Sf gov, we are ready to start the meeting. This is the regular meeting of the Small BusinessCommission Held december 11th, 2017. This meeting is being called to order at 5 32 p. M. The Small Business commission thanks Media Services and sfgovtv staff. Members of the public please take this opportunity to silence your phones and other electronic devicesment Public Comment during the meeting is limit today three minutes per speaker, unless otherwise established by the precider of the meeting. Speakers are encouraged but not required to state their name. Please place your speaker cards in the basket to the right of the lectern and they will be called in the order received. Will you please show the slide. Its our custom to begin and end with a reminder, the office of Small Business is the only place to start your new business and best place to get answers to your questions about doing business in San Francisco. The office of Small Business should be your first step when you have a question what to do next. You could find us online or in person at city hall, best of all, all of our services are free of charge. The commission is a place to voice your concerns about policies that affect Economic Vitality of if you have questions start here. Thank you. And welcome. Item 1, call to order and roll call. Commissioner stephen adams. Here. Commissioner kathleen dooley. Here. Commissioner mark dwight. Here. Commissioner ortiz cartagena is absent. Commissioner irene yee riley. Here. Commissioner zouzounis. Here. Public comment allows the public to comment on matters in the jurisdiction but not on the agenda. Do we have any members of the public that would like to comment on anything not on tonights agenda . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item, please. Item 3, approval of Legacy Business Program resolution, discussion and action item. We have Becks Motor Lodge, eddys cafe, little joes pizzeria and one twenty for hair. Richard kurylo. Richard kurylo, Legacy Business Program program manager. Sfgovtv, i have a slide. The applications were reviewed by me for completion and submitted to Planning Department staff on november 8th for their review. They were heard december 6th and made positive recommendations to the Small Business commission. For each applicant your Commission Packet contains a staff report. A draft resolution. The application. A case report from Planning Department staff and a resolution from Historic Preservation commission. There are copies on the table for the public. Item 3a is Becks Motor Lodge. Business is a family owned motel located in the castro neighborhood constructed in 1958. Becks motor lodge has 58 guest rooms and free parking and an affordable friendly welcoming place for out of towners to stay and experience the castro. In 2011, Brittany Beck, granddaughter of original owner will beck purchased the hotel from her parents. Since then its undergone renovations and improvements and now has a mid century modern design leaning toward modern, including redesign of the logo displayed on the buildings giant sign. Item 3b is eddies cafe. Opened in 1974 by owner eddie barry as soul Food Restaurant in a predominantly African American neighborhood n. 1998 the business was sold to helen and min wang who wanted to start their own business. Though the business no longer offered a strictly soul food based menu, eddies cafe still maintains welcoming environment and comforting food to others including certain traditional dishes such as grits and sausages. Item 3c is little joes pizzeria. The business is a family owned restaurant, in Excelsior Outer Mission boulevard opened 1958 by little joe russo. Features pizza, chicken parmegan and pasta dishes. In 1963 alfredo purchased the business and added a mexican element to the menu. Offering a unique menu to a diverse community. Item 3d is one twenty for hair. The business is a local haircuting and hair styling salon serving the south of market financial district. The business was open in 1985 by marko and edith paz who relocated to San Francisco from washington d. C. To establish themselves as leaders in the industry on the west coast after having run a successful and presee prestigious salon in washington. Affordable prices in a warm welcoming and familiar environment. All four businesses received a positive recommendation from the Historic Preservation commission. After reviewing these applications and the recommendations from the Historic Preservation commission, staff finds the businesses have met the three criteria to qualify for listing on the legacy business registry. There are four draft resolutions for consideration by the Small Business commission. One for each of the legacy business registry applicants. Notion a motion in support of the businesses should be a motion in favor of the resolutions. In the resolutions, please pay close attention to the core physical features or traditions that define the business. Once approved the businesses must maintain these physical features or traditions in order to remain on the legacy business registry. For Becks Motor Lodge its hotel. For eddies cafe, restaurant featuring diner fare. Little joes pizzeria its restaurant featuring italian fare. And for one twenty for hair, its a hair salon. There are business representatives in attendance who would like to speak on behalf of the applications. Great, if you dont have any questions for richard, i will open it up for Public Comment. Thanks, richard. Any members of the public who would like to comment on this item . And i see a few people here, please. Three minutes. Come on up and say your peace. We are delighted to see you here. Showtime. Its your opportunity to get on sfgovtv, visible worldwide on the web. Come on, break the ice. Hello. Im Brittany Beck of Becks Motor Lodge. The first to talk to me about this opportunity, and i thought it was a really great opportunity for my business. As was mentioned my grandfather originally built the hotel in 1958. Its been a long but short history, went from my grandfather to my dad and in 2011 to me. