Which is an association of over 22 merchants associations to assist in out reach to businesses in those areas. And then i noted that there are 344 businesses that have been able to get the subsidized cass inspections you but we had a total of 450 businesses applied and 36 werent eligible either theyre in litigation and for various other reasons and then we currently have 74 on the wait list. Again we probably have more we have more requests than i think our cass inspectors can really fulfill and do at least on an immediate basis so i went through the business portal again just to highlight that we put that up front and center. Also San Francisco in terms of taking a look at other ways in which we can do that intersection we passed a regulation to have a discussion between the landlord and the tenant and or prospective tenant what is known as chapter 38. It has similarities to sb 11 86 where its a disclosure requirement although the law is applicable only in San Francisco. Its Effective Date is january 2013 and it affects all commercial leases under that are 7500 square feet or less. So im not going to run through these in great detail but our definitions of landlord and lease. Its pertaining to the notification requirements to title 3 the public accommodation and for properties 7500 square feet or less and we defined a Small Business tenant under the law as a Business Leasing 7500 square feet or less so the requirements are before entering into a lease is either the landlord either ens that the Public Restrooms and ground floor entrances and exits are accessible if readily achievable or provide a written notice to any prospective tenant that it might not meet all standards and including restrooms and entrances and exits on the ground floor. Before entering into a lease the obligation notice must be provided to the Small Business tenant and in it the major notifications to the tenants are that the leasee maybe held liable for Disability Access violations on the property and who is responsible for making any required Disability Access improvements. We noticed that wasnt always spelled out in leases. If the commercial landlord doesnt ensure that the covered features are accessible then again they shall also include additional statement in the obligation notice of please note the property may not currently meet all applicable construction related accessible standards including standards for Public Restrooms ground floor entrances and exits so trying to put that up front to businesses so theyre notified of what their potential liabilities maybe, and obligations maybe, and to encourage them to investigate it. That was just a sample of what a notice may look like. Additional requirements are that they need to make sure that this document is signed. The lease states expressed terms i think i just who is making the improvements and who pays for them. And i think the last thing is number 7 of which we have and is in handouts up here is that the Property Owner is to hand out a brochure which we have in seven different languages. Its kind of a trifold brochure explaining the laws, explaining some of the key areas, how the flow of the cass inspection works and some of the key areas and pitfalls that most businesses experience and not having their business be accessible. A couple of things that we have learned not just through the subsidized cass inspection but businesses that have done their own inspection is that sometimes the cass recommendations what we have heard from businesses when they have taken the cass report. Now theyre launching it and doing the improvements is how to navigate and interpret what is being reported in relationship to the citys requirements so if they engage with the city sometimes the city will say to them no you cant do that recommendation, so not understanding why something was recommended but yet now the city is saying no you cant do that sidewalk encroachment. Also intrptsing the work of what is readily achievable versus longterm improvements in relationship to the time frame of the lease. But i think so where we are now and working with commissioner lerner has been doing a good deal of work with the city with us is really taking a look at this sort of triad between the building department, our Historic Preservation and our bureau street use and mapping when it comes to entrances, so those three entities most of the time are engaged when you have to do access improvements that are beyond maybe a portable ramp, so and sometimes it makes it very challenging for a business to be engaging with the three different entities so we started meeting so just to kind of outline for those that may not know that the Building Code has its Building Codes. Historic preservation has its requirements so any business over 50 years old is deemed possibly historic so you just cant make any alterations to a front entrance. It may trigger review with the Historic Preservation and then of course if youre dealing with small spaces there maybe some to try to navigate doing the fully accessible entrance may need to consider some sidewalk encroachment but our bureau of street use and mapping theyre mandating to ensure that the public sidewalk is fully accessible as well, and so sidewalk encroachments can conflict with that mandate. So and then also we have found that not all cass inspectors are fully knowledgeable of what local building this whole navigating the Building Codes, the bureau street use and mapping and Historic Preservation. If a often businesses hire by price and so they might not know theyre hiring somebody who isnt fully aware of San Franciscos unique city agency requirements, and so we have seen not always but from time to time there are reports where recommendations are being done that will not absolutely be doable in San Francisco because the cass inspector hasnt consulted with the city agency before making their recommendation. So heres just a quick sample. This is a dining space, 400 square feet. Total space the dining space is 400 square feet. The total space is 581 so the department of building inspection provided the department of building inspection has equivalent standards that have been approved so the business architect or the business there was a suggestion of doing that the equivalent accommodation but triggered Historic Preservation review and Historic Preservation because it changed the angle of the door wouldnt approve that so gean some recommendations were going out and going into doing the sidewalk encroachments and of course that provided challenges for that business to be dealing with our bureau of street use and mapping. So just kind of a quick look is that from changing from the angled door i dont know if most people can see it and i cant point to it but it changed to from the corner of the building to parallel so there would be a power door and the landing is on the inside so you could do the power door and go up and landing on the inside. But again Historic Preservation that proposed conflicts because it changed the architectural the historical nature of the front entrance, so i think moving