"an sba lender will be able to make the loan with a guarantee that sba will be able to provide. we probably will about 225 sba loans this year. at any point in time, we have about 1500 loans in san francisco that are sba loans. a lot of them are restaurants because that is one of the areas that is very typical because it is a riskier business. but a lot of people in san francisco see that as an opportunity for them as well. we also partner with the golden gate restaurant association to help people understand how to do financing for restaurants. a lot of what we do is helping small businesses get access to credit. the sba loan program covers a range of small loans down to $25,000 and large loans up to $5 million, so it is a very wide range. can be used for a variety of uses -- debt refinancing, building acquisition, working capital, so it can be used for a wide range of things from a small business point of view. as you heard, we do guarantees for about 90 or 100 banks in the country -- or in the bay area. about 3000 nationwide. there is a lot of lenders that do some sba lending.

what impact will be cuts in the sba budget have on the sba program? it seems the small business committee is try to make drastic cuts. from our perspective, the new majority leadership is looking to make drastic cuts, many of the program will hold near and dear to our hearts. the question the leader is continually asking is, show me the jobs. she wants to see house bills come to the floor that create economic opportunity for middle- class -- all of americans. if the small business committee is looking to cut funds from the sba, we see that as a detriment. we do not believe in cutting to create more jobs. we agree with the idea of the recovery act, putting more money out there to get people employed. >> on congressional action, that is not my role. in san francisco, we have been the beneficiary. all small businesses should be aware that we have been the beneficiary of a lot of good resources for small businesses. we have more nonprofits that are funded through micro lending here in the city from sba programs. some are expected to be looked at for budge

[applause] >> our next speaker is our own mark quinn with the sba. [applause] >> not a lot of prep on that, steve. [laughter] sharon and all the organizations mentioned are connected with sba. for us, the richest part of what we do is the micro-enterprise support in san francisco and organizations that do us -- do it. we're fortunate to have a terrific network of partners to work with. as steve said in the beginning, no other city is doing small business week like we are in san francisco. small business week here is not just about awards. it is also about all small businesses feeling like they are a participant in house small business suite i -- small- business week. we were trying to speak over the crowd last year at flavors. it was about all small businesses and them. that is what it should be about. it is an opportunity for us to recognize special small businesses, a special small business of the year. while i am in san francisco, i cover all of northern california. this is really the small business of the year for northern california. every year,

. >> the sba is stopping them. we have lawsuits out there. it's the sba. circumstances that right, representative bernard? >> i just want to get the money. i'm not trying to sue them. >> and congress -- >> i will take that up. since i'm on the committee, i'll take that up with administrative. >> congress means well, but they politely ask for opinions and referrals from the sba. and sometimes i think that stands for stop black africans. >> but to the point about sba, i mean sba has been very intentional lately about creating innovative products to get more money flowing. we should give them some credit for the community advantage loan, the 7-a, the 7-js, the 054s. >> it would be great if they were competitive, if we had a competition to poor money into the black community. >> the loans would drop. they have dropped by the sba. >> let's go to ashley bell. first of all, you're very young. you're dynamic. you have already changed parties. you hit with a splash. you're the commissioner, district 4 commissioner georgia. you've heard what we talked about here tod

>> i already have an sba loan. i went to wells fargo for a line of credit and they would not give me one. >> i can speak to you about it. when we look at funds that are needed, the biggest thing we look at our cash flow. i can address that with you. unless there is an issue, at that point -- [inaudible] >> let's talk, ok. >> i have a couple of more questions. i know that the panelists have agreed to stay after for those who have specific questions. i do have one question for wells fargo. what are the typical rules for applying for sba loan of less than $50,000? how much money do we need to have in your bank to apply for a loan? >> i am on the smaller side of the bank. i am a transaction guy. i do not technically require one to have an account to do a loan with. what i look for, i generally start at 100,000 and up. when it is a requirement of 50,000 or less, i tend to call of the micro guys to help me out. that is right in their box. for us, the capacity for us to do the smaller side is not there as much as it is fo

