Transcripts For SFGTV 20121025

And then in regards to the street ordinance response to the government audits and oversight committee, heard the stifled grand jurys report on october 11th. And there was in regards to the recommendations pertaining to the office of Small Business with moving the Street Artists Program over to from the Arts Commission over to the office of Small Business, there were mixed results with the committee. So, there wasnt a definitive response in terms of whether it was to stay with the Arts Commission or move over to our office, though i would say there is a little bit more towards a leaning to keeping it in the Arts Commission. So, what the gao committee has asked is our two departments Work Together and see if in working together we can resolve some of the issues. And we need to go back before the committee in six months. Was this the same committee that had initially made the recommendation that the civil grand jury made the recommendation because the civil grand jury makes recommendations to the board of supervisors and the supervisors decide whether to adopt their recommendations or not. Okay. So what is our office going to be doing . Im just curious how youre going to be working on this together. At this particular point, the director of the Arts Commission and i have not met. So, to that extent i cant speak to that right now. But i hope this i would see right now would probably bridge under the outreach committee. Also permitting committee. But that i would have enough information to report at the next Committee Meeting for you. Commissioner yee riley. I think you already answered the question. I was going to ask what does that mean if we were to take over the street artists. What kind of additional work would you have to do . Well, we would the additional work would be to figure out how the program would fold into the office of Small Business. One of the things was they would come to the office of Small Business to pay for their permit to get a permit to do something on the street. And that revenue had come that was one thing. That it would come to the office of Small Business. We figured with that revenue we might get resources to run the program. Well, the program selffunds itself. And it has two staff people so it is able to fund two staff peep to run and manage the program. I think the concerns are the concerns are that its somewhat straight away from being purely a street artist and craft program. So, there would be some work on our part if it does come into the office of Small Business. Its just doing a thorough assessment of how, you know, how we would achieve maintaining that integrity. You know, i have some ideas in terms of if it were to collaborate with sf made or the Art Institute or sharon meadows, other places where artist, craft people are generating and working to partner to help provide opportunities for those individuals to be able to also engage in the Street Artists Program. So, but that said, going down that road is a little early or, you know, its a little presumptuous until its been firmly established as to whether, you know, if a program were to come under the office. At this point the leaning is to obtain it. So to retain it in the Arts Commission, but, again, the directive the directive was for our two offices to Work Together to make a final determination to present to, to the tal committee. I look forward to the legislation and policy Committee Hearing that and weigh in the practicality of trying to have the two departments run this thing. Im real nervous about that as an initial reaction. So, i look forward to them scrutinizing it and coming up with any plan that would make this workable for both departments. And i would say its not for the two departments to run it. Its just that the criteria was very broad. So, tom de cainy and i needed to meet to figure out what we are to do with that directive. But to be to make sure that im being clear if i wasnt clear is that its not a program, its managed by both departments. It would either be under one or the other. Okay. And then just a few calendar items. We have gone back to full calendar hours starting friday, october 9th. And then i spoke on a panel on october 3rd with the sf chamber of Commerce Economic forecast. A reminder that our november Small Business Commission Meeting is on the fifth, the first monday of the month due to the veterans holiday being recognized the second monday of the month this year. This is not something that traditionally happens. It just happens to be because veterans day falls on sunday and, so, its a recognized holiday the following monday with the city government. And then scott helgeys open house november 15th and december 17 Sergeant Council of district merchants holiday party, location to be determined at this point. Commissioners, first scotts calendar [speaker not understood], there is an invitation in the back of your binder. And that concludes my report unless you have any questions. Thank you very much. Next item. Item 10 is permitting committee report. We had a presentation planned for the last permitting committee which had to be canceled due to the family emergency on the part of the presenter. So, we elected to cancel the meeting until next month, so, no report. Commissioners, item 11, president s report. Okay. First off, i did attend the Renaissance Entrepreneurial Center event at the bently reserve. A lot of kudos for this office. I was very pleased that i was hearing from that, not only from renaissance, but from a lot of their i want to say perspective entrepreneurials who said that they jane and martha in particular, names kept coming up as soon as they found out the office of Small Business. We love jane, we love martha. I wanted to put that on record. Whenever i go anywhere in town talking to Small Businesses, them working the counter really puts us up in the forefront. So, i