Transcripts For SFGTV Ethics Commission 92815 20151014

Andrews have been excused from tonights meeting. So everybody is accounted for. Item no. 2, Public Comment on matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda. Does anyone wish to make Public Comment . Seeing no response, well turn to item no. 3. Hearing on the merits in reethics complaint no. 19131115 in the matter of Lynette Sweet and Lynette Sweet for supervisor 2010. Respondents. Chair renne, justin mainardi, acting executive director. This is the matter where the respondent had requested a continuance by 30 days, that you would grant them for next month. All right. So we have taken that off well, you can taken it off calendar, i should say. That will be on the agenda for october 26th . Unless the parties were to settle, that is correct. And even in that case, well, yes. Item no. 4, presentation by Information Technology officer im sorry, Public Comment on i. 3 before you move on. All right. The request speaking as an individual, the request to continue the matter, there werent copies of that made available or the granting of that. Was that done administratively . There is an email sent by the respondents attorney to staff. Staff communicated that to the chair. The chair granted that and there was a response and im not sure if it was done via email or not. Maybe can i get copies at some point . If the regulations dont already provide it seems to me a grant for continuation for that should have been made early on and if it occurred after the agenda was prepared and disseminated that the matter should have been heart on heard on matters. So i think that should be moved up to at least a week before the meeting so things are not put on the calendar and pulled off like that. All right. I think there may be such a rule, but the chair always has the discretion to continue it in the interest of justice. Were in favor of the interest of justice. That is good. On the merits and im sure well im not sure, if we hear it again there will be further opportunity for comment, but it seems to me and i have not reviewed the file on the matter, that the respondent was an elected official on the bart board. Was a serious candidate for the board of supervisors, apparently did not file certain reports and so i think that there is a great Public Interest. Although she did not get elected in it case, i think there is a great Public Interest in enforcement here. I dont think this is one that just warrants a slap on the wrist. Ip hope and im sure that the staff and commissioners are taking this seriously and will in time. Thanks. Thank you. Item 4pt presentation by Information Technology officer Steven Massey regarding pending changes to the commissions website. Steve. Jesse mainardi, acting executive director and i will introduce steven and let the commission know that the one of the real strengths of the commission is its electronic presence and presence online and great info graphics and material that we make available both to folks looking to comply, members of the public just looking for information and then people looking for data about the reports that are filed whether its campaign lobbying, et cetera. One of the challenges though with that is that we have so much information and our current website, which was designed a number of years ago, is a little its a little busy for lack of a better word. So at the beginning of this year, one of the things that staff undertook with steven as the lead is a revamp of the website, with a couple of goals in mind. He will tell you about it, but one is to make it more userfriendly. So that folks looking for information can find it. Folks looking to learn how to comply can find it, and then folks looking for information about particular elections, can find that information. And one of the major things was switching from sort of just a website that had a lot of information stored in various pdfs that people download to sort of a more modern website, where the information appears right on the screen. So he will tell you a little bit about that, but that was started earlier this year and we have goten to the point that essentially the main framework and the majority of the actual content is basically done. We need some tweaking to sort of launch it. So its probably not going to happen immediately, but we wanted to get that out there for you and the public to see. So i will given it to steven. Okay. Again im Steven Massey. So im going to give you a little preview of the website i have been working on over the course of the past year. This is actually im sorry about this presentation on this computer screen. Its sort of like look at artwork on a nitari, but it is what it is and youll have to use your imagination to a certainly extent. This is the existing website sfethics. Org was launched in 2009. And it has at this point over 4300 pages on the site and all being stored on what is now an obsolete Management System and still being maintained by the company that we work with, but not being actively developed and i do have some concerns about the future of the company. Knowing this is a project that would take us easily a year plus to reorganize, we started on this about a yearago to try to move it to a new system. To give you an idea of what things looked like in 2009, when i look back at our data back then, 100 of users were on a desktop pc and couldnt find a mobile user. Most people come to our site to file electronic forms. They are also coming to our site to look at las and advice and downloading paper forms and viewing disclosure forms that were filed. And they were also looking at information about the commission, such as agendas, minutes and information about the commissioners. At the time we had only three Electronic Campaign forms. Were in the process of launching two more. We had optional electronic form 700 filings, so maybe less than 20 people filed electronically and Campaign Finance data was available on spreadsheets and pdfs that would be downloaded. Largely we were what i considered to be a paperbased office and most information was available in our filing cabinets in our office. If you jump ahead to july, 2015, one in ten of our users are on a mobile device. Its lower than rest i would say the general ed community, but its enough if one in ten users are looking at a website, that they essentially cant read on a mobile device, its becoming a problem. The sections popular change over time and still the efiling is popular and the campaign and visualizations didnt exist in 90 and its now the second most accessed section. Still laws and advice and Campaign Financial manuals, lobbyist and visualizations, there wasnt even electronic lobbyists reporting in 2009 and then the lobbyist manuals. Now we have 14 Electronic Campaign forms, which includes the entire Public Financing program. Which is recently switched to electronic filing. That will be in place for the 2016 elections. We have electronic form 700, electronic lobbyist reporting and registration. You can pay settlements. Late fees, registration fees online. We take electronic signatures on campaign statements. So you can actually sign it online and dont have to file paper copies anymore. If you have training requirements, you can complete those online by watching online videos. We have open data sets and programming interfaces for people who want to tap into the databases that we have for their own projects. We have data visualizations and then we have these additional mandates which have come into place in the past six years. For instance permit consultants, electronic lobbyists reporting, major developer reporting. We just sort of tacked it on to the existing site because there wasnt a really good way in the existing content Management System to organize things. So what else is missing on site . Over time we have come to see certain areas to be improved. One thing we dont have on the site, we dont have a section for enforcement. And we only have one page dedicated to complaints, and how to file a complaint. So we wanted to build out that section. We dont really have stepbystep compliance information that includes registration, and filing. So what we provide people right now is a printable manual and list of forms that they need to download, but at this point i think most people expect to get to a website and have a stepbystep in what they need to complete to comply with the various disclosure requirements. We also dont outline the audit process. So we do notify people on the website when their committee has been selected for audit, but we dont detail on website what happens next . And i think there is some value to people understanding if they are going to be selected for audit, what might happen after that . What is to be expected . We also dont have a really clear site navigation on the site, with breadcrumbs and i will go over this in a minute. The result is that when we tack on new features it just becomes very cluttered with a lot of things on the homepage. The last thing that its actually difficult to print for those who still use printers. When we print content on the page, it often cuts off sides of the page. Its very difficult to look at. So we wanted to address that as well. So this is the new page. Again its a little hard to see on this screen. But later you can take a look at it when we have had it posted online. And we have taken away a lot of choices on the page based on data we have collected over the past six years. Often times when were speaking to people on the phone, even when we had them on the phone with us, they often couldnt find the link. So we have reduced the number of choices. So the top we have also tried to make the website perform similar to most websites that you go to. So there is certain expectation of the interface. So we have added a login button at the top to get into our account to file your forms and that appears on every single page of the site. We have reduced the number of site sections to five. We have added the section of the page here, where we can pin something important to look at. So for instance, this is right before the elections. So we have the data visualizations that pertain to this election. You can imagine before form 700 is due, we would pin the information that is relevant to filing form 700 right on the homepage. We have also added the four quick links which i will go over in a second that allow you to jump into sections deeper within the site, that we feel are the most frequently accessed sections of the website. Down here you cant even read it, but it does have on the left is about the commission. In the center we have reduced the new section of our site down from three sections to one. So we only have one place for people to get their news. We have added the interest persons list form, right to the homepage. So you just enter your email address and hit subscribe. That will file off an email to verify that you actually own that account and then you will be on the list. Its about as easy as we can make that. In general, we also have our social media sites linked at the bottom there and most people at this point tend to get their information from our social media pages. There is about, i think about 14 times as many people on our twitter page getting news than our ip list at this point. On the bottom, weve removed the contact page on our site and just added the Contact Information at the bottom of every single page. If you click the