and he gave me some great statistics on loans at sba right now. i found out that the 78 program, the largest program for lending to small businesses, only 5% of the loan recipients are african-american. which raises an important question of why. if you look back at the past decade, just five years ago from 2004 -- i'm sorry, 2002 to 2007, you'll find the minority businesses were being started over double the rate of any other businesses. yet last year when you look at how small businesses were doing and you look at particularly african-american businesses, african-american businesses got an 8% drop in the amount of contracts they were receiving. so what has happened in the past five years? i think that's an important question we have to be addressing when we look at equality of opportunity when is one of mr. west's principles when we first started. we seem to be missing out on the opportunity to succeed. one of the things mr. west has been working on with our committee is a bill on contract bundling, trying to make sure that contracts are structur

it is the largest sba lender in the country for several years running. [applause] >> we are really excited to be with all of you tonight to celebrate small business week and especially the winners tonight. we are committed to small businesses. we love small business and big business. thank you for the acknowledgement. in the first six months of the fiscal year, wells fargo has been the no. 1 sba small lender in california and the country. we are excited about that. i want to tell you about a local after we have going on in san francisco. that is our small business neighborhood renovation program. we work with local organizations. we funded the renovation of three local businesses who applied for assistance at no cost to them. i want to recognize those businesses here tonight. the renovations are complete. the business owners are here. they are from ja and k grocery and others. if you could stand, congratulations. [applause] we had an independent panel. we had a lot of fun. we judged the makeovers to select a winner for the most dramatic improvement to th

so we think that the self-certification that is used by sba is probably the way to go. but maybe add some small barriers. you know, you've got to produce a certificate of incorporation. you've got to produce incorporation documents that show a veteran and, you know, the veteran's dd-214. something that's a little bit more than self-certifying. what exactly that would be and how best that would be done, i couldn't say off the top of my head. but i think adding some small hurdles while still allowing that small business to have a low barrier tone triinto business with the federal government is probably the way to go. and i think you would weed out most of that. fronting i think really at that point just taking somebody to the woodshed judicially speaking is probably the way to end that. >> i just wonder if we're even doing the oversight that's necessary to find the fronting. what this hearing has taught me is that we're not really paying attention. we are passing laws and then we're not paying attention. and that's why we're going to try to stay on this from a contracting

there are those that think we should move the sba functions over to va. and you know the jury is out on that. but, i want you all to feel comfortable continuing to give information to this committee as we track this, i wish i could tell you that government cra contractors are doing a good job of hiring veterans but that is impossible for us to know. by the way, sitit is a pleasurer me to complement contractors. most of the time i am doing the opposite of that. it is pleasant for me to do that. thank you for being here today. we will continue to focus on this problem and in a meaningful way to weapon the veterans get where they need to be and gainfully employed in a career where their leadership has a chance to shine. thank you all very much.

sba supports the requirement of every student veteran to have an academic adviser and academic plan. this is common place in most reputable schools, and those institutions that don't have this in place--sba strongly supports -- without data and stat tis tics, it will be impossible to know the true impact of the post-9/11 gi bill. this is also critical to congressional oversight. the programs that are in place today will be lost without retroactive -- we have consistently asked for a formal, well publicized process for student veterans to raise issues with their educational institutions to the appropriate federal reports, given the amount of federal dollars being made available, it is essential to create a centralized complaint center that allows the student veterans to raise legitimate concerns about bad actors in the post secondary education space. sba supports kwuniform policies having consistency across all bases will help allow that good schools have access and predatory ones are kept out. finally while it's not specifically addressed in this executive order, sva would like to ta

they should go to the veterans are -- sba.that is the same thing we feel with dol. >> were you about to say something? >> -- >> i appreciate it. let me and there. you answered my second question on the small business. i think the same thing here want to make sure to streamline it. they're good efforts being done in trying to move entrepreneurship. the tap has a lot of work to be done. the mind of this soldier going into and having to take that program and figure out how -- they are not focused on that. they're focused on not doing x, y, z. entrepreneur ofs seems like a huge opportunity for veterans. i just met some small companies in alaska comprised of all veterans. they do great work. small manufacturing business but very precise. they took their skill and turned into a business that' struggle but enough of them get together so they have some capital. it seems like that is an incredible track for veterans. if someone comes from the small- business world, this is a huge opportunity. >> i would like to add that i have submitte

and i've talked to folks at sba and v.a. and d.o.l. on those issues a couple of times. the process that the v.a. goes through right now to certify veteran contractors, veteran businesses, is apparently -- it's statutorily mandated, and i understand the intent was to eliminate some of those issues and abuses. but it's also made it very difficult for veteran-owned companies, whether they're small, w

