small business administration. the small business administration covers not only san francisco proper but the bay area. the severed his third district is responsible for a business loan portfolio of 12,000 loans worth $4.2 billion. in 2009, the sba approved $500 million in lending. next, we have the executive director of the san francisco small business office. she was in san francisco in 1986 to open the buffalo exchange limited store, and in the 13 years she worked for buffalo exchange, tennis district manager, she held her open the company from four to 11 stores. in 2009, the mayor appointed her as executive director to the office of small businesses. next, we have the ceo of opportunity funds. he has combined his background as a community organizer with an education from stanford to develop an innovative, not-for- profit financial incision that uses market principles to affect systemic change. it operates one of the nation's largest individual development, programs, a leading provider of micro loans in californ

second, the cfpb can help small businesses by helping small business customers. when they feel they will not get caught in traps, they will have greater willingness to make purchases and the cfpb can protect against bubbles and thus smooth the volatility of consumer spending meaning a more stable business environment benefiting small businesses. they have limited jurisdiction over small businesses and subject to numerous safeguards to prevent burdens on small business and may help the efficiency of small business lending by increasing consumer confidence and spending staibt. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. levitin. the final witness to testify here this afternoon is daniel fleming, a trucking business in virginia. it's a family-owned business founded in 1903 with the transportation services, they were provideing consisted of a horse and buggy when they started. he is testifying on behalf 69 truck representing and leasing association that mr. fleming -- you have five minutes to present your testimony. >> thank you mr. chairman. as you said, i'm daniel flemi

this is the kickoff of small business week as well as a celebration of the accomplishments of our small business revolving loan fund, which we have been working on for about six months. i would like to start by introducing the mayor, and we will continue by hearing from supervisor wiener as well as our administrator for the loan fund, and finally, the owner of this great new business. mr. mirkarimi -- mr. mayor. mayor lee: thank you. i cannot think of a better way to celebrate the kickoff of small business week than to be right on valencia in the small business just started that has been the recipient along with some 27 other small businesses that have worked really hard to get to a place where they can be and allow the city to contribute and help. we did not hear a lot of times -- we hear a lot of complaints about how the city has not been doing things, but thanks to our small business commission, which is here today, and they're wonderful work and their director who has been advising me on a number of fronts -- their wonderful work and their director who has been advising me on a numb

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 budget cuts. some will continue. but we have more of those programs in san francisco, really, in any other city in california. we also have a small business commission. that is unique. the folks who are here, who have been supporting small business for many years are the reasons why san francisco's small business community has a voice in ways that other cities and businesses in those cities do not. i think we have, in san francisco, the benefit of a lot of good resources here, some of which are here because of federal funds, some of which because folks in this room have been an advocate for small business. we are hoping the impact of tight budgets all levels still allows us to have the tools we have been able to use for small business. it is an important piece. >> [inaudible] >> there have been a cut in the budget. he wanted to know how that would cut

don't support small business. this is about whether we're going to best achieve making our neighborhoods economically and culturally vibrant by putting in a blanket ban or by having a conditional use process that allows neighborhoods to decide if this particular chain store in this particular location is going to be beneficial or detrimental. when it is bad -- when it is beneficial, it should come in and go to the process and prevail and when it's detrimental, it should get knocked out of the planning commission. if not then, by this board. i have every confidence when i see these petitions, i assume this will be submitted to the planning commission and if i were petco, i would be trembling in my boots to see something like this. i know it will get appealed to this board if it gets approved by the planning commission. we have a process i continue to support and it works and with all respect to the chairman, and i do respect the fact that you are responding to your neighborhood and their needs, i totally respect th

i can't buy from my small neighborhood. if we are talking about narrow profit marnls, that many small businesses go by, because we have health care here in san francisco. we should be buying for our local businesses. this is not one of those areas where i think amendments should be put. this is not the way i want to support or small businesses. people have made a lot about the potential 230 to 460 jobs we may lose over the course of the next year if we pass this legislation as is. however, i think it is important to think about what these jobs mean. we want to support jobs that have living wage and that have health care here in san francisco. when i think about the potential of losing 1% to 3%, i say those jobs are not worth saving. we want to ensure that people can live with respect and dignity here. that is why i support the legislation as is. i think it is important that we as a board support our small businesses here in san francisco. however, i think there are multiple ways we can do that, not necessarily through this

