Transcripts For SFGTV Small Business Commission 20240712

Will be muted and in listening mode. When your item comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. Its a quiet location speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or the device that you are listening to the meeting on. If you dial 3 before Public Comment is called, you will be added to the queue. When you are called for Public Comment, please mute the device and you are listening to the meeting on and when its time to speak you will be prompted to do so. Public comment is limit today three minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer of the meeting and an alarm will sound when the meeting time is finished. Speakers are requested but not require to state their names and its the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that effect Small Businesses in San Francisco. The office of Small Business is the best place to get answers about doing business in San Francisco particularly during the local emergency. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, at this time, you can find us online or via telephone. Our services are free of charge. Before item 1 is called id like to start by thanking Media Service and sfgovtv for coordinating this virtual hearing and livestream and thank you for assisting with the caller comment line. Please call item number 1v call to order and roll call. Commissioner adams is absent. [roll call] mr. President , you have a quorum. Thank you. Item number 2, please. Clerk item 2, board of supervisors file number 200830 police code right to reemployment following layoff due to covid19 pandemic. Ordinance and creating a right to reemployment and employees and laid off due to the covid19 pandemic if their employers seek to fill the same position previously held by the laid off employee or a substantiallily similar position and to reasonably accommodate employees who cannot work because of family hardship, discussion and action item and the presenter is edward, legislative aid to gordon mars. Welcome back and thank you for making yourself available to us again. Our thoughts are with supervisor mar and hope he is doing well. With that, well begin with your overview of the legislation that will be followed by commissioner questions, Public Comment and commissioner discussion. Edward, the floor is yours. Thank you very much and thank you to all the commissioners. Commissioner mar is doing well and thank you for keeping him in your thoughts. Were grateful to talk about this item and grateful to you for taking the time to discussion it and review it today. The back to work ordinance is an ordinance that would codify policies already in effect in law through an emergency ordinance that was enacted by the board of supervisors and also previously reviewed and discuss bid this body. So, out of respect for your time i wont repeat everything i said when i last was before you but ill try to focus on summarizing the policy, especially things that have changed in this new version versus emergency ordinance and changes that we made to the emergence ordinance after it was reviewed and discussed previously. It had changed since it was last considered and the emergency ordinance, however, the policy itself would not significantly change through this regular ordinance compared to the emergence ordinance in effect. Ut it simply, this ordinance asks that larger employers ploye rather than replace the workers. We knee theknow they have healts and unemployment can suppress an employees wages and lifetime earnings potential and we know that this intact lowwage workers and workers of color and we know that recall rates can help workers across the country and now in effect nor nonunion employees for larger employers here in San Francisco. With this law, laid off workers would have the right of first refusal for their jobs if or when their former employer reopens and rehires. Hiring would be prioritized by sen your tee and if a former employees position is not being rehired, it would be rehired any other similar position that it would qualify for. It also requires employers to provide notice to the city of layoffs and maintain records of the laid off workers and provide them with information on available city resources such as the oew hotline. It covers employers with 100 or more employees who layoff 10 or more eligible workers within 30 days and theyre employees who were employed for 90 days or longer and who have been laid off because of the publicHealth Emergency. Small businesses and Healthcare Operations employers are exempt as are independent contractors, employees covered by selective Bargaining Agreements and employees with severance agreements or committed misconduct discovered after their separation of employment. Based on Stakeholder Feedback during the emergency ordinance we made a series of pretty substantive amendments and they were based on your feedback, the feedback from the body so we really appreciate all of that. Just to summarize those changes that were made, the ordinance and further modeled in this regular ordinance, we exempted all employers with fewer than 100 employees and we exempted Healthcare Operations employers and hospital, doctor offices, et cetera, and we removed the 90day retention requirement and we added a carve out for employment misconduct for the reemployment offer and we also carved out ploys with severance agreements and removed the reviewed amount building requirement and those were removed and we also stream lined the process for the reemployment offer and were allowing reemployment offer by email or by text before mailing is required and it would only be required with a option and we sped up the timeframe for the reemployment offers. We authorized ose to issue regulation and do rulemaking in the emergency version so we have now changed that to oewd in the regular and districted reemployment to go to replace the hotline included in the employee notification with the one that is managed by oewd. So since then, those are the amendments summarized made after we last discussed it here. We made additional changes for this item. The regular version of that ordinance. So we updated the employee definition. The definition in the regular ordinance to this item is based on the term used in state labor code and wage orders and regulations and they in turn are used in the citys minimum wage ordinance, the Healthcare Security ordinance, the other ordinances as well. Under the emergency ordinance as well as the regular ordinance if enacted, if an employer under San Francisco minimum wage law theyre covered. Both apply to employers 100 or more employees with office or location and so just in short theres no intended substantive difference between the employer definitions from the emergency ordinance and the regular ordinance and we changed the wordings to be consis consistenn many other labor laws of San Francisco. We also change the Rulemaking Authority so were proposing moving that responsibility and ability from oewd as you may know, oewd is receiving the notices and managing the hotline for the workers so we feel it makes sense to also shift rulemaking responsibilities onto the office of economic and workforce development. And why were proposing a regular version of this ordinance. We have already reenacted the emergency ordinance and we will soon be introducing an additional reenactment of that. We cop continue to reenact the emergency ordinance every 60 days, however, given the on going nature of the Health Emergency and the many moving pieces for both workers and businesses we felt that codifying with a date certain for expiration would offer amount more predictability for everyone rather than reenacting it every 60 days. It would expire by operation of law one year from the Effective Date or the date on which the state of merge proclaimed on february 25th, 2020 terminates which date occurs latest. Now, that means the right to reemployment offer for eligibility workers laid off because of the publicHealth Emergency, would endure for up to a year or until the emergency ends. Eligibility organizers have to lack of funds and lack of work, closure or city of operations resulting from a Health Emergency, so, while the law generally is in effect until sunsets and unlike the emergency order, it doesnt have its eligibility or Effective Date tied to the publicHealth Emergency order it doesnt cover all employees just lows laid off because of covid impact or the impact of publicHealth Emergency. I wanted to respond that suggested that this ordinance would could or disadvantage workers of color and women, we disagree with that argument and we feel that the facts cited in report in its self countered that argument. Workers of color and women are over represented in the Hospitality Industry thats been most impacted by the pandemic and its seen the highest number of layoffs and the workers also most benefit from this ordinance. According to the same center for American Progress report that the office of Small Business cited in the legislative review, workers of color are the first to be fired during that term and theyre the last to be retired and Racial Discrimination will pronoun the economic Fallout Community of color unless lawmakers act now to prevent it. From march 1st, to july 24th of of the employees effected by warren act noticed layoffs in San Francisco, were in just three industries. Accommodations in food services, arts and entertainment and retail trade and of those three industries accommodations was by far the most impacted representing nearly half of all layoffs. These are the same that the central for American Progress reports as being both most have vulnerable and workers of color are over represented in low wage accommodations jobs, the very same with experience and the highest number of layoffs and the very same that would most benefit from the work of protections this ordinance kotarocodifies. It calls for lawmakers to act now to help prevent Racial Discrimination in rehiring of business to recover and that is partly what this ordinance does. A right to recall is something that is, as i mentioned earlier, in trying to collective Bargaining Agreements for most union arts across the country and what were proposing here is that we codify that policy for nonunion employees of large employers something that is already in effect in San Francisco and through the emergency ordinance that was already enacted by the board of supervisors. So what were proposing here is not a radical shift from current policy already in effect, its essentially just codifying that to have a date certain for the timeframe its in effect and im happy to take any questions from the commission. Thank you, i appreciate you coming in and presenting to us. With that, ill turn it over to my commissioners. My fellow commissioners. Do any of you have any questions . While we wait, edward, they may be formulating their questions. A quick question, my understanding is they would be 3216 is sitting on the governors desk right now, which is pretty similar legislation as i understand it. How do you how are you going to square that i guess if that passes . How do you see this playing with that legislation . Yeah, thank you for asking. So, the state bill on the governors desk is induce free specific. It does not apply broadly across indoes trees in the way its ordinance does. Where we target based on the size of the employer and the cause of the layoffs and the eligibility of the worker based on their prior tenure employment of that employer. We did not tie the specific to industry. Thats a main point of difference there. We should have a result of whether or not the governor signs that bill. Not too far in the future, gives us an opportunity to amend this in committee. Well introduce another reenactment of the emergency ordinance that will push back the effectiveness of the emergency ordinance for further 60 days. So, if the governor does sign that and we need to make an accommodation to our language to make sure its consistent or it doesnt present conflict there, ours goes farther, its something were open to doing. Ok. So, to the extent theres conflict or overlapping, should your legislation pass, you will amend to harmonize with 3216 assuming the governor signs it . Yes, we want to make it consistent. With the exception that ours applies to industries beyond the state bill. Understood. Commissioner hughie. Thank you, very much. I just had a couple quick questions. Im wondering in this number that you have of 1,347 workers received who received reemployment offers, what industries . I know you are talking a lot about hospitality but my understanding of hospitality is it like hotels and things like that and i have a very narrow frame of what im looking at. Theyre already unionized, the workers there are unionized so im wondering who is really i dont have a breakdown on this yet so its something we asked for and so were interested as they condition and other thing thing i noted is that a really large preportion of those have come in just in the last couple weeks and so this is something that we expect to continue to pick up and its still a relatively law and there are questions around compliance and whether or not all of the layoffs that happened would be eligible be being reported so its something that is further conversation in further attention paid to. Ok. So in this number, this is like, its a business with 100 or more employees. So you have no idea yet how many businesses. It could be like 13 businesses, right . That is true. Ok. And this is been this is effective add as of september 4. So this is like 10 days of data that were looking at . Yes. And there is a period of time that the employer has to provide that notice to the city so theres a lag of when the layoff happened versus when oewd actually gets information about it. Ok. Great. I think thats pretty much my question for right now. Commissioner yekutiel. Hi, edward. Where did you go . Did i lose you. Im still here. You see im trying to talk. And good to see you. I have two things. The first is on equity lens and thank you for acknowledging in your opening comments. One of the things that i think you acknowledged that i just want to oneonone with you on is as you know, if you look at seniority, folks who get the most senior roles and the most promotions are not women of color or women or folks of color or folks from equity communities or traditionally passed over communities. Often times white men are the folks getting the most senior position and this ordinance basically forcing businesses, small and medium sized businesses or folks with 100 employees to hire back in terms of seniority might have an unintended equity issue. Do you think that is actually the case . Whats your though thought on t . Im not as concerned about that because the way theyve defined seniority is based on the date of employment. Its not based on promotion tracks or things like that. Its based on how long have you worked for that employer. I absolutely dont deny that there are racially experienced and gendered experienced in the workforce. This doesnt seek to correct that for the entire workforce. Out of the scope of this ordinance and it does seek to do is say that if you were previously employed based on how long you are employed for, you should be hired