>> the sba sees it as competition.hey're going to be the ones to lend money to the maul businesses, and these bbics, they're no good. >> so, but 90 million is allocated -- >> and i can't get a dime. >> the sba is stopping it. we've got lawsuits out there. it's the sba. >> is that right, representative bernard? >> i just want to get the money, i'm not trying to -- [laughter] la -- >> and congress, i will take that up. since i'm on the committee, i'll take that up with -- >> congress means well, but they politely ask for opinions and referrals from the sba. and sometimes i think that stands for stop black africans. [laughter] >> so, but to the point about sba, i mean, sba has been very intentional lately about creating innovative products to get more money flowing. so we should give them some credit for, you know, the community advantage loan, the 7a, the 7js, the 504s. i mean, it is a -- >> it would be great if they were competitive, if we had competition and they could pour money into the bad luck community. >> the loa

mark from the sba. michael from wells fargo. steve from the chamber of commerce. and our committee members, regina and jane from the office of small business. kathleen and steve from the small business administration. sharon of the renaissance entrepreneurial center. melanie with the san francisco chamber of commerce. brigid from the san francisco african american chamber of commerce. jim from the council of district merchants. eric and pat from the golden gate business association. edith of the as the entrepreneurial center. susan, ella, a and katy from wells fargo bank, and adam and allison of strauss events. [applause] >> and thank you very much to our sponsors who make this week- long bigger and more meaningful to small business every year, starting with our title and presenting sponsor wells fargo, of entrepreneur sponsor sfmta. if you have seen that we have been able to promote small business to where we needed the attention. we wanted small business to know we were throwing a party and a weeklong celebration and a week- long opportunity to educate and inspi

i talked to folks at sba and dol and sba on those issues a couple times. the process that the v.a. goes through to survive it veterans businesses is mandated, and i understand the intent was to eliminate some of those issues and abuses. but it is also making it difficult for veteran-owned companies, to get into the system. you were talking about some of the bureaucracy. if you look at vetbiz.gov, and others which are general sites. there are multiple touch points, which makes it difficult for veterans to know what to do. anecdotally on that point, i have heard several veterans who have gone through the credential in process and think now i can do business with the federal government only to figure out they did not have to go to that process to do business with other arms of the federal government. we certainly have heard not necessarily from our membership, but through the media and news about instances like sba and veterans either fronting or companies claiming to be sdbo's that are not. and talking to the veterans out rich folks at sba, a set historically the rate is very low. --

pues sba celula los apas conocicomo, y a tivo, las coqu encuen aso...r estoablamocon denteschos d de pagn dolar adicionapor el servicio de taxis... usuarios veran cambios en dondede un dÓlar por usuario, por viaje. el ano pasado el alcalde tomo una orden ejecutiva de ayudarle a los taxistas por el aumento de la gasolina asÍ que ahora se va a quitar eso .. se va a levantar .. efectivo maÑana" washington dc es una ciudad en donde desde los concejales hasta los ciudadanos comunes y corrientes hacen uso del servicios de taxi por su conveniencia, por lo que esta rebaja es significativa para sus usuarios " todo es tan serca aquÍ .. tener que usar un carro y parquearce es muy difÍcil .. es mejor irme en un taxi .. pero cuando estaba tan tan caro .. algunas veces manejabamos .. y hoy con esto que le estan bajando es mucho mejor para mi y para mis amigas " " en este tiempo es razonable que lo rebajen por que los precios de la gasolina ya bajaron entonces es justo aunque don rafael utiliza mas el servicio de buses, reconoce la ventaja que dan los taxis " a veces tardan mucho y uno va preciso y

