting i mentioned but this person had not joined yet but we had what i called a buzzer beater situation where right before the hiring freeze we had been able to bring on a second commercial leasing advisor position so divine katori has joined our office to be able to provide that expanded commercial leasing support which we found in the last two years has been extremely helpful helped hundreds of businesses in a fiscal year but

also resulted in about 40 signed leases and also helped prevent some bad leases from being signed as well. so we're really excited to have devine join our team and also just wanted to note that morgan heller, who was previously our one of our small business permit specialists she was part of our inaugural team. she's moved on to another position still at the permit center and still helping out with permitting reform. but we are trying to backfill and hoping we'll get approval for that backfill of this really critical position. >> so with that said, we've been also working on the accessible business entrance program reform with supervisor management's office and i think we you might have heard a presentation before but we're really excited about the next phase of this work which is not being so punitive from the city's perspective. >> there's still the ada there's still a requirements under the building code that

people must adhere to so those are not going away. but what we will focus on is helping business owners build that relationship with people from the disabilities community and understanding and recognizing that there's a diversity of disabilities that go beyond just the physical needs and how can we all work together to put forth these improvements that can be cost effective. >> so so we're really excited to work with supervisor management office on that and the accessible business entrance program or form is up at the full board tomorrow for the first full vote. i'm happy to answer any questions that you all might have. thank you very much director. take any questions from the commissioners now seeing no questions from commissioners i also don't have any questions but any public comment? no public comment. all right. so i, i think the next item please item eight commissioner

discussion and new business. >> this is a discussion item any items to bring up? no. well i can just share that i was really excited to have been asked to be a judge at the chinese new year parade this year. that was a lot of fun. i got to hang out for a moment with a lot of our city department heads and different people who different people who are you know i guess leading our city right now with a lot of change. so it was it was great. it was a really fun parade and well attended. i would say it was a very well attended parade and then i think it was also what nba all-star weekend. a lot of things happening this

that last weekend so i'm excited to see the city coming alive and looking forward to a lot more events coming up. any other commissioner items out there? i think there probably are some other oh, one of the things that i was kind of thinking about is that you know, for for small businesses one of the comments we've consistently heard from small business owners is that you know, they want to see revenues, you know, going up i mean from just making sure that we get the visitor ship back up. the second piece that also goes along with that is also public safety and you know, the mayor's office now has paul yap as the public safety officer. i think or deputy chief of and

i was kind of curious to see if we might be able to kind of see what their thoughts are in terms of like small business and and if we can just like you know, welcome him into his position as small business owners and commission specifically related to public safety. yeah, like small businesses and the and and you know the things that they experience and how this new coordinated effort might be a really positive way forward for for small businesses in terms of like you know just response times and also proactive like preventative measures if that could be added to that and future agenda. i think those are the only two things that i was thinking. so seeing no other comments from commissioners, any public

comment on and on commissioner comments no. so you know public comment public comment is closed. next item please item nine adjournment as a captive please show the office of small business slide. we will end with a reminder that the small business commission official is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you need assistance with small business matters continued to reach out to the office of small business and also just wanted to wish carlo a very happy birthday on wednesday. >> she's turning ten. congratulations to you so enjoy your day.

meeting is adjourned. thank you

. all right. you all good? can you all hear me now? i'm supposed to look at the cameras but we got the whole crew over here. >> so forgive me as i look at them. i'm not trying to be rude, but thank you all for being here. i want to thank supervisor matt dorsey for being here. i want to thank district attorney brooke jenkins for being here. i want to thank police chief bill scott