before some other person who was never employed is hired. The other thing i say about this is the reason weve had it to seniority because its consistent with the way right to recall operates across every collective Bargaining Agreement we looked at and that is sort of the standard within labor of how you should approach recalling laid off workers. We were not comfortable and didnt see a good policy goal in trying to move away from that long established standards and. The right to return, the right to work happened is not something that i have much experience with but i have experiencing with hiring. I understand even with that definition of seniority, often times the first person that you hire get the most promotions and if theyre still around and they worked the longest, theyre likely to have the most promotions and experience and they stuck around, right. Im not saying it happens at my Small Business but theres a lot of businesses where you see implicit are explicit bias and who is able to get hired and stay there and get promoted. I dont know how this is done. Im worried about the seniority thing because it may mean that all the folks that at the top get the offer first and those who havent had that dont. The second thing is on the unemployment benefit. This is something that also as an employer, im understanding in real time, right, because ive had to let go of employees. Theyve left the city. And if im now forced to give them an offer that they reject, it might effect their ability to collect on unemployment which for a lot of folks is the only thing between them and going hungry. So, what is your response to that . This requirement that now we basically have to ask everyone to get that. Its seniority by object applications so theres the seniority is by the classification. Its by the position. And were beyond that. What does that mean exactly . What does it mean. Commissioner ball its your houseworker and someone else houseworker and gets promoted to being like a manager or Something Like that and you wouldnt be on the same seniority list and who gets the reemployment offer we depend on what position is being hired for. Something and i dont have numbers in front of me on this but one of the benefits of having right to recall is having a structured approach for how reemployment offers happen which direction some of the discrimination that we see in hiring practices broadly whether its hiring for new positions or sometimes rehiring if there isnt a mandated process. What is the discriminatory practices you try to prevent from happening. It included in the center for American Congress report cited by the city review and such as talked about the fact that unemployment specifically endures longer for workers of color who have been laid off. And theyre less likely to get employment offers of any kind sooner. And so by providing structure of how it happened, its not up to the potentially implicit bias of any given employer and its going to have going to offer a y seniority. What about the unemployment . So it was also noted with the city review. The law specified that notice through the city, regarding reemployment offers were accepted or rejected shall not disclose of identities of any job candidates. It also does not require the employer to keep records of rejected employment offers which is what the office was sort of thinking or assuming in asserting it might jeopardize Unemployment Insurance benefits. We dont expect to see it happen and its not going to happen at this point or have heard any reports of it happening. Based on if the state asking for based on the permission given to city employers to not document the worker has said no to the job offer in case the state asks . Yeah, i mean, for ui its selfreporting and benefits and how the report and. Is it something you continue to report. About the employee applies we edd sends a service of notification and asks them questions and correct me if im wrong other commissioners commie you tried to hire that person back . Correct. I mean, as you can see from the numbers so far, weve soon a huge number of lives but not a large number of reemployment officers and you would expect a lot of these offers are something that would come later. The other thing i would say its something that just inherits the structure of Unemployment Insurance. If you define a job offer, that is kind of how the structured. I think there could be some risk there. We have not heard reports of people losing access to Unemployment Insurance because this. That is something were very interested in. If thats happening. I would just give this to the other commissioners now but i would just say the reason you are not seeing a lot of rehires is because were not allowed to open our businesses. My business is closed. The reason i havent offered my employees jobs is because i cant let anyone inside my business. Not because i dont want to rehire them and absolutely. Rehired are not getting inaudible . What you just spoke to the on going nature of the publicHealth Emergency and thats a big part of the reason why we thought it was important we call this a regular ordinance amid so many other moving pieces. I just wanted to really highlight what manny just said in terms of the effects on unemployment for the workers. I think, from my experience, i have the same experience as manny, you know, i get noticed all the time when an ex employee is filing for unemployment and you know, i am not going to lie about it. I feel like you are really this particular piece really pushes the employer to be in a very tough situation in terms of not wanting to jeopardize someones ability to get Unemployment Insurance for unemployment right now. Its a huge conflict and its something that, because you are creating another layer of bureaucracy, this is something that eventually be a problem and its going to be an issue and its not like a sit and wait kind of situation. I think that is the point of where i dont think for me i dont feel comfortable saying we can sit and wait for someone to say hey, i couldnt collect unemployment because i was offered, you know, reemployment by my last employer, or whatever. Whatever it is. So i just really want to stress that this is important from this particular piece. Im wondering, is there another, after we take Public Comment, is there another place for us to speak about this legislation . Yeah, there is a discussion following up Public Comment before we make an action. Ok. And one more question is now weve had a little bit of time where this has been in place, do you have any sense of how many hours, how many city hours has been used to track the confirmation . Why have i dont have a num. A lot of the emergency ordinance prior to it being enacted was a role of reducing the staff and burden on the city so that is something we did deliberately. I dont know if oewd has been tracking ours on this but i would be happy to ask them. And staff hours in total would be good. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, edward. Thank you for coming before us again. I want to echo the request for how oew staff time is being allocated. That is the bureaucratic tracking not just for Small Businesses but also if its sad a lot of Small Business have no go will with the city. Theres no good faith. They think the city is trying to entrap them and every step of the way, even when the city is trying to help them, because of that lack of good faith. Ive had even like family members who know my role, but have Small Businesses be scared to report anythin report anythi. A test for covid testing because they think theyre using it as a way to red tape their business and so, i think there needs to be some good will around how this process and being tracked and because that is paramount right now. And, with that said, im just, you know, you said it plainly. This is an attempt to apply union rules to non unionized workforce sectors. Again, most of the the Big Companies that have large union organized labor forces are International Conglomerate and they have this is different than a locally based Small Business who has less hr power, less capital. Its important to remind yourself of that. You are applying the same requirements to visit con the of the spectrum in terms of and capacity and so, yeah, i mean, that is kind of a point and i just wanted to say, of course, were also the intent of and over again and the culture of Small Businesses and that is also wrongly assumed and by supervisors who have never worked in that capacity. And we have a culture of oneonone communication with our employees and feeling out where theyre at and this is what we do all daylong and it takes away the agency and of and its going to work for you . Well told my and the that is a that we have and even any regard to those and that is a little and i under like the and that is no faith in the Small Business community and the culture of how we operate and because of the lack of privilege of that reality. Thank you very much. Commissioners. I want to talk about the first on the staffing. You mentioned wanting to make sure that were preserving oew cap hours and i want to clarify with the oewd staff is on the workforce side. The primary staffing responsibility for oewd is one receipt of the layoff notices and its similarly to the layoff notices they already receive under the war act its something theyre doing under a different state law. Staff on the workforce side that is not on the staffers that would be engaging with the business community, and the staff hours are to help provide support and resources specifically to workers who are employed. And i feel its a super valuable use of city staff time. The other piece i wanted to respond to was your point about the Small Business culture and Substance Community and lack of trust. I actually hear you and i also want to say, we heard that loud and clear in the feedback on the emergency ordinance and its why both the amended version of the emergency ordinance in effect and this regular ordinance exempts all Small Business. Any business that meets the mauvSmall Business desk is not t in this. In the business we talked about for this law, were talking about larger employers. Its not Small Businesses, its not the mom and pops, its known with any future than 100 employees. That was based on the feedback of the commission. Id like to jump and speak to that point. One of the things what has come up during the pandemic, i dont think was visible to us previously, but is now visible quite visible to us now. Its how inner connected the academic activity of Small Businesses and small and Medium Business with medium large and with large. And im giving you just as a point of example, talk to any restaurant re downtown in the financial district. Theyre all Small Businesses. Theres probably not, maybe less than 1 doesnt meet that criteria for under 100 employees unless theres 50 million in revenue and their Customer Base is decimated because of the Medium Businesses arent there that are driving a lot of that revenue. So, i think part of my interest in scheduling this on the agenda is theres quite a few aspects of this legislation that do have a direct and indirect impact on the Small Business community and id also like to say with respect to oewd, regina, correct me on this if im wrong or if i got this wrong but you know, i seem to be under the impression, as oewd lost any capacity or had to rejigger how theyre allocating staff . Are you a waiver anything along those lines . What i can tell you is that current staff that would be work on handling the unemployment, the Unemployment Crisis that we are in and how to work to develop programs and also develop programs and things of that sort so staff that works on that is redeployed to administering. At this point, weve not hired additional staff to help facilitate this to facilitate the right to reemployment and also, with this particular ordinance, one additional component is the previous ordinance olsc to draft the rulemaking and this is assigning it to workforce and so that will take additional staff time and hours. Right. And i think we can stipulate its almost a law of gravity, right, if we introduce new responsibilities, new rules, new regulations, theres going to be some kind of staffing burden and no mat hear it is, even if were just unwinding something and if were unmoving something theres an associated cost and thats where i think some of our sensitivity around some of ourens safety arounoursensitivi. Let me ask you a couple other questions. You mentioned, and i think, i have a really bad internet question so theres a couple coe moments where youve gone black on me and i havent heard every staff unfortunately and im hanging on by a thread here. Ive excommunicated all my kids from the internet while were doing this. Im hoping its just one of them watching skate boarding videos or Something Like that and i wont be interrupted in the future. If i missed something please excuse me. I thought i heard you say that theres 1,347 war knack noticed, is that correct . That came through . Yes, that was the notices of workers receiving reemployment offers under the emergency ordinance. Ok, so you have 1,300 im sorry, i messed up. Thats what i meant. 