using social media. >> the week was busy and the sba hopes that small business owners come away from it knowing where to go when they need help. >> we believe that every small business should have an adviser or counsellor. and that will help them grow their business. so if you go on sba.gov and put in your zip code, you can find those resources nearby and most of them are free. >> every small business owner has to deal with rules and regulations. but what should you do if there is one putting a strain on your company. one craft brewer certainly sflss your frustration since he saw a state law standing in his way and instead of just sitting back, the maker furious and abrasive >> it was a pretty small change, but it is still a little bees of legislation that made a good difference for us. it is good for the state, good for uz, good for minnesotans, why wouldn't we do it? >> the owner of surly brewing has plans of in mind for expanding his business. >> we never thought we would experience this type of success. it's been fantastic. >> first year of 2006 we sold 1600 kegs of beer and this

i talked to folks at sba and dol and sba on those issues a couple times. the process that the v.a. goes through to survive it veterans businesses is mandated, and i understand the intent was to eliminate some of those issues and abuses. but it is also making it difficult for veteran-owned companies, to get into the system. you were talking about some of the bureaucracy. if you look at vetbiz.gov, and others which are general sites. there are multiple touch points, which makes it difficult for veterans to know what to do. anecdotally on that point, i have heard several veterans who have gone through the credential in process and think now i can do business with the federal government only to figure out they did not have to go to that process to do business with other arms of the federal government. we certainly have heard not necessarily from our membership, but through the media and news about instances like sba and veterans either fronting or companies claiming to be sdbo's that are not. and talking to the veterans out rich folks at sba, a set historically the rate is very low. --

they narrow the big sea sba a line of your sweat and then they take away your last word and then they take away another. now you put the keys back in your pocket and now you push on the door until it is in flame, until it is in flame. next reader is jane herschfield. . >> one sand grain among the others in winter wind. i wake with my hand held over the place of grief in my body. depend on nothing, the voice advices, but even that is useless. my ears are useless, my familiar and intimate tongue, my protecting hand is useless that wants to hold the single leaf to the tree and say, not this one. this one will be saved. a poem written on september 15th, 2001, against the knowledge that exactly what would happen was probably going to happen. the dead do not want us dead. the dead do not want us dead. such petty errors are left for the living. nor do they want our mourning. no gift to them. not rage, not weeping. return one of them, any one of them, to the earth and look. such foolish skipping, such telling of bad jokes, such feasting. even a cucumber, even a single anise seed, feasting. an

sba, sf chamber of commerce, office of small business, council of district merchants, and the golden gate business association. >> every person in this room is building small business. you are helping small businesses through -- to thrive. remember to shop san francisco, shot small business. -- shop small business. please stay and help congratulate the awardees, the sponsors, and each other. we're making san francisco great. thank you again, mr. mayor. [applause] but good morning der community members, like the officials and colleagues. we are here to celebrate a day that san francisco should be proud of, a day that we should all be proud of. the san francisco civil rights ordinance is officially signed into law. i have been the coalition coordinator for the past two years and have seen firsthand the committee's efforts and inspiring bravery to bring us here today. i have also seen as support of elected officials and allies in the community. please help me in welcoming a few of these people to share this perspective today. help me recognized supervisor jane kim, the sponsor of the or

sba, sf chamber of commerce, office of small business, council of district merchants, and the golden gate business association. >> every person in this room is building small business. you are helping small businesses through -- to thrive. remember to shop san francisco, shot small business. -- shop small business. please stay and help congratulate the awardees, the sponsors, and each other. we're making san francisco great. thank you again, mr. mayor. [applause] >> this is the most contemporary art show in the history of the museum. let me give you some numbers. 31 artists across the 50 nations. 60 monumental works, the largest of which is behind me. this is a gift to all the people in our beloved city of san francisco. a gift to all the visitors near and far. let me give you our honorable mayor of san francisco. [applause] >> thank you for being here today. this month is a celebration of asian-american heritage. i wanted to thank our asian art museum, all of its staff, the director. the board of directors. not just parts in san francisco, but asian-american art throughout the world