address at the bottom of the page and it will actually give you the directions to our office from your current location. Tap the telephone number, it will dial our office. So again, this is a little hard to see, but its one of the internal pages. On the side we have actually added site navigation, which doesnt exist right now, but allows you to see the level you are at on the site. We have a zoomed in version and this is the page for Campaign Finance disclosure and the visualization and forms that we have. While we updated the site, we took the opportunity to update the technical features on the site. None of these features are particularly revolutionary in the it world, but it does bring us up with current technology. One thing we wanted to address was making the site responsive to your device. If you are on a cell phone you can actually read the content, verse if versus if you are on a larger screen. We add the the points and changed the site navigation and built it for a phone and added breadcrumbs and also added the ability to print pages on a letter head. We also reorganized the site and we spent a lot of time not only reorganizing the content, but making sure as much content on the site right now, that the links will not be broken. So most content that is on there, for instance if you had linked to an audit report from five years ago, that will still work on the new site. We also added new enforcement section and we have a complete walkthrough of the complaint process. What happened with that is jesse approached uc hastings and the same professor who worked with the students on the lobbyist fact sheets and they worked on simplified process for what happens when a complaint is filed . That way instead of looking at the enforcement and investigations, regulations document, which is currently available this is a little more userfriendly. We have also detailed the audit process, so you know what to expect if you are selected for audit. We also created complaint walkthroughs and every section of the site, instead of having different ways of organizing the information, every section if you are a lobbyist or a candidate or primary consultant, we structured the content such there is for instance does this disclosure requirement apply to me . What are the Registration Requirements . What are the training requirements . And if there is training requirements we show them the video right on the page. And then we added that interested persons signup on the homepage. So to give you an idea of the device site. Imagine you had a really large screen. Current website would take up just a fraction of the page. Then you end up with all of this wasted space. The result of having all of this wasted space if you look at data visualizations or these sort of spreadsheet content that we have on our site, you are very limited and constrained what you can see at a time. If you are on a small device, like a cell phone, i can tell you that the website is completely unreadable. I dont know if any of you have tried it before, but its microscopic. So now what happens if you go to the site on a cell phone versus a larger device . The site reformats the content and font and you can read the content no matter what device you are using. On this screen its a little hard to see anything, but on the left is the agenda for the august 4th special Committee Hearing and sized appropriately for a cell phone. On the right is the same content, but you would need a magnifying glass to look at it. So these quick entry points we put them on homepage. We took a look at our data and really people come to the site for three main reasons people looking to get guidance such as informal or formal advice, looking at our publications and trainings. That is the first link there. The second link is to file statements. So if you need to efile form 700, campaign reports. The third link is to view the disclosure forms, filed by people and the various data sets that are available. We added a fourth link, and we now have a file a complaint button and you can see the complete complaint process on our website. We have also reduced the number of categories on the site in this sort of table of contents down to five different sections. There is now a commission section. Which has again the agendas, minutes, information about the members of the commission. We have also added a staff page. We know it can be frustrating when you need to contact a Government Agency and you dont know which staff person is responsible for a particular area . So we added a staff page for people to see that. We added a compliance page with all the compliance walkthroughs and added the disclosure section and then we have the new enforcement section, which includes complaints, audits. We have nonfiler information, latefilers, paying your fees. And then the law section with our advice and all of the laws pertinent to the Ethics Commission. And then on the side we have these site navigation menus. So you can see here for instance this person has chosen the candidates page under the Campaign Section and from there they see additional content to read such as running for office. Reporting and Record Keeping and what to do after the campaign because they still have reporting obligations that are are often times overlooked by candidates. We added a mobile menu. You have probably see this when you have used a cell phone, you have seen this on many websites. Tap the menu button and out slides the table of content. We added breadcrumbs that were requested by people that i spoke on the phone and the site hierarchy, so can you jump up a level and have an understanding where you are on the page. And lastly, we have this print you cant see it on here but there is a print sheet of all the contents on letter head. So im just going to pull up the site here. So this is the new site. And again, were now pinning the data visualizations the data visualizations this year compared to the previous years will now scale whether you are on a cell phone, up to a large screen monitor. If you are on a cell phone and interested in this information, you can check it at any time. Were showing here the summary information for all campaigns. We have contributor information. So you can search the contributors. And you can see the different contributionlevels that each contributor is making in comparisons to the other contributors for that particular race. We have maps that are showing the support for each candidate in each zip code within the city. Were also tracking for instance late contributions. This is one of the tools we came up with last year to help cut out the noise as far as late contributions. Because late contributions, you are seeing tens of them every single day. So what this does is lous allows you to pinpoint alarply large contribution that may have come in. In this case there is one contribution in the 4 million range and the other contributions combined are within 100,000 per day. Going back to the homepage, right now on our current website when you click to file a complaint, you could download the form and regulations document. And what we have here is a brief introduction about filing a compliant. Then we have the section here that can you read about the complaint process. So there is the complaint preparation, submission, preliminary review, investigation of the complaint, stiplated orders, including settlements and probable cause and hearings on the merit. So if you click on one of these, we provide people with Important Information before filing complaints. Questions that you should be asking . Such as who do you believe is breaking the law . What laws are they violated . What laws support your allegations . When did the alleged violations take place and so on. Instead of supplying people with the code sections within the jurisdiction of the commission, we write out the different areas of law that can be investigated by the commission in plain english. Just to go over one more section. Filing statements right now, im sure you have gone through the form 700 process. And if you go to register under form 700, there is maybe 20 something links you can browse through. We have distilled this down to a Pretty Simple page to get started you choose the type of filer that you are and that will take you to the registration information. Once you have done that, you go to the selected column, which is to efile and probably the most popular page on our website is to viet reset your password and the third is efile documents for campaign. When were ready to send that out, well do this and happy to take any questions at this time. First of all, great job. I look forward to it actually being operational. But im remembering the presentation that the students made what a yearago . Right. Something like that. So they had great graphics, which they used for the things that they worked on. Now has their work been incorporated into the website . Or is that a completely separate issue, or operation . That was a separate project. We linked to their contents so people could find it. Okay. They actually rely on those application programming interfaces that i talked about. So we have actually added the documentation for each of those programming interfaces right on our website. So that people can easily find them. One of the things when we initially met with them was they had a little trouble finding the information of just how the information is structured and what they should be looking at . So we tried to improve that area of the website. So when this new website is operational, well be able to link to the work that they have done is that correct . Yes. And presumably, those charts are being what continually updated with information that they created, the charts and graphs, all of the graphics that they had . As along as they continue to maintain their site. Does it depend on them, or our own people now updating those graphics . It depends on them. If they want to continue to maintain their site. But we continue to maintain the data that they are relying on. And we keep that uptodate. The graphics that we have on our site are going to be continued to be maintained. Okay. So at some point we might not be when we link to them, we would not its possible that we would not be linking to the graphics that they created is that what you are saying . If they decide they dont want to keep that up or maintain it . Right, they could pull it down at any time. Its really up to them. So we cant depend on them . Right. I would like to echo commissioner hayons sentiments and great work, thank you for doing this. Did you use a vendor to help you do this . We spent a little less than 300 on the project. Welldone. And our time. Of course. Does that come out of our budget . The 300 . Yes. Yes. Maybe talking in future, but have we explored the possibility of getting some contributions from either Computer Companies or hightech people to underwrite all of these changes that we want to make . I mean particularly and possibly even from the city, when they burden us with the website having all of the 700s, it seems to me that maybe we should start thinking about maybe there are sources to underwrite the cost of our website. Are you suggesting that we boost mr. Masseys salary . [laughter ]. Since he did all the work. Perhaps friends of ethics would like to raise friends for the Ethics Commission . It would be nice if we could get some funding for it. I think its tremendous what you are doing, and