Transcripts For SFGTV LAFCo 20240706

Streets by people who recognize the street is narrow to make it all most untraversable. They would come up to sussex street and by the time they are diverted two blocks out of the way, they are not pleased with their situation and they are not driving safely and i have seen a lot of near misses on sussex street. Chenry street is a throughstreet. It has two dedicated lanes. It was always the emergency route so now if there are emergencies with the slow street, the emergency vehicles have to take a longer time to get to where they need to go because they are diverted but cant go down the narrow streets. I actually agree with a lot of the people who were talking about slow streets that they actually are not as safe as they are proported to be and would not let my kids ride the bike down the middle of chenry because i would be worried cars angry cars would come down. Please think before you vote for chenry slow streets. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next speaker, please. I have maps. My name is kathleen. I live in glen park and here to convince you chenry street is a bad candidate for slow streets. Lets look at characteristics of a successful slow street. Sanchez. Sanchez is a mile long and includes wide residential streets surrounded by three parallel streets that have two lanes of traffic. No bottomnecks, traffic is moving smoothly. Now, lets look at chenry street. Which i want to remind everyone that chenry is now been pulled from the slow Street Network twice but keeps coming back due to a few neighbors wanting it despite the community against it. Chenry is a couple blocks away from two freeway entrances and exits. Surrounding streets diamond and bosworth at capacity. Chenry is about a third the length of sanchez. It does not have parallel streets with two lanes that can handle the traffic. It does not have cross streets at each block. Instead it is surrounded by single lane streets that are curvy, hilly and narrow that become dangerous when traffic from chenry is diverted to them. Unfamiliar drivers cant pass each other without backing each other up. Red is chenry and purplethese are one lane single streets. Unlike sanchez,ic Host Elementary School of 240 students. Slow street delineators force parents to negotiate choke points causing greater congestion at pick up and drop off. What chenry has, walking distance from the glen park canyon and rec center, the greenway, parallel and provides a beautiful walking experience. Do not make chenry a slow street. Glen Park Community does not benefit from it, just chenry street. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is laura and work at the innerrichmond. We hear experiences of neighbors on safe street of unsafe drivers speeding down the slow streets. Buzzing cyclist pedestrian and kids while they use as a cut through to get places other then the neighborhood. These are cut through drivers taking a short cut not a destination on the block. We need hard diverters installed to curb the dangerous cut through driving the speeding and the excessive volume. The experience and data on lake street shown the slow street had a major regression in safety and function and not meeting the vision set for the network. Sfmta metricsprinted are out of date based on the citizen installed traffic monitors we have that are showing all east lake street is exceeding traffic volumes. Lake in particular, traffic has more then doubled car traffic since the temporary barricades which were will you local traffic only were replaced with the drivethrough non standard purple signs with the local traffic only designation removed. Aggressive driving and road conflicktds have dramatically increased which reflected on the recently citizen dashboard. In addition, because local traffic only designation is removed, the mapping app such as google map encourage as a short cut. indiscernible 25 Miles Per Hour. There is a difference between behavior of these drivers and the safety of local access drivers. We see these speeds adjacent to stop signs, speed humps, raised cross walks. The interventions are not effected for utcanning cutting speed in the way hard diversion is effective changing the mindset of the drivers driving on the slow streets the street was intended indiscernible local access. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is catherine. I live on lake street between 2 and 3. Mr. Mcguire you might recognize as the big red dot on the report where it back in january was about 1400 per day and now it is up to 1700 a day, and it is unattenable. It is completely incompatible with the notion of people actually using the street. You are just bullied out. I clearly have a issue with the evaluation of the lake street as not being a fail on the volume and i think that it needs to be some type of adjustment whether it is treating the east and the west sides differently, or just in common sense a correction based tailored to a location, and i think that the height of it is at the far east end where i live. Plus i have done just in living there and i reviewed the street, it is about 100 to 150 local cars per day on the block. Thats 15 to 1600 through traffic drivers, which is incompatible with the guidelines of trying to keep it to local traffic. There are so manyif you look at the local data you will see 500 to 700 bicyclists on a block. The potential is there, but there also isit is dangerous. It is ridiculously dangerous and you watch the crowding, you watch the lack of nonsharing by this volume of vehicles so all the beautiful pictures of people enjoying the slow streets does not happen when there are 1700 cars on a block. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. Im richmond resident, lake street and i wanted to echo points made earlier by fellow street supporters. When we look at the criteria for whether this is succeeding or not, i dont believe that whether there is fewer collisions then prepandemic is necessarily the right measure. I think that we need to look whether or not slow streets are safe for pedestrians and cyclists to use without fear of being hit. I dont think the current traffic calming measures are sufficient. We need physical barriers concrete barriers in the street. I have spoken with drivers under the impression slow streets are open again in the way they were before the pandemic and unfortunately i my self and a lot of other local residents have experienced near miss behavior, close calls with drivers, yelling or threatening. I also want to point out the traffic Data Collected in january this year at a time when there was record rain fall that i believe kept drivers off the road and echoed by previous speakers, we have our own data that reflect much higher car volumes then what is seen in the sfmta data. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other speakers in the room, secretary silva, please open up the phone lines. We have one speaker requesting accommodation. Please unmute. Thank you. Good afternoon chair eaken. indiscernible she and her. Very good report. Very meaningful. Im looking forward to more people going to the arena to use the muni. Im indiscernible im looking forward doing the streets again. Always been a lot of fun for me. indiscernible is very important because i think about the tunnels in new york city that go to and from penn station. indiscernible i did get to see the yerba buena art, someone who works for [difficulty hearing speaker] with that station in the neighborhood. And indiscernible should be for everyone. I dont just want to see san franciscans. I like to see oaklanders, people from berkeley, marin county and people from around the world. People from new york city and london and tokyo, et cetera, participating in that, because San Francisco is a indiscernible overall, i think this is pretty good. Just trying to give you positive energy here. I am very grateful to indiscernible one way to show it. Thank you. Thank you. At this time well move to remote Public Comment not to exceed 10 minutes. Members of the public wishing to comment dial star 3 to enter the queue. Each speaker has 2 minutes. Moderator, first speaker. Hello board. My name is michael. Here to comment about slow streets. Thank staff for preparing this report. It is comhensive, easy to read, useful to have data instead of indiscernible couple things i want the board to think about when discussing slow streets in the future, the median speed of high level target doesnt do anything to address the upper half of drivers. If you look at the box indiscernible page 15 you can see that 25 percent of drivers more then 25 percent are going really fast on these residential streets. The out liars are terrify ing. This matches perception of slow streets across the city. indiscernible dont feel safe walking in them. Every since the signage changed drivers have behaved more wrecklessly and you see in the report. The changes from 2021 to 2023 drivererize going faster and more of them. The report cant detinguish between local and cut through traffic, but it is obvious cut through drivers go multiple blocks fast and wrecklessly so like to see staff consider harder diversion barriers to discourage cut through driving and think that will make the streets slower and safer for everyone. I hope staff can come up with a plan comprehensive plan to address the failings of the traffic counts and traffic speeds. 30 seconds. Put comprehensive plan in place so we are not fighting over 20 different slow street designs. Put in diverts and indiscernible Real Infrastructure to make these streets welcoming for everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, Board Members. indiscernible thank you director mcguire for the report. Regarding slow streets, despite clear overwhelming support for traffic diverts on slow streets, the agency has continued to water down the physical infrastructure on slow streets including by removing the road close to through traffic signs and removing the local traffic only signs and not installing physical infrastructure or installing ineffective infrastructure indiscernible people feeling more endangered. Walking biking and using mobility devices and the purpose of slow streets being destroyed. Rather then street the symptom, the agency needs to be addressing the disease by installing traffic diverters on slow streets at arterial intersection. Neck down at every intersection and pinch points. Instull the agency installs indiscernible continue to rise and move in the wrong direction indiscernible the board should immediately move to amend the slow streets criteria to 500 cars per day and 10 Miles Per Hour for the 85 percentile. Regarding side shows once again, the agency should use physical infrastructure specifically protected to intersections indiscernible hardin centered lines. Can and should couple with expansion of bike network protective bike lanes to create a network of protected bikelanes and intersections throughout the city. Take a active role on the issue. Sfmta lacks visionary and courageous leadership and as a result continue to fail the city people and the planet. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Good afternoon. Barry. Tom talked about the warriors and today and thursday. Still have a problem with indiscernible most people take Public Transportation to the game because of the convenience, but at the end of the game a lot of people want to get a taxi cab or other vehicle and get out of there and to go some other place for dinner or drink or home. The problem is the pco are not keeping the cab stand clear and constantly soliciting by the black suv at the curb. I dont know why they continue to allow, especially in the second half these cars parked at the francois boulevard at the curb. It doesnt make sense why they allow so many cars to stay there and long periods of time when it is evidence they are not picking up anybody. They are soliciting or hoping to pick somebody up after the game. I hope you will address the issue particularly during the playoffs and the importance of the games coming up. Regarding slow streets, i am concerned that the wishes and the concerns of the local residents in glen park are not being heard, so hoping that they do that. I am so glad i dont live by these slow streets because emergency vehicles are probably still having a problem accessing them and i think you have to relate to that. Also, there was a lawsuit in new york regarding disabled people not having equity because they cant ride a bike or a scooter and they need a vehicle to get to the doctor appointments and other services. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hello. My name is brian. I wanted to talk about detail on the slow street report, specifically staff to consider as begin designing proposed Solutions Based off this report. On page 15, next steps paragraph devoted to traffic Calming Solutions to reduce speeds. In the paragraph you only mention speed cushions and painted safety zones and indiscernible to slow vehicle speeds. I urge you to reconsider the limited options. Everyone knows speed cushions fail reducing vehicle speeds, especially from the largest and most dangerous suv. Speed cushions on slow streets decrease the indiscernible people walking. indiscernible to be clear, i really glad this report recognizes the need for design improvements but think one size fits all approach will not be effective reducing speeds. Based on page 13 of the report it appears sfmta thinks traffic diverts such as the one about to be installed at divisadero indiscernible rather then a speed control. Should recognize diverters or drivers are not going faster then 15 miles an hour if on their own block just about to pull into the garage or looking for a parking spot. Cars are only going over 15 miles a hour if they use the block to cut through traffic. If you apply traffic diverters as speed control on all 12 of the slow streets in question, that will drastically help reduce cut through traffic and therefore certainly decrease the median speed of Motor Vehicles as well. That way you also wouldnt be responding 15 thousand on a speed cushion that is proven time and time again to be ineffective with the larger vehicles we see on the road. Please use traffic diverts on all 12 the slow streets that indiscernible and volume calming. Thank you next speaker. Hi, directors. Thank you so much for your attention to slow streets. I really appreciate it and thank you to the staff for this excellent report. I am leeann chang, speaking for myself. I like to get around with my son on the back indiscernible where we can go as a family determined where we feel safe going and where we indiscernible right now, the area around glen park is limits how far we can go toward the southeast. indiscernible i say that because as you build out the network i hope you keep value as the network serving the city and know you understand that. indiscernible appreciation for the slow streets report. I get we are using indiscernible as the previous commenter mentioned, it isnt the median speed that will kill someone t is outlayers and scary to see there are 10 slow streets going over 40 miles a hour, so got my eye on that too. Thank you so much. Thank you. That concludes your 10 minute limit. Thank you secretary silva. Director, did you want to speak . I will not respond to any individual Public Comment, but im just want to note, i think it may not be necessary but note for the public to understand for those who are in the room that saw what just happened, it is like newtons third law. For every Public Comment on slow streets there is equal and opposite Public Comment on slow streets and so you are sitting in the same room and imagine being on our side and hearing passionate san franciscans that live in the neighborhoods talk about slow streets and asking for exactly the opposite solution. indiscernible now outburst. Are not trying to respond to a individual Public Comment, i just want to note for the mublic understanding we are listening to you but also we are hearing in some cases asking us to do opposite things. Just wanted to note that, because i found itthis is what the debate has been like honesty. I wanted to note that. Thanks. Thank you. Director mcguire, would you like to say anything in response to the themes raised or is the City Attorney telling me not to . Can i emphasize two things already on the record madam City Attorney . One is that ill repeat what i said, we will continue to work through the summer and fall on measures that will meet your legislative goals for speed and volume. There are lots of comments how to get there and well keep working on that. Second thing is, it is in the report that we released today and on the website we are planning to bring chenry street for action before this board on may 16. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Your feedback and perspective is valuable to us and very helpful as we shape our policy pathway Going Forward. Ill just note to director yekutiel comment, what i did hear in common across both folks who support slow streets and dont is concern about too many cars and fast cars and are aggressive behavior. That does seem to be a area of alignment. Alright. With that, well close item 7. Lets go to the next item please. Item 8, the Citizen Advisory Council report. There is no report for today. Places on item 9, general Public Comment. Members of the public may address the board on matters within the boards jurisdiction and not on todays calendar. I had a stack of speaker cards but it seems all those speakers spoke during item 7. Well open Public Comment for those in the room to comment on items not on todays agenda. Seeing none, please open the phone line. We have one speaker requesting accommodation, moderator, please unmute. indiscernible about a week ago, i was on muni again. Another of my trips. I was very fortunate to meet another wonderful member of the muni family and i did get to see new things. I did get to see the artwork at yerba buena and i did get to use the subway again. I really indiscernible one thing that [difficulty hearing speaker] a person said you are welcome on muni, and i know that indiscernible and i did later that day get to meet other people. Mostly in the indiscernible who were very helpful for me to be able to use the subway and wayfinding escalators, elevators, so i have been able to have good experiences on the subway and hopefully i will get to see indiscernible i acknowledge im different from you. indiscernible shouldnt have to. Im originally from new york city. I dont know if you have experienced new york city. I come from several generations of new york city. It doesnt make me better then the rest, but just with this person welcomed me to muni, i ask you share that welcome with me yourselves. Thank you. Thank you. I know you call in regularly, your audio is a little difficult to hear so may want to think about that for the next time you call in. Well move to remote Public Comment not to exceed 10 minutes. Members wishing to comment dial star 3. Each speaker has 2 minutes. First speaker. indiscernible speaking on my own behalf. On the april 25 agenda for the bos file number 230468, communications. Item 9 in that file is from the puc to the board regarding the ocean beach Climate Change adaptation project status and related updates. This also relates to the april 24 meeting of the Capital Planning committee. The cpc agenda item 4 is for the two year capital budget. Data base id1195 for ocean beach Climate Adaptation project. My comments to the p uc and planning commission, during a Ocean Beach Task force Community Meeting i approached the project lead from spur and asked directly if spur was aware of the u. S. Geological survey study which included indiscernible in San Francisco bay was exacerbated erosion on the Southern Area of ocean beach near the ocean side Treatment Facility and exacerbated accretion on the Northern Area of ocean beach near the end of balboa. He said spur is aware of the usgs studsy and reviewing it and yet in the final report the usga study isnt mentioned or even referred to in the footnote. This calls into question ocean beach master plans main conclusion that the only way to effectively manage erosion on the great highway between indiscernible this is also called into question, if the ocean beach master plan process had a predetermined outcome. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Paula. I was just wondering when you will present for approval the 5 minutes indiscernible community and Business Leaders who presented input ideas and insights from Building Trusts. As you know at the march 7 meeting the board decided in this particular situation, the minutes of the february 7 special meeting should include a summary of the panelists ideas and suggestions. I realize you all are very busy and probably working on those minutes when you can and that it takes a lot of time to summarize all that information. In fact todays presentation in item 11 discusses two of inideas demonstrated empathy and being transparent. Many look forward seeing the revised minutes of february 7 special meeting. We think it important the community be able to read a summary of the suggestions and ideas that the panel presented to you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, this is barry toronto. Im very depressed after last weeks Board Meeting in which you took away the rights of permit holders in the taxi industry from able to use a resource that is available to them for very little charge and now you are making it difficult, especially the fact when they start revoking medallions that are used by drivers for their income, but not gaining any actual income for the medallion holder at this time. I urge you and there will be indiscernible for moratorium on revocations and feel you solve the problem of the medallion holders considering a certain class of medallion drivers are allowed to work the airport that is making it very difficult for other drivers to make money and some of the slower days and shifts. I urge you that follow through with your word last week to help build the trust again with the taxi industry and you can start doing that by telling cars from the taxi stand especially 18 and castro and 24 and mission and some of the hotel stands such as on drum street. The enforcement is very lax because they are focusing so much on scooters enforcement that are not dealing with enforcement of the violation of occupying parking that they are legal. 30 seconds. Very difficult to do that. Also there is article in the mission local, a very good article about scooter injuries and i think that it about time you do a better job of outreach to people using scooters about how they must follow traffic laws and be more aware of the surroundings, because they of the speeds they travel and the fact they cannot be seen at all times by drivers driving faster speeds. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hi, my name is lisa church, a d3 residents. I didnt get in during the time you allowed for people unable to come to city hall and per your rule wont comment on that, but i will say, 10 minute total limit is not acceptable for comment. We need to make these meetings more inclusive to the public. On one hand we have the mayor blaming the failure of the financial district on those that dont go to the office, and we do go to the office and cant come to city hall and then we get discriminated in this way. If you are going to limit to 10 minutes which again i think is totally unacceptable you can not let the same person take up 20 percent of every of the 10 minute blocks calling over and over again. I want to see the city be successful in every way. Im tired walking down the street thinking i will get killed by a car at every corner. You need to do a better job allowing people to participate. I really hope you get some courage and make our streets safer. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. indiscernible four weeks ago discussing indiscernible killed in a paint only bike lane on indiscernible that is a 16 year old boy critically injured while riding a bike on november 22. Last week another person seriously injured while riding a bike. indiscernible Sustainable Transportation advocates demanded protected bike lanes and intersections installed between fulton street and sheridan avenue which includes a large section within sfmta authority. These people sent you and policy makers 3 thousand emails demanding action indiscernible san franciscans need sfmta to take action indiscernible present design for approval and install protective bike lanes and intersections on argelo immediately. More broadly, people in the city need the agency to take proactive action to identify streets like argelo boulevard that have identical bike lanes. Unprotected, paint only bike lanes or buffered bike lanes and convert to protected bike lanes and protected intersections immediately. We cannot wait for more people to be seriously injured critically injured and killed on our streets to fix one bike lane at a time. Our sustainable mode share goal is moving in the wrong direction. Vision zero goal is moving in the wrong direction. There is one thing we can do to dramatically improve. Build bike lanes and intersections across the city. No more outreach and process to figure if we are okay with one parking spot being removed. We need to take action now otherwise more people will die and Climate Crisis will get worse. Thank you. Thank you. That was the last caller. Close Public Comment and move to the next item. That places on item 10, consent. These are considered to be routine and acted on by a single vote. All ecspooers providing Public Comment, please identify which item number you are speaking to. Item 10. 1, requesting the controller to allot funds and draw warrants against such Funds Available or will be available in payment to the listed claims. A and b. Item 10. 2, approving various routine parking and traffic modifications and making Environmental Review findings as listed under ak in the agenda. That concludes the consent calendar. Thank you. Is there any questions or comments from bord members on the consent calendar . Okay. We will open up to Public Comment for anyone in the room on consent calendar. Chair, i did have a question. Thank you. This is on 10. 