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away before i was born. But the castro is an amazing place and i dont think he realized what the castro would become when he built a hotel then, so being a part of the city and seeing it through the changes and wonderful things and guessing and predicting where the castro and city will go is an exciting aspect. Im excited my business is located in San Francisco and we will hopefully be there forever. I am thankful for this opportunity and i hope you approve us to move forward. Awesome. Thank you foregoing for going through the process. Come on, now its been done. You arent the first, you can be next in line. [off mic] you can come up together, its a party. My name is marko paz, im owner of one twenty for hair. We have been in business since 1985 with my wife edith, she is now taking care of the business while im here with my daughter rosie. We have two locations. 120 howard street, that is where the name come from, one twenty for hair. And we move around the corner to 155 main street, which is just around the corner so we dont lose the clientele when we move from one place to another one. Awesome. Yeah, so originally we were on howard and then move today main street. We have successfully burr burgoned in successful San Francisco, which is nice, we got to see it grow from being little mamas building to all these buildings. We are excited to be growing in the San Francisco district. Are you in the business . I dont do hair styling. Thank you. Next up. Yea. My name is alfredo rodriguez, im from little joes pizza, my parents were there in 1973. They have since both passed on. And im there with one of my sisters. And my two other sisters have also worked there. My nieces, one still works with me, a brotherinlaw, two cousins. So its pretty family. Its always been that way. And its been many years. We have been there since i was like 7 years old. And grew up there. People go where is home . This is home. Seeing people in the window is like when you water your lawn or come outside, seeing your neighbors and people. I love my neighborhood. When they say home is home, that is home. Thank you for your help and i hope this can help preserve us to stay, because i know the city goes through so many changes and times are different and im realizing im older now and you can kind of get moved on but you have to try. We have a Community Center next to us. And she brought this to my attention and i never knew anything about it. So stephanie cahina brought it to me and said we are trying. I said thats an idea. She is younger. I said let me listen to someone young and see what i can do. Okay, we started working through the application and with ricks help. Im happy. Im happy to be a part of this city. Its what we know, its where we were born. To grow with it, hopefully grow with it and thank you for your help, and if it can help us to preserve us staying at home. So thank you for your help. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Do we have anybody else . [off mic] thats okay. Come on up and say something. Thank you very much for being eddies cafe part of legacy business. I purchased 1988 now, its become 29 years. All my neighborhood has changed so much. Fancy restaurants come. They would rather sell alcohol, its easy to get the money. You know, its more expensive. Like one champagne cost like 11. Our breakfast costs 8. 95. [laughter] and we are really working hard, its not easy. We make everything, you know, from scratchy, all the hash browns and pancakes. Im so happy working in eddies cafe. And thank you for this city of San Francisco. Im very, very happy and we work so hard and you guys Pay Attention to eddies cafe, im so happy. Thank you very much. Awesome, thank you. See, you did great. Perfect. All right. Do we have any other members of the public that would like to comment on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. First i would like to thank you all foregoing for going through the arduous process of filling out the application but as you have discovered its a rewarding process because it causes you to reflect on your business. We are so busy running our business we hardly take time to see where we come from. Now you have nice little document that has pictures and stories in it so you could share that with your other relatives, so thats awesome. Thank you very much. Commissioner adams . Yes, i want to give a shout out to Brittany Beck with Becks Motor Lodge, what she has done in the community. A member of the castro merchants. A member of the San Francisco travel agency. Or whatever you call it now. Sf travel. Here is a couple tidbits, she has beehives on her roof. Which i think is awesome because it helps the neighborhood with flowers and growing and all sorts of cool things. And brittany is a big huge part of our neighborhood. Whether its pride, folsom, dory, but even outside lands, the hospitals, becks really plays a pivotal role in bringing people in no matter what