it will be a great public service. [ inaudible ] im sorry . When will it be operational . I expect sometime early next year. Im not sure if you are aware, but i will be on paternity leave starting in november, so there will be a slight break in the project. When i come back, i expect well get it up. In the meantime, mr. Shen is unaware of this, but he is going to have to read all of this new content on the site before i get back. Congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family. Thank you. Congratulations. I guess any Public Comment on this particular item . David pilpau as an individual i just want to appreciate all of stevens work. You see him every so often at the commission, but he does great work behindthescenes every day. The website, the data, public records, all kinds of things. Steven is one of the great things of the commission. And i would point out as you asked about the money, other city departments have updated their websites and engaged consultants and spent thousands of dollars and done i dont know what; this was basically steven on his own time well, on city time [laughter ] on his own, figuring out what needed to be done and doing it and not spending a gazillion dollars. So i think the commission really is a model for the city in terms of updating its website and he has been very responsive to me on my occasional questions. The one thing i was thinking about in terms of enforcement, the current chart that lists past stipulations is a bit hard to navigate and doesnt show the respondents name. If at a minimum a field could be added to show the respondents name, where there was a matter settled and stipulation it would be easier to figure out what was atissue . Some of the file names with coded, so they are stip0915 and you have to go into the stip, to see who it was and its very difficult. So just adding the field of who the respondent was, if made public, would be helpful. Thank you very much. Hello, larry bush for friends of ethics. If you will provide us with the budget needs well try to see what we can do with friends of ethics to raise money for you. Oh, my goodness. Steven said 300. Well, actually im prepare to offer a million dollars. But its not my money. Its from the controller. I had a meeting with the controller about their ability to create a very robust system of electronic filing. And their ability to tie that into the needs of the Ethics Commission. And i know that he is planning on having a conversation with the commission with chair renne. He was mentioning specifically the ability to Exchange Information on everything from contractors to campaign contributions, to filers, people who are on board, the directors. All of the kinds of things that you would normally be required to review if you were doing an audit or an investigation. And the fact is that the controller has about 2 million a year returned back to the city, because it has not yet been able to identify a legal way of meeting it under the Bond Obligation thing. But they do think that they can do that with this program. So im hopeful that those conversations will go forward and i will take a small percentage of that. When this does go forward, i hope one of the things that you can do is create flexibility so that you can search entertainment and travel and so forth, to see people who are city business and whether they are making payments at the request of an official or travel gifts or whatever else it may be . As was just mentioned in terms of enforcement cases, your system now for 700s allows you to go in and hit a button for nonfilers and you can see who has not filed. The only way you can see who has not paid on a penalty is if you go into the executive directors report and then he will list in there who has got pending charges. But i think if you do have a system where people can search what it is in terms of compliance, it would be very helpful. Thank you. Good evening everybody. My name is jonathan messer. Just a quick comment if wasnt brought up before i arrived. Currently the advice letters are not searchable. You cant search the names, nor the content within them. A search function on that, because now you have to basically go through this list that is on the website, and the description of the title is usually not very helpful. So a search function for advice letters im assuming all the attorneys in this room would very much appreciate that. Thank you very much. Good evening. Eileen hansen. I had one question and it refers to mr. Massey commenting that he had some concern about the viability of the company that you have been working with. So im just wondering if you can talk a little more about that . And address whether we should be working with a company that may not survive and what is our backup plan, if they dont . Just a little more detail on that. Thank you. So the company that were hosting with right now is called tai ped although, they are not called that anymore. It was a San Francisco company that dte was considering contracting with for the entire city website. We piloted the system and then thai ped backed out of the negotiations with the city. We were allowed to continue with them, and it was fine for a while and then they were bought out i think twice. And the company that owns them now still maintains the system, but it doesnt develop it anymore. So this time when we move to a content Management System, we moved to a system that really is portable and can be moved to other vendors, if the vendor that were using right now goes out of business. So it wouldnt take us very long to get the site back up again. I hope that addresses the concern. Seeing no other Public Comment, well turn to item 5. Discussion and possible action regarding commissions activities relating to its expenditure lobbyist ballot measure prop c. There isnt really too much to add other than executive director mainardi and myself have attended a number of meetings since our last Commission Meeting, and also friends of ethics has been active in responding to invitations for speakers, who can advocate and overwhelmingly at least my experience has been that the various clubs seem supportive of proposition c, as you probably saw over the weekend. The chronicle came out in support of it, and the editorial, i thought answered and responded to some of the criticisms that have been raised by those who are opponents. Any public discussion on 5 . Larry bush for friends of ethics. I would like to note that we now have three current and former mayors who have endorsed prop c, mayor lee, Dianne Feinstein and art agnos and five members of the board of supervisors. One concern that has continually arisjen concerns from the unions and if would be helpful if the commission put together a simple fact sheet that explains how prop c affects unions and that it doesnt affect their ability tot to do collective bargaining and doesnt affect their ability to talk to members and doesnt affect workplace conditions. When i met with the political directors of least one union, and explained it, they said that really allayed their concerns. But since what i am suggesting is essentially a fact sheet and not an advocacy piece, i think if it came from the commission itself, and was provided to members of the board of supervisors, all of them, not just the ones who have endorsed it as well to the Labor Council would be very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. David pilpau speaking again as an individual. Just to followup on what larry was suggesting if you pursue that approach to suggest a similar fact sheet for nonprofit organizations, covering what they would be required to disclose both in member communications, and other communications, not to members, just to clarify their obligations. I think both of these fact sheet ideas could relate to the measure that is proposed now, but ultimate could be fact sheets used for the ordinance, if adopted. Thanks. Thank you. 6, discussion and possible action regarding the commissions search for a new executive director. The Search Committee met on friday of this past week to review the applications that have been received up to the cutoff date of september 11th. And made the decision that they would not reopen that in the week between labor day and september 11th we received a significant number of wellqualified candidates. And that the feeling was that there was not a need for reopening the process. The recruiting the Alliance Associates flagged 11 names that they felt were highlyqualified candidates, and in our meeting on friday, we narrowed down to invitations will go out for an interview on october 14th to five candidates who appear to be the strongest with the hope that out of those five, well be in a position following the interviews to submit to the full commission hopefully by the 26th of oct, but october, but that may be overly optimistic, the names of the candidates and to have those candidates interviewed by the commission with the hope that a selection can be made. Is there any Public Comment on that item . David pilprai again as an individual. You appreciate again your continued transparency on this process. So if i understand correctly you are down to five currently although you could revisit some of the others. What i didnt hear is how many total applications that you received . Im just interested in the number not. It was in the 30s okay. And they were applications from almost all geographical areas in the country. So there was no reason to believe that it didnt get wide, wide circulation. Excellent, im pleased that you are satisfied there was a significant applicant pool and were down to five at the moment. Thank you very much. In this type of process, is there maybe a subsequent essay requirement . In other words, that you might pose questions to the applicants in writing, if later thoughts come to mind . I dont know how the process would work if you would expect on the middle of october to interview by skype, which i understand is the mechanism that you are going to be using. And then you might actually followup with questions to be addressed by each applicant . Maybe about their specific background, or would you plan to call them back on the phone . I dont exactly know how that process might work. The way it is contemplated now is that the applicant will be provided in advance with the invitation. I think three or four questions, which we want them to respond to and were sending them in advance, so that they have plenty of time to give thoughtful consideration to their answers. So that we get not an offthecuff answers and these are questions that call for specific examples of certain areas. So its not the kind they can go out and google and get information right. Its more then we have i think its down to about 13 sort of core questions out of which we intend to interrogate candidates on. Its contemplated at the full commission there will be other questions for the commission. So there isnt necessarily a rehash of what we heard when we first met with them. So your initial interview will be with the committee, or the subcommittee. Correct. To individuals. Right. And then its open to the commission as a body to look at your findings, recommendations and thoughts, and if other commissioners have questions you might get back to the applicant. Is that it . The present process is that the Committee Meets with the five that we have identified as being the strongest candidates. And assuming, following