wanted to mention that. Also on october 2nd i attended the meeting with the Mayors Office that scott helgey put on and i was joined by commissioners dwight and yee riley. Regina presented the Online Business portal and the mayor was very, very supportive of this concept and wanting to work with oewd, osb and omoci. This is all part of a 17point jobs plan and, you know, this is to make government more responsive and effective. And i mean, it seatxv like he wanted to spend the money and lets do it now which i was very, very pleased about. Then we went around the room talking about other items. You know, the noticing and approval of park [speaker not understood] and bicycle corrals was discussed. Both use Parking Spaces and its different how each one is noticed. So, perhaps utilizing a 311 for notification or planning to adopt a dpwtype notification procedures. Give Small Businesses in neighborhood districts more advance notices to businesses on infrastructure projects. And then there was also this came up, discuss, you know, shop local, give support for local business initiatives were discussed. And the mayor wants to lead a campaign targeting City Employees to redirect 10 of their spending to local businesses. Getting city departments to purchase local. Create a shop local first initiative. And for each business that registers with the city that the city sends business with, put a window decal on, just getting people to shop, eat, drink and spend their money locally. And i want to s. Os commissioner dwight and commissioner riley if they have any observations on that meeting that we had with the mayor. I think it was a good meeting. I thought there was obviously it was a little chaotic. So, i think scotts going to make some [speaker not understood] to make it a little more organized going in there. So, thats good. But no, i think its fantastic that the mayor is open to meeting in that forum. I think you covered most of the items that were discussed. And i think its a good idea to have some face time with the mayor every quarter for Small Business owners, as well the chambers and nonprofits. There is enthusiasm for the business portal. Thats what made me feel good about that meeting because that was, you know, you showed him how new york does it and we should be doing the same. This is the heart of Silicon Valley here when you read all the news items. San francisco is part of Silicon Valley, you know. We should be just as tech savvy as every other big city. So, thank you for that, director. And thats all i have for today. Commissioners, item 12, Vice President s report. Yeah, just report back. Youve heard it discussed before, although its been awhile. There is a meeting hosted by the dbi once a month called public advisory code committee. Sometimes people refer to it as pac and sometimes as cac. But the department or the heads within dbi, deputy directors and directors participate in this meeting and all interested Community Stakeholders participate in it and discuss anything and everything in the business of process and a permit to the dbi. Most of them would be building related permits, but i think that they could expand that to include other businesses as well that if they knew about it would participate. And i really want to give a shout out to the department for what theyve done over the last couple of years. I can tell you that from the beginning the meetings were full of interchanges between different Community Stakeholders where they voice their concerns or complaints or whatever it is. To the departments credit they listened. They continued with the meetings. And theyre very harmonious now. In fact, a lot of people have positive feedback about what the department has done. And essentially, if you think about it, its quite remarkable because what you have is a state body and a state department or a state agency, whatever the correct term is interfacing with the public on working collaboratively together with feedback on ways to do things better. And it shows because a lot of the people who work there every day and do business with the department are seeing a nice improvement on things. We would love to see the Planning Department get engaged, either by participating in the meetings or hosting their own Community Outreach meeting. Thats one of the things thats been on the agenda. But i just wanted to put it on the record that Small Business commission should know that that meeting takes place once a month. Its also where we get an update on the permit tracking system that director referred to earlier which is going to be a system that will monitor permits for people through the Planning Department and the dbi department [speaker not understood]. Its kind of slow to come online, late next year. Its big. Theyre doing a lot of work, a lot of thinking ahead of ways that this will work really well with all the [speaker not understood] that weve learned before. Conceptually just to let you know, its not going to be one big permit tracking system for the whole city. I dont see thats whats going to happen. Whats going to happen is the individual agencies are going to have very good permit tracking systems for their individual respective departments. And then theres going to be a firstclass interface between the different systems to be able to communicate and keep each other updated and work just like an overall uniform database system. So, its very exciting. That tracking item shows up on the agenda every month. And other item people want to bring forth to those meetings. So, its a good thing happening there. Just want to let you know about it. Thanks. Thank you. Next item. Commissioners, item 13, commissioner reports. I have a report. Commissioner dooley. Sunday i attended a district 3 policy summit and lots of things were discussed, but its was particularly interesting that so much of the discussion centered around Small Businesses