1347 notices as a result of this reemployment offer as a result of this legislation. Three employment offers, yes. I get to my next question. How many of these but four of the legislation would not have received a reemployment offer . Well, we do kno dont know t. Its hard to know. I guess thats we can assume its subset of that that its not all 1,347 would have no would not have been rehired but for this legislation, correct . Does that seem fair . Right. So, i guess you know, my concern, kind of goes back to the last time you were here, right, which is on the one hand i can see very real expenses and allocations of resources and ive also heard repeatedly throughout the medium sized business community, a lot of concerns and frustrations about this legislation particularly at this time. I understand that the legislation was crafted specifically for this time to deal with the emergency situation but as we leave the emergency framework, its particularly frustrating for them because many of them are like most of the Small Business community, just absolutely not flat back on their way trying to find a way to recover. What the commissioner said really well, theres some frustration in that theres an assumption they wouldnt do the right thing. Let me ask you a little bit about that. So, you know, one thing that you know, many of our community as you mentioned are in hospitality or accommodations or food service, and im thinking about, ive, like many people, i worked among the first jobs i had, right was working in food service and being a busboy and maybe a waiter and working my way up. The turnover was highest at the lowestpaying jobs. And in other words, you apply through a lot of bus boys and dish washers and you pile through a lot of housekeeping staff. You go less frequently through managers and supervisors and so on so i guess one concern is i guess first of all, would you agree that is true at the lowerpaying jobs, lower wages, turnover is likely to be higher. Working in food service and retail. Yeah. Sure. Great, i appreciate that. So, i guess the other thing that ive noticed in my years in food service and ive certainly heard this from other employers is that many of those lowerpaid employees are undocumented workers. And so, i guess, you know, if we can stipulate and agree that turnover is higher at the lower wages, and that the as a result are less likely to have seniority, i think theres some legitimate concern here that undocumented workers would be disadvantaged under the legislation because first of all, as employees that are not paid as much, they presumably are an ak trac an attractive red without government aid, someone, as many Business Owners i know have a very deep loyal relationship with their staff and teams, they would want to hire these people back first but yet would be restricted. And theres wage disparities between that, its not something they seek to correct for but it makes the distinction between different job classifications. The highest turnover and lowest paid job classification that would benefit whoever is the most senior in that classification. Rather than hire someone in a different position. I get that. I understand. My experience, is even in my own company, we have a broad classification, a rental staff that includes a lot of folks with different responsibilities in Different Levels of seniority. And i imagine many restaurants are. I wont belabor the point. I think you understand where im coming from on that. If an employee came in all the way from hayward, and another came in from embreeville and a week later, it came in from San Francisco and i got a third employee from San Francisco. My understanding is i would have to hire back the worker from hayward and emeryville. This is based on seniority. Theres nothing about geographic proximity or even be a San Francisco resident, correct . It had to be in the geographic boundary, that is correct but they do not have to be a San Francisco receipt department. Thats correct. And that is consistent with every local labor law im aware of. With all due respect, i dont know of any other labor laws that tell me who to hire based on where they live or tell me who to hire at all and its at had will state. That is what is different about this legislation. Commissioner, you are requesting to speak. I thought i called her already. Im sorry. I apologize commissioner. Please, go ahead. Thats ok. I just had a quick question. I just noticed that when i was looking at the dates for september 4th, that was kind of the last time that i think that was the last time that there was information for this report and im wondering if she has any updated information as of writing this report or if she has any other numbers from the oewd reporting since edward didnt have it in terms of the hours worked and things like that. Commissioners, this is regina and i wanted to correct because there is updated information and it is in the legislative review. So, oewd provided us with the position that currently with notice the level of current fte time for processing what they have received and its. 7fte. A fulltime employer. Close. To a full Time Employee and they are againing to experience an uptick in activity knowing theres 4,500 businesses that are registered that have 100 or so plus employees. Right now theyre estimating it will soon move into a fulltime fte to handle the processing and logging 100 notices per week and that is where its starting to trends and begin just wanted to identify that this doesnt include the rulemaking time. One other point to give consideration to in terms of time and handling is that should this ordinance be enacted this is in place until the either one year or the emergency ordinance in place and so we dont know what the ebbs and flows of Business Activity in relationship to the covid19 virus and so as more businesses come back on to line, in some of the sectors that arent operating may tend to learn having 100 or more employees. Again, when you layoff 10 or more you have to report that so just another consideration to keep in mind and to note in the legislative review and dominica provided and and what the employers have reported is that 328 workers have successfully rehired. I up have updated numbers that oewd after this was published so i couldnt update the number and and the number of layoff notices that have been oewd has been copied on are 97 and the number of employees effected by the layoff notices are 7,162 and the number of rehigher notice are 28 and the number of reemployment offers made are 666 and the number of employees who accepted reemployment offers are 459 and the number of previous employees are 182. Just to clarify, the universe of people that were offer with employment and accepted accepted is 459. Yes. And the number who declined the reemployment offer are 182. Understood. Got it. Ok. Thank you so much for your patients, please, go ahead. Presentation and like everybody here, inaudible . On that note, this is seeing and inaudible . The questions and you really Small Business successful and available and are you good with all this stuff . Im just this is not the time for stuff like this. I said it before and im going to say it again. If you dont understand if you dont run a business. Thank you though. Thank you. One last question and well turn it over to Public Comment unless they have any Public Comment. How is this going to be enforced and talk about what enforcement looks like. I dont think it was very clear last time you were here and talk to me about enforcement. It was an open question last time i was here. Enforcement is through right to private action and that was a decision and it was a difficult decision that we made based on the concern about capacity and the staffing burden that responsibility would have for either oewd given all their other responsibilities during this time. Ok. So, i want to game this out for a minute here. So, weve created a bit of regulation and the city is not providing any action of its own. Through olce or oewd. An employer gets this wrong and the got cha is being served with a lawsuit. Thats what right to private action means. Right . Thats our enforcement mechanism . Theres a risk of rule making and Regulatory Authority that eowd will have. So, were opening up a right of action for attorneys, which means a, the employee will secure an attorney if they feel this wasnt handled properly. B, the employer will have to secure an attorney to defend themselves and it seems theres some good faith possibilities why an employer might accidentally or on purpose run a fowl of the law. I think last time you were here i spoke about employees that have lost interest in their job or maybe their background stuff that is happening, Substance Abuse or theyre hostile. Maybe you dont want them to come back and it happens sometimes. When you are an employer. And i think it would be frustrating for an employer, given up close how those relationships are with your employees at this scale and at this level even if the 100 to 200 employee range. It would be frustrating to have to give a job to someone that you know their heart is not in it or its going to be a problem for other employees when meanwhile, theres someone who you know really needs that work and maybe they have a baby on the way, maybe theyre struggling in some way that you know the work would be really helpful and i guess that is really my concern here is that i have yet to see the definitive number here on who this will help, how much will this help and will it justify all this cost and expense . And ill give you the last word on that and well move over to Public Comment. Thank you. Im sorry, one second. I wanted to well, i offered you the opportunity to respond to ill give you that and ill let commissioner doolally have the last question. Im just respond briefly on some of the stuff you talked about that is why we included the exemption for misconduct so if a former employee has engage in active dishonesty or violation im sorry, weve spoke about that last time. I dont mean to interrupt you. From what i recall, that misconduct has to be documented. It cant be just oh that reason is really challenging to deal with or i have my suspicions but i cant prove them. The misconduct threshold is higher than just this isnt a good fit for where were at right now. I didnt mention this in the list that i gave with you we amended the misconduct exemption language since we last talked about this to be a little broader. That was partially on your feedback. Reappointment under this article based on information of an intelligence worker and the employer learns the worker engage in a act of dishonest tee, violation of law and policy or rule of employer with the employer. So that would have hostile interactions aggressive interactions qualify as i misconduct in your book. It depends on the case but most likely yes. Havent we just completely removed all the teeth of this legislation to the point now that we just have a lot of cost and a lot of expense without providing any benefit . How difficult is it for an employer who is so to not rehire someone that is you know, that they werent going to retire them is it because they were a hire wage. How difficult is it to just say well, they were difficult to get along that, thats why i didnt hire them. Well, i dont know if difficult to get along with and misconduct are different. So i think theres a different standard there. Im having a hard time squaring those two things but i hear you. And im, again, i dont want to go in circles and i know i give you such a hard time. I promise you, under different legislation i will support you and behind your back but this legislation im really struggling with. I did want to get commissioner dooley her time. Please, you have the floor. I just wanted to bring up how will this affect a situation such as an employer wants to rehire some of their former employees and not at fulltime . Does that allow the employer to be considered doing their duties towards an employee that worked 40 hours a week and because things are slow theyre offering them 16 hours a week. How does that fit in with this . So they could offer them that under the new term. It doesnt have to be what they formerly received in terms of hours. Correct. inaudible . That would be consistent but it helps. Based on feedback that we heard and given this turn of events is businesses to adapt that was a change we made. Ok. Im going to followup on that bays find that to curious. If i have employees and 50 an hours and another employee that made 20 an hour and this whole time and i could legislation by offering a job and to 50 an hour for one hour a week and ant is a fair reading . So, it does require comparable and duties to be a substantial condition. My question was about how many hours would be worked. Thats what im talking about there is enough flexibility that offered a fewer hours it could be offered as part of this. So, yeah. Ok. I think well turn it over to Public Comment. Do we have any Public Comment on the line . It is item number 2 on the agenda. I dont know if we still have. Are you seeing any members of the public who would like to speak . I dont see any members of the public who would like to speak. Thank you. Hearing no callers, Public Comment is closed. Is there any further discussion for us before we move to action . Ok. I i dont want to spend too much time on this. Edward, im sorry, you are having a tough time and tough questions. Its our job and its what were supposed to do and its our responsibility. Do i have a motion . Im happy to make one if no one else would like to make it. Ill open it up to our commissioners here. I think you said go ahead. [laughter] i move that we i move that we do not recommend this legislation and that the whatever the right terminology, the commission does not approve. Second. Motion by commissioner to not support the legislation and seconded by commissioner dooley. Roll call vote. [ roll call vote ]motion passe. Thank you edward. Send our best to supervisor mar, well all thinking of him. And hopefully well see him again in the future sometimes. Thank you very much. Take care. Byebye. Ok. On to our next item, please. Item 3, presentations, city and county of San Francisco bridge budget process, revenue and expenditures with a focus on Small Business. Discussion item the presenter is Ben Rosenfeld. Mute your microphone. Welcome, ben. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate you making time for us. We have lots of questions about the budget and all kinds of things we want to learn about it and you are the right person to talk to about it. With that im going to turn it over to you and you have the floor. Ok. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Good evening, commissioners. Ben rosenfeld, city controller. I thought i would talk through briefly an overview of the citys budget and its financial position and then open it up for any questions on your line. Let me now is good time and presentation. Thats perfect. Thank you so much. Were looking at it. All right. So ill run through this quickly and i will leave time for whatever questions are on your mind. Its important to talk about the citys budget to put it in the frame of our governmental structures. The next slide. If we can, yeah, so its important to recognize that this San Francisco is uniquely consolidateconsolidated governms all good and its in large part a reflection of the fact were a city with functions like police, fire parks, a county with functions like health, human services, welfare benefits, jails, and were also Regional Government when we compare ourselves to most of our peer so we operate Transit System and utility that serves San Francisco and provides the majority of the bay area. Were in fact the most uniquely consolidated government in the united states. So, to find a city and a county combined is unique to find a city and county that in addition provides a number of regional authorities makes us completely unique in the country. And that is an important determinant of the size of the citys budget. So flipping to the next slide. If we take apart the citys budget, which is 13 billion, its important to note it has half of that budget and the left side of the chart here, and are funds did he do tated to for a specific purpose, some of these non classic city functions. So we operate a Transit System, for example, airport, utilities and we have a number of other enterprises outside of what we think about is as clays classi. Those money are legally dedicated and can only be spent on those federal purposes. They cannot take revenue and spend it on Neighborhood Services. Im going to interrupt you really quickly. Whoever is not muted at the moment, and we can very much hear you so if you can mute, if you are not talking you should be muted right now. Thank you. Sean, i think that might be you. The right side of the chart is really the portion of the budget that most of us think about for city for the services that we rely on residents of the city. This is the citys general funds. This is the part of the budget where the mayor and the board make discretionary taxes how to spend city tax dollars. Next slide. And within the general fund, we have additional constraints and challenges. So, the left side of this chart hasnt changed and the right side has. Out of that 13 billion budget. Were left with 3. 