2, specifically the shared spaces road closure permit. I just wanted to better understand that program. I see there are closures for a lengthy period of time and street closures. I just wanted to understand how this is different from our advance closure and other street Closure Programs we have. Yes, director. The shared spaces road closure in todays consent callanden are closures that are rather then single event like a street fair or block party are reoccurring closures so maiden lane every evening dining hours 7 days a week, armstrong avenue is a closure. Larkin street saturday and sunday for the next 3 months so all come out of the shared Spaces Program which permanent now requires this kind of multiple time closure come to the mta board; but it isnt a special event under indiscernible because it isnt a single use. It isit requires greater oversight from the policy body because we say well close the street every saturday or week night for the next year. How are neighbors engaged in the process . I know you do have to get buy in from the neighbors and other folks around street closures and give notice. I wanted to learn more about how that is done with this particular program. Three quick responses. Most of the closures have been going on since 2020so they are baked into the neighborhood. These are largely commercial districts, so places that already have night life and restaurant dining and third, we have a public hearing every week and went through multiple public hearings where people have the opportunity to comment in a formal way and had posting on the white poles in the neighborhood. What is our plan if a neighbor or a business or many neighbors or many businesses come to us and say you know what, i didnt know this was happening, this is interupting my business, how do they engage with us to give feedback . We do get complaints like that by 311. Very important thing we do is make sure that theeach of these has a sponsor. It is Community Based organization or emergency group. We have staff who will go out during the closure times and insure they fulfill commitments. They have commitments to put up barriers and reopen the street at the time the street has to be reopened and if anybody has a driveway can get the car in and out. We make sure the commitments are met. That is what most of the 311 complaints we get about these. We say we are closing the streets, i want to make sure folks understand what that means and neighbors have recourse in the event they need to push back on this. Thank you. Thank you director cajina. Lets go to Public Comment in the room on the consent calendar. I guess is calendar question because i dont know when votes actually happen. When do the board do votes for slow streets . Does it go on the calendar, do we see it or how does that happen . Not q a but happy to let you know. Chenry is slated to come before the board may 16. Any other speakers in the room . Seeing none, lets open the phone for the consent calendar. At this time move to remote Public Comment not to exceed 10 minutes. Members of the public dial star 3 to enter the queue. Each speaker has two minutes. There are no speakers in the queue. Close Public Comment. Is there a motion . I move the item. Seconded. Call the roll. On the motion to approve consent calendar. [roll call] thank you. The consent calendar is approved. Thank you. Please call the next item. Item 11. Presentation and discussion on the 2023sfmta Community Survey results and related feedback from riders and the general public. We have our chief Strategy Officer jonathan here to present this very lengthy and substantive powerpoint presentation. That was the plan. Good afternoon chair eaken, Board Members, chief Strategy Officer. This is a item that the board has been asking for for a bit. Just around the board workshop we had early in this year and we have done subsequent work and so this is the time couple months later to take a different look of feedback we are getting from the public so this is a variety of surveys that we have conducted over the past year starting a year ago about now with outreach on the budget, the riders surveys on a ongoing basis so you see the longterm longitudinal data. The Community Survey last year and done again so you will see changes between the prior survey and today and other data we are using to consider operations and quality of the service, something we are starting a pilot with transit app so a little of the data and real time feedback to inform what we are doing day to day. This is meant to provide the information with a lot of information to the board and there will be a lot coming up on the agenda up until the summer so this is to give feedback and a back as you go out and talk to the public you will have this information to give them a sense of the feedback the agency is getting. To start, at the board workshop there were two important goals part of the workshop. One is Building Trust and also creating Community Connections and so todays information isnt like the regular Public Outreach we do through the projects or various initiatives at the mta. This is scientific and more statistical information from a much broader population. When i say that two things i want to tell the board, it is never good to make a decision based on one event so you want to look at all the information we will be sharing today but when we look at the different channels, the same information we are getting back no matter what the channel is. So, through that we want to demonstrate both empathy we are actively working to hear from the public and from all san franciscans when we make policy choices and decisions,b and we want to be transparent so today you will get good information and not so good information but again we want to be transparent about there things we are working on as a organization. That is two key components we heard from this board about caring so thats practicing empathy so when we hear things good or bad we take it in and listen and understand what we are trying to hear so todays conversation is speak with it the subject Matter Experts who performed the surveys and hear from them and understand how the information is perceived and be transparent. All of the survey and related data will be put on sfmta. Com including the cross tabs and detailed questions so any member of the public can see the see the feedback. Im going to go pretty fast because this is robust. This is year long story which started with what you heard through the outreach through the budget about a year ago today. During the summer we conducted our annualskipped a couple cycles during the pandemic, the rider survey which is specifically focused around muni riders. The Community Survey focused on voters so a Different Group. One thing we learned when looking at the information is perception between riders of what our system is and how it functions for them and non riders is more different then you would think. Something interesting the city survey which looks at just residents of the itisy city and county of San Francisco so riders voters and residents and transit app so that is survey real time for people who are riding muni day to day. So, again this is meant to give real time and longitudinal information to the board so you consider next steps and what this means so consider this a 70 pake booklet you can keep with you at all times of the day and consider policy priorities whether or not on the synthesis of the information to get going. Again, to build that positive relationship with the public, so they know we are Public Servants. We are here to serve them so hearing from them is a important component of our work. We want to seek opinions of San Francisco broadly and generally. We want to stay in touch with issues because they can change over time and we want to balance those results transparently, meaning have open discussion what they mean, whether we interpret correctly or incorrectly todays conversation is part of that. General things i want to share with the board reviewing all this and again you will hear from a group of experts, the view of the mta overall stayed steady. While the general view of government all the way from the federal to state and local believe it or not the public view of the m it rks a stayed pretty much the same. Us as a Government Institution which surprised us. It went down a little, but we maintained that high level of trust with the public and the work we are doing is a good sense of news. We are seeing when we talk to people who ride we are seeing ridership has changed so while the same number of people are using the system, the amount they are using the system is reduced. When the pandemic started remember we had the conversations about we might need to assume 10 to 15 percent of the total rider ship in trips might be gone because of behavioral changes. We are starting to see that is true and making adjustments. Over all across all the channels, 60 plus percent of people who use our system viewed it positively. Again, across multiple channels asking people the question different ways we got positive reviews from the people that use muni. Believe it or not the view of people when doont use muni tends to be more negative. The people who use the system actually have a positive view of the service we are providing and we have seen it is more positive with the people that use the system. A lot of other people get news about muni and news about transportation in the sit a efrom social media or what they hear on the news and that is creating a negative perception so we want to look at this time. We did take a broad and general view, but the people who use our service like it and we are seeing improvement in that area. Finally, we are a vitedal component of San Francisco. San franciscans clearly see that. Clearly see the work that we do here at the sfmta as important and transportation as a core component of recovery of the city. The good things we are key component of San Francisco, the accessibility work we have been doing closing gaps across transit has been seen positive and good. We have seen a steady increase in our Service Quality so again the investment and the risk that this board took and not fully restoring service right away and focus on Quality Service as we restore it has clearly paid off across these channels and overall our Agency Performance stayed pretty steady so thats good. Some things to work on, shouldnt be surprise to the board. There continues to be a concern about safety across the system in San Francisco on the streets and in our vehicles. Whether or not we are responsive and Public Feedback about process and how people get response from the agency is certainly a question. As with most Government Institutions the sense we are most efficient in the way we do business and are we being innovative is areas where this Organization Needs to do more work and we are happy to do that. Thats why we exist and why we come in every day. Just quick responses. These priorities which we talked about with regard to future revenue measures, the component of budget, and the overarching themes what we want to achieve are confirmed as the right thing. The public want to focus on equity which we are. They want to focus on reliability and quality of the service, which we are. They want us to focus on the state of good repair and underlying infrastructure which we are and we continue to want to improve safety and access and this board absolutely has shown that it wants to hold us the staff accountable to continuing to hit our marks in those areas. On the ridership, reminder to the board, we did in the black line reduce the ridership so have seen flattening. The dark blue lines are the actuals for the current fiscal year. Light blue are the actual since the board workshop and those have generally hit the targets f othe revised projection in january. We are seeing a flattening in ridership so things are starting to stabilize and i think in coming weeks when we talk about service and other things well give more in depth update what that means. Ill go fast through the budget can i jump in. What you pr presenting so important and so interesting there are so many things that warrant board conversation and we have 79 slides. I wonder what was your vision for want to move through the entire thing and hold board discussion or did you have a sense of pausing so we can discuss the themes in each section . I did break it up on sections so im happy to take any questions and the team can in any section. These sections all tell a story together so giving you the summary of that now and have each of the experts come and talk about their particular piece but we can take questions along each of those breaks however you like. It is designed to do that. If you like to stop out of the first section we can do that or we can go through the whole thing. Board members do you is a preference . Whats your thought . It is too much to it is too much to hold the earlier slides wont get adequate discussion. Lets just pause and try to be brief with discussion. That was the first section. I can go through budget outreach in 2 minutes. If there are questions on the summary, happy to take those now. Questions or comments on the summary . Directly heminger. Thank you madam chair. I guess a couple things, you know, it always strikes me when we use numbers, sometimes they can camouflage what is really going on. When we say 60 percent of our riders like us, 60 percent when i went to high school was a failing grade, but if you are a politician 60 percent is a land slide victory. I also wonder and this is bit of technical question, because of the dramatic loss of riders during the pandemic, which we still have not clawed back no where near, we have a Different Group of people as a whole as poll respondents riding the system now then we used to, and my supposition might be that a lot of those folks are most loyal customers, and a lot of them dont have any other way to get around, so they may like us more then the folks we lost and some of the folks we lost intentionally. They are voting with their feet and staying home and working from home. So, did you talk to the pollsters about those kinds of potential bias, because the end in the poll here has changed so dramatically. It is hundreds of thousands of people a day. Yes, we did. That is great work by the board. That is a fantastic insight and we absolutely did look at that. When we looked at the rider survey again that is a rider survey and john will cover that how we go through the process of determining that pool and we will talk about that like our numbers went up in that particular area and those are generally our riders who regularly use the system. The interesting thing though is that component that you mentioned director heminger, the people riding 5 days a week to more occasional is flipped in the total amount of ridership. People continue to have their experience but riding less, so that certainly can impact the feedback. On the Community Survey, which was just voters, voters in San Francisco, we deliberately had the data split for you so when we get to that component of the presentation there are slides that show pure riders where people identified that they were a rider regular rider of muni, and non riders and we actually do very well among that graup group and most recently, the city survey, like the city survey just residents so not necessarily voters, not necessarily people who say they are regular muni riders, our scores are as high as they have ever been. We tend to think because of a lot of the reliable improve ments we invested in during the pandemic like core areas of access and crowding and reliability of the system itself, so we did specifically look at all those channels and speak with some of these experts about we are looking at riders and looking at voters but generally in those areas we were 60 percent plus sometimes as high as 70 percent positive among those groups so i think looking at it in those 3 or 4 different ways its pretty good feedback that we are doing pretty well in those areas. Director cajina. Yes, so thank you for mentioning the different types of folks you polled. I think of muni rider i have a profile in my mind of the person rider muni and so if you were to synthesize who are the respondents to the survey, what would Key Attributes be that you can mention now . So, a couplewe did look at the demographics specifically across all of the different surveys because we did want to make sure it was representative of San Francisco. Currently there is a component of our ridership which is what you think it is. It is people dependent on transit, dont have a lot of options, likely using our discounted programs. I dont want to guess about the number but say if we look at the pie it is half or majority of the ridership. The remainder of the ridership right now is people i would say who are wise about their mobility options, so depending on the type of trip or the type of situation, they will ride muni, they will take bike share. We saw change in ridership during the rainy season and had a lot of rain this year, so we looked at the seasonality numbers so they probel do not have the same economic situations as others in San Francisco, but they consider muni as part of the mobility wallet and use the system as a certain core component. The commuters separating demographics and income, we are having problems in that area and again thats the core downtown commuters where we have seen again, the occasional riders that i ride maybe 3 up to 5 days a week. Now percentage of higher then the people we saw ride 5 days a week. That was pretty consistent across many different data sets, so we do have a core component of the ridership that is transit dependent, probably higher then our standard percentages before the pandemic. The ridership growth is largely i say in the mobility wallet folks. As we continue to make improvements in reliability the Customer Information System will be a core component for reliability and use as we put out new Service Products through clipper and change the fare programs we will continue it get those, but the last indicator which what director heminger brought up in the past is fare per passenger number, how much we are collecting, that continues to be flat and tip up slightly. That is also a indicator that a lot of the ridership still continues to be very transit dependent and or is user our discount programs. The one thing we cant measure and wish we could that this work does not get, i admit publicmy my flaws is we are not talking to youth and we made muni free for for all youth. None of the data gets anyone under 18 so it is hard to measure how much ridership is youth. We cant see in the fare data and we created the Youth Transportation Advisory Board to help inform in those areas but they are using the system probably a lot more then we know and they have a lot of feedback they can give us and that i with think is a gap in what we are showing today. Thank you for sharing that. In this survey, did you have questions around are youdo you rely on any discounted programs . Do youquestions like that to better understand to drill down this is the subset of folks that are takingrelying on those programs and we are seeing a lot of wins with them or seeing they are really enjoying our service or on the other hand they are not, it isnt as reliable and useful and yet still take it. Understanding that piece i think would have been great to see in this data. And also getting the demographic information drilling down on that a bit more. Did your survey ask those questionsdo you have that information . It didntone of the questions that you will see is we do ask what peoples priorities are and i think one element of that is continued free or low cost transit, so you could do a cross tab plus demographic tuesday get a sense what that group of people when they answer as high priority what their other perceptions were. We will release all the cross tabs so people who have that as priority what did they think on other questions. We did not ask that specifically but this is why john is here so the next time we go through this and jean on the Marketing Team we can at that again and this iteration what we want ed to get especially from the Community Survey and rider is rider versus non rider because we had a thought that muni might be better then you think and maybe the people are not using it are getting the perception from other place but the people who use it they are our best marketing and advertising. The epipooal people using muni. Their stories and perception. Absolutely. I think part of the decisions we have to make anticipating indiscernible is understanding as we try to reevaluate our fare program is understanding who exactly is our current fare program benefiting and are they actually hard core riders and are they main customers essentially and getting Customer Feedback from those folks is key. I think in future iterations of this survey, it is great to see thati know you have demographic information perhaps in the voter information, but a lot of our folks that ride muni may not be voters. May be undocumented and so that might not be the best way to capture their feedback in addition to the youth component that you mentioned. Just wanted to amplify that to make sure it is incorporated in the next iteration of the survey because it is rich data that we need to utilize for our Decision Making. Absolutely. Thank you. Lets keep going. Part 2 of the story, just toone of the biggest components of the Decision Making on the board is developing the budget and we do this agency produces a large amount of outreach to do that. Just really quickly, these were the priorities that showed up a year ago when you made decisions what would be funded, what could and could not do so reliability, safety, equity, state of good repair, trying to avoid fare increases, which you did, making free muni for all youth, working on Traffic Congestion as the city was reopening and improving the Customer Experience and a lot of comments and discussion from the board came up today around that. Not going through this again, but again, shockingly enough through these channels where we did a open survey, we did two full public workshops, we collected 1200 different respondents from everybody and collected that reliability and safety were the top 2 priorities when people looked at it first and this fsh a year ago. Are we seeing consistency in the feedback we are getting. When people were asked the second priority those two are still shawing showing in the top 40 percent and increasing indiscernible that is the component and people of color was the component of access where we started considering where we were indiscernible the point i want to make, this board was very responsive to the feedback it received from the public through that process and then again just we asked individual priorities so the board wanted to know what things should we invest in as a specific list you see personal safety on buses and trains and stops and stations so that has come up. Reducing delays. A lot of those investments in reliability. Quick and convenience access. 52 percent focus on state of good repair and again increasing the access component muni Service Communities dependent on transit. I think again it was very clear for this board a year ago from the data you received and again we are seeing the same themes. The priorities you set and investments we see that pay off where people are positively saying we are doing the right thing and again as we go through this you will see those same themes show up. With that, i do want to turn it over to john who does our ridership survey. Again this is focused specifically on riders and he will run through his set of slides and the findings from that particular survey. Thank you. Thank you very much. We are local firm here in San Francisco. We do quite a bit of transportation research. Been worked with sfmta over 15 years and work with a lot of other transporation agencies and paratransit agencies in the region. To give details on the survey, this is the rider survey. You will hear other surveys conducted that collecting a lot of valuable invite on all of them but this focused on riders. This survey has been conducted over 20 years annually for the most part and the nice thing is we have tracking data so we can look at the same core questions asked last year, two years ago, 5 years ago and see the trending lines. For myself i think able to look overall satisfaction and key components we asked about year to year and seeing how those changes is very useful. This particular survey is hybrid survey done both by phone and online. Sample size was over 500. Margin of error is plus or minus 4. 2 percent at the 95 percent level, multilingual survey, english, spanish and chinese. This sort of gives you a idea of the breath of people we are surveying, the riders. We are surveying folks who use service 5 days a week, few times a week and get 14 percent who use it less then once a month and so it is a nice sort of mix of folks who have different sort of visibility into the service. Use it every day or just a few times a month. Was that the screening question . We included anybody who used muni in the past 3 years. Okay. Then we asked how often they use it and thats how they responded to this. Thank you. Jonathan brought it up and maybe i misunderstood him, when you did the rider survey, did you not talk to people who were under 18 . Correct. And so for phone survey this type what do you have against kids . We dont. I love to be able to include the kids. For phone survey of this type when you do a interview it is very difficult from a legal standpoint to include folks under 18. When we do onboard surveys you have more leeway because you hand the survey off and they fill out it out themselves but a phone survey in terms of getting thatyou have to get permission so this particular survey and most phone surveys and online surveys indiscernible we got to catch the kids. We are giving them all a free ride. They ought to love us for death. Onboard survey you have more flexibility so when we do onboard survey ontimes it is 13 or over. Not too far off track but mtc is doing a large scale demo graphic study done across a lot of different transportation agencies including sfmta come the fall so wont be data from that wont be available until a year from now but will be comprehensive and onboard and my understanding is will include teenagers. One key questions on the survey is satisfaction. The first chart shows the satisfaction level of riders. 16 percent said excellent for muni overall. 50 percent good, 25 percent only fair and 9 percent poor. As mentioned a key sort of values of this survey is compare. When we compare to the last 2 times we did the survey, we did do it in 2021 that is pandemic survey. Some of the transportation agencies that we worked with, we have data before and data now and so it is nice to have that metric and 2019 which was also prepandemic. What you see is you do see increase in overall satisfaction. If you add the excellent and good you have 66 percent saying excellent or good. It is only 16 percent excellent. A lot of room for growth but comparing year to year you see the trending in the right direction as positivety. And this shows the trending over 20 years where we have the tracking data. If you look at the end of this curve you see that tilt up to 66 percent versus 57 percent in 2021. 