our interview, that we believe there are two or three or maybe even five that we want to leave it to the commission to interview. So we would, in those instances and i think our present contemplation is those will be facetoface with the commission. Our interviews and commercial initial interviews for the five will be by skype or some such process. Got it. Even candidates local will not be interviewed person ally, but in the same way. That is the initial electronic means. Yes. When we get to the meeting of full commission and the Selection Committee presents the two or three or four or whatever it may be, candidates, who they recommend who we recommend they ought so select out of that, there will be personal interviews with the commission, and the commission will then act as a whole. And that of course will be a closed process. Correct. Thank you very much. At an undisclosed location. [laughter ] although, i should tell you that we are required to notice it, and if its at our october 26th meeting, when we go into closed session, well go somewhere else. Are you serious . That is how its going to work . Pardon me . That is how its going to work . Yes. We have been told that for example, our meeting on the 14th will be noticed, its a Public Meeting with a note note cation an indication that well go to closed session. There will be a Public Meeting vote to go to closed session and when we are done with that, to go back to open session and decide whether or not we want to disclose anything. I suggest the top of the mark is very nice. Excuse me. The top of the mark. I like that idea. Yes. Commissioners just to followup on that. So the recommendation will come to the commission on the 26th, hopefully, and possibly youll be interviewing people at that meeting as well . We may. Okay. That is to be decided and that is why i say, that maybe too quick, and it may be that well want to set a special commission or full Commission Meeting sometime in november, rather than wait until the regular meeting for purposes of the final interviews by the full commission and selection. But its possible that the committee would recommend to the commission for the meeting on the 26th and bring the candidates to that meeting . Yes. In case you decide to interview as a body that even . Evening . Correct. I had one other question, chair renne that the Commission Open up to a member of the public in the process and im curious if the committee made a decision whether you want to do that or not . The committees recommendation was that we not reopen the process to add additional members of the committee. Because of the fact that it would delay the process. Now i should say for the record , there was a suggestion made as ms. Hansen has indicated, that we should include at least some representative of the stakeholders in this kind of a process. And i pointed out that if that recommendation had been made before we started the process, or before the commission selected its committee, there would have been an open discussion with the full commission. And the commission could have made that determination. But ill entertain any discussion or any comments that commissioners have on her suggestion that you ought to, as a commission, we ought to add some additional members of the Selection Committee either at this process or in the future . If i could just add . I would appreciate a conversation about that, but my recommendation at this point would be just that the process leading to the commission then interviewing the candidates be open. So that you have narrowed it down to five, and if you could include a member of the public in the interviews, with those five, that then leads to a recommendation to the commission as to whether or not to interview five or three or four, however money . Many . At that point the stakeholder would be inserted. So i dont see it slowing down the process. She did indicate a commitment of confidentiality to whoever gets added. In other words, to the same level of confidentiality that we as commissioners have. Good. My reaction to that is that i can see where its coming from. You know, i think one of the reasons we have gone through this lengthy process is to make sure that the public has a lot of say in the types of things were asking and the types of things were looking for . I do think however it is the commissions responsibility to make this hire, and that it would be best for the commission to sort of maintain that. The other thing is the practical concern. I could think of a lot of good people to be that person, but who we choose, other people may not be happy with that and adds a level of complexity that we shouldnt add at this point. Understandable and if coy clarify, i was not suggesting a person or two involved make a decision, just provide feedback so that obviously the commission is the body that makes the decision. Emotionally i like the idea, but practically, it seems fraught. Because the issue is then who are the members of the public that are chosen . And what if the viewpoints are all over the place . And very much in conflict with perhaps what the commissioners or the committee that initially interviews the candidates . I just see that becoming a difficult situation, or creating conflict. Where we dont want conflict. But maybe we can figure out you some way to include some feedback from the public . But im just not quite sure at in the moment what that would look like . I dont see it as someone being on the interview committee, because again, who is that one person that going to be picked . And that in itself would be full of con flict and controversy and if anything, were trying to get to a point where maybe there isnt so much conflict between decisions at the commissionlevel and the public . But perhaps if we put our creative thinking caps on, we might find a way to accommodate at least the idea of involvement on the part of certainly of people who are interested in what goes on at the commission . So sympathetic, but not quite sure how that should be implemented. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Item no. 7. I just wanted to make one comment, if i dismay may . If you are thinking about something close to the election i would recommend that you make the decision after the election is over, because the election will tell you something about the direction that the public sees the commission going in. It will give you some information that you dont have otherwise and also have an effect on what the responsibilities will be for the new executive director, as well as for the commission . Since its only be another week past october 26th to have that discussion, it seems like its a worthwhile delay. Thank you. All right. I will say, chair renne, if we do schedule it for another day, that we try to get that on calendar as soon as possible, given it will probably take some time and calendars especially in november are hectic. Schedule what . If were going to schedule as mr. Bush suggested interviews to interview the candidates, i would like to do that as soon as possible. Because if i find out october 26th you want to do interviews on november 3rd, that is probably not going to work for me. Oh, no; as i say, well try to do it assuming that get to that point, well try to do it calendared on the 26th. If we dont, then at the 26th meeting we can either decide to wait until november, end of november or to have a special meeting. Great. Turning to no. 7, discussion and possible action on the commissions august 24th, 2015 draft meeting minutes. Any comments or suggestions on those minutes . I havent asked for Public Comment yet. I will wait and see what Commission Members no comment. Hearing none, any Public Comment . David pilpau, two suggestions at this time. Page 2 the third paragraph, ms. Parise comments to clarify to add the two words this year after is the most heated one. It doesnt do much, but it clarify a little bit. I wouldnt make that change. All right. Yes . No . Okay. And on page 4, the big paragraph about the closed session. If there is a way to tie the coming and goings to the three specific matters in closed session. Its not clear, for example, which matters acting executive director mainardi did or did not participate in . So if you do say somehow related to items 2 and 3 and somebody left and somebody came in. All right. Again, im not seeking to determine what occurred. I understand. Thank you. Do i hear a motion with those corrections . I move to approve with the Additional Information about who was present at closed session, but without changing the comments of another public member. Second. All in favor . Aye. Opposed . Minutes are accepted unanimously. Lets turn to no. 8, discussion of the acting executive director as s report. Mr. Mainardi. Thank you, chair renne. I would point out a couple of items in particular, item 1 the commission is disbursing funds in connection with district 3 election. So at the time it was 207,000. That is now uped to 245,000. So that is good. Its good that folks are using the Public Financing system. I do want to jump to no. 10, and publicly recognize mallika alem, our Campaign Finance assistant, who worked at our front desk and was a really wonderful person with very warm and welcoming. She has left to take another position with the city. So i wanted to recognize her for all of the good work and she will be missed. She is a very nice person. And then finally, with out reach and education as chair renne has stated, chair renne primarily, but also me, we have been attending various endorsement meetings. Then we also did send out we have been trying to take into account the comments about our interested persons list. So we have been accumulating emails and we sent out the first of what we hope is a series of emails to political clubs, unions, nonprofits, pacs, that sort of thing. Basically soliciting and asking folks to sign up for the interest persons list. Or to follow us on twitter as steven pointed out. We have over 1400 followers on twitter, which is where a lot of folks get their information these days. We sent out about 65 or 66 invitations, and we had six responses. So six people signed up for the ip list. So we plan to do some more in future. That is primarily it. Im happy to answer any questions. Thank you to you and the chair for going to all of these meetings, and i know its been a lot. And with the whole Selection Process as well for the chair. Its above the call, and thank you. I have a question about all of those presentations . Any color commentary that you would like to share with us about those meetings in the interest of the public . Well, i think they are all a little nonplushed, because most will say commissioner renne is here in favor of the because they always introduce either in favor or contrary, pro or con and i have to always start off and say, no im not here in that role. Im not sure if they fully appreciate the restrictions. But as i say, most of them have been relatively friendly, but because of the restrictions the speech we give at the beginning of what our limited role is, its really not very dramatic. Do you find that people are interested in the topic and want to discuss it with you . Yes. Or are they just being polite and listening . No, theyll ask questions and comments and are interested in the idea of greater transparency. Any Public Comment on the acting executive directors report . David pill pau again and i wanted to also appreciate mallika, a