5 billion that are available for discretionary choices after we account for two important facts. The first, being that the voters in San Francisco have adopted a number of different Voter Initiatives overtime that have earmarked specific money to specific purposes and we call these base lines or set a sides and you see them at the bottom of the chart. That money kind of comes off the top when the mayor and the board are making choices and tell tots 1. 5 billion. Additionally, the county, were the social Service Provider on behalf of the federal government and the state. So, that is the majority of federal and state money that we received. 1. 1 billion for healthcare funds and welfare funds that we administer as entitlements. Those are not discretionary funds. We received them to spend them on particular purposes and they come into the general funds. When we account for those restricted funds, you are left with a third of the pie thats left. 3. 5 billion. Its truly discretionary and those are the choices that the mayor and the board make each year. Within the general fund this gives you a sense of our Revenue Sources and you can see that the right side of the chart row reflects our two largest tax sources, property tax, business tax, which together account for half of our general Fund Revenues here in the city and county. And other taxes the bottom left portion of the pie include all of the other local taxes adopted by the voters of San Francisco, they include sales tax, health tax and other user charges are account for about 10 of our budget again state and federal money is an important driver and then money from the prior year and it completes the picture. Were heavily reliant on property tax and business tax in particular to fund our services. So a typical budget calender for the city would run about nine months. It starts in the fall with budget instructions issued and projections and budget vexe. They spend several months working on their proposed budget in line with instructions issued by the mayor. And then the mayors budget sorry about that. Its quite all right. The mayor usually typically since spend and submitting and for the review and this year has been usual in so many ways and this is shifted forward a season basically. So, the city delayed its budget and publichealth and were just now in that last bar. So the board of supervisors expected to take up the citys budget in the coming couple weeks and wel publicHealth Emergency spiking in the u. S. And into a lesser e extent its altered the citys outlook beginning in march. Next slide. To hit a couple of high points, the city lost and this is San Francisco metro so this is San Francisco and San Mateo County dated together and we lost 175,000 jobs and private sector and in San Francisco and in one month. And unbelievable job loss. And while weve seen some recovery since then, its been slow. Weve recovered through july 1 third of the jobs lost and in that first month of the pandemic and this is information were watching very closely and importantly here, you can see that the growth recovery in june and july really slowed so we had a bit of a bounce back in june and we really have seen the level of job rates slow since then. And so it would appear that were in for a slow recovery to the recession. Next slide. And you may have seen this slide from ted egin the chief economist for the city. This is showing you on the y action axis the average wage inn franciscos economy and on the x axis it shows you the percentage of the sector effected by job loss. And you can see here really that lower Wage Industries in particular in San Francisco have been hit hard during this and it includes services and other services which includes a number of Neighborhood Services including personal services and investment and really taking the largest job losses during this recession and have employed the low 69th wage workers in the city so its an amazing impact. And the key question on all of our minds is are we seeing any bounce back or recovery. The next few slides ill hit quickly. It would say thus far no. Hospitality is a key driver in our city. And this is showing you airplane, airport traffic and you ask see the losses in march and april. And you can see theyre really through june, very anaemic and you see Office Employment in the city and almost no recovery and through july and in terms of traffic into the city for office work. Next slide. It translates into impacts in real estate market. Rents are declining in the city and the longer term and negative and Property Values an and it wl lead to decline in our largest Revenue Source. I was working and i never thought i would see the hospitality impacts as acutely as we did at that moment and the impacts weve seen here as da warred the impacts after september 11th in terms of their National Loss and you can see here and that we received which is a percentage of the revenue that hotels are receiving declining to almost zero in may. And we have seen very little recovery since then. And just as concerning we have not seen a lot of recovery in the last couple of months. And this will be a key industry were keeping our eye on. Going forward in terms of trajectory of this important part of our economy. Next slide. So like all of you, city has been playing catch up with our Financial Conditions. Weve produced my office produced preliminary estimates on that about 3. 5 billion discretionary budget of the short falls over the next two years because the city plans for a twoyear budget and in march we projected between a 1. 1 and 1. 7 billion shortfall and combined over those two years by may, we had dropped the more optimistic end of that range and then come july, given lagging returns, we have seen in hotels, sales, and parking taxes, for example, we were advised to 1. 9 billion over the twoyear period so thats the shortfall with the mayor. Next slide. So this is a simple summary chart showing you the solutions that the mayor proposed at the beginning of august to that budget challenge. If there is any good news for the city, coming into this is the city has made substantial progress since the last recession in terms of our planning and preparation for the next recession. So we have built reserves and we have dramatically increased onetime spending and weve built other flexibilities into our budget as a result of the citys performance during the last recession and an initiative approved in 2010 to improve our financials. So for example, the very fact that the city prepares a twoyear budget and prepares a fiveyear financial planner, are changes we put in place during the last 10 years. So, that does leave us some flexibility heading into this period so you can see the mayor has a heavy draw in reserves and the city planning to spend a portion of its reserves during this period Revenue Solutions you see on this slide includes the business tax measure that is assumed and proposition f on the November Ballot and im happy to talk to you later if the commissioners have questions and a lot of belt tightening by city departments. Theres been a general increase in placements in march since the city and the departments were prepared 10 budget redexe redus for the coming years so the hospital of department saving proposals. The city wide spending strategies include cutting city Capital Spending and onetime spending during this period of time. And and the mayor proposed in her budget wage deferrals for City Employees for the coming two years. Is the city has closed labor contracts at this point with ale of our employee groups that cover yf20 and 21 and 20122 and that called for wage increases and bringing that these negotiated about a year ago. And the mayor is seek asking renegotiation of those contracts and proposed such in her budget. That was the last significant piece and importantly theres a contract so those savings cant be realized without agreement from employee unions. And those discussio discussionsn going. Its not due until january. And i would expect that those discussions about continue heading into the update. So, this was the proposal the mayor put forward. The board of supervisors is acted on that. The committee of the board of supervisors has acted on that budget and made changes to it but the kind of this remains the same, which is relying on savings we put together in better times to carry us through the fond fron front end of thisn and drawing on reserves and the last couple lines there are the open questions will it be successful and in those discussions with labor, will other things change that will make them not necessary. Next slide. I think its important to note that about 75 of the solutions that the city is currently considering are short term in nature. Reserves, a lot of onetime solutions on the ballot measure and the wage deferral itself is a onetime solution. So the city is positioned for positioning itself for a relatively Short Term Financial impact and the extent of the economic recovery lags and the city Financial Condition lags, we expect to see harder choices to come. That will be kind of a theme for the coming fiscal year. Next slide. Like all of you, the city is facing enormous risks in the year so while the city is on the cusp of adapting a balance budget for the coming years, theres many things that can go wrong and it will push it off track. We talked a little bit about labor and the budget ballot will be adopt and if it does at any time will create additional problems. Fundamentally, the citys cost to covid19 and the duration is a see it driver. The city will spend 400 million in the year ahead. The duration of federal assistance is a key question and of course, the pace of the loc local. Nick recovery which drives our top line and lastly here, we do receive about 20 of our money from the federal and state governments. We are unique [please stand by] in the shorter term in the kind of year ahead. The citys Public Health and Safety Response is a key part of what the government is focused on. Resumption of Economic Activity and the pace at which we can kind of get the economy going again in light of the Public Health pandemic are key issues. For both the citys finances and our overall quality of life in the city. In the midterm, things that i am concerned about are the how long and protracted the recovery in tourism and culture will be. Those are key parts of our private sector economy. They are key drivers of city revenues, and i think the [indiscernible] is out in terms of when we can expect to see air travel, for example, from asia back into the city and when we can expect to see hotels in the city filling up to a reasonable rate, when we can see culture, arts, sports, the things that bring people to the city is resuming. These are probably later recovery items in our Public Health situation. Then in the midterm [indiscernible] and city financial choices will get harder. In the longer term, i think key questions are largely around downtown, at least financially for the city were dependent on business taxes heavily. A lot of those are generated by both small and Large Businesses downtown. The future of office work, the future value of commercial real estate are very much issues looking out two, three, four years are issues were going to be monitoring. Im not always this bleak. I apologize to be as such today, but thank you for having me, and i know i can imagine you have a lot of things on your budget and id be happy to answer your questions if i can. While we wait for members to formulate questions, ill ask a couple quick ones. Actually, here we go. Thank you for your presentation. Really appreciate it. One of my questions, and i know [indiscernibl [indiscernible]. 51 of the [indiscernible] what is the proportional rate to help our community [indiscernible]. Yeah, commissioner, youre exactly right. The impacts of the Public Health pandemic and Economic Impacts here unfortunately are both falling on certain parts of our population and not broadly speaking, frankly. So as i talked about earlier, weve seen job losses that are concentrated in lowerWage Industries in the city, and its also true that the Public Health crisis is falling very heavily on specific populations, in particular the latinex community here in San Francisco, and if you look at the distribution of cases across the city, it is not uniform. Your Public Health department is probably best situated to speak to your direct question about what is the city doing about it, but theres been a focus on testing and other interventions specific to specific neighborhoods and the latinex population of this city. I know there was a there have been meetings with the mayor just in the last week heavily focused on this specific issue, and i know the mayor has acknowledged that while she is doing a lot and her departments are doing a lot, the city can do better on this front, and i do think youre going to see new initiatives and more focus coming out in coming weeks. Thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation. It was very informative. If we could have a copy, that would be great. Some things that i had a question about, feel free to say this is outside of your purview, but when we talk to supervisors about communication, [indiscernible] that sort of thing, often their initial response is, oh, these are how we balance our budget, right . And ive heard that over and over again, and i know that was it proposition 26 that i think changed how local [indiscernible] measures are made, and i dont know a lot about that, but that also has a reference as a pushback to [indiscernible] for Small Business. And so my question is, you know, in a time where were trying to you know, were dealing with all these outstanding expenses [indiscernible] but were also trying to mitigate impacts on Small Businesses, how do you see a reduction of these as impacting our budget moving forward . Yeah, good question. The city is taking steps with taxes and fees to date, and i think its more on the horizon. So the first thing the city has done, and probably the most meaningful the city has taken to date, is this set of deferrals, which basically act as zerointerest loans where the city has deferred dates for payments of a lot of taxes and fees. Taken together, weve been managing about a hundred Million Dollars in taxes and fees the city has deferred until the future, and weve been working to rearrange city so we can leave that cash with businesses rather than taking it up front. Now i realize thats not the same thing as absolute relief or forgiveness, but thats probably the most meaningful single step the city has taken today, and that takes the form of delayed registration fees for businesses, delayed sales tax payments as part of the state program, and others. You have in the final proposed budget for the city the budget does account for additional fee and tax relief for Small Business in a form to be determined. So there is a reduction to revenue in the budget that i just talked through that assumes [indiscernible] some form of tax relief for Small Businesses in the next couple of months, and so i do expect to see something. Supervisor mar, i know his office was on earlier. His office introduced an ordinance thats pending at the board to reduce fees and taxes for very Small Businesses in the city. I think youre going to see some form of that go ahead. Its now assumed in the budget. The other thing thats i think significant for tax relief for Small Business is i know theres two sides to the story is proposition f on the November Ballot which the mayor and the board placed there, significantly increases the Small Business exemption for business taxes in the city. And then additionally provides the 50 temporary reduction in taxes paid by businesses in specific industries that are most heavily impacted. Hospitality, retail and then other services, professional services. So i think the city is taking steps and has done some. I will say its tricky at the moment for local governments because were also reliant on the revenue that you are generating and that businesses are paying to provide safety net services, and in particular at the moment the massive surge on Public Health services. And unlike the federal government, the city is required to balance its budget each year, and so the city has taken steps, and i think the city will take more in the shorter term. I spend a lot of time encouraging the mayor and the board and others, though, to focus internally on business relief in terms of worker relief. The scale of what the local government can do in terms of Financial Relief versus what the federal government can do is vastly different. I think those of you that have taken advantage of payroll protection act, loans, for example, understand that. There are levers that are available for the feds to pull that are much more meaningful than relatively smaller ones the city can. Which doesnt mean the city shouldnt be doing, playing its part, but i just mean the scale of the revenue that can be provided by the federal government at the moment. Thats really where our focus is. Commissioner . Thank you so much. Im going to try to make my comments brief. So we went through the board of supervisors spending plan and the add backs, and this one [indiscernible] a couple of things that stuck out to me. 2 million for dualos, 200,000 for a gardening project, 400,000 for temporary staffing support for remote board of supervisor meetings, 100,000 for Skill Development [indiscernible] employees. I mean, theres a 1. 