forward one of the things that we definitely need to ensure in our subsidized cass inspection that we mandate that all of the inspectors who are nonprofit consult with have to consult with all three agencies before they finalize their cass inspection report. Were very fortunate through all this discussion and sort of finding out about some of the difficulties businesses are having triaging the different agencies our Historic Preservation department is developing guidelines to minimize time and review so that either contractors, architects and or the business can look at what some of the guidelines that they require as looking at Building Solutions and of course cass inspectors can use this as well and the office of Small Business is advocated for a city entity that has expertise and authority to assist businesses, landlords and cass inspectors to navigate to get to conclusion when the citys determinations are in in conflict with each other and there has to be someone to bring all together and develop a resolution and the Access Appeals Commission could be one entity that could possibly doo do that so with that i think i will be happy to take any questions and i dont know if you would like me to move back up on the dais and you can see that. Thank you for the presentation and we know in california we have been a leader with access and training and again while we have reached out to you on a number of occasions and help us to pass this information on and to help because theres so many other well everyone in the state of california in terms of jurisdictions are receiving the funding to do these type of work we know not everyone has been as proactive and developing the Extensive Program like you have and were appreciative and we want to get the word out so everyone else can take advantage and learned from what you put together so we thank you for that and we look forward to more communications in that area. Thank you and i just want to say that i find it a Great Partnership and also to have the commission as well and the website and information has continued to grow and utilized the information and its a Great Partnership and i look forward to continue tg. I just applaud the efforts. Thank you very much and i see a lot of bounty that you have accomplished here. Its fabulous. One question of the novelty of bringing in and focus the consumer or the business person with you to say well look streets or building or whoever the different departments historical to say you have conflicting requirements. Come on lets get together here. I think its fabulous and i cant tell you the number of frustrations i have had in my career with different conditions where maybe the sidewalks 9 cross slope but im only a little segment of the block and if i fix mine theres got to be a transition to meet the neighbors, and nobody willing to take that to the rest of the city to say cant we organize on this so i just applaud that effort. Thank you. Next we have jesse torres to share just give a little background on jesse in case hes maybe on the shy side of telling his background personally but jesse was a pointed Deputy Director of Small Business advocate in the Governors Office of business and Economic Development this april but previously jesse served as the regional director at the los angeles Small Business Development Center working in the Long Beach City College branch and from 2011 to 2015 and he was also director of Alumni Relations at pep dine university so we has been working in various locations and out there a long time so were fortunate again to have him join us from los angeles to share at the dais. Thank you. Its a pleasure and honor to be here and i think i want to start by absolutely also sharing my own opinion that i think the city of San Francisco is leading when it comes to Disability Access and helping Small Business owners. I have never seen anything as comprehensive as this and i have done lots of work with Small Business owners in los angeles and served as a chair to our council and for me being in charge of centers where a lot of the assistance we provide to Small Business owners is giving information and check list and what they need to do before setting up shout and the work is mind blowing right now. I wanted to start with a story and i was late to the session and i apologize for missing the majority of the hearing and my flight was delayed getting out of lax with delta and was on a lighter flight and i ended up sitting down a blind person and i didnt realize it until i almost hit her dog with my computer and having the frustrations of a traveler trying to find a place to sit when the airport terminal is packed or getting away to round and carrier which i dont use and im a southwest guy and i thought about her experience and what its like for her and entertainment and she didnt have entertainment, book to read and that was pointent to me and on the delta side and the care the staff did to take care of her and were about to land and trained. The Business Owner thought what they need to do with this community and they figured out there is an advantage of working with this community and have leveraged that so a lot of things going into this meeting today, but so im here. I represent the Governors Office of business and Economic Development. In my role i serve a couple different hats. One is to the be advocate of Small Business owners. Its my job to find out what are your areas of pain. Where are you finding success . How can we elevate best practices across the state and like programs here in San Francisco . In addition we operate a number of programs. We have a Grant Program where we give funding support to the Small Business Development Network to increase the capacity to do consulting and access to capital and we oversee a program in california through my shop and in addition the gobiz office has a number of programs and working with International Trade work permitting. And if anyone is interested i can share it by email but the objective today is to listen and see where there are opportunities for us to increase transparency and information. Like i said i used to run a network and saw 4,000 Small Business owners every year and the common issue we saw with our Business Owners was just they wanted to do good work. They had a hard time figuring out how do they proceed and for me its always about providing information, providing transparency and providing access to people that can help whether its a cass inspector or an consultant. There is a tremendous need for people on the ground to provide Technical Assistance which is the worse word for [inaudible] individual consulting and that 101 kind of guidance so please note that for the state of california we are deeply invested in our Small Business community. We want to know what we can do on the state level to help Small Business thrive and succeed and to me this information needs to to be shared so they can understand what some of the best practices are so thats all. Well, we have created on this time agenda that we shared to learn more about what Small Businesses interested in and