event it is. And this commission should hear this. This poor woman has been through every process getting city permits and stuff. And i get these phone calls, i have to get this permit and they are changing this and this, and i have to sit in the Police Department for this. But i listen to her, and i will call regina and we will get it done. But you have really endured through a lot of these processes, and im proud of you. I remember when you took over the motel and you didnt know and you just started doing it. I think its awesome what you have done, the renovations, the place looks beautiful. I will end it with this, if you drive up Market Street during the holidays and see Market Street lit up with the white lights it was Brittany Beck that started it at the motor lodge and got the other merchants to put white lights on their trees, between church and castro you could thank brittany for that christmas miracle. We call her miss christmas in the neighborhood. You should see her house. I want to thank you for everything you have done. Thank you for enduring a lot. If your grandfather was alive he would be so proud of you, he is looking down proud at you for what you have done there. Thank you for being a great part of our community. You have done a great job. Thank you. Thats awesome. Commissioner dooley . Congratulations to you all, you have put in your time. As a Small Business owner myself, i know what its like, it never ends, you are working all the time. Not only do we want to congratulate you on the legacy of Business Award but to remind you that the Small Business commission and office of Small Businesses is here for you. And if you need help, if you have questions, no charge, we are here to help you out. So once again, great work, thank you. Yes. Commissioners, any other comments . Yes, commissioner zouzounis . Congrats everybody. This is really exciting. Again, i love seeing the secondthird generation businesses. Kids following their parents and grandparents legacy. My family has a deli and a store. When i hear stories people coming in talking about my grandparents and what they remember, that means a lot to me. Congrats. Thank you all for taking time out from your businesses to come here tonight. Those of us Small Business owners up here know the commitment to come to city hall. So much appreciated. And congratulations. So do we have a motion . I motion that we approve Becks Motor Lodge, eddies cafe, little joes pizzeria and one twenty for hair legacy businesses. Second. Commissioner adams. Yes. Dooley. Yes. Cartagena is absent. Torrance toursarkissian. Yes. Riley. Yes. Zouzounis. Yes. That motion passes 60. [applause] now back to work. Thanks a lot you guys. You can take off the rest of the meeting, not nearly as exciting as the legacy business stuff and its our favorite part of the evening. Thank you. Appreciate you coming out tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Happy holidays. All right, next item, please. Iet item 4, approval of meeting minutes. Motion . Or discussion . Oh, first of all, any discussion, commissioners . No. Do we have any members of the public that would like to comment on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Do we have a motion . I move. I second. Okay. All in favor . Aye. Any opposed . That motion passes, 60. All right. Next item. Directors report, update and report on the final regulations and permitting for adultuse cannabis, the office of Small Business and Small Business assistance center, Department Programs policy and legislative matters announcements from the mayor and announcements regarding Small Business activities. I will have a lengthy directors report since we have a short meeting tonight. To start with the Legacy Business Program, so, ria algonado, our new staff person is handling communications for legacy businesses so we have now started producing press releases after the businesses come on to the registry. And as a result, we are now generating more press for these businesses and wanted to highlight that tomassos received front page of the business section on december 7th above the fold, so it was a really nice article. I was there last night. First stop, off the plane, dropped my bags, went there, and they are so delighted they got that mention in the paper. It will be framed and placed along the other mentions they have had. Many decades of history. That is fantastic. And the more of that we could do the better. Right. And hood line is very dedicated to really doing articles featuring the legacy businesses. But now we are making it easier for them to be up to speed on whose being added to the registry for them to do articles. So im very pleased about that. We started the logo and branding project. I made a list of whose on the committee. We had our first meeting last tuesday. And the first part of this project, which is the logo and brand identity, were we are estimating including for a business to be on the registry, is it a requirement to be open and operating. Thats one question that we should ask ourselves. Since interruption is allowed for two years, then potentially a business that got on the registry could, during those two years open and continue operating. So shutting down, if that is not a finality, it is not a condition, not a reason for removal. Being dormant. I think if you get on the registry and you cant interrupt your business for two years that question is premature. That person has two years to come back and operate. The question is how do we indicate it or not. In