5 million for things that go harvesting cistern maintenance. And then if you go to the add backs, theres things like 100,000 for an aquatic park vision study, but only 5,000 to support the Small Businesses in the valley. What im getting at is anyone, any Small Business owner thats currently having to cut or let go of a big chunk of their staff looks at these 100,000 for the aquatic park study and asks wheres the money for me and wheres how is the city showing up budgetarily to support Small Businesses . My question to you is with that whole budget process, where can and should Small Business owners and the Small Business Community Get involved to advocate that the city show up financially to make to save us from permanent closure . Where is have we missed the boat on that . Is there still a place to do that in the future . And if so, where would that happen . Yeah, i think in a normal budget process i think the thing to recognize about how the citys budget works is how complicated it is and how long it takes it to put it together. So like i said earlier, the citys budget process really the subsequent july starts every year in october november. And i would really urge the commission or other Small Business organizations looking to get involved to dial in early, because by the time the budget arrives at the board of supervisors, the board is making relatively smaller changes on the margin of a budget thats been seven months in development. And so i would really urge you to get involved at the Commission Level while departments have the budgets and then focus on the Mayors Office while the mayor has the budget, in addition to the usual place that people plug in, which is at the board, which is unfortunately just in the last two months of the process. Thats normally. This year, though, i think like i said, i dont expect this is going to be a static budget situation this year for the city anymore than for any of you. Elected officials by department and continue to make your case. The city is going to be revisiting its budget probably every three months this year. Nothing thats in the final city budget will be final or adopted any time soon, and so i do expect that things will continue. Change and keep pushing. Thank you. Im just going to run through a couple of quick questions. You dont have to give me, like, super long answers. Im just trying to get a sense here of where things fall. I know you have a hard stop coming up here pretty soon. So this impact on the budget, 1. 9, its obviously up 200 million since just a couple you know, the deficit is up 200 million since just a couple months ago. Do you think its reasonable to expect that that pace of deficit increase is likely to continue . I dont know that that pace will sustain, but im much more were going to be producing quarterly reports on the citys Financial Commission in the year, and i would expect that [indiscernible]. Right, right. Thats what i suspect. And then just a quick question, so that 1. 9, thats i mean, thats over half of our 3. 4 discretionary, but presumably its spread out among more than just the discretionary . Thats the general fund shortfall, but a couple points there. The 1. 9 billion is over two years, and so its a twoyear budget. So its [indiscernible] in that. Okay. Youre right, its a very large proportion. Luckily the citys preparation in better times has left us with reserves, with capital programs and other things that we can pull down to help. Youre taking my next question from me. What is the total size of our total reserves . Yes, so the city walked into this recession with just over a billion dollars in reserves. Okay. [indiscernible] during the last ten years of recovery. That compares with about 150 million we had available in the last recession, which was proved to be anaemic. So of that billion dollars, the citys budget basically plans to spend about half of it. So we have a planned drawdown over the next several years of about 500 million of that reserve to take the edge off of service cuts and the impact. We are currently holding about half a billion dollars pending these great unknowns that we have. Okay. So the idea sorry, thats super helpful and instructive. You know, we all saw in the press that the elected to use a 59 million business tax reserve. So when we have this reserve, it is segregated into, you know, from various sources presumably. So is that 59 million, is that the sum contribution of businesses to that reserve . Or is there other business tax reserves or is there sales tax reserves or property tax reserves . That reserve is a unique circumstance at the moment. The proposition f, business tax measure thats on the November Ballot, would generate about 300 million in the repayment to the city from money from contested taxes that the city has been collecting but unable to spend. Of that 300 million, the mayor initially proposed in her budget to spend the majority of them in the coming two years, but the 59 million for the third year. And its that 59 million the board liquidated, has proposed to liquidate. Okay, and then ive heard certain departments get a majority of their budget from certain things. One that im kind of curious about, sfmta gets a good chunk of their budget from sales taxes . Is that the mta is tricky. They have a lot of money coming from a lot of places. They have a ridership accounts for a certain part of their budget, as do parking tickets and parking meter revenues here in the city. They receive a significant contribution from the citys general fund by Voter Initiative. They also do receive sales tax, and then they are heavily reliant on state and federal revenue. Ill come back to sales tax in just a second, but on the you know, my assessment of the commercial real estate downtown thing, i put it as more of a shorter medium term bucket, you have it in the longterm bucket, but perhaps this is from a budgetary perspective. If we can stipulate that the real estates now worth less because lets say, you know, folks really migrate to a workfromhome, how long does that you know, are you anticipating that that takes, like, two or three years to work through the assessor and then result in lower taxes and lower payments . Is that what youre basing it on . Thats generally right. Some taxes are paid in very real time, hotel taxes, for example. Others lag deeply. So property taxes assessed once a year and paid twice a year, we wont expect to see any impacts on our property tax from real estate losses that are occurring today for 12 months, 18 months out. And property taxes are pretty substantial part of our budget, if i recall. Id have to lack at the graph again. Yeah, go ahead. Single most important general fund revenue. Correct. So we really have an extraordinary amount of vulnerability here. Because im just guessing, but im sure that Residential Real Estate is worth a lot, but im guessing the commercial real estate is even more valuable . Is that fair to say . Thats right. About two thirds of our property tax comes from commercial properties. Were in particular exposed on properties that have changed hands in the last four to five years, because remember what people are paying in property taxes isnt based on the actual market value of their building. Its based on what they last paid for it, generally. Right. And so properties that have changed hands in recent years, an office tower downtown, those are going to be the places that were expecting to see revenue losses as they [indiscernible] lower market. An office tower that last changed hands 20 years ago [indiscernible]. And one last question, and then a quick followup and well let you go. Back to sales taxes for just a moment, this is something this is probably the biggest tax that Small Businesses collect, those of us that are lucky to own property, then its probably property taxes, and yes there are payroll taxes and unsecured property taxes, but its sales tax that every Small Business encounters. Sales taxes, do they primarily go in one direction . You know, are most of them allocated, or is it just the general fund and its fungible and all mixed up in there . Its probably the most complicated Revenue Source that we have. Its largely governed by state laws. So the tax that you all collect at your point of sale are initially remitted to the state, and then the state allocates it back down to counties and cities and retains some itself under a bizarre array of laws and formulas that have been developed over the last 20 years. Its actually we have control over the structure of a lot of taxes locally. Sales tax we dont. Thats a statewide structure, statewide payment. So locally some of the sales tax we get comes into the general fund, others goes to transportation. The majority we dont see at all. Right, no, i understood that. Like, its like one and a quarter, one and a half, i dont remember exactly, but i got that. Im just kind of curious if we have earmarked that one and a half towards specific allocation. Some of it is dedicated, i referred to transit and [indiscernible]. Okay, so thats when sfmta talks about the importance of sales tax to their income, they are talking about that Voter Initiative that is the set aside. Yes. And i guess its just a general observation for my fellow commissioners, you know, we create these set asides and baselines in the best of times sort of under ideal conditions, and then we encounter these outlier events, and it feels almost like a weight around our necks, a zombie legislation where, you know, we may want to reallocate funds differently based on whats in front of us, but our hands are tied because of this. Commissioners, there are a few followup questions. Thank you. No worries. Thank you, guys, for being with us. Back to the topic of fees, i mean, we know that taxes, that main accountability [indiscernible] the fees i know that were based on studies largely, but we have identified fees at the office of the commission that have studies over a decade old that have never been reassessed. What are the Accountability Measures around creating fees at this time . Yeah, i mean, i would say you know, fees can only be increased up to a certain level established by nexus studies, but nothing tells the mayor and the board they need to set the fee at that level. And so fees can be reduced without a nexus study. Fees can be forgiven without a nexus study. Thats just a simple legislative act. That doesnt take a vote of the people or anything more than that. Its simply a choice thats made during the citys annual budget process. And i think to the extent that there is a desire to reduce fees, you should make that case to the mayor and the board through the budget process. All right, thank you. Ben, thank you so much. Were going to go to Public Comment. I know you had a hard stop at 7 15, so but we genuinely deeply appreciate you coming down. Every time you come i learn something. I know i speak for everybody else. We all do. And it really helps us understand. Whats so important about this is our role is to try and give advice to policymakers thats consistent with the overall goals of the city, and we try and give good advice, and we want all our policymakers to look like a million bucks, or you know, given the budget deficit maybe 400 bucks, but this is all super helpful and just means that we get smarter as the commission and hopefully make better advice in the future. So thank you. So with that, ill ask for Public Comment. Sean, do we have any commenters on the line . We have one caller in the queue. Great. Well listen to that caller. My name is francisco da costa, and i just want to focus on certain corridors in San Francisco that have been adversely impacted by promises made by the stimulus [indiscernible] operations that Small Businesses would get, and now they havent got anything at all. And then there was another round of promises made, and that round has gone berserk. What we have in the city is even though we have the Small Business commission, we have the Mayors Office of Economic Development making promises all the time [indiscernible] assessment on that. Commenter, im so sorry, your comment has to be on this agenda item. It is related to the budget. Okay. Im listening. It is related to the budget because, you see, i know Ben Rosenfeld pretty well, and he knows his subject pretty well. But at the ground level, at ground zero, we need help from the Mayors Office of Economic Development. We need help from the Business Commission, and we do not get it. How are you going to tell a Small Business that is suffering and wants help, can you openly tell the Small Business that the Small Business commission has no clout, that [indiscernible] has no clout . That Ben Rosenfeld has no clout, that the mayor doesnt have any clout . Thats too much talk and little walk. Im an advocate. I like to get right to the jugular and help the Small Businesses. If the Small Businesses cannot be helped by the entities that i mentioned, then we have to raise the fund for the Small Businesses, but i say this because your commissioners may not know this, in the year 2008 and 2009 corridors like the san bruno avenue gave the city a lot of money, but this time because of the pandemic everybody is suffering. And theres nobody like, you can see im