59 percent in 2019 and you are seeing other years over 70 but a trnding upwards in satisfaction. This is the same question, adding excellent or good percentage and looking at geographically. We want to make sure we have a balance across the city so you see here is everybody is over 60 percent when you break up into 5 different zones. Richmond, sunset is the lowest level at 61 percent and downtown marina, 69 percent excellent or good. We also asked specific questions about attributes of muni. This is asking specifically about safety, cleanliness, communication with the public. The most part what we are seeing were increases in terms of improvement when we compare to 2021 and 2019. You need to see 4 percent difference but you are still seeing trnding up. Operator helpfulness is up. Take a reasonable amount of time is up 8 percent. That is big number. Frequency of service is up 6 percent. Reliability is up 5 percent. Safety and security is up at 42 percent, but it is still 42 percent so it is still well below what the others are but it improved when you compare to 2021. Thes is a chart that we do with other Transit Agency jz we do here is take that last set of attributes i just showed you and we see how well or how much each correlate to overall satisfaction. This tells you if look on the chart are the attributes that drive satisfaction the most. The one at the up ta, providing frequent service. If you do well on providing frequent service that has the highest correlation of satisfaction. This isthese type of attributes are commonly seen on other transit surveys we do where you see this as the biggest driver. It doesnt mean safety isnt important or cleanliness isnt important, operator helpfulinous all are important but driving ovall satisfaction those make the biggest difference. There are other responses there, but generally looking digitally are the most common reasons. This is multiple response question, that is why those add up to more then a hundred percent. Finally, mentioned before this was a rider survey but if somebody said they hadnt ridden muni in the past year we asked questions. One question was if you could have taken muni for a recent trip, what could have gotten you to try transit for that side of the trip . Think of a trip you took, could have used muni, what could have gotten you to try muni . Increase frequency. People. Want to see that. More direct routes. Faster trips. I was a little surprised, safety is always important and we hear again and again i live in San Francisco so hear the safety aspect how important that is, it isnt as high up as i would have thought from outsiders. This was just a quick question, wasnt focused on non riders and it came up. Still up there, but wasnt quite as high as what i might have thought going into it. That concludes my presentation. Happy to take questions now or if we want to hear from all of the survey experts. Just a quick one and maybe i missed it. The question i raised earlier with jonathan, do you think there a bias going on because the people we are asking are so much different from prepandemic . I think the nice thing about our survey is we ask the question and use the same methodology throughout but your point is a good one because the folks who we are interviewing are different in terms how they ride and certainly not just on this survey most tof the transit surveys we do, the folks who are not choice riders are more likely to be riding. I think in terms of that increase in satisfaction on ours i dont think there is a bias but think there is certainly difference and shift in demographics. If you look at that line that you showed going back several years, the decline in satisfaction started before the pandemic and remember when we had a crowding problem, severe crowding problem. Presented on it. Now that the crowds are gone, one Little Silver lining i guess you could say is that the riding experience is a little bit better and i think you are seeing that reflected. Without a doubt. I guess i wouldnt call a bias but say it is difference. It has perception. To your point about there crowding, when i presented on this 5 years ago, and looked at that priority list, the managing crowding was also up there as the things that really drove satisfaction. It isnt up there now because we are not seeing it as much. Also missing data on crowding because we are not talking to kids. The School Tripper buses are very very crowded in my experience. We are conducting the survey between august and october. This is when the School Year Starts and so it is key to capture families and kids specifically. Questions on the indiscernible english spanish and chinese and we had total of 533 respondents, how many did we have in spanish and how many in chinese combined about 8 percent total. I have to look to see the breakout. The 8 percent is typical for city wide surveys we do. Remember also that the english language surveys we are doing often times those are with folks who are bilingual so choose to do it in english but at about 8 percent. Thats disheartening i will say because i think majority of ridership is probably of the mono lingual population and will say when we talk about muni Information Sources i wonder if they would have a different response with how they prefer to take in information as the daughter of a senior latina woman she gets her information primarily through univision and gets that information through that6 oclock and 11 oclock news so doubt she gets the information online, so i wonder howagain, trying to think who is our customer who are we serving and who are the folks who rely on the services. I call that into question because if we only hear from 8 percent of the population i see on the bus overrepresented any ride i take, i wonder if we are capturing what they have to say about how they take in information and how they feel about our service. Direct were hinze, i see you would like to make a comment. Thank you. I just had a question. This could be for our consultant or jonathan. I know this is a phone survey methodology wise, do we elevating indiscernible do we have any sort of onboard survey data for this cycle at all . If not, why not . I can start but go ahead. I think the last very comprehensive onboard survey for sfmta is 2017 in combination with mtc and that was numbers wise 40 thousand. It was quite a few. It was big number. But it is obviously been a few years since they did comprehensive onboard survey. That is it right answer, being transparent this will give a Certain Group of data and should be cognisant where we get the data from. Also we should use this hearing today where the gaps and both onboard survey is important for various reasons. I think we do want to do observations onboard. I think that also helps with the youth data and some things you pr bringing up director cajina so working with mtc to get in the schedule. Not as soon as we like but we need to make the decision if we want to do one on our own. My personal opinion is it is probably wise but we want to scope that out. I think again youre identifying a key gap where this can help us close and give us another piece of information we need to think about. That was going to be my next question. Do we have capacity to do a smaller onboard survey and perhaps more targeted population s then just the large scale mtc ones that we can have interim data before then . I think i should take that back as feedback from the board, and we arei think one thing bonny jean and i were talking about it, we do want to purview maybe doing focus groups where we can dig into some issues we hear from this board today to what did you mean by thad and get further feedback. We have gotten recommendations from some of this team we should pursue that. The onboard survey is another thing. In 2017 is too old and we are making a lot of decisions based on old data, so i think that is something we will scope out and try to move forward with. Thank you. Thank you. Jonathan, i will ask you budgetary questions, maybe julie, maybe best asked to you. What is our transit budget . What is the budget for the Transit System currently in the latest budget . And dont remember it. Typically about 700 million a year. Okay. Just giving high average. Eme polk just trying to rectify what people are saying is most important to them versus how much money we spend on them. What percentage of the budget goes to cleaning shelter, buses rail cars and platforms out of 700 million . I dont want to speculate. It is component of the budget. I think you can see where im getting. It seems 15 to 30 percent of people said that is a reallyone of the most important things, it is clean and safe. My ges is we are not spending 200 million a year on cleaning and keeping safe these areas. Maybe we are. Interesting for me is how much are we spending on this that seems so important to customers and if we actually spent in line with the percentage people said was the high priority for them and it seems to me it is the claenliness of the places and the shelters which i think we spend all most nothing on because Clear Channels is doing it for us, the actual buses and rail cars and are platforms and keeping those places safe whether its ambassadors,when you get on a busi took the 14 from soma to the mission and it was scary. There was a lot of situations happening that made me feel unsafe and if we just spent in line with percentage people cared about it, what would key use all that money for . I would love to know what is our budget expenditure on cleaning and safety for our Transit System . I understand julie not wanting to say it all now if we dont have there exact numbers but it is like 1 percent of the budget . Is it 2 percent of the budget, 20 . Because that will be i think innuminating for us as a board to say maybe in the next budget cycle we can take a look how much we are spending on clean ing and safety versus other things in the system. Lets not answer that now but you are getting the data today and if this is a piece of feedback we want to integrate into the budget process which breah will be starting. We are heading into the summer and next year is budget year so think well integrate that into the process. What i will say is that again i will remind the board as your retired cfo in the last budget this board prioritized the experience of the Transit System. Fully funding the additional car cleaners we had during the pandemic to improve the cleanliness of the vehicles. Of the priorities and augmentations in the budget, you prioritize these things and we put dollars and staffing and resources to them but we can look at that in proportion to all our operations when we have to make choices in the upcoming year. What seems important to people that we are not already really focused on that we spent considerable amounts of money . It seems like reliability predictions is important but we are spending lots of money on updated system, it is a priority. In terms of speed with the transit only lanes, with efficiencies julie built into the system, with increased maintenance, all that stuff, those are the Intelligent Investments that are costing a lot, new bus yard to increase speed and reliability, to had me the thing that is the x factor we are not spending as much money on as relates to what the customers care bet is cleanliness and safety. If we spent hundred million on cleanliness and safety which is probably how much we spend on predictions, what would the system look like . Probably really different. I guess that is the kind of reaction i have to this. That is why we are doing the exercise. Thank you. Thank you. Director heminger. Thank you madam chair. I would like to continue this line of questioning because it is really about what are we go toog do with this information. I suppose we suppose we ought to take 5 seconds and pat on the back because this is a fairly good report card in a way, but it also seems to me we are missing some messages that we are hearing loud and clear and repetitively in these surveys. Three i wanted to mention, safe and reliable muni service. Safe i reliable muni service. Thats what the riders want, thats what the non riders want, and i think we made some headway there, especially with the Rapid Service in terms of reliability, but we need more of that. In terms of safety, we need to get more cops on the buses, we need more fare inspectors out there, we need to make things cleaner because when they are dirty it looks like they are being ignored and they probably are. So, it seems to me that that one, which does consume this piece of the budget, we got to do better on even though we made i think what i call a good start. Secondly, i do think one of the external influences on information about us is newspaper headlines. What we used to call newspaper headlines, guess you wouldnt call it that anymore. indiscernible you are stuck with that with me. But, when people hear there goes muni again screwing up the central subway or whatever it is, that registers and it is easy to believe because government does screw up a lot of things, but that is also something i think thats not our Main Objective is get good headlines, but to deliver our Capital Program on time and on budget, and show people that we are a competent organization not only driving them to work, but building things that we need to improve the system. And the third one i think is a bit of a coincidence so mindful of not wanting to read too much into it, but i think it was director yekutiel who mentioned the lake street debate over and over again and it does strike me what we saw out there was sort of a full on anxiety attack about our roads, and about what i would call slower streets lower case s. It seems wherever you are on the spectrum, there is something wrong with the roads. There is something wrong with how we are traveling, there is something wrong with how we are treating each other and i have seen it as a lake street neighbor that you got people who are just dying to make a point with each other. They bang on the car because you dont belong here or the car will rev the engine because the pedestrian doesnt belong here and it is just bad behavior so it strikes me that we need to figure out a way to connect this information we are receiving to today to operationalize in the budget, in our programs, in our means of delivering projects, and i dont knowwe got to hire a shrink or Somebody Just the way we are treating each other and director yekutiel i give you credit again, you mentioned at the outset, you cant just take muni and put it on Treasure Island and get it away from all of the things that are buffering the city. We are smack in the middle and might be worse off then a lot of other city agencies and departments because we are soue biquitous and touch so many lives every day. Madam chair, i apologize for droning on a bit there, but i do think we need to extract messages from here and Start Building on some of those places where we have done well and do better in the places where we havent. I will say this is the exact conversations we wanted to from the board. It is 75but it is meant to be a toolkit for you so as you have conversations and as we kick off the budget in the next fiscal year you are prepared and we are prepared to respond to a lot of the questions and feedback we are receiving through this channel. Next this is another rich piece of information, so i will ask luchia to come up and present on the Community Survey. There is is a lot of rich data and we broke it up between riders and non rider tuesday s to give a sense of the strengths and weaknesses. The other thing is remember currently the city 10 year capital plan is going through the San Francisco board of supervisors. We are scheduled to go back on the ballot in november of 2026 to try to get our general Obligation Bond passed so we did test the question because we wanted to get a sense of again what the strengths and weaknesses were in the june election so well share some of that information. We did want to test something and you will find what happened there was more surprising then we would have thought so ill turn it over to luchia. I want to reiterate something i heard from colleagues which is that there is a lot of interest in any future surveys that go out and having this board have a opportunity to shape those surveys and some of the questions that because Customer Service is so important to this board want to have the opportunity to shape and imy personal item i like to add is to get a understandingi still think there is a understanding gap, education gap between what service we have out and what people understand to be the options that they have. Im blown away talking to friends thin Environmental Community who take cabs and take cars and there is a perfectly good bus route that goes there and i gobut there is just the friction. There is a i dont know which corner the stop is, i dont know how to pay for it. I still think there is a gap of people who would ride our system if they could just be shown how, be given a demo, get better information so i want to test in the next survey the understanding gap. People know all the apps out there that help with wayfinding. A little sidenote, we are working on something with National Transit agencies around that exact question that you brought up, and one initial finding we had and again this is among the 8 biggest transit agencies in the United States is that commuters as transit user are very familiar with their a to b trip and how to get there. When you remove that a to b trip we find those same riders have no sense of all the other destinations they can access via the same Transit System. They have no idea and so that type of rider i think director cajina to extent hit that, those are the mobility wallet riders where had they known they could get there it is all most like considering how air lines run their business. Did know you can get to new zealand and the different routes available. The Marketing Manager is here and think she is hearing that and working on this project with me but that is another fantastic insight i think we need to delve deeper into. Thank you. Please go ahead. Thank you so much. Pleasure to be here. Im luchia with if fm3 research. I will walk through the survey. It was chunked into three big buckets so one perception of muni, another project priorities and another looking at the funding. So, it was asorry, i jumped ahead there. It was a dual mode survey so spoke to over 800 San Francisco voters. We reached them through phone calls on landlines of cell phones email and text invitation on a Online Platform and conducted in english, spanish and chinese. The margin of error is 3 and a half percent. Getting into perception of muni, woo asked folks if they approve or disapprove of the agency and we asked sfmta and munifolks heard one version of it and there are virtually identical. 63 percent approve of mta and 62 percent of muni with 1 3 saying they disapprove of either. Bart was majority approval. Caltrain 46 approve and caltrain had more folks not offer opinion with 41 percent unable to offer opinion. Benchmarking getting a sense how opinions are relative in the city about the various transit agencies and we also asked about City Government with 1 3 approximately saying they approve of City Government and majority disapproval. Among riders we didthis is a place where we saw big disparity between riders and non riders so more then 7 and 10 riders approve mta compared to less then half non riders. I should have mentioned this was a repeat survey and some questions we asked in 2021 and repeated in 2023 so able to track attitudes. We also asked respondents how they get around the city. 2 3 said they ride muni 2 or 3 times a week. Majority also said they drove alone. Ride indiscernible 1 3 bart, quarter bart, 1 in 5 carpool and 1 in 10 take caltrain. We also asked folks to tell in their own words they describe muni and then we took back all the comments and we aggregated them. The bars in red were the more negative comments and blue were positive ones. 1 in 5 basically were saying comments that had to do with reliability and inconvenience, slowness, 18 percent said useful, convenient and reliable, so pretty similar numbers there saying the direct opposite of one another. 16 percent complained about service. 14 percent had general positive comments and we heard dirty, unsafe and negative comments to lesser degree going down the list. On the next slidesorry, i took it out but i had sample comments that im sure happy to share at a later date. We did ask about the quality of muni service and this is a question we asked in 2021 and 2023 we repeated it and as you can see, there is a very little difference. 3 in 5 said they felt the quality of service was excellent or good. 1 in 10 said excellent. About a quarter saying not so good and 10 percent saying poor. This was66 percent of muni riders offering excellent or good compared to 48 percent of non riders. We also gave folks a series of adjective describes muni and there was mix of positive and negative and asked them if this described the system well and not well. This was a long list. As you see, a broad majority, 88 percent say muni is a vital part of the community. 83 percent say good for the environment. 79 percent easy to use. All most 3 quarters saying easily accessible, affordable, good way to get where im going, equitable convenient. Those top descriptors are positive. See majority saying slow way to travel, inefficient, crowded and dirty. On the next slide the list continues and these are items divided whether reliable, outdated does a good job service the city, trust worthy, up to date technology. Unsafe from crime majority saying that doesnt describe it well but closely divided. Responsive to community concerns. indiscernible well managed half say it doesnt describe well. Using taxpayer money efficiently. indiscernible also innovative, 57 percent so you have a net negative perception there. Looking at quickly as comparison to 2021 when we asked about these same descriptions, mostly items indiscernible we see at the bottom there fewer people saying it is crowded so that is a positive thing. We did see that evaluations of well managed trust worthy up to date technologically did go down so people are feeling less accurate descriptions then they did a couple years ago. We also took a look by non rider and riders to get a sense where the difference in perceptions were. There were pretty big gaps. We highlighted one here on the slide. A good way to get where im going, 50 percent non riders compared to 83 percent of riders. Pretty big difference there. There was a the comment about crowding earlier. Riders do have a more perception muni indiscernible probably have to encounter it more often. But other negative perceptions like dirty, that is more common among non riders then riders. Riders are also more likely to say convenient and equitable and reliable. We alsothis is continuation of the list but saw doing a good job serving the city rider are more likely to say this described muni well. Quick way to travel, more likely for rider tuesday see that way then non riders. Then getting into the project priorities, we once again asked this open ended style question where we let respondents tell in their own words what they most wanted to see addressed or changed about muni and grouped them. The most common was 20percent of folks said scrime and safety, 18 percent reliability, 14 percent frequency of service, 14 percent wanted more routes, and 1 in 10 talking about lower fares and also maintenance of infrastructure and cleanliness were the top items mentioned most frequently. We also gave people a close ended question with priorities and asked to indicate the first choice and second choice. 46 percent said improving the speed frequency and reliability of buses and trains was the first choice for transportation goal for San Francisco. It blew the other ones out of the water. The next closest was 12 percent say improving traffic flow and 10 percent repairing and maintaining buses and infrastructure. For the second choice, infrastructure was the most common. We also asked folks to choose between whether they would most favor having the most frequent reliable buses and trains even if stops were further from where they live, versus having muni stop close to where they live even if it was less frequent service and we saw overwhelmingly favoring frequent and Reliable Service over Service Close to where they live. 69 percent had that preference and that was a preference that cut across many of the citys demographic groups. We then asked folks about a long list of potential projects sfmta could undertake to improve service. Ask to tell if each was extremely important, very important, somewhat important, not too important and on the right in the column you see who said extremely or very important. At the top where these Core Infrastructure repair and maintain equipment, reduce delays, so reliability coming to the surface, convenient and quick transit access, increasing safety, 79 percent said that is extremely or very important and that was one where 52 percents extremely important so majority felt extremely important. Increasing and improving muni most dependent on transit 79 percent of voters and insuring muni affordable and easy to use, 78 percent said extremely or very important and majority said that was extremely important for them. Upgrading San Francisco aging rail network also top tier item. On this slide, we see items majority also said were important to them but starting to see that dark blue bar that extremely important getting smaller so we keeping trains running, maintaining security and Service Inclusive. 2 3 or more say ing very important to them. Other items in the similar range were improving access to for people disabled, getting muni on firming financial footing, indiscernible kraesing back log of maintenance work. You get the sense it is the next tier. But again it is safer sidewalks, real time display, improving flow of traffic all rank similarly in importance to the items i showed on the previous slide. Finally, we do see that these are items that majority also said was important but again it is a long list so we did indiscernible didnt have to sit through all. They heard half and hard, but again, we see communicating with local neighborhood groups, 60 percent said important and 1 3 said extremely important. Updateing bus yards, adding trandst lanes, adding new subway line on geary and 19th avenue, improving street infrastructure in every neighborhood, expanding ambassador, safe and protected bike lanes, extending central subway, all these majority said very important, but maybe less intensity then what we saw in the earlier slides. And then this is a last set of these and essentially what we see is where there is the dotted line. That is less then half of folks told us this was extremely or very important so more likely to say somewhat or not important so reducing crowding, converting buses to ev, reducing parking and driving lanes. indiscernible we also asked about outcomes if muni didnt receive additional funding. 77 percent were extremely or very concerned having less frequent reliable muni service. 76 percent worried about unreliable equipment and infrastructure. 71 percent about increased crowded and wait times and delays. 64 percent worried about reduced maintenance of San Francisco street and sidewalks. But extreme concern about a third, 30 percent extremely worried about increased traffic and majority worried about that. Having fewer projects for transportation safety. 