wonderful person in the office. She will be missed. She did accept another city position, so she is not going away too far. The access language, i assume that update is not finalized . Not yet. When it is i look forward to geting it towards the end of this week. Thank you. Any others . All right. Turning to item 9. Which usually is at the very end, but as you may have gathered from the fact that we have changed the order a little bit on this. Because of the item 10 is a closed session, save the public need to stay around for some of these items, but any commissioners or anybody in the public have suggestions for items for future meetings . I had one and i have talked to mr. Mainardi about it. When you look at our enforcement process, when a complaint comes in, the steps that take place make the procedure a procedure that goes for at least two, three months. And when you have an Election Campaign and there is an alleged complaint of a violation there isnt usually time for the commission to act to try to correct either the misinformation that may be out there, because a complainant may have put in material and ross of what their complaint is and because we havent gotten to the process quickly enough, i wonder whether we ought not to take a look at whether there is some way in which we could set up a mechanism that for complaints that relate to alleged violations within say the 60days before the elections, that we have some special procedure to be able to deal with them . Either to correct the misperception or if, in fact, there is egregious violation, that the public knows about it before it makes its vote. I dont know the City Attorney will have to weighin on it, but i think its a worthwhile subject for a future meeting. I agree, chair renne. Actually i wholeheartedly agree that we should think about that and look into it. There are lots of complexities, i think, because an allegation, you know, that we dont have a chance to really fully vet and if it gets out there and we say that we put a parameter around, that we could change an election in a bad way. But i do understand the concern and agree its legitimate and im happy to help working on it. Public comment . Mr. Chair, specific to your thought, it seems some easy advance work could be done in advance of that meeting, where that would be on the agenda. And that is to ascertain if our sister agencies in the United States have ever established such a process or contemplated such a process . And its possible that somewhere that mechanism exists. Bob stern would know, but then you could also check with the individual agencies. And part of the requirements that extend our time are by ordinance. So that we cant do it by regulation. Its just simply a matter and i think that when we talked about it, said that the fppc tends to give priority or accelerate their investigation into it when its an item that might relate to an oncoming election. I just dont know what the limitations are. They may have a procedure and may have flushed out the legal requirements are to be judicious. David pilpall again. I think its worth discussing and there are obviously a lot of complexities to it. One thing you might also consider is the ability to juggle or balance workload on Enforcement Matters . It appears in your closed session that some of the matters are related to past elections and reporting to the extent that those dont bump up against a statute of limitations, putting some of those things off for a month or two in preference to things that are more current might be doable. The public is not aware of the specifics of your complaints and how much juggling staff can do within the statutes of limitations and other considerations . So that might be something to discuss in a future meeting on this issue. Thanks. Larry bush. I would like to endorse what chair renne is saying. Sorry i was late. So i missed the conversation that you had about Lynette Sweet, but that is a case that goes to the 2010 election. And since that time, she was in an election again in 2012. So here we are in 2015, and its five years after the complaint was being looked at. She has already gone through other election and she happened to lose that election, but its a long time to go without a resolution to the questions. As part of your look at, that i would like to suggestion a clearer set of guidelines of when penalties are considered . And whether you consider the past record of the person who is alleged to have violated something . At the fppc, if you have failed to file a form 700, it multiplies the penalty when they finally do it. And i dont know what kind of research or background was done on Lynette Sweet, but she was the subject of a major fbi investigation for misuse of city monies that had to be repaid when she was the board treasurer for the 3rd street Economic Development corporation. I know about that because i was the Public Affairs officer at hud and hud demanded that the city returned the money because it was misspent and she went on to the redevelopment commission. If you look at her history its repeated failures to comply with Disclosure Rules and if you look at your professional experience, she was a banker. So i dont know how you weigh these factors . But the fact that those factors exist should be part of what gets weighed. Thank you. Thank you. Eileen hansen. I, too, concur with the recommendation from chair renne. That looks at what happens in the future . We also have a situation right now in this current election, where complaints have been filed that affect the election, or could affect the election. As you know, because it was raised at the last meeting, although i couldnt be here, because i was out of town, i have filed a complaint regarding the election in district 3. I dont know if that complaint is going to be resolved before the election, but its a complaint that if not resolved could result in one candidate not receiving public funds, which obviously create an imbalance in the election. So there is good reason to try to resolve that before the election one way or another. And i dont know if that can be possible now, but i think there are other complaints pending that have to do with this election. And it really does no good to resolve those complaints after the election. Its unfortunate that we are in a situation that takes quite a long time to resolve complaints and elections in past have been determined in part by the amount of money that people received through Public Financing. So to put an idea for the future, i also wonder if there is anything that can be done and maybe not at this late date with a month to go before the election . I would greatingly suggest if at all possible complaints that have a bearing on this election at least be attempted to be resolved before the election. Im intrigued by the idea, if they cant be resolved there is an announcement of some sort there a pending complaint, so people can make a decision in their voting with some full fuller information. So i think its going to take some creative thinking to deal with it in next month, but i certainly support dealing with it in future. Thank you. Thank you. It seems to me that a large part of the issue, if not the entire part of the issue is the way the department functions, and the way the workload is distributed . And i dont know what is involved in reorganizing the office, so that these kind of complaints take priority . These are very important and they reflect on the commission perhaps more than anything else that we do. So i dont know, mr. Mainardi, maybe you have some thoughts about how the workload can be redistributed and streamlined there so this issue gets addressed at least administratively and procedurally . There are other issues involved in it as well. Its really about the workload to a large extent, is it not . Thank you, jesse mainardi. I have many, many ideas on this issue, but i dont want to get too far afield from sort of the topic as to whether this is an issue get to the substance as opposed to raising this as an issue to be identified . Because i think that is probably outside of the scope. But i guess i would just say, i think everybody has touched on a lot of very good points. As chair renne said, there are particular requirements by the charter, and there are some issues to be sort of dealt with in connection with that. But i think these are all great points, and certainly part of a broader discussion on a lot of things. My suggestion was only that we put it on a future agenda wheres its an item and the public can weigh in on it and the staff can give us guidance as to what and what cannot be done . Its may be it awaits the appointment of a fulltime executive director, but just to put it on the back burner. All right. Item no. 10. Discussion and possible action regarding complaints received or initiated by the Ethics Commission and then it lists five we in a possible closed session ill take Public Comment on all matters on this, including whether or not we should meet in a closed session . Eileen hansen, i would just ask if its possible if you go into closed session, if its possible to somehow inform the members of the public, who would like to come back and hear if a resolution is made public, approximately well, when you come back, if there is a way to inform members of the public that you are back in session . I would think if were talking five, i suppose realistically 7 15 probably would be may be optimistic. That would be enough if people come back at 7 15, that would be earlier enough to hopefully be back brush back . Before you are back . I think so. It is usually not a problem for us. Thank you. All right, any comments by members of the commission as to whether or not we should go into closed session or a motion . I move we go into closed session. Second. Any Public Comment before i call the question . All those in favor . Aye. Opposed . Hearing none, the commission will go into closed session. [ gavel ] [ gavel ] all right, records will reflect we are back in open session. Is there a motion as to whether or not we should disclose the closed session deliberations . I move that we not disclose our deliberations during closed session. Second. All right. All in favor . Aye. I also will announce in open session that the Commission Approved a settlement of ethics complaint no. 13100730. And the Settlement Agreement is a Public Document and will be posted on the commissions website. Josh, do i have to read the whole thing . No. It also at the closed session, the Commission Approved a Settlement Agreement relating to Ethics Commission complaint 261001021. And that Settlement Agreement is a Public Document and will be posted on the commissions website. Do i hear a motion to adjourn . Is there Public Comment . Yes, thanks. Im sorry. Thank you. Eileen hansen. The two settlements that you announced, how do those relate to these five complaints that you just discussed in closed session . They were two of the five. Can you say which of the two relate to those numbers . Because i didnt see those on here. They relate to 1 and 2, lines 1 and 2. Okay. And can i also ask your reasons for not disclosing . Are you is the motion not to disclose related to the discussion you had, or to the resolution or lack thereof . All three of those, the discussion and the lack or lack of resolution, or resolution. So can i maybe ask it a different way. It sounds like you resolved 1 and 2. Would it be fair to assume that did you