the only one that chose to speak, and so when im given this opportunity to speak, i speak often on other topics, i want to speak on behalf of the Small Businesses that are suffering. I mean, i know the comptroller and the comptroller knows me. The Business Commission may not know me except maybe your secretary, but my question is very simple. The Small Businesses that we time for the next call. You are muted. You have three minutes for each caller. Is there any other callers on the line . Good afternoon, commissioners. Can you hear me . We sure can. Please, go ahead. Good afternoon. Or good evening. My name is andy mullen. Im an aid to supervisor stefani. I just wanted to quick call in. I really appreciated the hearing that you just had and offer clarification on one item, that one of the commissioners mentioned. The aquatic park vision study that was in the spending plan, im not sure if anyone is aware of this, and im happy to provide as much information as anyone would like, congress this year passed what was the Great American [indiscernible] act which unlox about 2 billion for National Park investment. Each National Park or National Park site has to compete for that and has to create a proposal and a study to satisfy the requirements of that. San franciscos been asking for about a hundred Million Dollars for aquatic park through the vision study, and we anticipate that if we receive it, it will create sort of an incredible it will be an incredible Infrastructure Project and an incredible job creation opportunity, and so were really excited about that as a possible outcome, and im happy to brief any of the commissioners on the full span of this project at any point if they would like to learn more and get their participation in that study. The other thing i wanted to point out too is just a couple of lines down from the aquatic revision study. The 315,000 in to Neighborhood Work and activation and arts and resiliency support, which is funding directly to go towards i think many of the issues that the commissioner spoke tonight about, and i realize its not enough to meet the challenge that everyone is so articulately discussing tonight. But it is a substantial portion of the more than half the district specific had that allocation that we received. And im happy to answer any questions about that as well. And so i just wanted to offer those clarifications and provisions to the conversation tonight, and i really appreciate the controller and the commissioners and all of their incredible interest and insight into this issue. Thank you. Thank you, caller. Are there any other callers on the line . There are no more callers on the line. Seeing no more callers, Public Comment is closed. Commissioner, do you have a comment . I do. Heres the thing. I looked through these through all of these pieces of paper that were sent to us as commissioners. I went through line by line, and there is not one thing here that i would want to cut, right . Every single thing in this sheet seems amazing, right . Seems incredible. Like, its you know, wow, the fact that San Francisco can spend 700,000 on Violence Prevention Services to the api community, thats awesome. Thats amazing. Im so glad that we can do that. I think what im responding to with respect with a lot of respect to the hardworking people in City Government is a general sense and feeling that the Small Business community has been forgotten about in the budget, this upcoming budget, which has been communicated to me through a lot of our constituents in the Small Business world. I also think combining that with the fact that a lot of our Small Businesses still are not allowed to open creates a lot of anxiety, and the one other thing ill say is thank you is what ill say to supervisor stefani for putting in i think more than any other supervisor in her addback budget specifically to support Small Businesses. I think in our review the director wrote that of the addback budget, total addback budget of 5. 5 million, 1. 3 million goes to Small Businesses, and so thats great, and so for every dollar that the supervisors fought for for our community in that budget, i say thank you. Out of a 1. 3 billion budget to have 1. 1 million be added specifically for Small Businesses during this time just feels like not a lot compared to everything else. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Ill add to that and kind of address points that the first commenter brought up. I dont know that there was anything that i heard more about from the Small Business community than the fact that the City Employees were getting a raise and that that raise came out of this 59 million business tax reserve, and it really i think made a lot of people upset in the Small Business community because so many of them have lost jobs or have been instructed to not open or cant open or you know, there just simply isnt any business there to justify opening, and of course so many of them have closed and are failing, and i guess from my perspective, you know, it seems pretty clear that the city cant make the Small Business Community Whole on a budgetary perspective like this. The money just isnt there, along with all of our other priorities and responsibilities. And in the wake of a pandemic, everything is suddenly a code red emergency, you know, whether its transit or its housing or what have you, but when we think about the economic system, when we think about the Economic Vitality of the city, you know, something i keep trying to remind policymakers, Small Business as a cohort, as an aggregate, if it can be a sector, employs almost half the workers that work in San Francisco, almost half. And right now 50 of our restaurants, a little over 50 , are not generating any revenue at all. Were at, like, 1400 over 1400 restaurants closed. Many more are on the way. Were the folks in the Restaurant Industry are, you know, for a while they were saying, well, were going to lose about 30 . Then it was like it looks like were going to lose 50 , and much like then, with the budget deficit, the number keeps increasing, and so now the latest estimate is we may lose as many as two thirds of our restaurants. Downtown has no office workers. We talked about that earlier today, and when we look at the impact that thats likely to have over time on the value of that commercial real estate and what that means to the property taxes, when we look at what impact thats likely to have on the Small Businesses that are currently situated downtown, that previously relied on those workers coming in but now dont have that foot traffic anymore, when we look at the sum cumulative impact of the likely decline in real estate value, the likely decline in the number of employees. And actually, you know, i do have one question i meant to follow up on. I forgot to ask, and ill just take advantage of this. If a company has all their people go work somewhere else but keeps a ghost headquarters here, you know, lets say twitter subleases the entire Office Building except for jack dorseys office and everybody just for all of 2021 works from home, whats the impact . Like, the city gets some payroll taxes. Theres presumably some economic impact. Are there corresponding business taxes that also match up with head count and, you know, you could have a ghost hq here . Like, do we still get the full benefit of twitter, or do we get some shadow, fragment of twitter in that scenario . Its a complicated answer, but generally speaking the city has shifted the structure of its [indiscernible] received to where it was less reliant on where someone where workers particularly are present. But its absolutely still true that where a companys physical footprint in the city drives a lot of our business tax revenue to the extent that with the declines, ut drives our business tax revenue. So you know, just going back to that first caller and, you know, stuff that the commissioner said, stuff that weve all said at one point or another, we lose Small Business at our peril. Were so dependent on so many aspects of Small Business just in sheer numbers, employment of some of the most vulnerable populations, you know, folks that this is their first job or its the only job theyre qualified to do, or its the only job they can get as an undocumented worker. And you know, i think, commissioner, to your point, we have to find a way to do something to create a structure, create a framework where we can preserve and protect as much as of our Small Business as possible, and then its actually more important in terms of the health of the overall ecosystem and the health of our city than is currently given credit, either within the budget or within with respect to our policymakers. And that job to make that clear across the board, thats in part rests on our shoulders, and thats the work were doing here. So thats what my thoughts on that. Any other commissioner comments . Okay, well, ben, thank you so much. Youve been very generous with your time. Its always a delight to hear from you, and until next time, well see you then. Ill look forward to being back in better circumstances for all of us. All of us are certainly hoping so. See you then. Have a nice night. Okay, were on item number three. Next item, please . Item four, approval of draft Meeting Minutes to action items. Okay, are there any members of the public who would like to make a comment on item number four . We have one caller in the queue. Okay. Caller, this your comment must be on item no. 4, which are the Meeting Minutes. I just want to forewarn you, we will cut you off if your comments are not on item number four. It is not our roles. It is the roles of the city. Duly forewarned, please provide us with your comments on our Meeting Minutes. Sorry, i thought it was general Public Comment. I will wait. Okay, great. Well see you on general Public Comment. Looking forward to it. So seeing no other Public Comment, Public Comment is closed. Commissioners, do we have a motion to approve the minutes . I move. Ill give it to oh, wait, do we have a question or a motion . No, we have a we had a jinx motion. Commissioner, would you like to second it . With pleasure. Motion to approve the minutes. Role call vote. [roll call]. Motion passes 60 with one absent. Item five. Excuse me. I believe i get to vote as well . Did i not say your name . Im sorry. No, im sorry. Motion now passes 60 with one absent. Thank you for holding me accountable. Item five, general Public Comment. Members of the public can comment on members that are within the Small Business commissions jurisdiction, but not on todays calendar, and suggest new agenda items for the commissions future consideration, discussion items. Okay. If there are any members of the public who would like to make comments on items not on todays agenda, now is the time. Hopefully our caller has returned. Is there any Public Commenters on the line, sean . We have one caller in the queue. Wonderful. Caller, please make your comment. Thank you. Steven cornell from the Council District merchants. I want to today we found that businesses [indiscernible] opened, which is create. All these businesses are very anxious, and they want to do the correct procedures to open their businesses. They want to do it for the business sake, the employees sake, of course the customers and of course the city in general. We found out that we could open our businesses through the media. Very Little Information was sent out to individual businesses. One of the big problems with [indiscernible] is that we were told we could open, but it wasnt until this morning that guidelines were sent out on what we have to do or what we cant do. We may have lost our caller. Is our caller accidentally muted . The caller just dropped off the line. [indiscernible]. Yeah, i think his point was well made, right . What is the right time to have a discussion about this Public Comment . Now . Can commissioners just have a discussion about it . [indiscernible]. Im sorry . The commission cannot have discussion on Public Comment, but the commission under commissioner reports new business as it may pertain can refer to it. Thats what i thought. Okay. Duly noted. Sean, has our caller returned or is there any other Public Comment . There is no more callers in the queue. Okay. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item, please. Item six, draft report, update report on the office of Small Business and the Small Business assistance center. Department programs, policy and legislative matters, announcements from the mayor and announcements regarding Small Business activities, discussion item. Thank you, commissioners. Ill start off with my report in terms of the our Business Assistance center. So date we have served 3,366 businesses since march 16, and as i noted at the last meeting, were beginning to see a bit of a drop, a reduction. As we were in a pause and we are also beginning to assist businesses who are giving consideration in opening their business. As the Public Commenter noted, we have seen an increase in calls as of today around both and today because of the announcement going out friday in terms of a large number of businesses that are now being able to open under covid guidelines and covid restrictions and express their frustration in not having that Information Available immediately on friday with having, you know with having the opportunity of the weekend to be able to get their business open. It feels like theres still a somebody not muted. Im not sure. Thank you. And i think going back again to commissioner ortiz point, these guidelines were issued today, but theyre very extensive, and so for businesses having to read through them, really be able to pull out but really directly applies to them, their business sector takes time. It takes time for our staff to review these items and be able to accurately inform businesses that are calling for this information. So just, you know, there is the commission has addressed this issue, especially for our equity businesses and businesses that english is not their first language or not proficient in reading these kinds of documents. So just do want to reemphasize what the commission has already sort of identified this as an issue. It is definitely an issue for our staff and being able to adequately inform businesses right away, and i want to thank you carol jen from our office. It took her all day to draft our ebulletin and our eblast that went out this evening. And to the callers point, you know, our eblast, we have about 20,000 businesses on the eblast, and the main means for the city in terms of getting out this information is utilizing the media. Direct communication to the businesses is definitely something that we can work to improve upon. But as you are aware and as you are aware, we do have an choreographed number of increased number of businesses that are able to open and operate, and thats a good thing. Other things that i am hearing from businesses is they would like to see the city also convey communication to our residents and to the consumers to provide Consumer Confidence in attending businesses and doing business with them. I think and i will concur that concern that we often hear were holding back the virus by Holding Back Businesses that are by Holding Businesses back from opening, and there is still we can definitely improve in our communication