55 percent extremely or very concerned about that. Finally getting to the section on support for funding muni. So, we asked the question both in 2021 and 2023 about perception of need for funding and we saw that 73 percent both in 2021 and 2023 indicated that they felt there was a great or some need for additional funds to improve the system and 1 in 5 said little or no real need. Again we saw disparity between muni rider jz non riders with riders saying 78 percent saying there was need with 64 percent of non riders saying the same. We split the sample into two halve jz s and we make they are dem graphically comparable and look the same and represent itive of the community and one half heard detailed vurz that focused on muni needs and another more general transportation improvements a little broader framing both had similar or the same Financial Mechanism and amount included in the language. When we asked folks which they favor we asked whether they vote yes or no on the detailed version, 59 percent indicated vote yes are, 31 said they would oppose it. On the general transportation version that was more broad, 70 yes, 23 percent no. Overall support is 64 percent for these. This was one where i dont have the slides, but again we saw riders more likely to say they vote yes then non riders. We did provide some more information about the work to see if learning and having that education changes peoples opinion about willingness to support finance measure and after the detailed version more focused on muni specific spending areas and projects, support went from 59 percent to 62 percent. Definite yes from 32 to 36 percent so we see a jump in intensity and overall support but not a huge shift. When we did it for the more general version, there is no difference, 70 percent to 69 percent so slight dip indiscernible we did see more intensity for the folks who heard this version as they learned more. I will pause there. I realize that was a lot of information so happy to answer any questions. indiscernible director heminger. Just one on this. Is there any way you could dial back to slide 49 . Yeah. Which i have to say is the favorite among the 79 slides. [laughter] this is really astonishing to me and realize you didnt limit to seniors who ride muni 12 days a week but the tact fact there is a huge gap in the tradeoff, tom maybe this is a egz qu to you whether the hill is worth climbing up again. In a way the rapid was a clever compromise because it left the local stops but allowed the rapid buses to bypass them. The approach i would recommend we explore at least is whether we could just go after the stops that are beyond our standards, and speed up the fleet again, reliability, reliability. So, what do you think about that . I know the history has been checkered on this subject. Ill offer comment and maybe ask to talk about the Service Efficiency but i agree this is one of the most interesting slides. This point to the value of doing this survey because while the feedback that both staff gets when we do Public Meetings and workshops and the feedback at the meetings is not necessarily representative of this statist clae sample size . Right, but 24 percent can still make a lot of noise. Sure. Likewise, the other slide i thought was interesting is where slow streets did not rise high and it is a issue people feel passionately about so the value of the survey and helping ground us and maybe the outreach isnt getting to is valuable. indiscernible i want to echo both comments. The biggest challenge that i found in all of our reliability work is that benefits are relatively defused, but significant, but the impacts are very concentrated, so even if youre only hearing from one percent of the 27 percent, you are hearing from very loudly because they are significantly impacted, and so as we approached things like stop spaces we have tried to be sensitive to both of those issues, so a lot of the muni forward work relies on intercept surveys and meeting people at the stops so that we can hear from people that have the defused benefits but might not have the passion to tell you about it at a Board Meeting and we are also taking the deep dive with stakeholders that are very impacted as for example, we review every stop removal with the senior disability action group, so i donti would mint it if i knew how to fully [multiple speakers] i think where we are having that fight, it is where we see the biggest impact. Ill just say for myself and maybe to draw connection to the parking side of the house too, it does seem to me that we fight these battles over and over and over and over again, so we got like more then a 50 percent chance to lose each time and if we had more of us city wide or regional effort, we might just by the law of averages win a few more. So, let me just put that in your inbox. Im tempted since jeff isnt here today to see if we can pass a motion. [laughter] convey the message back to him at least one is interested in maybe charging up the hill again. Im about to be a Senior Citizen myself, so what the hell. Maybe that will help. Any other comments from Board Members on this section . Director cajina. I guess i love to hear fellow directors actually reflect on the response of the respondents who are need for funding and the kind of what language made them more inclined to give us funding. I find it interestingi misread at firstone thing that is worrying, two years later less people think there is a need for funding or at least less think there is great need. The language, it seemsi guess my take away from the language that was more palatable to folks has less to do with muni and more to do with the general look and feel of the city. Fixing potholes, repairing sidewalks, making the city just making the city look and feel better. If im a voter you want money, make the city look better opposed to like stuff that seems inside or internal work we need to do. Reduce delays. Improve transportation safety. I dont know, that to me is as a board member felt like a interesting place and wonder if anyone on the board had thoughts about it . Or you . You hit the point. What wanted to test with that question is if people recall the 2014 transportation and road improvement go bond got over 70 percent of the vote. Unfortunately in june we did not. We made two decisions that we wanted to test. We put muni in the name, which before it was general transportation and focused on infrastructure, when you are trying to win 2 of the electorate, every little decision you make, one lost by 1. 5 percent so wanted to see was that a component of it . Was it the election we were on . Was it some of the actions we have taken and work we fallowed up on the west side of the city and that last bond was largely infrastructure, and so we want today testif we had just stuck with trying to fix the bred and butter, train control, Traffic Signals and buildings, would we have gotten more points to get across the finish line . This data and among the demographic and voter groups show we should be pretty just clearjust trying to fix infrastructure, way behind on the state of good repair, because the voters are very clear that we need to fix infrastructure of the city so sometimes we go with the impression to do laundly list of every priority policy we have to hit every group within the ballot measure itself and so this is kind of what we wanted to test and i was surprised it was that much a difference. I didnt expect it to be this much a difference but among every group you see massive change in preference. If we just focus on we are just trying to fix under lying fluct infrastructure of the system. 20 percent strongly approve of the job muni is doing. So, to me that combined with how many would vote to give more money on a muni related ballot question to me indicates it is a branding problem. Peopleonly 20 percent strongly approve of muni, that means fewer people are less likely to say, i want to take more money or increase the bonds to do it and so i guess this might guide future ballot questions in a way. Obviously want tobetter to do is increaseif there is issue with the muni brand, address that and think it is a death by thousand cuts, it is reliability, safety, cleanliness, all that stuff. I wonder as we think about bringing future thingsdont know what we are allowed to talk about it. Maybe emphasize, infrastructure and muni less could be a good strategy. Just wanted to test many y options and situations so ing this case we tested that question. Director cajina. Y and wanted to our colleague asked us to comment and so im commenting. Yeah, i was struck by that too. I think its as a voter paired down version of anything is easier to digest so think that is big plus. Reduced Traffic Congestion is something everyone can back firmly. So, i think the last statement appeals to not just our riders who seem to really think we are providing Exceptional Service and actually quite supportive of the work we are doing, but also targets the folks that may have impression about us based on those headlines that director heminger was talking about in the previous comments, so i think this by taking our brand out of the statement, i think yes, indicates we do have a branding issue and not sure if thats a battle we can ever win because i just think people justthere is a certain reaction folks get when they have to engage with government generally so not sure we will win folks over but we have to win enough folks to make sure that we have funding to support the work and so i appreciate that you did the study that you got the feedback and data to help inform some of our future approaches to the work. But yeah, i think its valuable information for sure. Thank you for doing this. Not seeing anydirector hinze comments. You want to finish off the presentation . Okay. Going to move us on to the most recent piece of data, the San Francisco city survey. 2540 respondents so resident of San Francisco. We looked at riders specifically then a bigger pool, which included voters, now residents of San Francisco just one slide, but something to note, we were the only Department Function that saw increase out of all the functions of City Government, we were the only ones that saw increase in our ratings. As director heminger noticed, 60 percent of b minus isnt the best grade but one of the highest ratings this organization and muni transit had overall and i think we noted and a lot brought this up today that we were having issues with the system going into the pandemic. Part of the reason we did the muni reliability working group. We took a lot of the concepts and took bets to some extent controversial ones during the pandemic but you can see again looking at this channel, the feedback is positive. In many cases while this board is making difficult decisions, you are seeing positive feedback and that does take time to get that back. The feedback you get immediately might not be positive and gad good but when we look at numerous channels this is showing we are moving in a positive direction and decisions you are making are working. I did want to cover that. That is the most recent. I will turn it over, this is a different partner so transit app is something many san franciscans use. We engaged in a partnership with them on that National Look at transit and also locally. They do a benchmarking transit happiness benchmarking study based on real time information and surveys they get through the app so beth will come up here and run through quickly some of that data. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for your time. Beth, here on behalf of transit to share the results of our recent work sfmta. You may already know or use the transit app, 52 thousand muni riders open the app to get real time information about the rides and directions. Works across the bay area 300 cities. Partnered together to gather feedback from riders using the transit app and this work involves 3 components. Firstly, the quarterly rider happiness benchmarking survey, the rate my ride feedback about the trip and thirdly, helping muni distribute surveys to riders through the app. Lets start with the rider happiness benchmarking survey. Sfmta participated in Quarterly Survey deliver to transit riderss across the u. S. And canada. Asked about riders satisfaction, rider happiness, riding habits and demographics. Lets dive into some of the numbers. The Quarterly Survey measures each agency net promoter score. Muni score is among the top for agencies we survey and has seen improvement over the last 3 quarters from negative 15 last august to 1 this january. Diving deeper into january result outperforming and variety of destinations served. Looking at the demographics, Data Collected in january muni riders are 55 percent non white, this matches the 2020 census of San Francisco overall population. 31 percent are over the age of 45. 57 percent ride 5 or more days a week. 65 percent do not own a car and scen percent have trouble seeing hearing or walking. Next up is rate my ride. In addition to the Quarterly Survey, working to transit to collect digital intercept information from active riders. Along their journey. We have been asking ridesers on feedback like how clean is your stop, how safe do you feel, how crowded is your vehicle, feelings about service frequency, perception of Service Speed and star rater for the trip. The questions are delivered to riders the moment it is most relevant so at the stop we ask to elevate questions on the vehicle we ask trip related questions. Serving as a digital intercept. Because this feedback is tied to trip indiscernible it allows to focus on problem areas and are track improvements. This image shows the stops. The riders that ride most identify. With this information can target to improve the stops and track improvements made through the efforts. Taking look at additional Response Data from riders, overall trip ratings, 90 percent gave favorable rating so 4 or 5 stars. 97 percent rated safety on board as very safe or fine and 65 percent rated the stop cleanliness is not bad. Lastly, also distributed sfmta web based survey to riders in the app using messages on the home screen as well as push notifications. If you open the app now or after the meeting, you will see a message asking riders to fill out a survey for muni. Working with sfmta staff to adjust the questions asked of riders so the feedback continues to be helpful to the agency as it implements and measure improvement to the rider experience. Super happy to answer questions you have and grateful for your time. Thank you. Director yekutiel. As a Janet Jackson fan i like to object to neutral janet as being two levels down fromthere is nothing about Janet Jackson that is neutral. She is a star. She has impeccable chorography and outdance beonsa any day of the week. For the cleanliness data, i guess real talk are we using this to address cleanliness . Great question. At leastthis is pilot, we want today try it out and actually lisa and i are using it for the shelters so cleanliness around the shelters and issues that came up in the meeting today, as noted we have so many resources with Clear Channel how we distribute the service so we have been using this like lisa and i have access to this map and we can see as we get feedback where we are having issues, so lisa is currently working with Clear Channel to redesign the maintenance routes and this is a point of data to help make the decisions because the best feedback is from the riders real time and where see issues. One thing we talked about with the shelter contract with a lot of data was 311. This is a good way for us to get a real time sense of if we are seeing improvements with increased cleaning like are we seeing longitudinally as we contribute redistributing the maintenance. I think this is a helpful point indiscernible the think that hits most about the map, it might be not surprise the civic center tl area is been noticed as a area that needs cleaning a lot but the other areas that seem to be the most complained Mission Street, divisadero, fillmore, union street and geary, seems to be a lot of complaints on geary as well. It is like, obviously people use the bus a lot so on there so i wonder what the skew is with that but if we think where to prioritize limited resources on keeping the system clean, we alsoit is clear that a lot of problem areas are in a commercial corridors where our Small Businesses also are hoping that it be clean and needed to be clean. The only other thing ill say, just very glad to know we are way ahead of the saskatoon Transit System so now i feel better about what we are doing. Any other comments from Board Members . Okay. Feel like we have binging a Netflix Series so now we are in the final episode. The conclusion today. What i want to share with the board and general public, we are trying to hear what you are trying to tell us. Again, we do outreach through the poets team and trying to understand as director heminger what san franciscans are trying to tell us. Again, any of these survey tools is not perfect, but what we want to do is look what they are consistently telling us, the channel, the group, who we are talking to. I do want to confirm that as Public Servants we are responsive to things we are hearing so a lot of priorities and funding decisions you made in the budget are starting to pay dividends. We are seeing again improved quality ratings from the riders, we see more people, ridership tip up every so slowly so the things we are showing some of the decisions we made were good ones. In other areas some noted today, there are areas where we need to work on and we will be transparent about the areas we need to work or collect more data or better understand what people think. Again, when we talk about Building Trust, this is a core component of that. What do we do well, what do we want to reinforce and not do well and how to intend on following up with that. This was exactly the conversation we were looking for today. We will take this feedback and integrate in items. We will come back as we continue to do the work to solicit feedback on additional areas to get data or change some of the surveys. I would advise it is good to get longitudinal data to see trends and data but in this survey we asked a couple different questions to get more real time feedback and information. That is it. Let me know if you have anymore questions, but thank you very much. Thank you so much. This is a illuminating conversation. We do now need to go to Public Comment for anyone in the room on the Community Survey data. No one rising. Lets open the phones, please. We have one speaker requesting accommodation. Moderator, please unmute. One moment while we do that. Thank you. Very good presentation. A lot to digest. I really appreciate the indiscernible highlighted and people from transit app speaking today. I use transapp myself. I have no idea there were more functions other then bus predictions and in some cities indiscernible i am seeing a theme in the surveys. I i feel there are still some communities that need to be heard. There are frequent users of muni. Sometimes im in that group of people who do not live in San Francisco, but use it and are use it often. Sometimes on a commuter bases and sometimes throughout the day. I might do 2 or 3 muni tickets on my phone in a day. How can we hear them because like they said, anybody who pays fire fare on muni indiscernible and so, how can you indiscernible it is good we took a survey. A small sample. It looks like it is fairly statistical accurate sample. I would like to see a muni that is easier to share my thoughts. I get two minutes on this topic and occasionally ill run into oo staff member of muni and we talk about muni. But how can i more deeply engage with muni . That is something i havent seen in the presentation and think we all have more to offer. Thank you. Thank you. At this time remote Public Comment not to exceed 10 minutes. Members wishing to comment dial star 3 to enter the queue. Each speaker has 2 minutes. First speaker. indiscernible i hope you were able to read the comments i emailed you yesterday about the priorities on pages 49 and 51. Page 49, 69 percent of survey takers want frequent and reliable buses even stops more then 2 or 3 blocks away from where they live. indiscernible been removing stops all over the city. This is inconsistent with theer sws on page 51 with the same majority want muni Service Inclusive and accessible to all and improve access to Public Transit for people who are disabled. Removing stops to make muni less accessible for seniors, people who are disabled and who have to walk farther to catch the bus is inconsistency is because mta surveys dont also ask if it is okay to make many folks walk farther to catch the bus eeben if they have difficulty doing so. Many riders dont want their elderly parents and indiscernible walking farther to catch the bus. They are not thinking about that when they take the surveys because of the way the questions are asked. When we were trying to keep our eltaraval stop indiscernible create a hardship for others many thought it important to keep the frequent stop even at the expense of saving a indiscernible it is great mta finally is letting indiscernible but there are two types of stop removals. The riders should be indiscernible all future surveys ask questions along the lines if riders prefer the frequent reliable Faster Service if the stop removal said create hardship for seniors, disabilities and others. Give riders a real choice. This demonstrates empathy and create true transparency. Thank you. Thank you. We have no additional speakers. Close Public Comment on item 11. Please call the next item. Director places on item 12. Discussion and vote pursuant to admin section whether to invoke the Attorney Client privilege and conduct closed session conference with legal counsel. Is there a motion to go into closed session . So moved. We should take Public Comment. After Public Comment. Is there a motion, yes . Yes. Well open for Public Comment for anyone in the room on our decision to go into closed session. Seeing none, please open the phone. Well move to remote Public Comment. Members wishing to cument dial star 3 to enter the queue. Give it a moment. I see no speakers. Okay, close Public Comment. Please call the roll. On the motion to go into closed session [roll call] thank you. The motion passes and the board will now go into [meeting reconvened] can we make the announcement of closed session . Yes. The board met in closed session to discuss the listed daces and voted to settle both items. Places on item 14. Motion to disclose or not disclose the information in closed session . Motion not to disclose. Second. Thank you. Please call the roll. On the motion to not disclosed [roll call] thank you. That motion passes and concludes the business before you today. Okay. We are adjourned. Next meeting is may 16 and june 6. Thank you. Thank you everyone. [meeting adjourned] welcome to the Small Business Commission Meeting on april 24, 2023. The meeting is called to order at 4 30 p. M. This meeting is held in person, in city hall, room 400 and broadcast live on sfgovtv and call 4156550001. The Small Business Commission Media services and sfgovtv for televising the meeting, which can be viewed on sfgovtv 2 or live streamed at sfgovtv dot org and we welcome the publics participation during Public Comment period. Theres an opportunity for general Public Comment at the end of the meeting and theres an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. For each item, the commission will take Public Comment first from people attending the meeting in person, then from people attending the meeting remotely. Members of the public who are calling in, the number is 4156550001. Access code, 24855929788. Followed by password 7221. Press pound then pound govern and added to the pound and added to the line and listening mode only. When your item of interest coming up, dial star three to be added to the speaker line. If you dial star three before Public Comment, youll be added to queue. When its your time to speak, youll be prompted to do so and Public Comment is limited to three minutes per speaker and an alarm will sound when finished and speakers are requested but not required to statement their names. Sfgovtv, show the office of Small Business slide. Today shg well begin with a reminder that the Small Business commission is the public forum to voice your opinions and concerns of policies that voice in San Francisco. Before item one is called, i would like to thank Media Services and sfgovtv for coordinating this virtual hearing and helping to run this meeting. Call item one, please. Item one, roll call. Commissioner carter . Here. Commissioner dickerson . Present. Commissioner herbert. Present. President huie. Here. Commissioner cartagena. Here. Vicepresident zhou. You have a quorum. The San Francisco Small Business commission, an office of Small Business staff, acknowledges that we are on the ancestral homeland homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. As the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramaytush Ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. Please call item 2. Item two, board of supervisors, file 230313, skush side shared spaces permit and license fees. This is a discussion and action item. The commission will hear and possibly take action on an ordinance amending the public works and administrative code presenting, we have supervisor safai. Thank you for coming today, supervisor. Okay, good. Good to see you guys. Thank you, commissioners and president huie and did i say that right . Yes. Vicepresident zhou and all the rest of the commissioners for having me here today. Executive director katie tang and staff. We wanted to talk about a proposal to eliminate the fees that are associated with shared spaces. One of the things you all know better than anybody because youre on the frontline and many of you have Small Businesses, businesses struggled over the last few years and many of them are still struggling and trying to hang on by a thread and so, we came with some proposals in the past. One was a rent Relief Program that we had put forward to the mayor. It was a request for over 25 million, so Small Businesses could pay their back rent. The mayor chose not to fund that initially and then finally, we were able to get 2. 5 million. It literately, we have our director of Small Business, excuse me, director of of the office of economic and Workforce Development, when they put that out, it was gone like that. And theres that demand and need out there as you know. So, we came after talking with many Small Business and many restaurants and cafes and others, when we heard the program was going to be implemented, they felt strongly the fees associated with this, somewhere in many businesses, it can be between ten and 20,000 just for the fees them self to legalize and to stabilize this program. Thats not including the fees thats associated with rebuilding the spaces completely because now the city, ada, fire, building, planning, all the stuff you all already know, that is causing many of them to have to be completely rebuilt, so without these shared spaces, without these parklets, many of these businesses will go under and we have heard that loud and clear and i know commissioner ortiz has been out in my district, in particular, talking to the Small Businesses and they have said, a, we wont pay because we cant pay. We dont have that cash and b, youre asking us to choose between money that we can help to keep staff that we can help reinvest back in the business and keep our doors open. So we saw this as a shortterm Small Business stimulus. We think that it will be, have a Significant Impact and so, what were proposing is, and you can see on the screen, for public movable and commercial parklets to waive the First Parking space and any additional parking space fees associated with that and then on an annual basis, the annual fees will be still and people can, and at that point, pay the annual fee. So, thats what were proposing. Were waiting for the budget and legislative analyst to come back to us and give us a final analyst of the cost and this program is up and running and already operating and i think that the impact to the budget would be minimal, if any because theres not money already in the budget. This is money that will be realized Going Forward. So, were looking for the bla and others to come back and tell us what the actual cost will be after talking to the departments, but again, were framing this and we believe this is a shortterm Small Business stimulus. We think its better to keep the money in the pockets of Small Businesses rather them paying the fees to the city. So. Thats my presentation. Happy to answer any questions or hear any comments or constructive criticism. I know commissioners zhou likes to give me constructive criticism. [laughter] just kidding thank you. Lets see. Commissioner herbert. Thank you, i just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for even thinking about this because its really important for all of San Francisco Small Businesses, but specifically as a restaurant owner, its really, really important that we get some of these fees waived. Restaurants are, you know, a vital part of the health of the citys economy, as you know, and restaurants can also help with revitalizing areas which we badly need in this city and so, i would propose that you take it a step further and waive, not just the application fees, but i think the permit fees might be waived already for two years. I think those were thats the same thing, is that correct . The permit fees are the annual fee . Yeah. Permit is one time and then, sorry, the license is every year, so i would i think its waived for two years, if im not i think thats right. Okay. And then i would raise the bar for restaurants in terms of annual revenue, also, because a lot of restaurants are in trouble even the ones that make more than 2. 