not resolve, 3, 4 and 5 and thus they are ongoing . Its okay to answer yes or no. Yes, i think that whether we may have resolved them, but were not disclosing the resolution at this moment, or they are ongoing. Or they are ongoing. Right. All right. Thank you. Did i hear a motion to adjourn . So moved. Second. All in favor . Aye. [ gavel ux this is september 14 the meeting time is this meeting is being televised soon to be live tonight and the Small Business commission thanks sf govtv staff for televising this meeting. Please turn off your devices. The Public Comment during the meeting is limited to 3 minutes per speaker. Speakers are requested but not required. Completion of a speaker card while optional will help ensure proper spelling of speakers name of the meeting. Applies fill out speaker cards before approaching. Additionally there is a sign in sheet to be added to the mailing list. Mr. President , i will start with item no. 1. Its call to order and roll call. Commissioner adams, here, commissioner dooley, commissioner dwight, here, commissioner Ortiz Cartagena and commissioner white and commissioner riley is absent. Mr. President you have a quorum. Shall we move to item no. 2. General Public Comment lets do it. General Public Comment allows the public to comment on matters on todays purview and not on the agenda and for future consideration. Do we have any members of the public that would like to have Public Comment or anything that is not on todays agenda . So, if you will just, public speaker im gail ball an vicepresident of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association and we oppose the goes at the district that bans retail. I will forward our argument to the commission for their review instead focusing on brick and Mortar Stores for their store count. There is definitely room for another interpretation of formula retail to meet maximum. I will be happy to discuss with them. Thats not why i am here. Which leaves me why im here before you. I want to strongly recommend this commission can view this commission can protect themselves to compete with larger more well funded corporations that want to move into San Franciscos district Financing Options to ban formula retailers. Here is the current situation. The planning departments current procedure to fill and title space does not fill the component of the community outreach. Particularly the district where formula retail is banned. In the same Way Developers is required to reach out to the community as they build their projects. 2, there are an estimated 150 commercial spaces coming into the market octavia plan and you can add to the bayview, the south of market area where they are going to be tremendous numbers of commercial spaces coming that need to be filled. This formula retail ban will continue to come under increasing pressure for the Housing Units that are coming into the surrounding areas. Developers put will it thought into the type of retail and put in larger spaces of 2025 for their usual space size. Commercial brokers have little interest in the needs of neighborhoods preferring to large spaces on affordable smaller business. In large transitional corporations that higher rents than the smaller business that continue to remain there. I have some suggestions for your commission to consider for its future planning. We have already recommended to the Zoning Administrator for its planning approval process of a retailer filling an entitle rethailand retailed space for current merchants and neighbors in a similar method that is required for developers in new buildings. Developers of new spaces and also for remodeling requiring developers to buildout spaces that are small are. Smaller. I call it micro retail. Most importantly commercial brokers require you to go for this communication. We have to end your presentation. However, i will say thank you very much. We are quite familiar with the case that you are referring to and it regrettably met a procedural requirement and so there is certainly some discussion of whether that original application was in good faith or not knowing they had an expansion beyond our formula retail limits probably already planned. That being said, this formula retail current legislation is quite concise and in fact we specifically made it that way so that there would be very objective rules. And here we have a case that has met the objective rules of engagement. If you have selections we would be delighted to hear them and the purpose is to put things on the agenda for the future so you have time to talk. I would not make the complete case but the appeal to hear it. We are always interested in issues regarding formula retail. If there are ways that we can augment the current legislation and we can get a sponsor for that, we are happy to hear that. We would be delighted to have you submit your suggestions to us for a meeting in the future to have an appropriate amount of time. Got it. This is appropriate to bring it up. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Any other Public Comment, anything that is not on todays agenda. Thanks for coming out today, by the way, and please let us know specifically if you would like us to agendaize a more detailed presentation. What might be good, for your written comments if there is anything you would like to expand on it, forward it to me so i can forward to the commissioners to yeah, we dont mean to be abrupt, its a matter of procedure. Thank you. Is there any additional Public Comment . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Lets move on. The next item is item no. 3, approval of the august 24, 2015, regular minutes. I motion to approve the minutes of the august 24th, meeting. Anyone want to second that . Second. All right. City clerk motion by commissioner adams, second by commissioner white. And shall we do an all in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . Lets move to item 4. City clerk discussion and possible action to make recommendations to the board of supervisors on file no. 150758 public works code, public rightofway occupancy fee exemption. This is a discussion and possible action. This is an ordinance amending the public works code to provide that flood Water Management project that are located within the public rightofway requiring minor encroachment to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Grant rightofway occupancy fee. We have a presentation by carolyn goesen legislative aid to supervisor campos. Welcome. Thank you commissioners for having me here today and thank you, gina, as well. The legislation before you is essentially to help Small Business and residents in the folsom area, the lowest part of our city and therefore experiences the worst flooding. Specifically the legislation amends the public works code that amended to the grant that will not charge this public rightofway occupancy fee. To give you a little background, campos has a hearing as we have issues for major Small Businesses and other residents. Out of that hearing a working group formed local businesses and mga of infrastructure is going to be speak here if thats okay as part of our presentation have been working together for many months to find a way to addressing this persistent flooding problem. Two ideas have come out of this working Group Already that we are working forward with and one is to fund the program to encourage Property Owners to install improvements on properties that lower the risk of harm caused by flooding and originally only types of projects could be covered and the puc has been great of working with Small Business owners and residents to make sure the project has helped them instead of them trying to fix their properties in the specific confines of the original grant. So thats been happening and residents and Small Businesses are very happy about that and second to wave the fees if the projects involved a minor encroachment. Thats what our minor legislation is doing and essentially exempting these fees will make it easier for Small Businesses to apply for the Grant Program if they know there will be no fees related and will also further the incentive provided by the Grant Program to encourage Property Owners to lower their risk of harm. Already i know for example there was one Small Business owner who he had applied that he had to pay a fee initially. He was told he had to pay a fee. In fact his case, the water over the years had pressed this sidewalk lower than what had been an he was restoring it to the level of the sidewalk had been and because he changed the sidewalk it would have forced him to pay the puc. So the puc worked with him and had to do a lot of paperwork to get the bureaucracy changed so we are trying to avoid having to did that. If you are getting that grant money, that fee is waved. Thank you very much. And we would love to have kathy speak briefly to that. They have been wonderful in helping our community. Thank you. Good afternoon commissioners. The puc just to give you an example of what happened in that situation as the sidewalk did settle and it settled an the Small Business owner raised the sidewalk and he was assessed a fee of about 2500 which he would have to pay into perpetuity as long as he owned that property. So we worked with dpw to see if he could look at the situation because they had looked at it narrowly as raising the slope so we said its not a curb ramp at an intersection and so they reassessed it and they are still having to reassess the fees of a minimum amount of 100 because he had a gate that opened onto the sidewalk. So what this legislation would do is if someone put a movable barrier that was attached to their home, if it per intruded over the sidewalk they would face an encroachment fee and they would still be applying for a permit. Okay. Sounds reasonable. I know they are really trying especially with this winter everybody is trying to get ready for this. This is a very good piece of legislation. So i really appreciate everything that the supervisor is doing in this area neighborhood. Commissioner white . Yes, i believe i heard it. The c assessment is 100 that would be waved or is it different . Under the current code the minimum they would assess is 100 but that could go way up depending on the improvements and how far is the encroachment. If they base the sidewalk back to its original to where it was raised. That particular owner had to pay about 2500 in fees. And he would have to pay that annually every year. Finds it in the provision there is no provision currently to allow the waiver. Correct. This is to allow a waiver subject to review . Yes. Commissioners, to the present example with the Small Business legislation that we do for the sidewalk permit temporary occupancy, the departments have to account for the number of permits they issue and the revenue that comes in, right . So they need legislation to account for the fact that they have not collected revenue for the permits. So another example is that supervisor tang annually had been doing the awning replacement and they did that in may so they wouldnt have to do that every year. Generally the legislature avoids the response, we just cant do that. So commissioner, sarkissian . I just want to confer. When you talk about Property Owners, are we talking the leased owner. You talked about the Property Owner as well as the business . It could be, it has to be the Property Owner, so the Business Owner could be just the renter. It would benefit the renter because it gives the Property Owner the incentive to apply for the grant. Right now, if they have a residenter, renter. The Business Owner has to get the Property Owner to apply for the grant. But the Property Owner wont apply for the grant if they have to jump through as you of these hoops. The Business Owner cannot apply for these initiatives . Not unless they make the improvements to the property. If the Property Owner was the business of the property. Thats why it was confusing to me. That particular case it would also be the owner. That legislation refers to Property Owners. Yes. Thank you, any other questions or comments, commissioners . Great. Seeing none, well open to Public Comment. Is there any additional Public Comment . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. We have an action item here if we choose to support this. I have a motion to approve this. This is a very good piece of legislation and i think it will help with Property Owners in that neighborhood and not only that neighborhood but other neighborhoods too that will definitely benefit from this piece of legislation and get this stuff done. I totally support this. I second the supporting of this legislation. Okay. Can we have a roll call vote. City clerk commissioner adams, yes, commissioner dwight, yes, commissioner sarkissian . Yes, commissioner white . Yes. That motion passes with approval to recommend to the board of supervisors to approve file 150758. 40. Thank you very much. Its a success. Its happy hour time now. All right. Moving on to next item. Item no. 5. Presentation discussion on the Small Business Commission Meeting schedule to facilitate legacy business registry program. I thought it was appropriate for us to have a discussion around the meeting schedule prior to for whats currently in place. There is no criteria as to the number of legacy Business Applications that you are required to hear so the meetings can be scheduled as the commissions seen fit and the schedule. I just wanted to give a little bit of perspective that should the ballot measure pass, the commission would be obligated to hear a minimum of 300 applications a year. This roughly divides out by 12 to 52 applications a month. A safe proclamation for each year would be 25 minutes in terms of the business providing the presentation commission asking questions and providing comments and any Public Comment and for the commission to make its final determination. So that average about 8 hours hearing time each no. It month. It gives you the idea considering that and using that towards a metric. Did i do that incorrectly . 25. Thats still ten hours10 hours okay. So 25 a month. So thank you for that correction. So the City Attorney has confirmed, just being respectful of the meeting time and hearing concerns about adding on an additional meeting time which maybe something that may have to be considered down the road, but currently in terms of we can soon start taking applications. There is nothing preventing us from taking applications once the application is set and we can get it up and going on the website. So the City Attorney has confirmed that the Commission President can establish the committee to the initial hearing. Then but the final approval or disapproval to take place at the full commission and you would still have to hear, you would still have to allow for Public Comment to take place. So unlike the board of supervisors where there are Committee Meetings where Public Comment takes place, but at the full board, Public Comment cannot take place with items that are heard at the full board. That is only allowed at the full board of supervisors. We would still have to allow for Public Comment, but the key amount, the large amount of the time taken for each hearing could possibly take place in a Committee Setting and then it would be to the discretion of the president to determine who is on the committee and perhaps Committee Members can rotate over time to vet applications and kind of sort of relieve some of the requirement of the additional meeting time. So currently right now before brians departure, he checked in with our Building Management and if to simplify it and we did meetings with our regular schedule, there is no limit to the amount of time that the commission can stay here in a meeting after 5 30. Thats awesome. I love it. But the commission can start its meeting at 3 30. So from 3 30 to 5 30. There is some flexibility there. And to have some on the front end and back end. This is facilitating. Once we start to receive enough on the application, this is to facilitate the current law right now. Then for the Fourth Meeting of the month, 4 00 is technically our cutoff time because the Ethics Commission meets after us here in room 400. But we can start the meetings as early as 11 30 on the fourth monday of the month and there is also available meeting time for on friday. And we would just need, if the commission is amenable to friday meeting we would just need to let the Building Management know if we want a two our block, 3hour block or 4hour block and they will let us know if something is available and i can get back to you on that. So, feedback thoughts we dont have to do anything to sent it to. So my comment is good to know that we have flexibility. I would say we wait and see attitude because we do not need all of those 8 hours. Im sure steve will be happy to chair that committee. I have a question. Is there a deadline submittal on this . Im going to finalize the application and make the modifications made to simplify the application. I would like to have that finalized by the end of the week. There are supervisors very anxious to start making their nominations. Thats fine. Their registration. Thats fine. So i would say that there are supervisors that are that have nominees that they would like to get submitted and get to the commission before the hearing. I think we have the flexibility to respond to the application. I have a question about the timing assuming that your application is finalized. It is submitted and publicized so to speak. What is your vision about these applications coming back before the elections. Is that going to happen in october . Is this activity before the legislation is voted on . The thing is that in the original legislation it did state kind of a september 30th time for a delivery of implementation of the program as to what was passed by the board of supervisors. With that the schedule is predicated on when an applicant application is completed and we are able to get it to you in time for review and agendaized. My other question is assuming that this legislation new legislation passes circulate a mooting or does it affect the application that we have submitted prior to that date . No. So these applications would be filed and eventually we would get to them and depending on the number of applications you decide how to spread that. Yeah. And we actually, the office of Small Business has the is ultimately blesses it as a legacy business or not or does the board of supervisors do that . Again, the procedure is that and the procedure that we are going to follow at this particular point in time as we discussed at the last meeting because of staffing is that right now the office will only facilitate the application, the registration application with businesses that have been nominated by the mayor or board of supervisors. Right. They get nominated and they submit their application, we the commission, who blesses . You bless. There you go. We finally have something that we get to bless. The Small Business commission makes the determination as to whether the business meets the criteria. We are graduating from an advisory body to a Decision Making body. How about that . As i say we have plenty of runway to determine how we need to respond to this based on the response we get in terms of nominations. Correct. But it would be good in case there is an indication or an i hear from Building Management that we might need to sort of put some reserve on. Some direction from the commission. In terms of preference. I would recommend that we plan a back end to this meeting because i think its clearly a challenge for all of us to get here at this meeting time and making it earlier is going to make it more challenging and we are all with these Small Business owners themselves and its a struggle to do that. If we just make and we are unlike to have any conflicts for this space after our meeting. Correct. It would be pretty gone after we are done. That gives us the greatest flexibility if it maybe perhaps the most onerous time slot. Well deal with it as it comes. All right. Great. Thank you for that discussion, commissioners. Then just behind the meeting is i want to highlight through some additional discussion with on page 2, just to make it a little easier to read i have sectioned out some of the criteria section for the businesses to follow and that follows the criteria set out in the legislation. And then on page 4 of the official application, adding a section that list who the nominee is and a signature of the nominee. And that is, those are really the only essential changes. This is online . I am working to get it to be a fillable pdf. This is a document. We officially cannot do that. That is one of the projects that jane is working on with the office of Contract Administration to do online signatures. So for now you can fill it out online and print it out and sign it. Yes. And regardless for section 3 they do need to do a more expanded narrative and so, and then of course submit any sort of you know supplemental documents or memorabilia. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Was there a question . I think there is no further action required. There is no action required. All right. Lets move on. Directors report. City clerk item no. 6 is directors report. Update on Small Business Assistance Center and the 2016 calendar. So just to highlight. I have mentioned it a couple times but i have not done a written report in a couple meetings. I wanted to reconfirm the week of Small Business week for 2016, and that is may 2328. So tomorrow night at the council of district merchants meeting i will make an announcement requesting the Merchants Association about making may 21 or may 28. Where is that meeting . Its at the dates are correct. The year is not correct. Okay. So, the shop and dime by local campaign, commissioner dwight has been involved with these meetings and i will let you expand upon that under your president s report. I just have it on here because it will be something that come the holidays will be program an initiative that will be launched. And im currently not participating in the meetings. We have president dwight there and oewd is leading the initiative. So there is plenty of things for other things to be doing. The el nino. The city has started to have meetings to discuss preparation. I just wanted to bring it to your attention in case you would like to have a presentation from the city, from the department of Emergency Management and the department of Public Utilities commission and what they are anticipating and what are they planning for and is there any outreach to businesses especially those that have subbasements in flood zone areas about what they can be doing, what to prepare for. So, since it is starting to a topic of discussion. In the media i wanted to bring back to your attention in case you want to bring back