to help convey the Consumer Confidence of reengaging with our businesses as were they are bringing as more are opening and why that is. The commercial Eviction Moratorium was just increased and is extended for the end of the month, september 30. Now the commission did in its ertf recommendations recommend that the commercial Eviction Moratorium be extended to the end of the year. The city cannot do that. We need the state to be able to do that. I do want you to know that the mayor is working with the state to get the commercial Eviction Moratorium, the states commercial Eviction Moratorium is just through september 30. They need to extend theirs for the ability for San Francisco to extend ours. The other challenge that i merit some i think further kind of discussion, consideration is as we move into working on our dealing with equity, equity businesses, we are still somewhat challenged in really identifying what who are our equity Business Owners or Business Owners by different demographics. And those requests continue to come in to the office looking for that information. Quick update in terms of legislation. So the conditional use, theres a priority processing that the commission heard. It will go into effect later this month on september 28, so that will definitely be help for any new businesses that are wanting to open, that they will be the expedited conditional use process for them. The ordinance that you heard regarding the business tax and regulation codes that are being amended that amanda freed presented, that is scheduled for the budget and finance Committee Meeting this week, along with the temporary waivers for the cafe tables and chairs. The temporary waivers for the Business Registration and license fees has not been scheduled yet in budget and finance. And then lastly the retrofit legislation, that passed out of committee today and will be heard tomorrow at the board of supervisors, so i want you to know that that will be a week from tomorrow will be final reading at the board of supervisors. And then commissioner laguana will speak to this a little bit more in the committee reports, but just to announce to the public and a reminder to the commission that a week today were having a special meeting with dr. Eragon and commissioner laguana will speak more to that. And then we will also have our regular meeting on september 28. And then lastly weve been very involved with covid, and so want to remind the commission and again we have talked about this, but the commission can do recognitions. The commission has a certificate of honor of which it can provide businesses to businesses and members of the business community. And there are a couple of members of the business community, Richard Mcgeary from the castro merchants whos been a longtime administrator for the Merchants Association. Hes been around since the office opened, 2008, so its been nearly 12 years that i have known him. So there are some opportunities for us to be able to recognize members of the business community. And then youre also able to recognize San Francisco employees who have gone above and beyond in support to our Small Businesses, and if you want to recognize that this was a program that was initiated with commissioner duly to [indiscernible] response and established committee with the commission. So with that, that concludes my report and i will answer any questions that you have. I have a question not so much as a comment. So with respect to those recognitions, that doesnt have to go through any sort of formal process through the commission . We dont have to have a hearing on it . We dont have to have a vote on it. So i want to make an observation for the benefit of the entire commission, which is that in the wake of a pandemic we have seen extraordinary amount of people in the community and within city hall and City Government step up and do incredible work, taking calls at 11 00, 12 00, 1 a. M. , showing up on weekends, volunteering within the community and throughout the community. I am of an opinion that we should not be stingy with recognition of peoples efforts, that the level of commitment and effort from the community, that when we recognize that, we not only amplify it, we replicate it, we make it possible for it to happen more in the future, we provide hope and inspiration on their darkest days, that they know somebody was paying attention, that somebody was making a difference, and somebody else noticed, and it gives them fuel to go on and do it again and again and again in the future, and sometimes just a kind word at just the right moment at the right time is you know, sometimes makes it all worthwhile. So i want to make it clear to the commission that the threshold here for recognition, its not going to be a gauntlet by any stretch of the imagination. If any commissioner sees or observes any person that is making a difference that you can somehow convey or put into words, just as the director did, then i would propose that you make that recommendation to osb staff. We will collate it and get those certificates out promptly. Because i want folks that are making a contribution to the Small Business community, i want them to feel recognized. I want them to feel supported. I want them to know that we appreciate the work that theyre doing for the community. I want city workers who are often on the receiving end of, you know, the worst possible comments i mean, we see it online and we see it sometimes in real life. You know, i just i just think its so important to amplify whats good and whats right as much as we point out whats not going right and what needs to be better. We have an equal duty to celebrate whats right. Again, the process is really simple. Send an email to osb staff that so and so is worthy of recognition for doing xyz, and perhaps offline the director and i can come up with, like, perhaps it needs a specific subject line so that its easy to collate and assemble. Well get those certificates of recognition out quickly and promptly. It just seems like an easy thing for us to do to kind of get people a pat on the back and say heck, yeah, you guys did a great job. [please stand by] i would hardly recommend that to anyone. My other comment as someone who drivers around the city a lot, one thing that is not brought up is the increasing amount of homeless encampments on emersion corridors and im not just talking about the tenderloin, im seeing it everywhere and when we want to get our business open again, its just goes hand and hand or its a huge deter apartmendeterrent if you have tk over a lot of people. I consider working on getting people off the streets to be a huge component of getting our businesses up and again. Thats my report. Im sure we all agree with that one. Commissioner i want to put it up to you guys also say that again, and see if anybody else can say theyve gotten Small Business community and as much as the city is taking measures to protect workers and the fear of retaliation, for i would like a presentation from the emergency command. I know that Emergency Command Center are being really discrete. Ive gotten messages and i know the city is being discrete finding the right point of contact when a case is identified in or near a business or something. I think we need to show that to the Small Business communities and theres not a red tape put on their business and its not a public notification and its i think that we owe it to the Small Business community, especially our and have a and i would like to put it as a potential business item and i know we talked about looking at the new business list and seeing what is relevant and this time and prioritizing those and going back to businesses that are immigrant and minorityowned businesses that roll less attention, taxi snow squalls one of them and i would like to see where the city is at. Ive heard atrocious things about the credit union that the city is mandated and medallions being held and because its a city mandated process, practices that fall under and and so i would like to see us bring the taxi items to the top of our Small Business list as well. Or our new business list as well. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, those ar those are all go. Were trying to keep track of new business and agenda suggestions so well continue to track that. Thank you. My reports that the vcma has officially to applied to extend the permit of the shared spaces street close your to the end of the year and add the block of 20th and 21st and daytime hours so were currently in the process of the community period to understand that and ive also joined calls with folks from the noey valley merchants to talk about exposure on noey valley and theyre going through their own process with that and william and i and talk about this are working with folks in the Mission District and to figure out how they can get Customer Service they need to take advantage of this Important Program and so were trying to help them out. One piece of new business i wanted to bring up is folks in the city are communicating to the Small Business communities and that the potential issues, one, that potential roadblocks for slow speeds and shared spaces coming from the Fire Department and i think it would be a really good idea to bring the fire chief, im chief nickolson, or someone within the Fire Department to start developing a more robust relationship between Small Business commission and the office of Small Business and the Fire Department so we have our direct line of communication with the Fire Department and i had a wonderful conversation with the local fire captain yesterday and he was amazing and we got each others number and now we have a district form of communication. The second thing is im hearing from merchants that the sfmta is reluctant to have street closures on commercial corridors where there are current bus lines and im hearing that is not evenly distributed and certain commercial corridors sfmta is not ok with moving bus lines. This has certain commercial corridors feeling unfairly treated and it would be good to understand from the sfmta how its thinking about the moving and delaying and altering of bus lines because its leaving certain commercial corridors in our fair city to be confused and frustrated. Its been a long day. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner huie, please. Thank you. So several items. So one of the things that i found out the last few weeks i had a meeting with several people at start small think big. Theyre a nonprofit in the city. I know you guys, theyve had a presentation in front of us and they have pretty Good Relationship with all of us i think from before i spoke about Technical Services to see if there was an opportunity to really talk more in terms of Legal Services to help with lease negotiations and going through i guess just some of the businesses fix costs to see if there are ways to talk to people about that and then also, in other areas as well knowing people are working from home and they can offer Pro Bono Service and there are a lot of people that care about Small Businesses in our community and have told me personally that they would like to volunteer. Ive been working on getting all those things hooked up and i got an email from alex from their organization. He has kind of a link where someone who maybe isnt a lawyer but has other services to offer can sign up to be a volunteer. And the one thing i learned in my conversation with them that was really cool was that they have actually very robust match making services so they really built out their platform since the beginning of covid to expand services and they also have capacity for more businesses who are in need so they have a pretty robust Holistic Program where you get legal marketing, cash flow analysis, like all that kind of stuff wrapped up basically a lot of mentorship and handholding for any Small Businesses who qualify to be one of their clients. If you dont, they also have other types of services that are available. So that is one resource that i think id love for us to be able to amplify within our communities and let people know that there are services out there to be able toll really look at their business and help them through some of these things. Another piece on that was i found out that i guess in the legal world, there arent that many people who focus on real estate law and so part of what theyre doing in their organization is also creating kind of like a Training Program to train lawyers who are currently contractual lawyers to be able toll look at legal documents and real estate world and to be able to negotiate those because theyre just arent enough people in that field so i thought that was interesting given the amount of need we have in our Small Business as well as im sure in our residential communities. That should be something we can keep an eye on. I think you know, from my conversations, im sure from yours as well, that is a huge need as this goes on. Moratorium is not going to be a forgiveness i dont think of any sort of right or lease obligation. So, the other piece theyve is also that there is p. P. E. Available for Small Businesses and im hoping everybody saw that im sure in our community and i think tomorrow im going to start im going to pick up a little allocation for the Merchants Association and distribute some of those with that equity land that the city provided so thank you very much from the city. It doesnt require any new action but i do appreciate that theres p. P. E. Available for Small Businesses. The other piece is that this is i dont know how this is quite new business or anything yet but what im noticing is that with the increase in vacancies that neighborhoods are going to have increasing pressure to fill those vacancy and if we dont start to take action in terms of looking a the our formula retail laws or regulation and looking at what we want our neighborhoods to look like, we really are going to see our neighborhoods change in character perhaps and in what we offer, what a neighborhood looks like. I think it would be proactive in the conversation about looking at how we plan for these neighborhood changes versus being reactive later on and noticing that the neighborhoods are moving into a direction where mom and pops just are not possible anymore and Small Businesses are not possible anymore and some of that i see in just conversations that were having around that are some some in the Richmond District i notice there are a lot of canvas businesses that are able to kind of open up, which is a second that is actually doing well and i think the office seems to have some bandwidth to be able to process some of the application thats have been coming through and to me, i think it just shows that we continue to need to kind of have forms that allow for neighborhoods input. Its happening right now. I just think that im recognizing how important Merchants Associations are in order to give neighbors how we play a role in pla planning and neighborhood development. Those are the neighborhoods our Small Businesses live on and that is where were coming from the communities that were a part of. So, i dont know exactly what the new business could be but i feel like thats something that is taking shape right now and that will see increasing pressure in terms of trying to understand what