5 million, so, again, i want to thank you for that and i think actually we can do more. Uhhuh. Obviously, im a little bias, but no, i understand. Just so you know, we did raise the with talking with the golden gate restaurant association, we did raise the gross receipts from 2 million to 2. 5 million in this legislation who would be able to be impacted. Thanks again. Really appreciate it. And i just want to say, we did work with the ggra on this. Thats great. Thank you. Commissioner ortiz cartagena thank you, president zhou. President safai, thank you. I appreciate your commonsense, legislation, it works, youre hearing your constituencies and hearing everyone around the city. This is what restaurants and Small Businesses need in general, so i appreciate you for bringing this forth and the work you d you really reached out to the ggr a Laurie Thomas and thank you. I appreciate it. We need more. More, more, thank you. Thank you. Lets see. Commissioner carter. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Supervisor safai, i also want to thank you for this legislation. Its really hard for Small Businesses across the board, so any support is, like, i think not only Small Business, all business right now in San Francisco. And i think ill echo what commissioner herbert said and taking it a step further because, is this fees waived for a first time parklet or is it just im listening. Is it people for just getting parking for the first time . No, its existing as well because right now, i think the fees havent kicked in yet, so it would be oh once it kicks in, they will have to potentially pay that onetime fee. Uhhuh. Okay. So, it would be for new and thats how we were contemplating. Great. Yeah. I would say extend it to the annual also, it would be helpful. Okay any other commissioner questions or comments . I know, oh no, no. Go ahead, commissioner zhou. Thank you, supervisor. I appreciate you coming before us with this. Yeah, i agree the gross receipts threshold going up makes a lot of sense because, for those who dont know, the food business is a high grossing industry, but small margins, so high gross doesnt necessarily mean thats the profit. And i just wanted to ask two things. Whats the timeline that you expect since youre waiting on kind of a budget and how can we support . So, we are because this was introduced and coming up close to the overall budget conversations, it might get folded into the larger budget conversations, but were working with the chair to get information, at least accelerate it from the budget and legislative analyst to see the impact to the overall budget and theres some additional legislation out there there was another legislation that was first year free for a lot of business registration. This is similar in that sense because its a onetime, you know, right, youre eliminating the initial fees for the parking spaces, which is similar to initiation fee for a business, so theres some theres some synergy between those two pieces of legislation, so were hoping to move this sooner than the budget if we can, but it does have budget impact, so the timing of it might be folded into the larger budget considerations, which are happening in june. Got it. When we do, well coordinate with you and let you know when its finally scheduled and i believe it will be at the, its an administrative and public works code change, even though it has budget implications so it could be in rules and budget but well let you know for sure. Okay. And then, how does that how does that wind up with when those permit fees are due for, by Small Businesses . I dont think i mean, i might defer the executive director, you i dont know if any of the fees have been collected yet. So, its not like Small Businesses are having to plan, whether they can do this or not, okay . I dont think they are due yet. The timing is making sure they know well in advance. Okay. That was my question. If we have to contemplate funds, whether we get there, well do that but hopefully we dont have to do that. Okay. Commissioner herbert. One more thing while on the topic, i know shared spaces funds itself with the annual fees, right . But isnt it possible for the program to request more funding for staffing from the city thats not uncommon, right . Thats a work around because i know thats going to come around. Yes. That is something that could potentially come up during the budget conversation, so again, i would think that right now if were thinking about waiting to keep businesses going and stimulating the economy, its better to keep the money in the pockets of Small Businesses rather than ask them to pay for operating a program that might not be operating for any businesses if they go out of business. I mean, right now, we dont want to push businesses out of business, so, i know that from what we have heard over and over again, a lot of these fees, thousands of dollars, they dont have it. And i know for the example on the sunset, the inner sunset, that was a significant blow to that business because it cut their seating in half, so which is significant. Thank you. Commissioner ortiz cartagena. Can i add to that, like, you know, ive been on the ground, so, just to revenue the revenue this is going to generate for the city conference by mitigating or adding, like an example, theres a business in your district that if they dont have the shared space, they probably go under. That means thats another vacant storefront. Right thats Property Values and reassessment because i dont have a tenant and and it goes on and on and in addition, the shared space on average employs one parttime person minimum. That creates jobs. It stimulates the economy, so were here to support you that they have to make this happen. This is essential for the economy of restaurants in the city, so. Thank you great thank you. Knowing, i have one question. Knowing that there is going to be some sort of budget, you know, conversation around this, are there opportunities that youve identified to be able to maybe offset, like, support for shared spaces through other programs . Because i know theres other people giving thought to how to make shared spaces just more templated or streamlined and easier to access and easier to say yes to Small Businesses because i think a three thousand fee is significant, but like you were saying, the cost of building a small shared space is often times, like, upwards of 25,000 or more. I would love to know if theres, because ive heard a few different programs thats thinking of ways to make, you know, the first step less of a barrier for Small Businesses and im wondering if theres things on your radar that kind of fit into this plan, like, on holistic basis . Thats a great question. Im glad we have the director of office of economic and Workforce Development here because the truth is that, that type of a request is in some ways, its looking for onetime capital sources, right, because if a business has to invest in a shared space, they might have to come out of pocket, you know, 10, 15, 20,000 just for the construction, but its a onetime fee and for some businesses its insurmountable and thats why its good for, thats exactly in the alley and the realm of the office of economic and Workforce Development. They have pools of money or they can create pools of money thats one time capital dollars that would go into helping Small Businesses. I know for example in this upcoming, we had a budget town hall the other night and we heard from Small Businesses thats looking for onetime capital sources of funding and that can be the, again, it can be the difference between a business expanding, staying open. I know that many of the empty storefronts we have that is one of the biggest hurdles, just in and of it, the dollars on the interior and doing construction on the outside for shared space. Yeah. Thank you very much, sir, for bringing this forth to us. Do we have any other comments up here . No sometime to take Public Comment. Any Public Comment . Are there Public Commenters in the room . Commenters online, press star three to be added to the queue. We have one caller currently waiting. Caller, you can go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is indiscernible . Im calling on behalf of the golden gate restaurant association. Shared spaces as you know has been a program for the survival of many restaurant communities and offered to locals alike. Were grateful the city recognize this and its an ongoing program. Restaurants recover from covid and those brought by the inflation and the storms we strongly support attempts to reduce the one year, the application fees especially measures to indiscernible and to raise the threshold for the 50 discount for fees to 2. 5 million. We strongly believe that the longterm health of the program is essential to our industry and ensure the department supports this program and it needed to be funded and this program is [hard to understand speaker] again, thank you very much. Theres one more Public Commenter. Good afternoon, commissioners. And supervisor safai. Thank you very much for letting me speak. My name is janet talog and im calling on behalf of the Glen Park Merchants Association and i serve as president. I also, im in leadership of the San Francisco Council District merchant association. For glen parks merchant association, i want to echo the sentiment that fees from the city right now are impeded our ability to recover from the pandemic and getting to a place of sustainability over the longterm and the Glen Park Merchants Association is in support of this legislation and we would like to call on the commission and the office of Small Business and the board of supervisors to onebyone find more and more opportunities to make operating in San Francisco more easy and reduce these as many as possible. Thank you. If theres other callers, press star three to be added to the queue. There are none. Great. Hearing no further callers, Public Comment is closed. Are we ready to take a motion . Would someone like to make a motion . I move to support. Ill second that. Motioned by commissioner ortiz cartagena to support this legislation. Seconded by commissioner dickerson. Ill read the roll. Commissioner carter . Yes. Commissioner dickerson . Yes. Commissioner herbert . Yes. President huie. Yes. Commissioner ortiz cartagena . Yes vicepresident zhou. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, commissioners. Thanks for your time and Great Questions today. Thank you. We are just, item three, Workforce Development division presentation. This is a discussion item. The commission will hear a presentation from the Workforce Development division to better understand their mission, programs, and identify opportunities for future collaboration. And today we have kate, and presenter joshua arce, director of Workforce Development and lauran acevedo, Employer Engagement manager, office of economic and Workforce Development, workforce great. Thanks for having me and ill be brief. I wanted to introduce my team and reiterate how important my department sees workforce in the ecosystem of our economic recovery and specifically as it relates to supporting our Small Business community. I was at a meeting earlier this morning and was reiterating as we sort of build toward our new future of San Francisco and take the opportunity of the crisis that we and all of our Small Businesses have been through to kind of cocreate whats next, that our superpower are power. The people who work for our businesses and the people who make each of our businesses something that is a reflection of who we are as a community and our values and that really empowers the businesses to be successful and be profitable and connect with their customers. And i know sometimes when we think about Workforce Development atlarge, we talk a lot about our Sector Training programs. We talk a lot about moving large numbers of folks into Employment Opportunities with big employers but i want to assure you and i think this presentation will highlight the fact that Small Businesses in the dna of our Workforce Development capacity, its the handshake between one individual, one job seeker and one business one at a time and sometimes it can be daunting to figure out how we engage with every Small Business to know what you need and what they need, so its a privilege to be in partnership with our office of Small Business, with our Workforce Development team and so with that, im going to turn it over to director arce to kick it off. Thank you. Thank you, executive director sofsus and director tang and the commission. Thank you for the invitation as the director said. Ill joshua arce and joined by lauren, were excited to share with you what the partnership with our Office Looks Like and its interesting because the slides that you see there, it talks about partner with us. Were so excited about the partnership we enjoy with your team and director tang, Marianne Thompson who is amazing. The fact is that we are working together closely with your office and i think what we want to do is share the work we do together and make sure that youre aware of the Resources Available with respect to the Workforce Development system and how its there to partner and help support the employment needs of the Small Business community, i think, were vividly on display. Last week at the Ferry Building with the Second Annual job fair between the Small Business community and hospitality leaders including the hotel council, golden gate restaurant association, 80 employers came out. Over one thousand job seekers and lots ever folks hired on the spot and everybody got applications that we spoke to. When you look at mayor breeds roadmap to economic recovery, its just that to take those opportunities, those Small Businesses, and i think commissioner herbert mentioned the challenges with respect to staffing up and hiring up in the Small Business community. Its our system here to help be your partner, as lauren will share more about what that means and the offerings available. We want to promote but to really match the Employer Needs with those job seekers thats out there because actually unemployment, we have seen an uptick. 3 as of last friday. Thats since march 1st. Theres 17,000 people looking for work. 17,200 to be exact so its our goal to bring them to the great jobs youre offering and maybe those not looking for work, to bring them into the labor force as a part of the charge of the mayors economic recovery roadmap that we think is brilliant and part of something were honored to wake up and do everyday at our office, so, a couple of slides. Im going to turn it over to lauren and ill do your slides when youre up there. Our agenda is about us. The workforce resource availables and Partnership Benefits and this is a resource we hope to Work Together to share with you and the Small Business associations that are out there and networks. Some feedback around employer researches and Contact Information to stay connected here. Well talk about a workforce link assess platform where theres thousands of those looking for jobs and hundreds of employers growing everyday. We can go to the next slide. Our office here is it has a shared mission with the office of Small Business and its to create a thriving and resilient economy and barriers for removed and i think within bold, you see there, the highlight around prosperity that can be shared by all, which is certainly key to what the mayor called our economic recovery that is equitable or equitable economic recovery, so our mission at the Workforce Division is curate and support this Workforce Development system, which is a very kind of policy and wonky way of saying, how public, private and Nonprofit Service providers to support those job seekers in the Community Help connect with employers. If we can go to the next slide. Job center was the first point. We fund job centers in neighborhoods of need. This has grown in recent years to help to immediate the moment across San Franciscos neighborhoods expanding on the westside, but you can see through here, the different job centers you can see by going to oew dot org workforce and you have the address on the site where folks can visit and call in and drop in an email, the different job centers, which are in these neighborhoods here. Community based partner thats do a terrific job of bringing you into the workforce system if youre looking for a job much you walk in and say im looking for work or a better job and youre in and these are, what we call job readiness services, support with your interview skills and resume and referring you to employees. Ill turn it over to lauren in a minute. We have, youll see on this site, job centers for those with need and limited English Speakers and those with justice and those with disabilities and veterans and Community Members accessing the workforce system. Training programs are where were investing in sectors and industries where theres a pathway to quality jobs with something short of a full on educational certificate or degree, although we partner with San Francisco state and city college, in trying to bring those individuals into the workforce, helping meet the needs of folks who are out there looking for a job today or tomorrow and may not have two or four years to do that. We offer together with unions and employers and together with nonprofit partners, pathways to get a foot in the door in technology and hospitality industry, and health care and construction through our longstanding City Building partnership which is going on its 17th year and ill introduce our Employer Engagement manager, lawyeren acevedo and ill do your slides. Thank you, director arce and sofus for the introduction and were good afternoon, commissioners and president huie. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to share information about our workforce resources. So, for the first part of our presentation, michael is to demonstrate how easy it is for businesses in San Francisco to access workforce resources and also highlight some of the benefits in partnering with us and ill begin with our Workforce Employer concierge service, which essentially helps promote jobs to our network of job seekers within our Workforce Community Partner Network and we can move on to the next slide, so, there are many benefits to collaborating with oewe and just to name a few, we help businesses with hiring locally with accessing support with free Recruitment Services and also accessing hiring events, like the hospitality and Small Business job fair we hosted a couple of weeks ago in collaboration with director tangs team and the office of Small Business. We had over one thousand participants attend this event to connect with over 85 employers, so thats just one of the services we can provide to businesses in San Francisco. And additionally, when businesses work with our team, were also promoting their jobs to job seekers that have been trained in the different sector focus areas that director arce mentioned in hospitality, healthcare, technology, and construction. So, now im going to talk a little bit about the employer experience, so what its like when a business interacts with our team here at oewe. The first step when a business connects with us, we ask them to register in the citys free job matching portal, workforce link assess and you can think of this as an indeed platform, except its free, easy to use, and when you sign up with workforce link, you get connected to a Concierge Support Team member to help your business are, add your jobs to the system and review applications and get connected to our Community Partners. Additionally, with workforce link, you can access it on any device and as ive mentioned before, a really neat feature about it, you get access to a portal where you can log in and keep track of applications that have come in from our cbo Partner Network. So, once your business is registered, then you get connected to an Employer Services specialist, who acts as your concierge support, and generally we like to try to schedule a call, learn a little bit more about your business, your hiring needs, and also see if you are seeking support from any other city resources and figure out maybe where we can make other connections for you for a business, such as connecting a business with the office of Small Business. So, again, just i want to mention that partnering with us, with Workforce Development is very simple. It takes about five minutes to register in workforce link, to connect with one of our team members, add your jobs, and get connected to qualified local talent. So, we wanted to share just a couple of employer testimonials and i wanted to highlight one testimonial from bandago because some of you may know, former president lagana is the president of bandago and we had a great experience partnering with them and as their operations manager, ashley myers, highlighted that the normal job sites produce underwhelm results for a growing company but when they turn to the office of economic and workforce develop, their inbox was filled with candidates and ready to be a part of their team. So, i hope this presentation was informative and we look forward to building new relationships with businesses in San Francisco to help them access our resources and find local talent and im going to pass it back over to director arce and were happy to answer any questions what you have. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. Thanks, lauren. Thank you, president huie. Happy to answer questions or thoughts you have. Thank you are the presentation. It was good. I learned a lot. Commissioner ortiz cartagena. Thank you, director. Thank you, lauren. I want to commend you especially your job fairs. They are amazing and they keep Getting Better and i get feedback and they are getting jobs, which you know, its dope. Its really working, line a city program and agency thats like a city program and agency thats doing what they are supposed to do and work link, man, thats so good. Like, its really, really good. Its intuitive and it does work. Small businesses, i cant promote it enough. Like, i wish we could get it out there more because its a good, good system. Seriously and i appreciate yall. I mean, i dont say much about other City Departments, but [laughter] you guys are rocking, so. Thanks, commissioner. Commissioner carter . Great presentation. And even framing it as a concierge, i think thats really, really great. And i wish i would have used it. Ive spent a lot of money with indeed, so its great. Im curious how guys get this out to employers and also, the job fair was great . I saw the pictures and heard different people, like yall had it packed, so that was really great. Ill curious how does employers find out about this service . Thank you for the positive feedback, commissioner carter and really, believe it or not, its word of mouth. Its folks like our director here, executive director for the office of Small Business, director tang promoting. Yall kind of encouraging individuals. Its a part of our flyers, but we have been, i think due to the pandemic, this tool was something we developed in response to the need for Something Like this. In the absence of being able to do the job fairs and so, i think with the indiscernible who is our Workforce Solution manager who developed the platform, we piloted it and do what they called the soft launch and with our hard working Service Providers, every grantee of our office, which is a job center or coordinator for the different areas of opportunity about, i want to say 30 to 40 different organizations. We give them free licenses, so they can use and sign up other clients for free at no cost and we do training so they can do that, so thats on the job seeker jobs and with respect of doing more and more events and true believers, former commissioner lagana was a big proponent helping spread the word and a number of yall have done that and director tang and others and the mayor has promoted it on her social media and it has been a grassroots word of mouth. It has given us the ability to tinker and work through things and now we can send Text Messages to those, see you at the job fairs and we were able to sign them up right then there and drop it on their computer because its based on sales force and we use it as a checkin tool. Those who go to the job fair, the first thing you do with volunteers is say, hey, im here. You checkin and we know you have made it and we can follow up. Hey, did you get a job. We can call the employer and see how it works out through lauren and her team. Its a grassroots approach here and were excited about the potential to promote it even more beyond the word of mouth and proven success record. Great commissioner zhou. Thank you. Thats good stuff. Thank you so much for telling us all about it. I think my question is geared and my suggestion is geared towards how do we reach neighborhood ecosystems and micro businesses, as they were ten or are less employee businesses . And a partnership that i really would love to see would be with the council of district merchants because i think were having a kind of an in our attempt to build capacity for Small Businesses, were siloing their resources a little bit, so while theres a lot of funding for activation on corridors and that sort of thing, theres not a lot of leverage capacity for Small Businesses hiring within their neighborhood and unfortunately, i think a lot of avenue green light funding wouldnt accept proposals like that because it was too, you know, Small Business focused but we all here understand that an eco system needs participation from residents and Small Businesses as a whole and so, i mean, my question and you know, with the recommendation in there, have you had any successful kind of Success Center hosted neighborhood based, hosted smaller job fairs and what, you know, what could you envision in that kind of regard . In the moment, thank you for the question, commissioner. Ill turn it to lauren in a moment because we had the pleasure and opportunity to present to the council at the request of the invitation of bill barnacle and mayor lauren can share follow up with that, in terms of ideas of conversation with the district measure merchant representatives but we had support from our colleagues at the Community Economic development department. Director deanna and her team have been great in promoting these events in the corridors and areas they serve as well, but i think its a great idea in terms of something we have kind of talked about, making sure folks in the neighborhoods know theres this resource, but even beyond that. That they know theres a job center in their area. It may be measure xhants on irving or those may not know selfhelp for the elderly and they operated in china town. We funded their support to open up a Satellite Office in the sunset richmond. But any thoughts following that presentation with the council . Thank you, director arce. I was one of the task as the employer employment manager, im trying to bring more visibility to our workforce resources in general, so