a presentation so i can prepare for that. I would just think its all about flood response, right . So do we need a formal presentation on this . Okay. And then i just wanted to next bring to your attention that we did not have a retreat last year. So do you want to think about having another retreat coming up for 2016. Ideally would like to schedule it before the end of the year if possible. But well be taking a look at schedules. But i have some hietd items in terms of what our priority items that are already part of the commission and the offices responsibilities. Just to give some thought. So, i will be meeting with the president , vicepresident and our past president to take a look at this and start scheduling and preparing for a retreat. Okay. We can consider that. Legislation and policy matters. So supervisor farrell ended up going ahead and moving his original legislation did not include the recommendations that the commission had recommended due to timing reasons. So that at last tuesdays full commission, full board of supervisors meeting it passed its first reading. So jess and i will discuss what to do with the next recommendation. The paid sick leave, ochllsc is putting a more refined rfq for the state and the local. There is some delay in getting the faqs completed. But it is due to some information from the state and determinations that they are making based upon the last set of amendments that were made to the law. So, we are hopeful that there will be able to have a presentation to you in the next 3 weeks, perhaps. But again waiting for the state for some final information. I wanted to, i had an interesting call from a merchant on divisadero who has long hours. As we know many of our Service Sectors are living outside of the city and having them come to work with very early hours or have very late hours and dealing with the reliability of our San Francisco transit, bay area transit and or the amount of time it takes to travel, they are driving into work. Up until recently there wasnt an issue about parking because there wasnt much residential permitted parking in that area, but recently both around alamo square and panhandle parking this has created a parking problem. This has created problems for employees because people that are driving they are having to ietsd move their car every 2 hours so its affecting scheduling breaks, causing stress and a ticket you know is 75. So thats a big chunk of change for an employees daily wage. Currently with the residential parking permit, a business sits on a neighborhood commercial corridor that is in a residential parking permitted area. That business is able to have up to three permits for their working vehicles so their delivery vehicles. So i did reach out to the sf mta and they are actually under, they had actually had this slated to start looking at the redevelopment permit and they are advised the office to be a part of this and will be working to bring in some businesses to be part of this but i want to bring it to your attention because i think to me this is very much at the time and many businesses are going to be facing with their employees and more its a cost of housing continues to go up more and more will be moving outside of the city. The sf mta as to acknowledge the only practical solution is to improve Public Transportation. There is no parking and there is an act to reduce parking. There is no way there. There are no parking places. So we have to facilitate people getting to work by Public Transportation. Its all there is. There is no other solution. We dont need to waste a bunch of time on moderating rpp because the residents have as much right to park there as much as the businesses. This city has to get Public Transportation to accommodate the needs of both residents and the employers. There is no resolution. We can talk about it all we want. And i think, you can make it fou hours, it will make it half as bad. I think there is there is shortterm and longterm because we can deal with our own transportation and deal with sf mta because the intersection, its not just bart, its am tram, the transportation in the outer area as well. So it has to really be looked at regionally. Im just bringing this to your attention because i think this is a pressure that businesses are going to feel and exactly what the Small Business commission you know does with this information that you may not yet determine but there may be some policy direction that you may y want to provide. There is an appeal that we can make with the city improve its Transportation System and that we have a reasonableal plan that improves the mobility of people inter city. We should look at immediate solutions. So this seems to be kind of an remedial solution to these areas. At least try to fulfill their needs and then make a policy and statement in general. I tell all of my employees to adjust our schedule. I cant stand it when i hear someone who got a ticket who if they are making minimum wage. A 75 ticket black and white oh black bliterates what you made. You cant buy lunch in San Francisco for 5. If you got a ticket everyday, that aint going to work. Right, for our Retail Businesses its not possible to leave the floor when you have customers standing in line to move the car. Actually when its difficult to man those positions you have two people on the floor so 1 person can watch while the other person moves their car. We cant have people running outside every 2 hours to move their cars and turn off the factory its absurd. Business owners will have to be adaptable to allow their employees to deal with the inadequacy of Public Transportation and the employees will have to do their part to compensate for that. Sorry, but there is no two ways about it. I dont see any shortterm or remediation to this frankly. We are going to talk about it until we are blue in the face. There is longterm solution and shortterm solutions are going to be accommodations by employers and the employees and your 8hour day is now a 10hour day and you spend an hour on either end commuting. Thank you for that discussion. Then i just want to also bring to your attention that if im getting a few calls or similar calls from businesses. So recently i did receive two calls regarding coverage for businesses that are having to close while the retrofitting work is taking place. So fortunately the landlord is not, they are closing, fortunate for them the landlord is still going to continue to lease to them, but the unfortunate element is that they are having to close their business for 3 4 months to do it. So, just they called to check to see if there is any sort of resources or assistance that was thought about for businesses for having to close. So and the answer is no . There was nothing planned. They would not be paying rent . Likely not. If they are employees. They have to pay the store. And you know hopefully some businesses will have Business Interruption insurance that they maybe able to rely on but not all may. And then i just provided a list of some future presentations that will be ahead. And then that we will be receiving the super bowl presentation from jason tremu at the next meeting. And then a list, a calendar list looking at 2016 meeting schedule. I have it here. Just for your information. May because of Small Business week we will be canceling that meeting and it will be to your discretion as to whether as we get closer to have a meeting on may 30th or just the one meeting a month. Okay. Awesome. Is that it . Then lastly, i want to mention that i did attend a Panel Presentation to discuss minimum wage and other employer mandates at people wear and apparel Manufacturing Organization and it was a very interesting discussion regarding workforce. And dealing with the local and regional issues and as you are acutely aware of commissioner white about the reduction of manufacturers in San Francisco and also it was an opportunity to sort of begin to have some discussion about Property Owner ship as well. So i think that will be a program that we can develop through the legacy business as an initiative but i think Property Owner ship in general will be a good program whether there is anything behind it other than just packaging the how to will be something that will be a benefit to our businesses. The best form of rent control. So that concludes my report. Okay. Thank you. Item no. 7 is president s report. I only have to report as you mentioned that i do attend the shop local meeting which is the collaboration between oewb and the chamber of commerce and its focused primarily presently on kind of a business to consumer more specifically retailer to consumer communication effort and an attempt to garner some fund to Campaign Around the holidays. Its not clear where that money is going to come from. On the business side there is a meeting or sort of a meet and greet planned as promised. Thats being organizeded by the chamber of commerce on october 22 nd and they are looking for a venue and asking me what recommendations i have for 80120 people. Im in big time in favor of that. Other than it was a quiet month with everyone on recess. City clerk item nor 8. Vicepresident s report. Nothing to report. Commissioners, got any reports . No. Nothing to report. No demerits for having no reports. Item 10. New business. None. Seeing none. All right. Commissioners we are now onto item november 11th. Adjournment. Here it comes. I motion to adjourn. Second that. All in favor say, aye. Aye. Any opposed . We are adjourned at 6 25. [ meeting is adjourned ] it looks at good and tastes good and it is good in my mouth pretty amazing. I am the executive chef ive been here as a chef at la concina since 2005 reason we do the festival and the reason we started to celebrate the spirit and talent and trivia and the hard work of the women in the la concina program if you walk up to my one on the block an owner operated routine i recipient its a theyre going to be doing the cooking from scratch where in the world can you find that im one of the owners we do rolls that are like suburbia that is crisp on the outside and this is rolled you up we dont this it has chinese sisterinlaw and a little bit of entertain sprouts and we love it here. There are 6 Grilled Cheese grilled to the crisp on the outside outstanding salsa and a lot of things to dip it knocks you out and its spicecy and delicious i was the first person that came here and we were not prepared for this every year were prepared everybody thinks what theyre doing and we can cookout of our home and so the festivals were part of the group we shove what we do and we w we tried to capture the spirit of xrifs. And there from there to sales and the hard part of the sales is 250 assess our market and creating a Market Opportunity giving limited risks and sales experience to our guys and good afternoon and he welcome to the Planning Commission regular hearing like to remind the public to and when speaking before the commission, if you care to, do state your name for the record. If i could take roll commissioner president fong commissioner wu commissioner antonini commissioner johnson and commissioner richards. Commissioner hillis is expected to arrive shortly and commissioner moore is expected to be absent commissioners, the first item on your agenda is consideration of items proposed for continuance at the time of publishing the agenda no item phenomenon continuance, however, under our discretionary review calendar item