formula retail is going to mean because weve clearly seen that it doesnt mean what it used to mean when it was originally defined. So, this is such a strange thing where i feel like im making a a long speech. I dont know if i really like this feeling. I feel like should i break for questions but i dont know what we have done is combined commissioner reports and new business so it provides a little more time for each commissioner. Thank you. Well, i have one more really big chunk and ill just go for it since im close to my finish line. This is the first time weve gotten here before 9 00. This is awesome. This is a piece that ive been working on and i dont know if Everybody Knows ive been working on it but its started out as a conversation about a survey and doing a Small Business survey and its turned into actually working with the Economic Department at San Francisco state and creating a a covid19 impact study on Small Businesses in San Francisco. And its 15 pages or so. Its super robust. At this point, shes taking all of the days outright now and the literature that is available and the different news articles and different looking at where we are in recovery and i do feel like, you know, i do feel like this is something maybe we should also share with the Economic Recovery Task force because i feel like the bulk of the lens of that task force is really looking at more traditional models of economic recovery and not necessarily just focused on the Small Business sector so this particular study is meant to just really look at the Small Business sector in San Francisco. So, so far i just wanted to give you a little update of some of the really early findings and can i recommend in the interest of time and just because we have another commissioner waiting, perhaps you could share the report that you have rather than read it allowed to us. Perhaps you could share it with the director and she can distribute it to all of us and we can read the whole thing. And then im going to ask you for an update on the survey but just sorry to interject with a quick question here. Did they do a survey or did they just review information thaw thu provided that was preexisting stuff out there already. Did they go and start a new set of questions . Is the timeline through the fall and so this whole thing is going to continue to unravel. I just it seems to me if theres a report id love to read it. And im sure other commissioners would love to see it as well. And it would be great to just share it with everybody through the director. Yeah. I can definitely share it. I just highlight aid couple things and i wasnt going to read it. Actually the last three pages ill save it for a second, but the biggest thing that i took from this was that obviously were not evenly distributed and we saw that already and what theyre talking about is that we really need to create a program or think about ways we can really support Small Businesses specifically. I mean, we condition wait for a trickle down recovery that we have naft and some examples. So the opportunities for us to say that was one of the big things. And also i think businesses isnt inaudible those are all significant impacted at a inaudible and also that you know, also leads to the Household Income and in black owned and latin households they were impound inhouse holds. Also, last thing is that its preliminary Findings Report so whatever comments or things inaudible ingested into the assistance and one of the major ones is that one of the data so far is jobs and workers and one of the things that the doctor will work on is throwing out the inaudible . That is my. I didnt mean to cut off but i wanted to make sure if you could please send that report to the director so we can all look at it and then following up on the survey, weve discussed this at some point, you know, i could give us a sense of it sounds like you are formulating what kinds of questions we should ask. Is there a place or a time that you are imagining the survey will happen so that we can schedule agenda items accordingly . You know, i think im going to meet with her tomorrow and see where this is. I feel like the information that is what are we missing . Because i mean, it seems like there are quite a few sector surveys and theres quite a few sources for prevention and so i mean, i would be happy to comment from the commissioners in terms of what type of information you would like to see that we think has been not clear so far. I mean, the basics of are you open, are you inaudible and how long can you sustain your business . Those are the inaudible and those are the things that i think that inaudible . I think i would like to sum up what director inaudible mentioned that were having a hard time finding around demographic ownership of this and as one area. I would like to see a question on there that says do you hold a regulatory license because honestly, the way ive seen the city and the state come up with their phased roll out of reopenings and determining which sector is allowed and which is not, whether its alcohol, tobacco, hair and nails and those are all immigrant owns businesses and theyre a dangerous sector and theyre making these assumptions on largely regulatory license Holding Businesses which to me is a dissidence and these businesses are already unaccountable to with saw these factors being called out by Health Orders too. And shut down by Health Orders that werent based on violations but were just based on the assumption there were going to be violations so i would like to see regulatory license Holding Business and demographic information. Great job. Amazing job. Thank you for being patients. You have the floor. Ever time i get it, were only 50 and with 51 other positive cases so what i taken a initiative is working with the department of oewd for initiating conversations on how are we allocating funds for Small Businesses to be wise so i will be having a serious conversation throughout the week with deric inaudible on that also i volunteer personally to distribute to 46 businesses p. P. E. Equipment from the city and in addition that ive assisted 10 businesses personally inaudible program. We decided to operate what ive been doing. Appreciate that. Appreciate all of you, really. So, is there any other commissioners seeing none. All right, im just going to rattle off a bunch of stuff here. So first and foremost, of great interest to us and the public, particular the Small Business community, we will have a special meeting with dr. Aragone next monday. He will be the only item on the agenda. Well discuss the new openings and the current criteria, evolving criteria, what the future looks like when he anticipates or expected that we might see other openings and we can ask all of the questions we have and weve been hearing from our constituents about Small Business and we have have a resolution for the department of publichealth. Theres work going on behind the scenes on that with the participation and help from oewd staff and osb staff and myself and Vice President and some good input well likely have a resolution to discuss and make suggestion zoos when you comsug. So when come to the meeting, come prepared with questions and thoughts and talk to the folks thaw regularly talk to in your community and in your purchase have yopurview sowe get a pullyt hearing. We set aside the whole meeting for dr. Aragon so it wont be a situation where were feeling rushed at the end. Well be able to get it allout. You know, one of the commenters commented on communications and that reminded me ive had a longstanding goal of wanting to be able to communicate efficiently with the Small Business Community Via email and texting in particular. And weve and we have a global agenda and directors, where do things stand with that , perhaps i need to pick up the threat again or you are waiting on the step for me. If you could just advise the commission on where we stand with that. So, commissioners, no, do not need to i think we need to pick up the thread just in general in terms of the commission and the department and staff had begun some preliminary investigations especially into the text messaging and so due to volume, vacations, things of that sort its somewhat stalled so its time to revisit it. You know, i just listening to that Public Commenter, you know, steven cornell, it would be nice if people could get a text, hey, theres a publichealth order coming in and you should go to the oewd website and get caught up and oh, this thing is going on and its actually relevant to whether you will be in business or not. Its worthy of getting a text about. If we had that infrastructure in place we wouldnt get that comment. Lets pick up that thread again. One thing i want to mention commissioner ortiz mentioned his excellent work on shared space and weve all been doing a lot on some of that. Some of you may have seen that article in the chronicle that two individuals found a ceqa appeal that effectively stopped a lot of progress on shared spaces and slow streets for months and now staff has to spend time responding to this appeal and this is a very Popular Program that has over 80 approval in the city yet just one or two cantankerous cranks can top the process. I did want to bring to everybodys attention that supervisor haney said that he was going to explore reforming the ceqa rules because it is the local city rule that allows one person, willing to file a fee, to just stop the entire city dead in its tracks in the middle of an emergency. I think its outrageous and makes me very angry and upset and i want to commend supervisor haney for picking that up. I told him, and im sure you all cree, well, should that legislation be drafted and i very much take the view that this directly impacts a Small Business community should come before the commission and i cant speak for all of you but it will have mien dying support because we just cant have, in the middle of a pandemic, one or two people deciding they know what is best for the whole city and just shutting things down. It is really deeply annoying. I also had a conversation today with supervisor haney will live music venues which is very much on my mind. There is going to be stuff coming down the pipe there so lets stay tuned. Theres been on going conversations with supervisor mar. It appears the shared spaces resolution we made is the framework for legislation that is going to be introducing to the board possibly as soon as one. I dont know if well see it tomorrow or not but perhaps the following tuesday. Thats exciting and good work to everybody. One thing i guess i should have mentioned earlier the ertf has released its draft report. And related to that, commissioner, you mentioned advising ertf on things that they should be paying attention to. You know, this came up burning the last meeting and i thought i should mention, ertf thats t. Were done. This report is the final work product. There will be some opportunities to provide feedback on the report but that burden on how we move about and forward with recovery with respect to Small Business falls on our shoulders and so that is where that responsibility lies but we have this draft record have you received this. I have not. I will send it to you and can you forward it to the other commission so they can review the draft and if theres any feedback on that draft, your colleagues will be happy to convey that feedback on behalf of the commission and we welcome your input. Ive been working with chair gwen borden from sfmta on a state wide effort to examine this is in conjunction with senator wieners office and to get stakeholders together including members of the Banking Industry and members of the commercial Real Estate Industry and members of Small Business and see if we can find some kind of Common Ground around a policy framework that can work at the state level to distribute the burden and around from commercial rent evenly and the point that ive made to some of the commercial Real Estate Interests and by the way, they agree, if we lose Small Business, there goes all the their tenants and its going to be to everybodys network if we dont create i framework to talk about how to restructure rents and leases and agreements because if we keep going the direction were going well drive off the edge of the cliff everyone will lose. We have to think about that a little more ro proactively and collectively. Thats my report. And is they are any other commissioner comments or updates . Seeing none. Is there any other Public Comment . Do we have any Public Comment . There are no callers in the queue. Great. Seeing none. Public comment is closed. Next item. Please. Sfgotv show the office of Small Business slide. We will end with a reminder that the Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that effect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. And when that the office of Small Business is the best place to get answers about doing business in San Francisco during the local emergency. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, continue to reach out to the office of Small Business. Item 8 adjournment, action item. So moved. Seconded. Most by commissioner to adjourn the meeting and roll call vote. [ roll call vote ] meeting is adjourned at 8 42p. M. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. You. What do you think about working at an airport and i love it is busy all the time. We want it to be an those away was this is a venture if i didnt love it ill be an accountant. We want the experience that is a nonairport experience the negative stigma were trying to erase that. Everything is in a bad food to excite them about the food and they have time to learn about us. People are imitated by traveling and the last thing to do is come to a place fill of chaos. Telling me how the extent of napa a farms came about. It was a vision of the airport director he had a suspicion of a really cool gourmet speciality market locally friendly products this market local flavors this is the best. Can we get a little tour. Absolutely laughter so first on our tour. We have the clock we like to call it. This is coordinating it is made in San Francisco. What about the customer presence. We like to get the permanent farther i love the cappuccino and you have to go to multiple places for the cupcakes the cup a cakes from karis people want to live here theyre longing phone call for one thing in one spot in you know anything about San Francisco the cheese the most popular cheesy think a lot of the people from the west coast say so this the real San Francisco sour dough and theyre curious. You find people respond to the idea of organic and absolutely. This is autumn. Thank you, thank you and theres a lot of personal touch. I see San Francisco. Its very hands on. Whats the most popular items. This is quite surprising our fresh jotting this is the chronicle special a bowl of warm oats and coconut thats mites farther. And speaking of drinks tell me again the cocktail scenes is that one, the things your known for. The cocktails are fantastic. Really. Fresh ingredients we dont have a mixture it to order this is our marcus bloody mayor. Farmers market bloody mary the bloody marys in the airport are great shikz it up. And then were going to garnish it with olives. And some lime and a fresh stalk of selly. Right on. We like