we did have one presentation with the council of district merchants. I would welcome other, if there are other opportunities to get out into the community to speak with businesses directly about workforce link, about Workforce Development. Im definitely open to those opportunities to come out and share information about our resources and Job Center Partners because oewd, we have been hosted larger job fairs, which have been quite successful. Our job centers also host job fairs on a more regular basis and those that were always, im always trying to connect businesses that are, you know, mart commercialing with Workforce Development to those job fairs as well and connecting them with our job centers so we can help job seekers in different neighborhoods in this city get access to opportunities. Great thank you. I guess just a follow up to make it more specific. I think the b to b culture, like, Small Business to Business Culture could also be an addendum to thinking about workforce because we have a lot of Small Businesses that are actually just selfpro pie tore, so south of market, the neighborhood needs owe their measure chabt couldnt get funding f. Youre looking for a daycare and looking for clients, come here, if youre a small poster service, come to this and table because people from the neighborhood will be there, so something really specific to the existing landscape of a certain neighborhood that can encourage both small employers, sole proprietors and expanding the workforce bigger than what i see a lot of times as a narrow business and a big business and Service Workforce and so, i think, i mean, any encouragement in diversifying what those hiring Services Look like and being neighborhood specific is a high need in my experience. We appreciate that guidance and i apologize, commissioner, i misspoke. Bill asked for flyers and he had the sunset and it was massive at the merchants that brought us in, i want to say, it was the night of the Power Outages, so we were doing on zoom and he was very gracious in introducing us and giving us time to share but its a great topic to follow up on. Great. Those are the executives. We need to get to the Business Owners in those neighborhoods for sure. And give them some leverage your capacity and you have so many resources. My question is how can we better get these to neighborhoods. Thank you for that guidance. Thats a good its a good charge for us. One day, its a sigh of relief because it takes months to plan but within 24 hours, its wear neck. Those are good ideas. Thank you for your work. Commissioner herbert. Thank you for the work youre doing. Its so important. I just had a question and then, do you have a way of measuring how youre affecting employment or unemployment in some city . Do you have a way of reflecting and looking at numerically, seeing a direct correlation between the work youre doing and how its affecting the job or unemployment in the city . Yes. We have a few ways and one of the things we do is, its the Unemployment Rate, so even though we have seen something of an uptick in recent months, were able to do a few things. One, when an employer of a certain size and scale, its usually large employers, if theres an instance that is of 75 or more workers laid off, we get a warn notice. And i have a feeling youre familiar with the warren act which is a notification by the state and federal office that they are laying off workers so those letters are required to go to the mayor of the area, so it goes to mayor breed and required to go to the workforce director and the state of california. We log those and we have seen obviously, it was much publicized layoffs within the Tech Industry, thousands of individuals, unfortunately losing work with about two months notice but we have been bracing for what thats going to do to the economy and to the Unemployment Rate. Thankfully, a few things happened. Lauren and her team, mae tang is her response when we get the notice, we offer resources and services, support, alternative means of employment and covered california and all those things you need if youre going to lose your job. We have seen those workers transition into other tech firms or other employers who are with the next phase of technologies and industry youre seeing. A lot of employers may not be in the Tech Industry want tech skilled workers and theyve been hiring folks in their offices and we make the match smaller. Because were able to get a sense of how many people we get through the reports on the workforce link or Service Providers who on any given year are serving about 7,000 individuals a year, during covid, it was larger, like the essential resource hub and bay view and down into visitation valley and served up to 12,000 individuals when unemployment was as high as 13 , so the number 16,000 17,200 is the number of individuals looking for work as of march. Were able to see some kind of section of, do we have a relationship, do we have, through our Service Providers or workforce link platform or our direct services staff, what is known as our Community Engagement team, were able to know based on resources such as our hotline and other services, who is working and not working and we can put boots on the ground to make sure folks have options, if they know about Small Businesses thats hiring or anyone at all thats hiring to help make that match. I think, were able to point to the data shows the Second Lowest rate in the state. When you look at San Francisco, despite changes in the economy, still keeping an Unemployment Rate thats again, Second Lowest in the state, its because were working together in this way. Even though employers have experienced some, releasing of their workers, we can Work Together and collectively to get them rematched and the best example i think which is work which is the janitorial union. Thats due to remote work and businesses releasing their releases. But at the hiring event for example last week, with all the work available in hotels which is a booming industry, we were able to work and have shuttles from the Janitors Union over to the Ferry Building and a lot of those janitors got on the shuttle and went to the hiring event and walked away with jobs at Different Hotels so i think theres the anecdotal and knowing were doing everything we can and then when we see were able to hold and not see what we would have thought thousands of new individuals whos looking for work who were laid off, were seeing a few hundred per month. We want it to be nothing and go back down to 2 where we have been, but those are the ways we can track empirically the impact of our collective efforts. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that was a very good story, by the way. The janitor, i mean, i feel like we need to [laughter] we need to release it with that one. You know, i also wrote down here, oewd with lots of exclamation marks so i want to commend this team and ecosystem youre building and im looking at director and director tang as well, i want to commend you as a resident and a Small Business owner. You know, like, thank you for kind of seeing how this whole system comes together and how it is all interconnected, right. Like you were saying and i think its not about, like, solving for a time but making the whole thing come together for everybody. Thank you so much for having that perspective and point of view. Its making a huge difference in the impact of life, you know, for many san franciscans. So, thank you. Thank you, president huie and are thank you to the director and having the foresight to make this connection. Business leaders and we feel we can do everything. Thank you, president huie. Thank you. That brings me to a few questions that i had. How Many Employers do you have currently on workforce . Or workforce link . Its interesting you say that because i was literately loading just in case we get the job seeker [laughter] so, as of today, currently, we have a little over 700 employers in workforce link thats teams that that engage with this past fiscal year. Okay. Thats super helpful because then, i mean, on the scale, its how many businesses we know are out there. We can try to get that number up and maybe we can kind of credit how, in just our regular communications. We have just finished a survey, that could have been an opportunity for us to encourage people to sign up and things but Going Forward, that would be really, i mean, the presentation, i think, showed me how simple it is, which i think in my mind, i think i didnt realize how easy it is because this is really something that, like, when you talk to people in neighborhoods who have actually tried different types of workforce programs, they are, like, this didnt work out. Its hard. Its a match making kind of, like, thing, right. So it doesnt always work but the thing that i find really interesting about your presentation, it showed that if we just all kind of get on it and use it as a tool, thats where the strength comes from, right. Its kind of, like, the whole, like, mapping situation before. You need everybody to get on and start using it and so, im excited to see that type of, you know, activity. The other thing that ive noticed is, for a lot of employers or a lot of Small Businesses, i think consistency is really good. Having these job fairs consistently, whether people are coming or not because i think things kind of flow, but that has been a real key for a lot of things that people can count on it when it happens. Like you were saying, i wish i would have known about it but the way the business goes, its like well always be in that cycle, so to know this is a reliable, you know, support is really great. Oh, and then the cbos getting on, i think youve mentioned that, because ive been getting i ran a Merchants Association in the Richmond District so talking about neighborhoods as trying to get the little people. Thats what i thats who i am. Im the little person, so [laughter] thats funny because our team, were developing a Walkthrough Mission of indiscernible . They put the sign [foreign language] so were going to go in with some ipads and were going to because mont lining fwal and sign them up. What does that mean . Like, a lot of people put help wanted for a cook or chef. The old school. On the they put it on a piece of paper. So the team, they are going to walk the corridor and signing people up working for them because its not the language as opposed to technical aspects so partner with the cbos and we did a lot of work through the Employment Hub and bring going into the neighborhood, just, coming out there and sign up. Yeah. Yeah. I think your grass roots approach is how San Francisco likes to operate. Its wellaligned with how we move through the world. And i forget what i was saying now, but the students. I was wondering about, you know, what your i talked about cbos and we but there have been several cbos who come and approach me as a merchant association. If they are not signed up, they should sign up with workforce to be on there, right . They should. The one thing i was going to say, we purchase licenses annually for, up to two and if folks, some of the Community Partners need a third because their staff is so active in doing the work we fund them to do in terms of recruit job seekers and help them get placed and they use this to get them working. Were happy to provide this for free. This is for Workforce Development systems partners and mostly having that license, it allows us to go into the information, like the client file information, like the personal and private information about the individuals journal and their skills and things thats more informative for someone who is helping to make the connection as a job developer and the employer, what were looking to do is make sure communities we serve are presented just as qualified as anyone you might recruit off indeed or resource and partner what we do is because our business concierge or employer concierge and first place hiring staff are doing prescreen and might say to someone, hey you applied to that position, it might be a stretch. Could you look at this instead of that so employers are seeing folks we hope they will find qualified and this isnt the only platform we would encourage employees or job seekers. Lauren thomas at the golden gate restaurant association, sometimes its a snap shot in time and you might get a lot of folks that apply and may not get many and you may get more through craigslist or applicants through other tools but its a free platform thats really quick and easy and back to your economy, president huie, about the Community Partners, theres nothing that should hold a Community Partner from two things at a minimum. One, an introduction with us. We would love that because we can Work Together and help to support the individuals that they are supporting in their job search. And two, nothing stops that Community Partners from helping the individuals sign up for free on the workforce link. Its free to apply and post as an employment and the Service Provider partners who we have grants with have access to the licenses to do the work to facilitate an application and log in and see if an employer followed through with hiring offer, if one was made available or maybe to encourage an interview or pick up the phone and say what happened to the applicants. What can we do to support . How is it going . Thats the work on the backends on the sales force license we grant to the Service Provider partners. Thats helpful. So, oh. Speaking of students, knowing there are many students who are often times looking for work, i feel like that would be a great neighborhood or different sector or whatever kind of spot. [laughter] so, we have some students here. [laughter] its an example. They were part of the programs and they are employed at the cbo. Thats case and point working. There it is. Congratulations [laughter] yeah. Actually, one of the things we have partnered with the Human Rights Commission around the opportunities for all program and the different of children and youth and families, its something weve talked about, executive director sofus mentioned it, as of this morning, reestablished a Citywide Committee on workforce alignment and one of the things weve talked about was to develop a system whereby the programs for youth that were investing in helping to create success in terms of careers longterm with our students, that we have the ability to know an individual is looking for their paid internship thats available to every student in the city and count and simulate if were working with employers and saying, can we send folks your way to go into a similar platform. Maybe its us or a platform. Theres talk about family youth and families and the work they do with students. Our office with transitional age youth and adult and older adults to try and find one system to where we can make it easy for someone to say im looking for an internship or something this summer or parttime job or doing any any of these things or someone looking for work, workforce link dot org is a great place to go. Thats one sector we dont give enough credit to. They should have that work experience. Lastly, this is not so much a question, but really i guess, words of encouragement from Small Business is that, i think in the future, i would love to see young people, jock seekers, whoever, have that entrepreneurial spirit and think about themselves as their own Small Business and be able to move through the world, like, feeling empowered that they are going to find their next opportunity and that their time is valuable. See so i think if theres a way to help job seekers not feel like they are under the control of finding, i have to find that next piece that im empowered to figure out what my next move is going to be. I think that would be beneficial for all of us as Small Business owners because we have people working with us, verses feeling like they are working for us, you know and i think that would be a really nice place for our city to be in as we use words like cocreate and collaborate and things like that, to have young people as well as people looking for their next opportunity to feel like they are excited to be a part of our businesses. I think that would be great, so anything we can do to kind of help with that and promote promote entrepreneurial spirit and im speaking on behalf of all of us. Thats a great idea. Thank you, commissioner huie. Any questions. Director tang. Thank you, lauren and the entire Workforce Division for all you do. One thing commissioners, you may not be aware of and i want to add how we collaborate on a regular basis, there are situations where there might be a fire that has unfortunately destroyed a business or for some reason, theres . Catastrophe that happens and director arce mentioned mae ing who reaches out and figure out what Unemployment Benefits there are and resources and we collaborate on those, i mean, unfortunately, theres some situations thats terrible but the Wraparound Services we provide as an oewd program. For your partnership and the team. Thank you, director tang. Thank you all, commissioners. Thank you. I think we have to take Public Comment, right . Yeah. Public commenters on the phone, dial star three to be added to the queue. I dont see oh. We have one caller. Go ahead. Good afternoon again. This is janet from the Glen Park Merchants Association and also the San Francisco council of district Merchants Association. Its nice to hear our association mentioned at the meeting today and i just wanted to expand on a couple of the comments made by the commissioners, so commissioner zhou, really, what i think is an excellent idea, which is to bring job fairs into the commercial corridors. I think thats an outstanding idea, but i also think it might be worth thinking about having job fairs that are industry specific. So, restaurants or brickandmortar retail. These industries are really, really challenged by the low Unemployment Rate, trying to find a reliable workforce is a major drain on resources. So having a free opportunity to access job seekers is, it sounds like a really great thing. I was at the meeting that was referenced with the Power Outages and everything and i hope that resulted in some of our members with the council reaching out for more information. But another thing i wanted to make a note of, president huie mentioned about fostering an entrepreneur yall attitude or spirit amongst job seekers and i also couldnt agree more with that. I think job seekers need more help with financial literacy, with selfadvocacy skills, with placing themselves, selecting jobs that will be good for their careers and their futures and indiscernible with their family life and things like that and i think theres generally not enough attention to that for job seekers, so otherwise, it would be a good job match made. Thank you for allowing me to comment. Thank you. Any other callers . No other callers. Great. So, hearing no further callers, Public Comment is closed. And thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you, commissioners. Yeah. Thank you executive directive tang. Shop dine San Francisco presentation. This is a discussion item. He commission will hear a presentation on the rebranding of the shop dine San Francisco initiative. Presenters Marianne Thompson, Small Business engagement specialist and michelle reynolds, Small Business programs and communications manager, office of Small Business welcom welcome marianne and michelle. Hello, thank you. You know how to get us happy. I know. [laughter] thank you. Okay. Good afternoon, commissioners. Director tang, president huie, vicepresident zhou. My name is Marianne Thompson and im with the office of Small Business. Yes so, im going to do the history of shop and dine in the 49. Michelle is going to do future. So, two of you, commissioners, have had presentations from me in the past. It was started in 2014 with mayor lee, who used to have a quarterly roundtable with Small Businesses and one of the things they came forward with is they wanted a buy local campaign. At that point, it was, how do we get people to shop in the corridors and ill say we partnered with emc research in 2014 to actually do some research for us and it turns out that people understood by local, but there wasnt a thing that resonated with them to buy local. It turns out jobs was not a good talking point. Poor josh. Hes going to go, oh my god. When we talked about what resonates with residents and what resonates with folks, its the vibrancy of our corridor. That hits people and gets them to shop local. I want to share this one fun fact that came out of emc research. Most people 50 and older really understand buy local. They really understand the value of shopping in their corridor. They know their merchants. They know their Grocery Store person. They know their bar owner. Most people 50 and younger did not. So that was the key features that have survey. So, again. The goal was to get folks to shop in their local corridors. When we started this campaign, we went citywide with our images. Mostly because it was a brandnew campaign and we couldnt figure out how to get people to understand how it applied to their corridor, but how it applied to the city as a whole. As you can see, a lot has happened with this. So, weve had many, many partners over the years. Everything from the chamber, to sf loma and sf travel. Every year, it grows in terms of our partnerships. . Years, in 2020, our partner was the department of Emergency Management because our goal was to say, how do you shop local during a pandemic, right . How do you get people into the corridors and shop safely . Over this mast few years, 2022, 2021, master card, our cbds met and shop its important to understand that this is and youll see it in the next slide that this really, this program depends heavily on our partnerships. Every year the city funds it to the tune of 30,000 a year. Thats what we get in our local budget, in our budget. What we raise, we get from the private sector and those are partnerships we have with shopafy and square is an amazing partner all these years and they are always coming to the table and saying, what can we do and how can we support you . In 202021, we had Great Partnership with master card. We did the holly Jolly Trolley and came into a neighborhood corridor near you and brought you a trolley cart and care letters and hot cocoa. A variety of different yes, yes. The one we did, so we did it by sector, so one night we went to the mission and have lens yall valencia. This extends on our partnerships and we had a robust collateral. We had 300 indiscernible you have seen with an old expired campaign. Weve had maps. We had a cable car that was theme to shop and dine in the 49. We press releases and do bus shelters in local newspapers and psa and iheart radio. That de that depends on the partnership. The psa was with master express. We leverage everything that comes our way. Just a few of the partnerships weve had over the years. Dear week, we partnered for a metallica partnership. We provided the Small Businesses that can pop up at outside lands. Weve done things like bookstore week and just all sorts of different things. What i think most of you know know to be the key signature events about shop and dine is the city hall popup, which happens twice a year. Okay. So, this gets us to our brand refresh. Hello, everyone. Let me adjust this mic. Thank you for having us. Michelle reynolds from the office of Small Business. I do communications and program management. As marianne mentioned, briefly, so the shop and dine sf or shop and dine in the 49 has been under oewd and when marianne joined our office, oed came with shop and dine. Very shortly thereafter, we worked on a brand refresh to modernize the look and feel and Bring New Energy into the campaign. And to do that, we worked with a design firm lower Case Production that has a long history with shop and sign in the 49 and so brought with them a lot of expertise and knowledge. And so here, you have the brand reveal and on the left is the before and the right is after. Theres a new name that goes along with it. Shop and sign in the 49 became shop dine sf. Very simply. And that comes along with it, a new website and new social media handles. Next slide. So, in regard to the name, one of the pieces of feedback that we heard consistently was that shop and dine in the 49 can feel a bit like insider lingo especially for visitors who may not know thats referring to. And in the 49 can be difficult to translate into multiple languages so for those reasons, we opt for a simple name, shop sf. We chose a rainbow color palette. It has variations by the designer and i tended to be intended to be playful and vice blant and make you want to go vibrant and go shopping. Theres also, within the brand specifics and we can add names to the slide. When theres neighborhood projects that come up, we can customize them by neighborhood. The new website we have, sf dot gov slash shop dine sf is utilizing the citys own technology and Digital Services department and the benefits over the previous website which was shop, dine 49, shop and dine 49, so if hard to remember, it include that the sf dot gov platform is skew and free to use as a City Department and automated translated into spanish, filipino and chinese. Additionally, it is accessible to individuals who use a Screen Reader or assisted technologies and one of the things weve started with utilizing our website with campaigns is those that we launched this in late 2022 for the holiday season, we did a shop and Dine Local Campaign and then in early 2023, we created an online and social Media Campaign for the Lunar New Year and were in progress working on a campaign for, centered around the Mission District and carnival San Francisco, so that will come out in a few weeks so all of those campaigns are designed to promote events that are within commercial corridors as well as shopping guides, neighborhood directories, that sort of thing. Events, we also have. So coming on the coming upside of things is that were officially rolling out this new brand to start with Small Business week, which begins on may 8th, coming up in two weeks and so, with that, shop dine sf thanks to the hard work of marianne is hosting two events and one is that city hall pop up which is may 9th and a Small Business bookie, which will be at the Ferry Building on the evening of wednesday, may 10th. And for that, for those two events, there will be limited addition, screen printed shopping bags that will be given away to shoppers while supplies last. And also, next slide, coming up to launch during that rebrand launch week starting may 8th is a partnership with sfgovtv. Well be rolling out a series of short pify social media Media Campaigns to highlight Small Businesses. Were doing them hue mat i cannily this time around and sf gov t vr has been a Great Partnership creating businesses to highlight Small Businesses and this time, lets see, our first were rolling out ice creameries and things like vintage shopping, bars, you name it. So that will be fun as it rolls out throughout may and into the summer. And that concludes our presentation. I want to thank you again for inviting us and marianne and i are both here for questions. Great, thank you so much. This is and thank you very much for the swag. Commissioners, any questions, comments . Commissioner ortiz cartagena. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the work. Were happy to he sue, marianne on this side of the force. The Small Business side. But you know, you gave me an you know, shop the 49 or whatever it was, yeah. It doesnt make sense if youre not from i love this new branding. Its, like, just, marianne and the work you do with those events, i dont know how you stretch, you should run some of my companies and stretch the budget. I dont know how you do it. The events are dope. I was carolling and yeah. It was [laughter] it was lit i appreciate yall. Im excited for it director tang. I want to thank marianne and michelle for your work on this and this Ongoing Campaign to support our commercial corridors and Small Businesses and youll notice printed inside the tote bag you all received, the limited edition tote bag, they got this printed. Were trying to practice what we preach and supporting local businesses in the creation of the goods you have. Thank you, both. Oh. You know, i think we still have Public Comment and things, right. Public commenters, to be in the queue, press star three. And there are no commenters. Okay. I think i forgot to say what i was going to say. Thats okay. [laughter] its okay. Thank you so much. Since their no Public Comments, i guess Public Comment is closed thank you for your presentation. This was wonderful. Thank you. Thank you i was taken by the excitement, the shop and dine San Francisco. [laughter] and the colors. I know. [laughter] and the great flyers. Number, item no. 5. 4. No, 5. Yeah. Item 5. Resolution declaring Small Business week may 8th through the 12th, 2023. This is a discussion and action item. The commission will review and possibly take action to declare may 8th through 12 Small Business week in 2023. Thank you. Director tang, would you like to provide some background on this . Sure. Every week, just logistically, i mean, not every week, every year. We do promote Small Businesses everyday in our work, but through this commission, we need to declare Small Business week here. So, the resolution before you, simply highlights the importance of Small Businesses, that Small Businesses nearly account or approximately 95 of the total businesses in San Francisco and employ hundreds of thousands of san franciscans and so, really before you, i think things you already know about the importance and the contribution of Small Businesses, so i think ill keep it brief at that. Great. Thank you. Commissioners, any comments . No. Any Public Commenters . There are no Public Commenters in the queue. All right. Hearing no further callers, Public Comment is closed. Commissioners, would anybody like to make a motion to ill motion that. And somebody second. Ill second it. Motioned by commissioner carter. Seconded by commissioner dickerson. Ill read the college. Commissioner carter . Yes. Commissioner dickerson . Yes. Commissioner herbert . Yes. President huie. Yes commissioner ortiz cartagena. Yes vicepresident zhou. Yes. Motion passes. Great. Thank you. Next item. Item 5, approval of draft Meeting Minutes, this is a discussion and action item. Commissioners, any comments about the drafted Meeting Minutes . No. Any Public Comment . Public commenters please dial star three to be added to the queue. No commenters. Hearing no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Commission, oh. I think we need to make a motion to adopt the draft Meeting Minutes. Would anyone like to make a motion . Ill make a motion. Ill second it. Motioned by commissioner carter. Seconded by commissioner dickerson. [laughter] ill read the roll. Commissioner carter . Yes. Commissioner dickerson . Yes. Commissioner herbert . Yes. President huie. Yes commissioner ortiz cartagena . Yes. And vicepresident zhou. Yes motion passes. Great. Next item. Item 6, general Public Comment. This is a discussion item allowing members of the public to comment on matters within the Small Business commissions jurisdiction. But not on todays calendar. So, any members of the public who would like to make comment on any items not on the agenda today . There are no commenter in the queue. Anybody in the room like to make a Public Comment . Great. Seeing no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Next item. Item 7, directors reports. This is a discussion item. Good evening, commissioners. So, a couple of updates for you. One is that i just wanted everyone to be aware as were heading into quote on quote budget season is that, due to budget deficit outlook thats worsened for the city, that the Mayors Office has asked all departments for additional five percent reduction in each fiscal year, so were already asked for the upcoming two fiscal years for a five percent and then an 8 reduction. Weve been asked for a five percent on top of that in each year, so just so youre aware of the outlook and budget situation that were in right now. But next, happier thoughts, the city launched a program called vacant to vibrant which you might have read about in the news on an effort to activate empty commercial store fronts in the downtown areas because they have been just, the return to the downtown and foot traffic and Office Workers has been much lower than we hoped post pandemic. If we can call it post pandemic so the incentives for this program include grants for entrepreneurs and artist and Property Owners up to 3 months of free rent and permitting and marketing support. Currently applications are being accepted through june 1, 2023, so i would love to ask commissioners to spread word to everyone you know who might be interested in trying out a Business Concept downtown where they might not have envisioned themselves previously but maybe this is a great opportunity with this Incentive Program to try out, maybe they are a new business or expand in the downtown area, so thats vacant to vibrant. I was going to talk about the job fair that we parted with oewd Workforce Division on april 12th, but i think our presentation earlier covered that. Also i wanted to update everyone that on april 18th, the mayor and mayor breed and supervisor peskin introduced an ordinance to create an aunting Amnesty Program. This is a situation you might have read about in the news where they were 200 complaints launched against businesses for awnings installed without permits so we have worked with the for permit departments for businesses to apply and get a permit on file. With a streamline process and it will be more efficient and save people money. So, while not neglecting the requirement to adhere to Building Code for safety purposes so, applications under this Amnesty Program need to be submitted to the city by december 31st and that way fee waivers for inspections and permits and this new process will apply, if you submit your application before then. But we always encourage people to submit an application during the month of may. Every may is when your awning permit inspection fees are waived in the city under a special program. Every may, Small Business month. This program applies to all existing awning owners so if you have an existing awning and you dont think you have a permit or file, you can contact our office and we can help you look that up if you dont know or if you have a complaint lodged against your business or notice of violation, as long as you have an existing awning, you can participate in this program. Lastly, were continuing to do merchant walks in the community which are so rewarding and just really love meeting all the Business Owners and asking them what they need to put on and it has opinion helpful for our office to gather information about how we can be more helpful to them, so since our last meeting, weve gone out to noaga street and balboa street and this week, we will be out in dog patch and also in the richmond to talk about awnings, so those are my updates for today. Commissioners, any questions . Commissioner ortiz cartagena. I have two things. One comment, whoever was putting the dime on our Small Business about the awning, whoever did that, come on. Be kind to your local Small Business. You dont have Nothing Better to do. So, thats i had to get that off owe that unset me. And then too, thank you, director. You going out to the neighborhoods. That has been so, so welcomed, truly i always get feedback. Even if its not my neighborhood, so thank you for that. Vicepresident zhou. Thank you director and to the office for all that good stuff. I had a question. I remember in the past that there was also sidewalk display permits or something that had to do with Small Business week because we put sandwich board signs or do activations, so is that still around . Legislation was passed every year to waive the permit fees if you wanted to put your goods out on the sidewalk during a particular week or maybe two weekends. It has changed over time. Correct me if im wrong, kerry, there was legislation to make it legislation every year so it didnt come back before the board. I cant remember. It was around the hot days. We saw fewer and fewer sidewalk sales during Small Business week and the focus has become around the holidays leading sidewalk sales happen easily and im not sure if every year its covered but i think its in the works. Yeah. We i mean, as of a couple of years ago when i was working on the permit fee waivers for the sidewalk sales, like kerry said, we noticed a decline in that, i think, generally touring Small Business week, we want to encourage as different activities and people havent quite chosen the sidewalk sales as a route, so instead, were trying to promote through the shop dine sf campaign. The activations and events thats happening where it might incentivize you or motivate you to go to a commercial corridor and you shop and dine there instead. Okay, thank you. Commissioner herbert. I was just wondering about the five percent reduction in the budget . So, what kind of numbers are we looking at . Out of curiosity. Oh, for each department, it will be different and fortunately for our office of Small Business, we will not be making any cuts to positions or programs. We do have some fund balance that carried over from a program, so were able to apply that towards the reduction target. Now, our budget is also within oewd and so, unfortunately, they are going to have to put some cuts on the table to programs that are very important to all of us and the whole entire Small Business community and were hoping that maybe during the puj during the budget negotiations we can get more funding back for them. But we can certainly, when it comes closer to the budget hearings, that the board of supervisors have more updated budget presentation, not only from oewd, but oed in general. Thanks. Commissioner dickerson. In regard to the thanks, in regards to the budget, i was curious as well, does, i mean, do we understand why . Does it have anything to do with the fact that were coming out of covid now and that money was allotted for the support through the pandemic and were coming out of that . What is the relationship between that . Theres multiple factors for the budget outlook thing. A couple certainly the pandemic had some affect on things in general. I think youve mentioned the federal support, right, for covid relief. So, yes. That has gone away. That was a time limited support that was provided to the city and thats why in the last two years, we didnt have to face these levels of Budget Reduction targets. Its also, you know, projections in terms of some of the investments the city have made, you know, just like everyone else who has made investments. There are some Market Forces there. You know, property transfers or property sales, you know, while they are still occurring, they are at a level, what is that, even level verses increasing, so there are a variety of factors and not just one thing thats contributing to the fact we have to make additional reductions. I have to say, thats important to me especially when you talk about budgeting because its one thing to say we have a cut. I want to know why so theres clarity as to, its not just one, you know, thing. Irk just imagine, my hat goes off to everyone that has to deal with finances right now in this city. I know its challenging. And so, i think its very helpful to know the reasons why. Yes. Certainly, despite that, were advocating for certain things, right. Permit fee waivers, right, but just know theres also that tradeoff when we do advocate for those things and we are, as an office, so it has nothing to do with todays agenda item, but that means that there is less funding going into the city, right, for staff who might be working on these programs and et cetera. There are many of these types of programs where we want to ask for these discounts or waivers, but they come with, perhaps, reductions in some types of resources. Yeah. Commissioner herbert, did you oh, no. Okay. Commissioner ortiz cartagena. I just want to say for the record, like, ive been through two budgets and were the only department that generates budget, and we support Small Businesses. So we shouldnt be cut. We generate revenue for the city through our Small Business support, so thats where i would stand on that and any support i could do in anything, like, cut dpw. [laughter] i just had a quick question. I was wondering the awning waivers and the awning legislation, does that apply to signs as well, like, blade signs and things or is it just awnings . Right now, if you have an existing sign or awning, it will apply to you. For planning department, they are doing a fiveyear look back, so you need to be able to prove or demonstrate or goggle maps that you had awning for five years. So signs is included in that, okay. The protruding one . All those people who have signs should look on planning to see if they have, like, a permit on file . Thats right. If they dont find a permit on file, they should go ahead and get a permit . We would encourage them to, yes. You can look up on the San Francisco planning information map, sf tim for short. Again, if thats confusing for you, just contact our office and we are happy to help people look that up and see if theres a permit on file and chances usually the notices, the violations or complaints will go towards the property owner. Its sent there. So, businesses may or may not be aware of it until later on that there was a complaint or ov, so its good to check in the system. Okay. So, just to reiterate to all businesses right now, that they should look to see if theres an existing permit that is on file for their sign, awning, whatever it is protruded. Sf are pin. Uhhuh. I didnt realize signs were included. We should just look everybody look it up. And you know, talking about budget cuts and things, i agree. We are we are very good at being a self sustaining ecosystem or community. And i think one of the things that we can also advocate for is that, you know, the budget cuts and things, given our current economic environment seem to be an inevitable kind of thing on the horizon, right. I mean, that means that together we have to come together as communities to be able to do the work that we rely on other people to do right now. So, i mean, i guess, you know, my opportunity right now seated on this commission is encourage our Community Members to all come together and really think about how they can solve for some of these issues that arise within our neighborhoods. Sometimes, like, it gets windy in San Francisco and trash blows around the city. We dont need to pick up every piece of trash, but can we come together and do that together and sometimes Community Members need help with after School Tutoring or help with kids making sure they have breakfast in the morning and all these things. Can we reach out and try to make sure that the people within our neighborhood are cared for and i think thats the opportunity that the budget cuts, perhaps, could be remedied for. I think we can advocate hard and long for them to not exist, but i think the ways to mitigate less money and less resources is for us to do the work, so. That would be my 0. 02. [laughter] we got to do something. [laughter] but i mean, i know everyone here is, you know, doing so much, so i do appreciate all of you. [mic is off] i dont know. I can only [laughter] so, okay. Any other commissioner comments on directors report . No. Any Public Comment . There are no Public Commenters. Okay. Great. Hearing no callers, no Public Comment, Public Comment is closed. Next item, please. Item 8, commissioner discussion and new business. This is a discussion item. Commissioners, commissioner ortiz cartagena. I want to announce the Small Business committee for the Latino Task Force is throwing an event on may 8th at 26701 mission 2601 mission. Thats 2 to 9. Well have workshops and music and drinks and everybody is welcomed and attend and at the old bay view bank building, so sf safe is hosting us letting us use their space so it will be fun. All the organizations, sbos that do business and Technical Assistance willing there, so youre invited. Come over and have a drink with me. May 9, 2 to 4. 2401 mission. I sent director tang the flyer, so she could share it. Thats perfect. You can go after this popup, directly to your event. We planned it like that. [laughter] its all mashed. Commissioner carter. Yes. I want to also announce that bay view, were going to host a small busy vent on may Small Business event may 12th. Ill send followup information. Were working on that. Save the date. May 12th. Somewhere in bay view. Were working on that. Drive around. [laughter] yeah. Thank you. Also, any support from oewd, i used to host these events a while back, just with larry and camilla so were going to bring it back for Small Business week and we would love the support of oewd, well, they are oewd, but anyone, will, cletcha want to come through, that would be dope. [laughter] were looking for yall. Commissioner dickerson. I did oh. For, i would like to say i would love to support you yeah, yeah. So, please let me, i would love to be a part of it, honestly. Cool [laughter] first, i want to make i love this hit fit bootcamp on saturday. It has been amazing and i dont know if you follow us on social media. Man [mic is off] thats okay. It has been youre out there moving. Yeah. It has been a lot of fun, i mean, first of all, its free. Thats one of the things i love making the announcement. Number two, i love that were running out of equipment, which is great but it doesnt mean you dont come. Come anyway and come early. But it has been an amazing, so you three fit combined together and this saturday is, you get your hip at bootcamp and 45 minutes of a real work out. And then the next was yoga instruction with nicole yarboil and shes amazing and then we have life coaching, so if theres something you want to talk about, whether it be about nutrition or how do i be better, a better parent or, i mean, we have all types of subjects. But its continuing to create that community that bay view, most of the people are from bay view but its amazing. Saturday starting at 8 30. You can stay 8 30 to 1 11 30 or come. Its on the website. Two out of three. Second thing is, i want i wasnt going to share it but im going to share it. I was so, oh, my god. One of my clients called me and shes the director, im going to mess up her title at ucf and shes the director, barbara, over the cancer, she directs the is it oncology, i believe . They needed someone to do some movement for their cancer survivor patients and she said, lawanda, would you be interested . I said, why not. I didnt know they were cantonese. I didnt know all the details because i was too busy but i prepared this, you know, this whole class and i get online on the zoom and theres about 20, 30 cantonese, beautiful, just these people that have survived cancer and they were so anxious and ready to move, right. Im starting to teach the class and they were so interested in building their gluts and it was cute. As im doing the exercises, they said we dont like that one, but they said we like this one. They were telling me what exercises they liked and didnt like and i thought, wow, this is very cool, right, because they got my comedian side. I dont know how they got it in translation but they laughed at all points but the director called back and said, lawanda, it was unanimous. They, they want to know if your class can be translated into filipino and spanish and cantonese. Anyway, i think the point of that is, this was beyond me. It was, im really big on collaboration and community and, i mean, just the fact they were so embracing and they were, like, no, no, no. We want you. Im, like, theres so many other people out here. The other thing was, i asked them to turn their music while we were doing the class and this was really cool, so as were doing these moves, it was just cute. Anyway. I just thought i would share that because i was very, i was it was very, i was very humbled and very it warmed me heart at the fact that this Cantonese Community wanted this sista over here to teach them. I thought, thats just unity at its finest. It touched my heart and i wanted to, i just wanted to share that and the last thing im going to share is, i was leaving, i was at work and i got a text from one of our neighborhood merchants and kristin and said, lawanda, she said tanai and you know tanai on the corner of third and newton. Its the tanai youre thinking, theres only one. Shes i dont want to come across offensive but we call her our friendly Neighborhood Drug addict. But we love tanai and we know tanai. She was very inspired. She somehow, someway or someone bought it for her, we dont know, had a u3 fit outfit on and people were going around taking pictures of her. And she wanted to be a part of, okay, im not going to cry, she wanted to help market, see, that kind that kind of stuff because we heat up her food and give her water, we do everything we can on our block to help people as much as we can, but its something about when they, she wanted to wear this shirt and she they went out and wanted to take pictures of her and she was proud to say she wanted to market 4u3 fit. I thought, it never goes, whenever youre doing something kind to someone, it never goes unnoticed. And we cant get so busy that we cant take time to just say, how are you doing . Can i offer you some water. Even in the littlest things so i thought that was a big deal to me. I thought i would share that with you. [mic is off] thats crazy, but thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. I want to say one thing. Yes. I just went to dc and as a black woman, we always get this, like, where are the black people and i used to come to San Francisco and work there and blah, blah and blah, so we started having this conversation about San Francisco and i would love to have more campaigns, maybe not Small Business, but i think its interesting that San Francisco, when you think about it, its not a race. Its a culture and thats what injure story reminded me of. Its a culture. So you wouldnt necessarily come here looking for back but coming here to experience that type of culture. I agree. Yeah. In the craziest way, but i love it. I know. I was looking on my instagram and i think most recently, i didnt get to go, but they had the muni maid art exhibit. I was like, oh, my gosh. I miss that. And that and its, like, the hype concerts and music and stuff. The hippy hill, they it a buddy thing at cricket. I didnt know we had [mic is off] that was in maclaren. Yeah. It was dope. Thats just so its a one of adults riding on big wheels. Not a care in the world. I know. I think we [mic is off] [laughter] we are an amazing city. So, and you know, also, the office of Small Business, thats something that i move youve said this before, but i dont know and maybe i said this in meetings already but i always kind of try to do some landscape analysis to see what are other people talking about in their other cities when it comes to whatever issue we deal with here and im always, like, somebody else must have the solution and my searching always leads us back to San Francisco being kind of, like, the example, the Gold Standard and so, as much as we talk about, like, wanting improvements, wanting things and San Francisco being whatever it is in peoples minds, we we have so many things here that are so unique, especially the office of Small Business, so, i mean, the fact that we even have this office and the fact that youre the director of this office and that youre the secretary policy analyst for our office, that we have these resources is really amazing, so i mean, i think San Francisco, you know, is the best place. [laughter] it definitely is. [mic is off] thanks. Thanks. Its funny you say that because ive spent so many years, anyway. I talk to people all the time and they say, lawanda, how do you do that . I say go to your Small Business Commission Board and they are, like, our what. Every time i talk to someone about everything we have going on here in this city, they look at me, like, lawanda, we dont have that. Weve never heard of that. I said, well, why dont you call, you know, the Small Business the oewd. The what . And so, its realizing that and i realize for more recently, i wouldnt say recently, but there is somewhat of a bubble that we live in in the sense that San Francisco is unique. First of all, being a sanctuary city. Second of all, having the, i think its diversity thats created this, what it is and everything about it, and but more importantly, its and i cant stress it enough, having the spirit of gratitude with who we are and what we are and what we have will help us continue to grow in the direction we need to grow as a city. We never stop learning. We never stop developing. But we also cannot take for granted the opportunities that we have here because its so unique. Not just to california, but to the world. I talk to a lot of people from different places and this is unheard of in many places, so, you know, we although we have all these opportunities, lets not take it for granted and just feel the gratitude of what has happened with this presence and those who were the for runners and those moving forward. Its grateful. It feels real mushy. I got to get it back together. [laughter] no, thank you. Thank you very much. Lets see. Any Public Comment . No Public Comment. Nobody wants to add to our mushy feel good session. Public comment is closed. [laughter] next item, please. Item 9, adjournment. Sfgovtv, show the office of Small Business slide. We will end with a reminder that the Small Business commission official public forum is your public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. If you need assistance with Small Business matters continue to reach out to office of Small Business. Meeting is adjourned. [gavel] todays meeting will come to order u welcome to the may third meeting of the budget and finance committee. Im supervisor connie chan chair and im joined by supervisor safai and hopefully shortly mandelman. Our clerk is brent jalipa. I would like to thank matthew from sfgovtv for broadcast thanksgiving meeting. Mr. Clerk. Make sure to silence cell phones and electronic device. And the board of supervisors and the xhiet convening hybrid meeting allow in person Public Comment and providing Remote Access and Public Comment via telephone. Public comment will be taken on each item. In person will speak first and then those waiting on the phone upon lightweight. For those watching remote on sfgov. Org the public call in number is streaming. When connected you will hear the meeting but mute exclude in listening mode. When your item come up special Public Comment is called. Those in person poke and thez on the phone dial star 3 to be added. If you on the phone turn down you were tv and listening device and each speaker will be allowed up to 2 minutes. Alternateively you may submit comment in writing e mill them to myself the budget and finance clerk at brent. Jalipa sfgov. Org. If you submit it via e mail tell be