other words, i have not seen anywhere in our regs that says if you are a legacy business, for some reason you have an interruption, you will have to justify your existence on that legacy. So you have two years to recover. Am i right, or wrong . This is good for us to explore because there could be a situation where i business has to temporarily shut down and relocate. I think it goes back to the intention. If they intend to keep their Business Registration current. But we will bring that back for you. Because i do think it merits some discussion or procedural way in which staff and the commission handle the situation. Okay, good. Today there was a press conference at teds market. And ill let commissioner zouzounis talk about this during directors report. With senator wiener, mayor lee and director rafael from department of environment for sb458, which senator wiener sponsored. And it allows cal recycle to approve up to five local jurisdictions to develop a Pilot Program that would allow for new and innovative redemption and collection systems. So right now the way the law is written, [coughing] its written as though, when there is an entity that triggers a convenience, there needs to be stationary recycling center. As San Francisco, we have been moving away from stationary recycling centers and using our land use in that way. But whats happened, i think, and you all are very familiar with this, our Small Businesses have become the de facto recycling centers. So this will allow the city to develop a program, hopefully we will work with cal recycle, department of environment to make sure its something they will approve and in doing something that will meet the requirements of the number of recycling centers that the state deems the city needs to have, so our Small Businesses are no longer having to act as our recycling centers. I also want to, i didnt make a note of this but i also want to bring to your attention, there is office of tourism. And its been fairly quiet, but it recently came to our attention because of a letter they received saying they owed 300,000 to the office. As a business that was associated with tourism. Which was not quite accurate but we are still trying to flush out sort of exactly the criteria and the notification process meeting with that particular office. But i wanted to bring it to your attention because there could be businesses receiving a letter from the office, from the office of tourism saying you owe a fee to the office because your business has some nexus to tourism. I received one. You did . Yeah. Quite out of the blue. So we will be putting an announcement in the newsletter because we do want to hear from businesses who are receiving this to try to really understand sort of what is their nexus. Around associating businesses with tourism. Theoretically San Francisco is one of the number one tourist destinations. So could they say every business in San Francisco has a nexus to tourism . There is an exception at 1 million and or if you have less than 1 of your revenue goes to tourism. It will be interesting to hear, commissioner dwight, what your communication is with them. But its pretty much nearly every single type of business. It has the potential for a nexus in terms of their list. We were under the thresholds but i thought it was outrageous to receive the letter, frankly. It would come as a great surprise to any Small Business. And this idea that because be have chosen to be, to stay in this city because it is the city and have the city turn around and tax us because we want to call ourselves sf made or San Franciscobased businesses is really when we are paying all the other taxes we are paying, really seemed to be pretty crazy. Right. And its the state and so, we are taking a look at it. There is a group, there are several of us, including o. E. W. D. Having some discussion and trying to develop a little more information to figure out what the, i think the plan of action the city wants to take around this because i dont think that we are concerned. The biggest thing it was a complete surprise. In ten years of being in business had never seen anything about this. And then to get it out of the blue, especially during these difficult times, seemed just like, really . Cut me again. Are we aware of any other state that has the same kind of fee . We havent looked at it. I know this was, the bit of information i do have, this was a bill that was passed in the late 90s, perhaps when schwarzenegger was governor. I think it was pete wilson. Pete wilson. We looked at it. We arent sure, we had one meeting with sf travel. We arent sure how aware they are, this seemed a little bit of a surprise to them as well. This is supposed to be an office promoting tourism for the state of california, so you would think our sf travel, our local organization would be aware of, sort of, how this works. I assumed it came from the city. I didnt know it was from the state. Oh, interesting, okay. Do we have any idea what kind of fee they are charging . Its based on a percentage of your sales that goes to tourism. I dont know the exact percentages. I can get that information for you. I can bring my notice in next time, just for fun. And maybe this isnt appropriate but is there any advice we could give our businesses . Are they going to get a fine if they dont pay it . I think we are doing some research to figure it out. We are doing some research. I do know what has been told to us from the office of tourism is they arent doing any sort of back