those are the small businesses who have been sued, and there are small businesses trying to preempt of a protect themselves against these issues. i will talk about the second rocket first. for the small businesses out there that have been hearing about compliance issues and what to protect themselves and make the improvement and have inspections done, we are willing to work with you and willing to look at the plans that you have any inspections you have to enable you to have tenant improvement to become compliant. for those folks, we would recommend that you go and get a task report done and see whether the contractor can lay out the plan and complete the requirement and then come to us and show us your plan. [inaudible] and have had complaints against them because of compliance, we are also able to work with your peer the fundamental requirement for those is that we need you to finish the lawsuit or settle the lawsuit before we can work with you in terms of providing financing. the reason for that is the conversations and these issues can go on for a long time, and we want to make sur

over 75% of our members are small businesses that employee less than 25 people. in my 42 year career in mortgage lender, i've been a loan originator, manager, entrepreneur, and a small business owner. i've always been proud to be part of an industry that helps people and families reach their dreams of home ownership. i've seen many people in the business start as loan originator and then start their own splal mortgage lending businesses. these people lived their own american dream, and in doing so, served the real estate markets and the buyers and borrowers of their local communities. the dodd-frank agent creates a superregulater for the mortgage lending industry and the cfpb. this is in addition to the oversight already in place by the states, fha, va, fannie mae, and freddy mac. they are taxed with 150 lending rules over the course of the next 18 months. it will be difficult for small mortgage lending business to keep up with so many new rules in such a short time frame. it is essential to develop an orderly process for the rule making initiatives not only to e

we were talking before about small business and it's lonely. even if you're the top of four people, it is lonely. >> i find that small business leaders often feel more isolated and more alone than ceos of big companies and i've dealt with both and the reason far is they often built that business themselves. it may be part of a family where they don't think they can confide in other family members, and so when they come to harvard they are very anxious to want to be able to talk and to have someone to listen to, and one of the things i advise them is you need to build a support group especially for small business leaders because you do get very isolated. >> the first one what is your vision for your business. presumably, you had a vision so how often should you be asking yourself? >> vision is not touchy feely. vision is what is your distinctive competence and how do you add value to customers and how often do you need to ask it? i would argue at least every six months to a year, but when the environment is changing like little its now, you prob

we recognize a vibrant small-business sector is critical to the economy and we are aware of many small businesses today report having difficulty obtaining credit. a difficulty through to the most severe financial crisis since the great depression. so although the rule with respect to small business credit is quite limited, we hope to help many small-business owners and freeways. first, we will implement diligently the equal credit opportunity act. this prohibits discrimination and business lending. second, as required by law we will provide the public new data that may shed new light on the demand for and supply of small business credit. will move deliberately and we will consult lively to attempt to maximize the benefit of the loan data for small businesses and to minimize the cost for the lenders to what report the data, will work to ensure the consumer credit histories are as accurate as possible, more accurate credit histories would help the start-ups and business owners frequently rely on their personal credit history to apply to the first business loan. we believe that a fair and

corridors, merchant corridors, and support strongly small businesses not just pet supply stores but small businesses in our unique cadavers' merchant corridors and the richmond district. it is strongly supported by a unanimous vote of the small business commission and would help businesses serving our neighborhood and assessed property owners and filling vacant france along the club meant areas as well. a number of people have worked very hard on this and i want to thank them for their work. from the planning department, in addition to community pokes and small-business leaders, some of them are here today and many others -- all want to acknowledge this is the project -- a product of many small businesses, especially those locally owned and neighborhoods serving and encouraging economic activity in the comment corridor. it also updates and modernizes the zoning controls established many decades ago in the richmond district and brings them more up to modern conditions. if you look at a map of the clement street inner and outer areas or the greater corridor, a lot of the current vacant stor

i come from a small business perspective. my experience is that there it -- this is nothing but a positive to the community. there needs to be some waivers and situations that allow small businesses to grow and thrive in a place that was previously empty. we have seen what it is like when you are around empty buildings spending half of your day chasing drug situations. the impact is when a business comes in. it makes a community great. like anything, if this woman cannot open a business, we become a city of big businesses. me i do not think tourists come for sacramento with bills. we want to see her grow. we have been blessed by the city of san francisco supporting what we do. we would like a perspective of supporting something interesting, something vital that is a positive to the community. thank you. >> got any further comment? commissioner adams: thank you for that. more people need it -- need to hear that kind of comment. people come here not to go to the chain stores. stores like yours is what makes this city you need.