forward exclude included part of the official time send written comments rion u. S. Postal service in city 1 dr. Carlton b. Goodlett place room two 44, San Francisco, california. Items acted on today will appear on the board agenda of mi9 unless otherwise stated. Why thank you, before bee start we like to announce we would like to limit the Public Comments to one minute. Thats one and just of course the general reminder well always have the City Department presentation first followed by the budget and legislative Analyst Report for those the item that has them and will go to questions and comments and then Public Comments. I like to call the items out of order. Item 5 and sick. Yes. Items 5 and 6 are resolutions approving the 2023 lease and use agreement with the city and County Airport commission and 29 airlines in 5 and 11 airline in 6 Flight Operations at the San Francisco interinitial airport for 10 years from until first of 23 through june 30, 2033. Confurthermoring the ceqa. And to authorize the airport director to enter in modifications to the lose that dont materially increase the obligations nor liabilities to the city and the purposes of the lease of the 2 resolutionless. Members remote and wish to comment call 4156550001. Access code 2597 675 7544. And once connected you mode to press star 3 to enter the line. I prompt will indicate you raised your hand and you have been unmuted that is your significant until to comment. Thank you, mr. Clerk. Colleagues, mr. Cohen the managing director of finance and acting airport controller cannot be with us today. In person to make the present anticipation. Which i have questions about the 800 Million Dollars of operation reserve. As well as Capital Improvements with that my intention to condition these 2 items again to the call of the chair. With that, lets go to Public Comment. Member who is wish to peek lineup now. For those remote and have in the done so press star 3 to enter the line and for those in the queue wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted that will be your signal to begin comments. Thank you. Thats not you that is somebody else zone what i am. I want to say the truth and iment i want to ask is this something you would do to your child. Is this something you would do to your child. You got a kid here. Is this manage you want for them. Be honest. Im wondering, you know. Them is a child. Is this. I want to finish. A lot of things im warning you. Dont go dont go. There is tomorrow you will get it tomorrow. Its okay. Coming tomorrow. Roadway it. Im like, you know. I dont know. Thank you. And reminder to wish it provide testimony we can take Public Comment on the agenda item that is before us. So if you can keep your comments on topic this would be appreciated. Thank you. And seeing nobody else in the chamber for Public Comment. Mr. Lamb unmute our caller. David pilpel. I previously spoke own this issue. Relative to the airport lease and use agreements. I support the resolutions before you today. I not there is i continuance and i know the items will be heard and questions asked and answers given and it all happen in time. Thanks for listening. Take care. Thank you, david pilpel for your comments. That sorry. That completes our queue yoochl Public Comment is now closed. Mr. Clerk i would like to make the notion move 5 and 6 to continue the call the chair. Roll call. On this motion to continue these to the call of the cheaper. Vice chair mandelman. Aye yoochl member safai. Aye. Chair chan. Aye. Thank you. Thank you the motion passes. And mr. Clerk call item upon one item one is easterns amending the code to modify the waivers of contract related requirements in the administrative environment code authorizes arbitration for contracts with investor owns utility and increase the limit from 150 million to 200 million. Members who are joining remote and wish to comment call 4156550001. Access code 2597 675 7544. Press star 3 to enters the line. When the system indicates you have been unmuted that is your kig signal to comment. Thank you, colleagues, we have an extensive conversation last week and this item is continued from last week to amendments substantive amendment from thes department. With that and gone throughout presentation and the budget and legislative Analyst Report. So with that mr. Clerk, go to Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to speak and joining in person lineup. Remote, press star 3 if you wish top enter the speaker line. For those in the queue, wait until you have been unmute exclude that is our significant until to comment. Kindly step up. Puc permission to buy electricity before the board. And that there were people selling electricity on the street in the morning i wonder if this item is related that. A lot of people selling 150 Million Dollars. 200 Million Dollars and it is intrusive. Intrusive amount money temperature is enough to knock down a few doors. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no one else in the chamber. We have none in the queue public ment is closed. Vice chair mandelman. I will move we forward to the full board with positive recommendation. Call the roll on this motion by vice chair mandelman support this to the full burden with positive recommend agsz. Vice chair mandelman. Aye member safai. Aye jam chair chan. Aye. The motion passes. And mr. Clerk call item 2. Item 2 authorizing the office of treasurer and Tax Collector to amend the service and support agreement with 21 tech llc enables the city to accept online tax fundings for 10 years increasing the contract amount by 10 million not to exceed 18. 2 million for the period of may therein, 2023 through may 31, 2033. Members are joining remote, call 4156550001, access code 2597 675 7544 , press star 3 to enter the queue. A prompt will indicate you raised your hahn xu have been unmuted begin your comments we have amanda freed chief of communication from office treasure and Tax Collectors office of the treasurer and Tax Collector. Thank you. Good morning chair, supervisors im amanda freed with was of treasure and Tax Collector im presenting a resolution that will extend a service and support contract with 21 tech. Which has built and supported online tax filing and payment forms for San Francisco business taxless since 2013. Our office is seek approval to extend the Contract Term boy 10 years and nksz the amount by 10 Million Dollars. 21 tech built and supported online payment and filing applications including our business tax and fee payment portal. And filing forms for business registration, annual business tax including gross receipts homelessness gross receipts, rent and executive taxes and the commercial vacancy tax. The last 3 years on line tax forms built by 21 tech, 350,000 tax filings. Resulting in more than 2. 4 billion dollars in tax revenue for the city. 95 of our accident tax filings occur through one forms built boy 21 tech. Partnership increased automation and officials. Including the implementation of automatic and immediate identification of new businesses and now locations for first year free and reducing staff review and refunds work intinaugurations with existing systems result in less then and there a percent of on line filings requiring manual intersection. This is a sole source contract and received a sole source waiver all business tax applications must have the priority sat ware system which houses all business tax. 21 tech provisioned with the source code to integrate with the application outside of the company this owns momentum. Im joined by my colleague we are happy to answer questions you have thank you for your consideration. Good morning. Nick from budget legislative analyst office. Item 2 is a resolution approving an maam the 12th if the treasure Tax Collector agreement with 21 tech. Extends through 2033 and increases not to exceed amount to 18. 2 Million Dollars. On the agreement, we show the budget for this agreement on page 8 of our report. And it shows about i Million Dollars projected spending a year. Actual spending close to 815 thousand dollars. So the department built and some contingancey in case there are tax and modifications to forms Going Forward. We did review the if work completed by the contractor with the department. We feel the billing rates is are reasonable. We have a recommendation not to exceed amount to be consistent with the under and recommend approval of the amendment as amended. I want to confirm when you mentioned nathe built in contingency of up to a Million Dollars but the upon spends suggest roughly 800 thousand dollars per year that is still built within this contract after we dot correct the contract not to exceed amount. The resolution is in the to exceed amount is built on an assumption of projected spending of about a Million Dollars a year Going Forward. Actual condition tract based on you know the specific project scope of work determined by the department. Over the past 11 amendments the department and the contractor developed a scope of work with deliveriables. And attached payments to those deliverables the upon spending will be different this. Is Going Forward based on but they assume will occur. Plus a buffer. In case there is new taxes or improvements to the existing forms. Make sense . Yep, thank you andmented to understand the cost estimates for the contingency my assumption is kinds of what we are looking at now different types of you know changes in our tax measures, ballot measures or harf it is and therefore we need the form to adjust accordingly. Want to conform when the bla suggest in the not to exceed amount ump sept amendments and that it is confirmed with this amendment that you know with that not to exceed amount you were contract moving forward can be inclusive of all the potential changes. Thank you. Thank you, supervisor, yes,ure accurate in this assessment and analysis. The adjustment recommended by the board of supervisor annual lift will enable us to have the buffer this is necessary to allow all of you to make the necessary changes to our taxes as we see fit. Thank you. Seeing no names on the roster. There are no questions or comments and mr. Clerk go to Public Comment. Thank you, members who are in person line up now for those remote and have not done so, dial star 3 if you wish to enter the line. For those in the queue wait until you have been unmute exclude this it is your signal to comment. Sir. Tax filing should be in person. People should see and you have been you and understand you and talk to you about it. Cant be done online. Has to be in person. Im saying t is this item and extending the contract, you gotta seat person. Seat person. Upon is the person to fire. Comfortable . You cant do it online. You gotta do it in person. Thats all i have to say. Thank you for your comments. Seeing no one in the chamber. We have no speakers in the queue Public Comment is now closed. Leagues i would like to make the motion to amend the legislation as recommended by the budget and legislative analyst and is to correct the contract not to exceed amount. With that, mr. Clerk call the roll on this motion to amend the resolution to correct the not to exceed amount of the contract as read by the vice hair machine man. Mandelman aye. Member safai aye chair hahn. Aye. Thank you, the motion passes i would like to move the item to full board with positive the amended item to full board with recommendation and mr. Clerk call the roll on the motion to forward this to the full board with positive recommendation vice chair mandelman. Aye. Member safai. Aye. Chair chan. Aye. Thank you the motion passes call 3 a resolution approving the director of public works declaration of emergency under the code for repairs and remediation work at the library cost approximately 550,000. Members who were joining remote and wish to comment call 4156550001, access code 2597 675 7544. Press star 3 to enter the queue. Thank you. Today we have john director of facilities from the public library. Online . Thank you. Good morning. Am im january 20th, we had a sewage stoppages the main library on the fourth floor. Worked down to the second floor. And over spiff sewage there for all the floors butt second floor. Out of concerns obviously Health Concerns and prescriptional occurrence i called a Remediation Company who was on site the same night and began the clean up. Compoliced the clean up of damages approximately on or around february 9. And began the reconstruction of all the damage which was done. By this event. So this morning we come to request approval of the proposed resolution that allows the interim director of public works to declare an emergency for repairs at the San Francisco main public library. Thank you. Thank you. Item 3, is a resolution approving emergency work at the library the code 6. 60 allows for work to be done. Through treatment line procurement process which happened here. The board of supervisors has to approve emergency work if the cost exceeds 250 thousand dollars. As they do in this case this approves 550 thousand dollars of emergency work costs beyond this amount require board approval example in this case the library contracted on a sole source basis with bell forto remediate the flood damage from the toilet over flow in the library that damaged three floors. Most of that work is done and there are furniture this is still on its way. See the bulk of the costers covered by insurance exempt for a 10 thousand dollars deductible. We recommend prove of item 3. Thank you. Good to here we have insurance. And that deductible is the first 10 thousand dollars. With this seeing no names on the roster. Mr. Clerk lets go to public meant. Why members of the public who wish to peek joining in person line up and for those remote press star 3 if you wish to enter the speaker line. Condition to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted then begin your comments. Sir . A lot of time at the library thats where i go until the one meeting starts. Great to see the facilitys manager a great bureaucratic institution. Historical institution. I did not seat sewer come down which is a shame absolutely. Bad thing that happened this needs to get authorized. Im seeing is i learn a lot. The library they say coming this day and that day. Say it is coming tomorrow. Coming tomorrow, tomorrow. The upon end of the day 30 years and you know 30 years. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Seeing no further speakers here. Mr. Lamb unmute or caller. Please. David pilpel again. So on this item i support the resolution. I think it would be good to have a follow up report with the detail and perhaps photos of the remediation and the clean up of the library materials. And i was looking through the file and although, the Public Works Commission chair authorized this im not sure i cant remember if Public Works Commission ratifyd that action and might be useful to look at the code and see if well is clean up need since there is now a Public Works Commission which did not previously exist and a little interesting given this occurred in one department but another department is authorizing the work through dpw. There is interesting inner jurisdictional issues i support the resolution and authorizing clean up at the library. Thank you. And with that we have no more speakers. Public comment is closed. Like to make the motion to move this to full board with recommendation. And so with that, police call the roll. On this motion to forward this resolution to the full board with recommend agsz vice chair mandelman. Aye. Member safai. Aye. Chair chan. Aye. Thank you the motion passes. And mr. Clerk call item 4. Item 4 a resolution authorizing office of cannabis to extend i grant 1. 5 million for april first of 23 through october 31, 2024 from the governorors office of business and Economic Development for local equity grants mrm program for local jurisdictions authorizing office of cannabis execute the agreement with the Governors Office of business and Economic Development and extensions, amendments or contracts subscent there to on behalf of the city and Economic Development liability out of the forms of this contract. Members when wish to comment call 4156550001. Access code 2597 675 7544 , star 3 to enter the queue. Had the system says you have been unmutted begin your comments. Thank you. Today we have jeremie schwartz from office of cannabis for the presentation. Thank you. Good morning, supervisors jeremie schwartz office of cannabis approval an accept and extend resolution and amount of 1. 5 Million Dollars. From the governorors office of business and Economic Development to provide social equity businesses with funds for start up and on going costings associated with their cannabis upon business. I believe we may have a power point presentation. And if not i can speak through it as well. I dont think i received this power point. I will spoke through it. So the purpose is to advance Economic Justice near populations impacted by cannabis prohibitation equity applicants with start up costs of their cannabis businesses the term is april first, 2023 through october 31, 2024. To date the llc office of cannabis dispursed 7 Million Dollars in fleckable funds to over 60 equity businesses resulting in 41 social equity permitsed. Equalization rates for past grant awards over 95 . This would be the fourth iteration of this program. Results of a survey to direct grant recipients has shown this funding roached a diverse racial and ethnic audience over 95 percent report third degree they were satisfied with the program. And 98 felt this the llc was highly responsive to their inquiries as part of this program. There are 13 eligible expense categories. The majority of funds have been used for rent payments about 55 of grant funds used for that purpose. Followed boy capitol improve ams. Compliance. Fixtures and equipment and Legal Service the eljilt is determined with recommendations from cannabis oversight committee. A part of the current iteration 70 thousand dollars is allocated to equity businesses. The last 3 weeks 900 thousand dollars has been approved for dispursement. 3 million remain and this should this accept and extend resolution proceed would provide 1 million and a half dollars for this purpose the augmented services with free Technical Assistance for verified applicants, this currently includes professional development. By the Success Center. Security consulting and upon training from tree line security. Legal services from the Bar Association of San Francisco. Legal services from golden gate university, cannabis law clinic and Legal Service from law office of mathedue cumin. Happy top address questions or occurrence. Thank you. Vice chair mandelman. Thank you, looks good i like to be a cosponsor. Thank you thank you. Thank you and lets make sure we do have a copy of the presentation, still on the record. So this it is clear to us because i think the upon presentation walks through the spending this grant and the preaches seven Million Dollars has been spending on. Quick questions. Seeing you do have partners that provide free services, do we fund the partners so they provide 3 assistance . That is a great question temperature is a blends. Several of the Services Provide by Success Centers and tree line security selected through rfp process as a part of the grant. Additional low, we agreed informal relationships with the Bar Association of San Francisco and golden gate law clinic the last several years it have on going assistance for different services. And so these equity grants from the state allow you to also contract with them or have an rfp and issue out and partner with the folks to provide free tech nal assistance. Up to 10 of grant award. Includes that majority is supporting rent payment and renovation. Capitol improvements. Yes. In other words there are 2 buckets. One director guarantee to the businesses to use what does be helpful for business. And separately bucket 2 Technical Assistance to support them with additional considerations to start ump a business. Like putting together a business slide deck. Profit and loss statements and things of that nature. And Security Consulting oovenltdz any of the guaranteeses go become to office of cannabis for staffing. Up to 10 used for over head. Good to know thank you and seeing no other questions and no other name on the rosters. Open Public Comment. Members who wish to peek on this item in person lineup now. And for those remote and have not done so press star 3. For those in the queue wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted then begin your comments. Why no in person in the chamber. And we dont have speakers in the queue. Public ment is now closed. Vice chair would you like to move this . Thank you, i will move we forward with positive recommendation. And with that mr. Clerk call the role on that motion by vice chair mandelman to forward to the board with positive recommendation vice chair mandelman. Aye. Member safai. Aye. Chair chan. Aye thank you the motion passes. Thank you, and because we call. 5 and sick early on out of order on this agenda, mr. Clerk do we have other business before us today. This concludes our business. The meeting is adjourned. Is r. My name is Debra Alvarez rodriguez. Im the Deputy Director in San Francisco. My background is one in which i have spent the entirety of my life committed to finding solution to poverty and addressing the issues of inequity so people and communities can have accesses to resources and financial freedom. One thing true anode dear to my heart was the power of Business Ownership in creating pathways to financial freedom. We have still in infancy. We had over 100 entrepreneurs come and start their businesses. Some are food trucks. Some are restaurants. Some are in farmers markets and so farther. Thats an incredible legacy and record to build upon. This was the perfect opportunity for me to come back home, you know, come back to the neighborhood and take my skills and networks and resources and put it backseat in service of the community. Given everything with racial reckoning and pandemic it was time for me and everyone else that had the opportunity to leave and get educated to come back home. We have a opportunity to grow our impact in terms of the number of people we serve and how we serve them. We grow our impact in taking the money we make with our entrepreneurs and circulate those resources back interview the community for community development. The third thing is we have a opportunity to have an impact on Public Policy in terms of the policies and practices the district has been notorious about interms of inequities. All of those are just the beginning of what is possible in terms of growth and impact. [ music ]. music . The Ferry Building one of San Francisco most famous that as many of 15 thousand commuters pass through that each gay. One of the things that one has to keep in mind regarding San Francisco is how young the city we are. And nothing is really happening here before the gold rush. There was a small spanish in the presiding and were couriers and fisherman that will come in to rest and repair their ships but at any given time three hundred people in San Francisco. And then the gold rush happened. By 182948 individuals we are here to start a new life. By 1850 roughly 16 thousand ships in the bay and left town in search of gold leaving their ships behind so they scraped and had the ships in the bay and corinne woods. With sand the way that San Francisco was and when you look at a map of San Francisco have a unique street grid and one of the thing is those streets started off in extremely long piers. But by 1875 they know they needed more so the Ferry Building was built and it was a long affair and the first cars turned around at the Ferry Building and picking up people and goods and then last night the street light cars the trams came to that area also. But by the late 1880s we needed Something Better than the Ferry Building. A bond issue was passed for 600,000. To build a new Ferry Building i would say 800 thousand for a studio apartment in San Francisco they thought that was a grand Ferry Building had a competition to hire an architecture and choose a young aspiring architect and in the long paris and San Francisco had grand plans for this transit station. So he proposed the beautiful new building i wanted it wider, there is none tonight. Than that actually is but the price of concrete quitclaim two how and was not completed and killed. But it opened a greater claim and became fully operational before 1898 and first carriages and horses for the primary mode of transportation but Market Street was built up for serve tram lines and streetcars could go up to the door to embarcadero to hospitals and Mission Street up to nob hill and the fishermans area. And then the earthquake hit in 190 six the Ferry Building collapsed the only thing had to be corrected once the facade of the tower. And 80 percent of the city would not survive the buildings collapsed the streets budges and the trams were running and buildings had to highland during the fire after the actuate tried to stop the mask fire in the city so think of a Dennis Herrera devastation of a cable car they were a mess the streets were torn up and really, really wanted to have a popular sense they were on top of that but two weeks after the earthquake kind of rigged a way getting a streetcar to run not on the cable track ran electrical wires to get the streetcars to run and 2 was pretty controversial tram system wanted electrical cars but the earthquake gave them to chance to show how electrical cars and were going to get on top this. Take 10 years for the city to rebuild. Side ferry use was increasing for a International Exhibition in 1950 and people didnt realize how much of a Community Center the Ferry Building was. It was the center for celebration. The upper level of Ferry Building was a Gathering Place. Also whenever there was a war like the filipino war or World War Two had a parade on Market Street and the Ferry Building would have banners and to give you an idea how central to the citywide that is what page brown wanted to to be a Gathering Place in that Ferry Building hay day the busiest translation place in the world how people got around transit and the city is dependent on that in 1915 of an important year that was the year of our International Exposition 18 million living in San Francisco and that was supposedly to celebrate the open of panama differential but back in business after the earthquake and 22 different ferry boats to alamed and one had the and 80 trips a day a way of life and in 1918 San Francisco was hit hard by the flu pandemic and city had mask mandates and anyone caught without a doubt a mask had a risk ever being arrested and San Francisco was hit hard by the pandemic like other places and rules about masks wearing and what were supposed to be more than two people without our masks on i read was that on the ferry those guys wanted to smoke their pipes and taking off their masks and getting from trouble so two would be hauled away. The way the Ferry Building was originally built the lower level with the Natural Light was used for take it off lunge storage. The second floor was where passengers offloaded and all those people would spill out and central stairway of the building that is interesting point to talk about because such a large building one major stairway and were talking about over 40 thousand people one of the cost measures was not building a pedestrian bridge with the Ferry Building and the embarcadero on Market Street was actually added in and in 1918 but within 20 years to have San Francisco bay the later shipbuilding port in the world and the pacific