retroactive. They are looking at now moving forward. Okay. Ill go into it a little more later but the mayor did sign the cannabis legislation on 12 6, on wednesday. December 6th. So it goes into effect friday january 5th. And i will talk a little more about that later. There are some local ordinances that have been referred to the Small Business commission. And we will work on scheduling these for january. One is supervisor peskin has introduced legislation amending the planning code to spell out some more specific definitions around retail sales and services for formula retail. Then there is a planning Code Amendment to regulate restaurants and bar uses in the Jackson Square special use district. We will be hearing an administrative code process for establishing cultural districts. Its in the works and its being amended. But the idea when cultural districts are being established and there are legacy businesses, they are proposing a process where the Commission Weighs in and provides some feedback in relationship to the legacy business section of the cultural districts. And that one you are definitely hearing on january 8th, we will be getting some information out on that. And then supervisor ronan has introduced controls for Mission Neighborhood commercial district around lot mergers. Which i think she also introduced some interim zoning controls, which is further down the page, which i think those two things are related. The interim zoning controls will immediately go in effect while she works on the longterm controls. And then i want to highlight that supervisor peskin has introduced an initiative ordinance. This would be for the ballot. Dealing with business tax regulations and administrative code dealing, adding an additional gross receipt tax on commercial rent. I will send out links to those so you can start reading the legislation. And then we did i wanted to bring to your attention, occasionally there are pieces of legislation that are referred. Such as on page 3, the geary masonic special use district, these are when specific parcels are going through redesignation at zoning, the planning code for development purposes. So this is where the lucky penny diner was next to trader joes. If thats the parcel. Development is happening here. So what i am now doing is responding that the commission will not hear it but that we encourage the Planning Department to have the developers do adequate outreach with the surrounding businesses. While theres not a lot of surrounding Small Businesses but across the street, the corner across from target and they are heading down geary toward the ocean, there are a few Small Businesses in that area. Its a busy intersection. So i can imagine with the construction it could get very congested and sort of interrupt. It could have impact for those immediate businesses surrounding it. And then there was a sugary beverage tax ordinance that was really clean up ordinance referred to the commission but it was an administrative cleanup ordinance. So for the cannabis legislation, just a very quick run down of the 12 sets of recommendations that the commission that you recommended and what was included. So the board of supervisors adopted your recommendation to allow a 2step process for what we are now calling the preexisting nonconforming businesses. They will have to cease operation to be able to stay in the queue. And will have to sign a declaration they are ceasing operations until they find a zonecompliant place. But at least, this is a process to allow them to be able to be in the queue for permits, article 16 permits, come january. Allowing cannabis to share spaces. Supervisor cohen actually introduced the ability for small retailers to share space. Each retailer has no more than 350 square feet of retail space and we are still determining the colocation regarding manufacturing. The state regulations, there may be an ability on the manufacturing side making a determination on that. But even if the state allows it, i dont know that we need to legislate it because we have similar processes in place already for manufactures who colocate space and its not legislated. Then onsite consumption. So there will be the ability for existing operators and some, existing operators who are now article 33 going into article 16, who will be able to do onsite consumption and smoking. There are some very specific criteria, so it will be interesting to see how this will work because some of the retailers do not have the space. You are required, if you are going to do smoking, you are required to have a separate room. So i think some of these details are still to be determined as to how they will be flushed out. The board of supervisors did create a pipeline for applicants who had registered with the department of Public Health but had not had their planning hearing. Theres some nuances with that and i will explain that a little bit more at a followup. Okay. And then, i think probably the most important thing is, to your point, item 6, commissioner toursarkissian is allowing for the transition from nonprofit to forprofit business structures during the application and transition from article 33 to article 16, or the preexisting nonconforming as they transition their business. So that process is being worked out on an administrative end. And then item number 10, which is the 600foot radius. The 600foot radius was maintained from a school. They very clearly specifically put in the land use regulations there is no minimum radius for Cannabis Retail use to existing