looking for and we have to open up the phone lines for any questions or comments as well as in the audience to share any ideas and thoughts that they may have. We have a number of our commissioners that have joined us and we will be hearing from them shortly, but we definitely look forward to any comments or thoughts from those on the phone. Do we have any calls at this time that would like to make any points or i see our commissioner is standing. Thank you both for being here today. A question i have is one of the challenges with Small Businesses is a threat of a lawsuit, and thats real, but i think the difficulty is how do you get Small Businesses to proactively take steps to solve the problem instead of saying [inaudible] because of all the lawsuits . Absolutely. Well, i think first government has to not make businesses fearful of engaging with them for existing businesses, so i mean one of the things that i hear from businesses is that theyre afraid to engage with department of building inspection because then there maybe other things that they come in that maybe layered on that are not related to making the access improvements, but will be required of them, so theyre just what is going to be the end amount of money that i have to spend . So i know with our department of building inspection its been one of the discussions we had that when businesses come into to do improvements that are accessibility related that the department will stay focused on the accessibility related improvements, and what is required. Again i think one of the things that in beginning to discuss as we start having discussion with businesses i think it took me two years to really understand the nuisance between dbi, Historic Preservation and the bureau street use and mapping because when businesses talk about City Government they talk about us as one entity and not different agencies so it took me a while to understand that there were things that we were making challenging for businesses to achieve compliance when there was interest on their part, and so i think there is and then there is still as much in the first panel talked about there is still a lot of the myth of the grand fathering, and or you know i got my initial permits. They were signed off. There is you know, architects or contractors that really encourage businesses to go and with if theyre doing either going with hardship waivers or not really encouraging businesses to maybe do a little more if theyre doing tenant improvements under the evaluation threshold so theyre looking to some of the folks to provide guidance because theyre seen more of as an expert than the Small Business but for existing businesses there is a little bit of the there is a little bit of the head in the sand. There is a little bit of theres a little bit of especially with the trances and when you entrances and when you have some amount of substantial improvements to make there is a little frustration that the Property Owner hasnt taken the responsibility to make the improvements and could do so in between leases and if you have a five year lease and its a 60,000 improvement where is i cant i cant afford to do that, so i dont know. Its a mixed bag. Its not all one or the other. I think for businesses where english isnt your first language its difficult to understand all these nuisances in english, and as i said it took me two years to really figure out the whole thing between dbi, bureau street use and mapping and Historic Preservation and if english isnt your first language how much more difficult is it to understand what is required. I agree with the comments and the only thing i would add is what i have seen is that theres a need to determine where information can be best disseminated. Just one example i was very surprised i had a meeting with the l. A. County Library System and they asked us and i wasnt sure how we would connect and to my shock they said we have so many Small Business owners that come into the branches that we had to create Economic Development positions within the branches and they have thousands of Small Business owners coming because there is concern if they go to a city agency or a federal agency they might get dinged or theres that fear whereas the library is a trusted place. Oftentimes it figuring out how to best disseminate the information and key to Small Business owners and shift the mindset. Another thing is again i point to the role of the Technical Assistance provider and whatever that form takes but there is a role for individuals or programs that exist outside of the Government Agency kind of role that can act as an intermediary. I have seen first hand that a Business Owner will share things, confine things with the sbc consultant that they wont share with the local representation and they often play that connecting role so i personally think there is that role there if Technical Assistance providers are trained about how do you share information about checklists and educate people about codes they can serve in that capacity and they can be a very effective tool to shift the mindset for the Business Owner as well. I think the concern that the commission has is one of the things that both of you have touched about is dissemination, the big challenge. Many of us have talked about the chambers but we recognize that if theyre Small Businesses they might not be part of a chamber. Are you finding that the Business Districts you mentioned something i never heard about thinking about dissemination of the libraries but other opportunities is what were concerned about is because the reality is that many of the litigations are occurring within small shops who are truly not having english as their first language and as well as how did we reach them with education because theyre the ones that need this information up front before they go into the court system. Can you talk about more types of outreach that youre conducting for Small Businesses . I will take a stab. I think its definitely a challenge working with the Small Business community that every region, every place has its own variety of partners and focal points of information, and often i feel that one of my core jobs is figuring out across the state where are the bright lights . Where can you best find avenues to find the information . For some communities its neither sbdc or the Technical Assistance provider or the agency its the church. Its the faith based institution. Its the Community Center or the local park, and it takes time and effort to determine where are the best places to go to and a lot of what my team does is try to figure out the networks how to build that Network Connectivity so when a Great Program is introduced were not just adding to the website and we have our own california business core were launching and [inaudible] from the San Francisco portal but beyond that how do we find the people to get the information out so its very complicated. Very similar approach. And i think especially with our Assessment Program our subsidized assessment or subsidized cass
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