and neighborhood commercial corridors. And certainly got a lot of people who were very much interested in promoting our office, of expanding our services. And i just wanted to give a run down. [speaker not understood] a lot of things already working on. Their main priority of interest was streamlining the permitting, working to create a positive mix of businesses in the neighborhood, compliance issues, and lack of compliance, and intensification of use, how we [speaker not understood] draft that in Small Businesses. Another big issue was how to keep Small Businesses running during large infrastructure projects. Discussions were made about funding. I know i believe new york city, some other cities have a way of compensating Small Businesses while theyre operating during a large infrastructure project. And a lot of talk about working with the office of innovation, developing marketing and sales tools for Small Businesses, along with marketing of the vacant site. So, it was very heavy emphasis on what we do in this office in this commission. And people were actually very excited to meet someone from this office and know that were there and that we are working on a lot of these projects. And i urged them all to contact city hall and tell them that they would like to see us continue working and having funding to do all the streamlining that everybody would like to see done. Great. Thank you. Commissioner yee riley. As i might have mentioned in the past im also a member of the cccd, Citizens Committee of community veldt. And we work with the Mayors Office of housing as well as ouwd. Development the committee would have hearings in p different neighborhoods. Last week we had a public hearing in the oceanview area and we invited some of the nonprofits as well as merchants and residents to the meeting. And one of the items that came up and id like to share with you was that the somebody mentioned business over there are dying and they dont understand why because one is state college, state university. At the other end is city college. So, theyre saying that many of the businesses do not know whats available to them like, you know, loans and Revolving Loan funds and whatever is available. So, i thought that maybe it would be do some outreach in that area. Great, thank you. Any other commissioner comment . Next item. Commissioners, item 14 is general Public Comment. Do we have any members of the general public here wanting to comment on any items . Seeing none, general Public Comment is closed. Next item. Commissioners, 15, new business. Any commissioner have new business . Next item. Commissioners, item 16 is adjournment. Is there a notion to adjourn . I move. I second. All in favor . Aye. Adjourned. Commissioners, the meeting is adjourned at 3 30 p. M. [adjourned] im robert chief and im the parks supervisor in the parks in the sunset district. Ive been working here for 3 years. We are 6070 street below street level. The 64 acre park. The park is divided into 2 sections we are in the stern area. When you get over to pine lake meadow and pine lake, pine lake is considered a natural area. In 1847, the green family came out here, back then this was kind of an empty canyon and sand dun area. They claimed this property. In 1892. George green whos a Second Generation built the truckdaro club house. There was a hotel then. It was said this was the place to go if you were weary of the dirty city and the police. There were a couple of gun fights the front door has bullet holes. I dont ever repair them. 1931 stig mond bought the property from the green family. She donated it to the city of San Francisco and had a specification, im giving it to the city that will be used forever for the enjoyment forever of the people of the city of San Francisco. It has ever since. Every summer the Stern Grove Association in San Francisco rec and parks put on 10 free concerts. Usually people come out at 10 in the morning its a family affair. Everybody is on the lawn with picnics and its free. Anybody can come out. Its a great way to spend a sunday. Goes to 12 in the afternoon and runs until 5. [music]. Thanks to the Stern Grove Association they renovated the concert meadow. It used to be a rolling grafsy area. Put in a new stage and stage building. They put in terraces. We get from 8,000 to 12,000 people. And the meadow next to the concert meadow is full of people even though they cant see the music they hear it. I walked into the meadow several times and they dont even care. We do have literally events going on day and night. The Concert Association has kids days during the week. The performers come out for hundred 200 kids. Now, the truckadero truck house gets rented out for weddings and retirement. The croquet clubs and horse shoes. 2 play grounds, tennis courts. We have from 25 to a hundred dogs here. Its like bisons going across the mid west. There are so many dogs they are covering the ground cht its a get together. All the dog walkers know each other. If you go to pine lake day camp now, you will see 50 kids there. The r directors are wonder. The pine lake is natural. They take of the area around the lake. They plant natives that are drought tolerant. One that stands the dry summers here. The whole park is under going quite a bit of reconstruction. They will renovate the trails around the lake. And the big project is the Capital Project for pine lake meadow. They are going to returf the dog run and the meadow by the day camp. We are looking for a very busy fall. By the spring of next year should have major renovations to the mark thal make it an outstanding park. I dont ever refer to it as my park. All the parks belong to all the people. This park belongs just as much to the families in the bay view sdrishth as it does to the gentlemen that lives across the street. Im happy and proud to be the caretaker for them. I wake up every day and thank that i have