daycare center. There was a lot of discussion about whether to include that at the board. But it was made very clear that this was to be kept at the school level. For public and private schools. But then in addition a Retail Cannabis use, in addition to the 600foot radius from a school, the second measurement is 600foot radius from another Cannabis Retailer, or medical Cannabis Retailer. The exemption to that is if a small retailer, thats going to be occupying 350 square feet within an existing retailer, they arent subject to that 600foot criteria. Could i ask a question about that . Uhhuh. What if its a nonRetail Cannabis license . The nonRetail Cannabis license is not subject to that 600 feet . Yeah. Its still to be determined are you talking about . If theres a distributor and a retailer, does that still apply, that 600 foot . Im not sure that distribution. We would have to go back to the zoning whether distribution is allowed. I dont have this memorized, allowed where Cannabis Retail would be. It may not. It may not. Slightly different for delivery entities but for distributors. And then lastly, to this commission, which was also very important is the local hire percentage. So for those that currently have a permit under article 33, they are required to do a 35 local hire. And those that come on under article 16, new permits that are issued, they are going to be required to have 50 local hire. I forwarded to you the Research Paper assessing the enforceability of local hire preference programs. I want to get on this. I want the City Attorney to be notified. Im hopeful that the local hire requirements applied selectively to private enterprise and unrelated to government contracts and involving public funds are unlawful. And so, maybe we will be that base case. But this is going to be, this is going to strangle this business, this industry, having to hire local like this, its ridiculous. We need to get the City Attorney on this one right away. It should be top priority for us. The request has been put in. When they do an official recommendation, it does it isnt like an immediate sort of email back. It has to be vetted through a process through the City Attorneys office. Im waiting to hear back from our City Attorney on the estimated time line. We should definitely dog this. I cant believe this hasnt gotten press, or the industry hasnt screamed about this. This is a landmine for them. Even if they get approved, theres a nonstarter if they dont hire. I would like to read the last sentence of this paragraph. Says director of office of cannabis may approve time limited reduction waiver by showing of the cannabis business in general it was unable to locate, for that cannabis business specifically, was unable to locate a sufficient number of qualified local residents. Its such a high burden of proof, that is very difficult for a business to come up with evidence that it tried and could not. So this is important, including this aspect of what passed. Submitted to the City Attorney. And then the last thing, yes. Also for the office to itself establish criteria, it took us a while even with the legacy Business Assistant grant in terms of verifying the number of f. T. E. s and it takes at least an hour per application for rick and ria to go through and see how they are doing verification and thats a Pretty Simple verification. The amount of staff time it will take to verify this. What are we verifying . On the citys end to be verifying what a business, you know, like to create established criteria what businesses need. You are talking about, what you mentioned commissioner toursarkissian is how a business is going to prove the efforts. But also the city needs to sort of establish some criteria to say this is the steps we need to see you have taken, to see if you arent qualified for the waiver. I think its fundamentally unlawful. We should start with the City Attorneys office. The last thing i wanted to, just make sure the commission is aware of. The first set of processes that we are working with in getting ready for the january 5th is to work with article 33 businesses, those that have article 33 permits so they can file for their temporary license and then be working them into article 16. And then the next criteria is working with those that do not have article 33 permits. What we are calling preexisting conforming and are in a properly zoned place and getting them through the process and inspection so we could issue a temporary permit for them to be able to get their state license. Or a temporary license for the state permit and then we will be working with the preexisting and then bringing on also the equity program. Okay, awesome. Also, i want to sadly acknowledge this is menicas last commission meeting. I want to extend my appreciation for her little over year and a half with us and your great work around all the cannabis and getting us through this big project and a significant milestone with that. I wanted to extend my appreciation. Our commission would like to thank you for being a wonderful person in our office. I cant imagine how we will do without but wish you really good luck and we would like to present you with a little gift from the commission. Best wishes for your next adventure. Thank you for everything you have done for us. Have you set an extraordinarily high bar for the next person. Its unlikely anybody will be able to meet the standards you have set. Thank you very much. And in closing, i do want to close in memoriam for donna lynn murphy, she worked there 17 years. While our office didnt have a high amount of engagement but she was very instrumental working with our workforce side of o. A. W. D. And the hospitality workforce program. So it was somewhat sudden. So just wanted to close with an in memoriam to her. Thank you. Is that it . Thats it, unless you have questions. Any questions . Any members of the public who would like to comment . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item, please. 6. Commissioners reports. Allows president , Vice President and commissioners to report on recent Small Business activities and make announcements of interest to the Small Business community. Discussion item. I have nothing to report. Commissioners, anything else . Commissioner yee riley . Yes, i was at the city hall pop up on the 6th. Me too. It was really wellattended. I saw a lot of interesting merchandise. Yep. Especially the rick shaw bags. Thank you. We had a great day, it was very well attended. I was pleasantly, not surprised but im glad you were there. I only noticed your bags which is very masculine. Thank you. And i notice you have very nice washable cosmetic and tote bags. Did you purchase . No. We had a good day. The mayor was on his way to our booth, he got detoured and never came back. We missed our photo op. Anybody else have anything to report . Mr. Zouzounis. As director, you mentioned, we had a press conference earlier today and i spoke on behalf of the commission and also my role as a grocer in the community. I did heed the Senators Office letting them know this is a very important first step but we still have a lot of work to do to hold the state accountable and to the bottle bill, amending the bottle bill, which currently mandates small stores to collect cans and bottles and out of pocket give back that c. R. V. Value. Its been a big unnecessary burden on the Retail Industry and this is an important first step but we have a lot more work to do so there will be more updates on that. As another note, the cigarette litter abatement fee went up to 75 cents. I think just like the bottle bill amendment, this is a good highlight of how recycling and litter reduction type of legislation does fall onto the Small Business sector and is often not regarded as a burden but more as a general responsibility that falls on the specific sector, so i think it was a good example of bringing these fees to the surface. I hopefully like to talk about that particular one more. Okay, any other comments. Okay, seeing none. Any members of the public who would like to comment . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item, please. Item 7, new business. Allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration by the commission. Discussion item. Any new business proposals . No. Do we have any members of the public that would like to comment on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item. Okay, we are, sfgovtv, could you please show our slide. Its our custom to end each meeting with reminder the office of Small Business is the only place to start your business in San Francisco and best place to get answers to your questions about doing business in San Francisco, the office of Small Business should be your first stop when you have a question what to do next. You can find us online or in person at city hall. Best of all, all of our services are free of charge. 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. If you need assistance with Small Business matters start here at the office of Small Business and the Small Business commission. Thank you. Item 8. Adjournment. Motion . I motion. Second. Okay, all in favor . Aye. Any opposed . All right. That motion passes. The meeting is adjourned at 6 27 p. M. Its a wrap. I tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. I feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuing them. There are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. Kindred spirits, so to speak. There is a Circus Company that i have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. I use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. A lot of the work is content based, has a strong narrative. The dancers have more of a theatrical feel. I think we are best known for our specific work. In the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related to the africanamerican experience, here in the united states. I had heard of Marcus Shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. We were brought together by the equal Justice Society specifically for this project. We were charged with beginning work. Marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the Death Penalty, our experiences with people who had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. Pulling our information. Beyond that, we did our own research. To create a picture that resonated with humanity. It is the shape of a house. In this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. I thought that was an interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. What is home for these people . The home is their cell. People talk a lot about noise very noisy in prisons. That is interesting to me. Looking at the communication level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here . [singing] i think both of us really believe the Death Penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. The list is as long as my arm about several others. We feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can help people frame it for a conversation